Why don't you play online?

[Primal]

Haven't posted in a long time, but I'm curious and wanted to see what people's opinions/experiences are regarding playing real-time online..

some plusses:
*Superheroes can have bunches of dice or complex roles.. macros and scripts (OpenRPG or mIRC) can calculate them easily and quickly..
*no travel time required: you don't have to drive anywhere.. (important when you're out of college and remaining gamers you know are spread to the 4 winds)
*If you're bad at imitating a required accent, no problem..

some minuses:
*people tend to be less reliable online..
*no face to face socializing..
*mild typing/computer skills required..

of course the real rub (for me) is finding people for a good game.. a viscious cycle..

I've been out of Champions/Hero since the first of the year, and I'm starting to think about it again, but my only viable option is online..

Of those who don't play online, what would make you consider it? Of those of you who do, what's your best advice for finding/having a good game?

my apologies if you feel this topic is out of place

[MisterD]

I would be interested in playin real time online.

I just need a set schedual (Schedual changes every week to two weeks.)

And I would need an interface I can enjoy.

My online gaming is E-Mail and I just got into a HERO-CENTRAL game.

[MarkusDark]

I feel that if I am going to play on my computer, I might as well go buy a game and play that instead. MMORPG's are much more entertaining to me when on a computer. Don't get me wrong, I love RPG's but the face-to-face way is the only way I enjoy them.

[Killer Shrike]

The interpersonal element is lacking online, and that to me takes the fun right out of it.

[Vondy]

I find - if I don't know the people involved or I can't interact with them - the sythesis of shared concept is strongly diminished.

In addition: I don't game to just game anymore. Its also about spending time with friends.

[TheEmerged]

Online gaming has good points and bad points. Right now, the bad is pretty much overriding the good. Having played UO, AO, EQ, DAoC at release and several others later (disclosure: I still play EQ but very occasionally, my highest character is 40th) -- the biggest problem has nothing to do with the online thing. Trust me on this: after a while, if the game gives you sufficient communication tools it has just as much social activity going on as the real world.

The problem is that none of the game companies to date have been willing to engage in *adequate* customer service. MMORPG's won't really be viable until the GM/player ratio is closer to 1/25. Depending on which statistics you believe, the best ratio out there is probably EQ's 1/1000 right now.

[Ghost Archer]

Originally posted by Primal
some plusses:
*Superheroes can have bunches of dice or complex roles.. macros and scripts (OpenRPG or mIRC) can calculate them easily and quickly..

*no travel time required: you don't have to drive anywhere.. (important when you're out of college and remaining gamers you know are spread to the 4 winds)
*If you're bad at imitating a required accent, no problem..

some minuses:
*people tend to be less reliable online..
*no face to face socializing..
*mild typing/computer skills required..

of course the real rub (for me) is finding people for a good game.. a viscious cycle..

I've been playing online for almost five years and love it.

On the plus side: yeah, sure, the dice is easy and the travel is simple and the accent problem is minimal but the biggest plus I have found is the comfort level my player have when actually roleplaying. It's like being Goofy in Disney World, you can be as goofy as you want and no one can see your face so all the inhibitions are gone.

On the minus side, the biggest problem I have is people sticking to the game times. I don't agree about the 'no socializing' . My group tends to socialize a great deal out of the game's context. In fact, just two weeks ago I met up with my co-GM in California. She was out from Detroit and I was visiting home from Virginia. Even after my players leave becasue of real world necessities, I keep in touch.

As for finding people, they tend to come to me thru my website. Granted it takes a little while to get to know new players but its pretty easy. I have two Yahoo Groups I run as GM while my co-GM has a pair as well. We also play on WebRPG and OpenRPG. I've used both and prefer WebRPG but the fact they charge for full use of the service tends to make it hard for some of my players. We may have to join the mob and move to OpenRPG.

If anyone has used Mirc, can you give me any input about it?

[Brandi]

I find that in face-to-face there are little effects I can do with my voice and body language that are difficult to consciously describe and type up.

[MoonHunter]

There are many ways to play online. It is all about communication. The internet is just one big communication and reference tool. You just have to gear your play towards its strengths and everything works well.

