Just ran my first session of Blades, also first time using Roll20 & webcams to play. Wow that was hard!
Running the game & creating detail wasn’t actually as much a problem as I thought it might be but encouraging roleplay was really difficult. Everyone kept talking over each other & it was hard to keep the game focused – very different to sitting at the same table in person. It looks so simple when professional streamers do it, I guess Skype etiquette has to be learnt.
Sharing the spotlight was also difficult in this game. I’ve run Dungeon World a bit before & having PCs take turns at swinging their swords at enemies is much more straight forward. When players send the Slide in to do the talking & everyone else waits outside, it’s harder to get everyone involved in the scene.
It was just a one-off but hopefully I’ll have the chance to run some more sessions in future. Any advice?
If there a lot of negotiations you could adapt some of the ideas from Red Markets. Negotiator gets assists from scams or research the other players do. They are flashbacks that get played out between rounds of the negotiation. So pc and client or adversary both get a say then cut to a flashback where another character found out the opposition had a soft spot for protecting kids or supporting artists which then is useful in the next round. All of which better explained by redmarketsrpg.com – Red Markets – A Game of Economic Horror