The simple reality for many of us who own complete sets of rule books for Cthulhu, AD&D 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ed. is that we have the curse of actually getting a group of people to show up on a regular basis over a fairly long durration of time.
This takes a lot of effort, then you have to cross your fingers and hope you have the right mix of people so that it is not a constant whining festival that turns inevitably into a player vs. DM bitchmatch.
When everyone gets along it's more fun than anything else, you weave wonderful adventures together with fantastic deeds and conquests.
It would seem that these become far apart with few inbetween however as it is rare that all the players show up on a regular basis in a good mood ready to game.
On the flip side, you can log in to a MMORGP at the drop of a hat and "geek around" for a bit online. It's never quite as satisfying as a good round pencil & paper, but it's FAR AND AWAY more consistant and convieniant.
So, often it's simply more realistic to sacrifice the potential quality of a pencil and paper gathering in exchange for something with less potential but far more dependability.
What I have always wished for in terms of AD&D online is "The Dungeon Master's Online Tool and Group Kit"
Which would allow a DM to host a gaming session online, ideally with players that have mic's and web cams aimed at thier faces so you can see and hear everyone's reactions to situations.
The dice would of course be visible for everyone to see as well as map screens for monstor and player positioning durring battle secquences.
Designed properly I think it would be almost better from a pure DMing point of view than if everyone was present. Now THAT would be the kind of online D&D I would like to see, blend some convienance with the real story potential of the pencil and paper.
Slashdot Mirror
The simple reality for many of us who own complete sets of rule books for Cthulhu, AD&D 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ed. is that we have the curse of actually getting a group of people to show up on a regular basis over a fairly long durration of time.
This takes a lot of effort, then you have to cross your fingers and hope you have the right mix of people so that it is not a constant whining festival that turns inevitably into a player vs. DM bitchmatch.
When everyone gets along it's more fun than anything else, you weave wonderful adventures together with fantastic deeds and conquests.
It would seem that these become far apart with few inbetween however as it is rare that all the players show up on a regular basis in a good mood ready to game.
On the flip side, you can log in to a MMORGP at the drop of a hat and "geek around" for a bit online. It's never quite as satisfying as a good round pencil & paper, but it's FAR AND AWAY more consistant and convieniant.
So, often it's simply more realistic to sacrifice the potential quality of a pencil and paper gathering in exchange for something with less potential but far more dependability.
What I have always wished for in terms of AD&D online is "The Dungeon Master's Online Tool and Group Kit"
Which would allow a DM to host a gaming session online, ideally with players that have mic's and web cams aimed at thier faces so you can see and hear everyone's reactions to situations.
The dice would of course be visible for everyone to see as well as map screens for monstor and player positioning durring battle secquences.
Designed properly I think it would be almost better from a pure DMing point of view than if everyone was present. Now THAT would be the kind of online D&D I would like to see, blend some convienance with the real story potential of the pencil and paper.