Session 37 - Stay Frosty
Not much to add to WW. It's like I told her about the campaign being by text: it would be very different, and also nigh impossible to run.
I've been playing by text recently, roughly, in Vanguard, by the unimitable Dusk Witch (although my actual referee / umpire is someone else), and it was part of what took me to mention that in the first place. For me, having played now for 3 years straight by voice after 12 by text, I identify a few different qualities of voice that change the experience a lot:
Memorising rules is more important. Not that much, I don't think pausing the session for 3 minutes to verify something makes that much of a difference, but in aggregate I think it does.
I can't hold that many things in my mind at once. I have two Playstation 1 .svg files of the player character and of the rules spinning in my head at any given moment, so sometimes I'm running the game and end up fading out what the players are saying to do bookkeeping. Unsurprisingly, this happens far more often in HA, as I often pause to check my notes on the (over 80 in total) NPC, remember what was the last thing the NPC remembers from the player character, remind myself if the NPC has a modifier with the character, etc. This isn't much of an issue in Weasels because the Weasels are a unit; the Hearts Aglow are more like four connected solos being spun at once.
I've trouble putting the correct inflection on my voice and emoting as I would like. This isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things either, but it's simply not a preoccupation by text; the NPCs have much less life than they could have. It is easy to have a Serious Conversation or a flippant conversation, but I can't quite convey sadness or pretty much any other emotion on command, because of the non-aforementioned smileyness.
Keeping a long dialogue by voice feels much different than text. I'm convinced that it ultimately can't reach the same heights as some of my best text sessions unless those involved are professional actors; I can't have a conversation that boils over into a shouting match with a player because I won't start shouting in real life.
I'm too much of a giggler and a smiler, sad but true. The bestial joie de vivre that lies within cannot be contained. Whenever something good is happening, I smile because I'm happy things are going well; and when something bad is happening, I also smile because I'm like "ohohohoh shiiiiiit she's GOING for it". It severely limits the type of scene that works.
There are many other differences, I should think, but these are the ones that really stick out in my mind. The facilitation is different and I ultimately prefer it for games which are faster and more action-oriented, like the Weasels, but for these slower, more character-focused ones, I find them limited.
Anyway, the time it takes me to prep is a also weighing more and more on my mind. I spent about an hour prepping yesterday, but I don't know how to automate things further. We'll see if it is just because I've been particularly interested in something else recently or if it's yet another part of the game that has begun to chafe.
I'm also unsatisfied with the Mauvaise Lignaige sorcerer I put in today. That was the classical example of "Havoc has an idea with 1 (one) line, hopes it will pan out better in-game, and it kinda doesn't". Draining stuff.
