Accessory - Dragon Magazine #235, MAGAZINES, Dragon Magazine
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What you cant see
ast night I played a game of cards with a friend. It was a
slow and often difficult game, since she was new to the
rather complex rules and the game really works best with five
or more players. To make matters worse, we couldn’t see each
other’s cards. We were playing online.
About six years ago I bought my first modem. At first I went
a little nuts, checking out all of the big services as well as the
local BBS lines. I gradually lost interest in the smaller outfits,
and the first horrifying credit card bill made it clear that I could
afford only one of the big services, so I stayed on Genie. The
attraction was the TSR RoundTable, and what hooked me was
the online role-playing.
At first it was merely novel to see that people hundreds or
thousands of miles apart could gather weekly and forge a
gaming friendship as strong and satisfying as any in “real life.”
It was better in many ways, too. The ability to send private
messages made passing notes to the DM that much more sub-
tle for the players of thieves and other sneaky characters.
Being able to prepare text descriptions of characters, spell
effects, NPC dialogue, area descriptions, or practically anything
—
well, that was amazing to someone who’s a better writer
than actor.
The magic of online role-playing is in what’s not there.
When you can’t see that Bob’s a sturdy balding man over six
feet tall, it’s much easier to visualize him as a lithe elven
ranger. When you can’t hear Mary’s stammer, you can well
imagine her high priest’s commanding voice resounding
through marble halls. Online gaming focuses much more on
what you can imagine, without the distractions of what you
see and hear at the gaming table. If seeing is believing, then
not seeing is imagining.
When you read a book, don’t you imagine the characters
much more vividly than when you see a
movie? Aren’t the “images” of the old
radio plays far more amazing than
those created by even the most
talented SFX crews? In a
regular, face-to-face game, not only must you imagine the
appearance of the setting and characters but also you must
ignore the real environment of the gaming table and the actu-
al faces and voices of your fellow players. It takes two leaps of
imagination to visualize the fantasy world in a face-to-face
game. Online gaming takes away one and makes the second
much shorter.
Online gaming does have its drawbacks, of course. Good
typists have a distinct advantage over those who hunt and
peck. While you can roll virtual dice online, you lose that sat-
isfying heft when rolling for a 6d6 fireball. The closest thing you
have to miniatures are the stick-figures some DMs use to rep-
resent PCs on a text-based map. Worst of all, you can’t share
your pizza and drinks, hear the laughter of your friends, or see
their grins or grimaces as they react to the shared, imagined
adventure.
I played and DMed AD&D® game sessions for three or four
years before my free time diminished too much to play regular-
ly. You can often find me haunting the TSR Online area of Genie
(as TSR.MAGS) or AOL (as TSR Dragon), though it’s to trade gam-
ing war stories and chat more often than it is for a game.
If you’re interested in online gaming and have access to
AOL or Genie, try keyword TSR and have a look around. The
software libraries and message boards are good, but it’s the
gaming you should try. Tell ‘em Dave sent you. (Don’t believe
a word they say about my DMing. There were several nights
when not a single character died.)
When I do find the time these days, I play face-to-face
sessions at the local game store or at conventions. Since
gaming online, though, “real” games seem to be missing
something
—
or maybe they’re not missing enough.
Publisher
TSR, Inc.
Associate Publisher
Brian Thomsen
Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Watters
Editor
Dave Gross
Art Director
Larry Smith
Associate Editor
Michelle Vuckovich
Editorial Assistant
Lizz Baldwin
Subscriptions
Janet Winters
U.S. Advertising
Cindy Rick
U.K. Correspondent/Advertising
Carolyn Wildman
Printed in the USA
D
RAGON
#235
3
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