How do you tabletop these days?

[Distracted DM]

My former in-person group is all online now. They like playing from the convenience of their homes on weeknights. Makes me sad.
I couldn't do online as a player, it's not stimulating enough for me to keep paying attention.

 

[Thomas Shey]

My former in-person group is all online now. They like playing from the convenience of their homes on weeknights. Makes me sad.
I couldn't do online as a player, it's not stimulating enough for me to keep paying attention.

Interesting. While I have problems with distraction as a player, it doesn't make any difference whether online or live.

 

[Distracted DM]

Interesting. While I have problems with distraction as a player, it doesn't make any difference whether online or live.

It's definitely the additional social-friend-hangout that fuels the "in the moment" aspect for me in-person. It's not the same for me online, though... I have to really force myself to pay attention as a player online, and it kills most of the enjoyment for me.

 

[Muso]

Tabletop, but with one of us online because he is in a different country. So we made some technical arrangements.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That didn't entirely answer it.

You can make personal Discords (I have one) which behave otherwise just like the rest of the Discords--you can do sub-boards and so on if you're really of a mood, you can have text channels and sound channels, and so on.

And then there's the private messaging function, which I gather can be extended to multiple users (I've never done so, but that's neither here nor there).

Are you talking about the first or second? The information I had seemed to say you could do it with the second but not the first, and I don't want to tell people that if it's not true (but I also can't see any obvious way to do it on a basic Discord channel).

The first. We have a private group on which we video chat.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It's definitely the additional social-friend-hangout that fuels the "in the moment" aspect for me in-person. It's not the same for me online, though... I have to really force myself to pay attention as a player online, and it kills most of the enjoyment for me.

Its always possible its connected with the fact that I MUSHed for years, so got very used to interacting with people in digital realtime.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The first. We have a private group on which we video chat.

Can you tell me how you activate the video chat? I can't see how you'd do so. There's ways to set up audio ones, but nothing I see that provides a video option.

 

[Distracted DM]

Can you tell me how you activate the video chat? I can't see how you'd do so. There's ways to set up audio ones, but nothing I see that provides a video option.

I believe we're talking about Discord, yes? Is this in a server or a group DM?
If it's in a server, you have a list like this (see spoiler images below). You clicked on "saltmarsh voice" to join the voice chat. Then, you click on it AGAIN to enter the "voice channel." That takes you to Image 2, where at the bottom you hit "turn on camera." You'll see everyone else in there as well, either with their profile image if no camera, or their faces if they turned on their camera

Spoiler

edit: if it's a group DM, then people just have to turn their cameras on- that's it.

 

[Distracted DM]

Its always possible its connected with the fact that I MUSHed for years, so got very used to interacting with people in digital realtime.

I think the other thing, now that I've thought more on it, is that most of my friends don't want to use their webcams for the same reason of convenience etc. of playing from their home. If the whole group is using webcams, it does something for me because I can see people. But just voices, that isn't helping me out

Definitely something that's going to be different from person to person.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I'm fortunate to have solely in-person games but if I did do VTT it would have to be with video. Too much I feel is lost when it is only audio. Much better for banter I think.