[eterm]

What is awkward with things like table top simulator is when they don't have a rules engine, so you don't get the benefit of learning edge cases through the game engine and don't get the bookeeping sped up, so you still have to watch everyone else take their turn to make sure they're not accidentally sneaking resources.

boardgamearena has the advantage of actually having rules engines so you can also relax more while playing knowing the engine is taking care of the rules freeing you up to making tactical mistakes instead of rule mistakes.

[reificator]

Tabletop Simulator has an exposed Lua interpreter that any mod can take advantage of. The games can come with rules or not.

I much prefer the ruleless approach of TTS to be honest. It gives you that tactile sense of actually moving pieces around the board and interpreting the rules yourself that makes a board game feel like a board game. But with undo and instant setup and without the requirement that everyone be in the same place.

Not that it's a great tabletop game, but have you ever played a PC version of Monopoly? It's the most boring way to play an already incredibly boring game.

My only issue with Tabletop is that all the games I want to play with friends (and that at least one of us owns physically) keep getting DMCAed. That's fine in and of itself, but if a company is going to stop people who own their game from "pirating" it, it'd be nice if they'd make it available legitimately as DLC.

[Woofles]

My friend used to play games on Tabletop Simulator. It's a good way to play with friends who don't live near you, but beyond that it's definitely a worse experience than playing board games in person. I don't have any experience playing with people that aren't friends, so I can't speak to the cheating aspect of it.

[eterm]

I too play with friends but it's not outright cheating that's an issue, it's usually more innocent than that, just edge cases or forgetting about less common rules, especially in more complex games like Eclipse or through the ages. It's easy to forget a rule that only applies in selective situations but which can have far reaching consequences.

It's nice to relax and have the engine take care of it, and by pushing things you can actually learn odd interactions you wouldn't have discovered through reading the rule-book.

[Woofles]

I totally understand where you're coming from. I don't think I've played any games where it's made a large enough difference (in person or online).

I also love the idea that it will resolve things correctly right away instead of having to look at the rulebook every time you run into some crazy edge case or wording confusion.

[reificator]

Games on TTS can absolutely come with the rules built in via the exposed Lua interpreter. Mods can automate as much as they'd like.

[chromanoid]

I totally agree. Brettspielwelt and Yucata also automate and ensure the gameplay according to the rules.