We ran through our test encounters again, this time with the third player. A fourth player will be added down the line. My goal is a party of four but I am keeping it smaller for starting out. Everybody had a good time and we all agree that this is a fantastic tool. Combats are moving more quickly and we are getting used to role playing through vent. I do sometimes wish I did have the camera on so I can see the players during that pregnant pause when you ask what they say. I can learn a lot by whether they are looking down at their character sheet or staring into space.. but its not worth actually having a camera (where they could see if I was actually paying attention!!) What is interesting, and somewhat contrary to the trend in VTT players from what I have seen, we all want to minimize the amount of scripting and macroing we use. The players and myself desire to treat the tabletop as just that.. a tabletop. While some features really resonate (health bars, ambient sound, not needing to drive home) for the most part we are pretty content with looking at stuff on our character sheet.. figuring the bonus.. and rolling a virtual die. I admire the efforts that folks are putting in to have their games function with great amounts of automation but the trend for my group seems to run in a different direction. Next time we will be starting our actual D&D Next campaign. It should be interesting. New rules in a new medium.
