Theater of the Mind and VTTs: Oh Brave New World...

[uzirath]

I'm wondering if other people play this way, and if so, what pitfalls should I avoid? What are some best practices you can suggest? Any and all advice generously given will be thankfully received. Thank you!

We played that way during COVID and had no trouble. We much preferred being able to see each other (on Zoom, Discord, or Google Meet) than to look at a battle map. Sometimes we used Roll20 to share visuals. Sometimes the GM just shared their screen to show maps and illustrations. And we had a shared Google Drive folder where we would store handouts and whatnot.

We found that we grew fatigued more quickly than at an in-person game, so our sessions were shorter. Typically 2-3 hours of actual play rather than 3-4. We also had explicit breaks. Somehow it's easier at a table for a player to go to the kitchen or bathroom and return without disrupting play. Online, it seemed better to just say, "Let's take five," and then get back to it. Other than that, I don't think we really changed much about how we played.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

 

[GMMichael]

I'm wondering if other people play this way, and if so, what pitfalls should I avoid? What are some best practices you can suggest? Any and all advice generously given will be thankfully received. Thank you!

I much prefer mapless play if I'm forced to be behind a (computer) screen. It's so much easier for everyone to just imagine what the GM says, instead of listening to what the GM says, and then waiting for what happens on the VTT to match it perfectly, and then debating why it doesn't.

My advice is to be ready with a visual aid for positioning if necessary, and remove it when it's not necessary so players don't dwell on it. Then be very lenient with positioning-dependent events. I don't want to describe which floor boards I walk on to get to the (evil) bard, and I also don't want the GM to tell me that since I didn't specify which boards I used, I can't properly punch the bard for making references to my mom . . . in this round.

 

[User51]

I’ll upvote the discord/google meet option with a die roller and occasional screen share. It seems you do have to create a few more assets in advance unless you have a drawing tablet, but there are enough free collaboration tools like Google docs and drawings that you can pick a small subset and get by.

 

[Ferrousbones]

Be aware that if you have anyone with aphantasia, they can have difficulty without visual aids.

Also, even those without aphantasia have reported having difficulty with keeping track of things in encounters.

 

[GothmogIV]

Be aware that if you have anyone with aphantasia, they can have difficulty without visual aids.

Also, even those without aphantasia have reported having difficulty with keeping track of things in encounters.

Believe me, my friends are too dumb to have anything that complex.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

You can play D&D or any game without tokens. Theatre of the mind works just fine by estimating distances and hand waiving all the minutiae of grid movement.

I have been playing online with my high school friends for the last 6 or 7 years and we use owlbear rodeo to sketch easy maps or any online sketch program. Sadly jamboard isn’t supported anymore. The sketching is not for exact movement of minis but simply to give some visuals of what you are describing, the same you might do at a table on a piece of paper.

 

[Gradine]

Be aware that if you have anyone with aphantasia, they can have difficulty without visual aids.

Also, even those without aphantasia have reported having difficulty with keeping track of things in encounters.

I will say that I have aphantasia and I much prefer theater of the mind to grids, even if I can't visualize what is happening, so this is not universal

 

[chuckdee]

So we are about to begin a new campaign using a new system (Castles&Crusades) which has limited support on Roll20 to begin with. I am thinking I want to do this much more theater of the mind, as we used to do for the majority of our gaming time. Players can have paper characters in front of them, or use Troll Lord's rollable character sheets online, or they can just roll on the VTT. Whatevah. Instead of using maps and grids and tokens, I am going to use more art and images. When it comes to combat, I am going to just describe what's happening instead of showing what's happening. In the case of a large or complicated battle, I'd just throw some tokens on a map in order to make things less confusing, but not worry too much about distances and all of that.

I'm wondering if other people play this way, and if so, what pitfalls should I avoid? What are some best practices you can suggest? Any and all advice generously given will be thankfully received. Thank you!

That's actually the way I play most of the time. I have major events in Foundry, but everything else is not in VTT- just discord and whiteboard (I use miro, but any would probably do).

 

[Bill Zebub]

View attachment 395442

GREAT reference.

"Warriors.....come out to roleplayayaaaaaay"