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View Full Version : Considering streaming my pencil & paper (Pathfinder) game.



Ualaa
12-06-2015, 06:58 PM
My group has played one version of D&D or another, fairly consistently (almost every Saturday) for the past 25 years. Currently, we've settled on the Pathfinder RPG, and have been playing it for three campaigns or almost two years.

We are using Gestalt rules (from Unearthed Arcana, a late 3.5 book) which can create some crazy characters. However, the dungeon that we're in (Rappan Athuk) is a rather nasty place, and the group does not have a whole lot of experience in dungeons.

I've kept a log of deaths, and some are kind of crazy...

Anyway, our sessions are Saturday afternoons usually 13:30-14:00 onwards to 22:00-02:00 (Sat evening/Sun morning), all times Pacific Standard Time.

The current group is four regular players, along with two guys that are hit or miss.

Just curious if there would be any interest in the streaming of a pencil and paper (miniatures on tact tiles) RPG. Basically a webcam that looks at the grid and characters, and the microphone to pick up the somewhat colorful audio.

Ualaa
12-06-2015, 06:59 PM
Here's the campaign journal: https://www.froggodgames.com/forum/necromancerfrog-god-campaign

Kayley
12-14-2015, 06:05 AM
I've been meaning to reply but kept getting sidetracked.
Never played or participated, but I would always watch my older brothers do this many moons ago, some of the funny things you can do while sticking to a story.

Favourite was my oldest brother showing off for me and wrestling a sewer rat... and the rat won (hahaha).
I cannot watch any live streams due to timezone differences, but I'd be keen on watching any saved footage.

MiRai
12-15-2015, 03:26 AM
I also meant to reply, but totally forgot.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as Kayley, where I normally don't watch things live, but usually on YouTube at a later date. I watched Spoony's Pathfinder game (http://spoonyexperiment.com/counter-monkey/pathfinder-live/) that he did a few episodes of, but I don't think it was ever completely uploaded (or even finished). I usually enjoy watching these things except when the players don't really know what to do. I've never watched a "professional" set of players go through a campaign before (although I would like to find a video of such a thing, if one exists), but I think when people are generally lost as to what they're allowed to do, or constantly talking over each other, then it tends to make the campaign a mess and difficult to watch (for me).

However, if you guys have been doing it for 25 years... well, I imagine that people know their shit and it might be interesting to watch that. :)

Ualaa
12-15-2015, 09:45 AM
My laptop doesn't have a whole lot of processing power, but in particular the video card isn't all that great. I figured with just the c920 as a source it wouldn't matter that much; XSplit gave me a warning when it started up. I streamed the play for a couple of hours, last Saturday, but had a video card related system crash. Evidently, there isn't enough power in the system.

The microphone on the c920 is pretty good, but unfortunately with a lot of people in the room and a lot of talking going on, it is very hard to understand what any one person is saying, even if the active player and dungeon master can understand each other. It is amazing how much cross chatter occurs, and the microphone even picked up audio from one guys phone, which while present I did not. One of our players attempted to institute a 'talking stick', but that idea did not fly.

There are a whole lot of interesting decisions, that have led to comical but unintended deaths. There is also an immense amount of wasted time, from a gaming perspective, although the social aspect of such games is an important part of the experience. I don't mind streaming the action, but would likely need to lower the settings and it might be an idea to selectively enable/disable the recordings, and then upload to YouTube just the combats or something.

The action doesn't really need to be in high detail, as the viewer is essentially looking at a cardboard rendition (token) of a given character or monster, with dry erase markings of a map drawn onto tact-tiles (a modular dry-erase jigsaw puzzle with a permanent set of 1" scale grid markings).

Lyonheart
12-15-2015, 11:02 AM
Slightly OT but thought it might be somthing you would find interesting Ualaa..your post reminded me of it>> D&D VR (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/dd-now-available-virtual-reality). Its a way for people to play tabletop RPGs ( in this case D&D ) together..even though they could be thousands of miles apart!