Personally I despise chat while other people are talking but that's very much my ADHD and complete and utter inability to multitask. It's hard enough for me to pay attention when people are talking, add a second conversation and a 5-car pileup occurs in real-time in my brain. Or if I'm the one talking with someone else and then there's a second conversation? My brain just goes into shutdown and it can take me several minutes to recover.
In my one online game I have left, people throw up animated gifs for things the GM is describing, and that's fine.
This isn't to say that I don't understand the draw for others, I get it. But I literally cannot do that shit. My brain will not allow it.
I'm largely the same. My group has two games going currently - an online game going through Dungeon of the Mad Mage and an in person game playing Force and Destiny. I tried for a while to engage in the online game, but just found it so much harder for me to pay attention for long stretches of time sitting at a screen. The Star Wars game, on the other hand, I'm able to easily engage. I just need something tactile when I play. It's why I loved 4E so much, because we were able to have fun maps and minis, and I love that part of the game.
I wish I was able to do better as a player for online games, and I'm really glad it's an option for folks who have the ability, and when I've GMed games it's been better, but there are just too many distractions when I'm sitting alone in a room with the internet at my fingers.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
My d20 redeeming itself with a 20 on the Big Bad, and then my damage dice rolling a 1,2,1,1
This is why at my tables the home rule is you do max damage for whatever attack you crit with. Big swings on crits is fun, but goddamn is blowing a crucial crit role the absolute most junk-punched feeling. I hate that feeling more than any other thing in these kinds of games.
Max Damage might average slightly less damage on the maths versus Double Dice over a large sample size, but at least it's consistent and never feels terrible. Also, side effect, the Bad Guys rolling crits have less of an opportunity to just absolutely spike a character down. It still hurts, but in years of playing I've never had to deal with an outsized crit damage roll downing a player in an unfair-feeling way.
Nips on
+3
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Personally I despise chat while other people are talking but that's very much my ADHD and complete and utter inability to multitask. It's hard enough for me to pay attention when people are talking, add a second conversation and a 5-car pileup occurs in real-time in my brain. Or if I'm the one talking with someone else and then there's a second conversation? My brain just goes into shutdown and it can take me several minutes to recover.
In my one online game I have left, people throw up animated gifs for things the GM is describing, and that's fine.
This isn't to say that I don't understand the draw for others, I get it. But I literally cannot do that shit. My brain will not allow it.
Yeah we could never make that work in my most consistent online group. I like the idea, but if not everyone is good at that specific sort of multitasking it makes it worse and more distracting than it would be if you just said your jokes out loud.
My d20 redeeming itself with a 20 on the Big Bad, and then my damage dice rolling a 1,2,1,1
This is why at my tables the home rule is you do max damage for whatever attack you crit with. Big swings on crits is fun, but goddamn is blowing a crucial crit role the absolute most junk-punched feeling. I hate that feeling more than any other thing in these kinds of games.
Max Damage might average slightly less damage on the maths versus Double Dice over a large sample size, but at least it's consistent and never feels terrible. Also, side effect, the Bad Guys rolling crits have less of an opportunity to just absolutely spike a character down. It still hurts, but in years of playing I've never had to deal with an outsized crit damage roll downing a player in an unfair-feeling way.
Yet another reason why 4e was better
Crits and healing both had a minimum amount (the weapon die or your healing surge value), and everything on top was gravy
Crits deal max damage, plus do additional effects based on weapon would be my ideal setup I think. So some weapons hit even harder on criticals (e.g. daggers), a big hammer knocks them on their ass, etc.
At my table for crits we do max damage plus normal rolls, which is hilarious and terrifying. A lucky crit can chunk boss types or fucking paste the poor ranger who walked a bit too close to that one mob. Somehow, we've only had one character die from combat.
Oh yeah @Endless_Serpents you were interested in updates on my game, I forgot to do them! After a couple weeks delay starting we got into it, it's been going pretty well I think! After a couple sessions I was getting more comfortable with running things and playing the NPCs, having a good time. Sadly have had to skip last week and today because of life for a few players, so it goes. We're playing the first Pathfinder 2 module, The Fall of Plaguestone.
The 1st level party arrived with a caravan at a small turnip farming village in the sticks, passing through on their way to bigger things, just intending to stay the night, when the caravan master was shockingly poisoned at dinner in the local tavern. So they've spent the sessions since then searching for clues and following leads to who could have wanted him dead. The motivation is still a mystery, but they finally caught up with the kid who put the poison in the food, learned who put him up to it, and are about to head to the hideout of the character that seems to be the mastermind, where he'll be behind a bunch of prepared defenses in his hidden smuggler cave dungeon.
