What Does the RPG Hobby Need Now?

[Laurefindel]

VTT play has done wonders for scheduling. Even if people are local, cutting out travel time and letting people still watch their kids or whatever means more people are able to play more often.

I recommend folks pick a regular day, preferably a week night. Nothing fails harder, in my experience, that trying to schedule session to session. And weeknights, while often busy, do not see as much shift as weekends. Most people know what they are doing on tuesdays into perpetuity.

I wish that was « most people ».

Many in our groups are musicians, actors, and stage techs, so we’re often off on a gig here or there. Otherwise they’re health services workers, no doctors in our groups but various nurses and hospital equipment techs that often have to work nights on rotary schedules or mandatory overtime. Even those that have a 9-5 job volunteer here and there, or coach junior soccer, or have kids that end up having some kind of weekly volleyball activity or karate class, or have to travel for the job, or have municipal committee sessions, or need to cover for a coworker on maternity leave/vacation/sick leave/trade show/conference etc. And even when we end up being available, spending a night home with the husband/wife and kids is sometimes necessary after long stretches of evening schedules.

Monday and Tuesday night are our most predictable nights but even then , they’re hard to predict more than four weeks ahead of time, let alone into perpetuity.

 

[Theory of Games]

TTRPGs are great way to detox from screen and have some fun face to face interactions with fellow humans.

VTT IS face-to-face gaming, with the computer as a tool. But I get that some people can't figure it out

 

[Zaukrie]

I'd like a tool that can make me art, but that doesn't steal from artists, indeed compensates them, and does not consume insane amounts of energy. It really helps with immersion and inspiration.

 

[GrimCo]

VTT IS face-to-face gaming, with the computer as a tool. But I get that some people can't figure it out

Can you elaborate what you mean? Maybe it's my misconception that VTT is mostly used for online play. When i say face to face, i mean in person, sitting in the same room.

 

[Reynard]

Can you elaborate what you mean? Maybe it's my misconception that VTT is mostly used for online play. When i say face to face, i mean in person, sitting in the same room.

A lot of people use VTTs in person to help manage things. TV displays as the "table" are getting more common.

 

[dragoner]

VTT IS face-to-face gaming, with the computer as a tool. But I get that some people can't figure it out

Let's not muddy the definition, ftf is in person, vtt's are their own thing.

 

[Laurefindel]

Let's not muddy the definition, ftf is in person, vtt's are their own thing.

VTT is virtual table top? What’s FTF?

 

[dragoner]

VTT is virtual table top? What’s FTF?

Yes. Face to Face.

 

[kronovan]

Can you elaborate what you mean? Maybe it's my misconception that VTT is mostly used for online play. When i say face to face, i mean in person, sitting in the same room.

For my In-Person sessions around an IRL table, It's not uncommon for me to have one of the 2 VTTs I own runnning on my laptop and a remote player's profile & token images up on a connected big screen. I'll put their character sheet on the screen too, if they're cool with that. If they want, I'll also have real-time video conferencing running via Discord, so the players around the table can see their face and that remote player can see the players at the table.

And as others have mentioned, even if I'm not hosting via VTT, I often use the app as a GM screen, support tool and a means to read my adventure notes and outlines. It works for some audiences, but I do have a group that doesn't even want mobile phones and tablets at the table. So those are solely In-Person experiences with pencil'n'paper

IMO Face-to-Face (FtF) isn't the correct term, because once you've enabled video conferencing via webcams, players can see each others faces and expressions. IMO the better term is In-Person and yes, that is somthing VTTs just can't provide.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Our online group, which has been together for years, doesn't use video, just audio.