Page 191 - Grand Line II, Part 3

11th Oct 2012, 6:00 AM
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Grand Line II, Part 3
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Author Notes:

Newbiespud 11th Oct 2012, 6:00 AM edit delete
Newbiespud
Author: DragonTrainer

Guest Author's Note:
"This comic was inspired by the time I tried to get Maptools working for my gaming group. See, the only member of the group who could get it up and running had left due to some... er... difficulties, which meant no Maptools. On top of that, Skype was acting weird at the time and kept dropping calls (or maybe that happened a different time). I must've spent hours trying to get it to work, but no one could connect because none of my ports were open. Eh heh... I hope I'm not the only one who had to spend hours upon frustrating hours on figuring out how to open ports... >_>

"Anyways, it was an honour to guest author for Newbiespud again and I hope you enjoyed these pages at least as much as I enjoyed making them. ^_^"

29 Comments:

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darkwulf23 11th Oct 2012, 6:04 AM edit delete reply
darkwulf23
Yep, I hate those things but it is the only way I can play DnD other than play by post. And the game moves too slowly then.
Zuche 11th Oct 2012, 7:10 AM edit delete reply
I type way too slowly to play online. It takes time to get the words the way I want them.

Play by post worked better for that, but several years of running a game took their toll. Not a proud time in my life, to put it mildly. Never running a show like that again.
Digo 11th Oct 2012, 7:42 AM edit delete reply
Online voice-chat programs could help now with that, assuming you have a decent internet connection?
Stairc 13th Oct 2012, 12:04 PM edit delete reply
Stairc
Yeah, that's why we made Pony Tales/Living Legends - so we could play an RPG without needing to use a board; making it really easy to just run over voicechat without map tools at all.
Dead Phoenix 11th Oct 2012, 6:18 AM edit delete reply
Me and my friends use Skype and maptools for all our games, personally had very few problems with either. Though all our custom stuff in maptools have been known to cause a few problems on occasion, it is generally easily fixed.
Digo 11th Oct 2012, 6:18 AM edit delete reply
I once tried opening a port for an internet game. Ended up "sinking all my ships" as my brother put it.

Luckily he's good with computers and figured out my problem: Me, mostly. ^_^; I had my internet configurations all borked up.
ben_nbtmn 11th Oct 2012, 7:21 AM edit delete reply
I prefer to roleplay over IRC, but you really can't do that with 4th Edition because you need a map.
Gden 11th Oct 2012, 7:44 AM edit delete reply
I've played on openRPG, it's an internet chat program that has maps that are modified in real time, which allows pc's to move their own character, and it also has a built-in dice program.
Cain 11th Oct 2012, 7:59 AM edit delete reply
Cain
some things never change, the internet is mysterious and never quite works right.
LoganAura 11th Oct 2012, 8:02 AM edit delete reply
LoganAura
Somebody needs to call a plumber to fix those tubes *Shakes head*
Digo 11th Oct 2012, 1:17 PM edit delete reply
"Thank you Mario, but your Client is on another Server."
KFDirector 11th Oct 2012, 8:12 AM edit delete reply
My group has played D&D over IRC for years, and used on-the-fly ASCII maps to handle combats without issue.

We've found it easier to adapt the same system to hexagonal grids (needed for GURPS) than we have to make any form of online mapping software work for more than two users at once.
Ranubis 11th Oct 2012, 8:13 AM edit delete reply
Ranubis
Ala Star Trek II:

SKYYYYYYYYPE!
Forest Flare 11th Oct 2012, 8:50 AM edit delete reply
Yeah, figuring out how to portforward is always a pain the first time, but it gets easier when you know how to do it. On a side note, if you still can't portforward for some reason, getting Hamachi to get up a crappy internet LAN for you isn't such a bad alternative sometimes.
CocoaNut 11th Oct 2012, 9:37 AM edit delete reply
OSU-gt. Give it a try.

