Text or Voice?

How do you prevent text games from devolving into an absolutely slow-paced slog?

You don't. It's part of the appeal for people who can't think fast.

Voice for non-serious, non-RP games

Text for immersive RP games. Optional voice with DM if you need to sort something out, ask a question.

In general voice is just better because it keeps you on track without pauses wondering if someone is about to type or not.

It's never a slog when you get truly remarkable responses. As for the slow-pacing, we work as fast as the medium allows. But as says, having some time to come up with a response - sometimes, a better one - is much more valuable than the time it takes to write it.

Typing isn't really what slows down online games, it's digging around in poorly laid-out and organized reference material that slows the game down. If you're using online SRDs and online character sheets with bad formatting, it's going to be slow no matter what.

People who can't think fast shouldn't play thinking games.

If I had to pick just one, I'd pick text. Especially if we're talking either really large groups or 1x1 as anything too big is chaotic with voice and 1x1 feels more comfortable by text.

I do like both, though.

Voice because trsining your articulation is always better.

Text and voice both use words you donut.

this is why vidya has so much bigger market than tabletops

Text, because I have no voice.

This thread is the exact opposite of what I see on Roll20.

Everyone wants to do voice there, unless they are transgender.

>thinking fast means thinking well

You'd be absolutely decimated at my text table, then you'd bitch up a storm that everyone's taking too long to save face.

Maybe playing cool is kinda dumb and players should be forced to make hard choices really really fast.

Voice allows my emotions to carry over better and it's faster.

By only recruiting people who don't phonepost and encouraging them to think fast.

don't play with retards

I've ran a few text games, and I really want to like it because the quality is way higher, but fucking hell one slow guy means exiting the fucking bar takes three fucking hours.

Give him a time limit to act or he gets skipped

>Text over voice because you don't have to turn the lights on.
Are you retarded? Can people not hear you in the dark?

Voice, preferably with video, but voice is more than fine alone.

I did text for well over a decade and I have to say, "Fuck that shit."

That's funny: all the trannies I've played with on Roll20 never shut the fuck up.

It's all a matter of being able to say "Then, you exit the bar" as the DM when the player's intention are clearly exiting the bar. Even asking a "Okay, you exit the bar then?" in voice can get the players to focus back on action. Give the players a little nudge in the direction you want to go, because it's easier for them to get distracted on menial stuff, specially if their typing speeds are particularly different. Basically you just have to be a bit more insistent with the pacing, if never railroady.

You can even use this to your advantage if you need a brief break to prepare some stuff or come up with something if players caught you off-guard: Giving them something to talk generally is going to make them focus on their characters interacting, and have fun nonetheless while you prepare more stuff.

Maybe he thinks you have to do voice and mic.....

You've never played with Trans people then. Unless it was FtM.

Text if I'm doing online, since my schedule doesn't synch up, and I can write better emotions and reactions to my characters rather than trying to talk.

>Maybe he thinks you have to do voice and mic.....
>implying it's possible to do voice without a mic

What? You'll have to write in caps, I'm wearing a towel.

Voice if available. Going by text isn't the end of the world but it's always a substitute in my opinion.

Need lights for a webcam to work.

>preferably with video
Why do you need to have video?

Text is still superior, because my hearing is fucked.

>>implying it's possible to do voice without a mic
> Not leaning out the window and yelling your actions so loud they other players hear you on the wind
It's like you don't even play, dude.

>Webcams are required for people to hear you in voice games
Ahh good, retarded it is then.

The only problem I've really run into is when players insist to type out whole paragraphs mid combat, describing their actions, BEFORE taking their actions.
I encourage them to do it AFTER they've already taken it and rolled the dice, because it allows the combat to flow while they're caught up in descriptions.

Video LARP. FATAL.

Que?

Having played both, I honestly find myself preferring text. IRL games are a laugh, but text gives me more time to consider and carefully choose my words, allowing better descriptions, dialogue and in general a better calibre of storytelling.

Logs are also fucking amazing. Having an easily searched record of everything that's been in the game up until that point is such a wonderful resource, both for practical reasons during the game and as a keepsake afterwards.

Voice, IMO, works best as an accompaniment to text, using it as an OOC channel to talk over rules or random banter, reserving the text channels for IC discussions in one, or pure mechanical stuff in the other. It gets rid of a lot of clutter and speeds things up significantly, although it's not always possible to set it up.

>he can't type 50 wpm

>Logs are also fucking amazing.
QFT. Can't count how many times the chatlog saved my ass.

For all the people talking about text being slow- While it is slower than voice or IRL games, people who play text games are usually used to and enjoy the slower pace, and there are things you can do to speed it up or prevent it being a downside.

A good group is always important, but especially for text games. A single player who responds really slow can sometimes be enough of a problem to boot someone over, which is simply an unpleasant reality of it.

