Jasonchu
GMing way too much~
Up front: this is not a debate about which one is better, this is about what kinds of games are better in which medium. Civility, as always, is appreciated.
I tried forum gaming many years ago and basically hated it. I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do this instead of playing tabletop, because it all just seemed like a pale imitation. People flake out and have no accountability, GMs miss post deadlines, and if you're really excited about the game then you still have to wait hours and hours between your posts if you don't want to look like a special snowflake that's trying to hog the spotlight. It seemed like everything everyone wanted out of forum gaming was way better accomplished by tabletop gaming, and they just weren't getting into a group for whatever weird reasons.
Then I got into game creation. I've come up with stories, settings, and worlds that I was super excited about, but when I found some players to run some proto-testing with I started feeling like there was no way the game could function. Maybe it could only be run single player? Maybe it would just be better as a story instead of a game? Then I slowly started to realize that these were the kinds of games that only really work on a forum, and could never function on the tabletop.
Games where the characters frequently go off on their own, away from the other PCs. While on a forum this is easily managed and multiple points of attention can run simultaneously, it would result in hours of neglecting other players in a tabletop session, or in a sort of "off screen" rule where the focus of the game only stays with the largest group, and activities away from the others are oversimplified and potential character development and interpersonal relationships with NPCs being ignored.
Games where deep thought and complicated answers are required, frequent major decisions where the lives of hundreds hang in the balance and the consequences will never by the same! While on a forum game the player could be thinking about it while puttering around at work and put their answer down tomorrow and no one would be bothered, in a tabletop game everyone would have to sit there waiting "patiently" for the player to make up their mind on what to do before the game could continue.
Obviously there are other benefits to forum games, such as not being able to find a good group to do in person games with or not wanting to at all, or the fact that you could be in a dozen forum games at once without it really killing your schedule. Obviously some of the assumptions I made in my youth, those I spoke of in the first part, aren't fully accurate or aren't always accurate. However, what I'm interested in are thoughts and stories about what kinds of games work better on forums rather than tabletop.
Let me know what you think!
I tried forum gaming many years ago and basically hated it. I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do this instead of playing tabletop, because it all just seemed like a pale imitation. People flake out and have no accountability, GMs miss post deadlines, and if you're really excited about the game then you still have to wait hours and hours between your posts if you don't want to look like a special snowflake that's trying to hog the spotlight. It seemed like everything everyone wanted out of forum gaming was way better accomplished by tabletop gaming, and they just weren't getting into a group for whatever weird reasons.
Then I got into game creation. I've come up with stories, settings, and worlds that I was super excited about, but when I found some players to run some proto-testing with I started feeling like there was no way the game could function. Maybe it could only be run single player? Maybe it would just be better as a story instead of a game? Then I slowly started to realize that these were the kinds of games that only really work on a forum, and could never function on the tabletop.
Games where the characters frequently go off on their own, away from the other PCs. While on a forum this is easily managed and multiple points of attention can run simultaneously, it would result in hours of neglecting other players in a tabletop session, or in a sort of "off screen" rule where the focus of the game only stays with the largest group, and activities away from the others are oversimplified and potential character development and interpersonal relationships with NPCs being ignored.
Games where deep thought and complicated answers are required, frequent major decisions where the lives of hundreds hang in the balance and the consequences will never by the same! While on a forum game the player could be thinking about it while puttering around at work and put their answer down tomorrow and no one would be bothered, in a tabletop game everyone would have to sit there waiting "patiently" for the player to make up their mind on what to do before the game could continue.
Obviously there are other benefits to forum games, such as not being able to find a good group to do in person games with or not wanting to at all, or the fact that you could be in a dozen forum games at once without it really killing your schedule. Obviously some of the assumptions I made in my youth, those I spoke of in the first part, aren't fully accurate or aren't always accurate. However, what I'm interested in are thoughts and stories about what kinds of games work better on forums rather than tabletop.
Let me know what you think!