Unpopular opinions go here

[Gradine]

It isn't the same thing. You did not have to stop playing OD&D to determine if you could sidle up to the guard and get him drunk so your buddies can sneak past. The GM figured out a way to do that all within the framework of the game. You have to break from the framework of NWN or Minecraft to resolve that situation and revert to a different game system.

Well for starters, they are exactly the same thing. Whatever decision you come up with still has to work within the framework of the game, or you're playing a different game. TTRPGs are much easier to mod on the fly, sure. There is a definite difference is the scope of the limitations. But the working definition we're using (provided via Snarf) says nothing about the presence or absence of limitations to the game system. Or even, really, rules at all.

 

[Lanefan]

That's ridiculous.

If I'm not sitting at a real table* with other people, it's not a tabletop game.

VTTs are IMO a second-rate and in most ways clearly inferior substitute, much in the same way a phone call has always been a second-rate substitute for an in-person conversation.

* - or floor, or whatever else the character sheets, minis, drinks etc. are sitting on.

 

[Reynard]

Well for starters, they are exactly the same thing. Whatever decision you come up with still has to work within the framework of the game, or you're playing a different game. TTRPGs are much easier to mod on the fly, sure. There is a definite difference is the scope of the limitations. But the working definition we're using (provided via Snarf) says nothing about the presence or absence of limitations to the game system. Or even, really, rules at all.

I'm not using Snarf's definition. I am telling you what I think. I think it is a different thing that deserves its own terminology. I did not say it wasn't role-playing or somehow bad. I just said it was of a different order, which is obvious.

 

[Lanefan]

Changing tacks, here's an unpopular opinion:

The MCU has always been, and continues to be, still really damn good for the most part.

Not unpopular in this household!

 

[Reynard]

If I'm not sitting at a real table* with other people, it's not a tabletop game.

VTTs are IMO a second-rate and in most ways clearly inferior substitute, much in the same way a phone call has always been a second-rate substitute for an in-person conversation.

* - or floor, or whatever else the character sheets, minis, drinks etc. are sitting on.

Pedcantic definitions of things are usually pretty unhelpful. I think you know full well that we are talking about play process, not furniture.

 

[Lanefan]

Pedcantic definitions of things are usually pretty unhelpful. I think you know full well that we are talking about play process, not furniture.

I'm not talking about process (and honestly don't care, for these purposes), I'm talking about the far-more-important actual experience of play; and that to me is what delineates TTRPGs from VTTRPGs. Obviously, the same processes (i.e. game systems) can usually be used in both.

 

[Reynard]

I'm not talking about process (and honestly don't care, for these purposes), I'm talking about the far-more-important actual experience of play; and that to me is what delineates TTRPGs from VTTRPGs. Obviously, the same processes (i.e. game systems) can usually be used in both.

I understand and appreciate your preferences, but in the context of the conversation in which you made your assertion that playing a TTRPG on a VTT made in not a TTRPG, the comment was, and remains, ridiculous. It is sufficient for you to say "I prefer to play in person" rather than try and change the definition that way.

 

[Lanefan]

I understand and appreciate your preferences, but in the context of the conversation in which you made your assertion that playing a TTRPG on a VTT made in not a TTRPG, the comment was, and remains, ridiculous. It is sufficient for you to say "I prefer to play in person" rather than try and change the definition that way.

I'm not the one changing the definition to include something - to wit, virtual play - that IMO shouldn't be included.

 

[Thomas Shey]

And how many "Board Games" have you played that don't actually have a physical board? I can't count on one hand the number of "computer" and "video" games I've legitimately played on my cellphone, or is Icewind Dale suddenly now a phone game? Is an audiobook an actual book? And when's the last time you watched a film on actual film?

Of course a cellphone is a computer; its a more powerful computer in many cases than most of the first desktops were. Its also a communication device, a camera, and a video player, all rolled into one.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's ridiculous.

Yeah, its a hot take to say I haven't been running an RPG for several years now. I'll agree there are some differences in the experience, but there are vastly more similarities in the places that actually matter.