Google Wave, An awesome tool for Shadowrun Options

[phillosopherp]

so does anyone actually have a game going? I am desperately looking for a Shadowrun game!

[Crank]

so does anyone actually have a game going? I am desperately looking for a Shadowrun game!

Yeah, I'm running one over Wave at the moment.

For those that are wondering how well it works for SR games, I really like it myself. I would definitely not try to use it in a live game chat type game, you have to use it in a play by post style game. One of Wave's problems is that the waves start to get really slow when viewing, scrolling, and especially typing in them. You have to break them off and create new ones about every 100 responses or so, but sometimes sooner.

I like Wave because I can maintain separate waves for each PC, one for in character and one for out. I maintain about 15 waves dedicated to that one game, which might be more than some people would like. Obviously that wouldn't work in a forum setting unless it was your own forum.

[Belvidere]

If any invites are still floating around, I'd love to get my hands on one.

twizjsly@yahoo.com

Please and thanks!

[Draco18s]

Please and thanks!

Done

[DVSman]

I just got 25 "wave" invites so if anyone needs a wave-vite let me know. Also if anyone is running a game that wouldn't mind me eavesdropping in on it, send me a note. I am curious how the mechanics of SR are being run on a wave and wouldn't mind seeing it in action "live" so to speak. Thanks!

[Yerameyahu]

My group has been testing Exalted via Wave, and we're also using it to coordinate our Shadowrun game. It suffers from all the above problems: quickly gets clunky and slow, not really 'there' when it comes to chat-replacement, etc. I agree, too, that it works best when you act like it's a more fluid Google Docs, which is Wave's real intended purpose, I'm told.

The problem with both SR and Exalted is that there are a lot of back and forth rolls in pretty quick succession, such as the attack-dodge-resist-knockdown sequence. The real beauty of Wave is it's ability to emulate PBEM or PBForum, so that people don't have to be connected in real time, but these kind of games bog that down a bit.

I, too, found that Random Lee Twenty was the best fit for Shadowrun, though I like Dicey for Exalted.

Finally, Wave recently added built-in email notifications, which is handy for anyone not logging in all the time, or sitting at a computer with a running Wave Notifier.

[Seriphen]

I am also interested in playing by Wave or just sitting in and watching if someone wouldn't mind. I also have 25 invites left for anyone who would also like to try it.

[Ol' Scratch]

Keep in mind that they're basically just creating an engine. When they're done, other companies (including virtual tabletop RPG designers) will be able to use it as part of their applications. While I don't care for it in and of itself as its currently presented, it does have some interesting ideas and applications.

I just find it humorous that it's basically a throwback to the old BBS days of chatting with the sysops and other users. I actually miss that quite a bit. Instant messengers just aren't the same.

[DamienKnight]

The problem with both SR and Exalted is that there are a lot of back and forth rolls in pretty quick succession, such as the attack-dodge-resist-knockdown sequence.

In a play by post game, I recommend attacks go like this:

I am attacking the Goon. I have 4 skill + Smartlink + 5 agility. My weapon is an ares predator 5P DV -1 AP

At that point the GM resolves that portion of combat, including the players attack roll, the goons dodge roll, and the goons Resist (and knockdown if in 3rd edition).

That will cut down on the back-and-forth quite a bit.

[Kagetenshi]

Why have the GM do the attack roll?

Actually, this is a bad example—attack is rolled by the attacker, and then dodge-resist-knockdown are all rolled by the target without needing to wait on anything by the attacker (unless the attacker is a Great Dragon or Horror with the power to interfere with the target's rolls). A better example is attacks that cost a Simple Action, where in most cases (not throwing a grenade or using a Launch Weapon) if the game isn't playing strictly the attacker can and should wait on the results of the first action (a quick look-up indicates that Declare Actions should come strictly before Resolve Actions, but this seems to often be missed).

~J

[TBRMInsanity]

Why have the GM do the attack roll?


~J

In any PBP (play by post) campaign where communal dice programs are not free available, it is always a good idea for the GM to roll everything. This keeps things fair (unless you GM wants lots of TPKs and in such case the GM will find he has no players soon enough).

[Yerameyahu]

Well, the Random Lee Twenty bot is fine for fair dice, but I think the point of the GM rolling was to speed up combat in a non-realtime medium. You're right that it's not a great fix, but it's tough. The use of multiple actions based on contingent results, as you suggest, are exactly what I'm talking about when I say SR is tough on PbP-style media. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Crank]

My group uses Shadowroller for our rolls. Just follow the following steps:

• In editing mode, click "Add Gadget by URL" on the toolbar;
• Into the field "Gadget URL", paste this url: http://shadowroller.googlecode.com/svn/tru...hadowroller.xml
• Click on "Add" button (the gadget will be directly inserted into your blip).

