Remotely AD&D, Part 4

Yet another update on our remote status.

After experimenting with more video conferencing tools, we’ve finally settled on Zoom. Enough so that when the free sessions ended (true now for most of the video solutions, including WebEx), I’ve got a paid subscription to Zoom.

Zoom does a few things better than WebEx. Zoom handles the chaos of group conversation better than WebEx. Individual speakers are also a bit less likely to have their first phoneme clipped off. The Zoom config permits disabling individual chat sessions. While a trivial effect, the virtual background feature of Zoom can’t be discounted. While it works without a green screen, I’ve been playing on a green screen and trying to have the background match where the PCs currently adventure.

Someone also wrote a dice-rolling app for Zoom – Figment Fantasy [Since removed from Zoom]. I’d thought about doing such a thing, even having gone so far as downloading the SDK for Zoom. But by the time I got around to it, someone had beaten me to it.

My usual view is the grid view (also referred to as the “Brady Bunch” view), as I don’t need to see the board on the screen. The players switch from pinning the whiteboard when in use (since it never “speaks”) or using the grid view or “display active speaker” view.

Author: Rick

A DM for *mumble* years, I've been playing AD&D since junior high. I've currently got two separate campaigns running, both in Mystara. I've been told when they handed out hobbies, I stood in the short lines. I actively cycle tour, kayak, play board games, read, develop home automation software, play Stars!, volunteer with the International and National American Red Cross, and work on a never-ending stream of home repairs. In my wake I've left paintball, medieval full-contact combat (SCA), computer gaming, Heroclix, and kite construction. View all posts by Rick