Online play via Roll20/FantasyGround/Other VTT

[Marc]

Anyone thinking/planning on running a game on a VTT?  I live(literally) in the middle of no where( ~100 miles east of Kansas City ).  I'd love to get into a game, but the chances of a face-to-face game out here are virtually non-existent.  I did run an RQ2 game back in the early '80's, so I could run one myself, but I'd really rather just be a player.

Anybody?

 

 

[g33k]

Hrrrrm.  At one point, Chaosium had intended to have some sort of RQG-native VTT ready to roll-out with the core rulebook.  I don't know where that project stands... or even if it IS still standing...  Nor a character-creator package as per HeroLab or Metacreator (also on their to-do list).

Any new info, @Jason Durall or @Jeff ???

[Jarulf]

I'm in a similar situation here, definitely interested in this too.

[Gene M.]

I'd be into this, though as I am running Traveller on Roll20 right now and running a D&D campaign I don't think I could handle referee duties.

[Marc]

What time zone are you two in?  I'm in US Central( UTC-6, UTC-5 in the summer ).  

 

 

[Gene M.]

EST (UTC-5, -4 in summer).

[simonh]

I might be interested, possibly even running a game, but I’m in the UK so time zone wise it would be tricky with a mainly US based group.

[simonh]

I’m interested because I’m semi-house bound at the moment but I’ve not run a game virtually before. What are the pros and cons of Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds or any of the other options?or just doing it via Hangouts?

I should say if I do run a game, my first choice would be for a party of Lunars. I have a particular long term mission in mind.

Edited June 14, 2018 by simonh

[Gene M.]

I would be down to play a Lunar!

I've only used Roll20 so I can't compare.

[Sean_RDP]

27 minutes ago, simonh said:

I’m interested because I’m semi-house bound at the moment but I’ve not run a game virtually before. What are the pros and cons of Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds or any of the other options?or just doing it via Hangouts?

I should say if I do run a game, my first choice would be for a party of Lunars. I have a particular long term mission in mind.

So from my limited use of virtual table tops and stuff

The biggest con for Fantasy Grounds is price and learning curve. But some people swear by it. Roll20 can be free and it works fine for what most people need.

Now if you are doing mostly theater of the mind anyway, Hangouts or Skype work fine.  Like any campaign running in the VTT just takes some prep but once it gets going, you should have tons of fun.

[Sean_RDP]

30 minutes ago, simonh said:

I should say if I do run a game, my first choice would be for a party of Lunars. I have a particular long term mission in mind.

Also this is awesome. 

[Jarulf]

I'm in Sweden, so in CET. I would love to play a lunar.

[Jarulf]

I've only played around with Roll20 briefly and that was a few years ago, and haven't tried any of the alternatives. 

I'd be happy to pony up for a fantasy grounds license though, especially if it gets support for RQG.

[simonh]

Ok, here's my campaign pitch.

Moonrise Over Karse

This is a Gloranthan game of diplomacy, intrigue and adventure. The Lunar Empire has recently pacified central Dragon Pass and only a few desperate Orlanthi barbarians hold out against the invaders. Final victory over the violent storm-worshiping barbarians is close.

The Empire is now looking further south, to the lands sometimes called The Holy Country. This is a confederation of several nations bordering the great Choralinthor Bay. In particular, the small port city of Karse is now within military striking distance and would provide sea port access to the oceans of Glorantha, a long term strategic goal for the Empire.

The politics and cultures of the Holy Country are not familiar to the Lunars. Before embarking on a full campaign, it has been decided to send a team to investigate Karse and assess the options available. The team will be multi-discipline with diplomatic, military, economic and cultural dimensions. The team members will need discretion, initiative and resourcefulness to succeed.

Your goals are fourfold.
                    
1. To establish diplomatic links with the city. This will involve investigating it's political factions to identify enemies and potential pro-Lunar allies that can be cultivated. Options such as promoting a pro-Lunar coup or establishing a fifth column might be pursued.

2. To evaluate and advise on the military options for successful invasion, siege and conquest of the city.

3. The economic and trading potential of the city should be investigated. Since the strategic goal is ocean access, trading agreements with foreign nations or trading blocs should be explored and their potential evaluated.

4. The wider Holy Country region is little known to the Empire. It's cultural heritage, religious factions and magical traditions should be explored in preparation for their inclusion in the Lunar Way.

Having said that, the team will have wide latitude to take their mission and run with it in whatever direction they feel best serves the Empire. All Hail the Reaching Moon!

