by Peter Hart

Created on: August 31, 2009   Last Updated: September 01, 2009

I'm going to have to say online for sure. I have been an avid player of RPG's for about the past 10 years or so, and even created one at one point by myself (lots of pens, lots of pencils, lots of paper). I even went from using a 20-sided dye, to using multiple decks of cards - think of them as a 52-sided dye. I have pretty good understanding of a lot of the mechanics involved in both sides, being I am a Warcraft player for 3 years now.

One thing about the tabletop style RPG's is it's very limited to a small player base. Playing RPG's definitely isn't the "coolest" thing ever to do, and not everyone can do it. It takes a different breed of person to play. It requires a vivid imagination, creativity, and most of all - some intellect, as the rules and numbers can get a little hairy at times. A lot of people lack the patience it takes to play in-depth RPG's as well.

More often than not when playing tabletop's, you're limited to local people, and due to your need to have a group to play and make it more interesting, you usually take some....... strange, people into your group. There's usually one or two hangouts for the RPG-ers, and they tend to all go there. And there can be a strange group of people gathering in these different spots. More often than not there is a gap in skill level, we have all played with the "Leeroy Jenkins" of tabletops, and we know how frustrating it can be.

With the online community, it's like an infinite source of people to play with, the content is always changing, and you don't have to sacrifice your "good time", because someone just isn't catching on, or they don't care enough - they are easily replaced (unless you're looking for a healer -lol). It more or less, creates it's own little sub-society. With the visual part of playing online, you may even pick up players that didn't get into tabletops, but enjoy the RPG, because they can either see it, or because they don't have to do all the crazy math themselves.

To sum it all up, it just makes life a little easier, and gives you the ability to enjoy the actual game, with a few less headaches. I hope this article helps anyone that is just sitting on the fence right now undecided which quest to embark on. All that matters is that you have fun in the end.

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