So it is a thing to post desk pics online, right?
Our group is still playing our games online for multiple reasons and so I figured I’d share my setup. We don’t have a dedicated gaming space in our place. When we were playing in person, I’d move furniture around in our living room to make space for a few folding tables and various chairs. Similarly, we don’t have a spot for a dedicated gaming desk and computer. I’m also still working from home and so I need to be able to switch between a work setup and a gaming setup as needed. My “desk” is just a folding table and my work and gaming equipment are on separate wheeled carts so I can easily switch between them. The gaming cart is, of course, the much more interesting of the two. More, with desk pics, below the break.
My gaming cart has my desktop computer, multiple monitors, camera, microphone, lights, and other accessories I use while running a campaign. It all “breaks down” to not be overly intrusive in our living room or to take up too much space. Here is a picture of how it all looks when we are not playing.
It typically all sits to the side of a recliner that I regularly sit in and I can see and use the angled monitor easily.
When “unfolded,” four monitors are usable. Three are 24″ and one is 21″ in size. Two (24″ & 21″) are mounted on a central dual monitor stand and the other two 24″ are on adjustable arms. An Elgato 3 microphone is on a low profile arm that extends to where I need it. Two Elgato Key Light Airs fold up and out to provide the necessary illumination. My Sony camera is also mounted on the central monitor stand with a small fan mounted just above it to help with the camera getting warm during hours of play.
I have some portable room divider poles that I setup and hang some curtains from. This is mainly to help improve the sound quality a bit by cutting down on any echoing from the larger living room. It might also help prevent a certain player from inadvertantly seeing something that she shouldn’t on my screens, but since she just pokes her head in unannounced anyways, I suppose it doesn’t really help all that much with that. 😛
I also have a Stream Deck (recently upgraded to the XL)…more on it later.
With everything on and ready to go, it looks like this.
The bottom center monitor has Foundry VTT on it (my VTT of choice…duh). The monitor above it has Zoom…which we use for video and audio. With the camera mounted just above this monitor, I feel like I’m looking more directly in the camera more often than not and that’s important (I think) to help engage the players across the internet.
The monitor to the left has a second instance of Foundry VTT displaying. I log in with a player “account” that lets me see what the players are seeing. We’ve had a few instances where the players were not seeing what I expected and this helps with that. I also use this monitor to display my various notes and other documents for the game. I’ve found that when playing online that I refer to my notes much less often than I did while playing in person. Much of it, of course, is that the maps and monsters are all displayed electronically.
Speaking of monsters, the monitor on the right (in a vertical orientation) has two or more browser windows open. We use Beyond20, which allows for rolls to be made directly from D&D Beyond into Foundry VTT. This is pretty ideal since we had been using D&D Beyond even prior to moving online and so most of us were pretty familiar with it. One browser has tabs for all of the player characters open in D&D Beyond. This allows me to quickly take a look if a question about an ability or spell or the like comes up. One or more other tabs will have all of the monsters that I expect may be encountered during the session. If I need to open another one, it is pretty quick to search and find it in D&D Beyond.
I will also have some of the other programs open on the right monitor that are running behind the scenes (such as Wave Link and OBS for sound stuff) or that may just be running for me (I often listen to Spotify while playing). If I want, I can stream the music to the outgoing audio as well. We’ve had quite a few sessions that had a musical theme from a Spotify playlist.
The Stream Deck has been a great tool for running the game thanks to the Foundry add-on module, Material Deck. Material Deck allows me to manage and control many of the Foundry actions with just a click of a button on the Stream Deck. For example, I can quickly switch Scenes in Foundy and activate a Scene for the players without having to actually click anything in Foundry itself. During combat, a combat tracker is displayed on the Stream Deck and I can quickly move from one participant’s turn to the next. With a click of a button, I can center my Foundry screen on the current participant.
Can all of this be done in Foundry itself? Absolutely. Is it a bit of a luxury and a luxury purchase to have bought the Stream Deck? Absolutely. Has it made it easier for me to handle some of the regular actions that I need to do in Foundry? Absolutely. I have customized it to make things much, much smoother for me. That allows me to focus my attention on other elements of running the game online. So, yeah, I’m a huge fan. 😉
I’ve also got a bunch of D&D related knick-knacks on a shelf and mantle behind me. Just a bunch of eye candy that is illuminated by various Hue light bars and Elgato light strips. I’m sure it all looks a lot better in person than it does via Zoom (or in the pic from Zoom below), but I still think it is a nice touch.
So there you go. That’s my setup for running D&D games online and a bit of a peek behind the scenes for my players. It has definitely evolved, along with getting more complicated (and more expensive), over the past year and a half. I think I’ve got my setup almost perfect for me and our space.
Oh, I forgot one element that is often on my desk when running a game…the Beastie! The rather solid and large cat, Figgy, who currently shares our home. She doesn’t seem to have any problem with flopping on my keyboard, pushing my microphone out of position, or just plain covering more desk space than seems physically possible.
When I mentioned to the Beastie that I was going to be posting a bunch of desk pics online, this is the response I got.
