I don’t really like discord, but my gaming group have been using it for rpg stuff. Chat channels, video calls and easy to setup bots have all been really useful.

But I get the feeling the enshitification is going to get worse, so I was looking for somewhere else to migrate to. The video stuff isn’t as important, we could switch easily to other services. But before I start a new campaign, and spend time setting up bots with routines for rolling dice and calculating tables, I’d like to do it somewhere that isn’t in talks for an IPO.

I’m not really up on stuff like this, so I don’t know if there’s some obvious similar choices or an alternative medium that I haven’t considered.

  • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    0·
    9 hours ago

    Since you mention stuff like “the video isn’t important”, “other services” (plural), I’d consider not just one alternative but several. The big problem with big name social media is that they provide a all-in-one experience that is designed for profit, and as such looks and acts worse than any of its independent parts (not to mention, the sum is artificially made more addictive to users).

    • For publishing campaign materials itself, all you need is a filehost or filebin - something like pastebin.com but that allows you to upload and organize any kind of files. Any of the offerings in the FOSS market will do, but if you are going to focus on posting quickie (rich¡) text documents that are easy to build and parse I’d suggest a Markdown-based document bin like Hedgedoc.
    • If your campaign is gonna run like a chat, XMPP / Jabber. There’s servers like Prosody or ejabberd that are easy to set up.
    • If your campaign is gonna run in web “play by post” mode, any modern web forum system will do, for example Discourse. Heck, even oldie-style web forums might do, like phpBB.
    • Voice: Jabber has access to audio IIRC. I’ve also heard very good things about Mumble.
    • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.deEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Remind me… is that the same UK that currently tries to force apple and google to include governement backdoors into their encryption?

  • tatann@lemm.ee
    0·
    11 days ago

    I think Element/Matrix could do the trick

    At least that’s what I intend to do with some friends for our gaming sessions and daily mindless chat

  • Rappe@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    I mean, our friend group still uses IRC. Go back to the roots, discord is merely a fancy IRC anyway. Quakenet is still up and running, working as smoothly as ever! (So at least one netsplit* a day… :D)

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    11 days ago

    I wrote a somewhat lengthy “Introduction to Matrix/Element” comment for someone here recently. If you arent paranoid, then you can ignore the sections about not using and removing the web client session after account creation. Let me know if you have any trouble.

    The comment in question: https://discuss.tchncs.de/comment/16768943

    To use element like discord (with servers and voice channels) you will create a Space(=discord-server) and then add Rooms(=discord-channels) to it.

    Normal rooms are usually text only but you can still start a video call (doesnt have video on by default) inside one which all room members will get notified for.

    To get something like voice channels you create a “video room” which people can then join and it acts like a voice channel that also has screen sharing and video functionality.

    There is full permission management so you can give everyone in the space access to all rooms or use levels like guest/member/moderator/admin/owner etc or you make it invite only. Lots of options.

      • asudox@lemmy.asudox.devM
        0·
        11 days ago

        In the FAQ, they state that federation is not in their roadmap, but if someone can do it, then they are willing to merge it. Since Revolt is written in Rust, we can use Lemmy devs’ activitypub federation crate. I might take a look at it someday.

        • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
          0·
          11 days ago

          I’ve even thought about it, but I don’t know rust and right now just don’t have the time, but it seems like it’d be fairly simple. Matrix and revolt have a lot in common, it’s just translating between the two

          • asudox@lemmy.asudox.devM
            0·
            11 days ago

            Oh no like I meant using ActivityPub to federate between different Revolt instances or even other future software that might be an alternative to Discord and is federated using ActivityPub.

            • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
              0·
              11 days ago

              Oh, yeah no activitypub isn’t meant for private messaging. It’s great for things like mastodon and lemmy, but there is zero privacy, it’s meant to blast out to anyone who wants to listen. Messaging the best standards right now are Matrix and XMPP.

                • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
                  0·
                  11 days ago

                  Yes, but if you need a truck, use a truck. If you need a car, use a car. They both do similar things, but the reason it’s taking a while for that stuff is because the protocol was not built for that in mind. They’re two different use cases. You’re not the first to have the idea here, and I’m sure you won’t be the last. Use each protocol for what they’re good at. ActivityPub was designed to be a great social network protocol. Matrix and XMPP were both built to be great secure messaging protocols. Trying to shoehorn either one into a use case it wasn’t meant to be results in a subpar experience.

                  What would be neat is if the Lemmy Client added a messaging protocol with it, so it could be both a matrix and a lemmy server. Each user gets their own Matrix handle out of the gate, so DMs are actually Matrix DMs. Then you could also open any matrix client with it too. The clients I have no problem with them being dual purpose, the protocols though, those are very specific.

  • mlflexer@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    12 days ago

    Matrix? I think you can setup text channels and also do voice/video/screen sharing in the channels as well if you’re using element, though I havn’t been able to convince my friends to jump ship yet, so don’t know how it compares to discord

  • LegoBrickOnFire@jlai.lu
    0·
    10 days ago

    During the pandemic, discord has been a lifeline for me and I did not find alternatives that had a specific feature that may appear irrelevant but that I found deeply comforting: When people are hanging out in a vocal channel, you can see them. It was not much, but it was the closest we had to going to university and seeing groups of friends just chilling together.

    There are many other platforms for text and vocal chats, but this is a feature I am still looking for.

    Prove me wrong !

  • other_cat@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    You know, I’m gonna be the oddball suggestion here.

    Forums. What forums? I don’t know, the last time I used them was proboards back in 2010 so I’m sure I’m out of the loop on the options, but I do miss forums sometimes. That was where I ran RPGs, back in the day.

    • Acamon@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      10 days ago

      We are considering a seperate play by post game using some of the forums and sites set up for that. But having a voice and video chat with friends, with easy options for adding dice and game management bots is appealing.

      • other_cat@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        Yeah, I hear you. And even if you post at lightning speed, there’s something about forums that just feels slower compared to the speed posting in a chatroom can get you.