WE = Weekend. And yes, PbP tends to be slow...
Can I ask you what is this fast game you referring to? Perhaps I can get there some suggestion how to speed up my own games.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/living...ouble-moonwatch-judge-twoheadsbarking-34.html
In 40 days since I joined, we have had 344 posts. That's an average of over 8 posts per day (originally with 5 PCs and a DM, now with 6 PCs and a DM). Granted, some of those are OOC posts, but many if not most OOC posts are combined with IC posts.
In the 29 IC days (more until the game actually started) I gave this game, there were 35 posts or slightly more than one per day out of 6 people. A lot of this wasted time was people posting and then waiting for the DM to respond to what they wrote days (and in one case, a week and a half later). That's unreal.
Suggestions:
1) The number one thing to speed up the game that a DM has to do is to post every single day.
2) Another suggestion I would take from that thread (which Sparky does not like) is to do the OOC stuff in the IC thread
[sblock=OOC]
like this.
[/sblock]
This makes the game a LOT easier. People do not have to go back and forth from the OOC thread and the IC thread and try to keep them in time sync. And, it can take less room than a lengthy OOC thread (even in smaller print) that Sparky prefers. I dislike smaller print.
3) I also prefer different colors for each PC's speech instead of being forced to use the same color as every other PC. It makes reading and knowing which PC wrote what SO much easier.
Sparky is very set in his ways and non-flexible with regard to posting style. I do not prefer his style. It's limiting. For example, I suggested brighter colors for older people like me with not so good vision and he told me no. I don't understand a DM like that.
4) Listen to your players.
I also suggested more posts per day and he didn't do it. I don't get it. It's as if he does not really want to play this game, he's just doing it because he said he would. I suggested via PM that Sparky throw an encounter into the game to hook his players since it started so slow. Nope.
I don't understand a DM who does not listen to his player's concerns. It's as if he wants the game to fail.
He doesn't seem to care that this game might go away. From what I have read from him and in PMs, it appears that he doesn't have much time and could care less about this game. Why start the game in that case???
5) Pictures. We do not even have a map of this place. That's a must for good DMing.
Descriptions are fine for details, but not for making the game easy for players. The DM has to go out of his way to make the game easy.
Not everyone relates to print. Some people relate visually to maps and drawings, etc.
6) Avoid abstractions that do not add to the game.
Memories seem fluid, like the ephemera of dreams. Vivid and stark, but impossible to grasp firmly.
This is fine as fluff, but it shouldn't be the type of a thing that a DM focuses on. He needs to focus on what the players are doing and saying and responding. Once the game is running smoothly, then the DM can throw in a bunch of fluff. But why concentrate on that while the game is still plodding along?
From my perspective, Sparky is not that good of a DM. He is purposely not doing the things that good DMs do to attract their players and keep them interested. He needs to step up in order to run a good game. IMO.
And, that's ok. Not everyone is a good DM. I applaud Sparky for setting up the game, but I do not applaud him for being inflexible with his DMing style to the point that the game drags. A good DM tries new stuff, even when he fails. A bad DM continues the same 'ol same 'ol, even when it is not fun for his players. And it's really inexcusable to start a game if the DM does not have the time to DM it. Sparky already said that gaming is not a priority for him and he doesn't have much time for it.
I also do not believe that one post per day is an average (note: to be fair, the other campaign has both IC and OOC in the IC thread, but that's still less than 2 posts per day here). Not when that other campaign is doing over 8. It's a result of the DM not being proactive. If the DM was posting a lot and the players were not, then it would be either the DM not making it interesting, or the players not being committed. The DM has to step up first though before one can determine if it is the DM or the players.
The fact that Sparky is not trying too hard indicates to me that it is not the players. Many of them seem to be sitting around waiting.
7) So as a final suggestion for your games WD (both as a player and DM), don't do that. Only commit to a game if you have the time and when you commit, actually post a lot of good stuff. Don't do one liners once in a blue moon. That is not playing, that's kibitzing. You'll note in the link above that when roleplaying, the PCs in that game write multiple sentences and often paragraphs about what their PCs are doing and saying. I notice that you write a single sentence or two a lot (both in IC and OOC threads). Add to the game, don't just comment from the sidelines. A DM cannot just be writing a few sentences per post and neither should a player. Your signature is a lot longer than your posts. My signature is a lot smaller than my posts. Write more. Sparky might not post a lot, but he does a good job of posting content. You need to do the same because it keeps the other players interested. A single sentence is not interesting to anyone. You become an NPC sidekick that way, not a PC.
Write more stuff when you post. Bottom line. Get involved.
One final note on "get involved".
In that game, they had 335 posts in 71 days (5.5 posts per day and they started with 6 PCs) before I joined the group. After I joined the group, they had 344 posts in 40 days (8.6 posts per day with 5 PCs and later 6 PCs). This is a 55% increase. I had 65 of those posts (1.6 posts per day including weekends), but the overall rate of posting increased nearly 30% without even considering my posts. I think the fact that I was so involved and posted so much increased the interest and involvement of the other players (although most campaigns start out slow, so that was part of it as well).
I cannot stress enough for players and DMs to get involved.