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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whaleman" data-source="post: 8444919" data-attributes="member: 7032936">I can see why some people are all in on VTT but I find it has issues. I run 3 games in VTT currently one of which transitioned from in person. Firstly I admit I really enjoy the social aspect of meeting up with friends talking and sharing together. To the people mentioning facial queues I agree 100% that they help me as a DM to gauge players. I like the ease of access VTT offers and I would definitely not be running so many games if they were all in person. That said I much prefer in person.First off I did way less prep in person. We have plenty of cool models, terrain and battle maps for in person. Whenever combat starts I can easily whip something up based off the scenario with little to know pre planning. I tend to only really plan the skeleton of my sessions. I struggle with this for VTT where I always feel like I need to find a pretty map and add lighting to it. If I want to whip out an npc the way the VTT sets it up (Roll20) it wants me to have a NPC character sheet pre planned with all their stats and abilities set up. If I can up with someone on the fly or need to roll for a smaller character I have to type in a dang command line.My players really struggle talking over each other. With discord and roll20 there is no way to see that someone wants to talk without them just talking. We often end up with people talking over each other especially in high stress scenarios and its not really their fault as with the inherit delay they won't realize till they already started talking.I think cost is underestimated here. For my players at the table all they needed was to show up but online they need decent internet, a nice mic and a decent computer. Several of the players I have seen transition during the pandemic have struggled with having none of those things. The super cool lighting isn't as cool when it is causing massive lag and breaking the game.Finally I see a lot of distraction. First off with people at home I find a lot of players walk away from their computer (some to smoke or others to get food etc.) this leads to them never being ready when they need to make a roll. Other players are multitasking including checking email, reading or playing video games during session and lose track of whats going on. At least at the table I could call them out if they were getting to distracted or not paying attention.I have experienced this problem with many different groups of varying ages and experience levels. All of that said though I still use VTT and don't intend to stop but I dearly hope that I can return safely to the table soon.</blockquote>

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