I'm thinking of adding a couple of my events to the virtual version of GaryCon and have some questions as part of that decision. How "virtual" do people expect this to be? A lot of the tools let you do crazy things to prepare for games (more than I do for my in person games in most cases). With a limited amount of time, are people generally cool with using the tools mostly for the whiteboard and video chat? I'd hate to run a game and everyone be disappointed that it didn't look like a video game. My plan is to send out pdf scans of character sheets and that is about it. Is there a centralized point or set of tools for this? When I've run virtual in the past with friends, it was often a big pain to get everyone working prior to starting. Thinking of doing that with 5-8 people I don't know sounds daunting. Is there a place where DM's for VGC have been discussing issues and solutions, best practices, etc? I've looked and haven't found one yet. Is there a way to offer the players who got into the games I'm going to run first dibs on the spots? Thanks for the help, Kevin
Hopefully other people can provide technical assistance. All I can say is: I hope and think people will have the sense to keep their expectations very modest. DMs haven't prepped to run their game virtually, lots of people are going to be using the software for the first time, there may be system overloads. Be patient, be flexible, be prepared for something not to work with your system. Also, I'd add at least 1 hour to my event length purely for "sorting out tech issues and getting everyone up to speed on the basics time".
I'm seeing some DMs using Google Hangouts for audio & video, sending out pregen characters by email and letting everyone roll their own real dice. Some are just doing audio only, like a conference call. Nothing fancy, quick to set up, and just like playing around the table (unless you need battlemaps and minis). I don't think anyone is expecting a video game experience, just a good game however it's run. Personally I'd keep the player count low (5 or less) to avoid latency issues that affect everyone playing and I think more than 6 is too much for everyone to have a good virtual experience. Jen Brinkman included a comment that players from her tabletop games will have priority no matter who picks up seats (see https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xii-virtual-tabletop-gaming/schedule/100) . I think you can then contact your players (including those on the waitlist) by email through the tabletop event, get everyone to respond, and email out your virtual game details to those from your original list. There's some discussion and a lot of help available on the unofficial Gary Con Discord server. https://discord.gg/vV5Smus