That's all I'm saying.
Dark Deed 11th Oct 2012, 10:16 AM edit delete reply
Ahh... My first DnD party was by skype and maptool. It was heavily houseruled in a very bad way, but I had fun anyway. After that I play only by posts, because no one in my city plays DnD...
Azureink 11th Oct 2012, 10:34 AM edit delete reply
Azureink
We've all been there.

Also, last comic had a Gamers 2 reference, what with playing games well into the night... and Munchkin.
Kynrasian 11th Oct 2012, 5:29 PM edit delete reply
Yes, I did say I thought I detected one.

Waffles?
terrycloth 11th Oct 2012, 11:01 AM edit delete reply
We tried using maptools but no one could get it to even start pretending to work, so we gave up and went back to google docs. Google docs spreadsheets make AWFUL, HORRIBLE maps but they're still better than maptool's 'nothing at all'.
CrowMagnon 11th Oct 2012, 11:12 AM edit delete reply
My friends and I are currently running a Pathfinder campaign in Maptools. We aren't having any trouble with the program itself, but my crappy laptop (or 'craptop' if you will) keeps randomly freezing up and dropping my connection, which makes it incredibly frustrating at times.
CJT 11th Oct 2012, 11:34 AM edit delete reply
I've had to telecommute to the Pathfinder game a couple of times by Skype, and it was very frustrating. Every so often the connection would drop (because it felt like it), and video quality was lousy. But by far the worst was sound.

The human ear has a very wide "dynamic range". We can hear anything from a whisper to a train whistle clearly. Microphones have much worse dynamic range. Cheap webcam microphones doubly-so. Combine this with a large echoing living room, people sitting at widely varying distances from the camera, and two _parrots_ screeching every so often, and hilarity ensues.

Part of this could be solved by using a better microphone, but I still vastly prefer gaming in person. (That, and the parrots will happily destroy anything that can be destroyed, so an expensive microphone is a Bad Idea.)

Maps have never really been a problem for us. Once in a while we'll quickly sketch a battle map, but most of the time a verbal description of who's in range of who is sufficient.
Guest 11th Oct 2012, 12:29 PM edit delete reply
Dear everyone: TabletopForge on G+ exists.
Colin 11th Oct 2012, 3:02 PM edit delete reply
Has anyone tried roll20? Still waiting to take the plunge.
Pete 11th Oct 2012, 3:22 PM edit delete reply
Yup. It mostly works just fine right out of the box, if a bit lacking in features at the moment and tends to get laggier the longer a campaign runs (though you can fix that by making a copy with no chatlog). Still, compared to the misery and pain of the other programs my group tried, its an absolute godsend.
Metool 11th Oct 2012, 4:26 PM edit delete reply
I can confirm this, mostly.
Pete 11th Oct 2012, 3:22 PM edit delete reply
Yup. It mostly works just fine right out of the box, if a bit lacking in features at the moment and tends to get laggier the longer a campaign runs (though you can fix that by making a copy with no chatlog). Still, compared to the misery and pain of the other programs my group tried, its an absolute godsend.
Tempest Spark 2nd Dec 2012, 12:34 AM edit delete reply
Roll20 is the best online tabletop program ever. I've tried maptools, I've tried TabletopForge, but they all pale in comparison to the simple ease of Roll20. Browser-based, no connection worries, just jump in and game. Takes like 10 minutes to get started. www.roll20.net
Draft 11th Oct 2012, 5:51 PM edit delete reply
I just use Roll20. It's a lot simpler.
Akouma 11th Oct 2012, 8:54 PM edit delete reply
Akouma
While I did have fairly savvy friends and a basic knowledge of how hosting/connecting works in general (and the power of Hamachi the Wonderprogram), I didn't have much issue playing with my online friends through Maptools. Honestly, it's one of the most fantastic gaming services I've ever used. Between being able to actively differentiate between in- and out-of-character chat in the text chat (surprisingly amazing feature that we used a lot, especially so we could roleplay in combat without disturbing things while the DM and the active player used voice chat), a pretty solid in-built dice roller, and all the other little things that make it wonderful, I loved it.
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