Hey

Now that Dumpshock IRC is back (irc.dumpshock.com/6667, or 216.18.176/6667) I was wondering how hard it might be to start up a weekly game night where GMs and players congregated to run and roleplay in the shadows either over IRC or other online venues. The idea being to encourage online gaming and playing and give those interested a place and time to come in and chat more directly with people.

I suppose this is almost a call for volunteers looking to figure out a night and a date and to advertise the fact that people are planning on doing this. Get the word out a week or two in advance and keep it up for a few weeks to see if it can turn into something.

Just wondering...and considering.

Gerzel

I'd definitely be interested, as my lack of transportation and various degrees of drama has cut me off from some of my old group where I played, and my GMing, while appreciated, seems to be too dependent on unreliable schedules.

are we talking like a "living" campaign format? I think i'd definitely be interested.my forum/program of choice would be MapTools if we can get enough resources together to make the maps etc. If nothing else you can make a map of the running area and put markers down where all the various teams are.

Could be interesting.

I would be interested in this. I hear the problem is that people don't show up to much of the time or stop coming. Ideally it is a group of people who meat online often anyway. This might be ameliorated by aiming to have adventures that though part of a larger story ark, have short and distinct chapters. So that many missions can be done as a group all in one sitting of a few hours or more often meetings of less time. Maybe handling much of the pre mission planning in instant messages.

Skype is I think quite nice, adding the option for people to just speak rather than typing. But also it is a good program for instant messaging. Files can be sent with skype but not fast and images do not display in the text box. But a campaign could be in one conversation and last indefinitely with people coming and going from it. I think a third party program would need to be used for keeping track of dice. There are websites for doing that but it seems unwieldy.

A private room could be made at http://tv.wetgenes.com/ , I quite like the site and it has a few ups and downs for hosting a game. It has an inbuilt dice rolling system. You can post images. Inside your own room you have mod privileges and have tools to give short bans to trouble makes. Also You can post any videos from youtube, such as music to set the mood or any other visual aids you think of. It has the added fun of everyone seeing the exact same video at the same time, down to the second. The downside is that videos randomly play from a list of recently played videos, if nothing is posted or no playlist is used. But as time will probably need to be killed at some point having the TV is not really a downside. The room mod (in the case the GM) can override what every is playing, posting something non-distracting. The other downside is that rolling large amounts of dice at once causes problems. So people would need to roll in smaller increments of 10 or so.

Anyway there is also shadowrun online http://www.shadowrunonlinepbp.com/ but you probably knew that.

Ok the things I basically want to have is a weekly online real-time chat/get together were several games could be run and a new or sporadic player could relatively easilly get into a game.

Perhaps have several chat areas:

* One chat area be for new player introduction and character creation.
* One for Player and OOC chatter/table banter
* One for discussion/presentation of a weekly topic related to shadowrun
* One or more for games to be run in
>>Ideally always having one game where a new or casually joining player can jump in on for an evening.

I would recommend IRC as there already is a Dumpshock IRC and it is a common chat format supported by a very wide range of computers. Actual games may very well migrate to other areas as well, and that's fine.

Living games are a great idea too as the format can make it easier for a new player to jump into a game session.

The idea is find a time to get together and to make sure that when people come to the central chat area they can find something to do. The goal should be to foster community and a place to play even for players that might not be able to come every week.

The games themselves need not all be chat based either. It could also be used to recruit for play-by-post or play-by-email.

If people are worried about dice rolling, somebody could program a bot for the IRC chat to do the dice rolling.

Already done. I think DS IRC already has them.

But I always get 20 hits when I need them. Where's the problem?

I'd like this. Saturday or Sunday would be good because any other day is dumb.

Well for some folks their weekends are committed for things.

I would absolutely LOVE to join a SR game. If we want, I also have a Ventrilo server we could use if we wanted some voice communication.

Sure, why not. I'd like to see that. Weekends are probably okay for me.

I would be interested in playing as well. Since I am currently running a D&D 4e game online, that eats up all of my prep time throughout the week, but I would love to play.

Fantasy Grounds is my preferred play vehicle, but I could adapt to anything. I use http://www.obsidianportal.com for D&D campaign management. It has forums, comments, characters, wiki and other sections for every individual game.

