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DM’d my first online game this weekend. It went very well, I think, as all the players (6 of them) were vocal about their enjoyment. There were several hurdles: new format (online), introduced a new PC, predominantly social challenge. Here’s some thoughts. 1/?
Online. This was a challenge for me, and I felt uncomfortable the whole time. Finding camera setups, etc. were technical challenges, but focusing all my attention on a screen made it difficult for me to interact with specific players. 2/?
Sound was an issue too. The lack of directionality made it hard to identify who was speaking sometimes. I need to learn to question and response more. 3/?
I prefer playing with terrain, both tactically and aesthetically. I had the terrain and a camera, but getting an encompassing view that is useful for the players seems impossible to me. 4/?
As much as it goes against the grain, I think I’ll need to return to flat maps or theatre of the mind for the time being. 5/?
Introducing a new PC: I’ve done this twice in this campaign, once with an inexperienced player, in person, and once with an experienced player, online. Online was harder, if only because the player is an amazing role player who wanted ALL THE LORE. (That’s not a complaint) 6/?
The new PC was a gift, and she worked to tie her character into the campaign and to the players in a way that made sense. That will probably be it’s own thread, though. 7/?
Social Challenge: okay, here’s where this kinda came off the “rails” but in a wonderful way. I run a very sandboxy game with milestone advancement. In this case, the players needed to prevent the big bad from securing one of 4 potential channels of power 8/?
this one in the Feywild. That was the milestone, prevent the big bad from achieving his goal. I had potential encounters set for a lot of situations: bad guy figures out plan, party isn’t sneaky in the Feywild, party doesn’t follow the Fey Lords’ protocol, etc. 9/?
Here’s where the players played beautifully. They used their abilities, both inherent and from items, perfectly. They planned well. And then they did the unexpected. Twice. @qyjari covered that in another thread, and it was glorious. 10/?
What made this session unusual was that after sidestepping two potentially deadly encounters through stealth and clever thinking, the party was in a social situation with one explicit rule: no violence. 11/12
Because they sidestepped the encounters, that made a single, almost 6 hour session, with not a single combat roll. I think I rolled dice maybe 4 times. It was all role play. And it was amazing. 12/12
