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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Renfield" data-source="post: 3306311" data-attributes="member: 13493">Hmmm, I see nothing wrong with it. Hell, why not do both. I've been gaming with my group for a few years, two members have been gaming with me since sophomore year in Highschool and one since 8th grade. Needless to say I sometimes like to game with different people. Considering my gaming timecard is limited and scheduling is a bitch I try virtual games and I've found them to be pretty nice. Yes they're missing the social element of me and my friends sitting around the table/living room and gaming while snacking and BSing but they do have their perks and flaws and when compared to tabletop gaming so does the latter. Here's my take:Tabletop Gaming Perks and Flaws * Focus: Getting sidetracked: Now I know this isn't something all groups have problems with, but mine has a big problem with it, we'll go off on tangents that are completely not game related.* Schedule: This is definitely a perk and flaw, we can all get together on saturdays, but we go late into the mornings. Another group of mine fell apart because of schedule conflicts.* Roleplaying: I have two people who are good enough actors for their roleplaying to be entertaining, two others put effort into it, while the last roles dice when necessary and does little else. It is my experience that the average gamer tends to be more descriptive writing, than acting.* Pace/Flow: Same as focus, getting sidetracked and the like disrupts the flow of the game considerably. However when focus is strong the flow goes quite nicely. * Social: the best aspect, hanging with friends on a Saturday night (granted there have been times I wanted to go to a club instead)VTabletop/PbP* Focus: Focus tends to be up because most people aren't BSing ooc, they're focused on the game and what's going on. If this does happen it's usually when the DM get's up and leaves for a time. Ultimately I find focus tends to be stronger.* Schedule: In some way's good in some ways bad. Good in that there are numerous websites that will let you search for fellow players or games that are in your time slot. Bad in that if you get into a group you like you can experience the same flaws of tabletop games. In PbP games there is no real downside to scheduling, it's quite easy to slip in a Post-a-Day or every other day and the flow of the game continues normally.* Roleplaying: as mentioned above I find some people are just better writers than they are 'actors' or verbal descriptors and so I find roleplaying to go up during VTabletop. I especially find it improved in Play by Post games where people have more time to think on their actions and words. You occasionally get's someone who sucks but I ask for a writing sample and I'm fine, I'm also not a grammar nazi so long as it can be understood.* Pace/Flow: For a VTabletop game the pace or flow speeds up for me, without the distractions and the like things work out fine. Not so much with PbP where it takes forever to get anywhere. I've been running a Call of Cthulhu game and we're still on Day 1 despite gaming for a few months. Though in VTabletop things tend to run fine.I'll have to dissagree with kenobi, with the chat based VTabletop games if a GM has his stuff together (I will say there's longer prep time) the game goes by much faster than a F2F game. Dice rolls are done and added electronically. I'm a fast typer which helps, not speedy gonzales but a little faster than normal. There's less BSing which drastically improves the game, that RPGA module you mention might take 3-4 hours according to the module or whatnot, but toss in beer and snacks and friends and it turns into a 5-7hour deal quite quickly. Whereas the 3-4 hour module on a VTabletop tends to take me... 3-4 hours, maybe five if the PC's are thorough.* Social: Here's where VTabletop and PbP get's kicked in the nuts. You lack the social bond and cammaraderie that would exist in a live tabletop setting. Some people just don't care if they don't inform those faceless names on the computer screen that they can't game that weekend, or that they can't game at all. People tend to think certain niceties shouldn't be in effect if you can't see the people face to face. That and it lacks the fun of the tabletop experience of gaming with friends.Though in counter, once I graduate and move I would love to get my original gaming group together to continue our adventures via VTabletop. Sure I could game with new people but there's nostalgia with my old group that is missed and it would be awesome to game with them even over OpenRPG or some other program, especially if we had some sort of voice chat program involved.Either way I love gaming and have invested too much in it to toss my books out if VTabletop is my only option. I'm sorry but I do it because I love the game and the creativity of it. I see nothing wrong with VTabletop that one should take such a drastic action in fact I consider it almost if not equal to tabletop. But that's just my opinion.</blockquote>

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