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Old 10-25-2021, 01:58 PM   #11
Farmer
 
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: First time GMing GURPS Online

Quote:
Originally Posted by cvannrederode View Post
I'll throw my hat in the ring for Discord. Our server is free and there's no limit on times and participants. In a addition, I have several text channels set up with different permissions for character sheet uploads and such (including one dedicated to memes, cause that's the kind of group we are).

Also included is a dice-bot and a dedicated channel.

We've even had players join over the phone app while driving.
Discord is very flexible, and works well. We have a similar thing, including private channels for player to GM both text and voice/video.
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Old 10-25-2021, 05:02 PM   #12
Michael Cule
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Default Re: First time GMing GURPS Online

The suitability of a particular service will vary with your and your players' computers, internet service and the general level of connectivity where you and they are. You'll just have to suck it and see.

For what it's worth I've used both Zoom and Jitsi successfully. Zoom I've pushed to seven participants including the GM. The problem at that level tends to be multiple people talking at once: you may have to tell people firmly who has the focus and who you want to hear from now.

You basically just need voice and video conferencing and a capacity to sharescreen and show people documents, maps and other illustrations. A chat channel by which you can send messages both to the group and to individuals (for private note passing) is also desirable. Both Zoom and Jitsi have both of these.

Only invest in the effort of learning how to use a Virtual Tabletop like Roll20 or Foundry if you need to do map intensive combat heavy role playing. You can do 'theatre of the mind' style stuff without them and sketched maps such as FATE uses will be perfectly feasable with just the basic video conferencing.

We found that the character sheets for BLADES IN THE DARK and RUNEQUEST GLORANTHA on Roll20 were very useful without using the map functions. I like the look of the GURPS implementation on Foundry but haven't used it in an actual game yet.

Be prepared to adapt to the medium and do ask your players to have a bit of consideration for each other and for you.

Good luck! Have fun.
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Old 10-25-2021, 10:48 PM   #13
PBarone714
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Glendale, Calif. near L.A.
Default Re: First time GMing GURPS Online

I like GM-ing Using the Roll20.net virtual table top. It supports hex grids, and you can upload a map and overlay it on top of the hex grid.
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Old 10-26-2021, 12:29 AM   #14
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
Default Re: First time GMing GURPS Online

Some thoughts in no particular order:
  • Others have listed various things for automation and such. You don't need that. Just get Roll20. It can be accessed from any device with a web browser and chews up minimal bandwidth.
  • Get a Discord set up for many of the reasons already advocated. Being able to use any device with a web browser is again a winner. It's easy for the most part and you can use the same server for multiple games if you want.
  • You don't need a lot of fancy maps, tokens, character sheets, etc. You can get those things later, but you don't need them now.
  • Get a separate screen or device to look up rules if possible.
  • Turn traits with uses per real time (e.g., Luck) into uses per session. Figure how many uses each player should get by how many hours you want to play. So if you play for four real hours then Luck should be used 4 times per session. Saves on the overhead.
  • Don't get caught up in prep fever. Some GMs feel everything must be prepped perfect and they can't play until it is. Players don't care. They just want to play.
  • Crosstalk is a fact of life for online play that is not text. Deal with it and come up with a system. What I do is wait for others to finish and count to five before I start speaking. Everyone does the same. It works mostly. It slows things down a bit so take that into account. Also, ask questions in text that only affect a player to cut down on this.
  • Take as much as you can offline. Use email, discord, etc. to deal with stuff like shopping, plans for next session, and so on. Leave online time for stuff that really matters and interaction between PCs, NPCs, and the GM.

That's mostly all I got. I wish you luck in your endeavor.
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Old 10-27-2021, 01:03 AM   #15
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Default Re: First time GMing GURPS Online

I fully do agree with what has been said above: keep things simple and remember that the main problem is that everyone (including the GM) must speak in turn.

Personally, I used Discord (voice only, no video) and Miro to show things to my players (maps, pictures, and so on). Both are free and very easy to use. The chat section of Discord even allows to prepare the meeting before it starts (discussion about the background, character creation, exchange of documents…).
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Old 10-27-2021, 01:57 AM   #16
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Location: Wellington, NZ
Default Re: First time GMing GURPS Online

One member of my group insists on video, otherwise I'd do voice-only quite happily. As everyone has it, it allows recording of sessions, and has unlimited time we use Skype.

If I want to show a map, I hold it up to the screen or link it in chat if it's available online.

We don't do tight 'tactical map' movement (it's an SF game, so most fights are pretty quick gunfights, often at considerable range), so this works okay.

The campaign's been run in this format for years now, and it works okay.
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Old 11-01-2021, 11:08 AM   #17
Alden Loveshade
 
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Default Re: First time GMing GURPS Online

There can be a bandwidth/connection speed issue with Skype or Zoom.

I don't remember the percentage, but a good portion of the world has very slow Internet. Even in the United States, there are areas where you can't get a fast connection.

We've used Discord.com for discussions and short bits of roleplaying, and Roll20.net for running most games. You can roll dice on both, and both let you put up maps, character images, etc.

For someone who has a slow Internet connection where moving live camera images freeze on them and they can't see or hear what's going on, Discord and Roll20 work fine because the player still has time to read everything.
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