Advice on running a game in which only one player is "off table"?

Hi, I have been running a campaign of 4e DnD with all players present at the table.  I use Masterplan to organize my campaign and run combat.  Now one of the players is moving to another town.  Does anybody have experience running a game where 4 players are at the table and one is playing remotely?  Could roll20 provide a solution to that, or might it be better to stick with Masterplan as the virtual desktop and connect to the remote player via skype/google+ and send screen captures of the Masterplan map?  Thanks in advance.

The use of webcamera and a mic works. If you use a battle map then point the camera where it can see the map and the people if needed and have a mic that pick up everyone. Place the monitor where everyone can see the player then just game. That is the old way of doing it. With roll20, you can run everything off a monitor where everyone can see the game board and have a mic to pick up everyone at the table. You then run the game using roll20 for the dicerolling for the online player. The voice/video (if used) will make it like he is at the table. There will be adjusting to work on but other people do it for their groups. Somewhere in the off topic (I think) is a thread that someone was having to go through what you are about to do. He was asking advice about mics that would work for his table of players. The setup would mostly be 2 computers on your end (Laptops or desktops or either/both) with one of them being a LCD/LED tv for the size of the screen. You would use the normal setup so that it would function as a DM screen and you have all your secrets on your monitor while all the table players would use the large screen for map view and what not. You would have to choose a token mover but that would be about it. The table players could roll their own dice which you could then subtract the damage rolls and such on the monster tokens and such. The online player would just use the roll20 roller (which could be macroed for speedy rolls) and he could also pass whispers to you for his secret talks with the GM. Does that help?

yes. thanks metroknight. big help. i will experiment with the 2 computer setup.

If you need help then just post here. There will be someone that will help.

I concur with Metro. If all of your players have laptops (I'm not suggesting they do, you could run everything through Roll20 if you wished with little hassle, each player could set their mic up and go, rolling their dice at the table instead of throught he program, but that requires all your players to have laptops, and the space to fit them all. Metro uses the same idea I use for games, whenever I play with people in a mixed setting as above. I use my large 52 inch television for the players at my home, setting up a laptop with a wireless mouse they can pass around to move their token. If your laptop/computer has an HDMI port it makes things very simple. The one problem you may have is the player who is not at the table hearing everyone. using a laptop with a webcam, you could set it up so that the player can see and hear whats going on a round the table, but there may be slight issues with communication. 

I'd run the table top in Roll20 for everyone.  Use Masterplan to track the encounters.  Easy enough to export maps from Masterplan and drag them into Roll20.

Is masterplan free?

Yes.&nbsp;<a href="http://masterplan.habitualindolence.net/" rel="nofollow">http://masterplan.habitualindolence.net/</a>

Our gaming group has settled on the exact same solution that Metro and Bryant suggested. We have five people on various choices, a TV with an HDMI outlet, a webcam to capture the guys, an a good omnidirectional microphone. We have one player who is a salesman, and he's played from the airport, various hotels, and even from Bermuda a few times. &nbsp;It seems to work pretty well!