Life after OpenRPG

[arthurtuxedo]

So we tried Gametable for the last session of Now or Never, and I was somewhat less than satisfied. It's a fine program and all, but it contributed to us having what I considered to be a pretty lousy session. Combat tends to be slow in RPG's in general, but that one dragged on at such a tortoise-like pace I could barely stand it, and one of the reasons was the lag.

Anyway, I want to bring up something that I've brought up many times before but never managed to get consensus on: We should start doing our sessions over voice chat and using Gametable just for the map and die rolling. For one thing, text chat is painfully slow, especially when people are browsing in other windows and don't check the chat enough so we're all waiting on them. For another, we now lack the program that used to give us lag free chat with pretty colored chat logs.

So what are the reservations? Well, I can think of a few and I'll outline them so we can discuss them:

1. I don't have a mic.

I've been using this mic that sits on the desk or is glued to the monitor for the last couple of years, and it's fabulous. At $5, I don't think it will rupture anyone's wallet.

2. There are other people in the house, and I'm too embarrassed to roleplay over voice.

Close the door so they can't hear you and turn up the gain so you can talk softly and still be heard by us. Eventually you'll get comfortable and won't mind so much.

3. I don't want you guys to hear my voice.

This is another one of those comfort zone things. Step outside it for a while and then you'll have a new, wider comfort zone.

If a person is embarrased because they don't want to reveal their true age to the rest of us, I wouldn't worry about that. We can make a pretty good guess already, trust us. I don't think that applies to anyone in the current group, anyway.

4. I have a mic, but it's a piece of crap.

See #1.

5. I can't bring myself to spend money on something I already have, even if it's a piece of crap.

It's 5 bucks, suck it up. See #1.

6. I like to take the time to consider my character's actions, and voice is more rushed than text.

True, but the upsides to this are a faster paced session and it's more realistic anyway. You can't take 5 minutes to decide how you're going to respond to something someone says to you, after all.

7. Voice logs take the full 2 hours to listen to, while I can read a chat log in 5 minutes, and they take up a lot more space on the server and more time to download.

All true, but now that we've lost our pretty OpenRPG chat logs, this is less of a transition. Anyway, voice logs can be .mp3'd at a low bitrate in mono and still sound fine, so the file size won't be that big.

Anyway, tell me what you guys think because I'd really like to switch to voice soon.

[Hawkwings]

Sounds fine to me. Only issue would be IC and OOC speaking protocol. We could just do it the old fashioned way, by pretending everyone's sitting around a table and that all speech is OOC unless you say something like "My characters says blah blah blah."

[Gerard_Paloma]

I'm definitely on board. I've got a pretty good headset mic that cost 15 bucks IIRC, so I'm set. Even so, as Art points out, 5 bucks for a mic like his is a steal, because I can personally attest that not only does he own it and use it, but you can even completely and utterly destroy the plastic casing, and the mic will still work flawlessly.

I'd like to say something about a couple of the points here, if I may.

First, the comfort zone issues (2 and 3). While I don't have those particular problems, I do have my own issues with stepping outside of my comfort zone, so I feel your pain. It can be scary as shit putting yourself out there and not knowing what's going to happen. But here's the thing: we don't care. Not everyone has a voice fit for radio, and in fact, most of us don't. Besides, this isn't WOW or Xbox Live. Tensided players don't titter and laugh at the squeaky voiced teen asking for buffs or fire support.

Second, the cost issues. While I don't think 5 bucks is a big deal, if it really is a big deal for anyone, and 5 bucks is the difference between playing and not playing, I'll spring for the mic. It's 5 bucks.

Finally, number 7. The guys behind Penny Arcade and PVP had a pre-release session of the new D&D that they recorded. It took them about 2 hours just to do one combat session against 2 or 3 opponents. Granted, they were screwing around a bit and learning the system somewhat, but still. Over text chat, we can do a combat session against a whole squad of opponents in about an hour and a half. So not only will our sessions run quicker and smoother, but I can set it up so the mp3 streams off the site, meaning even if we do have a 2 hour session, it won't take 2 hours to download first.

You bring up a good point, Hawkwings. I like the idea of pretending that we would be doing a face to face game.

[arthurtuxedo]

Cool. So unless anyone has an objection, we'll plan to have the next session over voice. Put in those orders for a mic now so you'll receive them before Sunday if you don't already have one. In addition to the one I linked, Singstar mics work will and can be had on Amazon for like $18 w/ shipping for two of them. I don't recommend putting it off and then looking for one at B&M stores. The prices are sky high and the quality is garbage compared to what you can get online.

We used Teamspeak in the past and the most serious issue we had was that two people couldn't talk at once without both voices becoming garbled noise. I understand that Ventrilo is the better program, but unless they added it in the last couple of years it doesn't have a record feature. So unless someone knows of a better program that can record, I vote to use Teamspeak. The limitation can be overcome with a set order of who gets to speak first if two are talking, and so if it happens the one lower on the order will know to stop and let the other person talk first.

[Gerard_Paloma]

The limitation can be overcome with a set order of who gets to speak first if two are talking, and so if it happens the one lower on the order will know to stop and let the other person talk first.

How would that work? At first, I was thinking initiative order would make sense, but that would only be during combat, and it would change frequently. So would it be alphabetical?

[arthurtuxedo]

Either alphabetical or in order of top to bottom in the player list. GM goes first regardless, of course.

[Nikoda]

Here's another voice chat program that might work. I know nothing of it past what I read, but it's another option I'd thought I'd throw out.

Edit: I don't know why I can't get the url to work as it should. It looks right...I think...

[Gerard_Paloma]

I think phpBB doesn't like the parentheses in the link, for some reason.

Anyhoo, Mumble seems like it has everything Ventrilo does, but Ventrilo allows recording and I'm not sure if Mumble does or not. But hey, good looking out!