[Doc Chaos]

Might be a factor, in mine the mic is on top of the screen, the speakers on bottom.

[Prime Mover]

We've been using skype to bring one of our players to the table who's currently several hours away.  Were using honor system for rolls and I'm handling the webcam to show him around the table.

Problems
1. He occasionally rick rolls us.
2. Sometimes you find yourself talking to an animal. (Part of his camera software)
3 Zito media sux, we keep losing connection to skype ever few minutes, gotten worse lately and we've tried from several locations.

Other then that it's been a great way to bring an extra player to the table.

[burntheartist]

I think using something like Shards (http://chat.shattered-realms.com/cgi/shards.cgi) and it's roll script to make IC post (that are archived) and a conference call service like Skype would be a good combo. To explain rules and situate things. Then tell a story and save it for later.

[Doc Chaos]

My group and I tried play-by-chat. It takes forever and you just can't get people in the mood. How can you, when it takes you 10 minutes to type the description of a room with 2 people in it. We switched from text-chat to Skype and from there to TeamSpeak 3. I have an extra machine running which I use as a jukebox and TS3 handles a background music playing member of the conference WAY better than Skype. Mind you, we don't use webcams and the GM roles ALL dice for every PC and NPC.

[Irian]

For german speaking players there's a page called Drachenzwinge, where games over teamspeak are managed, mainly TDE (The Dark Eye), but also Shadowrun and others. They are using different programs there, from my time there, I personally prefer Fantasy Grounds (looks nice, shows Dice rolling and can be customized very good - there's a Shadowrun package available) - which is, unfortunatly, not free.

[Turtletron]

Look at this http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=149.0
this is the post I created to present a program named Rolistik, you should look since it's free. Works great with me and my group when mixed with skype.

It also have a customized shadowrun dice roller included, anyway, all written in the post named Rolistik in the gamers lounge, which i've linked above

[Chaotic Insane]

Doom there can attest to why the internal mic sucks. I constantly had to drop out of my calls with him when we were playing Guild Wars because my mic would start SCREECHING. Same thing with livestream AND ustream so it's probably just crappy internal mics.

As far as dice go, you could just get a chatzy (chatzy.com) which has a dice rolling feature (it's just like... type "/rolldie 6" into the chat field) to use alongside of skype or whatever to handle the call. You go to chatzy, make a private room, give your party the link and they all enter their names and you can just use its dice roller for them to post their rolls. You can use the same link forever and it keeps transcripts of all the posts. You can set the room to give you a little blip for new posts. It's nifty. We used it for a little bit just for RPing.

[John Schmidt]

Skype for voice communications, which is so much better than having to type things out. Being limited to five players on a confrence call isn't a bad thing either, since I limit the size of all my games.

Dice rolling isn't a huge deal, but it would speed things up to have it done by a program.

The most important thing is being able to share maps and pics. Where the players are located and where the npcs are is huge during fights. It was the biggest point of confusion during combats on Muxes and Mushes, players and admins were sledom on the same page and it resulted in considerable problems.

This whole concept fo playing online is really growing on me and I already have a couple of players interested.

[Zendead]

I have done it and we used honor for the dice and an online white board program to draw stuff out quick on DimDim. It worked out pretty well. as long as you don't loss people or have a call drop.

[Krypter]

www.infrno.net is in beta right now and it's offering a complete RPG online experience for free. Don't know how much it'll be when it's gold, but it looks pretty slick so far. I only tested the basic functionality and haven't played a game in it yet.

I've played in several games with Skype voice, and the problem has always been the same: lack of visuals means lack of body language, which makes it difficult to determine speaking order, language nuances and things like jokes. It just doesn't feel right. You need a group webcam to get everyone to see each other and have some human camaraderie.

[Zendead]

It is true the lack of body language and facial expressions is a bit of a barrier but after the first session it will work itself out.

[Lord Scythican]

I recently had a friend move 6 hours away from the gaming group. However we started using skype a few months ago with him and it seems to be working really good. Unless he rolls 77 on percentals, a natural 20, or his lucky number, we usually do not question him. He rolls them right on a piece of paper that is on his lap top. If it is a really good roll, he just tilts his screen down for us to see it. He rolls a lot of 20's but we never really question him on it, because he is missing out on some of the table fun like 24 packs and shots. 

There seems to be a little "barrier" to his personality. I think he is having fun, but not as much as he had when he was actually there. One of my friends said he ran a solo game for him and he seemed to like it a lot better.

[Krypter]

If it's with friends you already know it's a lot easier. If it's with complete strangers you met on the internet then it may take a long time to pick up on their personalities, speaking style and to develop a cadence of speaking so that everyone participates and has fun.