And concerts

Those corporate lawyers need to prove to themselves that they aren’t just a bullshit job

And they opposite, when they ask to roll perception or investigation when it doesn’t matter at all and the improv’ed answer turns into a major plot point

I’ve played and DMed both. A West Marches campaign has been the right fit for some groups with tough schedules. That format can work really well when you have a larger world plan and story that different venn diagrams of groups slowly discover and have to post notes about to a group chat or Discord. Players remember and read about things from different sessions and piece together the story and world, then can decide on new missions and exploration in a real collaborative setting. Picture a tavern setting where they’re arguing about different plot hooks, missions, and tips, and start to switch from the selfish motivations of wanting cool loot to also wanting to uncover the story. It can be great if you lay the groundwork.

A few lazy players can disappear into the background, and they still have fun and want to hang out.

One of the campaigns I play in is more of a West Marches or Adventurer’s League style with a rotating cast of players. There are… differening levels of effort.

And the person who didn’t gets to default to being the loner outcast who doesn’t talk much, easy

Agreed, I’ve had some success using it essentially as a replacement for how I used to use Stackexchange, which is to remind me of a syntax or make a little function when I have to do some scripting once every few months, but I don’t trust it for anything more than the basics.

I switched to AntennaPod for podcasts because of this. It’s also just a better experience - it auto downloads new episodes and deletes them after playing.