+1
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I’m an in person player. We did most of Avernus online through discord and roll20 at the start of the pandemic but for me the draw is getting to sit around the table with my friends rolling real dice and playing off of each other. We made online work and had fun certainly, but as soon as the vaccines were available and got we were right back to the table.
One day I want to make miniatures out of clay and when you crit you bonk them with a plastic mallet.
not a roleplaying game but uh
lemme tell you about necromolds
I literally started getting ads for this on Instagram about a week ago. I doubt I'd play it, but the concept is pretty cool and squishing them seems fun lol
+2
Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
In person play is the best way to play because it lets you pull shenanigans.
In my longest running campaign there is a recurring friend/villain. A powerful fey who can transport you wherever you need to go, but every time you use his services you have to sign a bargain that just slightly favours him a little bit more. My players had asked him to hold onto a powerful artifact for them and now they needed it back. The same player always hosts, so the session ended and I went and found every deck of cards that I could and took the Aces out (we're very close, it's all good).
Then, a month later, when everyone came back, they sat down to negotiate with the Archfey and lo and behold, he might even be willing to give the artifact back for free if they can beat him in a simple card game. 4 on 1. So I ask one of the players to go grab a deck of cards, whatever they can find in the house. Tell the players they can shuffle if they'd like. In my pocket I have matching aces from that deck. And wouldn't you know? They get thrashed on every hand. Now, having lost, they've gotta pay out for returning the artifact with a little extra on the top.
Can't do that sort of sneakery with digital.
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+10
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
It's actually easier to cheat at cards with a computer
One day I want to make miniatures out of clay and when you crit you bonk them with a plastic mallet.
not a roleplaying game but uh
lemme tell you about necromolds
I literally started getting ads for this on Instagram about a week ago. I doubt I'd play it, but the concept is pretty cool and squishing them seems fun lol
I’ve played it a few times now, it’s a good time as someone who doesn’t partake in war gaming or miniatures. Lots of fun breaking out the little rulers and whatnot, and there’s a truly insane amount of optional rules to tailor it to your preferred amount of complexity. Like, from literally babies just squishing playdoh to an insane wargamer’s dream
But yeah I don’t think I’d ever buy it myself and a lot of the fun is definitely getting to squish guys with your little wizard ring
+1
Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
Reached the catharsis moment of running Kingmaker today. Starting up book two, everyone goes over what role they want in the new Kingdom, let's do our first kingdom building phase.
I lean back in my chair, steeple my fingers, the light reflects off my glasses so the players can't see my eyes anymore, "And what did you say this Kingdom was named?"
+5
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I rolled a crit my last session, and that was pretty much my roll as well
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Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
For online games, I definitely love some of the VTT stuff.
Being able to have people only see on their screen what they're character token can see? Brilliant.
Ability to have a side chat and tell characters something the others wouldn't hear or know? Fantastic.
A bunch of automated spell effects/rolls etc? Amazing.
The downside of course is missing the in person connection. Not handing out cool physical props and stuff.
When we build our house, in the distant future (if the world doesn't end), I think I'm going to build myself a custom table with a screen built in that I can run a VTT on. Get some of the sight/map benefit. Party based instead of character, but that's ok. And have enemy stats/damage/etc built in and handled on that.
Hmm, I need to come up a title for the next thread soon. Fourth Edition Clocks had treated us well, but we need something fresher. Newer. Siller
Conjure Minor Balance Problems would be funny, but is too specific. Also who wants to be talking about DnD when we can talk about the really good games, like Costume Fairy Adventures
That's specifically why I suggested trying different games as the first option. Like, I'm also someone who plays these games with my friends, I agree that it can be really difficult to switch someone out of a group.
My then-SO and I used to play at the local board game shop, with a rotating collection of characters including the Rules Lawyer, the Creepy Guy, the Socially Inept Guy, the Guy Who May Or May Not Be Having A Manic Episode, and half a dozen Guys Who Can't Stop Cracking Dumb Jokes And Focus On The Damn Game. I would knit socks to stay sane.
Eventually we found a consistent group of friends to roleplay with. We tried a variety of different games, with different people DMing. Nevertheless:
One person always played a narcissistic, sociopathic dragon/wizard/dragon wizard, and would derail any plans the rest of the group made in order to gain personal power or take revenge for imagined slights to his honor. ("The noble didn't grovel sufficiently, so I'm going to burn his manor down!") Every quest we took started with his character trying to extort more gold out of the quest giver. This person was actually an ok GM.
