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Sir Bayard
May 10th, 2007, 23:44
I was curious how many people use some sort of VOIP system during their sessions in FG, whether for OOC talk or whatever.

The reason I'm asking, is I have a 48 man ventrilo server that I was using for something else, that it's no longer being used for that purpose anymore so I decided I would keep it to use with FG. Only, right now, the game I'm in isn't using Voice really.. so I have a totally unused 48 man vent server that if anyone wants to use feel free to do so. Just let me know and I'll PM you the details or go to my site (listed in Signature) and on the main page there's a little blurb you can click on for the details.

I'm sure most ppl that use any kind of VOIP already have something they're using, but I figure I'll make the offer anyways since I'm gonna keep the server around.

Lupus Astrum
May 11th, 2007, 03:56
I like when the DM uses voice, just to kinda move things along a bit faster. It's also good for quick OOC talk.

I don't like using it for in-game talk however, most people seem able to RP a LOT better through text.

Griogre
May 11th, 2007, 04:47
I like when the DM uses voice, just to kinda move things along a bit faster. It's also good for quick OOC talk.

I don't like using it for in-game talk however, most people seem able to RP a LOT better through text.
Totally agree with both statements. I don't entirely understand why people RP better in text than voice - but they sure seem to.

VenomousFiligree
May 11th, 2007, 06:54
I like when the DM uses voice, just to kinda move things along a bit faster. It's also good for quick OOC talk.

I don't like using it for in-game talk however, most people seem able to RP a LOT better through text.

I too agree with you both, I play with my old school friends using skype and it's more hack n slah than role playing :D

MB

Ablefish
May 11th, 2007, 07:01
We use Skype since we never go over 4 players + DM and have liked that a lot. We tend to use it for a lot of Ooc and rules talk. Character dialogue and acting is all done through text though. Much more fun.

Tokuriku
May 11th, 2007, 09:46
I like when the DM uses voice, just to kinda move things along a bit faster. It's also good for quick OOC talk.

I don't like using it for in-game talk however, most people seem able to RP a LOT better through text.

Totally agree with both statements. I don't entirely understand why people RP better in text than voice - but they sure seem to.
Interesting, I always used voice and my players seem to be very good at RP but I'm thinking of trying a no voice session just for the kick. Might just give me more time to do my stuff behind the screen... Sometimes, things run so fast that my players wait for me quite often. If they had stuff to do too, they'd at least understand if not be too busy to notice the lag :D

I think people tend to be better through text because voice is actually only 5% to 20% of communication.
By that I mean that face expression and body language takes 95% to 80% of communication.
And you cannot have body language through those voice channels.

sunbeam60
May 11th, 2007, 12:46
Skype for everything except dice rolls and whispers (although if it's a lengthy whisper session, the people will just start a new call between them, which put the main call on hold for them). I'm one of the lucky ones to have a Intel Duo Core 2, so I can host up to 10 people on my Skype, which has finally allowed us add a new member.

I would wager that our RP would actually get better if we did text, but things move along so much faster - and participation in the game isn't constrained by typing speed - when using voice.

Tokuriku
May 11th, 2007, 12:56
Yes, I like the speed of voice too...

Instead of Skype, do use Ventrilo;
You can have whispers on it and pass sound like music and such on it.

mr_h
May 11th, 2007, 14:19
We use Teamspeak for ours (I happened to have a server setup for that). Works nicely...I agree with the better rp in text though, but it's still nice for ease:)

Griogre
May 11th, 2007, 19:08
I use Teamspeak also because of my size group and the fact I can drop the codex down to 6.3 if I have someone in a hotel on dialup. Voice chat absolutely speeds up combat and rules questions.

Sir Bayard
May 11th, 2007, 20:45
Text for RP exclusively, it makes things muhc nicer as everyone hear agrees with. People role play better through text than through the phone. Maybe because you have a bit more time to compose your thoughts. then again, I also started doing online roleplaying back at the Inn of the Weary Traveller on the old WBS when I was 13 years old, so used to online RP. lol

I think voice helps a lot with the combat and ooc stuff. Though combat does work nicely sometimes in chat, voice makes it go by faster. And OOC is way better to do in voice, since it goes by fast.

Current campaign I'm playing in the GM doesn't have a mic, so when we do sue voice it's like a player's only convention. lol That also kinda had us stop using the voice too though, since we weren't able to commune with the GM effectively.

The High Druid
May 12th, 2007, 15:52
For me FG would be pretty much useless without a voice client of somekind. I've always found roleplaying entirely based on text (in forums and chat rooms) is very much lacking. The first reason is it's an awful lot slower - noone I know types anywhere near as quickly as they speak. The second reason is rather more important though - the whole point of roleplaying (for me anyhow) is the character interaction, in speech it's so much easier to respond to the mood of the other players. Hearing the cheer when the bad guy is killed is so much more satisfying that a string of "Yay!" typed in a chat window.

mcgarnagle
May 26th, 2007, 17:05
Before my mic broke, I used to GM a game that used voice. I was the GM and I insisted that all in character stuff was put into the chat log and we used the voice chat for OOC and rules clarification. It worked pretty well. As of right now I don't use voice chat in the current game I run. (In fact, I'm the GM in the game Bayard is talking about). I don't mind it so much as it does give me extra time to set up certain parts of the game such as combat. I've had a couple of big combats in the game and it can take up to 5 minutes to get myself organized. The other up side is that I like to listen to music when I play and I find it hard to use voice chat while doing that.

I would reccomend using voice chat to any who have access to it. It is a great feature, and I plan on joining my players in voice as soon as I get a new mic.

liberti_cap
July 17th, 2007, 17:45
whether, how much or for what purpose you use voice chat in your game really depends upon who you are playing with and what kind of game it is you are playing.

If I'm playing with my usual crew - the guys i used to play over a real table top with, then, no problem (especially since most of them are crap typers anyway). However, if you are faced with strangers, perhaps not completely comfortable with the group, playing in a second language, of a different gender to the character they are player etc etc, textual chat often provides the freedom to explore one's character more freely and with more confidence.

I think that whether voice is used or not, and indeed how it is used if it is, depends entirely upon the game and the players, to be determined by the DM.

I have known people that would swear by one method or the other, and others who will hover in the middle. I think that the beauty of internet play is that it offers us such a variance of choice.

mattllow
August 30th, 2007, 01:41
We use Ventrilo for our sessions. It makes all the difference in the world, if you ask me. Online tabletop gaming through text alone is agonizingly slow, despite FG's nice features to automate it, and it also puts the social aspect back into the session where it belongs. You can spend 5 minutes clarifying a situation in "I go, then you go" back and forth texting, that you can get done in real time chat in a few seconds. Speaking in real time to people is just a much warmer, personal experience, and the reason people play table top RPGs in the first place. You lose so much of that through text only games.

People *are* better at speaking "in character" through text, if thats a priority for you, and sometimes the GM will communicate NPC dialogue in the chat buffer...but again, its just so slow, most is done in real time communication, the way we always played before the itnernet.

I could never go back to online table top play without voicechat of some kind...its just too agonizingly slow without, and you get to know your players better, which makes for better relationships, and more reliable participants.

Donna
August 30th, 2007, 16:34
We use Skype since we never go over 4 players + DM and have liked that a lot. We tend to use it for a lot of Ooc and rules talk. Character dialogue and acting is all done through text though. Much more fun.

The newest version raised the participant limit from 5 to 10. Just FYI. :)

Mainframemouse
August 31st, 2007, 10:32
At the moment we use voice for most things. In descriptive narrative, character talk and OCC. I mainly use text to keep track of combat rounds.