What's Glorantha like?
It's a swords and sorcery setting with a very rich history and mythology. As in real world history, religion and magic are inseparable in Glorantha.

Who are the Lunars?
The Lunar Empire is a rapidly expanding power to the North, much like the Romans or the Persians under Xerxes. They believe that everyone has a place in the world. They are an inclusive and tolerant society, but struggle against violent and primitive cultures that cling to the old ways. The Empire still supports and includes pre-existing traditions within the context of their overall Lunar philosophy, much as the Romans co-opted local cults.

Hang on, aren't the Lunars the Bad Guys?
If you have read anything about Glorantha before you might easily make this mistake because the default culture for PCs in Glorantha is Sartarite tribesmen. But they’re really just a bunch of hicks, while the Lunars are a cosmopolitan multi-cultural society.

What is Karse like?
It’s a medium sized city on the coast, beside the mouth of a river. The Choralinthor Bay and the oceans beyond it lie to the south. To the north is the wild region of Dragon Pass populated by beast people and barbarians, recently conquered by the Lunar Empire from even further north. To the east is Heortland, a dark ages style kingdom, and to the west is the insular Troll kingdom of the Shadow Plateau.

Troll Kingdom?
The Uz are a unique feature of Glorantha. They are bestial, horrific and cruel, yet they also have fascinating and ancient religions and culture. They are darkness creatures, born in the underworld (which they call Wonderhome) but now banished to the surface world. They trade and war with humans with equal ease and the people of Karse have a long history of dealing with them, and were even ruled by their overlord at one time.

What are the Rules?
This game will use the new edition, Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Likely homelands include Lunar Tarsh, Praxian Sable Rider and Grazelands. Sartar is possible as well. If you would like to create a character with a homeland further afield such as the Lunar heartland I have some resources we might be able to use to good effect, including the Yanafal Tarnils cult (Lunar war god), Danfive Xaron and others. Family history would only run up to 1617 as this game is set in the ‘classic’ RQ period.

Who are the Party?
The mission has been assigned to trusted members, allies and retainers loyal to Tarsh and the Empire. Ideally the group should include a Lunar military officer (Yanafal Tarnils cult) and a Lunar Priest/ess (Seven Mothers). Some other obvious choices are an Etyries merchant, a Noble and a Spy (thief, perhaps Danfive Xaron). There are plenty of other options though. As GM I reserve the right to be somewhat more generous in character generation, in terms of options and resources, towards character concepts that well serve the theme of the game.
 

[Psullie]

8 hours ago, simonh said:

I’m interested because I’m semi-house bound at the moment but I’ve not run a game virtually before. What are the pros and cons of Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds or any of the other options?or just doing it via Hangouts?

I should say if I do run a game, my first choice would be for a party of Lunars. I have a particular long term mission in mind.

I ran a test game with Roll20 last January, it was great fun and it really benefits by taking the time as GM to set up maps, handouts, mood pictures beforehand and avail of the shared screen, and the dice rolling macros are fun, easy for instance to create a hit location button. My only gripe was frequent audio dropouts which would result in players missing bit which can torpedo the pace the game. We alternated between R20 & discord for audio and saw no real difference. 

[PhilHibbs]

What was the Encounter Roleplay session that Jeff ran using?

[Joerg]

Interesting city sideview map, although not quite in keeping with the local geography.

I doubt that the Anatolian city of Kars had anything to do with the city of Karse/Carse, though. Interesting find, but without a port, this makes a poor Pelaskite city. The term carse is an actual scottish word:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carse

The word does describe the topography of the place rather well.

 

Even when not using the layout of Edwardian port city/castle of Caernarfon that formed the basis for Midkemia Press' City of Carse (which was published by Chaosium in its second edition, and was used in the house campaign at the time), the basic idea of a citadel, a walled city, and a city sprawled outside of that original walled city after the Oceans were opened again probably still applies (which means that using the map of Thieves World doesn't contradict any of these general aspects).

 

At some point in its history, the city was moved from the Dawn Survival site on the opposite shore of the River to its current location. The old cyclopean walls and their abandoned interior provide a ruin ripe for exploration and regular pilgrimages.

Karse is located below the Heortland Plateau, without any direct roads to the top of the plateau almost 1000 feet (300m) above. The river valley between the two plateaus used to have thrice the amount of water until the Lead Hills blocked the Creek-Stream River, so the old city is situated quite a bit from the river banks, and the newer city might be higher above the bank than a normal quay-side would be built up.

