Quote from: CRKrueger;1019171Brendan, just some thoughts for your podcasts/video/livestreams.

First the criticisms (everyone wants the bad news first, right?):

• Obviously, and I'm sure you're aware, your technical gear isn't very good for something intended for an audience.  I realize you're not going to have boom mikes and production-level gear, but a minor investment would go a long way.
• Also mike positioning and note positioning could be better.  You and others are moving away from the mike too much, it causes a lot of stops, starts, interruptions and confusion due to dropped audio.
• Video for these works a lot better when you have everyone in their own video box then the bouncing back and forth every time the mic picks up a sound interface.
• Your camera needs to be higher. People can understand better if they can see your mouth when you're talking and it's not blocked by Rob's head.

Now the praise:

• As a streaming GM, you were a lot better than many I've seen.  You have a voice that can handle the medium and your diction was good.  Too many people these days are half "Uh", "Like", "Actually", etc when you listen to them.
• A temple with a lot of secrets and traps might not have been the best choice for a livestream, because watching people silently think isn't that interesting, especially when we're not in on the secret, or can't see everything the players can...but, it was interesting.
• Anyone's first stream is going to be rough as hell, even if they are podcasters, but you could tune this up a lot I think.
• Wuxia is not a genre I'd call number one on my gaming list, but the video made me more interested in the game.

This is pretty helpful feedback. And I appreciate the positive stuff too. Some of the technical issues are related to my new computer (I changed computers last year and this affected my videos which got so bad I pretty much stopped doing youtube as a result---it is the primary reason I switched to a podcast format). The mic one is something I am aware of. Part of it is my mic can't go further back (it is on a short three leg stand), coupled with my tendency to move away from the mix. I have a blue snowball, which for some reason is on the quiet side (Adam has a similar model mic to me but his volume levels always come out much higher, even if I max my input and stand right up against the mic). I suspect the problem here may be the computer as well. So my plan is to eventually get a new one, because I'd honestly like to make youtube videos again anyways. On moving away from the mic, I don't know the best solution to that, because I find it actually hinders my GMing if I force my self to sit there and talk into the mic. Not sure if there is a better set-up or a mic that is more idea for talking at the distance I am at. I want to be comfortable when I run these, but I also don't like how low my mic sounds.

Fixing the camera angle should be no problem. My camera is built right into my laptop, so it is mainly a product of me tilting the screen to the best reading angle. For youtube streams I could tilt it forward to get more in frame.

I am not particularly savvy with technology so any recommendations on the mic or camera are more than welcome.

Going forward, I am hoping to adjust some of the settings in the hangouts to get around the issues you mentioned. We'll be on a different channel for most of them (that was Deathblade's channel, which we will probably return to once in a while for special sessions, but I intend to have more varieties of gaming sessions on a livestream channel dedicated to the concept.

I think for scenarios, I want to try out a bunch of different approaches and mix it up a bit. If we did another location exploration, I'd want to do put up an image of the full map for viewers. As long as there is a way to do that, where the players themselves can't see it. I think it will work well. I'd also like to get a dice roller up so viewers know what is being rolled. Next time, I will probably do a mystery scenario. I have been doing podcast recordings of my tuesday sessions, and might consider doing some of them as a stream at some point (but that is much more free-form, players just doing what they want in an open setting---so it may be a tougher watch).

I definitely understand peoples' reservations about livestreams, as I share many of them. But I also think it is becoming clear, people are coming into the hobby through livestreams, and often they are a first introduction to how gaming is done. So I think it makes sense to put out our own styles of gaming in the livestream format. That way at least people are aware of the different approaches.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1019260That game session is a hair better. But still. Too much non-role-playing at the table.

Different strokes and all that.  The people who'd ask me about D&D would probably be turned off by more.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1019000Most RPG sessions at a table look like people doing their homework together is all. Very non-interesting for others to take notice of.

I don't know if I'd go to quite that extreme, but I get what you're saying.  D&D is a lot like fishing: long periods of not much happening until some stuff happens that's really exciting or fun or funny or whatever for the people involved, but would still not necessarily seem that exciting (and maybe even just goofy/lame) to people just watching.