Whew. March and April got away from me. Hence why this article may show up a little late. With the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown of many places around the world, our social gatherings have changed. As a result, our gaming nights have changed. We can no longer gather around the same table, sharing snacks and drinks but are restricted to our computers and kitchen tables. If you’re anything like the Iconic crew, you have been itching to play some games, in any form.

The easiest way to get back into gaming with social distancing is with a conference call and at home supplies. Simply being able to see everyone at the “table” can go a long way to feeling like an adventuring party again. Zoom, Discord, Google Hangouts, and Go-to-Meetings are all platforms I have used to game with friends outside of my home. With each of these, you can have your dice and character sheets on your desk or computer and inform the GM of successes or failures rolled. Many games have basic gameplay and books available for free for the players who don’t own the books. 

What if you want to get a little more fancy? Discord has virtual dice-rollers you can install in your server. Then there are no more fudging dice rolls and an overabundance of natural critical hits. Although I haven’t actually seen that happen in the groups I play with, I understand some GMs want to see their players’ rolls. Go-to-Meeting, Discord, and Zoom allow your GM to share their computer screen. The GM could pull up a map, edit it with a photography program and voila! No more simple theater of the mind. The downside is the cost to use some of these programs, Zoom and Go-to Meeting in particular, if you have more than two people or want to go longer than 40 minutes. Someone has to pay for it. If the group joins together, the cost is reduced, so encourage sharing the financial burden.  Discord, Hangouts, and Jitsi are free for video conferencing. Gimp and Krita are great programs for photo editing or drawing on pictures. 

If that is still not enough for your group, consider Fantasy Grounds or Roll20. You will still need a separate video conferencing platform for Fantasy Grounds, but having character sheets, dice rolls, and maps available to share across the group is often worth the cost. Last month, Nick wrote an article discussing the various virtual tables you can use to enhance player experience. These are great. Using the Fantasy Grounds platform to create encounters and share them with your players is super helpful when theater of the mind is distracting or even difficult. My primary experience is with Fantasy Grounds. The GM has to shoulder the burden of the cost here unless everyone in the group wants to buy a mid-tier version to play together. The full GM version will allow them access to the full program, the ability to create encounters, and the players can get the free version to piggyback off…if they purchase the various games as well. In my personal opinion, unless you are running weekly games and planning to continue to run them through FG, the cost is exorbitant. However, I am always supremely grateful to the GMs who run a game on this platform for me.

In this time of forced isolation, you can still play the games you love. At Iconic, we have turned to the computer and internet to help us run and play games with people a few houses down and across the country. Now is a great time to try something new. If you are interested, the 13th  Age Discord channel has a virtual tabletop channel for options and help. Let us know your favorite ways to still get the gaming goodness. Stay safe, everyone. 

Written by Becca