How does long distance play work?

[Lazarus Sinn]

Hi All,

I am curious about long distance play. I see people refer to different methods such as play by post and d20. I am familiar with d20; I am currently playing a D&D campaign with my son long distance via d20.

How does play by post, or other methods, work? How do you do combat long distance?

[Kerfuffin(925)]

You mean roll20?

Some (outside) forums have play by post or email where you write up something in character/narration without taking over for other big NPCs or PCs. A GM generally follows along to keep the plot moving.


For playing table top over distance there is MegaMek, which has its own sub forum further down.

[Simon Landmine]

Some people (usually those who want more control, more optional rules, or just don't want to surrender dice rolling to an RNG) do the 'battle' parts of the game over TableTop Simulator (TTS) instead of MegaMek, too. And there are simpler 'shared view' map tools, as well.

And of course, there's also the option of using Discord for voice/video chat, either 'theatre of the mind' or with Roll20/Foundry/etc providing the map.

Play by post would be possible, but also very lengthy, at least as far as using BT 'mech combat rules goes.

[Lazarus Sinn]

And there are simpler 'shared view' map tools, as well.

What are some of these?

[Simon Landmine]

What are some of these?

Off the top of my head, Owlbear Rodeo is one that I know of - I've played with it a little, but not too much. It's got a lot fewer features than things like Roll20 or Foundry, because it's only designed to provide a shared map and allow you to move tokens. It's browser-based. Pretty sure that there are others.

(An alternative, if clunky, would be for the GM to use Discord screenshare to share a map, and have the players tell them where they want to move.)

[Wrangler]

I have to second D20 as far moving character pictures around a map. The maps on it can be improvised.

My group been playing long distance for perhaps 2 years. We've used MegaMek hosted on one of our player's computers to do the 'mech combat.
With 2nd Edition (with tweeks) of the MechWarrior RPG.

[Simon Landmine]

I have to second D20 as far moving character pictures around a map. The maps on it can be improvised.

Roll20?

[Wrangler]

Roll20?

Yay. I was typing too fast.  :-X

Additionally, my group uses Discord to talk to one another or post important thing that don't require a map.

[guardiandashi]

late followup but
we use discord for most of our RPG sessions
to keep things cleaner
we have a private char room for the rpg text, and a voice room
we also have a dice roller plug in installed, and a separate dice roller channel (room)

[idea weenie]

The only long-distance game I played in that worked well was a form of Space Traders, where each person ran their own corporation and tried to make money off space access/tourism/cargo delivery.  Each person did most of the math on their own, and only required small inputs from others (i.e. one company trades launch services with another that produced solar satellites, and they split the profits).

That to me worked well as each person could do most of the work on their own, without needing constant input from others.  There was roleplaying in the form of corporate brags, but getting everyone on at the same time was not necessary.

So that to me is the key with long-distance roleplay - setting up a schedule that works for everyone in the group.  This is effectively the reverse of the birthday problem.  Instead of the birthday problem where the more people there are the more likely two people will have the same birthday, in this case the more people there are the more likely someone will not have the availability.

[Daryk]

How did I miss this thread?

Play by post is my favorite method at the moment.  It's asyncrhonous, so you don't need to find a common time everyone is available.  It's VERY slow, though.  Generally, you need a GM to keep things straight due to the asynchronicty.