One person had no idea how to play a character that fit the setting - any setting - and would constantly interrupt the GM with inane questions about other, irrelevant ways an innocuous word or phrase could be interpreted.
One person would always create a character in direct opposition to an axiom of the setting (e.g., "the undead are simply misunderstood and cruelty to them is wrong!" in a D&D game) and then bring up that conflict in every interaction with the world. When GMing, this person's NPCs would question every assumption the PCs made, but would only grudgingly give actual information.
One person would always play a fish out of water - usually a "simple barbarian" of some sort - and then spend all their time in-character pretending not to understand any social conventions, turning every interaction with NPCs into an intolerable slog. When they GMed, getting a straight answer out of any of their NPCs was like pulling teeth.
One person was a decent player and GM, but only showed up once in a great while.
One person would make solid characters with an investment in the setting, take quest hooks with enthusiasm, explore the world the GM presented, and in general seemed to want to actually play the game. She and I spent a lot of time exchanging thousand-yard-stares while one or more of the other players egged each other into escalating spirals of masturbatory pointlessness.
I would knit socks to stay sane.
Eventually I told them that I was happy to play board games, but I could no longer play TTRPGs with them because I was not a good fit for their table.
These are all specific people, but one or more of these archetypes (excluding the two good ones) has been present at every table I've ever played at.
They say that if you meet an asshole, you've met an asshole; but if you meet assholes all day, look in the mirror - so for the longest time I thought it was me. But I was describing this group to someone else once, and they were horrified, so now I don't know. Where the fuck are people finding groups that don't make them want to swallow a DPN?
(ADHD makes online play a no-go for me. I've tried it, with friends, and I wanted to crawl out of my skin the whole time.)
With mature adults it's usually about setting expectations, GMs who are willing to set boundaries, and players willing to keep each other in check.
For example, the Pathfinder games I play in have a hard stop since do organized play in a store at night - four hours to complete the adventure, period. So when we notice each other getting distracted with jokes and side comments, we'll use hand gestures and such to bring attention back to the GM or the game. This also helps out soft-spoken GMs who struggle with speaking over players.
+3
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
edited August 12
We've got one of those fish out of water simple barbarian sorts in my DW group right now. He's never really played before, and I think he picked up the barbarian as something that he thought would be easy for not understanding the game or the setting very well, but he keeps trying to torpedo social conversations (which we do a lot of, we're not a very combat heavy group) and outright refusing to pick up GM hints and quest hooks. This is all additionally impeded in that the barbarian in Dungeon World is actually kind of the opposite of that smash and bash caveman type, it's a class deeply invested in exploring culture and building into more of a King Conan place by the end.
And despite himself, the player has actually made a kind of cool barbarian tribe - they're desert dwarfs who essentially behave like Watership Down rabbits, wandering through the open desert and digging themselves emergency holes every night because they've still got all that dwarf stuff of only wanting to feel safe underground.
Anyways we keep expecting him to leave on his own because he joined the game from dating one of the other players and they broke up amicably so it's been fine, but he has a new girlfriend now who he wants to spend all his time with so he only shows up every other session at best.
I’m constantly surprised by how often the vibes I get from players are just wrong. Like I have a player I’m a bit worried might not be super engaged - they’re on their phone a lot - not in a distracting way but it kinda reads like “I’m not into this”. But then I’ve got one of my other players telling me they spent a bunch of time at the beach talking about how much they enjoyed the game.
I’ve also got a player who’s been missing roughly half the games, but out of everyone is *the* most vocal about how excited they are about everything.
Maybe I should just worry less about if people are having a good time.
My then-SO and I used to play at the local board game shop, with a rotating collection of characters including the Rules Lawyer, the Creepy Guy, the Socially Inept Guy, the Guy Who May Or May Not Be Having A Manic Episode, and half a dozen Guys Who Can't Stop Cracking Dumb Jokes And Focus On The Damn Game.
Which one am I in my groups? Let's see... safe, safe, safe, safe... ahhhh, damnit.
