Playnig with a group both face to face and online

[Jasche]

Hi Everyone,

Me and my group have been using Fantasy Grounds for our two Pathfinder 2e campaigns for the last year, and as things in the UK begin to allow people to meet indoors so we are looking at how to do this. The complication would be that I will have one person coming in online and through MS Teams as a call and my other 3 players will be face to face. I have seen how people use FG face to face, but how can I use it in a hybrid model? I notice that for die rolling manual entry would allow face to face players to roll their own physical dice and online players can still roll virtual dice. But are there any other tips people would have or things that I need to consider in running this?

Thanks alll

[Nylanfs]

Use a timer for each person so you don't forget about the online person.

[LordEntrails]

If possible, have a webcam setup so you have visual video with the person. That way they can see the folks in the room, and the folks in the room can see them. It will help with the feeling of connectedness. You might even be able to setup the screen their video is display on like a chair/person around the table.

[Ecks]

I ran a year and half long campaign in this hybrid model, with 3 players in person and 1 player remote (though this was using Roll20 before I switched to Fantasy Grounds). I think the most important thing is to make sure the remote player doesn't feel excluded at all and can see/hear all the same information as the in-person players. Using Fantasy Grounds for displaying the maps and tokens will help with this, as will having a good video setup where everyone can see and hear each other. It'll also take some effort by the DM and in-person players to make sure to not talk over the remote player (side talk around the table becomes much more disruptive).

In my setup I had two laptops - one for the DM and another set up to use for the remote player's video. I also had a 3rd monitor laid flat in the center of the table to display maps for in-person players. I used digital tokens for both the players and NPCs, but the in-person players also brought miniatures to set on the map monitor (scaled to a roughly 1" grid). The in-person players rolled physical dice, and the remote player rolled virtual dice that displayed on the center screen so everyone could see their dice as well.

I used a cheap wide angle webcam (120 degree) that could capture all players and the DM and an omni-directional microphone (Blue Yeti) placed close to the DM but where it could clearly pick up everyone's voice. The laptop speakers weren't very loud so I added a pair of external USB speakers so we could all hear the remote player.

I also had a wireless keyboard and mouse (connected to the "player" laptop) on the table for the in-person players to use. One in-person player was in charge of moving the PCs on the map so the remote player always knew where everyone was.

Overall, I think it worked pretty well.

[Jasche]

Thanks everyone so far - these are really useful tips and helpful in considering how to make it work. Interestingly I am currently thinking through hybrid online/face to face working in my job and the involvement of those online is critical, as we can often miss them out as the small talk and discussion face to face lock them out - really important to be mindful of this. Thanks again