We were down a few players on Tuesday, so I and the remaining crew (+<\/span>Bill Garrett<\/a><\/span> and +<\/span>Michael Williams<\/a><\/span>) took it upon ourselves to explore video chat alternatives.<\/p>\n Initially, we talked about Rocket Chat, but given that I have some need for Roll20, it became clear all we really needed from that service was the video\/voice component, which is provided to Rocket by Jitsi (https:\/\/meet.jit.si<\/a>), so we just went there instead. Set up was very very simple and easy, and aside from the feeling that the camera was really ZOOMED IN, it worked fine.<\/p>\n After checking it out, we thought we might switch back to Hangouts to actually play for a bit, but in the process of switching, the guys mentioned that http:\/\/Jit.si's<\/a> voice and video is basically achieved use the same tools that Roll20 switched to back in October, so if http:\/\/Jit.si<\/a> was good, maybe Roll20 had gotten better…?<\/p>\n (We used Roll20's native voice and video for a few months last year, but it had gotten too buggy and we'd dropped it before this upgrade.)<\/p>\n So we dropped back out of Hangouts, switched to straight roll20 and, following a couple settings changes+restarts, got everyone seeing and hearing each other.<\/p>\n And it was great<\/i>. Nice clean video. Nice clear sound. And, bonus, we're already in Roll20, which is where I wanted to be in the first<\/i> place.<\/p>\n So: if you've tried Roll20 in the past, didn't love it, I'd urge you to reenable voice and video chat and give it a try. You might be very pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n [^1]: The only face to face gaming I manage is with my kids. As an upside, gaming with my kids is pretty awesome. (http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/hacking-together-a-mix-of-world-of-dungeons-and-my-rebel-ops-hack-of-star-wars-world-to-play-with-my-kids\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n [^2]: Every week we log in to play is a new exploration of what Google decided to disable, break, or make less-good since the last session. It's been like this for at least the last year – steady degradation of functionality.<\/p>\n—<\/del><\/p>\n
Roll20: Online virtual tabletop for pen and paper RPGs and board games<\/a>