video conference TFT, for dummies
 

I'm the dummy here

Can anyone point to good resources for getting, let's say, 1 GM and 4 players together to play TFT by video link?

I know basically 0. I've used skype and facetime on a one-to-one basis.

We all want to see each other. We all want to see a map. How do you do that? How do people move during combat? Can it be made to work?

Off my lawn! Any experiences gratefully received. Get off my lawn!

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

I use Zoom, for several reasons: It tends to maintain better resolution and audio than other common services; it has a very easy, intuitive way of handling multi-party video conferences (the only trick is to make sure people understand that they shouldn't blather- just say what you need to say and shut up while others talk); and it has fun background visual options.

My group has been playing TFT regularly for about the last year and a half using video links - first using Skype, then a little Facebook Messenger, and now Zoom. It is great; the major trick is sorting out how to let people really see the battle mat clearly.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Second vote for Zoom. I'm sure there are more full-featured solutions, but this works great for my group of friends scattered across the world (Texas, Florida, Minnesota and Germany).

I use my wife's laptop plus my phone to capture the tabletop. Pretty simple.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

I will check out zoom, thanks!

What’s the rough limit on number of players that reasonably fit on a screen?

Are there custom stands to hold the phone? Or how do you like to do it? Feels like even a melee map would take up a lot of screen space?

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

We're pretty low-tech. I usually hold the phone above the battle mat or find something to prop it up with. I've been trying to return to my old-school gameplay roots and only focus on the 'grid' when absolutely necessary.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Check out Mook's blog post about GMing online.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Zoom accommodates very large numbers of participants (up to 30 is standard and I wouldn't be surprised if it goes higher). Any gaming group could easily fit.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

My experience doing this with TFT, which is a very visual game, is that it is key to your experience to sort out how you will orient the camera so that it has a good view of the action. I'm not doing this in a really ideal way right now; I really need to get a second, separate camera going. It never occurred to me that I might be able to mirror my phone as a second camera! Can you explain to a techno-dolt how this would work?

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Again, I went with the simplest approach... the laptop camera connects via one Zoom account (my wife's) and the phone is on another.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Cool thread guys!

How do you manage dice rolls? :/

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

We manage dice rolls with the honor system! If you can't deal with the fallout of a bad die roll you should not be playing TFT in the first place.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

This looks like a case for video broadcasting the metal dice.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Everyone rolls their own dice, but as GM, I use large red casino-style dice that are easy to read from the 'table camera'.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

I found it handy to clip a dashboard phone holder to a microphone boom, but then I happened to already have both those things.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Here's a Google Slides doc I set up ages ago for remote play -- my post about this was long before the corona virus :). Copy and share it so everyone can edit:

https://docs.google.com/presentation...8258fa4_0_2128

Put counters on it and everyone can move their counter(s) around and see all the movement (just import some images for the counters).

I made page layouts for Melee maps, Wizard maps, and a large megahex grid.

We use https://rolz.org/ for dice rolling. It supports lots of different types of rolls and if you create a login, it'll save shortcuts for you for common rolls (like #3d6 for instance, or #2d6+1).

We use discord for voice.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

https://twitter.com/mathowie/status/1148391109824921600

https://securityboulevard.com/2020/0...o-be-aware-of/

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Thanks for all the suggestions. Here's where I've got to.

My main consideration is that TFT is indeed highly visual, the map is key and the focus of everyone's attention, at least the way we play. Two possible approaches.

1. A camera showing a physical map that I control. This is nice because I would get to use all my beautiful megahexes and counters. But on the downside, I'm having trouble with setting up a camera, and I'm a little demoralised about it anyway as I realise we have no good spot where I can leave the setup for an extended time

2. A screen-based map. This means a little deskwork to set up the maps and counters. But as it turned out, I enjoyed the process. I went with roll20.net, it sounds similar to what zot does with google slides. Roll20 seems amazing, although -- caveat -- I'm still waiting on group members to test in serious action. But can't wait TBH -- hex grid, counters that snap to location and facing, multiple status markers you can indicate with a click of the mouse, the players can control their own tokens, which is nice. Health bars if you want, v easy to use. There's video/voice support, and also text chat, which can be public or whispered to specific players. Dice rolls are shown in the chat. I've created a melee map with nice-enough megahex marking and obstacles I can drag in to run DT or DT2 with quick changes to the map. And I've now got all kinds of ideas about terrain and new maps for a campaign. Basically, I'm ready, just waiting on the players for a thorough test drive.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

I miss OpenRPG. The map function allowed the channel owner to give permissions to players to move one or more figures. And the program allowed the GM to create any possible mechanic and link it with a simple button click. There isn't a single VTT in existence now that was as useful as OpenRPG, they are all just pretty and pretty does not mean versatile.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

We just had a 6 player skirmish to get the feel of TFT battles on roll20.net
All of us logged on at the same time for a 3-vs-3 capture the flag battle.

A snapshot of the action here, have a look, I'm really happy with this!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u71nadn6dk7zzsf

Or here https://imgur.com/a/CQH5LUw


One thing we learned is the in-game audio/video is not super reliable, esp as number of players increases. We ended up doing the audio links through MS Teams, but there are lots of services you could use (discord, slack, zoom, etc etc)

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

roll20.net is free, and allows at least some of the above, including some great things. The GM can assign tokens to players, and macros let you quickly do your to-hit, damage, and initiative rolls. The ruler tool lets you identify line of sight, and you can throw dice across the screen. Health bars, named figures, tints on the tokens to indicate sides, status markers. Really well thought out. We aren't using fancy graphics, realtime lighting, turn order, etc, but I am psyched and recommend it! Have a look at the link I posted above

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

More roll20.net goodness! Here's a screenshot at the conclusion of last night's game.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yp4ptyj57k...38.03.png?dl=0

We are playing "The Curse of Katiki-Mu" from the TFT Adventures. The party has just (proudly) defeated the rather mindless crabmen in the grotto.

