TaranTheWanderer
Legend
In a different discussion, @DM Dave1 and myself were discussing some frustrations with playing D&D online. We discussed a few tips and thought it might be worth its own Thread:
I've found the most frustrating part of online gaming is using a combat grid while exploring a dungeon - like from a published adventure, for example. People are moving their tokens one square at a time, pinging squares and asking to search whatever, or they are moving their tokens all over the board and I have to stop people and try to narrate things. It's worse when the party splits up.
To solve this, I told people to stop moving their tokens like it's a video game. Narrate to me where your character goes, what they are doing and how they do it. I then narrate the result of this action, then I or the player moves the token to the place they've indicated. This can be done as a group.
It also helps to have roles: someone declares they are searching for traps, someone else is looking for secret doors, someone else is keeping an eye out for danger. Then I use people's passive skills based on what they're doing. It makes it smoother to narrate and, I feel, it improves the flow.
What are your hints, tips or tricks?
I've found the most frustrating part of online gaming is using a combat grid while exploring a dungeon - like from a published adventure, for example. People are moving their tokens one square at a time, pinging squares and asking to search whatever, or they are moving their tokens all over the board and I have to stop people and try to narrate things. It's worse when the party splits up.
To solve this, I told people to stop moving their tokens like it's a video game. Narrate to me where your character goes, what they are doing and how they do it. I then narrate the result of this action, then I or the player moves the token to the place they've indicated. This can be done as a group.
It also helps to have roles: someone declares they are searching for traps, someone else is looking for secret doors, someone else is keeping an eye out for danger. Then I use people's passive skills based on what they're doing. It makes it smoother to narrate and, I feel, it improves the flow.
What are your hints, tips or tricks?