Ok, this is gonna be a long one. Settle in. Please subscribe to this discussion.

Respondents Total – 15

I am thinking based on what people said in the responses, we are looking at at least 2 groups of 7.

1 person indicated that they will have to wait and see on scheduling before being added.

People who have played before – 1 DM and 6 players – Is that too many? Just right? Too few? Weirdly, the info here was harder to find than I woulda thought.

The Groups

I made this trying to do a few different things. One, set up people who indicated they could play around the same time. Two, tried to balance experience levels with the game. And three, tried to match time availability. These are not set in stone. Just based on responses for now. You will note I have assigned “roles” for each group. As mentioned last week, I want to try to get some stuff off the plate of the DM.

The Creative Team is going to work together to create the map. I will get more into this later.

The Scheduler ensures availability.

The Record keeper will record stats, character progression, stuff like that.

If there are other D&D roles I am missing, let me know.

Group 1 – The Night Terrors

DM
Flaxon Jackson

Creative Team
The Kappa
Broken Yegg

Scheduler
Shipwreck

Record Keeper
Shit-Master Slutface

Players
forget-it-jake
JimmyJames

Playtime Schedule
Weekends Night had a strong preference in this group with Weekdays Night being the second highest total. All respondents also indicated they can do 1-3 hours. Preferred chat choice is Skype.

Group 2 – The Shapeshifters

DM
LibraryLass

Creative Team
BannerThief
Otakunomike

Scheduler
Evan3030

Record Keeper
Science is Bad

Players
Onanymous
MacCrocodile

Backup (Schedule crazy right now) 
Didactautolonomotopoeia

Playtime Schedule
Strong preference here for Weekday Nights. Second most popular was Weekend Days.

Tabletop Simulator
In case you guys missed the screenshot, this took me about an hour:
http://images.akamai.steamu…

I think this is gonna be better than Roll20. Not only for this, but if we ever wanna play anything else. It’s more of a toolbox than a game.

With that said, I strongly encourage everyone to get Tabletop Simulator on Steam (that’s important) and start messing around with it. Especially Creative Team members. There are an absolute ton of tutorials out there. It is on sale over at the Humble Store for half off. You get a Steam code with purchase.
https://www.humblebundle.co…

This is gonna be the hardest part of this whole thing, I think. The tools are all there and it’s not hard to learn, per se, but there has gotta be some effort put in.

The way I see it working is like this: The DM gets in touch with the creative team and says – “I need a medium map, an Inn and a Graveyard.” Or sketches the rough idea of a dungeon. The creative team then gets to work putting together the map for the DM.

There are two ways to do the map in Tabletop Simulator. The one I linked was using the 3D tools to drag and drop pieces for a 3D look. The other option is to go 2D and just basically stick a picture on the table under the grid. If the DM is looking to go really complicated, this might be a preferable route. If it’s a smaller setting, then it can let the Creative Team really get going.

The mod I used in the photo is available in the Steam Workshop for free and it is called Dungeon System. Everything I read basically said this is the one we want. It’s not just a table but has a TON of tools built into it.

Share what you learn among the other Creative teams when working with it. As we start to figure out things, I really think TS can do some awesome stuff.

Skype
A few of you have indicated you don’t wanna talk. Skype and Tabletop Simulator both have built in chat functions.

For those OK with talking, if you don’t want to share your real name, set up a secondary Skype name.

First Game
I know I am excited, and I hope everyone is, but I really think we should take at least a couple of weeks to let the DM get started on things, let the Creative teams start to figure out TS, and give the folks new to D&D to figure out their character and whatnot. I would suggest we shoot for the first game somewhere around New Year but will leave that up to the groups.

Wrap Up
Ok, I’ve said a lot here. Probably a ton of it wrong or dumb or whatever. Set me straight. Am I missing anything big? Anything you want to add or take out? Let’s hear them.

Again, please subscribe to this discussion. I can see us having a buncha discussions here and want to get as much feedback as possible.