Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Gilliam]

I'm pretty sure this is covered somewhere on the forum, but I have a feeling I'll need to be asking a few of my own questions.  Here's a few to start:

     1.  How much to prepare?  is it customary to have long flowery description of an entire bar?  or is it generally better to leave most of the window dressing to players?
     2.  How to keep continuity?  For instance... if the group splits, does that become another thread, all on it's own, or does it somehow stay in one whole thread for the entire PBP game?
     3.  Big one here...How to handle combat?  I think I've heard that it can be done in it's own thread, but what kind of a dice-roller solution is ideal?
     4.  How often to post?  as a GM or a player (and I realize the answer may be quite different for GM's vs. players)  I'm thinking about a relatively fast-paced game, as such things go, with myself checking up on it daily.

I'd appreciate any and all answers/advice.

[Ingo Monk]

Here's how we've done it before:

1. Up to you, your game.  Long descriptions are bad imo, when's the last time you went to a website that had some crazy long paragraph and you read the whole in its entirety?  Don't go too short either, i.e. "you walk into a bar, what do you do?".  A few sentences is good, close to how you'd describe a scene in a face-to-face game.

2. Also up to you.  You can utilize the PM system on these forums (you can sent one PM to multiple people at the same time) to send out what each person/group sees and when you get the responses post them into the PBP game yourself.

3. When it gets to combat you can try to schedule a time for everyone to meet in a chat program somewhere.  Or you can use the honor system and have each person tell you what they got.  And finally you could just do everything yourself since you should have copies of the character sheets anyway (this works the best I think)

4. Most games we've had require a commitment of at least 1 post per week from each player.  If you want to do more than that you should get commitment from players beforehand.  We're all adults so time can be an issue.

Hope that helps!

[kv]

 1.  How much to prepare?  I've run a PbP on this forum before, and this is a group of good players. Usually, I pick two or three details about a room when someone walks in- just like you would when you walk into a room- the hospital is too bright, and smells like cleaner, and the walls are all a dead white. The bar is dark, there's a tv on in the corner, and a couple of people at the bar, chatting with the bartender. That makes it easy enough to run without bogging down on details. If you want more interaction from you players, keep responses short. If you want to turn the corner in the story, use longer posts to keep control of what's going on.

     2.  How to keep continuity?  I've done it both ways- I've found it works better to have another thread started for the people splitting off from the main group. Try and keep people from going solo, unless you want them to wander off and get lost.

     3.  Big one here...How to handle combat?  I would rely on your players to tell you how many dice, and roll them yourself. You can use online rollers (like invisible castle), or board dice rollers if Ingo has that option available, but typically it works the best if you set the stage for the combat pass, let everyone post to say what they do, and then resolve the actions, starting the next initiative pass. Combat bogs down, so whatever makes it go faster is nice.

     4.  How often to post?  As a GM, you should get into the habit of checking a few times a day. Nothing kills a game faster than people waiting on the GM. Players should probably commit to posting at least a couple of times a week, if not three or four. I don't mind people posting once a week, but if they get busy, it's usually at least a couple of weeks before you figure out they're not around anymore. It's frustrating.

All of that being said, PbP is a good way to stay playing- even when friends are busy or life sucks. Games can be fun and go on for years, with minimum problems. If you're interested in GMing, I'd be happy to make a character and play in your game!

[Gilliam]

I'm still sounding out the possibilities.  my local group just got up off their butts and asked me to run a 4th ed D&D module for them tomorrow, so I'm gonna work on that for a little bit here.  Apparently though, my DCI # has expired though, and so has my judge-level membership.  Not that that was all that hard to get.  I was mainly using the service to get me some free modules

[kv]

DCI? Judge level? What does that mean (and how can I use it to get free modules?)

