D&D General What Do You Miss Most About Face-to-Face D&D?

[pogre]

If you are playing face-to-face D&D currently - great! - but this thread is for folks who cannot play fully face-to-face games right now.

What aspect of the gaming experience are you really looking forward to when you return to face-to-face gaming?

I can see a lot of advantages in remote gaming, particularly in logistics, but man I really pine for the face-to-face experience. I think, for me, it is the engagement piece. My experience has been kind of the opposite of Robin D. Laws who commented in a recent interview he has found players more focused online. I certainly am not very good at 'reading the room' when we are online either.

I get there are some people who prefer online gaming, but if that's not you - what are you missing?

 

[Warpiglet-7]

If you are playing face-to-face D&D currently - great! - but this thread is for folks who cannot play fully face-to-face games right now.

What aspect of the gaming experience are you really looking forward to when you return to face-to-face gaming?

I can see a lot of advantages in remote gaming, particularly in logistics, but man I really pine for the face-to-face experience. I think, for me, it is the engagement piece. My experience has been kind of the opposite of Robin D. Laws who commented in a recent interview he has found players more focused online. I certainly am not very good at 'reading the room' when we are online either.

I get there are some people who prefer online gaming, but if that's not you - what are you missing?

miniatures and pals.

but mostly my pals.

 

[commandercrud]

I hate playing online. I hate watching videos of people playing online. I hate dice apps. I hate electronic character sheets.

 

[DemoMonkey]

Faces.

 

[Voadam]

Seeing my friends regularly.

 

[prabe]

People.

Real dice.

Pencil-and-paper character sheets.

Also, I hate having to take pictures of grids so people can see what is where. The only thing worse is playing on a virtual tabletop. Which I also hate.

 

[Oofta]

I'm okay with playing online and there are actually some benefits such as enforcing line of sight. For some reason, several encounters have included dense fog limiting even what people with darkvision can see. Totally coincidence I'm sure.

But we do miss that sense of camaraderie, and just chatting. When we were doing in person we'd all take a break and have lunch, talk about our lives and what-not.

As a DM

• I have a harder time reading the room. The general feel is okay, but I can never tell if someone is looking at their character sheet or checking facebook.
• Prep time is longer, I have to find or build maps (I am getting better at that)
• I'm less spontaneous because I had to find or build maps. If they go direction X when I thought they'd go Y, do I have a map that will work?
• It's simply less engaging. There's something about RPing that NPC and looking the player right in the eyes that's just not there.

So I'm making do, but to me being "more focused on the game" is actually part of the problem not a benefit.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My minis. The communication from body language and expressions. Providing a good meal.

 

[Retreater]

Dice, minis, terrain. Seeing the shocked expressions on faces. The energy. Hanging out for lunch and drinks before the game. Seeing their significant others and families (and pets) who don't game. Roleplaying and exploration (it's mostly just combats on VTTs). Standing and pacing when I run games. Using physical books. Driving to the game and listening to music or podcasts or audiobooks.

 

[Richards]

Definitely the social aspect - I game with my best friend and his family and most of mine. And since we'd regularly game for a 5- to 6-hour block on a Saturday starting at noon, we'd always have a nice spread of snacks out (and the other family would usually bring sodas and homemade brownies). But we haven't even tried giving on-line gaming a shot; we'd all definitely miss the hanging out, and the minis, and the terrain/tokens I'd make for each session. And we'd miss out on the expressions on each others' faces when we come up with weird stuff (either in game or out of game - we tend to have a lot of silly chatter throughout our game sessions).

Johnathan