Remote Gaming: A basic list of requirements

Dreamfish

Administrator
1. One of the players requires two beautifully painted armies, a beautiful table on which to play, and safe place to leave that table unmolested for many days or weeks. This is very important - if you have cats, children or epileptic fits, you'll want a safe place to keep the table.

2. That same player will require a digital camera. Optionally you can use an IP Camera. This means that you can have a live feed to look at whenever it suits. By taking shots of the field you can see the state of play as it progresses.

3. The other player - that is, the remote one, requires some sort of image modification software, in order to describe what he wants to do. One could use Windows Paint, Gimp, Photoshop or one of the many hundreds of tools that can do that. In our case, I'd recommend Snagit. You have to pay for it (ahum, torrent), but it's one of the most useful pieces of software I've ever owned, and it stands head and shoulders above anything else I could recommend for the job. If masochism is your thing, you could try without it, just using text to describe what you want to do, but a small fee avoids all of that nasty business...

4. Army Builder. This way, the players can have the same source for army lists. This is key for the remote player, who might have to play an army they don't themselves own, or know much about. This also adds a layer of trust, as the lists can be produced and revealed at the same time, and saved away. Army Builder also validates the lists, so both players will know when the lists are ok. It is worth mentioning that my esteemed opponent in this, Dreamfish, is the author of the Warhammer 3 Army Builder files, and produced a template that hides magic items. So - we're able to see each other's lists (as published earlier) but still don't know about each other's sneaky magic items...

5. Both players need access to a dice rolling mechanism. We've discovered the Hamete Dice Server, which allows us to create a dice 'blog', tracking every single dice roll we make. You can choose what sort of dice you want to roll and describe what the roll is.

6. Trust. Especially for the remote player. Do you play tournaments regularly? You might struggle with this one. Players need to understand that the other player did not wake up that morning with the express intention of screwing up your entire life by placing your figures incorrectly. This means that you need to describe what you want to do...and describe your intention as well. So, if you're trying to hide a character in a forest - make that clear to the other player! Don't just say 'move 5 inches north'.

7. One of the things we've found much easier to do is to run each sub phase for both players before moving into the next sub phase. Traditionally in Warhammer, player 1 moves, shoots, fights, reserves and does magic, then the next player does the same. In our case, we're finding it much easier (and economical with time spent sending mail backwards and forwards) to handle my movement phase, then Dreamfish's movement phase, followed by my shooting, then his shooting, etc. Much easier for playing remotely...
 

Thantsants

Member
Think I can muster up most of that, although I'm using a rather old and crappy camera at the moment after my daughter got hold of my, albeit old, but much better Olympus :mad:

Might have to invest in Snagit - looks good.

Running subphases together makes sense too.
 

Dreamfish

Administrator
Hi airbornegrove26, I remember you expressed interest in a remote game before on the lead adventure forum. Well, it looks like we got two players. Now all we need is a good writer, any volunteers?
 

treps

Member
There is also another option for 3 players, one of them being the GM hosting the game and the 2 others being the players giving orders. No ?

Bruno
 

Dreamfish

Administrator
Bruno that's the idea yes, the host of the game will be the GM. In this case that'll be me, collaborating with one writer and two players.
 

weazil

Moderator
Hey D

My assignments are complete. If no-one else wants a swing, I'll happily write for you.
 

Dreamfish

Administrator
Sure, for realtime playing it's no problem, but the main advantage of playing remotely like this is the ability to play when you have some time to play. We all live busy lives and for the most of us it's hard to meet at the same time, especially when playing with people who live in a different timezone.
 

weazil

Moderator
Actually, we had a go with the webcam for Wyemm Seeyay, but it just wasn't good enough to see the detail - as in, it was blurry enough that I couldn't distinguish units. Also, we found that it was dependent on the lighting - during the day, it was much easier to use than with electric lighting at night.

It is a chore to do it this way as well, I'm sure, but as long as D is willing, it makes it a lot easier for the rest of us :)
 
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