Hello! I recently moved from Denver to Seattle, leaving behind my group and story of about 2 years and change. With the tale left untold, we were all interested in continuing playing together.
Since everyone else can still meet in person (and 3 of them live together) we thought having one video chat from me direct to all of them sitting at a table together would be the best option. So I’m a floating head on a monitor in the table.
We tried our first session back together… and it was… clunky. Obviously I can’t control the pieces on the game board, but no problem I can direct minis like a before-school traffic guard. Bam.
Truly the hardest part is the audio. It’s hard to catch exactly what people say when characters are all trying to jump in, and my audio gets lost in the shuffle for them as well.
Has anyone done a setup like this? Do you think better equipment is the solution or would you think it better to have everyone jump on roll20?
Honestly, I haven't played on that setup, but I do a lot of business meetings that way. (I used to live in Brazil, but worked for France for six months last year due to the quarantine restrictions on traveling).
A good room mic helps, if the in-person group is in a not big/echoey room - if they are, you need to mic up each person. A good camera to capture everyone and a good one for you, help as well.
All that said, I still think that having everyone on the same medium is better. Being the medium on or off. If you can get a really good setup, you might minimize the gap, but there is always going to be a somewhat awkward feeling to a meet with one person online and a couple offline.
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Hello! I recently moved from Denver to Seattle, leaving behind my group and story of about 2 years and change. With the tale left untold, we were all interested in continuing playing together.
Since everyone else can still meet in person (and 3 of them live together) we thought having one video chat from me direct to all of them sitting at a table together would be the best option. So I’m a floating head on a monitor in the table.
We tried our first session back together… and it was… clunky. Obviously I can’t control the pieces on the game board, but no problem I can direct minis like a before-school traffic guard. Bam.
Truly the hardest part is the audio. It’s hard to catch exactly what people say when characters are all trying to jump in, and my audio gets lost in the shuffle for them as well.
Has anyone done a setup like this? Do you think better equipment is the solution or would you think it better to have everyone jump on roll20?
Honestly, I haven't played on that setup, but I do a lot of business meetings that way. (I used to live in Brazil, but worked for France for six months last year due to the quarantine restrictions on traveling).
A good room mic helps, if the in-person group is in a not big/echoey room - if they are, you need to mic up each person. A good camera to capture everyone and a good one for you, help as well.
All that said, I still think that having everyone on the same medium is better. Being the medium on or off. If you can get a really good setup, you might minimize the gap, but there is always going to be a somewhat awkward feeling to a meet with one person online and a couple offline.