To game online?

Comments

  • alexsempire
    Posts: 2
    Good day,

    I have been looking into dungeons and dragons for quite a while now. Since my batteries are low I will keep this short but since last year I have tried multiple ways to game. On forums I struggled to keep interest when peoples posts slowed to an almost halt. I do not know enough people who I can game with in real life. I was wondering about email or im games or if anyone has any other thoughts.

    I would love to write some more but my batteries are beeping.

    Alexsempire
  • DarthKrzysztof
    DarthKrzysztof
    Posts: 132
    I've never been big on PbP, but chat-based games are pretty awesome. I'm running "one":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/cold-blood and recently started playing in a "second":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/iii, with "another":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/brave-new-world behind me and a "new one":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/blue-collar about to begin.

    I've talked about chat games "here":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/forums/6/topics/199 and "here":http://darthkrzysztof.blogspot.com/2008/05/in-praise-of-chat-based-gaming.html, among other places. "This":http://www.trapcast.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=63 recent thread on the TrapCast forum (great show, btw) is probably my most in-depth discussion on the topic.

    I will mention that D&D 4E is impossible to run without a virtual battlemat of some kind. Our group has had issues with "MapTool":http://rptools.net/ and "ScreenMonkey":http://www.nbos.com/, and found "Twiddla":http://www.twiddla.com/ to be a serviceable, if problematic, substitute. (We've also talked about pointing a webcam at a battlemat, but haven't tried that yet.) Hopefully the D&D Game Table will make these difficulties go away, if it ever comes out.

    Welcome to OP; I hope this helps!
  • MythicParty
    MythicParty
    Posts: 78
    Hi Alexsempire.

    Nothing can quite compare to actual in-person gaming. Something about the table-side camaraderie. I would suggest the closest gaming store to you, then putting up a flyer. Barring an actual store, look for other locations that Geeks hang out. Comic book shops. Arcades. Paintball. Etc.

    If you're lucky enough to be near a college, there should already be a gaming organization formed.

    I have had great results with Craigslist. Put an ad in 'Groups' for gaming; maybe starting with board or card games & then see about converting some newbies to RPGing. Catan, for example, is a great 'gateway game.'

    Lastly, always fill in your profile with your location (i.e. Rochester, NY for me) & then put something either there or in your sig about looking for players. Sometimes the randomness of the Internet can work in your favor.
  • alexsempire
    Posts: 2
    Hallo Again,

    First of Darth. Wow. It was a lot of reading but thanks. And Art. I understand what you are saying, but being the age that I am, my Parents would have a heart attack if I went to some persons house I did not know. I have also looked into doing tabletop gaming at a venue, such as inside a gaming store but places like these are few and far away. (I live in melbourne, australia. He have a total of about eleven gaming or comic book stores.)

    How would I go about finding a Chat based game to join do you think?

    Alexsempire
  • FemmeLegion
    FemmeLegion
    Posts: 521
    I am also a big fan of face-to-face gaming, mostly because I'm impatient and I feel like things resolve faster in person. However, it's perfectly reasonable for your parents to be concerned about going to a stranger's house to game. Assuming they're doing their job right, they love you, and it's their job to look out for your well-being as best they can.

    The "stranger danger" concern is best combated by allowing your parents to meet the people involved. If you somehow find a group that is meeting in person, and if logistics permit, see if at least the GM or the game host will meet with you and your parents at a neutral location on a non-gaming day, to let your parents get a feel for this new person. Odds are VERY slim that I know your parents, but it's been my experience that this sort of gesture goes a long way immediately - it should show a bit of maturity on your part that you're taking your parents' concern seriously and attempting to accommodate it when looking for a game, and the stranger's agreement to such a meeting should dial down the mental threat level a notch or two even before anyone meets up.

    Also, you'll benefit from such a meeting - it would give you a chance to figure out if this campaign fits with what you want out of a game. I've seen a few people get disheartened because a campaign turned out to not be what they thought it would be, and thus not what they really wanted to be doing.

    As for finding a chat-based game, you might try http://forums.rpgchat.com/ - It looks like RPGChat.net is also connected with them, but so help me I occasionally get the impression they're using the other definition of "role-playing". =/
  • DarthKrzysztof
    DarthKrzysztof
    Posts: 132
    bq. How would I go about finding a Chat based game to join do you think?