Our group has a player who is constantly on the phone, but I think it's just him dealing with his attention span, he's always happy to engage when it's his turn. Honestly the bigger issue is my partner who's really annoyed by this, I've been trying to get them to accept that's how he has fun and isn't being disrespectful to the rest of the group.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I’m constantly surprised by how often the vibes I get from players are just wrong. Like I have a player I’m a bit worried might not be super engaged - they’re on their phone a lot - not in a distracting way but it kinda reads like “I’m not into this”. But then I’ve got one of my other players telling me they spent a bunch of time at the beach talking about how much they enjoyed the game.
I’ve also got a player who’s been missing roughly half the games, but out of everyone is *the* most vocal about how excited they are about everything.
Maybe I should just worry less about if people are having a good time.
I'm often a little bit surprised by which of my players talk to me outside of game really positively about the game. Every time I think someone isn't into it they'll corner me at a party to talk about an idea for a long term project or new backstory component or whatever.
Our group has a player who is constantly on the phone, but I think it's just him dealing with his attention span, he's always happy to engage when it's his turn. Honestly the bigger issue is my partner who's really annoyed by this, I've been trying to get them to accept that's how he has fun and isn't being disrespectful to the rest of the group.
I don't mind people fucking around on their phones during their turn so long as their first question when it's their turn isn't "What's happening?" or "Where am I?" and/or "Okay so who have we done damage to so far?"
Also, long turns, goddamn do they suck. Spending an eternity to figure out what you're going to do with your turn, is like nails on a chalkboard for me. And with some groups, it's every turn, every round, recapping what's happening, then waiting sometimes up to 10 minutes for a turn to take place. It cascades because everyone else is too fucking bored to pay attention anymore because your turn took 10 minutes, so now they're on their phone.
Some people are fine on their phones, some people take quick turns, but also some people think they're fine on their phones and that they take quick turns, but they're not and can't be convinced otherwise.
That all said, playing PF2E has weirdly resolved a lot of this because everyone has Pathbuilder on their phones for managing their characters and they don't dare swipe away from it so the time they're spending on their phones is actually being spent on their future turn.
Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
For the longest time I was so freaked out by one of my players who just seemed to sit at the table and listen to everyone else roleplay and take relatively simple actions in combat. I'm a roleplay fanatic, and two of my other players are as well (including one who, if an NPC they need to fight has a slightly sympathetic backstory, will cry when they die), so I was worried that my game was just a bit much for her.
Whoever posted that thing about types of players and one type of player just liking to observe is a lifesaver. Really helped me put into perspective that she's still having fun without needing to constantly worry about if she's actively participating in each scene.
Best part, in my opinion? She's playing a Swashbuckler.
Absolutely most passive, shy swashbuckler I've ever seen.
Less Errol Flynn and more Bilbo Baggins.
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
+2
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I mean I would still want to confirm that's the case, I've also had several players like that who are having trouble getting into the rules or world or having a disconnect from what they imagined versus the actuality of the game.
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Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
I mean I would still want to confirm that's the case, I've also had several players like that who are having trouble getting into the rules or world or having a disconnect from what they imagined versus the actuality of the game.
Oh yeah, well, we've been doing this campaign for 3 years now, so I think we're safe on that front.
I talked to her a bunch at the start of the campaign and asked her what her favourite part of playing was.
She said she liked combat, since the rules were more clearly defined for what she could and couldn't do, so I always include at least a short combat encounter in each session for her to run around in.
The observer realization was more of a 'oh okay there are other people that do this too' realization than 'oh NOW I get her deal'.
As for me, I'm the player whose characters always need to be convinced to go adventuring. I know I do this, and I try not to, but somehow I always wind up making a character who is way too cautious and sensible to actually be an adventurer.
I'm sure I have other annoying habits I'm not aware of
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
edited August 12
I as a person talk too much so I've learned that I have to just make my characters some form of social because they're going to be taking at least some of that role. I also have occasionally (mildly) upset my fellow players by roleplaying too hard, so I'm always careful to clarify that actually it's just my character who is a huge bitch and that I'm enjoying having someone to bounce off of when playing with people who aren't used to it.
I usually have a high amount of system mastery of the games that I play, so most of my characters tend to cover a LOT of bases, which gives me a tendency to steal the spotlight from other people or share their spotlight through support. As a player, I've had to teach myself to allow people to shine without me intervening in some way, which goes a bit against my "forever GM" tendencies to want to boost the other players. It's okay to sit back and let other people do their thing!
I might be playing in a friends game at some point and I’ve thought about doing the “god wizard” thing but with a Bard since it’s all newbies to the game. I was thinking it’d be neat to run a support-style character who’s more interested in finding a good story to tell than being in the spotlight
You go in the cage, cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark's in the water, our shark.
