Wednesday, December 8, 2021

The VTT vs. Real TT Conundrum - How VTT changes the game experience

 After posting about Pathfinder 2E and the various issues I have with the system, further thought led me down some paths with regard to how the virtual gaming environment impacts the experience, vs. how a game may feel different in an online environment. 

One example of how the virtual environment removes some elements possible at the game table. This is based on my experiences with Roll20 and Astral, but in essence if you play a VTT environment in which you are defaulting to the rules of the medium, then it means your die rolls are all up front. I imagine it might be possible, for example, for a GM to hide their die rolls from players but I actually am not certain how to do that. 

The reason I mention this is that, quite simply, if the GM at a game table with a screen in front of him notices that the die rolls are leading the players toward a glorious TPK over what was supposed to be a minor encounter, he can start fudging the dice if necessary. You might say, "but that's part of the fun of by-the-book/by-the-dice gaming" and you might not be wrong, but just having the freedom to make that determination is useful at the game table. If the GM starts fudging in the VTT it is much more apparent to to the players, which damages the experience. 

At a VTT you can run a game without a map or minis and maybe at best sketch some details out on graph paper. In a VTT the compulsion, possibly even the necessity of detailed maps and tokens is strong, chiefly because the medium of transmission on the VTT favors such graphics, and because the slight disconnect of being a disembodied voice talking to other disembodied voices requires that you put something graphically up to ground people, keep them on track. This leads to a cumbersome level of additional duties for the GM, especially if you're not good at designing your own maps. I can draw all sorts of good mediocre to average maps, but they will never look as good as a map designed from an app or program. But if I only have an hour to prep for a 5+ hour session, I haven't got any time at all to make a custom map in a program, and my best bet is scouring google searches. This leads to limiting maps...you design scenarios to accommodate what graphics you can find rather than what you need or imagine in your design. 

This problem does sort of exist at tabletop level, too: running Pathfinder with lots of official Paizo products means you may pick and choose from dozens of maps. But! You can also throw out and draw a generic map with markers and the players are universally forgiving that it's not amazing. Attempting to draw the same map in a clear space in Roll20 is, I can certify, a real pain in the ass.

If you do love making maps and using minis then I can see the appeal of VTT, though. It's generally faster for setup and actual play; the backend of prep for a game is where the time crunch is off-loaded. Most of Roll20, while providing lots of tools for stuff such as dynamic lighting and so forth, are not easy to use (okay for me, YMMV) and it feels like the focus is really on encouraging gamers to buy preset modules with all the features already built in to the scenario. The first scenario I ran in Roll20 that was prebuilt was for Mothership (The Haunting of Ypsilon-14) and it was actually incredibly convenient. So convenient that when it comes to my Saturday game in Pathfinder I have been debating moving the homebrew plot to a point where I can just start using premade content for them instead.

I've posted before about the main problem with VTT vs. Real TT: physicality. You can get around this a bit by using actual video, but I have to say, as someone for whom work has turned into a living hell of endless Zoom, Goto and Webex meetings that cameras SUCK. Adding them in to my entertainment experience is not a great option, though it does probably help normalize the feeling I experience of "disembodied voices" from which I can't escape. I wonder at times if the unnerving quality of this experience is unique to me or others feel the same weird sense of disassociation when listening to too many people talking to them on headphones?

Being at a real gaming table of course solves the problem immediately. You can see people, which means all the non-auditory communications elements of live interaction return (even if you are wearing masks!) and therefore alleviates a huge amount of what I call the "communications gap" of VTT. You can tell when someone is joking, someone is mad, and someone is confused. Maybe Facebooks' Metaverse will solve some of this, but I doubt it. Maybe I'm just old now, and despite my love of tech I am too old fashioned when it comes to how human interaction should feel.

Part of this rambling post started with me thinking, "Maybe I should run Pathfinder 2E at the game table again, as it may feel like a better experience when run live and in person." This started because my FLGS let me know that some new Paizo items I ordered had arrived, including maps and the hero point cards, none of which have any utility at all in VTT (though VTT shops will no doubt sell virtual editions of each). A month or so back I completed my monster card collection for PF2E with the Bestiary 3 card box. I'd love to be using this stuff at the game table again. 

Playing Pathfinder 2E at the live table might not fix the rules issues I've talked about....but it may make the experience more organic and fun. As for PF2E, I am actually thinking about some house rules to fix those issues. More on that soon!

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