Text based players!

I've been at this whole online tabletop thing dating back to the old aol chatroom (Neverwinter?) Days. To this day I cut out the voice and have my games run with descriptive text and stylish roleplay. I assume this can be done via voice communication, but I've never seen it done so eloquently as it is when it's pure text. The trade off, I assume is slower, but if you enjoy the style, its very comfortable. I was curious about what you guys were doing in your games, how you are running, and what you like to see/ hear in terms of descriptives.

I run my live game in text for game but I have skype running also for ooc chat since there is only one chat tab. It does run slower but it allows my players to hit the restroom or take care of their kids without missing any of the game while they go afk. All they have to do is read and catch up. I usually compile and cleaning up the game log and post it to another forum which seems to draw viewers. You have to figure out how much detail to use without being to much and slowing the game down. The clearer the descriptions that is given the better it is.

I think the big hiccup I run into is distracted players. I don't keep a voice chat running for OOC, because my biggest problem with alot of the games I've played is that it devolves into something that I can't really get into. A few games that I've played on here have been lame jokes and bad innuendo,for example. I could see where with the right people it would speed things up, I guess I'm also curious on what players get out of the voice communication, that the text box doesn't provide

Most of the people in my game I have known for years and have gamed with them on other VTTs so it is mostly like sitting with friends around the table and shooting the bs while the game is being ran. It also allows them to ask me a game question and get a response faster than in text. You have to get lucky to find a group of people that is compatible with your style of play and that is harder than it sounds. Most people never find a perfect match but instead settle for something they can tolerate enough to enjoy the game with. I know when I ran face to face games, it took years to build a viable group that was fun to game with.

The main other reason is that most of my players like to have a reference to read so they can refresh their memory prior to the game also. Sometimes they miss something and go back to reread the game logto discover some important hint that they missed during the game.

I can't type fast, with chat I can at least keep up the pace of the game

I miss my days of text chat RP on mIRC. Yes it is slower, and I think that having voice chat OOC would be helpful as I didn't have that back in the day. Sometimes without that you get ninja'd in the thread you were going to have your character comment on and it no longer seemed appropriate to do what you were going to do... with voice, even if you're typing something, you can call it and so then there isn't so much loss of content or missed opportunities. I like text as it does allow you to do more than one thing, but also at the same time it makes you more involved because you CAN'T miss anything, you can backtrack and catch up and you can be more involved and detailed. I find detailed descriptions of a room to be very cheesy when said out loud :/

Same here and like tonight in my game, I had people almost screaming in anger because they were getting frustrated that their characters couldn't hit some skeletons while the skeletons were pounding on them. The group had better armor and weapons but just couldn't roll worth a flip while it seemed that I was rolling hot tonight. That yelling was strictly ooc stuff and it really makes the group feel like a bunch of friends sitting at a table and having fun with.

I definitely favor the long descriptions, and i agree with where you are coming from terra. In a game where combat is so prevalent, i love giving players detailed feedback on their actions, and getting their feedback too. It tells you something about the character, how they fight. I also get what you are saying metro, i just hit a wall with people getting loud in voice chat becuase i feel it detracts from the ambience i try to create.

I think it totally depends on the players.  It can be a benefit if your players are reserved about roleplaying - they will be more comfortable with text and emotes than they would be verbally and it can be more immersive.  It's a hindrance if your players don't have an extreme amount of both patience and focus - it is really, really  slow compared to voice chat, so players who aren't fully on board will tune out and lose interest.

Yeah, the out f window text bleep only does so much to garner attention, but i found music helps alot. I have to believe though, when it comes to games you get as much enjoyment out as you put in...i dont think everyone interpets that the same way though

One of the first things I tell my players, the more they put into the game the more they get out of it. If a player just types "Sword strike /r 1d20+#" and nothing else then they will only get the basic roll results and not much else but if they put in a descriptive text about how their character was hollering stuff at their opponent while they were whirling their sword about in an attempt to land a decisive strike then add their dice roll into it, they will get a equally descriptive text back describing how the opponent was affected by the strike landing or if it missed. I can hoot and holler with the best of them in a voice game but a text game requires a person to think about how to phrase things. It does slow the game down but I'm not into speed gaming. This is to kick back and enjoy time with friends and make new friends not a sit down and get 1 minute to do your stuff (ding), move on to another and repeat (ding), off to another. As you can see I'm stereotyping it to speed dating. I know it isn't and I'm exaggerating but you still have to admit that I got a grin out of ya.  :p

Yeah text based is the only way I play games, it feels much less immersive to me when the 250 pound guy I know is roleplaying a 16 year old girl and tries to raise the pitch of his voice all the time.  It used to feel slow for our group at first, but I got used to it and doubt I could even go back to voiced games now.

For me, I just prefer text because I'm a much more literary person and I just can't improv very well verbally - I can't make up stuff on the spot very quickly. You know how players are: they throw you curveballs constantly. In text I can relax much better and really think about NPC responses and stuff like that instead of just going off the cuff and replying with something uninspired or boring.

I feel the exact opposite as most of you but to each their own it is all about having fun.  I only enjoy virtual table top play because of voice chat it feels like I am sitting around a table playing in my house and that is what I want.   But then I never got into MUD's or MUSH's and always thought play by post was weird.

I would like to start of telling I found a very good server for NWN1, and I really miss RP'ing on it, text supported with 3D graphic visuals, the way those two played together was awesome. NWN2 came out, but it never got to be the same due to lack of a proper server. Yes, I could have made a server myself, and then again not at all, because of huge/vital changes in the editor, things got too messed up and chaotic with scripting. ...I missed the good ol' NWN1 RP'ing days. Now for the future, I hope something similar will pop, with better graphics ...and it will, if I had a development team (for generic rulesets). Which leaves us with wonderfull Roll20. I have sadly not had the opportunity to really use it, apart from starting a campaign (action itself on Roll20) and using the forum. ...thats my take/opinion on text vs. voice chat, sorry it got more centered around NWN, but thats my experiences with cyber RP :-)

Kurses, I definitely have had a few Roll20 experiences where that was the case, and it was intolerable. The text based play has made that less so, and people who like to write have done some really cool things/ descriptive posts. Drake, I know the feeling, I have a really good flow online as well. When I have that extra time between responses, I can give my players more freedom then I would have been able to otherwise. It's let me put alot of power into the player's hands instead of running "arcs". Loloch, I remember those days. I was so bummed when NWN 2 crashed every 20 minutes on me, and moreso when the new nwn changed styles. But, I'll always come back to traditional gaming, with great people :)