What do you NOT want to use tech for in you TTRPG?

[Crimson Longinus]

The thing about online games, is that you have access to free maps of intense detail, including tile sets so you can build your own, limitless furnishings to further add detail, and countless tokens of either portrait or top-down orientation.

Is it limitless and countless though? Not to the degree imagination is. And which is quicker, searching assets library for perfect tokens and other graphics, or just describe how things look?

And I don’t consider having to use one’s imagination a flaw, I consider it a feature.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Is it limitless and countless though? Not to the degree imagination is. And which is quicker, searching assets library for perfect tokens and other graphics, or just describe how things look?

And I don’t consider having to use one’s imagination a flaw, I consider it a feature.

Pretty limitless; I have 10gig of maps at an average size 4MB each.I set up before the game, so there zero delay at the table, whereas listening to a GM ramble on can seem endless.

Imagination , or 'theater of the mind' is usually an excuse for a GM who loves the sound of his own voice above all else.

 

[Distracted DM]

I run online and in person. Online games aren't quite as enjoyable to me because they lack the face to face hangout fulfillment, but there are things that you can do in FoundryVTT for instance that you can't do in person. Individual line of sight on a battlemap, automatically patrolling monsters, spell effects, etc. I make full use of those there to enhance my games.

In person I use a wet erase mat and my massive collection of miniatures. Few things inspire me as much as picking up an interesting mini.

I use PDFs for reference, but to read through a book I need a physical copy.

I loved DnDBeyond as a GM (before I got sick of WotC again), but I hate it for what it did to my newer players- many of them don't know how the game works, the mechanics, etc because DnDB does everything for them. Other character builders were convenient, but you still learned how the system worked through play etc.

I have a couple players in-person that have moved from DnDB to physical sheets and they now understand what I meant, now they know the mechanics of the system and their characters if I need to ask for an impromptu roll etc.

 

[payn]

I loved DnDBeyond as a GM (before I got sick of WotC again), but I hate it for what it did to my newer players- many of them don't know how the game works, the mechanics, etc because DnDB does everything for them. Other character builders were convenient, but you still learned how the system worked through play etc.

Been thinking a lot about that. Foundry makes PF2 a breeze. Though, id be pretty reluctant to run it physically. Thinking back to 3E/PF1 it took me a good deal of reading and sessions to feel like I had it under control. These digital aids can take a lot of that burden away, but at the cost of understanding.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Pretty limitless; I have 10gig of maps at an average size 4MB each.I set up before the game, so there zero delay at the table, whereas listening to a GM ramble on can seem endless.

It is still time you spend in prep. Now of course if you find it fun, that is not a problem. But if one doesn't railroad, you cannot always know what you need beforehand. Furthermore, if sorting trough assets is feasible, they are not limitless. Existing assets also are someone else's interpretation of how things look like and I like to personalise things and not just repeat the tropes.

Imagination , or 'theater of the mind' is usually an excuse for a GM who loves the sound of his own voice above all else.

How constructive.

 

[Distracted DM]

It is still time you spend in prep. Now of course if you find it fun, that is not a problem. But if one doesn't railroad, you cannot always know what you need beforehand. Furthermore, if sorting trough assets is feasible, they are not limitless. Existing assets also are someone else's interpretation of how things look like and I like to personalise things and not just repeat the tropes.

For my in-person games, my prep is basically picking what miniatures I think might be relevant for the session; my in-person games are very improv-heavy, with a bare-bones outline that inspired the whole adventure. This can take maybe 30-60 minutes because I have so many minis

My prep for online games takes a TON of time- hours and hours, looking for the right maps, drawing walls, lights, finding art for tokens, etc.
I pay hundreds of dollars/month (I'm a pro GM so I at least can write it off ) for patreons for maps etc. There IS a module on FoundryVTT, the Moulinette Cloud, that has a database of participating creators- I type "cave" into it and it shows me all the maps with "cave" or tagged as such, and lets me drag and drop these maps. Most often their walls are already done. That's where most of my patreon $$$ goes, to creators on that cloud, so I can KIND of run my games spur-of-the-moment-ish like I'd do in-person.

Spending so much $$$ isn't a requirement, but it does make running the games more fulfilling for me, which in turn makes my games enjoyable for the players

 

[MNblockhead]

The thing about online games, is that you have access to free maps of intense detail, including tile sets so you can build your own, limitless furnishings to further add detail, and countless tokens of either portrait or top-down orientation.

So the players can literally see at a glance exactly what is going on, rather than sitting there building dice towers while the GM drones on, or trying to remember which blob is the party healer.

