Tabletop RPGs predate the modern-day internet, allowing players to emulate games online using websites and apps such as Zoom, Discord, Roll20, D&D Beyond, and Foundry. These sites help players from around the world, or simply those who aren’t in the mood to leave their bedrooms or host their friends, to play some tabletop role-playing games online.
For certain systems, this works fine, as there are sites that have built-in dice rolling systems, or DMs might simply choose to trust their players rolling unsupervised. But, there are certain systems that might struggle to be played remotely, as they rely on players to be gathered in person, or maybe they are simply better played when the party is together in one place.
8 Vampire: The Masquerade
Narrative-Driven Games Are Always Better In-Person
Vampire: The Masquerade
In the shadow of human society, supernatural creatures dwell in secrecy, trying to keep their existence hidden lest they befall the wrath of hunters. The vampires refer to this as a masquerade, as they are putting up a front that they are regular humans, living an ordinary, albeit nocturnal, lifestyle. Set in the real-world, Vampire: The Masquerade tells personal tales of horror, drawing on the characters’ backstories, tenets, and fears in order to construct a narrative.
Combat takes a backseat, and most sessions are fueled by intrigue, horror, hunger, and role-play between the characters. As such, playing in-person would help players become more immersed, allowing them to sit next to their coterie members and look them in the eye as they talk.
7 Dungeons and Dragons
Works as Well in-Person as it Does Online
Dungeons and Dragons
By now, there are a plethora of resources designed to make D&D an online-friendly game, but this is forsaking the roots of D&D; once upon a time, players would have had to gather around a table in order to play. And as it happens, there are also resources to help make playing in-person more convenient, such as D&D Beyond. The existence of resources like this means that players don’t need to lug countless books and dice around with them.
There is a certain magic to playing in-person that online just simply can’t capture, and it makes every roll more exciting when players are there to witness it happening in person, as well as giving people the chance to finally make use of the hundreds of dice they have bought. It also opens the door for more in-depth role-play, as players can use their body language and facial expressions to give their words more weight.
6 Fiasco
Players Create the Narrative Together
- Release Year: 2009
- Designer: Jason Morningstar
- Publishers: Bully Pulpit Games and Amusements
Fiasco offers a unique role-playing experience ideal for those who aren’t looking for fantasy dungeon-delving or horror narratives. The fiasco in this game is that the players’ heist has gone wrong, and it is up to them to determine what happened. Perhaps it was the players themselves, or maybe it was an outside influence. As a GM-less experience, players are given total freedom of choice, as long as they cooperate with others to decide on their story, that is.
As it is a narrative-driven game that relies on players colluding and improvising on the spot, it is arguably better played in person. This would make it easier for players to put forward their ideas for their story.
5 Blades in the Dark
A Big Focus on Co-Operative Play
- Release Year: 2017
- Designer: John Harper
- Publisher: Evil Hat Productions
The land of Doskvol is a dismal place. The sun has died, leaving it in perpetual darkness, and the dead don’t quite stay so, rising as vampires or ghosts to add to the growing list of problems the denizens must deal with. Even more depressing is the fact that the players aren’t heroes. They are smugglers, assassins, or thieves, with their hands being placed in criminal activities not-so-good deeds. They are the titular Blades in the Darkness.
With the players all being part of the same crew, which comes with its own character sheet, co-operative play proves to be a huge part of Blades in the Dark, as even criminal organizations need to work together in order for their dastardly deeds to succeed. As such, this tabletop game is arguably better played in-person, as doing so would make it easier to plot and plan if the party is in one place. This way, they can all manage and monitor their crew sheet together.
4 Forsooth!
Improvising a Play is Better Done In-Person
- Release Year: 2012
- Designers: Kevin Spak, Sam Liberty
- Publisher: Spoiled Flush Games
One might not have ever expected tabletop role-play and Shakespeare to go together, but this is exactly what Forsooth! is: a game in which there is no combat or classes; instead, there is pure role-play and improv. Rather than battling monsters and looting treasure, players will be acting out Shakespeare’s lost work, making up their lines and actions as they go.
This might sound a little daunting, but it is great fun when played with a group of friends during a one-off game-night. Participants get to live the dream of going up on stage without the actual pressure of performing in front of a live audience. Essentially, they get to play a funny game of improv with friends, which could result in some truly chaotic but hilarious literary works. Such acting and improvisation needs to be done physically with friends, of course, as the camera won’t be great for capturing how the actors use their space.
3 Ironsworn
Co-Op and Solo Game Modes are Made for In-Person Play
- Release Year: 2018
- Designer: Shawn Tomkin
- Publisher: Shawn Tomkin
Set in the harsh Ironlands, Ironsworn players play as an Ironsworn, an adventurer who has made a vow that they must through to the end, no matter what. The lands are perilous, and said Ironsworn might just find themselves wandering them alone. Although Ironsworn can be played with a full group, players can also downsize their party, even to the point of it becoming a solo-experience.
The option to play this alone or with just one or two other people makes it the perfect game to play in-person, as those involved can just knock on a sibling or roommate’s door and invite them down for a GM-less game in which they will travel savage lands together. Solo players can even just sit themselves down with some ambient music playing in the background, a character sheet, a notebook.
2 Dread
A Jenga Tower Determines Success
- Release Year: 2005
- Designers: Epidiah Ravachol, Nathaniel Barmore
- Publisher: The Impossible Dream
Most tabletop games rely on dice to determine if the action the players are trying to make succeeds or fails, and there are plenty of dice-rolling apps and sites out there that are perfect for remote play. But the horror role-playing game Dread takes a different approach, and the game revolves around a Jenga tower. Every time the player does something that would normally require a roll, they remove a block, and if the tower remains standing, it is a success. A collapse means failure and usually that player’s death.
While there are likely online Jenga towers players could use, it just wouldn’t have the same impact as the player leaning over to the tower and examining each side to carefully plot out their move. Of course, players will want to succeed, but maybe they also want to make it a little harder for whoever goes next. It is one of the more tense ways to play a tabletop game, and it just wouldn’t have the same impact unless players gathered in-person to play.
1 Ten Candles
The Game Relies on the Light of Candles
- Release Year: 2015
- Designer: Stephen Dewey
- Publisher: Cavalry Games
In the world of Ten Candles, the monsters have already won. One day, the world went dark, and they came, killing all who were not protected by a light-source of some sort. Without power, people rely on candles, which are a finite resource. Players (and their characters) know from the get-go that they are going to die as soon as the last candle extinguishes. Thus, the story of this tabletop revolves around the participants’ last moments with the people around them.
As such, the game just wouldn’t work online, and it certainly wouldn’t have the same ambience without in-person players gathering around that last flickering candle with bated breath, assuming that their end is only seconds away. A Zoom call just wouldn’t capture the haunting magic of playing Ten Candles with friends and the tension they would feel sitting next to each other in the dark as the gamesmaster narrates their final moments together. Plus, after such a trial, participants might need to hug one another for comfort.
