I'm going to be 150% honest, I am tech dumb. I run D&D weekly at my home for a party of 7. We use a grid mat & my ever-growing collection of miniatures.
However, with the COVID situation, we can't meet right now. I know my players really want to still play (we're all going stir crazy) but I have no idea how to do this. They want me to, in super dumb terms (because I am dumb), do a discord/skype/etc. group video chat that they all join and my feed is the grid mat and table w/ minis, etc. A couple of them have offered cameras, but I just don't know how to even start. Google searches have overwhelmed me as someone with no tech experience outside of playing video games. Help?
Going from a tabletop with maps, minis, music and sound effects to a computer is a very jarring experience. For my group, we made a discord and I take pictures on my phone of the map/ minis and use google image search for how monsters look, how locations look. I asked my players to help set up the discord since they are more tech-savvy than me. This is a time to have the group help you as much as they can. It is a learning process and it's not easy so don't expect it to be. The only issue I've been having is when everyone talks at once or if someone's video freezes we have to stop and go over what happened.
Probably stupid, but how? I only know of Roll20 being used for fully digital games, not a live video chat with one feed being the table at my home. Do you have some insight from which I can draw?
It is absolutely possible, there are a lot of tutorials on how to set it up. For the DM there’s definitely a investment of time and effort to get it set up but once you get it going it’s actually a really good source for gameplay online or otherwise.
Lol ha.... I used to play DD and signed up for this thinking it could lead to some sort of live video gameplay! Still going to search more but seeing as your looking for this and are still a player leads me to believe that I won’t find it! I honestly wish there was... would be awesome to have atleast some sort of app where you can have dice modules etc included into video feed at the very least! Would be even better if you could have the option of playing with players around the world! Meaning having a lvl five character and choosing to play with Dungeon master you don’t know and any number of players friends or strangers at any given time! Map and monster graphics would be awesome...I’d love this if it ever came out! Played WOW for a while till I maxed out and then quickly got bored....having world such as WOW but shared by all DD players somehow with players around the world sharing the basic of realm of Dungeon &Dragons would be way better then playing WOW!
Perhaps my experience may help. I only just started being a DM a few months ago - at first it was just me and my 9 year old son. When my younger brother who lives across the country learned we had started playing, he said he'd like to play as well! So, we included him.
So, my own experience is with 1 person being remote, 1 in person with the DM (me), so it may take a bit more to incorporate a larger group this way, but maybe it will help you get started.
What we did was use Google Hangouts and did a Video Call. Then, I can share my screen with him so he sees the maps and such. I use Google Hangouts for my job as well, and multiple people can join the Hangouts video call using a webcam (included with most modern laptops) and a microphone. Since in my case, it's just my brother, I simply call him and put him on speaker phone, muting my laptop microphone to avoid audio feedback.
For my job, I'm a 3D Artist, so I have access to Photoshop. So, what I've done is create a Photoshop file of the map using maps from online that I've found or here at DnD Beyond (we're running Dragon Heist right now, so lots of good stuff here). In Photoshop, I use simple shapes on their own layers to represent the characters. They tell me what they'd like their characters to do and I move the graphic on its own layer. For a larger group, you may want to do a row of numbers and letters along the left and top so they can simply tell you "move me to 3B" or something.
I have other characters in a Layer folder. I can paint a mask into the layer to reveal things.
Here's an example of the Waterdeep City map I'm using. The white marks are the mask I've revealed locations on the streets they travel on (they don't see that part).
Here's a map of Sunless Citadel we did:
Anyway, that's what we've been doing for a long time and it's been working for us without Roll20 or whatnot. Let me know if you'd like more info!
Hello, smart people!
I'm going to be 150% honest, I am tech dumb. I run D&D weekly at my home for a party of 7. We use a grid mat & my ever-growing collection of miniatures.
However, with the COVID situation, we can't meet right now. I know my players really want to still play (we're all going stir crazy) but I have no idea how to do this. They want me to, in super dumb terms (because I am dumb), do a discord/skype/etc. group video chat that they all join and my feed is the grid mat and table w/ minis, etc. A couple of them have offered cameras, but I just don't know how to even start. Google searches have overwhelmed me as someone with no tech experience outside of playing video games. Help?
Going from a tabletop with maps, minis, music and sound effects to a computer is a very jarring experience. For my group, we made a discord and I take pictures on my phone of the map/ minis and use google image search for how monsters look, how locations look. I asked my players to help set up the discord since they are more tech-savvy than me. This is a time to have the group help you as much as they can. It is a learning process and it's not easy so don't expect it to be. The only issue I've been having is when everyone talks at once or if someone's video freezes we have to stop and go over what happened.
Roll 20 is great
Probably stupid, but how? I only know of Roll20 being used for fully digital games, not a live video chat with one feed being the table at my home. Do you have some insight from which I can draw?
It is absolutely possible, there are a lot of tutorials on how to set it up. For the DM there’s definitely a investment of time and effort to get it set up but once you get it going it’s actually a really good source for gameplay online or otherwise.
Lol ha.... I used to play DD and signed up for this thinking it could lead to some sort of live video gameplay! Still going to search more but seeing as your looking for this and are still a player leads me to believe that I won’t find it! I honestly wish there was... would be awesome to have atleast some sort of app where you can have dice modules etc included into video feed at the very least! Would be even better if you could have the option of playing with players around the world! Meaning having a lvl five character and choosing to play with Dungeon master you don’t know and any number of players friends or strangers at any given time! Map and monster graphics would be awesome...I’d love this if it ever came out! Played WOW for a while till I maxed out and then quickly got bored....having world such as WOW but shared by all DD players somehow with players around the world sharing the basic of realm of Dungeon &Dragons would be way better then playing WOW!
Perhaps my experience may help. I only just started being a DM a few months ago - at first it was just me and my 9 year old son. When my younger brother who lives across the country learned we had started playing, he said he'd like to play as well! So, we included him.
So, my own experience is with 1 person being remote, 1 in person with the DM (me), so it may take a bit more to incorporate a larger group this way, but maybe it will help you get started.
What we did was use Google Hangouts and did a Video Call. Then, I can share my screen with him so he sees the maps and such. I use Google Hangouts for my job as well, and multiple people can join the Hangouts video call using a webcam (included with most modern laptops) and a microphone. Since in my case, it's just my brother, I simply call him and put him on speaker phone, muting my laptop microphone to avoid audio feedback.
For my job, I'm a 3D Artist, so I have access to Photoshop. So, what I've done is create a Photoshop file of the map using maps from online that I've found or here at DnD Beyond (we're running Dragon Heist right now, so lots of good stuff here). In Photoshop, I use simple shapes on their own layers to represent the characters. They tell me what they'd like their characters to do and I move the graphic on its own layer. For a larger group, you may want to do a row of numbers and letters along the left and top so they can simply tell you "move me to 3B" or something.
I have other characters in a Layer folder. I can paint a mask into the layer to reveal things.
Here's an example of the Waterdeep City map I'm using. The white marks are the mask I've revealed locations on the streets they travel on (they don't see that part).
Here's a map of Sunless Citadel we did:
Anyway, that's what we've been doing for a long time and it's been working for us without Roll20 or whatnot. Let me know if you'd like more info!
Michael