Of Snailflails and Google Hangouts

I had the opportunity last night to play in an AD&D game run by the  all around great guy Joe "The Lawyer" Dimech (link to his blog firmly ensconced over to the left). This was a first for me, for I had never before played in a game online; the game was part of the "Flailsnails" project, and was run in a Google hangout. The game itself was an expedition into Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works (apparently most of the party had been playing there for quite some time; most were 4th to 6th level, with my poor 1st level mountebank tagging along trying not to get himself killed).

The game itself was a blast, and Joe's a great DM. The group was lively and very accepting of a new face, and the overall experience was very positive from my end. I tried my level best not to spoil the game with my knowledge of the module; I was there more to hang out with Joe (whose work I've followed and enjoyed for quite some time) and to evaluate the potential of the Google hangout system for gaming. I was especially impressed with the way everything worked from a technical point of view; we had eight people in the hangout at one point, and the video and audio feeds seemed to work fine, with the exception of my getting booted right at the very end, but it was the work of about 10 seconds to rejoin the game.

I'm halfway tempted to start up a short-term game myself. Just to shake things up, maybe I'd do Gamma World. Just a half-formed thought at this stage, of course; I could expand my own Greyhawk empire campaign into the Internet, too...