For those doing TTRPG online, what are your reasons?

[Thomas Shey]

I found that for me, and my group, it's considerably slower, due to communication issues, and worse with the VTT up instead of just a dieroller. Without body language and facial expression, it's much easier to miscommunicate.

I assume from this you mean the VTT doing mechanical support? Because I can't say I've seen any sign moving tokens around a VTT maps is any slower than doing the same sort of thing on a battlemap; if anything its more forgiving.

 

[sabrinathecat]

The shift from actually playing in the same room to using Discord and Role20 has done more damage than good. I find the virtual table-top use to be very frustrating, and frankly, if I'm going to play a video game, I'd rather do that. The few times I've been involved in a group using Discord, I've ended up playing video games while waiting for my turn to come around, and then, after my 2-5 minutes, going back to the game and waiting an hour for my next turn.
None of the structure has anything like the level of interaction of sitting around the same table with actual players. It's not unlike the common response to my complaint about a lack of a class teaching what I want to learn--just go to a virtual classroom on-line. (I don't learn that way!)
I find the overall lack of in-person human interaction extremely depressing and harmful.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Other - because bad playing (which playing online makes the otherwise-best of games become) is better than no playing (I'd otherwise only be a DM, as I run in-person).

I disagree. Bad playing has been much worse for me than no playing.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I play entirely on Discord. At first it was mainly due to health. It first started running a single game on Skype, while I ran my regular weekly game in person. And back then, online gaming felt off. The tech wasn't as good and you really felt disconnected from the people you were playing with. So it was definitely not something you did as your first choice. However as the technology got better, I found the convenience of online play super helpful. Especially since I need to playtest a lot. It is way easier to schedule a game if you know it starts at 4:30 and ends at 7:30 or 8:30 and people aren't actually coming over. You just log on when the game starts. Before, a game session at the house would be more disruptive for my wife, and so one a week would have been the max. But online I can get two games in without an issue if I want.

 

[aramis erak]

I assume from this you mean the VTT doing mechanical support? Because I can't say I've seen any sign moving tokens around a VTT maps is any slower than doing the same sort of thing on a battlemap; if anything its more forgiving.

I find it slower, as it throws the guys into analysis paralysis at times; further load time on the maps and issues with the VTT all push it slower than FTF. I've done FTF with them in the past, and TOTM over VOIP is still slower than FTF TOTM with the same players. Most weeks for the last 10 years. I find online play in general slower paced, and adding the VTT slows it further... more environmental distractions, more frustrationss with tech (one of the guys is on a 10 YO laptop...)

VTT does reduce the lack of clarity of position and facing, but doesn't help with reading the players faces.

 

[payn]

I find it slower, as it throws the guys into analysis paralysis at times; further load time on the maps and issues with the VTT all push it slower than FTF. I've done FTF with them in the past, and TOTM over VOIP is still slower than FTF TOTM with the same players. Most weeks for the last 10 years. I find online play in general slower paced, and adding the VTT slows it further... more environmental distractions, more frustrationss with tech (one of the guys is on a 10 YO laptop...)

VTT does reduce the lack of clarity of position and facing, but doesn't help with reading the players faces.

I find that surprising as I tend to get so much more done with VTT efficiency is off the charts. I didn’t expect it after switching over when Covid hit.

Is the slow down due to technical aptitude or do you feel the separation of everyone allows for more distractions?

 

[aramis erak]

I find that surprising as I tend to get so much more done with VTT efficiency is off the charts. I didn’t expect it after switching over when Covid hit.

Is the slow down due to technical aptitude or do you feel the separation of everyone allows for more distractions?

In decreasing importance:

1. We find the lack of visual input due to audio only to require more words than when we can see each other
2. We wind up repeating due to someone having noise at home interfering with comprehension. (None of us live alone.)
3. Due to no faces visible, people talking over each other is FAR more common (more than 10x more than when we played FTF).
4. the interface of the VTT's I've used are not faster than using real dice
   1. the ALIEN module for Foundry
      1. made adjusting dice rolls a pain - and in combat, mods are common. It's not push a button, it's right-click, wait for the modal dialogue, enter the mod.
      2. made using an alternate attribute with a given skill (an optional rule) a pain. For example, player wanting to use Heavy Machinery to analyze a problem should be using INT, not STR, but the hard link is to STR.
      3. it did speed up resolving the stress system.. unless there were rerolls.
5. Maptools, foundary and GTove pushed my (now dead) windows laptop to the point of lag
   1. ironically, the lower spec Chromebook was less laggy on Foundry, but foundry comlained about screen size (or lack thereof).
6. loading maps on GTove, Foundry, and maptools was much slower than pulling them out and putting them on a table
   1. one of the players usually didn't see the map until the second round of combat...his connection was slowed due to living further into the boondocks than I am.
   2. I can whip out the hex-tiles and use erasable markers far easier than I can use a VTT as a virtual whiteboard.
7. the use of the VTT's ping feature (Foundry and GTove) is not useful if the portion pinged isn't where they are looking. "Where?" long press to ping location, "I'm not seeing it. Hold on" (30 sec and a restart of the ping later) "Oh, there1" vs face to face, I'd just touch the map.
   1. they get disorented if I snap everyone's view to a specific location
8. Fog of war is great... but gTove doesn't have any shape but rectangles last I used it. Which meant using the radius light of the various games was a real time sink

Note that 1, 2, and 3 are not VTT specific, and are the biggest causes of slowdowns.The VTT adds additional slowdowns.

 

[Ath'kethin]

The only reason I use a VTT is that I run a weekly DCC game for my 11yo and his friends and they live 3,000 miles away from me atm.

That said, one thing I love about using a VTT is the "fog of war" option. I wish I had that kind of option in my in-person games, especially playing DCC, since the maps are always just works of art.

 

[payn]

The only reason I use a VTT is that I run a weekly DCC game for my 11yo and his friends and they live 3,000 miles away from me atm.

That said, one thing I love about using a VTT is the "fog of war" option. I wish I had that kind of option in my in-person games, especially playing DCC, since the maps are always just works of art.

One of the reasons im way more efficient on VTT is I used to draw my maps on a battlemat with wet erase markers. Being able to fog of war on VTT is a huge time saver.

 

[Theory of Games]

The shift from actually playing in the same room to using Discord and Role20 has done more damage than good. I find the virtual table-top use to be very frustrating, and frankly, if I'm going to play a video game, I'd rather do that. The few times I've been involved in a group using Discord, I've ended up playing video games while waiting for my turn to come around, and then, after my 2-5 minutes, going back to the game and waiting an hour for my next turn.
None of the structure has anything like the level of interaction of sitting around the same table with actual players. It's not unlike the common response to my complaint about a lack of a class teaching what I want to learn--just go to a virtual classroom on-line. (I don't learn that way!)
I find the overall lack of in-person human interaction extremely depressing and harmful.

Slow combat is 100% a GM issue. Not rules or medium. I can run Champions combat faster than many GMs can run B/X, using the same number of players and opponents/monsters. Being able to "play faster" is gained with experience.

But I get that some people prefer F2F over distance. But, phone calls aren't in-person communication and most people are fine with it. Definitely not "harmed" by it.