I have a tottering RPG game pile. I’m not wanting to compare how prodigious my stack is with yours, but it is safe to say that I now have more games than I have gameplay left in the time allotted to me. Even intense post-retirement gaming would not consume the depth and variety in the library; a library that will continue to grow in the intervening years.
My two main opportunities to get games out from the stack are my Thursday regular face-to-face group and the numerous conventions that I organise and attend. The conventions give me a chance to run out some favourites and experiment with some new ones. My home group has a clutch of excellent GMs who bring their own stack to the table, in rotation. Different games work with different groups and it is safe to say that many of the games I have frothingly described to one or two of the Thursday nighters have been greeted with a sort of slumped ‘meh’; not their thing.
So, rather than leave these enthused lovelies on the shelf, I have needed to find another outlet for gaming. Hangouts has been a staple of the past few years, widening my circle to gaming chums from across the land. Sound has never been that great for us and Google have now closed the API for dice fripperies, so the shine has gone off it.
I’ve put together a Heroic Fantasy game set in Frog God Games’ Northlands Saga setting. All kinds of awesome, with three great players to create some stories with. L’d never have got this past some of the Thursday nighters. I’ve elected to try out Roll20 as the virtual place for us to play in.
Even after our first try out I’m very impressed with the possibilities. I have a free account for now, but will need to subscribe if I’m to stick with it as you quickly use up the free storage limits with the digital fripperies. I’m using maps, handouts and music mostly. I love the music feature, it’s great to use it for those atmospheric moments. The handouts are great and easy to share. I need to get the hang of the dice roller, though you can just click if you don’t need to store or calculate results.
We had some glitches with home technology. One player couldn’t get video working, but sound was fine. Another was running an old 2GB chromebook, which definitely wasn’t up tot he job, so switched to his Mac and all was well. I accidentally pressed the mute button on my headset microphone; oh how pedestrian!
All things considered I’m happy to subscribe and open up a new channel for gaming. Over time I’d like to branch out and speculatively recruit or play in games over the medium.
Smashing.