Reference Open Thread for Organizing Live RP Sessions

Hey everybody! This thread is for anyone looking to organize live games via Roll20/Google Hangouts/live chat/other platforms. Not sure this has been done much around the RPF before, but I've OKed this thread with the mods. My immediate reason for launching this thread is for an upcoming campaign of my own (see below), but I'm enthusiastic about leaving this thread open for others to launch similar campaigns / one-offs.

Why launch a live campaign? A few quick reasons:

• It's nice to have everybody in one place. While the session is happening, things move pretty fast.
• Easier to work with systems (eg D&D or Apocalypse World systems) that are built around live play. Not that these can't be used in PBB (play-by-post), as Saintheart's epic Tide of Flames can attest.
• A nice complement to written campaigns – flexes a different muscle. If you're in multiple PBB campaigns, this doesn't add another writing requirement to your life.

What does it take to run or play a live campaign? The only essential is a functional webcam + microphone and some means to handle video conference calls. Roll20 is a standard tool for managing campaigns: it facilitates video chats and offers tools for tracking dice rolls, stats, and maps. That said, it's by no means necessary: tabletop gaming originated as a 'theater of the mind', not figurines on a table (not dissing figurines on a table! just saying they are not essential).

The webcam, though, really is necessary. Fortunately, you can find very decent 720p webcams online for $20-30, and nicer 1080p webcams in the $50-75 range. I strongly encourage you to test this before hopping right into a session, ideally with Google Hangouts or whatever platform you'll be using for video chat.


I'll be posting my first campaign prompt below, and I encourage anyone thinking about running a game like this to give it a try. And keep an eye out for occasional one-offs from me – I'm particularly fond of running spontaneous sessions in Fiasco (think Coen Bros) or Dungeon World (think D&D, but more improvisational). I encourage anyone with an interest in live/tabletop games to give it a try.

 

Monster of the Week
I'm very excited to launch my first campaign with Monster of the Week, a system focused on action horror stories in the style of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, and similar stories. We'll set our story in Dusthaven, a midsize town in eastern Pennsylvania, the details of which will emerge as we play. You will be one of a small group of monster hunters, keen to the strange happenings around the town and intent on investigating supernatural incidents and tracking down and killing or containing monstrous threats to the town/country/world/universe.

The story will resemble the procedural shows mentioned above: each session will have a clear, largely self-contained plot centered around a supernatural threat (a 'monster'). As the story develops, larger arcs will emerge. In some episodes, the larger narrative will take center stage; in others, those arcs will simmer in the background as you hunt down a seemingly unrelated monster. We'll face a variety of supernatural threats, and through our arcs we'll explore some strands of supernatural horror – and our characters – in greater depth. We won't be sure of those until we play, but I will say that the recent horror that most interests me would be Fallen London / Sunless Sea and the first season of True Detective, so those might be some inspiration here.



We'll be conducting 2-3 hour sessions every 2-3 weeks. We'll work together to find times that hopefully work for everyone, though expect most sessions to occur on Saturday or Sunday afternoons (EST). Attendance is strongly encouraged but not strictly mandatory at every session -- one of the good news about the procedural format is that it isn't hard to miss an episode and come back in. If you consistently miss sessions, you will be dropped with no hard feelings. And if you're going to miss a session, please let me know at least one day in advance.

I'll be running this with no more than four monster hunters. I would love to open this to more, but I'm setting a hard cap at four to make this manageable. There might be other opportunities to join us for a one-off appearance or join in case someone drops, but the number of hunters will be limited. And there will hopefully be future campaigns around the boards.

What do I need to play?

A webcam with a working microphone. You can get a great one for $20, as mentioned in my OP above. Please test these in Google Hangouts in advance.

I've never played a tabletop game before. Is this going to be complicated? Do I need to read a rulebook?

No! Well, yes. Please refer to the two-page Hunter reference sheet:
http://www.evilhat.com/home/wp-cont...-the-Week-Revised-Hunter-Reference-Sheets.pdf

I'll go over the rules as we begin, but fortunately, Monster of the Week is easy to pick up and play. All dice rolls are two 6s + a stat, and the gameplay 'moves' (above 2p pdf) are very intuitive.

You'll also refer to the two-page worksheet specific to your hunter. You can peruse those here:
http://www.evilhat.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Monster-of-the-Week-Revised-Playbooks.pdf

We will not be drawing up character sheets in advance – that's for the first session. If you're interested in participating, please send me a PM including an example character sheet from a previous RPF campaign and/or a post you were excited to write.

We will begin play in 2-3 weeks, depending on mine/players' availability. Looking forward to it!

 

Calling my friends from Call to Adventure: The Treasure of Darth Malum! (Also anyone else who is interested!)

I have an interesting potential proposition for you. This post is about garnering any potential interest, testing the water, as it were.

I want to put together a group to play an RPG. Not the kind that we post here on the forums (which are excellent, but different), but those in the vein of DnD and games like that. Our humble GM galactic_vagabond has offered to learn a rulebook and GM the game for us. Which brings me to my next point, we would all be new to this. We would have a learning GM, along with learning players (unless, of course, you've played games like this before). I can tell you, that even being terrible while learning, and I mean being awful at a game like this, can still be so, so much fun.

So I invite you or any new comers to post any interest you might have!

Cheers!

TAG: @GrimdarkRose, @Ktala, @Spatz, @AbsolX, @Uriel Manteroni, @Darth Ukendt, @galactic-vagabond422

 

Hey guys, just stopping by to say Me and Shekel have talked about this and I am ready and willing to learn, no matter what may come.

TAG: GrimdarkRose Ktala Spatz AbsolX Uriel Manteroni Darth Ukendt Shekel_1383

 

Sounds interesting, although I'm not sure how it would work.

 

Here's a video to some people playing an RPG like we're talking about, for reference.



Darth Ukendt

 

I'll watch that later.

 

Hey guys, a little update for you. After a little research and help from Gamiel (Thanks) We've decided on a system for the game. It's called FATE and it was chosen for at a number of reasons.

One it is simple and easy to learn, I'm about half way though the core rule book and, after an initial learning curve, I think we'll get the hang of it pretty quick.

Second, it is cheap. I pick up a PDF of the core rule book for absolutely free, although I'll probably be making a donation to the company here soon. It can also be played with four six-sided dice, sheets of paper and index cards, that's all you need

And importantly it is flexible. It is not beholden to any setting or any time, we are only limited by our imaginations. While I was thinking we'd do a Star Wars campaign, since if we're meeting here that's one thing we can agree on but, if we get together and want to try a different setting then we have that option.

If anyone has any questions or would like a copy of the FATE core rule book, PM me and I help you out, thanks.