I played 3rd and 3.5 to death back in the day (and good god I was so fucking sick of that system by the end) so generally know my way around optimizing in that framework. Recently played in a 3.75 (aka Pathfinder) game and tried really hard not to cheese it. By the end I had 8 levels of plain ole Fighter.
Was out damaging everyone in the party, AC was 10 higher, had more HP and battlefield control with the various trip and opportunity attack feats.
As much as I like the other players and the DM was great at storytelling any time we had to interact with the rules it was such a slog. That sysyem should have stayed dead and buried in the 00s.
Posts
In my one online game I have left, people throw up animated gifs for things the GM is describing, and that's fine.
This isn't to say that I don't understand the draw for others, I get it. But I literally cannot do that shit. My brain will not allow it.
I wish I was able to do better as a player for online games, and I'm really glad it's an option for folks who have the ability, and when I've GMed games it's been better, but there are just too many distractions when I'm sitting alone in a room with the internet at my fingers.
This is why at my tables the home rule is you do max damage for whatever attack you crit with. Big swings on crits is fun, but goddamn is blowing a crucial crit role the absolute most junk-punched feeling. I hate that feeling more than any other thing in these kinds of games.
Max Damage might average slightly less damage on the maths versus Double Dice over a large sample size, but at least it's consistent and never feels terrible. Also, side effect, the Bad Guys rolling crits have less of an opportunity to just absolutely spike a character down. It still hurts, but in years of playing I've never had to deal with an outsized crit damage roll downing a player in an unfair-feeling way.
Yeah we could never make that work in my most consistent online group. I like the idea, but if not everyone is good at that specific sort of multitasking it makes it worse and more distracting than it would be if you just said your jokes out loud.
Yet another reason why 4e was better
Crits and healing both had a minimum amount (the weapon die or your healing surge value), and everything on top was gravy
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
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PSN: AbEntropy
not a roleplaying game but uh
lemme tell you about necromolds
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I literally started getting ads for this on Instagram about a week ago. I doubt I'd play it, but the concept is pretty cool and squishing them seems fun lol
In my longest running campaign there is a recurring friend/villain. A powerful fey who can transport you wherever you need to go, but every time you use his services you have to sign a bargain that just slightly favours him a little bit more. My players had asked him to hold onto a powerful artifact for them and now they needed it back. The same player always hosts, so the session ended and I went and found every deck of cards that I could and took the Aces out (we're very close, it's all good).
Then, a month later, when everyone came back, they sat down to negotiate with the Archfey and lo and behold, he might even be willing to give the artifact back for free if they can beat him in a simple card game. 4 on 1. So I ask one of the players to go grab a deck of cards, whatever they can find in the house. Tell the players they can shuffle if they'd like. In my pocket I have matching aces from that deck. And wouldn't you know? They get thrashed on every hand. Now, having lost, they've gotta pay out for returning the artifact with a little extra on the top.
Can't do that sort of sneakery with digital.
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
Trust me, I know a lot about cheating at cards
I’ve played it a few times now, it’s a good time as someone who doesn’t partake in war gaming or miniatures. Lots of fun breaking out the little rulers and whatnot, and there’s a truly insane amount of optional rules to tailor it to your preferred amount of complexity. Like, from literally babies just squishing playdoh to an insane wargamer’s dream
But yeah I don’t think I’d ever buy it myself and a lot of the fun is definitely getting to squish guys with your little wizard ring
I lean back in my chair, steeple my fingers, the light reflects off my glasses so the players can't see my eyes anymore, "And what did you say this Kingdom was named?"
Sorry the point of the story is that in real life you can steal stuff from your friends.
I'd like to see a computer aid in a criminal enterprise
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
Being able to have people only see on their screen what they're character token can see? Brilliant.
Ability to have a side chat and tell characters something the others wouldn't hear or know? Fantastic.
A bunch of automated spell effects/rolls etc? Amazing.
The downside of course is missing the in person connection. Not handing out cool physical props and stuff.
When we build our house, in the distant future (if the world doesn't end), I think I'm going to build myself a custom table with a screen built in that I can run a VTT on. Get some of the sight/map benefit. Party based instead of character, but that's ok. And have enemy stats/damage/etc built in and handled on that.
