GURPS over Roll20 experiments: Testing the water

Finally had my first proper GURPS session last night over on roll20. A low fantasy attempt to replicate the old D&D modules of the early '80s. It was all voice, first on hangout then Skype - something I'm really not used to - and lasted for about 4 hour and a bit.

I came to the session with an approach very close to that of a researcher. My goal was to see first hand how things were actually done, identify potential pacing and interface issues, all of which so that I could tweak my own games properly later on. Oh..and of course, have some fun while at it, which I had but in a very different way than usual (I'll come back to that later on).

The group was overall somewhat experienced with GURPS, at least the basics. One thing I noticed immediately is that despite never having played before, I felt quite comfortable with the rules and knew what to do, even during combat. My only doubts/pauses were related to what rule options the GM was using, not what to actually do as a PC. At no point did I feel lost in the rules, nor had any paralysis, and understood all the mechanics of what others were doing as well. That's a good start.

Compared to sessions I run weekly (and play in weekly) using D&D Next on roll20, the game lacked a bit of structure as a whole and, most likely due to the voice communication, reminded me a lot of an actual "around the table" session. The narrative flow was very often cut and I'd say there was about 90% OOC communication and 10% IC communication (there was a lot of combat, but don't think that explains it). Again, compared to my usual 100% text based sessions, that was a massive change, most likely due to voice communication once again, but that's debate for another day.

The pacing itself was very slow. In 4 hours and 30 minutes, we did about 15-20 turns of combat against 5 skeletons, a quick search of the room while I was healing and recuperating (I was playing a cleric/healer type) and that's pretty much it. Now, there were lots of cuts in the narrative as I said but once again, that's not something I'm used to. When I see what we accomplish in about 3 hours during my other weekly games, it's a bit crazy.

Finally, the "art style" was just not there. For someone a bit (a bit? HA!) OCD like me who enjoys providing an experience more than just a game session, that threw me off a bit at first but I can easily get past it if needed. What was more problematic I think was that the strength of what roll20 can offer was not used. Simple thing such as tokens with facing indicators is I think quite important and easy to do and instantly remove any doubt/question about that later on. Sheets and macros to structure play would also have helped I think, but again, it was played a lot like a normal "around the table" game, with roll20 not really being used to it's fullest.

Every GM and player I think have different ways of doing things, preparing things. I'm not talking plot and whatnot here, I'm talking props and notes that help keep a good pace. I'm personally a very heavy prop/note GM and really try to push roll20 to provide, as I said above, an experience. Lots of people don't care and I'm cool with it, though that might be why it results in much slower pacing as a whole, as I've experience yesterday.

But did you have fun you might ask? 
Well, yes I did and will most likely join again next week. I'm really not the kind of guy to just waste his time without purpose so if I didn't like it, I'd have simply excused myself and left.
It's very different from what I'm used to but I think pushing your own barriers is a good thing, if just to see how things are done, learn from it and adapt what you liked and make it your own. Part of my reason for joining was, as said, for research, and I learned a lot. Other than that, as a whole, the players were pretty cool and we had a good time. 
It's NOT how I'll run things, nor what I really look for in a RPG session and I don't like voice chat much, but I didn't feel like I wasted my time, had a couple laughs and finally got to actually play GURPS!


So, what did I learn from it that I can use for my own GURPS game?

1. Good, clean and organized off-roll20 PC sheets are a must. GURPS mechanics are very simple but details matter a LOT and PCs need to be able to keep track of these details fast. I'm almost done customizing my G+Drive PC sheet but after this session, I'll add something to help players keep track of some of the details, especially in combat. These sheets MUST keep some kind of page reference somewhere for Advantages, Disadvantages, Skills and Spells.
2. I'm more than ever convinced that converting most of my round based tokens to hex based tokens with facing markers was a good thing. Took a bit, but since I already bought tons of tokens, it's clearly not time wasted.
3. "Owning" the game world, NPCs, setting and mechanics is paramount for pacing. If in combat, I must have quick access to a very organized and clear NPC sheet somewhere and I must know every single rule involved with what they are and what they can do. Looking up for stuff is a time killer.
4. Dual screens are INCREDIBLY useful for roll20 sessions. Already been using them for other weekly games but with GURPS, I had all the core books opened on the side, my GDRIVE PC sheet and whatnot as well, while never having roll20 itself leave my sight. Never even had to use any of my hard copies!
5. As a GM, nothing I do or react to must take more than a couple seconds. Enemies turn should take 10 seconds total to resolve at the most and reacting to PC actions (ADs, damage, effects, etc) should likewise be as transparent to players as possible and not pause the game. Once again, organized prep is key there. Once I get a good NPC tracking system sheet, using it will speed up play a ton.
6. Spending a couple hours preparing proper PC sheets, NPC & event tracking sheets, macros and whatnot as a GM before the game, will end up saving hours during actual play. I'm mostly done on that part now, but I'll try to at least take 30mins here and there when I can to finalize everything and make sure they're easy to use and clear to read.
7. Listing how a combat turn should flow as well as clearly defining all options available before-hand will most likely help keep up the combat pace as well. I'll start with limited options at first for combat, that I will list somewhere easy to access, then once everyone can constantly do their turn in 5-10 seconds, slowly expand.

Aside from that, I'm finally in proper "scenario design" mode for my GURPS roll20 GMing attempt. 
Campaign is created, sheet templates are done with all the macros. GDRIVE PC sheets are done for the most part and my GDRIVE tracking sheets are almost done as well. 
I wrote a long post with examples if new players join later on and at first, I plan on just having players run Pre-Gens (that I created) and read through GURPS Lite only. 
To help further, I'm writing a short "story/example" post for each of the Pre-Gens, that I'll post in separate threads, each with examples of what the PC can do, what are the game mechanics related to that as well as how it should go in roll20.

For now, I only proposed the GURPS one-shot scenario to my usual weekly players, treat it as a "dream sequence" that would be based off our current D&D Next campaign. Since we know each other by now and are all used to 100% text based roll20, it'd be easier I think. 
If they're not interested, I'll just try and find players some other way. The goal is just to do a one-shot GURPS GMing test anyway.

In any case, that's pretty much my thought from last night. Just another brick in my GURPS on roll20 obsession :)