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Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

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Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#61

Post by offtop5 »

JerryHanel wrote: post #21
offtop5 wrote: post #13

Amazing idea. Not sure how well this can work without a game client though. I'd love a hybrid where you play a video game of sorts , but a DM is actually running it .

As one of the GMs on their site, I can say it works very well. I use a combination of already-existing technologies to host my sessions. Every GM has a slightly different approach, but as with all things D&D, that's really true in many areas. For the way I have it set up, it is fast and simple for the end-user to set up an account and be playing by that evening or that weekend.

Maybe I'll join one day , seems like a great way to fight cabin fever

Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#62

Post by snuxoll »

soneca wrote: post #29

This is a great idea and just what I wanted! I have a question about which system is better for a story-driven game for beginners. Some context: I like RPG, but I have played exactly 4 times in the last 20 years. Last time I played it was D&D and my experience was it was more of a tactical game focused on combats than characters and story. It was about the squared map, knowing all the rules of your weapons and spells…

Do you know what edition of D&D you were playing? 4e was heavily focused around gridded combat and it turned many players off, as tactics and math overshadowed the role playing.

If you haven’t given 5e a try yet, do so - it’s substantially less crunchy that previous releases and frees combat from the tyranny of the grid if the group wishes to play it without.

As far as balance between combat and story, that’s all up to content. Published adventures tend to be very heavy on dungeon crawls, while many homebrew adventures lean more towards RP.

Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#63

Post by devonchulick »

dx87 wrote: post #60

Just checked out the site, and one thing I'd recommend is allowing GMs to give more detailed info on the price per session. In the "Upcoming Games" section, one of the games is listed at $30 per session, which seemed incredibly steep compared to the other featured games that were all ~$10 per session. I clicked on the expensive game to see why it was so expensive, and it turns out that's just the rate for a single pe…

That price is in fact per player per session. I'm making a note make that clear!

Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#64

Post by Waterluvian »

1123581321 wrote: post #41
Waterluvian wrote: post #36

Some feedback for what it's worth: The reason I won't take a stab at this, as badly as I want to get into D&D, is that I have an unreliable schedule and can be pulled away at any moment (I have young kids). I won't even try because the possibility of letting others down is paralyzing. I'm not sure if this is even something you can fix, but, there it is. And maybe there are ways to handle this gracefully without me le…

I assume you’re a single parent, which is why you can’t make an agreement with your partner for some periodic uninterrupted time. Have you looked at how often you are actually interrupted for a meaningful amount of time during the time the children are, or should be, asleep? Try to get a sense of the actual likelihood and severity of the disruption, because these games can handle a player stepping away periodically f…

Not a single parent but I think everyone’s parent experience is different. Mine is that even with two of us we always feel short staffed.

I like your thought about data collection. I think the problem is more psychological. I cannot get deep into things if there’s a chance I’ll be interrupted. I’ve tried for years. The only video games I can enjoy are ones like Zelda Switch where small chunks are meaningfully fulfilling and I can pause at any point.

I was in a curling league last year and felt guilty and distracted every single time knowing my wife was on her own while I got to play.

Indeed this is very much a social and psychological problem with me and my family unit’s “free time” structure. But I look for external helping hands where I can, such as a “we have made this friendly to people who have to drop out”.

I used to love DOTA like games. God... when my first was born I was perpetually getting banned because I kept dropping out of games, screwing over 9 other people. :)

Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#65

Post by trynewideas »

devonchulick wrote: post #55
trynewideas wrote: post #45

My kneejerk reaction to the headline was that this might be a service to connect existing groups to vetted, high-quality GMs, like a premium service aimed at the sorts of folks who'd otherwise spend a ton of money on TTRPG tables and miniatures. But this is more like a rideshare model, where you're looking at who's available for a given timeslot/location, then jumping into a game that's determined by the GM. With onl…

I agree so much with this! Most people who move into the pro gm world have a ton of experience and resources, but the reviews are one of the best ways to have people vetted. We only show GM's who have 5+ reviews on our search, but any GM can list a game if it meets our review standards. I like that take on it being a permanent convention set up. The drop in games are definitely filling that niche. A bunch of our game…

Awesome! Thanks for responding. That clears up some details.

