Pace of combat (espcially for VTT)

[Langy]

Eh, I feel voice chat is actually less convenient than typing, especially because people can't really hold multiple conversations at once, which they can if they're typing.

I also really like having music or a TV playing in the background, and that doesn't work so well with voice chat.

[benz72]

Thanks everybody, can anyone estimate the ratio of speeds in their VTT text only games vs. their tabletop game please? I'd like to try matching my expectations to the realities others have experienced.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by benz72

Thanks everybody, can anyone estimate the ratio of speeds in their VTT text only games vs. their tabletop game please? I'd like to try matching my expectations to the realities others have experienced.

Quick experiment: "I leap up the stairs, rush the guard, and make an all-out attack with my sword."

Whipping out a stop watch, I found I could type that sentence in 12.77 seconds (which is about 74 wpm, which is well above average. I'm a fast typer). With the same stopwatch, I found I could speak the self-same sentence in 3.13 seconds, which is about 340 wpm, which might be a bit fast for some people (I tend to speak a bit too quickly). A more laconic, well-enunciating person might speak at half that speed... but he'd still be speaking twice as fast as I type, which is twice as fast as most people type.

I'm also skeptical of Langy's claim that you can multi-thread conversations. Even if he can manage to type to several people at once, you still have a bunch of people typing at a flow-breaking pace. If we're talking about the pace of combat, especially in GURPS with its second-by-second actions, I think speech is definitely the way to go.

Which isn't to say that people can't also type when using a VTT. When I played, we played on Skype and most of us spoke, but the soft-spoken, shy player often typed, since she had a hard time letting herself be heard otherwise. But I think it's incorrect to say that her typing was as fast or faster than their speaking. Even considering she was often typing WHILE they were speaking, we often ended up waiting on her to finish (we could hear the keys clacking over Skype)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by benz72

Thanks everybody, can anyone estimate the ratio of speeds in their VTT text only games vs. their tabletop game please? I'd like to try matching my expectations to the realities others have experienced.

My experience for a VTT text only game, one turn of combat:

Thirty seconds to two minutes for the player to notice it's their turn and type out their action, potentially another five or ten minutes to resolve the action if it involves skill checks with situational modifiers and a response from another character (eg an attack (or multistrike) and a defense (or defenses)).

Combat actions are virtually impossible to resolve in parallel as movement and damage to various characters can make entire sections of the combat radically different within one or two chracters move.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by benz72

Thanks everybody, can anyone estimate the ratio of speeds in their VTT text only games vs. their tabletop game please? I'd like to try matching my expectations to the realities others have experienced.

I'd guess somewhere around 1:2 or maybe 1:3. In a reasonably complex climatic combat with 5-6 PCs and roughly the same number of NPC opponents, I'd say my group averages 5-8 rounds of combat in 4 hours of play online. On the tabletop, I'd expect it to be about twice that.

[gmjasongurps]

It's nice to see that were really not doing that bad then! We got to round 8 last night in about 2.5 hours. I'm thinking were at about optimal GURPS VTT combat speed.

[Yorunkun]

Can’t speak for GURPS online, but here are some learnings and best practices from two years of online play with my Pathfinder group (4 players, 1 GM).

We use Ventrilo and Maptool with the latest PF framework. The latter automates combat to the point that it is faster than playing f2f, so we actually “get more done” in combat heavy sessions. Tracking resources (gold, HPs etc) and mapping are also much faster and easier. For role-playing and decision making however, online seems to be slower, and it is harder to build a mood and control pacing.

In general, we use voice chat for OOC and type out GM descriptive (cut & paste for prepared scenes), character actions and -speech. When things get heated though, a lot of the action shifts to speech. We use Ventrilo because it seems to be more stable than Skype, and it has a “push button to talk” option.

We also use a blog (google sites) between sessions to handle logistics, summarise sessions, post maps, loot-lists etc and to manage character development. Often, strategic decisions (“next session we are going to talk to the wizard, shop for supplies then continue north”) are discussed and prepared or made via the blog as well.

All things considered, I like online play almost as well as f2f sessions and I prefer to run my f2f sessions with a PC running maptool and a beamer, bionic GM style. :)

Best practices:

• Keep group size between three and six players.
• Designate one player as “party whip”, in charge of driving decision making when things get bogged down.
• Assign every player a unique chat font colour
• Make sure everybody has a detailed, high-quality token for their character.
• Have an AFK (away from keyboard) button that radios to chat when a player is off to get coffee (AFK short) or for a bio-break (AFK long) and insist players use it.
• Use an initiative tracker and announce who’s turn it is via chat.
• Designate someone to capture the session, publish a cleaned-up logfile and write a short session summary, highlighting open issues and decisions the party needs to make.

As GM

• Use standard mapping icons and keep your maps very basic – it is tempting to spend hours building the perfect map to great detail, but makes it immediately obvious when you are using improvised content.
• Always prepare a well written “resuming where we left off“ summary paragraph and outline the players’ options to get things moving quickly.
• Make a habit of capturing faces suitable for tokens when you surf the web. You can never have too many NPC tokens. The same goes for other visuals useful as handouts.

[copeab]

I've gamed using text-only chat since 2005. While I have looked at MapTool, I haven't used it yet -- i don't use miniatures at a table and I don't really feel compelled to do so online. I find e-mailing a map created in MS Paint in a few minutes usually is sufficient.

Non-combat runs at about 1/2 to 1/3 table time; I figure four to six 4-hour online sessions to equal one live session. I don't like to GM less than four-hour sessions.

Combat can be very slow -- last major combat, with 12 NPCs vs 3 PCs/3 NPCs took all four hours, and that was for a fairly lite version of firearm combat. Game time elapsed was maybe 5-7 seconds.

I wouldn't want to play by voice online.