How many joined Roll20 with a stable group of players?

Before I was aware of Roll20, I had been running my game, as a GM, with a dice server, a web camera, Flockdraw and Skype for about two years. This was all as a solution to the problem of player and thread breakup. Many of my gaming friends had scattered all over the country and around the world. These tools were a way of recreating a virtual living room where we could play these games even though some of us were in Seattle, some in Portland, some in NYC, some in Bahrain and some in Thailand. Using these tools made it possible for me to maintain a stable plot thread and a stable group of players. In the old days this was a common problem when plot threads would get derailed because people moved away. Thanks the Internet and broadband, this is no longer a serious issue. I was looking around for virtual tabletop tools for a few months before settling on Roll20 back in April of this year. And migration to this tool was easy. Thanks Orr Group! So I came in with a stable thread and stable crew of 6 players. As such my game didn't need to advertise here. I was just wondering how many other Roll20 GMs out there are in a similar context?

I brought 2 of my current group in with me. Recruited 2 more, but from elsewhere online, not from within the Roll20 forums. We've been going since last April, everyone seems happy.

It's hard to find a stable RPG group on or offline ... I tried for over 10 years offline and failed consistently, I just didn't have gamer friends. Online is equally as hard, you find a game and it dissolves after 1 session, if it ever starts in the first place. I would have to say from my perspective, as a person of many hobbies and interests, this has to be the MOST difficult hobby to get started in. Many hobbies require large investments of money and time but are easy to find a group to gather with, RPG's are neither expensive or overly time consuming but in my experience almost impossible to participate in. So ... now that I'm off topic, I didn't join Roll20 with a stable group of players. Just me, an unstable group of one! :)

RE-Zen said: It's hard to find a stable RPG group on or offline [...] Many hobbies require large investments of money and time but are easy to find a group to gather with, RPG's are neither expensive or overly time consuming but in my experience almost impossible to participate in. Well, my friends and I are kind of exceptional I guess. We've long been RP gamers for decades, myself back until 1978, the hobby itself essentially formed the basis of our long term friendships. Usually what stopped plot threads for us in years past was friends moving away but that's no longer an issue. I don't know what to tell you, Zen. I guess keep looking around here for open games and looking around your neighborhood, school or place of work for people for people who do this hobby. We exist. We've existed for a long time. Certainly long enough to utterly warp the nature of the software and video game industry, that's for sure!

Of that I have no doubt, seen it for myself ... Rest assured friend I will keep on keeping on, I always do. I'm glad that the hobby has been around as long as it has, I'd would have missed out on some of my favorite reading. I intend to keep looking, eventually I have to find what I seek ... statistics says so and math never lies.

Stable group here we have been playing since before the D&D cartoon. It was roll20 that got us back together as we all now live in different corners of the US and Europe. I have to say as a DM I have long dream't of a table top like this, drawing on battle maps is one thing this.... love it. I feel your pain RE-Zen and count myself lucky to have had a core group of friends with me over the last 30 years to develop the realms we now play and live inside of.

RZ, welcome home. :) I'll stick with it if you will.

You know it, brother!

I came in with a group of 5 already and I have been less than impressed with the "new" people who want to join my group without being willing to share any information about their character until >10 minutes before game. Is it really that common to walk in with an unclearanced character?

Another anecdote for you, I find it much easier to find quality players online than in person. I think the key is to vet them out a bit before allowing them to join the campaign. I currently have a group of 6-8 pretty strong players and our campaign has been been running weekly for five months so far.

I came in with a steady group already. My players all meet in person for our sessions and just use roll 20 for the virtual table top. I'm very tempted to join a game that runs fully online though since that would actually enable me to PLAY again but I just don't have the time to commit my full focus right now to another game and that wouldn't be fair to other players/GMs. I can't remember the last time I wasn't the GM.

G.Matt. said: Stable group here we have been playing since before the D&D cartoon. It was roll20 that got us back together as we all now live in different corners of the US and Europe. I have to say as a DM I have long dream't of a table top like this, drawing on battle maps is one thing this.... love it. That's more or less my story too. Long time gamin' friends or the re-acquaintance of old friends I haven't seen in years who can make time for a weekend session. All possible with this tool! Who PhD. said: I came in with a group of 5 already and I have been less than impressed with the "new" people who want to join my group without being willing to share any information about their character until >10 minutes before game. Is it really that common to walk in with an unclearanced character? I came in with six. Anyway, yeah, as a GM I wouldn't let that fly either. Show me the character at least a day beforehand or you're not on the bus. CyberKraken said: I came in with a steady group already. My players all meet in person for our sessions and just use roll 20 for the virtual table top. I'm very tempted to join a game that runs fully online though since that would actually enable me to PLAY again but I just don't have the time to commit my full focus right now to another game and that wouldn't be fair to other players/GMs. I can't remember the last time I wasn't the GM. For me, most of my friends are now scattered over the planet. This tool is really the only way we can keep the plot thread going. Luckily for me my group of gaming friends is large enough (More in addition to the 6 I mentioned above.) that we have 3 other GMs in addition myself--all playing different rule systems. As such, I get my player fix.

