Felltower's next session will proceed as scheduled on Sunday.
In deference to the fact that we've got some members with conditions that are risk factors for COVID-19, and family members vulnerable to it, we're going to play online.
The plan is:
Skype for voice and video - mostly voice - because we have a large-ish group. We expect about 9-10 people and could get as many as 11-12.
Roll20 for maps, chat, and die rolls for people who don't feel like rolling dice.
Since the delve is targeting the Lost City, it's a bit less of an issue for maps.
I may do more mapless combat, or just eat the time multiplier that is combat in Roll20 especially with people new to the software.
Sadly, I've got a lot of minis specially painted for this session. I hope we can get back to face-to-face soon.
If these is an .api for 4e GURPS that we need, let me know - one of my players has Roll20 Pro. We also need to know how to designate someone else the GM, so I don't have a player with total control of the site and me with player-level access.
We'll see how it goes. My improvised combat maps aren't really a feature in a Roll20 campaign, too, so it'll be tough. Or my room mapping for the Lost City (I have mental images of what they're like; I don't have them all pre-mapped to upload or show.) So I'm cautiously hopeful the session will go smoothly.
I hope your Roll20 session works out. I gave up the idea of trying to get my (online) players to play GURPS because the support just isn't there. The character sheets seemed OK, but hexes seemed buggy (IIRC token facings didn't work properly, but this was a while ago so maybe it has improved), and the lack of the drag-and-drop compendium that is available for 5e and other games makes it look a lot less attractive. Being able to just drag equipment onto the character sheet and have it auto-figure encumbrance etc., would be great - perfect for DFRPG dungeoneering. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteHaving a full-featured system for 4e GURPS would be great . . . it's really just having a die roller and a map display that we need the most. We'll see if change my mind after we try tactical combat. We don't have a lot of choice - we're not changing game systems. :)
Yeah, I hear you. 5e would not have been my first choice of game system, but it's what is best-supported online, and with online play the automation makes a huge difference - my online 5e sessions are a LOT faster than IRL 5e sessions. Combat is super fast. We use Whereby for video/voice chat - a lot smoother than Discord or Skype, in our experience. Don't know how much of a thing Whereby is on your side of the pond (we're in UK + sundry other European countries).
DeleteI ran a Felltower-inspired 5e megadungeon online for a year or two. Super fun.
I was able to promote you to a GM, so we'll be good there.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope all goes well. I hear from people playing with large groups that Discord beats Skype, especially with push-to-talk. Managing turn-taking is still a chore.
ReplyDeleteZoom is also a possibility (since I now have a paid Zoom account, for now). Trying it out today, it seems pretty good and also has push-to-talk, which is nice.
DeleteGood luck with this! For the last two sessions now, I've run our f2f game over Google Hangouts. I decided it was easier to point a webcam at the table to show the combat map, than worry about a VTT not designed for GURPS. My experimentation with roll20 was several years ago, so it may be widely different from your experience. Regardless, online meetup with friends is better than total solitude! Have fun :)
ReplyDeleteI've had good experiemces with Roll20 working for gurps games. If you have anyone good at scripting for Roll20 in your group, you'll find some aspects of combat speed up. But being online generally means stuff takes longer, so it's a mixed bag as a medium.
ReplyDeleteI do with we had good 4e GURPS VTT support...