VTT Mobile Apps Are Empowering Gamers to Game
The Land Before Apps
When I was a young person, some two decades ago now, I joined a Play by Post forum. An rpg “game”. Less game, more storytelling experience but it was my first taste. It was wonderful. Most of us spent that Christmas writing long posts and celebrating together, but remotely.
Then the person hosting it “wanted to be taken more seriously” and “grow up”, so he took down the board and turned it into a photography website. More power to him but it was never the same afterwards.
I can only imagine however, how much more I would have been able to play while it was active, if smartphones had been around. No writing the post offline, no dialing up the internet only to find someone else had posted while you were offline to save running up the phone bill. (I’m not bitter).
I was lucky. My first roleplaying experience was online with people I knew in real life, in a time when smartphones were not a thing. I had a computer only because my Dad had a computer. Even now, I prefer using my laptop - I’d happily never turn on my phone again, except all my authenticators are on there, and my work chat, and my family chat, and my money cards…
The World in Our Hands
Now adays, a lot of people have smartphones, more than PCs or Laptops even. And that is one of three things I learned this month. Some things that should have been obvious:
Most people have, and prefer, their phones.
Personal phones are more prevalent than personal computers.
Most people don’t have people to play with in the human space.
I’ve conducted a lot of interviews over the last month with Quest Portal users: talking about streaming, arranging sponsorships, setting up library resource books, and one thing kept emerging:
The Quest Portal Mobile App made things easier for the users.
Someone wanted to play but they were traveling for work or to visit family, and they could still play with their group. Their notes, their books, their characters, their dice - all within something they were carrying already - without needing anything else.
I heard a story about a group who needed to up and leave to avoid storms, and they still wanted to play, which was surprising - but also not. I mean, if you can, you want to play, even in rough times because ttrpgs are a beautiful escape. If they were forced to play in person, the game wouldn’t even have formed in the first place!
Another person let me know they couldn’t afford to replace their laptop right now, but that the mobile app allowed them to keep on GMing the game; to write notes, campaigns, organize their group. They needed their phone, but not a computer right now. And the app made it possible to keep going. Granted it wasn’t as fast to write notes and some things were more difficult, but it had everything needed to play: players, sheets and a way to communicate.
And for another I spoke to this week, most players in their game played using their phones, because they en masse just don’t have home computers.
And honestly, even when I’m playing in person, I don’t have a paper character sheet anymore. I use Quest Portal to refer to my notes and my character sheets that I use when we play online. I get to roll those sweet sweet physical dice in person with my app in front of me. A wonderful hybrid for sure.
Easier Access to Our Hobby
- through reducing the cost to even play online by placing it within a piece of tech most people already have, by reducing the need to have multiple apps open (or windows on a computer), by allowing friends separated by countries to play together (my usually group is in three countries) and by storing sheets, dice and notes all in one place for easy reference for when you do get a chance to play in real life together - yes, I truly believe that VTT apps, like ours, ARE empowering to gamers.
We’re all about lowering the barrier to entry for this hobby and the mobile apps versatility is an unexpected way - at least to me, who would live without my cellphone in a heartbeat. Well, except for when I need to roll for History on my character’s first interaction with the BBEG.
Find our mobile apps on iOS and Android: iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/quest-portal/id1588540503 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.questportal.app
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