Hi All, new here today though I have lurked for ages. I need advice from the wise. I have been into RPG's since the White Box, but these days I live in a wilderness region devoid of players. Thus the need to play on line, but what and indeed how? I am aware of RPOL but have no idea if it is any good. Long term I hope to run something.....not inclined to run before I can walk just yet. My preference is for skilled based rather than level bases systems but what is actually realistically playable?.....sorry for the long windedness.
Lots and lots of options.
Roll20 (http://app.roll20.net/) has live online play with a VTT (Virtual Tabletop). Sign up, have a look and play around with it.
Google Plus has plenty of RPG groups and players. Google Hangouts (https://www.google.com/hangouts/) works well for gaming.
There is also stuff like rpol, and other forum based solutions.
I like using a live video/voice chat to game. Others hate online gaming, others like the pace and approach of forums. YMMV etc.
Be aware that in the modern world of instant gratification and TV attention spans, it is very hard to maintain a group of people's attention for post based gaming.
Play by Post or eMail is very very slow paced compared to what most people are used to. Also, virtual meetings are easy for most people to not feel compelled to attend.
If however you can find like minded people, it can be worth the effort.
I've had several that worked very well. It is the time between them that prompts me to temper your expectations with warnings.
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In general, Roll20 is hard to beat. And in fact you can hit up LFG to get playing pretty quickly. Plus there's (at a minimum) Pathfinder organized play you could hop in to.
Keeping with "by email", Vassal came to mind. Though that might be better suited to a board game.
There also a few dedicated MUCKs and MUDs with RPing tools, at the very least a dice roller.
Some MUDs are IC enforced and a rare few translate a actual RPG into a MUD like the Shadowrun one.
I have run RPGs on rpol, which works very well.
It's has specific functionality on the forums for running RPGs and a forum for Looking for players or GM and so on.
The pace of running/playing rpgs on RPOL varies and you need to lay out your expectations right from the beginning or you'll lose players very quickly.
For example with an RPG I have run I expected a minimum of 3 posts per week, although I catered for more posts if people posted a lot.
However I never left behind those who couldn't post more that 3 times a week.
After a while you get a core dedicated number of players who want to play long term.
I've tried Roll20, which works well, but I wouldn't recommend a complicated "crunchy" system to run RPGs online.
I tried it out with Mongoose's Legend RPG and that was with a couple of experienced players.
There was a lot of fiddling about and management running combats.
I wouldn't do that again.
After saying that I think Roll20 (and similar software/sites) would be great for games like "Stars without Number" and other mechanically simple games.
I wonder if 5th Edition dnD will be suited to roll20. It does sounds like it'd go well.
What with forum based RPGs and VTTs available, I doubt I'd have the patience to play or run email based RPGs anymore.
I remember many years ago the Play by post (meaning snail mail) RPGs that were about. I never played them, but I knew people who did.
Quote from: BenGun100;762665Thus the need to play on line, but what and indeed how?...My preference is for skilled based rather than level bases systems but what is actually realistically playable?
I'll add my voice to the Roll20 choir. If you're dead set on running play-by-post, the campaign specific forums work well, from what I read. My experience has been with live audio games and I've enjoyed the experience.
Roll20 itself is system agnostic and handles skill based systems just fine. Whether it was GURPS, Savage Worlds, Fate, Risus or Call of Cthulhu, the skill portions of the game didn't have any objections over our level based games.
Here is the campaign I run play by post - http://dragonersdomain.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13
Same as my signature. It comes and goes, there are things I like, and do not like.
I've been going to RPG Crossing:
http://www.rpgcrossing.com/forumdisplay.php?f=280 (http://www.rpgcrossing.com/forumdisplay.php?f=280)
As the others have said the games can be slow and may break down (one game I'm in is a superhero one using M&M 3rd edition. The GM suddenly disappeared and has been missing for at least 2 weeks now.) But I've heard good tales of the right group finding the right GM and having a great time for a year or more. It's all a gamble of time and effort.
Thanks for all the responses. Forum based play sounds like a good option and you have left me a lot to think about. I have just found a forum based RQ6 game on the Design Mechanism forum, so that will prove interesting. I agree it might be too complicated to work, but we shall see. I will reply in a tad more detail when i have explored some more options.
Quote from: BenGun100;763007Thanks for all the responses. Forum based play sounds like a good option and you have left me a lot to think about. I have just found a forum based RQ6 game on the Design Mechanism forum, so that will prove interesting. I agree it might be too complicated to work, but we shall see. I will reply in a tad more detail when i have explored some more options.
Oh I wouldn't necessarily say that RQ6 would be too complicated to run on a forum.
In my experience/opinion it was too complicated to run using a VTT like Roll20.
RQ 6 is not bad at all. We do it all "in the mind" via VOIP so there is no need for exact details.
I hosted for a year a play by email group Rifts game. It eventually collapsed due to one player turning into scum. Then Yahoo deleted it in one of their covert purges.
Played for a while in a Metamorphosis Alpha play by email group campaign that eventually just puttered out for reasons unknown.
Ive been commissioned to do character art for someones long running Star Trek PBP character. For some odd reason they dont interest me overly.
And for no particular reason I still have my old WebRPG files from back in the late 90s.
Quote from: Omega;763116I hosted for a year a play by email group Rifts game. It eventually collapsed due to one player turning into scum. Then Yahoo deleted it in one of their covert purges.
Played for a while in a Metamorphosis Alpha play by email group campaign that eventually just puttered out for reasons unknown.
'Turning into scum'? Do tell...
Plus, how did you run it? It seems like that system would have been... odd, in that format.
Quote from: Omega;763116And for no particular reason I still have my old WebRPG files from back in the late 90s.
Ever feel like maybe you were separated at birth from someone? I used to LOVE WebRPG!
Quote from: mcbobbo;763643'Turning into scum'? Do tell...
Plus, how did you run it? It seems like that system would have been... odd, in that format.
Ever feel like maybe you were separated at birth from someone? I used to LOVE WebRPG!
An artist, one of several Ive had appalling troubles with. Seems an unfortunate trend. He just freaked out one day and went full tilt raging loony threatening me and others, yadda-yadda.
It ran fairly loosely and was a mix of some rather over powered characters and some mundane ones. It started off with players meeting in groups of two or three. Some pretty grandiose entrances and then progressed from there.
The Metamorphosis Alpha one ran with a GM who called for rolls, set the general events.
WebRPG was pretty interesting once you got the hang of it. I ran Council of Wyrms on it and some Dragon Storm sessions.