New SR Log Posted Later Today

My wife and I are getting back into painting miniatures after a five or six year hiatus.  Last night we went through our paints, adding distilled water to ones that dried out to see if we could save them.  Most reconstituted, but a handful were inert and will need to be replaced.

As a result of this activity, I did not get any writing done last night.  I have my notes with me and will get the next Southern Reaches adventure log written up during my lunch break and posted early this afternoon.

Tonight is The Aldelle Group, so there will likely be no post tomorrow, but Thursday should have a post and most likely Friday as well.

Tangentially, Xin's player has moved out of town due to (a lack of) work reasons and may be Skype-ing in along with Sal's player and Alys's player (the inestimable Erin Palette).  This will give me three online players and four players at the table, assuming all the local players are able to make the game.  At this rate, I may need to look into virtual tabletop software.  Three of my "local" players actually have to drive 45-60 minutes to get to the game and the same to get home.  As a result, two of the players (Tycho's and Agnes's players) have not made the game for several weeks.  If we went to a virtual table top, preferably one compatible with Hero Lab, they could make the game more often without the long drive and we could start the game earlier, even allowing time for the getting of dinner.  Something to give some thought to.

That's it for now.  Later!

Skyping in Players

I’ve recently added virtual players to my Southern Reaches game via Skype.  The first player was a regular who was sent to a different state 440 miles away for 3-6 months by his employers.  It’s a small town and he knew no one there, so he requested we try using Skype so he could stay current in the campaign and get his gaming fix.  He even offered to supply the camera.  So we gave it a try.

The second player is a friend I’ve chatted with online (Erin Palette of Lurking Rhythmically fame) and done some editing work for who showed some interest.  The Southern Reaches game is designed to be easy to add players and I now had the capabilities to do so, so I made the offer.  She prefers to not transmit video (in fact, does not have a camera), but is willing to set an avatar and communicate verbally.

Things we’ve learned:

• Having some folks present and some only on a screen takes a little getting used to, especially if, by request, the camera only points at the map.  The reduction in facial clues and body language sometimes makes for awkward communication, with folks either talking over each other or huge pauses while everyone waits for someone else to speak.
• Microphones are important.  The camera I have has a directional mike, which I point up to catch as talking as possible, but a lot of the more quiet stuff gets dropped or missed, especially if multiple people are talking at the same time.
• Voices need to be projected.  As part of my job I attend teleconferences with some small regularity, so I’ve learned to project my voice at the microphone when communicating through an open mike.  Not everyone in my gaming group has those skills, which contributes to stuff getting dropped.

I’m still adjusting to the remote players myself.  I am not certain that this is providing as good a game as could be had, nor am I 100% certain that it is something I want to keep doing.  I think things would go better if we were all using a virtual table top of some sort, but that side-steps why we get together in the first place.

So to sum up: We are still experimenting with this and I’ll have more to report in the future.


[So I've been more busy at the DayJob in the last five business days than I was the entire five weeks prior to that.  This has eased off, so I should be able to maintain a regular posting schedule again.  I have a post queued for tomorrow already and will write up an adventure log for Friday (I have notes from multiple campaigns ready to type up).]

EDIT: Named a name - Erin at Lurking Rhythmically.