Because I keep strange hours, play by post, has become the important one for me. I have been playing and running now for about 8 months. It has worked fairly well for me. You can run any game system in play by post. You can GM or Play. It really works. Of course it helps that the community of my PbP site is a good one (www.rpol.net), but that is true of any game.

If you are going to play by post, make sure the site supports editing and private messages. File posting is nice, but not required.

Play by Messanger can work. It is like playing live, but you just play by typing. You learn to type fast and have cue cards (bits of prepared flavor/ action texts) handy. Like a table top game, you have the time commitment thing. Unless you are all in the same time zone, you can have "matching" problems.

Play be eMail is like playing by post, except you use an email program instead of a browser. It is a comfort thing. If you are good with using email, then play an PbeM. If you are better with word processor and browser, play PbP. IMO, I find email games generate way too much chaff on the list.

No

[Ellis]

I became very ill and couldn't go to Tabletop gaming, so I do Hero System online. I don't like PBeM, since you lose the "real time" feel, so I joined the 2 MUSHes that use Hero System.

ChampionsMUSH is ok, and I was there 3 years and there was actually a lot of socializing, just like in person. But typing well is a plus. They still use 4th Ed.

http://www.championsmush.org

The new one uses 5th Ed and is doing pretty well, so far.

Scheduling isn't quite as bad as PBeM, since a lot of times we wait for a good amount of folks, and then do stuff. But nothing is like the in-person.

However, since I'm housebound, this is a really good alternative.

http://www.angelfire.com/games4/oim/

[Nato]

I ran several successful, highly entertaining Champions adventures on WebRPG and OpenRPG. The only reason I stopped is that my freelance work for Hero was beginning around the same time, and some tight deadlines prevented me from being as prepared as I needed to be. I really enjoyed the experience, but I felt I was shortchanging my very reliable players by not always prepared everytime. I kept letting the "freestyle" - having them have conversations among themselves, but giving them no real plot. Anyways, did run a few combats and those went well.

Of the two programs I mentioned above OpenRPG worked the most reliably for me. WebRPG seemed more prone to crashes, and seemed to not handle heavy graphic maps and minis that well. Then they started to charge. I wished to OpenRPG, which was not only free, it had features that I like much more, and did a great job with maps and minis, and even had a nice Hero Dice Roller that you could turn on. I supplemented this by using Hero Combat Simulator to help manage my combats. It sped things up A LOT and I could run BIG combats easily enough. In fact, most of the time the players didn't even roll. They declared their actions, I let HCS do the rest in terms of mechanics. I then narrated the results back to them in story terms. This resulted in more flavor to the combat and they never knew exactly how much STUN or END they had left. I said that in very general terms. My players all said they really enjoyed the approach. Everyone loves to roll dice though, so on occasion they would roll their own attacks. It was a blast.

Things I did to prepare my camapign...

1) A campaign website. Since I do web design, I wanted to make it very visually appealing. Made a logo for the game, character sections, etc. I could also post campaign news here as well, or do visual aids such as mock newspaper articles. I often snatched the code from a news website and replaced the text and graphics so they felt they were reading about themselves in the Chicago Tribune.

2) Message boards. Pretty dang handy. Even though we played real-time, this was a nice way for people to play a little between sessions. I would post a general story before the session, and the players would respond with a story for their characters. This was optional of course, but I had the good fortune of having players who loved to write. This was great for setting up a session. That is important many times - to be able to start all the characters out in one place. It saves time to get them altogether in-character so you can get off to a quick start online. Boards are easy to get going and their are many options. Dan Simon hosts message boards for online campaigns, and their are a few web-based message board sites like EZBoards. There is also free software that is very similar to the boards here, that you can use if you want to host the boards on your own site, which is what I eventually did after trying all the other options.

3) Supporting cast. I made up most of my NPC cast before starting the campaign, and uploaded pictures of them to my website. I then made a sheets in OpenRPG that I could use to show the characters to my players whenever they encountered the NPCs.

4) Made minis for OpenRPG. These are basically small GIFs you use to represent your characters. Real easy to do, but you must upload the GIFs to a website somewhere in order for them to be used by all. To make your own, take a character pic and make it teeny tiny with your favorite image editing program. Or there are pages on the OpenRPG site that have some pre-made.

