Deathwatch by Distance

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**rabid1903**

Evening all,

A few friends and I want to start a Deathwatch campaign. Thing is, we're all in the military and are currently in 5 different states. I know a bit of Vassal for 40k, and I was wondering if there was a good way to either use that or something else to potentially play our campaign online?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as we've been trying to figure this out for a while with no luck.

Thanks
-Rabid

**Eldarain**

If you all have access to the required resources couldn't Skype or an equivalent work?

**rabid1903**

I've actually never played Deathwatch or any pen and paper before, but I was under the impression that you used minis on a board for it?

If none of that is required, then I think Skype will work.

**Lynata**

My group is fine using IRC. You don't need any minis whatsoever.

However, having a map does help on occasion (may depend on the players' ability to keep track of things and the GM's to describe the situation), so that may be something to keep in mind. There's a number of free online drawing boards for people to use, though, so that shouldn't be a problem. There are even some map tools created specifically for P&P sessions, though those may need some settling-in.

**Balance**

Look for 'Virtual Tabletops' for possible software to help. Some are generic, others have modules for different game systems to add unusual die-rolling mechanics, online character sheets, etc.

**TimberWolf5871**

I play a Fallout RPG over IRC. We use a dicebot in a separate channel from the action, and have Google Docs for shared files and character sheets. It works pretty well.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I'd be interested in possibly joining you guys, if you're looking for players. I've been wanting to learn this game for a while.

**rabid1903**

Thanks for all the feedback, I'll let you know how it goes on our dry run this Wednesday

**Leigen_Zero**

Hate to be a shameless plugger of things-i've-heard-about-on-podcasts-but-dont-use-myself, but does this suit your needs?

http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=realm_works

Heard about it on the D6G podcast, seems live a vassal-designed-for-rpgs style affair

**rabid1903**

It seems pretty nice, but it's not out yet so we can't try it out this Wednesday. Definitely something to keep an eye on though.

**jareddm**

I recommend Roll20.

http://roll20.net/

It's extremely simple to use and I've run several games in it, Deathwatch included.

That said, while it has a built in voice chat, the voice chat isn't so great so I'd recommend a combination of Roll20 and Skype.

Will you be the GM or would someone else?

**TimberWolf5871**

jareddm wrote:
I recommend Roll20.

http://roll20.net/

It's extremely simple to use and I've run several games in it, Deathwatch included.

That said, while it has a built in voice chat, the voice chat isn't so great so I'd recommend a combination of Roll20 and Skype.

Will you be the GM or would someone else?

Is it a chat system? I don't see a download button.

**jareddm**

There's nothing to download. It's entirely browser-based.

You just have all the players make an account, start a campaign, then use the link provided to invite them to the campaign.

**TimberWolf5871**

I see...

**warboss**

Deathwatch (and the other non-2nd edition 40k rpgs) are old school 80's style type games that don't really benefit much from minis. IMO they're played better with abstractions inherent to the rules and the minis are useful only for visualizing roughly a battlescene (which can be done verbally). That said, using vassal or some such won't do any harm either.

**Lynata**

To be fair, the 40k RPGs all don't really seem that abstract in this regard, considering that the rules specify how many meters you can move and the exact range of your guns.

You still don't need a map or minis, but they'd definitively help. The alternative is to have the GM "eyeball" it, which means more or less ditching all those fancy meter-perfect distance rules.

That being said, this is an issue that a lot of P&Ps suffer from, and I'm not entirely sure how this level of detail can be abstracted whilst still preserving range-specific weapon qualities or character agility having an effect on movement speeds.
This may well be a case of there not being a perfect solution.