Hello fellow DM’s, unfortunately I have some rough news. Quarantine has not been good for my group. While we tried to keep meeting as a group online, and then we tried doing one on one sessions but due to technical difficulties nothing was working out. We voted to hold off until we all can meet up in person again. The issue is now they are all over the place in the world and are in the middle of different stories. The goal was to get them to a position where they have had some backstory and character development off the group screen, and then have those stories intertwine leading into the next arc. Obviously I can’t do that now.
I have some ideas of just wrapping up the stories and starting “Fresh” with a new story with my group all back together. I feel that is not truly rewarding for my players. I’m not really sure what to do.
You could try wrapping up storylines by email and getting everyone back that way. Just say, look everyone, things are wierd, and this is realistically the best we can do. Then time jump and restart.
Tell everyone they were transported to the same spot by the previously unknown god Covid, who has been wreaking havoc across the world. All their other plot lines are still unresolved, and now they must figure out how to defeat Covid and sort out their personal issues, too.
I have found that roll20 and similar systems work really well. But you asked about plot issues, not internet issues. Three ways to deal with it:
1) You choose to wrap everything up quicker. Write a paragraph or two to each player, all of which ends with them being kidnapped either by a friendly or a deadly NPC. They end up in the same spot with the same difficulty. Taken to another plane with no way back is always good Greyhawk? Not anymore, welcome to Ebberon. Or Wildemonte, or whatever. Play it there for a while, let them level up, then find a way home with some plot hook that if they choose, they can stay together. Up to them if they want to stay together or split up.
2) Spend days emailing back and forth with each person doing what you originally desired, all the while using every bit of Magician's Force (You can pick either door. A is labelled "leader of the free world" but B is labelled "man that made a joke about injecting bleach on national TV") to get them to the same place.
3) Ignore it all. Send them each a text saying "will fix it later, 5 months after our last contact, you find yourself in a bar in the city of Greyhawk with four strangers. Introduce yourself."
Just do a “1 year later” time skip, talk to the players ask them what their characters have been doing, tie up any loose ends. Let them all know where and when they’ll be picking back up and any pertinent world information that has changed over the year, or however long it has been. A little info setting them up for what is to come...
You could work 1:1 to try to eliminate the technical issues before trying another session.
On the other hand, if the issues aren't actually technical - i.e. folks just don't like the idea of playing online or don't even have a computer then those aren't strictly technical and there isn't really a fix for them.
----
As an anecdote, I have been running a weekly D&D 5e AL campaign using Roll20 and Discord for about 6 weeks now. It is working surprisingly well. I use a plus level paid account on Roll20 and bought some content. On the other hand, the owner of our FLGS has been using a free Roll20 account and running modules once or twice a week and those have also been running well.
Typical technical issues are:
- installing software - DIscord and Firefox or Chrome - Roll20 is a web app and works in either Firefox or Chrome. You could also use Skype, Zoom or any number of other video/voice conferencing software to chat with your players.
- hardware support - your friends need to have a microphone - even one built into a laptop works fine. Video is optional, we've used it a few times but most of the time folks are listening/role playing/interacting with Roll20.
- internet access - bandwidth for just voice is really low. We've turned off video occasionally if video is slow or laggy so if you find you have issues running a video conference, switch to voice only.
All of these can be worked out 1:1 if needed. Level of technical ability varies a lot but I've found most folks can manage these. In many cases, all that is need is a bit of reassurance that they are doing the right thing.
Anyway .. on the actual play front ..
Roll20 provides a great opportunity to put up art work and pictures that really helps set the scene but it is a bit more work for the DM to go out and find those resources then put them in the game. There is overhead for the DM figuring out how to use Roll20 if you want to use its features but you don't really need to do so in order to just play. Roll20 provides a blank table top and you can draw out your maps using the drawing tools to get the same effect as drawing on a map in person.
.. so overall, I would say it has been a reasonably good play experience so far and if you want to get together with your friends you might want to explore resolving the technical issues 1:1 setting up voice and/or video chat before getting the group together. (though it sounded like a lot of the characters were on very disparate plot lines at the moment).
-----
In terms of storylines, if you just want to wrap up each personal line and tie it in to the start of a new campaign then either meet with each player 1:1 online to roleplay and chat and/or use email to work out the narration essentially using play by post for a few emails to work out what happens to each character between adventures. Either method or a combination of both should work to bring characters up to the point where you want the new campaign to start.
Don’t give up after one failed online session. I only began online play last months, same as several other people I know. The first sessions were full of technical issues, and little was accomplished. It’s better now than before, but technical stuff still pops up. We’re all learning as we go. Given the choice between gaming and not gaming, I choose to game.