5) Collected maps. Again, just a GIF or JPEG of a map you wish to use, uploaded to the web. OpenRPG has nice mapping features, allowing you to overlay hex or square grids at many different sizes. Also has "fog of war" settings that hid map portions from players until they are ready to see them. Also has a whiteboard feature that you can use to draw on your map in-game.

6) Made a character sheet node. This is the character sheet for use in the program. I used them mostly in WebRPG, but also some in OpenRPG. I think in both you can add buttons that will roll dice for you. I made dice roll macros in Open that would roll for attack, determine damage, and remind you of the END cost of power. We stopped using alot of these when I started using HCS for combat.

7) Before adventures, wrote any siloqu-however-you-spell-its or game descriptions so that I could quickly paste them into game chat.

8) Entered all heroes and villains into HCS. This did all the fun stuff like determine SPD and DEX orders, roll my dice, track my END and all that fun stuff. Without having to remember all this I could run larger combats, or focus more on the role-playing aspect.

Hell, there's all kinds of stuff you can do to make the game more enjoyable. I've been wanting to get an online game going again for a while. Don't know if my schedule will allow it yet. Thought about doing a few one-shots and stuff. Anyway, I have a couple of players who've been waiting. May try to find a couple more so if anyone's interested, let me know. Most likely the game would be on Wed nights 6:00pm PST.

[Narthon]

For me, you've just got to have the player interaction. The occasional occ joke makes the game much more enjoyable.

[The Monster]

I don't game online for about the same reason I don't play ftf more than once a week or so - I just can't make the schedule! I'm fortunate enough to have a regular Friday night group (pretty stable membership for almost 20 years!), and even with one kid, I can't commit to a regular weekly thing beyond that. Maybe as he grows, we can start gaming toether regularly...

[Lord Mhoram]

I just don't like online gaming of any sort. Never played multiplayer Doom even though I was/am a Doom freak. Didn't like MMORPGs. If I'm at my computer I am reading forums or being interactive in this fashion *gestures around*

Part of it, I'm sure, is that my wife and I both game, and we always have solo campaigns that we run for each other. So why bother with online gaming, if I need a gaming fix, I just call "hey dear!...." and I am set.
I have also had a stable group (having a spouse that games helps that, you have 2 of the 4 needed for a solid game already) for well nigh on 12 years now.

So online gaming just doesn't have much attraction for me. Although my reasons are not likely to be common ones.

[Ellis]

I'm just posting a little adder because I noticed a few people thinking that you can't socialize out of character online. On a MUSH, people can and do socialize and we even get the same "Peanut Gallery" of smart aleck comments during scenes and combats that were in TT. When not RPing, people hang out and chat a bit, and some of the people online have met in real life at various gaming conventions.

That's not to say MUSHing is for you. It may not be. But there's as much, if not more, comeraderie as in tabletop gaming. :D

[Agent X]

All I ever tried to do was PBEM. It went for three posts and that was that. The ref, who is a contributor to this board, just got busy, waited to tell us for two weeks, and then never returned to the game as far as I know. I really like the character I built for the game but he's been trapped in limbo on top of a moving vehicle for 6 months now.

I probably would be willing to try something else but haven't come across anything yet.

[Kid Chaos]

I've played in on champions pbem and am gearing up to run an irc game for a few of my friends.

all in all I deal ok with online play as long as I have some sort of live game going as well. You just can't cook large meals/snacks for online gamers

[zornwil]

LIke others, it's the lack of personal interaction as to why I don't play online. But also, I think it's harder to get quality play if people have to type as so many people can't type quickly and/or well. One of the best roleplayers I know was really ineffective online because he was such a slow typist.

[BarryB]

My group tried WebRPG once. It worked okay, but it wasn't as much fun as face-to-face. WebRPG just couldn't handle the tangents and off task behaviors that we engaged in. The immediacy of seeing the GMs face when the players pull a rabbit out of the hat or the look on the players' faces when the GM pulls out a surprise villain is lost.

