Playing in Person Is Just Better (for me)

[Nebulous]

Having done both, and VTT exclusively for almost 5 years now, I prefer DMing online. I was also very map and miniatures heavy in person, and it's a godsend not to print maps anymore or buy miniatures. And now I can use maps for any random roleplaying scene I want, not just combat. And some maps have massive scale, larger than would ever fit on a dining room table. Do I miss seeing people in person? Sure, but the perks and ease of play online are better. I can also add lighting effects and special effects and fog of war, so I really enjoy those. And maybe it's just the introvert in me, but I love when we reach the end of our allocated time and we say goodbye and hang up until next time. There's no drunk guy hanging around my house after everyone else has left to talk about his elf's character arc.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Reading all this, I have revised my judgement.

Playing with friends > Playing Online > Not Playing > Playing with Strangers

The odds of inviting the wrong person seem very high.

 

[MNblockhead]

Being on-line makes simple things better: instead of passing notes, you can DM a player in complete secrecy, without anyone knowing notes are bring passed. Players can be tasked to Google and post simple research questions. Handouts and props are simple to distribute, and keeping things like a stock market feature is easy.

Okay, I had to take a break in reading your post when I hit the bolded text.

I need to know the story behind this. What game are you playing that requires a stock-market feature? Not making any judgements, whatsoever, just honestly curious.

 

[MNblockhead]

I have a player who has not, for whatever reasons, rolled well on the same die roller as the rest of the group. I need to go back through and run some stats, but I'd be surprised if he was above mean.
He blames the die roller.
It doesn't help that I wrote said roller, but that's pretty irrelevant.
(FTF, he had similarly bad luck.)

Players with bad luck will seek to blame some sophont for the issues they're having.

The game system I use does allow for the digital roll to be edited. You can also turn on setting for supporting manual rolls, but I don't think that can be set on a player by player bases.

But for over a decade, starting when we were playing in person, we always rolled in the open. It was our table etiquette to no use small or highly stylized dice that were difficult for someone across the table to read. This included me as a GM. I always roll out in the open.

I use Foundry with the Dice So Nice module which give the audio and visual feeling of rolling at the table. The only thing I miss is the physical feeling of rolling dice. That and I miss having an excuse to buy more pretty, overly expensive dice.

There are bluetooth dice that will sync with some VTTs, but none of them have been compelling enough for me to spend the money. Also, I think that would work best if everyone was using such dice and I'm not about to ask my players to fork over the money, when the VTT dice roller is more convenient, and free.

Never had an issue with players complaining about the VTT dice roller. Quite the opposite. Another thing I miss about in person play is dice detention (anything from the dice dunce chair to freezing it in an ice cube tray), dice banishment (chucking it into the trees beyond the backyard privacy fence; if you don't make it over the fence, you have to keep playing with it for the rest of the session), and the rare dice smiting (with grand-dad's old holy sledgehammer).

 

[MNblockhead]

Having done both, and VTT exclusively for almost 5 years now, I prefer DMing online. I was also very map and miniatures heavy in person, and it's a godsend not to print maps anymore or buy miniatures. And now I can use maps for any random roleplaying scene I want, not just combat. And some maps have massive scale, larger than would ever fit on a dining room table. Do I miss seeing people in person? Sure, but the perks and ease of play online are better. I can also add lighting effects and special effects and fog of war, so I really enjoy those. And maybe it's just the introvert in me, but I love when we reach the end of our allocated time and we say goodbye and hang up until next time. There's no drunk guy hanging around my house after everyone else has left to talk about his elf's character arc.

I was kinda bummed out about all the physical terrain, maps, battlemaps and minature gathering dust in storage. But my youngest son got into D&D and has a large gaming friend group. So they ended up getting put to very good use.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I was kinda bummed out about all the physical terrain, maps, battlemaps and minature gathering dust in storage. But my youngest son got into D&D and has a large gaming friend group. So they ended up getting put to very good use.

I do occasionally miss using the miniatures I have, many of which originally belonged to and were painted by a late friend of many years. But its hard for me not to see the virtues of being able to put together tokens with any artwork I can find with ease.

 

[cbwjm]

I do occasionally miss using the miniatures I have, many of which originally belonged to and were painted by a late friend of many years. But its hard for me not to see the virtues of being able to put together tokens with any artwork I can find with ease.

The ease of making tokens and maps for online play is definitely a +, it worked great during lockdowns.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The ease of making tokens and maps for online play is definitely a +, it worked great during lockdowns.

I'll admit to being much more pleased with the visual quality I can get out of tokens and either predesigned maps or ones I can put together with tiles and geomorphs over what I would put on an erasable battlemat in the Before Times. And if I'm really feeling stubborn I can still produce things with Fractal Mapper that are close to exactly what I'm wanting the area to look like (though I rarely have the patience anymore, unless the maps is going to be reused frequently, like, say, the home base of a superhero team).

 

[Nebulous]

I do occasionally miss using the miniatures I have, many of which originally belonged to and were painted by a late friend of many years. But its hard for me not to see the virtues of being able to put together tokens with any artwork I can find with ease.

I do that too, I love making my own monster tokens. I needed some space orc vehicles and threw this one together with AI and a bit of Photoshop. The players loved it.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Okay, I had to take a break in reading your post when I hit the bolded text.

I need to know the story behind this. What game are you playing that requires a stock-market feature? Not making any judgements, whatsoever, just honestly curious.

Its fairly common IME. My group tends to make investments with their spare cash. I have, for the last 25+ years, tended towards older gamers, so I have to generate rules for real estate investment, stock markets (where appropriate time period), dental technology, and the like. Currently we're in a slightly alt-history Old West setting where the Mexican Revolution kicks off in 1889, and thus far my players are on the stock market, and own one business.