Favorite Indies for Online Play

#1

Just started digging into the Gauntlet’s online resources, and wow!! Planning to run Cthulhu Dark with the Google character sheets y’all have graciously provided, as well as my weekly Mothership game, both on Discord. Can’t decide between Roll For Your Party and IRL/honor system dice. (I trust my players, but want to facilitate cooperative fun.)

What are your favorite titles to run over Discord, Google Hangouts, etc.? Sorry for the vague query, just dipping my toe in due to the obvious circumstances.

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#2

Glad to hear you found the online resources (you mean the Play Aids folder?). Making good online character keepers is a fine art and I’m really happy whenever I discover somebody bringing new optics, new spreadsheet wizardry or whatever into their keepers.

I personally am totally fine with rolling real life. It goes much faster and especially in systems where you roll frequently, it’s what I prefer.

Then again, the feel to stare together at the RFYP room and see how your plans collapse collectively as its very own appeal.

As I play mainly online, I can’t really say what works specifically well.

What I can say is that those games which specifically make use of online technology are super cool. The LAOGs (live-action online game) I designed are made for this purpose. But TTRPG can benefit from being together online, too. I like to have image boards (Google Drawing) where one can quickly drag and drop an NPC portrait or an image for the scenery. You can also play with the immersive fact that muting yourself can have an in-game reason. The frustration of only being able to text message becomes very real quickly.

#3

Viewscream by Rafael Chandler is made for online video chat play, and it is currently free to obtain: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/187177

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#4

I have always wanted to play this but as written it needs a very experienced GM to make it work I think. I would definitely signup if someone ran it on the Gauntlet

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#5

On ViewScream: It’s actually not that difficult. You could simply try it. Just yesterday four friends of mine played it without any prior experience. And I know of a group of friends of which none had ever GMed before anything online (but only played in some of my games) who played it and loved it so much that they now ran it 4 times in a row. Another advantage: it’s a short game. I would only highly recommend to pick the standard scenario first before running anything from the additional scenarios. It is better to get a feel for the game before throwing extra twists in.

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#6

Yeah, it’s more the issue of the very high improv requirement I think

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#7

I’m looking into either Primetime Adventures or Fiasco for a group. Both seem to work well as they’re based largely on the collaborative storytelling. Another one I considered was Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
For me, having something easy for my players (largely non-gamers) to keep track of is best. So the one-page RPGs like Lasers & Feelings, Honey Heist, etc. is good

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#8

That I can fully understand. In normal TTRPG you have all these moments of asking “can I have a moment”, or saying “um, yeah, well,” (which is in a larp already part of your in-character response), or “I think my character is saying something along the line of…”. That can feel intimidating and isn’t exactly for everybody.

It is important ot be forgiving to oneself and for everybody at the table to be relaxed about “quality” and rather look at intent.

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#9

My observation on game/system choice for online play would be that the lighter the rules system the better. I would also look for systems where only players roll dice … You roll/I roll slows online be okay a lot in my experience.
Once you have that in mind then my second decision would be based on the genre the table wants to play.

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#10

Those are my initial impetuses (impetae?) as well; glad to hear them backed up by experience.

#11

Personally, I have only played a couple of games online (VOIP). Apocalypse World works very well. Uncharted Worlds works very well too. Uncharted Worlds is more likely to need a Roll20 or the like to support the space maps and open sandbox than Apocalypse World but they both work fine. I would never run full versions of complex games that have hidden defense score or opposed rolls. They just slow everything down too much for online play.

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#12

Hi there! While I’m no expert on online play, I know For the Drama is a platform built specifically for running Descended from the Queen games online. Also, the creator of Goblinville has a guide for playing the game online, and Blades in the Dark has a fan-created guide to playing on Roll20. They’re all fantastic games, and the guides might have helpful resources you could port to other systems.

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#13

I am definitely going to check out the For the queen app. I feel like I will need to buy the game first for context though

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#14

Yes!! For the Drama looks so good. We’re planning on offering that at our next online meetup.

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#15

You don’t even need to. The instructions of a For The Drama game are part of the game. They are the first 10-20 cards you draw. You read the instructions together during play.

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#16

Actually, someone just reminded me of The Fall of Magic and it looks amazing. It was on my list to look into at some point, but I forgot about the list :slight_smile: Taking a second look, this would be perfect for storytelling with online play. Pretty much pure storytelling, tho, so if you were thinking of something cruchy it might not work.

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#17

I am trying to launch the Fall of Magic module inside Roll20. Do you know how to do it?

#18

We chatted on Slack, but in case anyone else wants to know.

  1. You have to Create a Game
  2. To the right-hand side, you’ll see Optional: Choose a Module. Find your module there, click in the middle
  3. Then, you should be able to choose “I’m Ready, Create Game”
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