  -kv

[Gilliam]

LOL.  I'm talking about my number for the RPGA, which is a non-profit group, loosley associated with WOTC, but not actually taking orders from them, that runs the various "living" games assiciated with WOTC products.  The modules I'm talking about come from Living Forgotten Realms.  If you sign up for the RPGA, (if you already have a DCI # from the Magic: The Gathering tournament scene, that'll work) and you take their silly little "judge" test, they'll let you schedule "sactioned" events, which will allow you to download their modules for free, to run at said sanctioned event.

The idea behind the modules and the system is that one person can take a legit character from game to game, convention to convention, all across the world.  there are many countrys with active RPGA memebers.

Personally, I just raid them for free modules.  I never intend to play outside my local group, and the only reason to follow all the RPGA rules would be to take a character toa  convention and play there, which I don't really want to do.  I was in the RPGA for a little bit back when Living greyhawk was the big game they were running, and I enjoyed that, because my local gaming shop had regular Living Greyhawk nights, with modules being run every 2 weeks.  This kept level progression at something halfway decent.  My group has trouble getting to play at ALL.

By the way, the module has been run, and came off better than most.  I didn't end up being able to read the whole thing through before the game (although I'd played in this one, and read the whole thing weeks ago).  So I ended up running it cold.  They work well, particularly because I can't come up with a believable campaign for a fantasy game to save my life.  Somehow they all end up falling into the Sword of Shannarah mold.  I much prefer to run Shadowrun.  My plots are always better.

A final word on the Modules themselves:
     A.  They are intended to be run in a 4-hour convention "slot"
     B.  Gold and experience is standardized, and anything extra characters spend in a module is generally ignored, as it makes bookkeeping at the next game complicated.
     C.  The story can be hit or miss.  Most of them are quality modules, some can bog down royally if the party splits up, and at least 1 of them that I picked had no reasonable story or background info at all, and left me with 5 repetative goblin encounters to try to make interesting.
     D.  They REALLY like to use "Skill Challenges" to represent social interation, which irks me every time I run one, since doing things this way keeps the party from engaging in a real conversation.  I tend to end up with no-one at all in character, and just explaining why they are making their social skill roll.

[Ingo Monk]

Haha the social aspect to games is some of the best fun when GMing.  Take Shadowrun:

Player: I roll my etiquette to try and hit on the girl at the bar
GM: What do you say?
Player: Uhh... I dunno.  Can I just roll my etiquette skill?
GM: Ok, target number 4.
Player: (rolls) Cool!  5 successes.
GM: You fail.
Player: What?!?!??!
GM: Everyone sees him walk up to the girl at the bar and stand there looking quite impressive.  When she finally notices she looks up him and down, laughs, and throws a drink in his face just before walking away.

Ahahahaha so much fun.  Stuff like that makes games much more memorable.  Most people I've run games for seem to always remember the weird or funny situations rather than the runs themselves.  Makes me want to get my group back together to run a game

[Gilliam]

I think I remember throwing a beer in a player's face once.  He decided to be a complete jerk to a lady bartender.  he got covered in beer and had to sit out the meeting.  Mr. Johnson was nice though, and still hired all of them.  At a discount for disorderly conduct .  I dunno if I've got that right though, it was a long time ago.

I definitely remember the "Doorbell Special," as it was coined by one of my players at the time.  I had a game going in the lunchroom at my college (while I was supposed to be in class, oops), and a good friend of mine had decided that the best way to garb a mafia boss's attention was to turn his mystic adept invisible and try to sneak through the front door, after having been turned away twice.  All this instead of waiting for the 2 members of the group who were already affiliated to come back with info.  Basically, I reasoned that since this is a major-ish mafia boss, he's had someone in to design a security system for this kind of situation.  Pressure plate in the entry way, guards trained to check weights and see if they look right before they open doors.  He didn't get in.  So he came back, a third time (now he's just delaying my game), and starts relentlessly ringing the doorbell.  The guards recognize him, and give him a ten-count, which he ignores.  So I dropped a live grenade out of a "mail-slot."  To this day, he still hasn't forgiven me.  The "Doorbell Special" lives on in infamy.