New way to play?

[Duck One]

I am thinking of starting an ALFA-based campaign group that meet weekly online, and am looking for folks to start to meet and discuss it. The goals of this group:

• Develop a medium other than NWN as a means of gaming together
• Have fun playing

I’ve been playing in an online group and the modern tools available are quite compelling. The more I learn, the more I see the potential of it. Here’s what I’ve been thinking for this exploratory group. I’ll run a short campaign with 5 or 6 players, and we’ll discuss how well we think the medium is working as an alternative to NWN. Here’s what I’ve worked out as a starting point:

• 5th Edition: this rule-set is a great leap forward. It simplifies the game without compromising the versatility and depth. Things are resolved quicker without spending great deal of time research rules / modifiers / etc. It allows you focus less on rule books and stick to the core essence of the immersion you all love.
• Discord / Zoom / Teams : There are a number of online real-time conferencing tools that allow groups to come together much like we’d do around tables back in the day. You can share screens, have avatars, refer to maps, etc., to increase the immersion experience. But beyond that, you can do things on the computer that we couldn’t do around those tables. The bard can literally play music, you can use voice altering software to sound more like a half-orc, private chat rooms can easily segregate the DM and a sub-group to limit meta information, etc.
• D&D Beyond: This tool is great for character creation and management, and as a resource to understand the rules. It allows for adding in add-ons, home-brew rules, etc., and makes the whole process of rolling up a character and leveling it up very simple, while allowing a great deal of customization and detail.
• The Forge: This tool is fantastic for a real-time game management. It allows all the participants to visualize the space including features like:
o Custom maps
o Lighting
o Fog of war
o Importing of characters from D&D Beyond
o Real-time management of combat
- Initiative
- Die rolling with applicable modifiers
- Movement
- Line of site

I’ve been playing in a setup similar to this, and I find it to be more immersive than NWN, and much less problematic, and definitely much less work. If there is a group of ALFAns with an open mind who’d like to try to experiment with this, please let me know.

[paazin]

I've been using roll 20 for years and have found it great -- would definitely recommend assorted online forms like these.

[Analogkid]

I would be up for it, an odds are I could wrangle another player or two