    Unfortunately, I've not yet found any websites or forums that are specifically devoted to chat games. Maybe I'll have to start one myself. ;)

    My group formed because I 'met' "someone":http://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/Jennifer in the comments on the "Treasure Tables":http://www.treasuretables.org/ blog (which is now "You Meet in a Tavern":http://www.youmeetinatavern.com/index.php) who recruited me into her campaign. She joined mine when I started it, then I invited a friend who'd moved away, then we picked up someone who was following the game here on OP...

    Forums are a great place to announce a campaign and to look for players. You can never be sure who you'll get on "EN World":http://www.enworld.org/, for example, but if you find an RPG podcast that you like, the forum for that show is likely to be a community of like-minded individuals. In addition to the aforementioned TrapCast, the forums for "Brilliant Gameologists":http://brilliantgameologists.com/ (your parents may not like that show :P) and the "Game Master Show":http://thegamemastershow.com/index.php may be worth trying. I've talked about chat gaming in both of those forums.
  • MythicParty
    MythicParty
    Posts: 78
    Alexsempire, another possibility is maybe people who game in your area know of a public place for meeting up:
    http://www.accessdenied.net/cgi-bin/query.cgi?City=MELBOURNE

    You mentioned that you do not know 'enough people' to game with in real life. Well if you know just 1 other person & you can meet a 3rd person, thats' enough: 2 players, 1 DM.

    There could even be someone else exactly in your shoes- only knowing 1 other person. That'd be 4 which works really well.

    Good luck!
  • sleepyjonnie
    sleepyjonnie
    Posts: 7
    As for the online battle mat issue, my group is going to try to use http://rpgtonight.com/ It looks a little clunky at first, but seems to do everything we need. Also, if you're going to do this, I recommend a VoIP of some kind. Ventrilo is a very good program, it's free. However, it can be a pain to run your own server from your computer, so you may want to invest the $2.00/month to get a TypeFrag server set up.
  • Charsen
    Charsen
    Posts: 85
    My group is currently using Fantasy Grounds 2.0. You can download many different packs from their site: http://www.fantasygrounds.com

    It's a little expensive but you can get a discount if you get it for your whole group... which is nice. Plus the downloads for it are very versatile with different settings and customization. The user interface is a bit hard to fully understand right away but if your group is patient, it's worth it.

    I currently run one game (not on obsidian portal yet) on fantasy grounds, and have been in two before with it... the only problem is setting up the connection in the first place, but after that it's no big deal.

    You can find people here or at the fantasy grounds forum who will play with you using this program, or other dnd sites. I'm not sure exactly how popular it is, but I've met a couple people on dnd sites that use it often.
  • Metroknight
    Metroknight
    Posts: 2
    Sorry if I'm coming in alittle late on the conversation but you can try to use openrpg (it is free) and connect to one of the various servers. Openrpg is similar to screenmonkey and fantasy grounds in the fact that it is a virtual table top gaming platform. While it is not voice chat, it is live text chat with a mapping area. There is a usually about 100+ people on the various servers on any given nite so that is another option for you to consider.
  • DarthKrzysztof
    DarthKrzysztof
    Posts: 132
    Do you have a link for OpenRPG?

    EDIT: Never mind, I found it.

    "http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?c=orpg&m=getorpg":http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?c=orpg&m=getorpg

    At first glance it looks very promising. We had no problems getting together on a test map, and it seems to have all the features we need.

    There's a FAQ here: "http://openrpg.wrathof.com/faq":http://openrpg.wrathof.com/faq

    After struggling with MapTool, Screenmonkey, and RPGTonight, not to mention Twiddla, this is a real breath of fresh air.
  • DarthKrzysztof
    DarthKrzysztof
    Posts: 132
    Update: We circumvented our issues with MapTool, which are (hardware) firewall-related, with a program called Hamachi:

    "https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/list.asp":https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/list.asp

    This program obviates the need for port-forwarding, which we could never get to work.

    Behold!

    !http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3395/3423244824_a2c5b0f6a2.jpg!

    And the page for the campaign is "here":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/iii.
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