New GM needs advice, Going to run my first online game Options

[Bastard]

With my friends all living a distance apart we have decided to run the game via the internet. Any suggestions for the best method and format to run this? We would prefer something like a chat basis game, but something designed for roll playing. We also may have room for anyone who wants to join. It should be a long campaign, with relaxed rules.

[Chance359]

You could always try running it here on dumpshock. And if you've got room, I could probably throw something together.

[Bastard]

we wanted to do something quicker than forum though? Is there a chat run by dumpshock?

I was planning on GMing, I have a campaign ready, actually already started, but its hard to get everyone together all the time. We have only run two short missions to get the rookies aquainted with the game though. So you are welcome to join the run.

[Conskill]

If everyone is willing to put a bit of work into it, I find telnet (the same medium that MUDs, MUSHes, etc happen in) is the best method. For example, grab a copy of PennMUSH and run a single room server, find instructions to create a dice roller, then use the ability to say, pose, and @emit to actually run that game.

End result is similiar to using a chatroom, though much more immersive (minus OOC chatter, the logs tend to read very cleanly as well). I've played in some games over IRC and I just can't ignore the chat-room feel of it.

[Kagetenshi]

I use AIM chatrooms. They've got a nice dieroller and the program is relatively ubiquitous.

~J

[Ol' Scratch]

Yeah, back when I used to game by chatrooms, I used AIM/AOL's. Sure, AOL sucks but AIM's not all that bad. The one thing I would avoid like the plague are those annoying java-based programs that are crafted just for RPGing online. Every last one of them sucks. You don't need any bells and whistles; a simple die roller and the ability to type is it... and for that, AIM's not a bad choice.

[Kagetenshi]

Just realized that I hadn't actually mentioned it: in an AIM chatroom, the dieroller syntax is //roll for 2d6, but you can add arguments -dice# and -sides# to alter the number of dice and the number of sides respectively. For instance, 2d20 would be //roll-sides20 , 4d6 would be //roll-dice4 , and 8d80 would be //roll-dice8-sides80 . Sides are capped at 999 and number of dice at 15, but that can be gotten around by additional rolls. For Shadowrun, pretty much all you need is //roll-dice# .

~J

[Conskill]

One other thing came to mind, though I'll caveat this that I've never personally tried it.

There are plenty of good voice-over-internet programs and they run well even on dial-up. If it works well, it'd be far quicker than over a chatroom (the on-line games I've been in have been painfully slow compared to gaming at verbal speed).

[Bastard]

Thats kind of what I was thinking too. Even aol and yahoo have voice chat....Is there a site that is better though? I used to like msn before they started charging out the ass.

[mfb]

shadowland allows users to create chatrooms, and has a built-in die roller. of course, the scrollbars in chat suck, so AIM might be a better choice.

[Arethusa]

[Jason Farlander]

And I am going to wholeheartedly disagree with Arethusa here. I fail to see how player dicerolling in an online game has any more of an effect on gameplay speed than player dicerolling in a tabletop game. Additionally, for the most part, players just feel better when they get to roll their own dice, digital or otherwise, *especially* for things like damage resistance tests. They know exactly what they rolled and have a good sense of how it should affect them, and dont have to sit there wondering whether the GM is fudging their dice rolls for the benefit of the story.

Some people like the "storytime with the GM" format and relegate all dicerolling to the GM, and this can indeed be more immersive, but, personally, if I want to participate in someone else's pre-scripted story I'll read a book or play a video game.

[Ol' Scratch]

[Spook]

Well, I've been doing this for a couple months now, with a number of other players...

TO facilitate the meeting online, I went with the simplest solution - IRC on a private channel. We all simply connect at a particular time on a given channel and run our game there. Some conventions have worked okay for us :

1. When the session starts, set your channel to +m (moderated) so that only users with voice can speak. This allows people to wander in and watch, but keeps them unable to interfere with the game.

2. XChat's perl interface makes for a great dice-rolling bot, I've managed to implement both the usual success tests and open tests, as well as init rolls and special ones for area-affect spells. There's really no limit as to what you can make such a bot do.

3. When your game starts, be sure that everything in the channel is in character - if it's not going to be in character, but is game-related, put it in (parenthesis). Set up a seperate channel for out-of-character discussions.

4. Have a secondary op, so that if you (the GM) loses your connection, there's someone who can re-op you when you get back, instead of asking everyone to part the channel and return.

5. Have a netsplit procedure. These are all too common, and sometimes they can last for a while. If they go over five minutes, have a common server on the network to join up at. Also, make sure you've got a way to contact everyone outside your chat medium -- i use trillian for it's AIM/ICQ/MSN compatibility.

6. Private messages are GREAT for asides (you know, the "take the player into another room" scenes) but if you're going to use them for an astral recon job or a decking run, make sure you can monitor the main channel and keep up with both.

Just some things that have come up in our runs... mostly technical, but that's the nature of the beast, really.

[mintcar]

This may not be such a bad thing. But it doesn´t take away the problem of nobody having time to play. I suspect nothing will cure that problem.

[Kagetenshi]

I'm also going to disagree with Arethusa. I did all the dierolling for an online D&D game once before I learned about the //roll command, and it bogged things down something fierce. If someone types slowly, just have them copy //roll-dice and then paste and add the number whenever they want to roll something.

Another thing: beware the temptation to do decking/recon/astral projection in a private room/window! Sometimes it's good, but often letting the other players know stuff that their characters wouldn't yet is a small price to pay for not having a mostly-silent or slowly-moving room whilst other stuff continues in the background.

And I'm going to disagree with Spook regarding IC/OOC chatter. Putting OOC chatter in parentheses is very good, but having a separate window splits the attention and increases the chance of something getting lost somewhere.

~J

[Bastard]

thanks everyone...i still dont have a clue which is the best program...i think im going to go with msn messanger and create a private room. then just email maps and things of that nature.

[MYST1C]

Has anyone here ever heard of or tried GRIP (Generic Roleplaying for Internet Players)?
I just got it really cheap on eBay (€1.99 instead of $40) because I thought it sounded interesting.
Now I'm waiting for it to arrive...