Do you play online D&D?

[Vraister]

I play in two message board games with friends I used to play face-to-face before I moved to the island.

We tried email games but the board gives greater flexibility and referencing. I prefer face-to-face games though.

Vraister

 

[Jackelope King]

I game almost exclusively online (via AOL Instant Messenger chat rooms) these days. I simply don't have the time during the week to find a group, and actually finding a f2f group has been difficult for me. I don't actually play D&D online so much... lately it's been all Mutants & Masterminds. I'd prefer to play online, but the ability for me to get a game together with friends scattered across the country for two or three hours every few nights is really great, especially when it's pretty much that or nothing.

I've done several PBPs in the past, and really the only trouble I've seen there is that things can grind to a halt when someone forgets to check the board for a few days for whatever reason. I think I slightly prefer chat games to try to get closer to the real pacing of f2f games.

 

[bytor4232]

I play mostly PbP on Myth Weavers and DNDOG. I like the inline dice roller and games organized by sub-forums.

I have a tabletop group, but we are lucky to meet once a month. I have a friend who helps me DM the group, which is nice. We run two campaigns simultaneously, one session I do my stuff, the next he does his.

If my tabletop group ever breaks up, I'll probably either give play by chat another whirl, or just play by post. I do like the pbp format, especially on the mentioned sites.

 

[bytor4232]

As I've gotten older I play a lot of PbP. While gaming by message board posting is really slow and "misses the nuances of face to face contact," it also misses the nuances of crowded, unpleasant gaming stores, inconsiderate and unhygienic players, usually has a dedicated channel for out of character ramblings if that's what you're into, and more or less gives me a lot less of the "wargame" feel I find I dislike a lot with gaming sometimes with the people in the local area. It's gaming without the hassle of breathing people and without the static blandness of MMORPGs, and I like that - a lot.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the FLGS setting, especially with the loud obnoxious warhammer players or the foul mouthed MTG players.

 

[Wombat]

I don't play any rpgs on-line.

If I can't see my fellow players, I have no interest in playing.

 

[funkysnunkulator]

online d&d?

"this is blasphemy. this is madness"

"madness?....... THIS..... IS....... ENWORLD!!!!!!!!!!"

 

[FalcWP]

I do both. I play face to face at school, but I have friends who have friends who have already graduated and are spread out across the country. So we play with Fantasy Grounds and Skype. It may not be exactly the same as a face to face session, but I certainly disagree with the folks who say it isn't a social activity that way. We make the same Monty Python quotes in there that we made when we were all gathered around a real table. About the only difference is that we can't actually flip one another off or throw dice at each other now.

Now, there are some differences in gameplay - it tends to be a bit slower, and I haven't found a good way to draw a map on the fly. But for the most part, if you adjust what you do for prep, it can work really well. Make or find a few good maps, write up all your flavor text to copy and paste, keep the SRD open to any monsters or rules you need. Plus, we tend to type out most in-character stuff, so people have an easy, convenient log of what happened in the game to reference. Now, everyone in this group types fairly well, and if they didn't, we might be inclined to do the in game stuff over Skype (as opposed to using it for questions, rule clarifications, and mocking each other incessantly).

If I had a choice, I'd play face to face, but online has been a real boon for our group, at any rate.

 

[Festivus]

pbp here and at at a private board. My group of friends is all over the world (including America, Canada, Mexico and Australia) and coordinating a face-to-face meeting is a once a decade event. The DI VTT might make some games more easy, but getting the Australian in will be tricky, so pbp it is.

I thought D&D was quite popular down under. Am I mistaken? You could find fellow Aussies to play online, no?

I play both virtual and live. My preference is for the human interaction with live, but I really like the regularlity of my online game.

For those who say they won't, have you ever tried it? It could be a green eggs and ham experience for you.

 

[BlackMoria]

Yes, I play online.

In past games, I have used OpenRPG.

Current game is Fantasy Grounds.

 

[Desdichado]

I like the concept of Pbps, but the reality seems to really struggle. The game stalls for a few days and people start dropping out... it gets really difficult to keep something going, it seems.

I've been in one that's on the third (?) module in the Savage Tide series, and has run for over a year, and that's by far the best success I've seen in a Pbp.

It's too bad, really. There are some things that Pbp's do really well, even compared to face to face, but it certainly has it's challenges.

I don't do any other kind of online RPGing, although I might be open to the idea if the game were right.