Dear ttrpg community,
I'm looking for a way to make online session more... alive ?
We usually have a discord (to keep track of stuff I share and have a shitpost place) but what can you recommend ?
I know roll20 but it's a bit too much to handle sometime. I'd like tips to make it more.. fun for my player ?
Rather than roll20, I use Owlbear.rodeo way simpler and easier to use.
I also suggest having a good playlist going in the background if your voicechat can handle it, something you can change up depending on the in game situation.
Never underestimate the power of a good soundtrack
@boe What game? You don't say, which makes it more than a little difficult to suggest any sort of online solution that might actually address the problems that you're having.
In fact, hearing more about the problems that you're having would probably make it easier to give any kind of suggestion whatsoever. I've been happy to run online sessions that were absolutely raucous with nothing more than a shared Google Doc and a Skype stream.
Typically, it's not the tool that's the problem. If your sessions seem a little dead, it's the mechanism of presentation. It's your experience and the other player's experience at the table, virtual or not.
To talk about that in any sort of meaningful way, we're going to have to know something about that in some sort of meaningful way.
@lextenebris
The game is terra incognita.
IRL the session are great, the problem is that some people interact better when they are in the same room as other rather behind a screen.
@boe Oh, one of the rare Fudge games. I don't see those floating around much anymore.
But the problem is obviously not the game. You're still being evasive, however, which makes it a little bit difficult to pin down any kind of suggestions.
How do they interact less well behind a screen? If you can't describe it, you can't fix it. If you can't describe it, you can't tell them what's going on so that they can fix it. Which is, after all, the core of the problem.
Are they just being distracted by 10,000 other things which are popping up on their screen? Are they not emoting enough to come across in their voice or on the camera? What is the failure mode that we are observing so that we can come up with a way to solve it, which may be just as easy as telling them? I know, this concept of actually talking to people is a little strange in the modern TTRPG space, but I assure you, it is a possible option.
What is it that's broken?
BOE
Alien_Sunset
LexTenebris