VTT/online-play Etiquette and Horror Stories

[MNblockhead]

One of the most annoying things players can do is moving their token around the map to explore while I am handling another player and their character's actions. It's disrespectful not only to me but the other players. It's so annoying and common that I might just forgo maps for players and just have them for my own reference.

What VTT are you using? Does it allow you to pause the game to prevent movement? For example, in Foundry you just hit the space bar and it pauses the game, preventing tokens from being moved.

 

[aramis erak]

I had to mention to one player that if he was going to have side conversations with another (his wife) could he please mute? Ironically, the problem with one other player is he's really good about that, but not always so good at turning mute back off when he's done.

My guy with low bandwidth often forgets he has push-to-talk on...

 

[aramis erak]

"Insists on rolling physical dice when everyone else rolls in the VTT"

This jsut shows how different tables are. We roll physical dice with VTT rolls optional. Why? Dice are more fun.

Not when the needed dice are non-standard and out of "print"...
Or when players can't be arsed to learn a d6 conversion table that's used constantly.
Or you have a player whom the group knows they lie about their dice... Especially if the group is big on the game side of RPGs.

I had one FTF player who never lied about the direction of the roll, just whether it was a crit or not... In pendragon, we made him use a 2" diameter d20... Suddenly, his rolls were statistically plausible.

Another player was nearly blind - he literally was guessing the blob... astrocytoma in the visual cortex and optic nerve. by the lockdown, he was only good for the first 100 minutes of session, but we humored him anyway, because we knew that crazy old soldier was dying and quick. He just turned NPC after 9pm. (This was during lockdown. using the die-roller was the first time I could trust his rolls... in the 5 years I knew him.) We usually ran 150 to 200 minutes of play during lockdown. He didn't live to see the end of lockdown.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, it helps to have good bandwidth and high-quality headsets, which not everyone can afford. We use Discord and push-to-talk really helps. It is much easier and more natural than trying to constantly click the mute button on and off during the game. But even push to talk only gets you so far.

I'm using Discord these days and have thought about that, but I suspect I'd just have people who regularly forgot to push.

If you have lag, it is just really difficult to avoid. I've had to use Discord on some pretty poor connections and I've been very impressed. I've never experienced lag in the years we've been using it. When there is a bandwidth issue you might get garbled sound but I don't recall ever having lag.

I didn't get lag, but we got dropped words sometimes.

 

[payn]

Just put on this mask and start taking notes in a notebook.
View attachment 409507
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1831563411/sigmund-freud-realistic-helmet-mask?ls=s&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=sigmund+freud+mask&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&content_source=eeb8f7ac987b7ed0a68464704e700d5623ad7c7c%3A1831563411&organic_search_click=1&logging_key=eeb8f7ac987b7ed0a68464704e700d5623ad7c7c:1831563411

Im not a cat...