If he is in a group of like minded people, then all the power to them.
We have played with people like this in the past, it can get really old really fast. We constantly had to remind them what to roll, what skills / feats / abilities they had, etc. Sometimes there would be a side bar for a character or two for a quick 15-20-minutes. After the PC(s) involved would finish their actions, the player not invested would add what they want to do and we would remind them that they didn’t go. Same thing as above, they were not on their phone or having side conversations. They were just a backseat passenger in their own mind when it came to the game.
We are far from a hardcore group. We regularly interrupt the session for other conversations, it is almost always parallel to a beer share so there is lots of distractions. Even then, the bare minimum for play is at least wanting to participate. The above post is the kind of play I need to do when hand holding my 5-year old along. They are just social loafing and want the “fun parts” (to them) to them at the rest of the tables expense.
If he is in a group of like minded people, then all the power to them.
We have played with people like this in the past, it can get really old really fast. We constantly had to remind them what to roll, what skills / feats / abilities they had, etc. Sometimes there would be a side bar for a character or two for a quick 15-20-minutes. After the PC(s) involved would finish their actions, the player not invested would add what they want to do and we would remind them that they didn’t go. Same thing as above, they were not on their phone or having side conversations. They were just a backseat passenger in their own mind when it came to the game.
We are far from a hardcore group. We regularly interrupt the session for other conversations, it is almost always parallel to a beer share so there is lots of distractions. Even then, the bare minimum for play is at least wanting to participate. The above post is the kind of play I need to do when hand holding my 5-year old along. They are just social loafing and want the “fun parts” (to them) to them at the rest of the tables expense.