But, the overseeing labourer was able to run back to his quarters (in the unrevealed SE corner). He will alert his colleagues, and the "brains" of this outfit will be running out himself (to the north) to alert the actual, very dangerous, warrior guards.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

This looks great!!

The green bar is for ST, the blue for DX? Do you make draw lines on the borders of the hexes to make megahexes or do you use some kind of template? And it looks like the counters are aligned to the grid. Very nice!

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Thanks! Yes, we used green for ST, blue for DX. You can also track a third attribute in red. ANd roll20 snaps the counters and their facing to the hex grid.

I've now found 3 different ways to make maps. My favorite is to upload pictures of megahexes (I use various colors). The outer border is a thicker line. I use png files with transparency outside the megahex area. I upload these and they are easily accessible as GM. I drag them onto the map, resize them once to fit the grid nicely, and then just copy and paste. Bing, bing, bing, they snap into place and in a few minutes, a pretty nice map!

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Are you sorting characters by DX order?

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

For supported game systems like D&D there is a lot of automation possible.
We're absolute luddites and using roll20 to display the map, roll the dice, and things like that, but not anything fancy, like controlling turn order. That's the GM's job...!

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

I tried to join a roll20 game this last week and couldn't problem solve the video and audio connection in real time. It was surprisingly hard to figure out how I was supposed to do it, and then when I did it 'right' it didn't work. roll20 has a lot of supported features, but I am a lot more satisfied with the simple approach: I can see and hear you, and we are gaming - the end.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Just to add to that lars. We had similar sounding issues. We now turn off roll20 audio and video and use Teams, although there are many other options available these days, eg discord, zoom, and more

Roll20 admits their tech here is not good, they use peer-to-peer connections, meaning that for 5 players there are 25 video/audio connections going on (or so). At any one time some of these will fail, and the only suggestion from roll20 is "reconnect". Whereas teams, discord, zoom host the conversation themselves, so more robust without doubt.

So yes, best seems to be use a hosted service for your audio, and roll20 for the map, tokens, dice, text chat, etc

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Greetings larsdangly,

I was wondering if you may be open to an email interview from my blog about your campaign, running games online and TFT in general.

I just finished interviews with George and Bret of Dark City Games and have a few others done. I was refereed to you by a few people over of TFT Discord.

You an find the blog here before you decide:
http://orderofthecrimsondie.blogspot.com/

I would be honored to have you on.

Cheers!

Crimson.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Sure; I would be happy to email you about my TFT campaign experiences!

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

For a game like TFT, you'll need a platform that allows video conferencing and screen sharing. Zoom and Discord are popular choices for this. You can create a video call where everyone can see each other, and then one person can share their screen to display the game board or map.
As for moving during combat, it's usually done verbally. Players describe their moves and actions, and the GM manages the game board accordingly.
If you ever plan larger gaming events or conventions in the future, consider hiring conference organizers. They can help you set up and manage all the technical aspects, making it a smoother experience for everyone involved.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

In my group I use Roll20 for the game table. No need for screen-sharing since the player can see the map and what I allow them to see through Roll20. I use Roll20 for both the world map and for various combat megahex maps.

For our group chat during play we use Google Meet. We found that the Roll20 group chat feature would eventually cause a slow down in the game and various issues. Issues in both voice and in the table top for random players. So, we now do Google Meet for voice. We block the Google Meet video after the initial meet and greet.

I love Roll20 as a GM. I get to set up maps and encounters and enter all the encounter critters into character sheets with notes so I need not remember many things. I even enter attack damage and DX bonus/penalties and so on into the character sheets (players and critters). I also GM with friends locally and I got to tell you, when I do I miss Roll20. It is so nice to have everything well prepped and at my finger tips.

And to answer Henry's question: yes I do rename everyone so that they AdjDX is before their name and then sort them by DX (manually). During play to handle action order, I just go down the Roll20 sidebar from top to bottom and call out who goes next. Someone gets a DX -2, I don't rename them, I just move them down the order for the next turn.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

Videoconferencing is a luxury, and isn't essential. It can reduce a few miscommunications, but a VTT is a far better first tool for that, by presentign a hex map and hexagonal grid.. If you don't have reliable high speed internet (DSL or Cable, perhaps

There are two free VTTs I've used: Maptools and GTove. GTove is dead simple to use, is FOSS, and requires no licenses... but it requires access to your google drive, so you need a google account.

I've not touched maptools in the last 6 years, but it was a major pain back then.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

We use Roll20 which is an online tool like Zoom but has features specifically for RPG gaming; it allows battlemaps, has bacground combat/adventure music, digital character tokens etc. It supports cameras and for those that want it there are a few You Tube videos that explain how to set up a second camera on your cpu to have a dice camera.

Re: video conference TFT, for dummies
 

I am a dummy who can't get into Roll20 or the other specialized VTTS. That said, I use Discord. With discord, you can share a different screen, so I can open a map and then put that as a "new" member of the conference call. You can also make a separate conference channel for "secret chats" where you can send a PC and go to tell them something only they find out. It works.