Here it is! Our latest update “15.3.0” adds a video chat to Harpy’s virtual tabletop (VTT). You will be able to start a call from any chat. Simply click on the “Join” button and choose to open the call in a side panel or in a new tab.
If you are the Game master, then you will be the host of the video chat, which means you will have access to extra options like audio sharing, polls, speaker stats or breakout rooms. Let’s take a look!
🔈 Audio sharing
A really cool feature of this video chat system is its audio sharing feature. As a host (gm), you will be able to share with your players the sound from any of your open tabs (on Mac) and even a different app like Spotify (on Windows). This will allow you to change the ambient sound as the story unfolds…
To do so, click on the “Share audio” icon in the menu bar and follow the instructions. You’ll see, it’s pretty simple!
📊 Polls
In Tabletop Roleplaying games (TTRPG), players always have to decide what their characters will do. But more often than not their choice is influenced by the other players. If you’re facing such a situation, we have a solution: Create a poll! That way, even shy players will have their say.
To do so, click on the “Chat” icon in the menu bar, select the “Poll” tab (in the chat’s top nav) and create your poll!
🙊 Speaker stats
Speaking of shy players, as a host (gm) you will be able to see who’s always talking and who is watching in silence. Being shy or less talkative is alright, of course. But sometimes all you need to share some brilliant and funny ideas is a little push…
To see the speaker stats, click on the “Chart” icon in the menu bar.
🚪 Breakout rooms
- A NPC speaks in a strange language, only one of your player character can understand
- A perception roll has revealed a very important information to 2 of your players
- A PC has been blinded or deafened, they have no idea what’s happening
- The party has been split. It’s always a good idea… right?
If you’ve already be in one of those situation then you know that sometimes during your games, you need to talk to one or more players, but not the others. Breakout rooms in video chat allow you to move your players to a separate room to give them some information the others should not know.
To use this feature, click on the “Participant” icon in the menu bar. Click on “Add breakout room” then add the players you want in the newly created room.
🤚 Raise hand & reactions
The host (gm) is not the only one with some cool features. Players can also raise their hands if they want to talk and react to what’s happening with emojis. That way they won’t interrupt the current narration but will still be able to participate.
To do so, click on the “raised hand” icon or the arrow next to it to select your reaction emoji!
And of course…
Of course, this video chat system includes some standard features like custom backgrounds, tile view, toggle microphone/camera, choose the source for the camera and microphone, list of participants, mute all, etc.
Conclusion
So that’s it. We hope this new feature will make your future games even more immersive and fun! The video chat feature works on both our play-by-post and Virtual Tabletop platforms. We use to call them Tales and Arena but it’s just Harpy now!
A huge thanks to the peeps at Jitsi meet for creating such an amazing tool.
Hopefully this will allow you to replace your Discord, Zoom or Google Meet to use something more dedicated to Tabletop RPGs.
Have fun!
