The online games I've played in all have used voice for the core-action and chat for OOC comments or IC asides... and of course notes to/from the GM. I've yet to see anyone want to run with only chat but I can see how that would focus the action... cut down on the distractions and jokes... maybe.

Quote from: Simlasa;833470The online games I've played in all have used voice for the core-action and chat for OOC comments or IC asides... and of course notes to/from the GM. I've yet to see anyone want to run with only chat but I can see how that would focus the action... cut down on the distractions and jokes... maybe.

your mileage may vary.
It's worked very well for me, and I frankly would not go back.  But I really, really am willing to sacrifice speed for roleplay.  Recent game.

just understamd this is the full so you see all the whispers.

Quote from: Arkansan;833266DM's that have run a game using one of the virtual table tops and skype or the like, how well does this rate compared to the table top experience? Any particular pitfalls of this approach? Advice in general?

I'd say it gets about 75% to 80% towards the "the real thing."  In my opinion, getting to run the exact game I want for people who find that interesting and then not needing to leave the house to do so, more than makes up for that 20 to 25% loss.  YMMV.

The pitfalls?  What I feel like we could have knocked out in 4 hours in person takes 3 online.  There's a definite loss of time that can't directly be attributed to technical issues (which will pop up).  If I'm being honest, it probably has more to do with the fact that we're all now adults with kids, dogs and careers.  I don't think anyone in my group(s) has the same energy they did when they were in their early twenties.

Quote from: Arkansan;833266My thinking was that maybe running a game I could find folks interested in the sort of games I am. How do you typically find players for this sort of thing.

Quote from: Arkansan;833302Cool. I've honestly been thinking that I may get brave here soon and try to get a game of Pendragon going this way. Otherwise I'm starting to think I'll never find a group to play the game with.

OK - late December or early January, I kicked off an online Pendragon game.  Between emailing folks I played with previously, posting on a few relevant Google+ communities and making a post in the LFG forum over at Roll20, I had an overstuffed group in a matter of about a day of waiting.  It is phenomenally easy to find players - just do a search for Pendragon in Roll20, you can see lots of interest.

Quote from: Arkansan;833285How would I know if my connection is fast enough?

Can you stream audio from a talk radio stations' website?  If so, you're good.  If you can't, you might still be good.  I've used 1.2 MB internet service in godforsaken parts of the country while doing field work to run a game.  ADSL will fly.  Now, I do use Mumble as my voice communication service because I can rent a server for less than two bucks a month and offload the bandwidth to them along with having some redundancy in case Roll20 goes down.  Which has happened.

Some of this is going to come down to personal taste.  I absolutely HATE waiting for people to type out what they are going to do; it is a huge waste of my (and the other players') time - so I go with voice only.  I have run games using video, but the other players aren't anyone I'd want to look at anyway and it didn't add much.

Quote from: Arkansan;833390Seems like there is a surprising amount of interest in this. I wonder how many more people would be doing this if they were a bit more confident of the specifics?

The specifics are what you make of it.  Different people run games differently - and running a game online allows you to play to your strengths.  Honestly, you more than likely got into GMing without knowing the specifics.  Just do it.

I can't stand gaming online; of course I haven't tried it in ages.  Now that things like Skype are more reliable than they used to be, it might be less bad at least from a technical standpoint.

Fortunately, I have if anything an overabundance of players and games right here in meatspace, so I don't have to find out.