My debut on Twitch

I've started watching a couple of Twitch streams with nice, friendly chat groups during the month that I've been working from home. It's easy, non-demanding background stuff to keep me company while I'm working, or after work, and occasionally I think of something clever or kind to say in the chat texts. It feels much more socially connected than just watching TV and maybe talking to someone about it later.

One of those Twitch streams is ArvanEleron, devoted to games of various types, usually either watching the host playing video games solo or watching groups play RPGs, although sometimes the host just talks about various game-related topics. Also, sometimes he digresses and talks about politics from a liberal/progressive slant, and he throws in jokes and literary references (he's a literature professor), and the chat shares jokes and cheers him on, and members cheer each other too.

Once every two months, Arvan holds "Arv Streams Dungeons & Dragons with Viewers" -- i.e, he plays with some of his viewers instead of solo or with pro guests. That happened Saturday night, and he asked for volunteer viewers to play D&D with him online. He forgave my lack of webcam since I have a good microphone, courtesy of my sister, so I got to play!

Here is a link to the Twitch stream. 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/596166779  

I'm not sure how long it will be up - probably a week at most -- and then there will be a gap, and it will go to YouTube eventually.

The recording totals 4:42:50, but fear not, there is quite a lot of chatting and setup before the game begins. You can first hear my voice starting at about 1:27:10, although you will occasionally see text comments from me (trishemats) in the chat text prior to that. We continue setup, and I make some jokes.

The characters and players are introduced starting at about 1:41:00.

The actual game starts around 1:49:15. The game ends around 4:21:50 although the talking continues for another 20 minutes or so.

I play Thistle, a halfling rogue (very traditional character). The character sheet Arvan sent me had quite a lot of backstory on it, which explains some of the mysterious actions I take during the adventure.

The other Twitch stream I've been watching lately is the Rusty Quill, associated with the Rusty Quill Gaming podcast and creators of the Magnus Archive horror podcast. The games I've seen played there range from simple tanks-ships-planes shooters to tech horror like Soma to a hilarious stick-figure Weird West thing, but the chat room is super sweet and supportive, of the hosts and of each other. But watch out for puns in the chat!


Update: The D&D with Viewers: Lost Mine of Phandalver show is no longer available on Twitch, but it's up on YouTube now at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFN12RweGc4