Back to the Table. My First In-Person RPG Session in Years.
The last in-person session I ran before the world changed took place on February 26th, 2020. We had just completed running through a Star Wars RPG module entitled: Beyond the Rim. In the module, the players are searching for the final fate of the legendary Separatist Battle Cruiser: The Sa Nalaor, missing for decades. As fate would have it, we wrapped the campaign just as meeting in-person became unrealistic. I was proud of the campaign that we had been playing for over a year by that point and we all had a lot of fun and had very interesting characters. In the months to follow, I would found Open Heart Games and begin running games online for our wonderful community of players and fans. Until last night, I had not run a game in person for over two years. Quite coincidentally, the module I chose to run for my return to in- person gaming also involved a missing ship as I ran the Call of Cthulhu 7e module: The Derelict. Though this module was far more deadly than the last in person module I ran.
I will say that while I missed the bells and whistles of running remotely, and the comfort of running the game in my own home (sometimes in my pajamas), I had forgotten how different it is to run in-person. You can much more easily gauge the reaction of players and ensure that everyone at the table is engaged, focused, and interacting. By the end of the session all of the players were enthralled by the story as their players were locked in a life and death battle with an Eldritch terror beyond human comprehension–a terror that they ultimately were able to survive after a few inevitable character deaths.
So now that I have run in-person again how does it compare to running online? Well, the energy you are able to draw on from your players is different for sure, but you can't beat the organization of having all of your resources, battle maps, handouts, and characters at your digital fingertips when running online. When I played it felt like the area behind my GM Screen was just covered in clutter, handouts, notes, notecards, books, and dice. When running online you also do not have to worry about having to compete with the noise from the tables around you if you are playing in a public setting like I was last night. Plus character creation is so much faster digitally. One of the next things I want to try is to use a hybrid model where I play in-person but use digital assets to run the games.
At this time I really like playing online as I like being able to pipe in music and change battle maps quickly and smoothly. I think that for the time being I have made the conversion to digital game mastering, but running in-person is now an occasional treat that I will enjoy doing at conventions or for the occasional evening out. Speaking of conventions, I am very excited to be attending Ravenwood Castle’s Hoop & Stick Convention at the end of this month where I will be running 3 different roleplaying games over the course of the weekend. In fact, my in-person game last night was in preparation for one of the campaigns I am going to be running there. Like I said, in-person games are a lot of fun and the players bring a whole different type of energy to the game when it’s in-person; however, after two years of running games online, I’ve got to say that it definitely is an adjustment to running at a table again. So, are you an in-person roleplayer or digital? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Take Heart!
Karington Hess
Game Master and Founder of Open Heart Games