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Hello fellow DM’s, unfortunately I have some rough news. Quarantine has not been good for my group. While we tried to keep meeting as a group online, and then we tried doing one on one sessions but due to technical difficulties nothing was working out. We voted to hold off until we all can meet up in person again. The issue is now they are all over the place in the world and are in the middle of different stories. The goal was to get them to a position where they have had some backstory and character development off the group screen, and then have those stories intertwine leading into the next arc. Obviously I can’t do that now.
I have some ideas of just wrapping up the stories and starting “Fresh” with a new story with my group all back together. I feel that is not truly rewarding for my players. I’m not really sure what to do.
What would you guys do in this situation?
You could try wrapping up storylines by email and getting everyone back that way. Just say, look everyone, things are wierd, and this is realistically the best we can do. Then time jump and restart.
Tell everyone they were transported to the same spot by the previously unknown god Covid, who has been wreaking havoc across the world. All their other plot lines are still unresolved, and now they must figure out how to defeat Covid and sort out their personal issues, too.
I have found that roll20 and similar systems work really well. But you asked about plot issues, not internet issues. Three ways to deal with it:
1) You choose to wrap everything up quicker. Write a paragraph or two to each player, all of which ends with them being kidnapped either by a friendly or a deadly NPC. They end up in the same spot with the same difficulty. Taken to another plane with no way back is always good Greyhawk? Not anymore, welcome to Ebberon. Or Wildemonte, or whatever. Play it there for a while, let them level up, then find a way home with some plot hook that if they choose, they can stay together. Up to them if they want to stay together or split up.
2) Spend days emailing back and forth with each person doing what you originally desired, all the while using every bit of Magician's Force (You can pick either door. A is labelled "leader of the free world" but B is labelled "man that made a joke about injecting bleach on national TV") to get them to the same place.
3) Ignore it all. Send them each a text saying "will fix it later, 5 months after our last contact, you find yourself in a bar in the city of Greyhawk with four strangers. Introduce yourself."
Just do a “1 year later” time skip, talk to the players ask them what their characters have been doing, tie up any loose ends. Let them all know where and when they’ll be picking back up and any pertinent world information that has changed over the year, or however long it has been. A little info setting them up for what is to come...
You could work 1:1 to try to eliminate the technical issues before trying another session.
On the other hand, if the issues aren't actually technical - i.e. folks just don't like the idea of playing online or don't even have a computer then those aren't strictly technical and there isn't really a fix for them.
----
As an anecdote, I have been running a weekly D&D 5e AL campaign using Roll20 and Discord for about 6 weeks now. It is working surprisingly well. I use a plus level paid account on Roll20 and bought some content. On the other hand, the owner of our FLGS has been using a free Roll20 account and running modules once or twice a week and those have also been running well.
Typical technical issues are:
- installing software - DIscord and Firefox or Chrome - Roll20 is a web app and works in either Firefox or Chrome. You could also use Skype, Zoom or any number of other video/voice conferencing software to chat with your players.
- hardware support - your friends need to have a microphone - even one built into a laptop works fine. Video is optional, we've used it a few times but most of the time folks are listening/role playing/interacting with Roll20.
- internet access - bandwidth for just voice is really low. We've turned off video occasionally if video is slow or laggy so if you find you have issues running a video conference, switch to voice only.
All of these can be worked out 1:1 if needed. Level of technical ability varies a lot but I've found most folks can manage these. In many cases, all that is need is a bit of reassurance that they are doing the right thing.
Anyway .. on the actual play front ..
Roll20 provides a great opportunity to put up art work and pictures that really helps set the scene but it is a bit more work for the DM to go out and find those resources then put them in the game. There is overhead for the DM figuring out how to use Roll20 if you want to use its features but you don't really need to do so in order to just play. Roll20 provides a blank table top and you can draw out your maps using the drawing tools to get the same effect as drawing on a map in person.
.. so overall, I would say it has been a reasonably good play experience so far and if you want to get together with your friends you might want to explore resolving the technical issues 1:1 setting up voice and/or video chat before getting the group together. (though it sounded like a lot of the characters were on very disparate plot lines at the moment).
-----
In terms of storylines, if you just want to wrap up each personal line and tie it in to the start of a new campaign then either meet with each player 1:1 online to roleplay and chat and/or use email to work out the narration essentially using play by post for a few emails to work out what happens to each character between adventures. Either method or a combination of both should work to bring characters up to the point where you want the new campaign to start.
Don’t give up after one failed online session. I only began online play last months, same as several other people I know. The first sessions were full of technical issues, and little was accomplished. It’s better now than before, but technical stuff still pops up. We’re all learning as we go. Given the choice between gaming and not gaming, I choose to game.