D&D 5E Running an online game

I am currently running a d&dnext game in which one of my players expressed an interest in setting up a side business which he could run throughout the course of the campaign. Now the side business he wants to establish is a narcotics ring, and after giving it some thought
I decided that due to the nature of said business it would require some side sessions at least while he was getting established.

this is where my question comes in, I have decided to run these side sessions through a Facebook group as we are fairly busy and at times arranging for time to play outside our normal schedule can be difficult. I have a few years of dm experience running games at the table but I completely lack experience in running them online.

I am posting this here to ask for some advice in regards to running d&d via the Internet, and any advice is welcome.

some additional notes:
- the setting is home brew of my own design
- I intend to bring other players in for this in order to make it more interesting, but I want to keep the party small.
- I'm choosing a Facebook group as the medium because it allows me to upload PDFs of all the characters etc. and being Facebook everyone will get notifications on their phones whenever someone posts, which I hope will mean less chasing after people.

Roll20 has upload accessibility, and email notifications. Have you considered trying that?

The blog post linked below my name (left) addresses some general concerns about online games that I feel hold true for maintaining the player's experience. Since this is incidental to the main campaign, some of the issues are less urgent than they are if everything is online.

But that's a start for you.

Another reason I want to run via Facebook is because it's something most people already use.
so I won't have to deal with people learning how to use a new website etc. also many of the people
I know rarely if ever check their emails, they do however check Facebook on a fairly regular basis.


thanks for the link Kobold , the information there was useful, I had already though of combat and
decided to make it a low combat game, but I hadn't really put any thought into limiting the ammohnt
of time someone has before the game moves on.

with these games should I simply set a time at which I always post the next bit/respond to what
actions my players have taken? Or is it something of a round table where I wait until the time
elapses or everyone has posted.

I'd say that's something you negotiate with your players. What's important, though, is keeping the game in the imaginations of players; not letting days go by without them having an opportunity to contribute. That's what I look for at least.

The level at which you start is also crucial -- levelling up is so slow in php games, you really need to start at whatever you feel the sweet spot is. Fortunately, that's not an issue you are dealing with since the characters are already involved in an IRL game.

You can find the Play by Post FAQ here. Some if it is board specific (like how to hide text), but you should find some of it helpful. There is also an Etiquette guide a few posts down.

thotd

My suspicion is that you're going to find pace/synchronicity to be a problem. Because you are running side adventures that NEED to keep pace with a face-to-face game, you're going to have to make some sacrifices. You can't let a single combat take a week, when in that same week the main campaign might advance five days or five weeks.

You may have to use some sort of method of doing more freeform storytelling than actual roleplaying, except for critical scenes. But make sure your players understand what's going on, and why.

Thanks for all the helpful posts folks

having this game synch up with the at the table game won't really be an
issue thankfully, we have been playing of late with the assumption
that whatever the character does to establish his side business it has
already been done, even though in actuality we have yet to play
out the scenario. The player is aware he won't gain extra XP for
these side sessions, and that they are for the most part just extra
RP/backstory that will actually be played out.

this may change in the future but as of right now that's how it stands.


edit: sorry for the horrid formatting, my iPod hates this website apparently,
and as a result the text boxes don't properly display and I can't see what I'm
writing if I allow it to go all the way to the edge.