On Thu, Apr 18, 2024 at 09:49:22PM -0400, Traveller Mailing List wrote:
>
> ============================================================
>
> So I am considering running a Traveller game online. I have never done this before
> and I wanted to ask who has experience with this.
> What platform do you like or dislike?
> What do you like and dislike about running Traveller virtually?
> Any other wisdom you feel like sharing.
>

My suggestion
-------------

* Start by picking a multi-way video system that you can use. At the start you may need tech
  support so poll your group and pick appropriately. I was using and supporting Slack for my
  work team when I started running my online campaign and a player does the same at his job
  so our choice was easy.

* Test campaign / group: Pick a light campaign to start. Something that you could play in a
  session or three if you played in person. Also setup a smallish group. It will be easier
  to pick a meeting time.

* For the first video conference, the technical people should get in early to chase out any
  problems. I think that I set myself up to run my campaign at 12:00PM and started the actual
  video conference at 1:00PM for a scheduled 2:00PM start. The players, three of them, knew
  I was starting early and we started at about 1:30PM after fixing up a connectivity hiccup
  because I expected problems in the first few sessions.

* Keep it simple. Run it like you are all in the same room, roll dice manually, etc. Plan to
  be really verbal in your descriptions or anticipate and scan pictures that you can share
  in text and know how to do this.

Possible systems
================

There are three systems that I could see for this are Slack, Discord, and Zoom. All three
have small teams video conferencing systems that feature video conferencing and text chat. As
I mentined above, I use Slack. When my son started playing D&D, his group chose Discord +
Roll 20. At the time they were 14 ~ 17 so the Roll 20 learning curve wasn't an issue for
them. I haven't augmented with Roll 20 partly because it doesn't appear to have any
additions for any form of D6 Traveller so I'm just not intersted.

My results
==========

We had a great time with our campaign. What we discovered was the hardest thing was to keep
things going. I had to dedicate the last 20 minutes of each session to "calendar
chasing". At then end of the day, we discontinued for a bit and I'm trying to
restart. Everyone's into it but scheduling is the hardest problem.

My Details
==========

Again, I do this over Slack, My advice: pick a your video system mostly based on what you
can support. One spectrum will be game features. The range will be from "none" to "full". My
choice, Slack, is a video conferencing system that has programmable support. Any specific
game aids I would have to add on my own. I can write Slack bots so adding support isn't a
problem, for me. Curiously I have added nothing. I think that some stuff exists but if you
want game aids and video conferencing, you want something like Roll 20.

One thing that you might want is a die rolling system. That's a lot of what Roll 20
does. I'm a greybeard and my players are mostly greybeards. If they say they rolled a 12 on
2D6 I can trust that they've rolled a
12. When they roll a 2, they fess up and I pull out the failed task tables.

One thing that you'll want for sure is way to share information. We play in the standard
milieu so the Traveller map is a great resource. It's available by sharing a text link. I
have experience providing content on the web so I'll either cut and paste stuff into our
Slack Channel or I will provide a link to a website that I manage. Most will find this to be
a hassle but you could author and share content through a login controlled WordPress
site. Again, a system like Roll 20 will deal with this for you.

Slack specifics
===============

Slack has multiple forms. There is a free version and you can use it to get your feet wet. I
bought the subscription version because game transcripts are preserved forever so long as I
keep paying the subscription. The subscription is < $9.00 month when we don't play but it's
~= $40.00 month when we do. Neither of those two price points is going to put off my
retirement. We are 4 people so ~ $10.00 per person to offset costs doesn't seem that high to
me. My son's Discord was free but they dig further into your privacy than I like. I think
that Zoom is free too.

Likes / dislikes
================

* I love the fact that I can play traveller with my friends again. I'm located in Southern
  New England. My players are in Massachusetts, Central Connecticut, and Washington DC. They
  are all players who have role played something that I ran in my youth.

* Scheduling is the hardest part. It was much easier during Covid when we were all working
  at home.

* When I start this again, I'll be running a campaign in my home-grown setting. If I weren't a
  web backend developer with light front-end experience, it would probably be impossible to
  run my campaign.

--
Chris

      __o          "All I was trying to do was get home from work."
    _`\<,_           -Rosa Parks
___(*)/_(*)____.___o____..___..o...________ooO..._____________________
Christopher Sean Hilton                    [chris/at/vindaloo/dot/com]