As a GM, you can speed things up by typing things up ahead of time while waiting for players to do their own thing or while they're doing some dialogue or banter between themselves. In combat, I'll start the next players turn mechanically while the last player is still typing their fluff, that kind of overlap cuts down on time significantly, since by the time the dicerolling is done the last player will have fluffed, letting you be a bit more time efficient.

However, I also generally have something on my second screen. My text window is still large, and the notification icon is unmissable so I'm able to notice and instantly respond to a message, and I only ever watch pausable videos or play turn based games, things where I'll never feel unable to instantly drop it and return my focus to the game.

If everyones playing self inserts then sure. Otherwise no

Sounds like a hassle and a very different experience from actual role play but I can see why writers and socially awkward people would prefer it, to me role it's not role unless I'm face to face with a group narrating stuff.

tpbp

I do IRL and online, and in my experience I get better roleplay and storytelling in text, every time. Doing stuff with friends is fun for rolling dice and a bit of banter, but for actual depth of characterisation text beats it hands down, at least for me.

user...all your characters are self inserts
They are born from you and share your mind and characteristics wherever you like it or not, you cannot create a new psyche inside your head and create a whole new personality.

But it's not role play it's just writing
And sure

How is it not roleplaying? The medium doesn't change what I'm doing, I'm still playing the role of my character, I'm just conveying it in a different way.

Subjective

Maybe YOU can't.

It's not roleplaying because he doesn't like it, dude. It's always that simple.

But I can consider and emulate a personality that is very, very different from my own, which doesn't qualify for any meaningful definition of 'self insert'.

Eh, I always feel like it's worth it to ask them to explain themselves. Sometimes they actually have a point or an argument, and if they reveal that they don't then it's easier to justify pointing and laughing.

Pre-type stuff as GMs. Pre-type actions as players during combat, editing and changing them between combat round as the combat progresses, and have backup/failsafes. Also be ok with. "Well, shit, I guess I drive the tank up and hit it with my sword." when the need come up.

You wish, you fucking brainlet.
I'll just sit there with a bored expression on my face, while you're autistically trying to maintain your dignity over the fact that one guy needed less time to overcome all of your "smart" tricks than than you requiered time to imagine them/
Then I'll go home, disappointed, and you'll whine in a shitty self-made greentext thread, with tears coming out of your eyes.

...Not the guy you're replying to, but what the hell are you talking about? Why are you assuming a roleplaying game is some sort of attempt by the GM to trick the players? Why would you have left home to play a text game which, by their very nature, are almost always online? Your whole post is just confusing as hell.

It has been a while since I've seen someone no-shit unironically pull the internet tough guy routine. Nostalgia.

>sharing thinking space with make believe personalities
Believing that you can doesn't mean you can just that you are neurotic

How is it subjective? It's impossible to create new minds inside your head what the fuck are you talking about?
Doing a mental mastusbation so hard you believe you create a whole new person in your head it's the retarded thing, all your characters are born from you even if you try to role play something you consider outside of your own life experience you are just apeing what and how you believe it is

Speed and quality of thought aren't always linked.

I'll take a slow thinker over fast stupid. The real thing that matters is if you're working with the other players to craft an enjoyable table. Don't constantly stomp out others or check out yourself and it's cool imo.

>Why are you assuming a roleplaying game is some sort of attempt by the GM to trick the players?
Because if he doesn't then it becomes bland diablo-style "kill_monsta-get_loot_repeat" grindfest.
>Why would you have left home to play a text game which, by their very nature, are almost always online?
Because "bitch up a storm to save face" in an online text game is even more autistic. Autistic enough to be retarded. I hope that I'm not talking to an actual oligophren.

...Alternatively, it's a collaborative storytelling game where a group of friends use a system of rules to have fun together? You seem to have a very limited understanding of what roleplaying games can be.

You're welocme, faggot.

It's not roleplaying because you are not roleplaying.
You create a character and develope its personality along other writers while trying to advance a plot (sometimes) trough written fiction. Not saying that it's bad or less intelligent or wrong in any way, but it's not role play if you are not roleplaying.
Coop fiction sounds more like it.

text when other people are talking and you are doing things in the ''background''. Voice in other instances.

But you've not made any argument as to why changing the medium changes the activity. Doing it in voice or text doesn't change what you're actually doing, so why try and call them different things?

Bet you are the kind of retard that does something stupid and yells as excuse
>it's what my character would do!
Your character it's not real moron! It has no agency nor will of its own its you all the time!

Fantastic post

>It's not roleplaying because you are not roleplaying.

Literally a tautology.

>You create a character and develope its personality along other writers while trying to advance a plot (sometimes) trough written fiction.

Which, done live, is playing a role through text. Remove the word "written" from that sentence and the whole thing applies to in person roleplaying.

>Not saying that it's bad or less intelligent or wrong in any way, but it's not role play if you are not roleplaying.

But it is roleplaying. Through text, which was specified. Literally all you have done is said, "But it's through text!"

>Coop fiction sounds more like it.

Which is what in person roleplaying is.

I fucking called it in the post you responded to.

