I tried virtual tabletops in 2020 but I just didn’t enjoy it the same way. Little things that don’t matter while you’re sitting round a physical table with your friends, like waiting while other players take their turns in combat encounters, suddenly play out very differently when you’re sitting at home on your own and can easily get distracted by your phone or TV without appearing rude. The players all just felt a lot less connected to what was going on in the game.
My group meets infrequently anyway and will often fill a whole day with the equivalent of multiple sessions when we do meet up, but when we played online during Covid we found it hard-going just getting through a two hour session.
Our group uses Roll20 character sheets on tablets around the table, they’re really handy for managing all the buffs and math (Pathfinder 1e). Still rolling dice and using minis. That’s the right level of digital stuff for me.
Like… we switched to meeting on discord and I scribbled out updates to the ‘table’ in paint. none of the VTT’s were flexible enough for the homebrews I was cooking up, though.
I feel like VTTs surged during the pandemic (not that it’s over) and now a lot of people went back to playing in person
I tried virtual tabletops in 2020 but I just didn’t enjoy it the same way. Little things that don’t matter while you’re sitting round a physical table with your friends, like waiting while other players take their turns in combat encounters, suddenly play out very differently when you’re sitting at home on your own and can easily get distracted by your phone or TV without appearing rude. The players all just felt a lot less connected to what was going on in the game.
My group meets infrequently anyway and will often fill a whole day with the equivalent of multiple sessions when we do meet up, but when we played online during Covid we found it hard-going just getting through a two hour session.
Our group uses Roll20 character sheets on tablets around the table, they’re really handy for managing all the buffs and math (Pathfinder 1e). Still rolling dice and using minis. That’s the right level of digital stuff for me.
I just wish there were better ways to find players for your in person game.
Like… we switched to meeting on discord and I scribbled out updates to the ‘table’ in paint. none of the VTT’s were flexible enough for the homebrews I was cooking up, though.