Allowed communication in Multiplayer

[Hofi]

Hi, I'm planning to play mi first coop game with friend and I'm wondering if the communication restrictions mentioned in rules of physical version of BG are the same in PC version.

From rulebook (physical game):
At the beginning of a round, each player will secretly select two cards from his or her hand to play facedown in
front of them. Of the two cards, one should be selected as the leading card, which will determine the player’s
order in the initiative for the round.

Players should not show other players the cards in their hands nor give specific information about any numerical value or title on any of their cards.
They are, however, allowed to make general statements about
their actions for the round and discuss strategy.

• Examples of appropriate communication: “I’m attacking this guard near the middle of the round.”;
“I’m planning on moving here and healing you pretty early in the round, hopefully before the monsters
attack.”

• Examples of inappropriate communication: “You’ll need lower than an initiative 17 to go before me.”;
“I should be doing 4 points of damage to the bandit, so you don’t have to worry about him.”; “I’m going
to use Impaling Eruption and wipe out everyone.”

[cinsoniTe^-]

What do you mean by restrictions? The game itself doesn't care, it's just the spirit of the board game what you share with your companions. If you want to, you can keep it that way. I also played the boardgame on the Tabletop Simulator, that's why my party sticks to the rules whenever we are free to do so.
It gets easier if you share your plans and numerics with other party members, but I think it's more interesting if moves don't add up 100% inside your team.

[phillip_lynx]

If you play via Internet, the game does hide the quest and the initiative.
If you play on the same computer, then it is a SP game and you see them.

What you communicate over voicechat is soley your liking as in the physical game.

[Sheena-Tiger]

I do not own the physical version but I do a lot of Pen&Paper Roleplay and there is always one important rule: Have fun! The Rules are Guidelines.
Well of course the part doesn't apply as well to boardgames but you need to see what is most fun to you or your group who play together.
I am playing it while streaming it with someone else and a not streaming person and we decided to talk about tactics because that is fun for us. Tactics and ideas still do not add up as planned thanks to moving enemies and all that ^^ We want to communicate, it is why we play together.

[Slow Dog]

Digital hides initiative and battle goals (though I think you can spot them if the peek), and can hide PQs. Likewise you can see the other players' hands, but have to purposely do so.

So Digital supports the communications restrictions of the boardgame if you want to use them, but doesn't enforce them, in that you can get round them if you try.

[Hofi]

Thank you all for your inputs.

I wanted to understand how was the multiplayer designed by default as for solo play the rulebook mentions "Game Variant: Open Information and Solo Play"
When you play this variant the game is easier and dificulty modifiers are applied.
"Because a solo player has precise information about what each character is doing and can coordinate more effectively, the game becomes easier.
To compensate for this, solo players should increase the monster level and trap damage by 1 for any given scenario without increasing gold conversion and bonus experience."

I expect this game to be hard and also expecting some learning curve...
My intention is to follow the rules in every detail (as designed) from the begining and "adjsuting the dificulty" once we find out that it does not work for us (e.g. failing the 1st level 3 times would be still fun/challange, but for 5th time I would be considering lowering the dificulty).

I fully understand that at the end of the day it's up to us how we communicate and if we find the game too dificult this rule is the easiest to get rid of + the main goal of playing any game is to have fun.

[nerman8r]

I think the reasons for the limited communication rule is to stop the game from dragging to a halt as players communicate everything to each other and try to have a perfect turn, to allow players to play together without having to learn how the other players' characters work, and to add a little chaos and improvisation to the turns. I'd go ahead and follow the rule to start. Once you've played the game a bit you can decide if you want to abandon it.

[Army of Optimists]

I generally hate anytime board games try to limit communication by fiat instead of working it into the mechanics. Usually the players end up creating code phrases in the first couple games to work around it and then all it adds is clunk to the communications.

On top of that, Gloomhaven is already a pretty difficult game to pick up. Having multiple players learning at their own speed, but not able to strategize together adds a lot of frustration and can lead to friends quitting. Nothing feels quite so bad as knowing you could've won a scenario but flubbed it because you walked into the hex your friend needed to be in or accidentally went in the wrong turn order.

That being said, if you do what my group does and ignore the rule, you have to be very careful not to fall into quarterbacking. We do play with an unspoken communication rule, I suppose, where the idea is "You're allowed to talk about your turn in as much detail as you want, but you can't talk about what others should do." So I can say I'm going to block a path with Cragheart rocks, and maybe someone comments on whether they'd like that or not, but it's a faux pas to demand a player heal you or tell them what you think the optimal play is for their cards.

[Toad]

There is **NOTHING** in the digital GH "rule book" that says you can't get into comms with your friends and talk about every pixel until the sun rises.

My friends and I absolutely plan, share ideas, discuss cards, discuss tactics, and explicitly tell each other our initiative. We'd probably have long lost interest in GH if we didn't.

If anything, GH needs **MORE** communication tools like displaying your picked initiative score to other players so you don't have to repeat it 10 times and more map draw planning tools then just CTRL-click pinging a hex.