Ahh, so you're just trolling, given that you've now completely abandoned your original point. Good to know.

Although, no, I think it's important to consider the internal function of your character and playing their personality consistently alongside the external requirements of the scene, the story and the group. Being able to compromise between the two is the heart of what I consider great roleplaying.

>How is it subjective?
Objectively
> It's impossible to create new minds inside your head what the fuck are you talking about?
First of all, it is.You just need a specific mental disorder
Second of all,I'm not creatring a mind ,I'm creating a character. If you belive that those are the same then you're an escapist.
>Doing a mental mastusbation so hard you believe you create a whole new person in your head it's the retarded thing, all your characters are born from you even if you try to role play something you consider outside of your own life experience you are just apeing what and how you believe it is
Considering that a whole bunch of people,far smarter, wiser and more talented than you're, have already tryied this during the course of history(some ven gone so far that they acquired DID in the process) and succesed, your argumnet-less opinion sound amusing at best.
>Doing a mental mastusbation so hard you believe you create a whole new person in your head it's the retarded
The grapes are ripe,it's you who is bitter.

How have I abandoned my original point?
All characters are self inserts of a fraction of your personality no matter how hard you tell yourself it's not, they are all you along with their virtues and flaws.
Some people live precariously trough their characters which is pathetic and what is commonly known as self insert, but that's besides the point, all your characters reflect and inner part of you, a part you insert in the history.

Can't tell if you're terrible at roleplaying, or masterfully baiting people right now.

My allergies are shit user im sorry

Holy fucking shit turn on autocorrect please.
Yes you are creating a character guess where that character comes from?
Again you can tell yourself his new character it's very different from you and has lead a different life but guess what?
He still won't be a warrior or mage or whatever, it will be a nerd acting like what he thinks a warrior or mage it's like
>it's you who is bitter
Why? Because a bunch of literally who's think their make believe personalities are real inside their heads?

And you ,my dear "Not the guy you're replying to", seem to be struggling, because:
Storytelling game doesn't need fast thinking or thinking at all.More importantly it has no methods of "players" restriction so there's nothing to save your face from.
It's not a group of friends because he already implied that he will invite a complete stranger to his game.If his post bear an implication of "at muh table" then it does not contradict with "People who can't think fast shouldn't play thinking games" statement.It just means that he and his friends are ((slow minded)).

>it will be a nerd acting like what he thinks a warrior or mage it's like

Neat, so you admit they're not playing self-inserts by any common definition. Next!

See, these are the big guns. You start off with a couple of assertions that seem reasonable at first glance but are false upon further examination, and then follow it by throwing out a red herring. After all, if they take the bait about how shit you are at making friends, then it's "not an argument."

Finally, end it with a reference with jews, so that they think you're /pol/, because that's just one hell of a boogeyman.

Textbook baiting. I'm proud of ya.

Because you didn't even acknowledge that you've abandoned any meaningful definition of 'self insert'.

I think my voice is just naturally shitty sounding. Unless I'm speaking spanish, for some reason.

Only the real one
The one were they are inserting themselves.
You can pretend to be a warrior it won't stop being the bullied nerd, no wait, bullied nerds usually play wizards.

>Holy fucking shit turn on autocorrect please.
You, of all people, are telling me this.
>Yes you are creating a character guess where that character comes from?
>Again you can tell yourself his new character it's very different from you and has lead a different life but guess what?
>He still won't be a warrior or mage or whatever, it will be a nerd acting like what he thinks a warrior or mage it's like
True,but it won't be a self-insert, it will be my subjective vision of what a warrior or a mage is.
Also, my stereotypized vision of warrior or a mage doesn't have to bear my own vision of what a warrior or a mage is,especially if its inspiration came from an outside source.
>Why? Because a bunch of literally who's think their make believe personalities are real inside their heads?
Yes.Also because those who's will always be far more famous and successful than an anti-intellectual little you will ever be.

fucking lol you forgot to post your IQ tho

Remember kids, if you're losing the argument, just scream "bait".
As we see on this example right here, trying to sound ironic and stretching it to a meta-argument will enlarge your chances.

Text, my throat's fucked and I sound like a dying toad.

voice for sure

My ICQ is 200, suck my dick

What the fuck? What's with the jew brackets? Nevermind, you're advocating for voice gaming being the realm of the quick-witted brain-gods, so this has to be part of the comedy routine.

Voice always. I'd rather not play than play via text. I read enough at uni, don't wanna read if I can avoid it.
No idea why I'm on Veeky Forums, reading.

You didn't make an argument, though-- You shat out a bunch of false assertions. These were dismissed. Next!

>jew brackets

>you're advocating for voice gaming being the realm of the quick-witted brain-gods
>this amount of false dichotomy

>((()))
They're jew brackets brainlet. Thank you for proving that people obsessed with voice roleplaying are not only dishonest but true brainlets deserving only of scorn.

But I did.Just because you don't acknowledge it as such is not proof of its existence.
>Next!
Why are you roleplaying?