It should be pretty obvious that I’m writing a lot lately because I’m stuck inside due to Covid-19 Pandemic. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, but I’m trying to break it up with other activities. So I’ve been painting miniatures a lot. I went and got a new video game or two to pass the time. I also have been looking for new ways to spend time with friends remotely so we can play Dungeons and Dragons. Also doing a lot of hiking and walking. Myself and hiking buddies have found many more wide open trails, so we can exercise some “Social Distancing.” All the mountain trails are too narrow for when there are 4, 6, or more.
There’s been a few ways to do this do this before. Google Hangouts was the default option for a long time, since all it really took to use was a Gmail account. But it proved to be a bit unreliable when it was talking to your computer. Most video conferencing my friends and I do is now over Facebook Messenger.
There’s a cool piece of software you can get specifically for D&D and other tabletop games called Roll20 which, is a cool online program for sharing images and moving them around the screen. It’s been in development for a long time and keeps getting better every iteration.
The best video conferencing software to compliment it has, so far, been Zoom. Zoom was the name I first heard when Covid first started being an issue; I kept hearing about Zoom over and over. Well I got to try it recently and I have to say it lives up to the hype for sure. It has great connectivity and if it does break off, it will simply play the audio you missed sped up until you catch up. It also has great tools for breaking up a big chat into groups, and all sorts of other stuff I haven’t gotten to play with yet. I highly recommend it.
A friend did have their zoom meeting hacked last week and a pretty nasty video played. He teaches IT and is sure that the room was locked and passworded do something to look out for if you have kids. Microsoft teams, Skype or watsaap might be better for those situations.