Wednesdays are completely out for me. That is D&D. Sunday evenings may work. I'd just love to play if possible.

-looks at the stack of character ideas that never saw the light of day and just twitches as he smiles-

Alright, i'm game for a weekly session on the weekends, or a weekday session in the evenings. I think the op (or someone) needs to choose a time and day, and then run with it, otherwise this thread could go on forever.

How about a skype game sunday evenings?

Edit: supplemented with maptools i suppose

I would be game for a weekday evening game session (i live on the Pacific Coast of the US). I have a Pacifist Magi concept that char that I would like to play. Fridays and Saturday evenings are a no go as I play D&D Friday nights and GM SR Saturdays.

this sounds interesting.

whats a good irc client to use?

I would LOVE to play. Currently GMing a group of my own. But I really would love to play.

Ok right now it is looking like Sunday or Monday nights are the best options. Though Wednesdays might be workable as well.

Probably not this week as it is the July 4th week.

So what do you all think?

How about Sunday July 10th? 8pm (GMT-5) using just skype to start. I don't like the idea of roleplaying using only text based chat. If you guys go that route, no probs, i'll just have to find my game elsewhere.

That would be 9pm eastern time, 6pm Pacific time. I don't live in the Pacific time zone but it might be to hard for people to start that early. But then again that is just a theoretical problem until someone actually wants to join from that time zone.

Why would it be hard for people to start at 6:00 PM? I would find it much harder to start at 9 since I have work the following morning. I'd be happy with that date since I'm not around this weekend (4th of July)

Alright, lets start session 1 on sunday July 10th, 8pm (gmt-5). Anyone that wants in should send me a personal message (click on myprofile name on the left) and i'll respond with a skype id to call.

We'll keep it short the first time and discuss the basics:
- does the timing work
- is there enough interest
- introductions
- who will gm
- what supporting platform do we use (maptools)?
- character creation rules (if there's going to be a session 2)

Don't mean to honk anyone's weasel by being so direct, but i feel like we need a starting point to get us going.

I still stick by mIRC, myself. It's shareware without any termination of use date, and just a friendly request to perhaps send the creator some money if you like it (without any requirement to do so). The best laid out and programmed interface out there, in my opinion.

The site.

On Mac, try Limechat (lightweight) or Colloquy (rich).

No problem.

Though I would like to keep at least initial meet-ups on dumpshock IRC as it is more accessible to more people.

Just so that i'm not being ignorant, when you mention irc, you're referring to 'play by text submission' with no voice interaction?

Just to confirm, the first session for the skype start-up will by Sunday July 10th at 8pm (gmt-5). We'll be going over the the basics including guaging interest, determining platforms, discussing character creation rules and deciding if there should be a session 2. Session 1 will be around 30 minutes or so.

I'll repost every so often.

Attendees (2):
Aku
Whatevs

If interested, please send me a personal message (click on my profile name on the left) and i'll respond with a skype id to call.

IRC is text only but it would be text for OOC chatter and organization.

I DON'T want to just start another play-by-xyz weekly session I want to start a gathering of players and GMs to discuss the game in real time which can then start the play-bys.

The idea is to use IRC as a spring board for other forums as it gives people an easy place to access and talk and get quick confirmation. It allows fence-sitters to just talk about the game and perhaps be talked into a game. Text chat also allows people to chat with each other and is good for table talk.

I'm not asking you to stop using skype just give out the number over IRC and have people gather in one place as it is often easier to join a crowd and then get into a group rather than sticking your neck out on a forum.

Well we can certainly start trying to foster a community on IRC. If we work at it enough, we could develop a pool of people interested in the game. Once we get started, I will cross post to Obsidian Portal, the Fantasy Grounds forums and other places it would likely be seen.

The key to a successful gaming pool is easy access to modules and people willing to run them. For a while I participated in a group that played pick up games of Living Forgotten Realms modules (for D&D). It worked rather well, but there were many modules which had already been converted for us to pick up and use in Fantasy Grounds. The work of being a DM in that case was almost as easy as a player.

Maybe we can use Missions to start with. If we are very ambitious, we could have a more designated pool of GMs who trade off, but all the characters exist in the same world. That would allow us to have people come in and out as they have time and availability.

