Internet Game, available venues, resources to simplify Options

[tisoz]

I need some information about starting some real time games, but not real life around a table as the participants are not near one another. What is currently available to facilitate this end in terms of platforms and resources to ease game play?

I've recently been listening to some actual play podcasts and besides considering doing something similar to share, I've heard some mention of setting up wikis for the game and things like dice rollers and so on. I was hoping some younger whippersnappers might step up who know all this stuff, but it looks like many of the players are older as the game(s) are planned to be 2nd and/or 3rd edition.

[Mantis]

The few times I've played online (4th ed game), we've used roll20 as the platform. It allows maps to be uploaded, includes a dice roller and has dice rolling macros so if there is one pool size you use frequently you can set it up ahead of time and save a bit of effort in game. It also has a chat client so players and GM can send messages without stepping on each other over the mike. We used google talk or chat or whatever it is called now to handle the actual interaction. Seemed to work pretty well.

[Iduno]

I think we used Google Hangouts with some sort of add-on when I last tried an internet game.

I am not sure there's a huge difference between one chatroom and another. As long as it allows the GM to add whatever pictures they want to use, allows for voice and video (again, if you want to see and talk to the other players), and has a dice roller, you should be good to go.

My main addition would be patience. It's pretty easy to talk over each other online, which makes things confusing or gets things lost. Video chat helps with that (you can tell when someone else is talking), but isn't perfect. Lag also comes into play, but shouldn't be too bad if you know it will happen.