Better still, they can see it with dynamic lighting (not the best map, but we delete the screen shots after each session):
View attachment 333739

Yeah, dynamic lighting is great.

Does the VTT you use have the option to keep revealed what players have already seen/explored? If so, do you use it or do you configure it so they can only see what they see?

I started out with manual fog of war in Map Tool, so I was used to having the areas the characters have moved through being permanently revealed. So I used the default option in Foundry scenes to keep areas moved through revealed. But with dynamic lighting in Foundry, not doing that can create more tension and allows you to move enemy tokens that might be sneaking up on the party out of sight. So I'm thinking of switching to the characters only being able to see what they can see currently.

 

[MNblockhead]

my previous answer to this missed a key element...
I had a kindle oasis as well - agreed, ideal for novels, naughty word for game PDFs. I don't miss it - it died.
My 10.5" table is faster, and perfect for digest sized, and at least 72% for letter, larger if the margins allow.

That said, recent upgrades make the newer tablets much faster than my Oasis was, or even my Boyue 10.5"

Moreover, my Boyue handles epub just fine, and on top of that, allows writing marginal notes, too... and running android aps. Most new ones do better.

Aint perfect yet... but well inside my utility threshold.

Yeah, the Oasis is junk for PDFs. But most smaller e-readers are. I don't even like reading games books on a standard iPad. Still to small to comfortably read without zooming in and moving the page around, which is annoying. I with more TTRPG companies would make e-reader friendly formats for their books.

I've been thinking of getting a Kindle Scribe, so I can take notes in books, which would be great for gaming, but I worry that the display of highly graphic and formatted books will not display well. Also, the Kindle interface isn't very smooth for jumping around PDFs. Usually when I play I have the PDF open on my laptop in Acrobat reader to make it easy to jump around (if the publisher bothered to book mark), annotate, and search.

One thing I do like about DnD Beyond is that on a laptop, you can different sources and rules open in different tabs and looking up spells and monsters is very easy. The phone and tablet app for DnD Beyond is also convenient. The rules search is still garbage though. In 2023 it still annoys me that I need to create my own reference sheets.

 

[Jd Smith1]

It is still time you spend in prep. Now of course if you find it fun, that is not a problem. But if one doesn't railroad, you cannot always know what you need beforehand. Furthermore, if sorting trough assets is feasible, they are not limitless. Existing assets also are someone else's interpretation of how things look like and I like to personalise things and not just repeat the tropes.

Love prep work. But it really doesn't take long in Roll20. And everyone's imagination is finite.

I set up likely maps against future need; it takes 2-3 minutes to plug in a map. Ambush sites, city blocks (with every room laid out), a village, whatever.

You can personalize in Roll20. Add furniture, interactive traps, debris, bystanders, sounds (both interactive and background), changing terrain, battle damage...the list goes on and on.

And what I do is get scenario idea-find maps-tailor scenario to maps & accessories. thus, there's no interpretation at all: they see exactly what they are supposed to see. Much clearing than a GM droning on, and a player missing something while their thoughts wander.

Above all is dynamic lighting. That keeps the player discussing what they are seeing as each moves, and (because their PCs have armor mods that allow sharing images) posting screen shots.

That way the players are actually exploring, being engaged and interacting with each other and the developing scene, rather than listening to a GM droning on. And it lets the GM focus on the NPCs, rather than endlessly talking.

Using visual media such as VTT, the GM and players game together, as opposed to a GM talking to an audience.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Yeah, dynamic lighting is great.

Does the VTT you use have the option to keep revealed what players have already seen/explored? If so, do you use it or do you configure it so they can only see what they see?

I started out with manual fog of war in Map Tool, so I was used to having the areas the characters have moved through being permanently revealed. So I used the default option in Foundry scenes to keep areas moved through revealed. But with dynamic lighting in Foundry, not doing that can create more tension and allows you to move enemy tokens that might be sneaking up on the party out of sight. So I'm thinking of switching to the characters only being able to see what they can see currently.

In D20 you can set it either way, but I prefer to set it so only what they can currently see shows. However, they can mark the map so if they double back, they have references. And since the current campaign is sort of current tech, they can drop cameras that prevent the darkness from 'coming back'.

Roll20 also as a neat optional feature that only updates the lighting after the token leaves PC control.

It also had a 'daylight feature', which means a tokens view is unlimited, except where blocked, very handy for outdoor situations.

They also have options for transparent barriers, and one-sides barriers to vision/light; the latter are great for differences in elevation.