I'm just tossing out some ideas as food for thought before the 10th. I won't be able to contribute too much, since I run my own weekly D&D game and have a busy job. I would be happy to help by making maps and other accessories though. If we all share the load, this may work well.

These are great ideas. A nice, big pool of players is ideal.

Just to confirm, the first session for the skype start-up will be Sunday July 10th at 8pm (gmt-5). We'll be going over the the basics including guaging interest, determining platforms, discussing character creation rules and deciding if there should be a session 2. Session 1 will be around 60 (previosuly 30) minutes or so.

I'll repost every so often.

Attendees (3):
Aku
LG117
Whatevs

If interested, please send me a personal message (click on my profile name on the left) and i'll respond with a skype id to call.

Just to confirm, the first session for the skype start-up will be Sunday July 10th at 8pm (gmt-5). We'll be going over the the basics including guaging interest, determining platforms, discussing character creation rules and deciding if there should be a session 2. Session 1 will be around 60 (previosuly 30) minutes or so.

I'll repost every so often.

Attendees (5):
Aku
Lg117
Fyndhal
Badmoodguy88
Whatevs

If interested, please send me a personal message (click on my profile name on the left) and i'll respond with a skype id to call.

I'd think it would be easier to quote the time in UTC. That way everyone can do just one calculation instead of two. They'd add their own UTC offset to get their local time. Otherwise we have to add 5 hours to your 8pm, and then add another number for our own offset (such as +11 for Sydney).

Your use of weekday "evenings" in a global context is rather awkward. I would think a more general time like "all weekend" would make more sense. Someone in Australia, someone in Europe, and someone in Rest Of The World all experience "evening" at a different time, but even if someone's weekend is busy they can still leave an IRC client connected and logging, and then contribute when it is evening for them.

Conceptually though, I support the promotion of real-time IRC discussion. For the record I use the IceChat client. It's cool.

If I ever need a hair split Bodak, I know who to call.

Just to confirm, the first session for the skype start-up will be Sunday July 10th at 8pm (gmt-5). We'll be going over the the basics including guaging interest, determining platforms, discussing character creation rules and deciding if there should be a session 2. Session 1 will be around 60 minutes or so.

I'll repost every so often.

Attendees (5):
Aku
Lg117
Fyndhal
Badmoodguy88
Whatevs

If interested, please send me a personal message (click on my profile name on the left) and i'll respond with a skype id to call.

Will post a final reminder and personal message to all attendees tomorrow.

Just to confirm, the first session for the skype start-up will be Sunday July 10th at 8pm (gmt-5). We'll be going over the the basics including gauging interest, determining platforms, discussing character creation rules and deciding if there should be a session 2. Session 1 will be around 60 minutes or so.

Attendees (6):
Aku
Lg117
Fyndhal
Badmoodguy88
Chase
Whatevs

If interested, please send me a personal message (click on my profile name on the left) and i'll respond with a skype id to call.

Will send a final reminder to all attendees 24 hours before the session starts to avoid confusion.

Just for the record I'll be online starting around 8 EST on the dumpshock IRC. Just click the chat button below the dumpshock logo at the top of the screen.

Just to confirm, the first session for the skype start-up will be Sunday July 10th at 8pm (gmt-5). We'll be going over the the basics including gauging interest, determining platforms, discussing character creation rules and deciding if there should be a session 2. Session 1 will be around 60 minutes or so.

Attendees (7):
Aku
Lg117
Fyndhal
Badmoodguy88
Chase
Kevin Adams (hope you got the message in time)
Whatevs

If interested, please send me a personal message (click on my profile name on the left) and i'll respond with a skype id to call.

Will send a final reminder to all attendees 24 hours before the session starts to avoid confusion.

Session 1 is complete and it's clear that we'll be moving onward and upward. Session 2 is scheduled for July 24th at 7:30pm GMT-5 for anyone that missed their chance this time around. If interested, please send me a personal message (click on my profile name on the left) and I'll respond with a Skype Name.

We'll also be moving to a more permanent home in the 'Player/GM Registry' section (Dumpshock Forums > Discussion > GM/Players Registry). Please click the following link for more information: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=35358.

I want in on this.