Playing in Person Is Just Better (for me)

[Celebrim]

My long-term group has been meeting online since the pandemic started and we are steadily meeting less and less. And we are now at the situation where we actually can't meet in person because people have moved away, but I know that a lot of the reason we are meeting less often comes down to the fact we aren't meeting in person. There is something about breaking bread together with friends, and then laughing and playing a game in person you can't replicate online.

 

[thullgrim]

I prefer in person to the VTT. We too moved online during the pandemic and have been unable to get back to in-person play. We’ve found the VTT makes scheduling and attendance easier, no one has to drive across town, plan for being away from the house, and so on.

That said I’ve been heavily considering killing my online group and trying to put together a live one. I’d miss my players who live hours away but I think the gaming would be better.

 

[payn]

One thing that seems to be an outlier for me is my games improved a lot by going to VTT. Dont get me wrong, seeing folks and chatting a bit and breaking bread is great, however VTT has us more on focus and able to accomplish much much more than we ever did in person. Though, I could only dream (even pre-covid) of 10 hour sessions. When we met in person it was 3-4 hours tops.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I have played online and I found it very productive (i.e. we moved through content quickly). However nothing beats having your friends over for several hours in order to play, catchup and pig out.
I sympathise a lot with tables that have had to switch to online play in order to accommodate friends that have moved as that group is now missing in the in-person experience.
I'm glad the online option exists though!

 

[Corinnguard]

The last time I played face-to-face with anyone was back in the early 90's when I was in college. I have been playing D&D online with my RPG group for the last four years. I really like roleplaying online than in person because there is less distraction to deal with and because of distance (most of my group is in Texas while me and one other player live near the Great Lakes). Plus, there are so many online tools my group can use for our roleplaying sessions (Discord, Tabletop Simulator, HeroForge, and D&D Beyond).

 

[Thomas Shey]

Online play requires strong discipline to pull off. You can have more natural communication if everyone uses a headset and mutes when eating etc. But I couldn’t get my group to do that so it always sucked a bit.

This is, honestly, the only significant complaint I have about our VTT play; managing who speaks when is significantly more difficult (and people muting themselves is a mixed bag as it can sometimes be hard to distinguished "person is muted and hasn't had time to turn it back on yet" from "person didn't hear you/is away from their mike/has lost connection").

 

[Thomas Shey]

One thing that seems to be an outlier for me is my games improved a lot by going to VTT. Dont get me wrong, seeing folks and chatting a bit and breaking bread is great, however VTT has us more on focus and able to accomplish much much more than we ever did in person. Though, I could only dream (even pre-covid) of 10 hour sessions. When we met in person it was 3-4 hours tops.

For what its worth, far as I can tell the kind of time frame you're talking about is at least as common as longer ones (though as I've noted I probably would bother to try and GM if that was all I had to work with; for the kinds of games I like I'd not feel like I was getting anything done in a given session).

 

[payn]

The last time I played face-to-face with anyone was back in the early 90's when I was in college. I have been playing D&D online with my RPG group for the last four years. I really like roleplaying online than in person because there is less distraction to deal with and because of distance (most of my group is in Texas while me and one other player live near the Great Lakes). Plus, there are so many online tools my group can use for our roleplaying sessions (Discord, Tabletop Simulator, HeroForge, and D&D Beyond).

As a bonus to online play, you are not limited to a local supply of players. Part of the reason I've done so much better online is being able to screen for commitment and playstyle. YMMV.

 

[dbm]

I could only dream (even pre-covid) of 10 hour sessions. When we met in person it was 3-4 hours tops.

It works out on a practical level similar total play-time as playing 2-3 hours per week, but only gaming every 3-4 weeks is easier to arrange for us when everyone has family and work commitments.

 

[payn]

It works out on a practical level similar total play-time as playing 2-3 hours per week, but only gaming every 3-4 weeks is easier to arrange for us when everyone has family and work commitments.

I bet. Im just surprised folks can commit what is basically an entire day to gaming despite their other commitments.