I used to have a wiki with several dozens of pages describing my version of Karse, based on the Midkemia Press layout and personal exploration of Caernarfon (in order to get a feel for the vertical aspect of that map which probably was created from a 15th or 16th century woodcut of the city).

The Edwardian castle-city colonies in Wales were among the most sophisticated in their time, almost approaching the levels of Athens or Roman fortification architecture (which was still in use in places like Carlisle or York). They were not the run-of-the-mill feudal architecture of their time, but functional new colonies on a sometimes hostile hinterland. That aspect still is quite spot-on for Karse.

 

In prior publications, Karse was described as having a Pelaskite population with many Orlanthi and Aeolian folk, enough so that at times it has been argued that the population would be standard Heortlander. The rulers of New Karse appear to have been Aeolian, possibly from the time of its relocation, but there remain strong Pelaskite traditions with regard to boat building and port activities. With the forests of the Upper Marzeel as a source of wood, Karse probably is the major construction shipyard location for Belintar's fleet in the eastern half of his realm.

 

[simonh]

Hi Joerg, thanks for the notes. I'll go through them and see how I can reconcile them with my own conception of the city. I'm aware my version of the city isn't canonical and although I'm quite happy to nudge it closer to canonicity where I can, it's not a major consideration for me. My Glorantha Will Vary.

The naming of the city I took the picture from is pure coincidence. I came across the image first while looking for references for my Karse game, loved it and then noticed the name clash some time later. Also the Anatolian Kars is inland. I cropped the picture to exclude some buildings in the foreground, which is where the port should be. My initial plan was actually to use the Thieves World map, but I liked this one so much I changed tracks.

I ran an early version of this campaign using Hero Wars back in the 90s. I'm really looking forward to updating it for the new game system. I have fairly extensive notes from the last run, but they really need revising as first time through I made it a bit too medieval/dark ages in feel.

[Karlak One-eye]

My group has been playing via Roll20 for over 5 years. I am in the UK and my fellow questers are US East coast. We use Skype for audio and Roll 20 for visuals - basically a virtual battle-mat. It works well and we have had some great sessions.  We do meet up once a year for a "lads" week of face to face gaming and it is great to have real figs on the table and to share a drink or two whilst in the same postcode but the Skype/Roll20 works well the other 50 weeks of the year. 

[simonh]

Roll20 sounds good, so I'll check it out and I've used Skype, thanks.

I'm thinking Saturday or Sunday evenings UK time / corresponding afternoon in the US might work?

[Jusmak]

I am also intersted in online play and and any setting will do, lunars as well. I have just spent 3 years just either playing solo or reading Glorantha material. Not too many chances to play tabletop game, living in coutryside now. I live in Finland, so europian timezone. Not sure how well I do with onlineplay, because of languageskills, but then I may exel as a troll, balazaring or another not so fluent in common. 

But, PLEASE, let me try, if timing happens to work out.

[Mac]

Really interested in this thread.  I too live in a rural area in Canada, so may have problems finding players ( although there is a games store in town) so I maybe lucky.  It will take me a few more weeks setting up and searching, but I would not be surprised to find my wife and I back here looking fir a game!  I had assumed I would just use Skype, but now I can check out these sites.  Thanks.

[Roko Joko]

FYI to anyone, in addition to this thread some other options for finding online games or players are:

• it's common on roll20 to post a game invitation and wait for players to find it using the search function there.
• some boards have dedicated LFG sections including rpg.net, fantasy grounds, reddit, and enworld.
• the unofficial Chaosium Discord server has an LFG channel. 
• there's different set of boards for pbp/pbf games... some for HQG were active on boardgamegeek recently.
• a few people have recruited for games on the Glorantha g+ group.

[Jarulf]

Simon, would an Irripi Ontor sage from Lunar Tarsh work?

Weekend evenings work fine 

 

[simonh]

1 hour ago, jarulf said:

Simon, would an Irripi Ontor sage from Lunar Tarsh work?

Weekend evenings work fine 

 

Sure, you can pretty much just use the Lankor Mhy writeup, but with associate cult magic from the Seven Mothers.

Why was your character selected for the team, and which goals would you prioritise? I'm a little concerned the character would end up in a supporting role rather than directly involved in the mission.

I'll have to think through how to do this - is it feasible for me to run it, how many players can I manage, agreeing character concepts. I think I might need to create a short questionnaire for planning and submitting character concepts.

I'd really like to do this, but it would be a big commitment. At this stage if anyone is up for it just for fun to create some characters and see how it comes together that would be great.