Would it be possible to play DnD or Traveller using text-only?

Would it be possible to play DnD or Traveller using text-only?

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Yes, but it would be extremely painful.

As long as a game doesn't require a battle mat, you can play it using a text client. Even if a game does need a battlemat, you can use roll20 or another digital tabletop while still keeping the RP and dicerolling to your text client of choice. Most of the games I play are online using IRC.

Yeah, people do it all the time. It's called "play by post," there's whole sites for it. It's just a super slow way to play.

Yes, plenty of people do it with any PnP RPG. Text games are a lot less popular though, since they're much MUCH slower compared to voice-only games.

Of course. That's what most online groups are, not to mention the whole genre of text-based adventure video games.

>that's what most online groups are
pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
seriously though have you actually looked?

Gygax used a full-body screen (or in many cases a opened filing cabinet) to completely hide himself and was the only person rolling dice at his sessions.

Explain

We even switched from voice to text because RP quality went up a fuckton and everyone gets to do what they want without having to talk over another.

I tend to prefer text for RP purposes. You have more time to choose your words, and having logs of everything said, done and described every session is a godsend.

The ideal that I've found, however, is using voice for OOC while using text for IC. Talking things over or going over mechanics stuff is way faster in voice, while leaving the text free for roleplaying.

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I don't see why not? There are many ways to do so, starting from a Discord server with a dicebot to specialized digital tabletops like roll20.

It's also the superior way to play RPGs because it allows people to be more descriptive, and the game to be more immersive. Without having to listen to your morbidly obese grognard friend trying to narrate an elf princess, or players cracking jokes over each other in the middle of roleplay. It also makes keeping logs trivial, or doing stuff like narrating for a separated party simultaneously, easily talking to players in private, etc.

From experience, it does have its own problems however. Games can be slow, and there is less control over the group, but if you have a good, trusted group it's easily better than voice. Unless you treat immersion as secondary to shooting the shit over beer and pretzels I guess.

How I got into it. Running one just like this currently on Discord too. It WILL go slower but you'll definitely get more out of your players.

Downside is it does mean you have to play combat looser, I've gotten into way too many arguments over how actions work or how good a class is with my brother since he was introduced the same way and shotguns it a lot more as a consequence.

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It's very easy and it's not slow like all the memers claim.

Yes, but preferably you would want a voice chat for out-of-character stuff

>play by post
are there any decent places to do this, like with some semblance of a system and no snowflake characters? I've been too busy to dedicate several hours at a time to a real ttrpg

normally you just spend between 10 and 45 minutes a day to make a post or two. it's quite comfy but suffers from players spontaneously dropping out.

yes, I've been in Labyrinth Lord, Mongoose Traveller, DnD 5e, and DnD Beta games that were text only. (Also a bunch of other systems but you weren't asking about those.)

Pick a different system, or make your own.

Those games are designed around grid combat and 1-5 rolls per action, and multiple actions per turn.
That would be painful to do text-only.

Man... in one PbP game I was in, the DM just made ASCII battle maps. It was in a forum so he could put it in code formatting and not have to deal with wiered charicter size issues.

So in answer to OPs question, yes you can, and it is only a mild PitA.

Traveller can be played full on RP with little to no dice rolling or combat and still work just fine. D&D not so much, as murder is built into the premise.

I've done a play by post game of GURPS, and if I can do that, you can do D&D. The fact that I wanted to shoot myself the entire time is worth noting.

Have you ever actually played a text game on roll20? With sheet macros that shit is literally 20x easier and faster than playing at an actual table.

No. No I haven't actually.