Being a Good Audience

[JiffyPopTart]

Under COVID, most of my games have moved to Roll20. We use Discord for voice, but there's also the text chat. And it's interesting to me how posting funny junk where everyone can see it seems to work better than doing the same in a face-to-face game with a personal device.

In a weird way, commenting on the game with relevant memes seems to work in that kind of environment, showing that the player is interested and engaged with the action. I guess maybe it has something to do with being in a separate digital space than the Roll20 tabletop. It easier to partition "funny asides" and "the actual game" that way.

I could see that, for sure. I don't enjoy online gaming at all so don't have much experience, but i'd guess the fact you are already looking at a flat screen rather than around a table means the memes popping up in the chat window aren't taking your attention away from something else like they would in person since sending a Dramatic Groundhog GIF achieves the same result as typing out "Holy Moly, the ghost was really the caretaker in disguise this whole time!"

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Knowing how to make the most of your time in the spotlight while not overstaying your welcome is definitely an important part of being a good player. It's also important for players to let the other players have their time. It's not right to interject with a comedic response while another PC is having a serious emotional moment. Great players, however, know how to both uplift other PCs while they're in the spotlight and to make other players part of their spotlight time.

With larger groups, spotlight time is really hard to manage. Especially in shorter sessions, it becomes impossible for everyone to get their time to shine, and it just takes too long to come back around to you in combat.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, in Discord, being able to post funny GIFs reacting to in-game events has been an unexpected delight.

Under COVID, most of my games have moved to Roll20. We use Discord for voice, but there's also the text chat. And it's interesting to me how posting funny junk where everyone can see it seems to work better than doing the same in a face-to-face game with a personal device.

 

[billd91]

Under COVID, most of my games have moved to Roll20. We use Discord for voice, but there's also the text chat. And it's interesting to me how posting funny junk where everyone can see it seems to work better than doing the same in a face-to-face game with a personal device.

This isn't the first time I've seen mention of people running on Roll20 but using something else, like Discord, for voice. Why, if I may ask, do you use a separate tool for voice? I thought Roll20 offered video, but is it just not up to snuff?

 

[prabe]

This isn't the first time I've seen mention of people running on Roll20 but using something else, like Discord, for voice. Why, if I may ask, do you use a separate tool for voice? I thought Roll20 offered video, but is it just not up to snuff?

Can't speak for anyone else, but a group I played with tried to use the voice-chat in Roll20 and found it ... unusable. Laggy and buggy and several people had issues getting it to work at all. Voice over Discord has worked pretty consistently. The campaigns I run, I run in Discord: most of the game is in voice, but there's a text channel where I can post pictures to help with descriptions; in combat, I post pics of the battlemat on my gaming table whenever the situation changes enough to demand a new pic.

 

[uzirath]

This isn't the first time I've seen mention of people running on Roll20 but using something else, like Discord, for voice. Why, if I may ask, do you use a separate tool for voice? I thought Roll20 offered video, but is it just not up to snuff?

We started with Roll20's built-in A/V but it became buggy, especially as traffic ramped up in April. We typically use zoom for voice/video and Roll20 for illustrations and the battlemap (if needed). I've encouraged people to use the text-chat in Roll20 for game-relevant information since it is archived and I can search it later. Memes and meta-commentary can be in the zoom chat. It's working tolerably well, though I find as GM that I can't pay attention to the text (especially the memes and whatnot) until after the game. Not enough brain-cycles available.

 

[Umbran]

In D&D 5e, there's nothing that says anyone but the DM may decide there is an ability check and nothing suggesting players ask to make one ....

So, I know a lot of people are very much in the "tell the GM what you intend to do, and what is your goal, and the GM decides what rolls to make," mindset. But we are talking about communication between imaginative humans in what is generally considered to be a casual entertainment.

I mean, really, if a player has the unmitigated gall and temerity of asking, what do you intend to do? Smack them with a rolled-up newspaper? Eject them from the table?

 

[Umbran]

Can't speak for anyone else, but a group I played with tried to use the voice-chat in Roll20 and found it ... unusable. Laggy and buggy and several people had issues getting it to work at all. Voice over Discord has worked pretty consistently.

Interestingly, I have had exactly the opposite experience. Discord has horrible sound that doesn't recognize that my HDMI monitor has speakers I'd rather use, while Roll20 is clear and I only occaisionaly (like, once every other session) have to click to reconnect the AV stream.

 

[iserith]

So, I know a lot of people are very much in the "tell the GM what you intend to do, and what is your goal, and the GM decides what rolls to make," mindset. But we are talking about communication between imaginative humans in what is generally considered to be a casual entertainment.

I mean, really, if a player has the unmitigated gall and temerity of asking, what do you intend to do? Smack them with a rolled-up newspaper? Eject them from the table?

Smack them with a rolled-up newspaper? Really, moderator?

I ask them not to ask for ability checks please and I explain why that's important. I've done this quite a bit when breaking players of this habit.

 

[Umbran]

Smack them with a rolled-up newspaper? Really, moderator?

If, "lean into the absurd to make a point," was against the rules, we wouldn't have any users left.