I thought I'd never be able to play D&D again when I moved away to college. No where in oregon does the gaming industry exist really. Since I'm getting my bachelors in video game art and design it was clear I was never going home again except to visit. Then a friend of mine, a newbie to D&D whom I found reading the 3.5 DM book with a 4th ed. player's handbook off to the side and a 3rd ed monsters book as well. I knew he clearly needed help. *sigh* So as I was talking with him he told me about roll20.net. Then I quickly drummed up some players, I ended up with 10 interested friends and had to clone my campaign because honestly 10 players at once would be chaos. I put the more experienced players all together in one group and the newbies that were unsure together, this way they wouldn't hold back the experienced players but they could make mistakes and laugh together since there was no pressure. no one knew what they were doing so it was okay to be goofy. Though, despite how much I tried to convince the newbie group, the players that are old hats with this game are goofballs too. I've created situations in the campaigns as well where both parties can sort of interact over planes of existence. For example I accidentally didn't change who I was speaking as in the chat and had myself set to Zalgorath, one of the PCs, who then panicked when another voice spoke through him and quickly erected an altar to this supernatural being. I then later put the same altar int he other groups campaign and had an apparition of Zalgorath appear. each of them was then possessed and it was a wonderful time. Though the experienced PCs then later decided to rob the newbie group >.> we shall see what the newbies do in return.

Who PhD. said: I came in with a group of 5 already and I have been less than impressed with the "new" people who want to join my group without being willing to share any information about their character until >10 minutes before game. Is it really that common to walk in with an unclearanced character? Yeah I had a couple of the newbies that were this way. Pretty much their whole situation was that they were so intimidated by this game (which never ceases to surprise me that anyone would be intimidated) that they can't make decisions. Or they just have a hard time deciding, after all there is so much choice making to do at the beginning. With one of my characters who has decided to keep her name "######" because I was using that as a place-holder and she was like yep that's my name.... yeah I know, but now we call her "sex-hash" because she has sextuplet hash-tags so it turned out. Anyways I had to pretty much just make her char for her so she could play. She couldn't join us on the first play through because she had absolutely nothing ready and a month to prepare. She's steadily coming into her own and loosening up a bit. Until she's ready to manage her character I've pretty much taken the liberty of managing it for her. Since when I let her do it she wouldn't. She's started to show interest in perusing the player's handbook and has asked me about various spells she wants in the future. We're getting there but it's a slow process. This was a case of indecisiveness at it's worst. I'm not sure if it was intimidation or that the poor girl is bad at making decisions in general but sometimes you have to guide them even if that means handling their char until they feel comfortable.

I came in solo but I also came in to run a game. My current findings, as a PF GM, is such: -A lot of players don't care to read your rules, they want to play the magical fairy kobold summoner with a 47 point build whom is also lawful evil -A lot of players don't care to give you details until they're ready, which is five minutes before session -A lot of players spend too much time outside of your game, as in not playing, as in not letting you know they'll be absent but rather just being absent -A lot of players don't play well with each other since they build a character based on what they want, not what the group needs On the flip coin of that: -When you find good players, they tend to be really good. They stick around, play well together, and follow you into your future campaigns -Good players tend to deal with the bad ones in game. Usually with a war axe.

Red C. said: No where in oregon does the gaming industry exist really. Not even around Portland? That's kinda sucks. Gamers in Salem, Eugene and Portland need to get organizized And it's not the case in Seattle, where I'm from. We've got WoTC and Green Ronin down in Renton and Cheapass Games in Seattle. It's very definitely a gamin' town! Waffles said: I came in solo but I also came in to run a game. My current findings, as a PF GM, is such: -A lot of players don't care to read your rules, they want to play the magical fairy kobold summoner with a 47 point build whom is also lawful evil -A lot of players don't care to give you details until they're ready, which is five minutes before session -A lot of players spend too much time outside of your game, as in not playing, as in not letting you know they'll be absent but rather just being absent -A lot of players don't play well with each other since they build a character based on what they want, not what the group needs On the flip coin of that: -When you find good players, they tend to be really good. They stick around, play well together, and follow you into your future campaigns -Good players tend to deal with the bad ones in game. Usually with a war axe. In general, with players, the GM needs to crack the whip on occasion. I get to review all characters for at least two days before I let the player in. If I don't like what they want, I ask them to build a new one. (This filters a lot of immaturity out, I find.) I don't run a session unless I can guarantee four players in attendance ("A quorum of four," we like to call it.). I never run sessions with more than 6 or 7. Even with good players things slow down too much in combat an other physics intensive situations. I expect to have a working copy of all player's character sheets after every experience award in PCGen format. (PCGen keeps the bookkeeping and numbers organized.) My copy of a player character is necessary if occasionally players miss a game then I can have another player handle that character I've never really had a serious problem with players with bad attitudes. What I find is that the bad ones, the bored ones, the uncooperative ones tend to just not show up at some point and I write them out of the plot. After a while you do wind up with a good group of adults with good sportsmanship.

I finished college a couple of months back so the group I had was to dissovle. I had previously been introduced to Roll20 by a friend of mine so I made it my mission to find out how it worked. After some time I started a second group with friends who live to far away to play offline. I generally find that smaller groups are easier to maintain as people really count on each other to do their jobs and show up when they are needed. I've never really experienced any problem players, although I have experienced players who just don't seem all that into the game and that for me is the most frustrating, especially considering all the hours a GM has to put into sessions.