Online / Remote / hybrid games

(I’m getting my article in quick this year!)

Some thoughts about running such games based on not a lot of actual experience in most cases.  I’m not sure I can define a difference between online and remote games as my experience is with games having a physical set up and one or more participants taking part on-line.  I’ve run online/remote games in two forms.

One was during Covid when I ran cooperative boardgames using Skype.  I had a webcam set up over the map so the other participants could see the map and the positions of the various pieces.  I’d scanned and sent everyone copies of the various cards on the games as they wouldn’t be able to read the cards over the webcam.  The mechanics are dead easy, the problems come from tackling competing priorities and resource allocation.  That worked fine though I suspect that the cooperative format helped.  I did this with the best resource allocation game I know, Thunderbirds 50, which came from Matt Leacock, the designer of Pandemic.  There’re a number of solo / co-op boardgames which could be run in that style.  A game I have, Levee en Masse is a solo game but happily players with three or four players deciding what to do.

I’ve also run remote figure-based tabletop game with a friend near Edinburgh.  These were on Zoom and I used two webcams, one looking down the table and one looking across the table.  I’d guess that’s a pretty standard format.  This worked ok with Alan v myself.  I used a gridded table so it was easy to move Alan’s units where he wanted to go.  Again, easy-to-use rules made the games flow well.  I’ve only stopped running them because it’s too difficult to move around the table now.  I may try again using a small table and more of a skirmish game.

I’ve also taken part in games run remotely by someone I know (though never met) who lives near Seattle.  Jon is another dedicated figures on a tabletop gamer.  Jon uses a hex grid so he can respond to moving the units as players direct.  He always runs the games and I’ve played a couple with one player a side but usually Jon run’s them with three players a side.  There’s a higher ‘banter factor’ but games tend to be slower.  That’s partly because Jon uses a sub WRG set of rules (proper 😉 wargamers will know what I mean) for renaissance games, combat takes significant time to resolve and you’re better off playing the rules rather than usung historical tactics.  The 18^th century games work much better. All this is on Zoom.

I took part at CLWG in a hybrid game that Jim ran about the diplomatic implications of the choice of a wedding gift.  I think the technology worked ok-ish but my memory of it sadly vague.

And that’s about the limit of my experience.    My thoughts for “online” games are several:

A few years ago I ran a game about defending the Peking Legations from the Boxers and Chinese army – the famous 55 days at Peking.  That worked ok with the players – all at the venue – playing the legations and the Boxer attacks being based on a deck of cards.  That could perhaps be played in the style of a webcam over the map with counters showing the dispositions of the defenders and attackers.  I suspect that I’d need to re-draw the map as I used a blow up of a map from the internet and it wasn’t as clear as it might be.  But otherwise it has similarities to the first type of game above.

The Congress of Berlin.  I did this as a test bed for Dave using Jitsi some time back.  It’s similar to and inspired by my Congress of Vienna/Dancing Congress game, set in 1878 to resolve the Russo-Turkish war.  I’d probably need to look more at break-out rooms in Zoom to facilitate ‘side conversations’ but I know Dave has looked at providing multi-rooms in Jitsi.  Another possibility is to just use the chat facility.  This would definitely benefit from a test run.

Another idea I have for a revolutionary committee meeting in Ruritannia which would, I think, be structurally similar to the Congress game.

I’m not at all sure about how well hybrid games (by which I mean with some players physically together and some playing remotely, just in case there are other definitions I’ve not kept up with) work, if only because all the technology has to be available (I don’t have the kit for it) and work.  Given how few attendees there  seem to be at the venue sometimes I’d almost suggest that each could bring / use a laptop and scatter themselves across the hall making it what I’d call a remote game.  Certainly I’d be looking at running games at home rather than running them at the church hall due to currently being able to get there (though that may change).

But really I’d rather take my first steps with structures I know can work.  I’d be very interested to hear other members’ experiences and thoughts on the practicality of what I’ve suggested.

Brian