Re: (TFT) TFT Cyberboard

[Sgt Hulka <hulkasgt@yahoo.com>]

I have had an entirely different experience with online play. The role-playing is actually stronger than at the table. I suspect there are a couple of reasons for this:
 
1) There are longer "gaps" in play. You can't see the Judge when he's looking up stuff or typing in flavor text, and so players often fill those gaps through role-play with other players.
2) Everyone's "hidden" by their computer screen so they're somewhat less self-conscious.
 
My experience is with OpenRPG and Maptool; I can't imagine Cyberboard would be any different in this respect. 
 
Also, you don't really need voice over internet software. If everyone's down with it, it's a valid way to play, but I've done both, and so long as the Judge is prepared I actually prefer old-fashioned typing chat. 
 
Play-by-post or play-by-e-mail is even stronger in the role-play department. Again, the time between actual "game mechanics" posts have to be filled...and are often filled with role-play posts. This is a link to a Twilight 2000 game (of which I'm not a part of) that epitomizes what I'm describing:
 
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=140441
 
(you have to register for the forums but it's free/no spam)
 
You can snub online play all you want but you're really only hurting yourself.

--- On Thu, 6/12/08, lifeisfun@aol.com <lifeisfun@aol.com> wrote:

From: lifeisfun@aol.com <lifeisfun@aol.com>
Subject: Re: (TFT) TFT Cyberboard
To: tft@brainiac.com
Date: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 5:35 PM

An audible sigh proceeded this response.? 

Looking back over the last two years without being able to play TFT, without
being unable to devote a full-uninterrupted weekend to the gathering of distant
friends, and relying instead on the soul-less online experience of MMORPG's;
I find myself actually entertaining the possiblity of cyberplay.? 

But, even with a full group of?people able to dedicate the?time, and with
everyone technologically saavy enough to wire up headsets and fully join?a
campaign, could TFT work it's magic spell without the closed room
camaraderie, empty beer bottles, and half-eaten bags of chips?? Without full
videocam representation, how would we all glory in the crazy celebration of a
friend pumping a fist victoriously, before snatching up the dice for the five
die tripple damage roll.

Online games with incredible graphics, and death drama aplenty fall victem to a
crushing?silence in a voice chat of two dozen people.? In the privacy of distant
rooms, people eat their chips with the microphone muted, they listen to
different music, and?celebrate small personal victories almost always without
notice.? The roleplay is non-existant.? The off topic blabber sucks away the
focus until clicking the mouse and playing your role almost seems like a job
instead of an adventure.? 

So, even though I'm quite possibly dying to escape back into Cidri, back
into a living mythos that breathes with the imagination of my good friends.?
Even though I long to forget all responsiblities and sequester myself in a
closed room for days upon days without seeing the sun or even knowing what time
it is between bathroom breaks.? And heedless of the fact that i'm drowning
in the screams of my ego crying for self-destructive abandonment. ?I still wish
I could imagine a cyberplay session of TFT going well.? But, as much as I want
to imagine it, I can't.? 

I guess the "world of tommorrow" I imagined twenty years ago has
failed to meet my expectations.

Good Fortune,
Richard?
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