I've also tried Champions MUSH. It had some good ideas, but there were aspects of it that didn't match my expectations. Once I managed to get a character approved, I found myself wandering the streets looking for a plot in which to be involved. I was in one combat as part of a story arc that involved the entire city. My presence was scarcely acknowledged by the players (although the GM slotted me into the fight). I recall being quite ineffective. The bad taste I had after approvals, the boring evenings I spent trying to get involved in a plot, and my failure as the combat machine I had envisioned the character to be turned me off to the MUSH completely.

That said, I do look forward to City of Heroes.

[Ellis]

Combat Monsters don't work all that well in a MUSH setting, simply because the MUSH runs 24/7 and even the most active MUSH staff and the best players can't keep up combat the whole time. Peoples' schedules vary, etc.

From my experiences on ChampionsMUSH, and on other MUSHes, the best thing to play is a character who has or is part of a business where it beings other characters to him. Private Detective, policeman, bar or restaurant owner, shopkeeper, special tailor.

It isn't for everyone, of course. I wish City of Heroes would be done, too.

[Amused]

I play online, but apparently a different style of compared to everyone's, according to the posts I've seen.
I play through Ventrilo and Maptool. Vent a program that allows us to speak and hear each other and maptool allows for macros and the table top gaming experience without being in the same room.
It's similar to most face to face games, except the computer calculates the rolls and we're not in the same room. Add to that webcamera's and we've got the visuals for GM and player facial reactions.

I love it. We play every other Wednesday night (It helps that the GM and the other players are friggin' awesome).

I get as much satisfaction out of playing online as I do playing face to face, maybe even more so, because we seem to focus more on the game rather then spending most of the session on chitchat.

It is not for everyone obviously, but I would recommend giving it a fair chance.

[Nolgroth]

Indeed. Map Tool is a fine program and Ventrillo would counter the lengthy typing time. My group has personally used both OpenRPG and Map Tool. One handles characters and die rolls better. The other handles maps better. Oh but I would love to have some sort of JAVA based hybrid of the two.

Not sure I would want to subject my players to having to look at my mug via webcam though. :D

[hfergus]

I have played online, but prefer face to face for several reasons 1) My schedule is very irregular and I have to contact people about it. Harder to do online. 2) I have found online (offline too, but more common online) "heroes" being anything but when the tone was supposed to be heroic, not villinous. 3) I like to use faces and voices and like to see faces when I do something to boggle minds or impress. I also like to hear the laughter when one of my characters does something outrageous. In other words. I like the face to face interaction. 4) I like non-gaming interactions with my co-gamers: Finding a new place to eat, going to the zoo, etc. (I can just see me with Vitus' player at the hyena cage. "Look! A mate! Oops, that's a rival. Quick, now's the time for your "detonate scrotum" spell.)

[Pariah]

This board is a big enough time sink as it is. If I started gaming online, too, I'd never get anything done.

[dstarfire]

I gave up on any sort of onlien rp'ing years ago due to the vast hordes of juvenile "dickwad"s out there.

[proditor]

The only online stuff I was looking at for RP wasn't trying to simulate the gaming experience I wanted to have.

Simply put, I wanted Justice League, they offered Mystery Men.

Done like that.

[Ghost Archer]

Well, I see I posted on this back in June of 03. Wow. Nothing's changed really, other than I have been playing online for about ten years now. Oh, and I am using Klooge Werks since WebRPG finally died. I gamed 16 years face to face, and for a lot of years it was intensive face to face, 72 hours at a time, most cases. All in all, I like online better. Even though its rare I physically meet any of my players, I feel the character interaction is a whole heck of a lot better. Some how its easier to picture the steel-skin girl being played by the guy over in England then if I'm sitting across the table from him.

[bubba smith]

All I ever tried to do was PBEM. It went for three posts and that was that. The ref, who is a contributor to this board, just got busy, waited to tell us for two weeks, and then never returned to the game as far as I know. I really like the character I built for the game but he's been trapped in limbo on top of a moving vehicle for 6 months now.

I probably would be willing to try something else but haven't come across anything yet.
he should jump for his life at this point

[Tech]

Fortunately, all my friends are able to meet in person for a game (for now) so there's no need to play a Champions game online... although I have had someone play via phone.

[Egyptoid]

I play online, but apparently a different style of compared to everyone's, according to the posts I've seen


Dang I just lost $50. I thought it was sure bet that Bubba had committed necromancy.

