Agreed with all that's said here. The best RPGs I've every played has been a one on one with a friend, in a pub with only a D6 and occasionally a pencil to quickly scrawl a map on the back of a beer mat. It doesn't matter how good the maps or materials are, in the end, the canvas upon which RPGs are really played are in our heads - and that is why I far prefer non realistic maps, because they don't impose a complete physical reality on how you imagine a place to look.
Face to face group sessions have been fun too. For me, there is something irreplaceable about having face to face contact, the occasional belly laugh, tactile game aids and sharing beers and pizza. Most of my friends don't RPG any more, but we still play board games when we get together. I think there is really is a connection between getting older and being able to suspend disbelief the way we used to when we were in our twenties. That said, I'm in the process of writing a traveller adventure (3 years 40 pages and counting) and when it's finally complete, they are all keen to come over and have a whirl.
The only recent RPGs I've been playing have been run by Valarian (who occasionally posts here) which have been enjoyable, but I found that the time commitment of 3 hours or so on Sunday evenings was just too much - which was a pity because he was an excellent GM and ran some fine adventures. I did find, though that the process of typing rather than speaking tends to slow the adventure down to a snail's pace. This can be mitigated to an extent by pre-written descriptions which the GM can cut and paste but usually the players find a way to unintentionally avoid all the places that the GM has detailed so beautifully.
This is why I'm really interested in trying out the VoIP hybrid - and when I've refreshed myself with the Call of Cthulu rules and Map Tool, will be sending an invite to RP for a game!
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Originally Posted by ravells
) So when my monster tears the party to pieces with 7 attacks I don't have to sit there looking up all the rules and adding totals. I find it speeds things up a lot - I even ran a face to face game and just had maptool open on my laptop - the players never saw it - because it helps so much. 