Google Hangouts and/or FaceTime, right? …Yeah, I’m thinking about running one of those. I’m pretty sure that I can get some people together and it’d be easier to coordinate a campaign where nobody actually has to drive to the GM’s house. The major issue? Keeping the kids from interrupting. Which my kids will do in a heartbeat.
[UPDATE] Interesting.
@Ogiel23 https://t.co/8Pv4g8Sr9V. Or Google Hangouts with the https://t.co/8Pv4g8Sr9V add-on.
— Daddy Warpig (@Daddy_Warpig) May 14, 2016
Roll20.net, with Google Hangouts to carry video. We tried the Roll20 plugin but we didn’t need the extra video views and we had a lot of trouble with conflicting audio and slowness (we have a relatively thin pipe out of our house – 12Mb at best). It took a little time to get it all straight but we’ve been using this combination for a year without any issues.
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The price is right (free to play, $10/month for unlimited campaigns and maps if you want to GM) and the support has been great. We mostly play DnD 5th Edition and the plugins have been excellent. Where we play something else, the maps and chat features are still great.
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Roll20 takes some significant learning curve to get really facile. I’m used to whipping up a campaign in an hour or two, and it took a while for me to get used to having to load maps, define dynamic lighting, and get all the various icons loaded. On the flip side, actual game play is a heck of a lot more organized and we can put together a virtual coast-to-coast game that actually works.
Skype and cell phones and .pdfs, the couple times I was involved in suchlike.
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The public stuff goes on Skype, i.e. “my thief attempts to detect traps”
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Dice are either rolled by the DM, or the laptop camera is moved (tip laptop on its’ side) so the dice roll is visible to all.
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.pdfs of the manuals etc. are shared via email and it’s up to players who want to look stuff up to manage their desktops.
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Cell phones and texts are for note-passing – if you’re not smooth, the other players can see you saying something but they don’t know what .. if you’re smooth (and I’m pleased to say that I am) then they don’t know you’ve texted the DM that the thief has decided the halfling rogue has gotten annoying, so *if* a trap is found, the thief won’t be mentioning it ..
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Mew