Twitch Stream Hero Quest: 1st Attempt Sept 4

[Kurgan]

Is anyone interested in participating in a HeroQuest Twitch Stream (link here) this weekend?

This doesn't involve tabletop simulator or vassal, but the actual board game and physical components. Keep in mind while I plan to host it and we may be able to record it, you don't have to show your face if you don't want to on camera. However at minimum you probably want to have a character sheet and some dice.

I've gotten a bit sick lately of Zoom and OBS Studio not playing well together and hopefully my 3 webcams will work better with this system. But whoever joins, please be prepared to be patient as we iron out the difficulties.

Think of it more like a dress rehearsal than a full blown production. We would shoot for a "shorter" game 2-3 hours instead of the sprawling evenings we've done in the past.

Anyone interested please contact me via PM or email (kurganx @ mediacombb.net). Best times would be Friday (or more likely Saturday) Noon to 2 or 2 to 4pm in the Central Time Zone.

We'd be playing by NA rules (with a few homebrew thrown in like usual). Each person joining would plan to control 1 Hero.

Edit: So... technical issues here, but we're working on it for next time!

[Kurgan]

Looks like we're going to shoot for Saturday afternoon. You can go to see what we're up to

[Kurgan]

Again, we will try to begin @ 12noon Central Standard Time. If technical difficulties, there may be delays, but surely by 1pm.

If it's a total disaster, we'll be moving the thing to Zoom and start no later than 2pm, but watch this space for updates! As usual, contact me if you are interested in joining us to play or watch.

[Kurgan]

Aftermath... it wasn't a stunning success. We ran into some technical issues. I realize most streamers are just dealing with one camera, or else just outputting their video game console or sharing their screen while they play a video game on their PC so they don't have to worry.
so
There was high latency (which I understand why now!) and some issues with getting OBS to cooperate (the weirder part, though it improved slightly by downgrading my copy of Studio). We had a third person lurking (anybody from here? they never said anything).

But maybe next time! iKarith and I ended up switching over to Zoom and we played "Running the Gauntlet" and thanks to a lucky break, it was won fairly easily, which was fine because time was short.

Next weekend I may or may not be available to try again, but anyone with experience or knowledge of Twitch is welcome to help out. Ultimately what I'd like to see is some place where people on the forum can play Hero Quest together for free, in real time, and possibly others can watch it later (or at least highlights).

When patience builds back up again we should try again, but it doesn't have to be on this format, again if a better solution presents itself I'm happy to take that, assuming it's cheap (or better yet "Free"), of course.

[iKarith]

But maybe next time! iKarith and I ended up switching over to Zoom and we played "Running the Gauntlet" and thanks to a lucky break, it was won fairly easily, which was fine because time was short.

Apparently that one's pretty fast if you guess the correct door. I wish I could say I deciphered the code or something. It was like "that one's different than the others, let's try it first."

[Kurgan]

It's come a long way since this thread. I've finally worked out the camera issues. So now I can simultaneously display multiple cameras, and switch between pre-set views at the touch of a button, just like I could months ago (whew!). I love it and the only thing missing is the ability for someone else to log in and do the same as well.

I've seen people do something like that via Streamyard, but I'm not sure if that option requires a paid subscription. Right now I'm operating on everything being free (Zoom, skype, discord, facebook video, OBS studio, Twitch).

The only thing is lacking Twitch affiliate or partner status (requires many more followers and simultaneous chatters over the course of a month to unlock) I won't be able to do any simultaneous "squad" streams. Instead, we'll most likely have to record the game on Zoom (or some other format through OBS) and then upload the recording. I'm okay adding on another with uploading privileges to make that happen more easily, stay tuned...

It's not my place nor do I plan to e-beg or demand people subscribe/follow, I think we can do what we want without needing to go to that level (besides, that's something only a few people are capable of really harnessing if they're not already famous or exploit their likeness if you get my drift).

And yes, most likely the unboxing will appear there as well (before going on Youtube of course).

Here's a quick video showing the video setup in action (test).

(Just for fun, 1990 Unboxing! here

[Kurgan]

Looks like another guy did an unboxing 10 months ago (his set was mixed with some Dragon Strike stuff): here

[Kurgan]

Players from here are always welcome to check us out!

The way we do things now is that if you are in the Twitch Chat during a live stream I invite you to join us on Discord (the link is always displayed on screen). You will be directed to the HeroQuestFans Discord channel (which I know people can access on a smart phone just like twitch, not only on desktop pc's) and visit Quest Talk voice channel.

I run the video display from my OBS virtual camera IN the Quest Talk voice, so all of the Hero players get to see the game screen with virtually no lag (while the Twitch viewers may have a 10 or more second delay with the video, which seems to disappear on the replay recording or Video-On-Demand/highlight version afterward).

Jacer is a frequent player and he joins exclusively on his phone, so he sometimes mentions he has to use the zoom feature to see the screen I'm showing (I have favored the single large camera for times like these rather than the four way split screen with all four cameras). I have a gooseneck stand for one of the webcams which is much more adjustable than the others before though it can be fiddly too.

We stream most Saturday evenings 6-10pm Central Time and I don't mind if people drop in just for one quest (or even part of a quest). We have been playing Frozen Horror and most of the quests are so long, it takes 4 (or more) sessions to finish. One person will inherit the hero another was using last time and it's been fine. I don't mind if people lurk or just drop into the chat to say hi.

The thing is you can use the twitch chat to use your channel points (gold coins) to "buy" a Potion for Heroes or a Monster for Zargon really easily, as the prices have been lowered so even newcomers can participate (might raise them over time or put in more limits as we get bigger of course and get more traffic). People who control heroes are rolling virtual dice (we've settled on Ribby's "Mentorbot" that lets you roll dice in the chat and they show up on screen, though they're nowhere near as fancy and cool looking as the animated ones from dddice which were also really cool of him to design).

Anyway yeah if you haven't seen the stream, we have made a lot of changes and improvements in the last few months, not to mention the last year. Like we display the current total BP of each hero onscreen next to an icon of the character to make it easier to keep track of. We're also working on a google doc to keep track of the extended equipment lists of each hero (and not just rely on discord threads for it and the paper character sheets I save from session to session which I have to redo every so often as they get too messy with erasing).