Only real loss is the lack of secret chat.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Conjure Minor Balance Problems would be funny, but is too specific. Also who wants to be talking about DnD when we can talk about the really good games, like Costume Fairy Adventures
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My then-SO and I used to play at the local board game shop, with a rotating collection of characters including the Rules Lawyer, the Creepy Guy, the Socially Inept Guy, the Guy Who May Or May Not Be Having A Manic Episode, and half a dozen Guys Who Can't Stop Cracking Dumb Jokes And Focus On The Damn Game. I would knit socks to stay sane.
Eventually we found a consistent group of friends to roleplay with. We tried a variety of different games, with different people DMing. Nevertheless:
I would knit socks to stay sane.
Eventually I told them that I was happy to play board games, but I could no longer play TTRPGs with them because I was not a good fit for their table.
These are all specific people, but one or more of these archetypes (excluding the two good ones) has been present at every table I've ever played at.
They say that if you meet an asshole, you've met an asshole; but if you meet assholes all day, look in the mirror - so for the longest time I thought it was me. But I was describing this group to someone else once, and they were horrified, so now I don't know. Where the fuck are people finding groups that don't make them want to swallow a DPN?
(ADHD makes online play a no-go for me. I've tried it, with friends, and I wanted to crawl out of my skin the whole time.)
For example, the Pathfinder games I play in have a hard stop since do organized play in a store at night - four hours to complete the adventure, period. So when we notice each other getting distracted with jokes and side comments, we'll use hand gestures and such to bring attention back to the GM or the game. This also helps out soft-spoken GMs who struggle with speaking over players.
And despite himself, the player has actually made a kind of cool barbarian tribe - they're desert dwarfs who essentially behave like Watership Down rabbits, wandering through the open desert and digging themselves emergency holes every night because they've still got all that dwarf stuff of only wanting to feel safe underground.
Anyways we keep expecting him to leave on his own because he joined the game from dating one of the other players and they broke up amicably so it's been fine, but he has a new girlfriend now who he wants to spend all his time with so he only shows up every other session at best.
I’ve also got a player who’s been missing roughly half the games, but out of everyone is *the* most vocal about how excited they are about everything.
Maybe I should just worry less about if people are having a good time.
Which one am I in my groups? Let's see... safe, safe, safe, safe... ahhhh, damnit.
I'm often a little bit surprised by which of my players talk to me outside of game really positively about the game. Every time I think someone isn't into it they'll corner me at a party to talk about an idea for a long term project or new backstory component or whatever.
I don't mind people fucking around on their phones during their turn so long as their first question when it's their turn isn't "What's happening?" or "Where am I?" and/or "Okay so who have we done damage to so far?"
Also, long turns, goddamn do they suck. Spending an eternity to figure out what you're going to do with your turn, is like nails on a chalkboard for me. And with some groups, it's every turn, every round, recapping what's happening, then waiting sometimes up to 10 minutes for a turn to take place. It cascades because everyone else is too fucking bored to pay attention anymore because your turn took 10 minutes, so now they're on their phone.
Some people are fine on their phones, some people take quick turns, but also some people think they're fine on their phones and that they take quick turns, but they're not and can't be convinced otherwise.
That all said, playing PF2E has weirdly resolved a lot of this because everyone has Pathbuilder on their phones for managing their characters and they don't dare swipe away from it so the time they're spending on their phones is actually being spent on their future turn.
Whoever posted that thing about types of players and one type of player just liking to observe is a lifesaver. Really helped me put into perspective that she's still having fun without needing to constantly worry about if she's actively participating in each scene.
Best part, in my opinion? She's playing a Swashbuckler.
Absolutely most passive, shy swashbuckler I've ever seen.
Less Errol Flynn and more Bilbo Baggins.
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Oh yeah, well, we've been doing this campaign for 3 years now, so I think we're safe on that front.
I talked to her a bunch at the start of the campaign and asked her what her favourite part of playing was.
She said she liked combat, since the rules were more clearly defined for what she could and couldn't do, so I always include at least a short combat encounter in each session for her to run around in.
The observer realization was more of a 'oh okay there are other people that do this too' realization than 'oh NOW I get her deal'.
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As for me, I'm the player whose characters always need to be convinced to go adventuring. I know I do this, and I try not to, but somehow I always wind up making a character who is way too cautious and sensible to actually be an adventurer.
I'm sure I have other annoying habits I'm not aware of
Was out damaging everyone in the party, AC was 10 higher, had more HP and battlefield control with the various trip and opportunity attack feats.
As much as I like the other players and the DM was great at storytelling any time we had to interact with the rules it was such a slog. That sysyem should have stayed dead and buried in the 00s.