This week I had people over for the first time in many months for a session of some old school deadliness. After the pizza, cans of soda, and the character sheets of fallen characters were cleared away, it got me thinking about how different it was from my normal online sessions. As someone who plays mostly in newer games along with my players, it got me thinking about some of the major differences that I’ve seen from playing in person versus online.

Off The Cuff

What surprised me the most in my switch back to the physical world for this session was how much goes off the cuff so to speak, instead of being planned out. WIth us all around the table, I’ve got a simple battlemap scrawled out on a grid, a stack of notes, and some tunes in the background. But everything else that happened outside of that dungeon was played out within the mind. I personally found it really refreshing. Instead of staring at fully complete imagery and layouts I was free to come up with whatever the players wanted, and it felt like more of a shared narrative.

Freeform Rules

When I’m in person, I tend to make it a point to only reference the Game Master screen or the game book directly. I find using any screens tends to distract more than help. I was surprised how refreshing it was to negotiate the terms of spells and effects directly with my players. Instead of constantly referencing handfuls of tomes, it was a quick decision, then we moved on. I’m not sure if this is more of a me thing than anything else, but I thought it led to a better pace of game versus just going back and forth with the rules.

Conclusion

The biggest takeaway that I had was I really felt like I was building a shared narrative with my players. They could make decisions, and I could react accordingly. I think that’s really the spirit of the game that I want to get back to. Not that online doesn’t have its own upsides, but it’s just different. With that said, I can’t wait for my next in person session!