I've never understood the notion of playing tabletop RPGs with people who you aren't already friends with. It very cleanly circumvents all of this. Who roleplays with random strangers?
People who don't have large enough groups with both the time and interests aligned already to play with. In fact, playing with randoms is a great way to build a group of friends and was a solid choice for nerds for decades before Progressives invaded it.
If TTRPGs were limited to just "got lucky enough to grow up with a group of friends to play it with" then they would have died a long time ago.
Most of mine have been over Discord or Google Hangouts back when that was still a thing, but it's always been with people I've known for years prior to ever rolling up a character.
I've never understood the notion of playing tabletop RPGs with people who you aren't already friends with. It very cleanly circumvents all of this. Who roleplays with random strangers?
People who don't have large enough groups with both the time and interests aligned already to play with. In fact, playing with randoms is a great way to build a group of friends and was a solid choice for nerds for decades before Progressives invaded it.
If TTRPGs were limited to just "got lucky enough to grow up with a group of friends to play it with" then they would have died a long time ago.
You have people playing over zoom now.
Most of mine have been over Discord or Google Hangouts back when that was still a thing, but it's always been with people I've known for years prior to ever rolling up a character.