Hnet Online Dungeons and Dragons

65 posts in this topic

Posted (edited)

So I was talking a few days ago in Skype with a couple people about playing some D&D online with a virtual tabletop. Its something I've wanted to do for a while but D&D can be hard to get into if you dont have a lot of funds or know someone who already has experience and tools to make a good campaign. I don't have experience as a DM (though I could learn if necessary), so if we can get another person to help out on that front, that would be great.

Mostly this post is just to gauge how much interest there would be, whether everyone can do voice chat, what dates and times are best, and which tools we want to use.

It would probably be a good idea to limit the party sizes to maybe 4 or 5 plus 1 DM, but if there are enough people we could split into two sessions.

There are a number of virtual tabletops out there but from what I've heard the best two are going to be Fantasy Grounds and Maptool. Unfortunately FG costs 35$ for the DM license and 20$ for each player, so unless everyone wants to fork out some cash, its probably going to be MapTool. I've actually heard of people making maps in Minecraft or the Sims even, so that could be good too.

That's all I can think of right now, please post in this thread if you would be interested and if you could DM, including any time constraints or other pertinent information in your post. Once we get some more people (even just 3 others) we can go from there.

Edited by emsomniac (see edit history)

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Posted

i still dont completely understand how important the virtual tabletop is, though i dont really have any experience with D&D, and the only game ive seen go down is one that pheo was in, and a couple people i didnt know, and the entire thing was done over a skype call. tbh i didnt think D&D even used maps (if anything, only the GM really needs one), but like i said, no experience.

though if its just a dice roller you need, i have a nice little thing i use when i need a roll for werewolf.

also, as far as needing funds or a friend to get into D&D.....theres always the internet, and the crapton of D&D pdfs out there.

otherwise, as far as tabletop gaming goes....the most ive done is a couple games of a maidRPG my anime club has hosted each year at our maid cafe. it was a little awkward at first, since you had a table full of people that were somewhat ashamed to have joined, as that meant they had knowingly joined a maid harem of sorts, but its always led to hilarity pretty fast. though i guess that just means i have experience in coming up with weird solutions and rolling dice. mostly the dice.

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Posted (edited)

I think it'd have to be like really really awesome to keep peoples' attention. I mean like we have trouble staying active in awesome werewolf games, so I don't know how committed people would be. But I can't speak for them, I'm just saying.

I think it would be a little easier to keep people committed than with werewolf, D&D is more like a couple hours on a weekend evening rather than just sometime during the week. If you don't show up then your character gets left behind or has an 'unfortunate accident'.

tbh i didnt think D&D even used maps (if anything, only the GM really needs one), but like i said, no experience.

Maps are fairly common I would say, especially if the DM is creating the adventure himself. Its not too hard to get a hold of some grid paper and draw some dungeon rooms out, or do it in photoshop, etc.

Yeah, you certainly can play without a virtual tabletop, but then the players cant see where their characters are. It can get a little difficult when you're trying to explain the position of monsters with no visual aid. imo, its a lot more fun when you can see the environment. About the only other thing a virtual tabletop provides is more automation for combat and initiative rolls and whatnot, but that's all optional, and chat features for typing out RP or logging dice rolls. I mean really, you could even just stream someone's desktop and have them bring up pictures of the maps. Its all very open ended.

Edited by emsomniac (see edit history)

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Posted (edited)

I love DnD, and have multiple editions. I would love to DM or play in an Hnet DnD game. I've even thought of making a thread like this, but I didn't figure anything would come out of it. As to the virtual table top, not all table top roleplaying games require one, but dnd, sort of does. There are certain rules to combat that require current knowledge of everyone on the battlefield, which is made simple with some kind of program. I know of such a program,

http://www.rptools.n...wnloads#MapTool

Edited by Necropolis (see edit history)

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Posted

is there any way to make the game forum/thread based, in any way?

just thinking itd be easier for people to come spectate, maybe join in if the need/will arises. and people can post at their leisure, rather than the hazard of someone not being able to make it to the skype chat.

just a thought.

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Posted

I'm down but only if its chat or voice call. A thread based DnD game would just be completely awful. it NEEDS to be real time.

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Posted

One of us could livestream it. Maybe viewers could give suggestions for monsters to fight and plot hooks. We could make this into an official sort of thing, have a brainstorming thread. Or this could be the brainstorming thread, either way I guess. The 2 most important questions are, what edition and what setting. The setting could be an establ.ished one in the DnD cosmology or one we just make up. Up to the players. Also, who is playing. That is important.

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Posted (edited)

If we do 4e we'll definitely need some kind of map, otherwise 3.5e is good too. I'm not really partial to either, but 4e is a bit simpler and better for newbies. I'd definitely be down to livestream it, but depending on who DMs it might be better to be from that persepective. As far as date/time, I'm going to suggest Friday-Sunday night sometime, even I'm to busy to dedicate several hours on weekday nights. It would be super cool to make a really specialized adventure, but we might want to do just a quick dungeon session just to get the hang of things. Big continuous epic campaigns can come later imo.

So far we have these players:

Necropolis (DM?)

Me

Skyler

Chimetals (maybe?)

Also, Necropolis, do you have skype? I'll make a group chat sometime with everyone who's interested.

Edited by emsomniac (see edit history)

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Posted

I do.

God_of_kortoph

And you're probably right, I kinda like 3.5/pathfinder a bit better, but 4th is definitely more friendly for new players.

There is also the beta test 5th editions floating around the net, as another option

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Posted

Yeah, but I'd prefer to wait until they've ironed out more kinks with DND Next before I throw a new group into it.

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Posted

I think we should play in the established world if we do a quick dungeon run. But once we play a full adventure we should have our own world that isnt necessarily hard core fantasy.

emsomniac likes this

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Posted

Well the most common and typical game setting is Forgotten Realms, but we'll wait on that for a skype conference methinks. Much easier to exchange ideas when its live.

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Posted

im down for whatever, but for puppys sake, someone needs to give me a heads up, otherwise itll go down like most other impromptu things for me--that is, i find out a week later.

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