I recall a time when my gaming group would get together regularly, once a week. We’d order dinner and play a tabletop RPG for hours. It was a time before so many responsibilities crept into your life and suddenly dominated your calendar, making it difficult to find a committed time to play. For someone who grew up and cut their teeth playing in person, the idea of playing a virtual game can be a bit depressing. There’s a particular reverie behind the idea of in-person gaming that the cold screen of a computer monitor can’t replicate.

As much as I agree and miss gaming in person, however, it seems a waste to discard the potential of virtual tabletop gaming. To start with, if the option is to not game at all versus gaming virtually, this seems like an easy trade-off to make. It’s also become increasingly impressive to see the tools that are coming out to support these virtual tabletop games.

If you look at a tool like Foundry VTT you’ll be surprised to see just how much content and game types are supported with specific rules, character sheets, items, weapons etc that are specific to the system, yet still contained in a tool that feels consistent across game types. There are a lot of quality of life things that make gaming easier, albeit it does replace the sort of manual bookkeeping with a video game-esque approach and feel.

I’m writing this primarily as a way to motivate myself to offer a virtual tabletop game to my gaming group. We’ve done it in the past during COVID, but that was a situation where there wasn’t much room for trade-offs. But with my recent health issues, I’m looking to build a routine around gaming, which would be much easier in a remote setting with a VTT.

We’ve used Foundry in the past for 5e, but our next game will be Scum and Villainy, a spin-off from the Blades in the Dark game system, adapted for space.

We’ll see how the group responds. I know one player in particular isn’t interested in remote gaming. However, one player is a parent who is overwhelmed with family activities, so the flexibility that a remote game offers might be worth it. Ultimately, if it doesn’t work out, there are numerous places to find remote gaming groups.

But at the end of the day, I’d rather game with friends than strangers. Will keep you posted.