DMing Fantasy Grounds games and videocalls

[*Neuro*]

Hello everyone.

I've been DMing through fantasy grounds since 2016 and also Adventurers League in the last year, mostly D&D 5e.

We are using both with IRL friends and in AL discord app.

I wonder why nobody came about the matter of using the camera or not. I understand that may people maybe want to stay in their pijamas relaxed, but I start to think that while playing online through FG would be nice to see each other.

Someone has feedback to give? Does videocall instead of audiocall affect bandwidth too much?

Would be nice to have your opinions.

At least for IRL friends only I would like to try to use our cams during sessions.

But till now my players were against it (and I am talking about IRL friends that I already know and have seen many times).


Waiting for your comments, thanks

P.s. would be nice to have videocalls built in FG, yes I know I am dreaming

[Mephisto]

We usually play with "camera on" but I understand many people are not that comfortable with it. That's because you don't only see that one person but also his surrounding at home which he might not want to show ("did it remove all the worn socks from view?").
I don't think having video calls implemented in FG would be a good move. There are a ton of big players with dedicated free solutions out there (Discord, Zoom, Teams, Skype...) which FG will never be able to compete with.

[Nylanfs]

This has a bunch of good tips.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?24282-How-to-make-an-overlay-and-setup-OBS-for-streaming!

[HywelPhillips]

I prefer camera on, because I find it easier to make sure we don't talk over people. I've had players had audio problems and just assume we were all talking over them or ignoring them - if they have their camera on it is much more obvious that they are trying to talk.

It's not without its issues. People on low bandwidth connections or low-powered old laptops certainly do have problems with running it concurrently with Fantasy Grounds. Annoyingly, they are also the people most likely to end up with poor audio connections that drop out! And being in a game with strangers can feel more anxiety-inducing with video chat on rather than just voice. My experience is that it leads to better group dynamics pretty quickly though so for anything that's intended to run for several sessions I think video is a help rather than a hinderance.

As a GM I put my video on. I leave it up to the players individually whether to turn their video on or not - in most groups, most players do after a week or two. I wouldn't want to force people into it if they're happier with just audio.

Cheers, Hywel

[Primo]

well tbh, I think there are plenty of great tools that already do this (Discord, Guilded, Zoom, Google Meet and whatnot) that it would be a waste to spend both devs time and effort to built this. Also, technology wise, I don't think FGU's capable of, but I could be wrong.

[deltadave]

My regular group plays with cameras off. I find that I have bandwidth problems and stuttering if I've got FG, audio and video going all at the same time.
We use Discord to play, with an audio plugin for background music as well as syrinscape for audio cues in addition to FG for the game desktop.

[Laerun]

Bandwidth is certainly a consideration. The other thing, to be honest, is that it is a big possibility that one may not feel confident about how they look or how they sound to themselves. I also think many believe that they have to perform as if they were on stage or on a critical role stream. One thing that annoyed me personally, is that I do not get to see the game being played either. I do not mind seeing small windows onto the side, but not huge blown-up faces and then very little of the Fantasy Grounds Interface. If one could produce the show more, it would be ideal to pan and switch between the views and windows and also add a soundboard to certain dull or quiet moments. The balance between gaming voice, music, and visuals is the real challenge. Live streams are not on most people's most desirable want list for gaming. There are still many shy gamers that do not want anyone to know that they still play RPGs, not in public anyhow.

[deltadave]

That's a great point Laerun. at least half the gamers I play with are intensely shy, even with only friends in a face to face game. I can only imagine how they would feel in a public livestream of a game.