> I'll be honest, we're working to make the ToS more clear as we've learned about other use cases. We mean to say, Minors need a parents consent (credit card to book).

I know how tricky ToS can be, especially around safe access for minors. A lot of games I've run professionally have been at cons and events where kids could be present, and online signup/registration tends to be one of the recurring hangups.

> A bunch of our games aren't in search because GMs use our tools for charging their customers and scheduling sessions, but for private groups.

This is an awesome use of the service, and it'd be great if that use case was made more visible up front as a selling point toward becoming a GM.

The pitch to GMs as it's presented on the site is more about how the site can help to drive people to games, but if I already have players and my goal isn't necessarily to expand my audience through discovery, then using this service solely as a front-end to handle private scheduling and compensation — and with the option to open it up if we want to add a player built in — sounds a lot more compelling.

For instance, I use Calendly to book and take payments, but it's more rigid to work with as a group scheduling tool than I'd like — a business meeting isn't quite as expected to have people join and leave a group meeting on a whim. I feel also like I'm paying for business-focused features and integrations I don't use, while fighting against that design in order to connect it to VTTs and the like.

Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#66

Post by soneca »

snuxoll wrote: post #62
soneca wrote: post #29

This is a great idea and just what I wanted! I have a question about which system is better for a story-driven game for beginners. Some context: I like RPG, but I have played exactly 4 times in the last 20 years. Last time I played it was D&D and my experience was it was more of a tactical game focused on combats than characters and story. It was about the squared map, knowing all the rules of your weapons and spells…

Do you know what edition of D&D you were playing? 4e was heavily focused around gridded combat and it turned many players off, as tactics and math overshadowed the role playing. If you haven’t given 5e a try yet, do so - it’s substantially less crunchy that previous releases and frees combat from the tyranny of the grid if the group wishes to play it without. As far as balance between combat and story, that’s all up…

I don’t know which edition it was. But I think you are right about content influencing how a system is played. StartPlaying.Games pays good attention to this btw. The descriptions and info about level of RP, Puzzle and Combat are very useful.

That said, from reading about it, I do think that the mentioned Cypher System will be a better fit for me

Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#67

Post by 1123581321 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #64
1123581321 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you’re a single parent, which is why you can’t make an agreement with your partner for some periodic uninterrupted time. Have you looked at how often you are actually interrupted for a meaningful amount of time during the time the children are, or should be, asleep? Try to get a sense of the actual likelihood and severity of the disruption, because these games can handle a player stepping away periodically f…

Not a single parent but I think everyone’s parent experience is different. Mine is that even with two of us we always feel short staffed. I like your thought about data collection. I think the problem is more psychological. I cannot get deep into things if there’s a chance I’ll be interrupted. I’ve tried for years. The only video games I can enjoy are ones like Zelda Switch where small chunks are meaningfully fulfill…

Makes sense. I'd encourage you to have a good talk with your partner to see how each of you can give the other time to step away from parenting guilt-free. It's important to find that, for both of you. It might sound silly to ask them to give you three hours to play D&D, but it's not. This is actually even more important to do if you feel you have a parenting situation that neither of you can step away from, not less.

I've been in the same situation with LoL and parenting in the past, letting down a 5v5 group, so I totally understand the hesitation. My problem was that I was trying to sneak in the time instead of being honest about what I wanted from myself and my family right then. It's just about being more intentional with the time commitment. And recognizing that D&D is much more forgiving of unexpected surprises than MOBAs are--the GM can always say you're off running an errand or just roll for you if you have to leave during a combat. You'll find many groups are forgiving of being a new parent.

Also, keep in mind non-parents also have things come up. It's not just us. My D&D session Saturday night cut short by two hours because the GM thought he had recovered from a Friday night migraine, and he suddenly realized how tired he was. We had been planning the night for two weeks but it was totally okay to wait and plan a time to resume. It's all normal.

Re: Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

#69

Post by d_burfoot »

kdamken wrote: post #68

This looks cool, but the pricing is absolutely insane. I saw $10-30 per session. Dming is a lot of work, sure, but that is a steep price. I don’t know many people who would pay $120 a month to play DND.

... I was going to comment the exact opposite. If a session is 5 players and $20/session, and lasts 4 hours, then the GM is making $25/hr and that doesn't even include prep time!
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