Potential buyer

[Tyger]

Hi there all,

I'm just recently returning to D&D and table top gaming after not doing any for years, and I've found a great PnP group, but we only meet once a month and it's just not satisfying my monkey any more. I found this site, and this program and it looks like it could be the answer to my prayers. A few questions though:

1) Is it difficult to find an existing game in your timezone? I took a peek on the game calendar page, and it seems that there may be a few games up and running in my general time zone (AST: GMT-4) but they seem to be full or don't have complete data.

2) I'm reasonably proficient with computers, though not exactly a wizard with them. How much tech do you really have to know, not only to play but also to DM?

3) Is the program stable? If so, how frequent can one expect crashes? If not, how bad is it?

4) Does this medium really lend itself to great RPing? I've tried games like NWN online, and while its been OK, it hasn't, as a rule, blown my socks off.

Thanks in advance! I think this may be just the ticket, but before I spend any time and money on another game (or game like system) I want to make sure its as good as it looks!

[richvalle]

Hi there all,

I'm just recently returning to D&D and table top gaming after not doing any for years, and I've found a great PnP group, but we only meet once a month and it's just not satisfying my monkey any more. I found this site, and this program and it looks like it could be the answer to my prayers. A few questions though:

1) Is it difficult to find an existing game in your timezone? I took a peek on the game calendar page, and it seems that there may be a few games up and running in my general time zone (AST: GMT-4) but they seem to be full or don't have complete data.

2) I'm reasonably proficient with computers, though not exactly a wizard with them. How much tech do you really have to know, not only to play but also to DM?

3) Is the program stable? If so, how frequent can one expect crashes? If not, how bad is it?

4) Does this medium really lend itself to great RPing? I've tried games like NWN online, and while its been OK, it hasn't, as a rule, blown my socks off.

Thanks in advance! I think this may be just the ticket, but before I spend any time and money on another game (or game like system) I want to make sure its as good as it looks!

1. Can't help you there.

2. Its not hard. FG is one of those things that the more time you spend with it, the more you get out of it. I spend 30 min or so a week for my weekly game but I put almost nothing inside of FG other then the map and tokens. I read/speak anything that needs to be said and just wing the mosters by putting in their attack values as I need them.

You don't need to know much. Be able to do some simple things with pictures such as resizing them.

The exception to this is if you are behind a firewall of some sort. Then much funkyness results as you try to get the port open in the right place.

3. As a DM I've crashed... 3 times I think it is in the last year and a half of running games once a week (mostly... missed some weeks of course).

The clients crash more frequently I'm afraid. It seems to effect some players more then others... I have one guys that, when he plays, crashes a few times a night. Others never crash. Since we used voice software outside of FG I don't even pause the game... I just keep going and they connect back in.

I think the guys that crash most are trying to use wireless networks.

4. It can (though I've not seen it). If that is what you are looking for you'll probably want to not do voice and keep everying typing. Or, if you can pull it off, do voice for out of game talk and FG typing for in game talk. If you never hear the persons real voice you'll develop your own for their character.

Good luck!

rv

[Griogre]

A few questions though:

1) Is it difficult to find an existing game in your timezone? I took a peek on the game calendar page, and it seems that there may be a few games up and running in my general time zone (AST: GMT-4) but they seem to be full or don't have complete data.
Most games seem to run more in North America and Western Europe. It would depend on the hours that you can play and whether playing on weekends is an option for you. The calendar is currently kinda hosed and I don't know how many people use it. There are more games going than the calendar would suggest, probably.


2) I'm reasonably proficient with computers, though not exactly a wizard with them. How much tech do you really have to know, not only to play but also to DM?
Most players need to do nothing to connect. DM's *have* to be able to open port 1802 and forward it to their computer. This means you must be able to figure out how your router, broadband modem and computer security work and how to configure them. For some people its a snap, for others it is climbing a mountain. It is no harder than setting up a game server in NWN that people can connect to.


3) Is the program stable? If so, how frequent can one expect crashes? If not, how bad is it?
The program is more or less stable for different people. It almost never crashes for me (once every few months) in one game I run and I have a crash in my open table about once every 3 weeks. Most of the crashes seem to deal with data transfer so if you minmize the size and frequency of this you will probably run more stable.


4) Does this medium really lend itself to great RPing? I've tried games like NWN online, and while its been OK, it hasn't, as a rule, blown my socks off.

Depends on the group, depends on the DM - just like in a face to face game. I don't know it lends itself to *great* RPing but it probably doesn't take away from RPing either, particualry if you make your players type their "in character talk". I just recently put up a chat log of a game I ran at iCon that is about 10 hours worth. These were all players who as far as I know hadn't played with each other before and were just there to have a good time at the con. I, the DM, was using voice for many of the mechanical details and combat descriptions. What's left in the log is the player chatter among themselves, mostly in character. You might want to look at it to get a feel of the player roleplaying.

The log is here (https://www.fouruglymonsters.com/community/showthread.php?p=16640#post16640). I'm not 100% sure you are going to be able to see this forum. If not PM me and I'll e-mail you the log or put it up in my Rappan Athuk Forum at Four Ugly Monsters (which is at the same site).

Purple Text is whispers back and forth from the DM.
Green Text is Out of Character.
Red Text is emotes or action.
Black text, normal is "in character".
Black text, bold is storyteller narration.