Online play was a godsend during lockdown, and introduced me to all sorts of digital tools our group still uses. If I ever meet that nice Mr. Strahd, I’ll have to buy him a drink for that alone.
But damn, if we couldn’t wait to go back to in-person play. For a bunch of 30-40 year old folks with jobs and kids and other assorted awkward bollocks, in-the-flesh DnD has been a magnificent way for us to enrich old friendships - and, even better for people our age, develop new ones.
And it does this without a requirement to get smashed at the pub, which is still very much the default socialising technique over here. Not that I mind getting fucked up, but I’m always on the lookout for ways to hang out with friends that doesn’t revolve 100% around booze. Getting to share collaborative story-telling with my people around a table still feels every bit as special now as it did when we started 15 odd years ago.
Yeah, my in-person campaign didn’t survive the transition to online. One that started online is still going strong online, but it feels like transitioning from one to the other is a big ask, especially since what someone gets from an in-person game is not necessarily the same as a remote game.
On the other hand, online is nice in that there’s no rushing around to get somewhere, no travel time to deal with. Just be at your desk on time and spend a few hours throwing dice. If I could figure out how to do that but still get to play with my minis I’d be in a good place…
It kind of barely touches on FoundryVTT which is pretty much the best of the bunch if you are ok with running your own server:
-you own it -you own the content -lots of modules and very active development and support. Both official and fan based -great to use for a number of systems from DND to Warhammer and too many to list on mobile -very slick to use and macros allow you to do many cool things easily
Foundry really is amazing. The mod community for it is fantastic; you can find ones to do pretty much anything you’d want to do in game, and the UI is super slick. But the zero subscription part is what really sells it for me.
Exactly. Foundry kinda felt like a lot when I first bought it, but now after having used it for about 3 years, I wish I could give them more money
Nice to see some love for Owlbear Rodeo!
Online play let’s me play in middle of the week. That’s the only way my game could have happened
My groups have been online-only since 2020. Proud to say I’m in 2 games that have been running continuously since then.
sorry, but I couldn’t wait to get back to irl gaming