[Delarn]

I use Randomleetwenty@appspot.com

[Kagetenshi]

So much for that. Guess it's time to see if they open-sourced enough server code for a private Wave.

~J

[TBRMInsanity]

Unfortunately Google Wave has been cancelled due to a lack of interest. I still have 8 invites if people want to check it out before it fades from existence though.

[Draco18s]

Unfortunately Google Wave has been cancelled due to a lack of interest. I still have 8 invites if people want to check it out before it fades from existence though.

I'm not surprised at all. People don't want to combine email, IM, and collaborative editing. Collaborative editing on email is just a disaster ("Here, let me just re-write what you said, then when Jon get it...").

I also disliked the "see as you type" thing. I like to keep my IMs to myself (and forum posts, etc.) so I can edit out spelling errors and incoherent thoughts (as well as inflammatory remarks).

Now, if they'd just marketed it as a collaborative editing tool, it might have gone somewhere (then again, maybe not, because the market for that is really small).

[Yerameyahu]

Well, they didn't really market it at all. People who looked at it understood that it *was* a collaborative document tool. You're right, the email/IM 'replacement' aspect of it confused people, and was clunky. For me, a big problem was the development timeline. It took forever to get email notification (which was never very *good*), and it was always slow and crashy. These kinds of things should have been fixed much earlier.

[TBRMInsanity]

May of the tools in Wave I thought were good (even the collaborative editing of emails). I think that the biggest problem was that Wave was a great solution for a problem that doesn't exist. The second issue I found was that you had to invite people to use Wave. If everyone with a Google account had a Wave account, then adoption would have been a lot faster IMHO. The only good thing is that some of the features in Wave will be implemented in other Google products (most likely Buzz and Google Docs).

[Draco18s]

The second issue I found was that you had to invite people to use Wave. If everyone with a Google account had a Wave account, then adoption would have been a lot faster IMHO.

Good point. And you couldn't even add people who had a wave account to a wave unless they were in your contacts list.
Which you couldn't add anyone with a wave account without first adding their gmail account to your gmail contacts list.

The only good thing is that some of the features in Wave will be implemented in other Google products (most likely Buzz and Google Docs).

Speaking of Buzz. WTF is Buzz?

Its like a MyFace wall, only in Gmail:
Completely and uttery fucking useless and a complete waste of time. Why do I want to see what these random* --ers type out?

*By random I do mean random. Gmail basically had me auto-watch anyone in my contacts list (basically anyone who I'd ever exchanged emails with, including people on the L4D Mapper's Mailing List) who had a Gmail account.

[Platinum]

May of the tools in Wave I thought were good (even the collaborative editing of emails). I think that the biggest problem was that Wave was a great solution for a problem that doesn't exist. The second issue I found was that you had to invite people to use Wave. If everyone with a Google account had a Wave account, then adoption would have been a lot faster IMHO. The only good thing is that some of the features in Wave will be implemented in other Google products (most likely Buzz and Google Docs).

Google wave was awesome for document revisions and collaboration. Like working with a consultant. You can playback reviews from start to finish. That is awesome for business customers.

It never took off because

1. It wasn't really intuitive
2. way too slow, and crashed often
3. required you to download the chrome framework
4. didn't integrate well with messengers or email like they said it would
5. writing an app was a huge pain, and they didn't have enough widgets to make it worth it.

Google wave opened up to anyone months ago. The problem was that anyone who was once interested would not return. You didn't need an invite. Not only that, they didn't refresh invites often enough, because everything was way too slow.

Buzz was a colossal disaster. They implemented it without anyone's permission or sufficient testing, to a market that was already dominated. Many people's safety was threatened by their breach of privacy.

[TBRMInsanity]

Speaking of Buzz. WTF is Buzz?

Its like a MyFace wall, only in Gmail:
Completely and uttery fucking useless and a complete waste of time. Why do I want to see what these random* --ers type out?

*By random I do mean random. Gmail basically had me auto-watch anyone in my contacts list (basically anyone who I'd ever exchanged emails with, including people on the L4D Mapper's Mailing List) who had a Gmail account.

Buzz is Google's attempt to emulate Twitter/Facebook/Myspace. Will it be successful? I don't know. I know that it helps me keep track of my RPG groups (specificly updates from my GM). It is as close to a Twitter experience that I want to be (I don't have a Twitter account, I won't get a Twitter account, I don't like Twitter).

[Yerameyahu]

Meh. I don't mind Buzz or anything about its launch. I also don't *use* it, because my social groups don't. No critical mass, no Buzz.

[Draco18s]

Oh god, I just realized that my coworkers and I were all following each other (not that any of us use it).
Seriously. Do not want auto-follow.

Edit:
Oh snap. There's a "Disable Google Buzz" in Gmail settings.

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[Dumori]

I've found buzz relatively ok I have a few writer mates the blogg with blogger so buzz helps with following them. My own blogg will be up as soon as I type up my work.