[archermoo]

some plusses:
*Superheroes can have bunches of dice or complex roles.. macros and scripts (OpenRPG or mIRC) can calculate them easily and quickly..
*no travel time required: you don't have to drive anywhere.. (important when you're out of college and remaining gamers you know are spread to the 4 winds)
*If you're bad at imitating a required accent, no problem..

some minuses:
*people tend to be less reliable online..
*no face to face socializing..
*mild typing/computer skills required..


I LIKE rolling my own dice, and counting them up adds a negligible amount of time to the session. And since the second Con is the primary reason that I play RPGs...

[Cygnia]

While I prefer face-to-face play, the sad fact of the matter is, the gamers we know in the area don't want to play what I play (and are unwilling to compromise...no "We'll play 4Ed D&D/White Wolf for 4 months and then switch to 7th Sea/HERO/Feng Shui/Toon for 4 months, ok?"). So it's off to the online forums I go.

[steamteck]

I game for the face to face interaction with my friends. Online gaming just doesn't supply that.

[BNakagawa]

About the only upside (other than the logistical advantages like being able to game with people in other time zones) is that it's a lot easier to believe that your character is chatting with a hottie nekomimi ninja when you're doing it online...

Unless your gaming group is a lot more interesting than mine. (pics or it didn't happen)

[Markdoc]

When I was in the states for 3 months, I kept my game going via skype - all the players gathered at our place, and I "phoned in" my performance. It went really well and we'll do it again if a play date falls when I am out travelling, if time allows.

I can see a game working fine even with players in seperate locations, since you talk rather than type, and have visual contact so I can show the players sketches when needed and you get the body language thing. I doubt I'd want to exchange frequent physical contact with friends for an online game, but it's a more than acceptable addition to the GM' arsenal.

cheers, Mark

[Amused]

Dang I just lost $50. I thought it was sure bet that Bubba had committed necromancy.

Whoops, I didn't even mean to. I guess I found it in a search and forgot about it while reading through. :o

[bubba smith]

The only online stuff I was looking at for RP wasn't trying to simulate the gaming experience I wanted to have.

Simply put, I wanted Justice League, they offered Mystery Men.

Done like that.
the comedy movie or the masked adventure genre

[OddHat]

Holy thread necromancy!

Played an online campaign that lasted around six months (iirc; could have been a bit less). Had an overall good experience (great players), but it took that long to cover what would have been 1-2 game sessions face to face. Unless I used skype or similar, I don't see trying it again.

[proditor]

the comedy movie or the masked adventure genre

Sorta both. Back in 4e, they wanted a 200 pt starting charcter. They wanted street level, with non-gagdget powers rare and mysterious.

As I said, I wanted JLA which is pretty much antithetical to all of the above.

[Blue]

We had three players playing via video from far off. It worked only to a lesser degree.

The minuses included their relatives interrupting them (because they were at home), the remote players having trouble getting our attention, lots of equipment to haul, and lots of time spent trying to arrange the camera to properly capture the scene.

The pluses were simply having them at all. Now that the novelty has worn off for them, none of the three bother any longer :(

[MilkmanDan]

Have never done "real time" online gaming, and don't think I would like it at all, as my face-to-face gaming sessions tend to be full of jokes, off-topic rambling, and other bits of amusing weirdness. Harder to get people playing off each other for humor online. That being said, I'm a big fan of Hero Central. The big advantage there is time--I do FtF gaming every other week or so, and that can be a challenge to find time for at this point. With HC, I can try to squeeze in my posts when I can (and even that can be hard to find time for at this point), so it's more convenient. Also, it forces me to do some creative writing, which is something I've been lacking for the last few years.

Different kinds of gaming, both with advantages.

[fiducia]

I played an on-line vampire game for awhile but honestly it was the hours that got to me. Our players were mostly on the west coast so they'd not get off of work until I was about ready to wind down for the night. Important scenes where groups would get into combat would often stretch long into the night when I'd want to be sleeping. There was no 'set' schedule and when we'd try to make one up no one would be able to keep to it.

I think it'd be easier with a smaller group and a more structured approach to the game, but I'm not interested in trying it again.