NerdNightmare

Ok, so you read part one of this guide and you have decided to play Dungeons & Dragons on Google Wave. You’ve gathered up some willing players & everyone has a character ready to go.  Now what? How do you actually play the game? The short answer is “Just like you normally would.” However that is a bit misleading. In order to play online you will have to make small adjustments here and there. This section of the guide will attempt to cover all of these issues, as well as detail the various functions of wave and dicebot. And again, there are multiple ways to go about this, you will have to figure out what works best for you and your players. If you think you have a better method than I am proposing here, please feel free to contact me! I’m always looking for ways to streamline my sessions.  Email – nerdnightmare(at)gmail(dot)com

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Tips, Tricks, and Utilities

The following information details specific functions, utilities, and tricks that I use when playing D&D with Google Wave. This section will no doubt be updated over time as I come across new or better methods.

Private Reply - The private reply function within google wave is an excellent method of distributing information to specific players only. The following images detail how to create a private reply.

Click the small black triangle that is circled in red in the first image. Select “Private Reply” from the drop down menu. Type the secret information in the new window & add the player(s) you want to be able to read the message.

Playback – One of the best features of Google Wave is “playback”. You can use playback to watch the entire history of a wave, it is very similar to watching a film. The reason this feature is so helpful for playing D&D, is that it keeps players honest. As DM, you will most likely not be watching your players preform their turns. There is nothing preventing a player from using dicey multiple times until they get a result they like. Playback allows any user in the wave to go back and make sure players are being honest.

Dicey – You will need a dice rolling bot for handling the various actions your players will attempt. There are a number of free google wave bots that will work, for my games I use Dicey. To add Dicey to your game, simply add the email address “area42dice@appspot.com” to your wave.

You will know that you have successfully added Dicey to your wave when you see a blue six sided die appear in the user area at the top of the wave.

Using Dicey – Dicey can handle any combination of dice roll you will need for D&D, but it takes some getting used to when you first use it. The command to activate a dice roll is roll().  Within the () is where you will tell Dicey what type of die to roll, how many, and any modifiers.

Example – A player is attacking a Troll. The attack was successful! To determine damage the player needs to roll 3d6 plus a dexterity modifier of 3.  The Dicey command would be: roll(3d6+3) Dicey will automatically create a new blip and give the result.

Dicey can also handle multiple rolls at the same time. Let’s say a player wants to climb up a stone wall and then jump to a rooftop.  You could instruct the player to preform both an Athletics check followed by an Acrobatics check at the same time and Dicey will give both results. This is useful in keeping the amount  blips in a wave to a minimum.

Caution –  Dicey is very eager to give you results. If you go back and edit a blip with a roll() command in it, dicey will give you a new result. This can be problematic. However, waves the built in playback feature will allow you to go back and see the original result.

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Encounters

The purpose of this section is to discuss combat and non-combat encounters, and how I handle them with Google Wave. Again, please feel free to contact me if you have alternate methods that might be simpler or more streamlined.

Non-Combat Encounters (NCE)

A non combat encounter is any scenario where combat does not occur. However, if your players are anything like mine, you may find that your NCE’s can quickly turn into CE’s at any moment. The main purpose of an NCE is to develop the storyline & allow for character role play.

The classic example of an NCE is the Tavern. The players enter a Tavern and meet an NPC that gives them information leading to a quest.

What your players decide to do in an NCE is up to them. Try not to steer your players into a linear experience. Perhaps instead of talking to the bartender to learn of a quest, your players may decided to bash his head in. If this happens, your nice NCE just turned into a….

Combat Encounters (CE)

Combat in D&D 4th edition is designed to be played on a grid. Characters have a speed rating that determines how many squares on a grid they can move per turn. This causes a major problem when playing online. I have come up with two very different ways of handling this, and I am sure other DM’s have come up with better options that I hope they will share.

Easy Mode – You can simply throw out the speed/move/grid size information altogether. Assume the players can reach any opponent in a single turn and that all spells are within range. This will make the game a LOT easier than if you were playing at a table, and it will make combat go much faster. However if you are playing with a group that wants to stick to the rules as closely as possible, then this method may not be an option.

Hard Mode – This method will require a lot more effort on the DM’s part. But if you want to provide a ‘by the book’ combat experience, this is the way to go. ‘Hard mode’ requires access to art creation software. MSPaint and the like can work, but software that uses layers, such as Photoshop & Gimp, will be more functional.

In the software of your choice create a square grid. Each square will represent one unit of movement. (i.e. a player with a move of 3 can move three squares.)

You will also need to create markers that represent the combatants and any terrain obstacles.

For the above examples I used Adobe Photoshop to create a basic grid, and four combatant markers. The black squares represent terrain obstacles.

The images represent the player & enemy movements that occurred in one round of combat.

This method allows the DM to maintain the original rules of D&D 4th edition combat. However, constantly updating and posting new map images, especially for a large battle, can get tedious. If you do go this route, you can make your maps and markers a lot more detailed than I have in this example.

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Using the utilities, tips, and tricks I have detailed in this section, you should be able to run a fully functional game of D&D online. In the next, and final, update I will go over my final thoughts on playing D&D via Google Wave. I will also discuss some interesting scenarios that have come up in my games that I had not foreseen, and rules I attempted but abandoned after playing D&D online for a few weeks.

Part 3 :  Final Thoughts coming soon….