Skype Noob Question

When using skype with Roll20 without video, how do you tell who is speaking (especially with a new group)? I noticed (on a mac) that if my cursor is over the portraits in Skype itself, the speaker names turn a faint blue (not much different than the normal white so a little hard to discern), but if I have the Roll20 window up top or the cursor elsewhere I can’t see this. Are there any adjustments or settings/options which make the current speaker more clear in Roll20? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Skype doesn't interface with Roll20 so you're not going to have any roll20 settings that affect who's speaking in Skype. If you have the Skype interface up on your screen, it will visually highlight whos speaking at the moment, but most folks don't setup profile pictures or use the same names as Roll20, so it can be difficult. In most games using Skype, I've suggested that folks reference their character name when speaking until folks get used to everyone's voice. IE: "Character 1 says....". , "Character 2 is going to move here and do something". "GM? Is character 3 able to do this awesome move?"

I wasn't sure what was possible between Skype and Roll20. Thank you for the confirmation and the suggestion, I'll have to try that!

Why do people prefer Skype over Roll20 standard interface? Seems like a waste of bandwidth, especially if using just voice. I know we all have our preferences, but from a DM perspective is there an advantage?

I think that there may be a way, in skype, to set this up. First let me say the best tip is, run Skype on a 2nd laptop. You can also run Skype on smartphone or tablet (while playing Roll20 on computer). The point is, if you can use 2 devices, it's nice to offload Skype to a separate device. You can always have features like the Mute button handy, and you can continually see the list of participants. Additionally I think Skype has offered a feature for this in the past, however, I've searched and can't seem to find any documentation on the feature right now. I've seen it done before, but failed to gather the exact method. I think that Skype has a feature that would be called a Chicklet, notificaiton, pop-up window, or Compact Mode with "Always on Top", though none of these terms yields anything from their Help desk today. If it can't be done solely within skype, I believe you can set it up with a combination of Skype and Windows techniques. Essentially the idea is, minimize Skype into the smaller mode where it's just a small box that shows who is talking, and use find the setting of Skype or Windows that would let you make the little Skype float "Always on Top" above your Chrome web browser. Some other apps with a similar feature are iTunes and VLC media player, which let you put a small "Play / Stop button" that floats above other applications.

Gold said: Additionally I think Skype has offered a feature for this in the past, however, I've searched and can't seem to find any documentation on the feature right now. I've seen it done before, but failed to gather the exact method. I think that Skype has a feature that would be called a Chicklet, notificaiton, pop-up window, or Compact Mode with "Always on Top", though none of these terms yields anything from their Help desk today. If it can't be done solely within skype, I believe you can set it up with a combination of Skype and Windows techniques. Essentially the idea is, minimize Skype into the smaller mode where it's just a small box that shows who is talking, and use find the setting of Skype or Windows that would let you make the little Skype float "Always on Top" above your Chrome web browser. I believe this is default behavior for Skype.

Chris n. said: Why do people prefer Skype over Roll20 standard interface? Seems like a waste of bandwidth, especially if using just voice. I know we all have our preferences, but from a DM perspective is there an advantage? I personally went to skype because in all the groups I was in, no one could ever keep Roll20's audio option going 100% of the time, some people couldn't get it to work at all. I just stuck with it.

Skype's push-to-talk option is also a godsend for folks who have noisy environments. (few things as disruptive to a getting into a game as someone's dog barking or a train going by whilst you're negotiating with a dragon over its next meal not being you)

I re-utilized an old PIII machine running Linux to be my Skype/IM machine. Like the other folks said, it lets you maintain the communications on a different screen, and offloads the work from your Roll20 machine. But yes, at times I still have to ask who said what.

Chris n. said: Why do people prefer Skype over Roll20 standard interface? Seems like a waste of bandwidth, especially if using just voice. I know we all have our preferences, but from a DM perspective is there an advantage? Both stability and portability for me. Not only can Skype be set up on a separate machine, but just having Skype in a separate window than the Tabletop is convenient even if running it on the same machine. And Skype is (at least right now) rock solid in stability. We used to use Oovoo, which, not so much...

Thanks for all the suggestions! I have a tablet so running off a second device is something I'll be exploring in the future if I can't manage to share the screen space between skype and roll20 on my monitor.