Gaming
Posted By matt on September 2, 2008
Note: I wrote this late at night, and reading it now I realize that it was largely incoherent. So, I've rewritten it
As I blogged about before, I'm looking more closely at online gaming tools, given that all the leads I've gotten on games are about an hour away. MapTool and OpenRPG seem to be the two better ones. Voice will likely be done with a TeamSpeak server or over Skype. I'm still shaking this out, but I'm curious if anyone might be interested in giving this a whirl with a small campaign. In rough strokes:
- Spirit of the Century
- After the Rise (Zombie Horror Survival rules variant)
Any one interested can drop me an email. The software is free, you'll just need a microphone or something to talk into.
Evaluating both OpenRPG and MapTools, I think I like MapTools better. Originally, the networking didn't work, but this is apparently, a 32 bit vs. 64 bit Java thing. There is a thread about it here. Installed the a 32 bit JVM and it worked fine.
Looking at TeamSpeak vs Skype, Skype seems a little easier to use, but the conference call capabilities of it limit the number of folks who can connect. Still, it's likely enough people (all the docs I can find say 5) that it is not an issue. It also won't kill my bandwidth like running a TeamSpeak server is likely to do. Still, it's not set in stone – depends on what my players want.
Also, this is kind of just a “pilot” – a short little story arc done in a quick system. I'm batting around a few other ideas for campaigns, but my current favorite is something inspired by the Dark Tower. Gunslingers roaming mid-world trying to keep the peace, etc. Rules would likely either be Savage Worlds (probably influenced by Deadlands:Reloaded) or Spirit of the Century, depending on how much combat vs. story folks want.
Or, for something completely different (and, admittedly coming full circle), I'd run D20 Modern again. See, the thing is, despite all the complaints I had about it (armor should not make you harder to it) it was fun. It was quick and easy to run, played simply, and was easy to improvise. Unfortunately, with the release of 4th ed, D20 modern books are going to be harder to come by. However, I found this. What? Core rules? Free? Compatible with all the D20 modern stuff I already bought? Sweet!
Also, I found some map resources which might be of interest to folks, even if you're just printing them out or whatnot:
http://rpgmapshare.com/
http://www.profantasy.com/library/default.asp
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