For those of you planning on joining the Wed. night hangout, go away. There be spoilers here.

Wed night I'll be running my first online game for a few guys here on the boards. I'm curious for those of you that have run these type of games before, how do you handle character creation? Do you ask the players to make their characters together during the first online session or do you allow them to come to the table with their characters ready?

Has cheating ever been a problem for you while playing online?

What are some tips for running a game online as opposed to in person?

Not being a computer guy, does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonably priced, headset and mic?

As far as play goes, and this is just a general question, how do you plan your first session without knowing the characters who will be taking part? I'm running (Go away players this is the spoilery bit) a light hearted adventure I've put together called Save the Womprat..

The players are hired to help a scientist find an escaped lab womprat. She has a tracker and, but loses the signal as it enters a canyon. They'll have to actually fly through the canyon to follow the signal. As they enter the canyon a group of space hippie womprat worshipping cultists begins pursuing them.

Once the lab rat is captured, they are hired to transport it to a laboratory research station. The rat escapes on the way and begins chewing his way through the ship. This is about the same time the PC's get jumped by pirates.

I can wing it from there. I'm really hoping the womprat becomes a pet, but we'll see.

Any help is advice is appreciated, thanks.

For those of you planning on joining the Wed. night hangout, go away. There be spoilers here.

Wed night I'll be running my first online game for a few guys here on the boards. I'm curious for those of you that have run these type of games before, how do you handle character creation? Do you ask the players to make their characters together during the first online session or do you allow them to come to the table with their characters ready?

They should let me know what their concept is, but I largely trust them to come ready.

SPECIFY STARTING OBLIGATION LIMITS! Seriously, players will take 1000 starting Obligation if you don't. Even if you say to just use what's in the book so many GMs house rule the obligation system it's a good bet your players will still get it wrong.

Has cheating ever been a problem for you while playing online?

No

What are some tips for running a game online as opposed to in person?

It's largely the same, you might want to look into Roll20 though, it allows you to show images, maps, track Init and so forth. I find this helps as there are some thing you need a simple map to describe, and the ability to bring up a mood setting image is handy.

If you are willing to pay you can even use an API script to roll dice in Roll20, and Roll20 will be adding a Character Sheet feature soon allowing anyone with HTML experience to create a proper in-system sheet, including nice push button Dice Rolling that can work with the Dice script. (I dont' know HTML very well, but I hacked (as in crudely went after it with a digital axe) it well enough to confirm it works and a more skilled individual could do it better and cleaner.)

Not being a computer guy, does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonably priced, headset and mic?

Something big with the mic on a flexible arm. If you go to best buy or whatever and get one with a ridged arm, or thats small and flimsy, go ahead and get the warranty, you will need it. Also get an extension cord for it, if nothing else it'll keep you from accidentally walking off and yanking your laptop off the desk.

As far as play goes, and this is just a general question, how do you plan your first session without knowing the characters who will be taking part? I'm running (Go away players this is the spoilery bit) a light hearted adventure I've put together called Save the Womprat..

Contact all your players and ask for their Character concept up front and a copy of their sheet when you start playing.

The character concept can make sure you generate a starting adventure and campaign that works with a group composed of whatever they end up playing. Once you have their sheets, you can note their character skills and talents and tailor encounters around those (so you don't end up running an encounter that requires ten different Knowledge:Bantha Mating Habits checks on a group composed entirely of grizzled Bounty Hunters and Mercs).

Some players shy away from coming up with backstories, but if nothing else, at least make them describe their obligation in 3-4 sentences. Whenever I get stuck on what to do next, I start looking at the obligations and motivations of the characters.

Wed night I'll be running my first online game for a few guys here on the boards. I'm curious for those of you that have run these type of games before, how do you handle character creation? Do you ask the players to make their characters together during the first online session or do you allow them to come to the table with their characters ready?

First let me start off that I run my ongoing mostly-weekly game online via Roll20 & Google Hangouts. I've run for over twenty sessions now if you count the Session 0's.

I personally ran Session 0 at the very beginning where the group did chargen together as well as contributed campaign elements they wanted to see. That way everyone was together and I got a sense of the group and how they interact with each other and me before the game even started. Also, it is far easier to coordinate chargens when everyone is together because they can talk and come up with ways their character know each other, etc.

Has cheating ever been a problem for you while playing online?

No. I'm not sure how they would even cheat. Plus, I screened applicants to my game to weed out twink power-gamers from the start.

What are some tips for running a game online as opposed to in person?

Be mindful that you are all online via the internet, that means computers are involved that have the ability to have multiple things going on at once. You have to work harder to keep your players all engaged. At the same time if you have to do split party, then you don't have to worry about leaving half your group bored for 5 minutes at a time as you switch back and forth (mainly b/c the other half finding a way to amuse themselves for 5 minutes won't disrupt the half that has the 5 minute spotlight).

Thankfully EotE is narrative and you don't need grid maps galore prepared. Depending on the skill level and types of players, having set pieces helps (scenic art that captures the environment).

Make the schedule clear. Start on time, end on time as much as humanly possible. If you will be late, notify in as much advance as possible.

Also in that vein, I recommend having them establish how the group came together and know each other during the chargen process. Group time is at a premium and even moreso via online b/c ppl are often using the capability of online gaming to keep gaming in their lives despite increasingly busy real life schedules. Do not let there even be a chance that you lose an entire session of adventure time to aimless putzing around b/c the characters don't know each other yet.

Not being a computer guy, does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonably priced, headset and mic?

You can get a minimal no-frills one for about $20 but you'll want to replace it after you've used it for a couple months. Decent ones start around $50 with the hardcore ubergamer ones at $100+. I recommend you go to a big box electronics store where they have a display rack of ones you can try on if possible. You will be wearing this thing for many hours... it is imperative you find a comfortable pair.

As far as play goes, and this is just a general question, how do you plan your first session without knowing the characters who will be taking part? I'm running (Go away players this is the spoilery bit) a light hearted adventure I've put together called Save the Womprat..

I chose to run Session 0 so the group makes characters together and the GM (myself in this case) was on hand to answer questions and make sure their efforts mesh into a cohesive group of characters. If you guys can finish within the first half of the game time, then you can start playing. While they are making their characters you also have time to tweak the start adventure to what they are making. Especially when you make them do the concepts first before stats. If you have a sense of what their Obligations, Motivations and Career/Specializations are you have a lot of information to customize an adventure with while they number crunch.

BTW, your planned adventure sounds incredibly amusing. Good luck with it!

Thanks guys!

I'll be screwing around with D20 tonight trying to get it to work, although I have no plans to add any sort of maps. One of the things I love about this game is the narrative combat.

I'm thinking I'll go with Session 0 and just use that to make characters, possibly doing the first couple of encounters, before we call it a night.

If anybody else has suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Just curious, there's no way I can run all this through my iPad is there? There's a great coffee shop down the street with awesome wi-fi and bottomless coffee cups. I was really hoping to sit out on their porch and run this, but it's not looking too promising.

In theory yes you can if you've got the right gear. Get all the roll20 stuff setup and solid so you won't need to add anything on the fly, and use Skype running on your phone for the comms instead of roll20s integrated system (Skype has been more reliable for me anyway).

I believe Roll20 has tablet functionality though it might only be at the Supporter level ($4.99/mo) on up. Worth looking into.

I believe Roll20 has tablet functionality though it might only be at the Supporter level ($4.99/mo) on up. Worth looking into.

I think so too, I do suggest scraping together the cash for it. And it works across the board so all your players get the same benefits. I sucked it up and went all in, totally worth it, but I luv to gm.

Thanks!