Playing Pen-and-Paper RPGs Online with Friends?

MotorMachineMercenar wonders: "My friends and I have almost 200 years of combined pen-and-paper RPG experience. As my gaming group has drifted apart (moving to different cities and countries to pursue careers and love) our game time has diminished to just a few nights a year during vacations. We've toyed with the idea of playing online but never got far. Now, I'm not talking about MMORPGs, NWN or anything like that. Just regular, open-ended pen-and-paper RPGing with old friends, not restricted by computer game mechanics. So we'd like to recreate the good ol' tabletop experience as much as we can. We've thought about using Netmeeting (or similar) to communicate with voice and maybe video, to share maps, character sheets, etc. What about throwing dice securely so everyone or only the GM sees the results? Does Slashdot have other ideas or better tools? Has anyone done this successfully?"

Comments

IRC

[SiliconJesus]

I've personally done this a few times, and Eggdrop + IRC = Good Gaming Experience.

Re:IRC

[SiliconJesus]

Building on your comment about maps, I only kept one for myself, unless it was an 'adventure item' Things of that nature (and riddles and runes) I kept in image files (.tiff / .jpg / whatever) and DCC'd as the party found them.

Generally speaking, you're right, they are slower, but also more 'in character.' The group I played with would be in two rooms #name_of_game and #name_of_game_ooc for any communication that had to be kept OOC. Then if someone missed a session, you could literally hand them the logs of the event and catch them back up.

tisk tisk

[nocomment]

YOu never tried sourceforge did you? ;-) I found this, I don't know it it's _exactlt_ what you are looking for but there's others. phprpg

Several Good Options...

[Anonymous Coward]

WebRPG http://www.webrpg.com/
OpenRPG http://www.openrpg.com/

And many more. Just Google it!

WebRPG

[MoodyLoner]

Try http://www.webrpg.com/

OpenRPG

[stefanlasiewski]

http://www.openrpg.com/

Not super pretty, but very functional. A bit like an IRC client with a GUI map capability.

If you already have a group of players, this product is great.

Re:OpenRPG

[mwheeler01]

I frequent OpenRPG but beware the servers are very unstable. This project could use some coders who don't think Python is the greatest

OpenRPG

[NearsightedBoy]

You might try OpenRPG, designed specifically for this sort of thing. Written in Python, completely open source, and has plugins for a multitude of pnp systems from your standard DnD to Shadowrun, Storyteller, GURPS, etc.

Macray's Keep

[oroshana]

I've been lurking on Macray's Keep for a while now. It seems to be a nice system so you might want to check it out.

Re:Secure Dice Protocol

[oroshana]

Irony Games' Dice Server is pretty nice and supports PGP authentication.

I did this once

[Vaevictis666]

...In a dungeon delve module.

Step 1: Scan the map.
Step 2: Load it up in a layer-enabled image editor (Gimp, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc)
Step 3: Make new layers based on room numbers (or one big one, but it's harder to erase)
Step 4: On the correct layer, black out the room in question. repeat for all rooms
Step 5: On a master layer, black out the rest of the map.

Now, as rooms are explored, either delete or make invisible the layer blocking the room, and export to a gif on a machine running a web server. Then I just notified the group (via irc, where everything was going on) that the map was updated, and they refreshed as often as necessary.

This has the added benefit of you both being able to see a "current" version of the map, and references locations by the same numbers used in the module.

Loyal Citizens play online

[jmlyle]

If you like your RPG'ing a little odd, try Paranoia-LIVE

Also

[Apreche]

Use one of the programs suggested by other posters for your RPG elements. Then use something like TeamSpeak or Gnomeeting for audio/video conferencing. I've found that trying to use IRC doesn't give you the full effect. Also set up a shoutcast server for the background music.

Commerical Products

[gary_hackathorn]

I know of two commercial products that would help you out.

1. GRIP Generic Roleplaying for Internet Players $35 - $55(Traveller Content) http://www.rpgrealms.com/Catalog/grip.html

2. ScreenMonkey $35 http://www.nbos.com/products/screenmonkey/screenmo nkey.htm

Both products handle maps and text based chat. You can hide unexplored parts of the map in both systems. You can create encounter descriptions ahead of time. They both have dice rollers.

GRIP uses a proprietary client interface. You can download a copy of the client for free. ScreenMonkey is based on a web server and uses a web browser as the client.

They both have some type of custom automation. GRIP uses a markup like macro launguage. ScreenMonkey uses VBScript.

Both have evaluation versions available for download. Since both products act as a server you will need direct access to the server.

You can try them both out and see what you like.

RolePlay Online (rpol.net)

[ghostlibrary]

This one was recommended to me. I didn't really like Grip or WebRPG, and bare IRC wasn't quite enough. Your mileage may vary.
http://www.rpol.net/rpol/

Klooge

[mudpyr8]

http://www.kloogeinc.com/werks/index.htm

I can't believe after all of these posts, no one has mentioned it.

I use this all the time. It works great for network play, but is also ideal for replacing your game table. We no longer use minis and just use this.

I have used all of the other products listed here (GRIP, WebRPG, OpenRPG, ScreenMonkey, Forums) and this is the best way to play.

It has great d20 support, as well as 2nd Edition AD&D. However, I use it for Savage Worlds, GURPS, and have been running Hero in it for over a year.

I cannot recommend this program enough. Version 2.0 is supposed to make it out by GenCon (I think) and will support fully GURPS, and many other systems.

I use OpenOffice to make my maps, but there are many map programs out there that work well. A new program coming is Dundjinni. The demo is great and I think this will be a wonderful tool.

Here's an okay shot of it in action at a local con.

I run both the client and server on my laptop with the client projected on the 15" LCD that faces the players. That way I can have my GM view and a player view. Works great!