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<blockquote data-quote="SecondTime" data-source="post: 3320880" data-attributes="member: 42381"><p>I'm DMing a pbp game now. This would be my 4th game or so. </p><p></p><p>The first one actually lasted quite a while, because half my players were from a previous chat based game and we kept in contact regularly by AIM. There was trust and chemistry. That game got to level 4 before petering out.</p><p></p><p>The next two games died very early because of rl issues and/or a lack of interest on both my part and that of my new players.</p><p></p><p>The game I'm dming now ('Memories and Portents' in the pbp forum), I expect to last longer than the recent game, because I'm doing several things differently. </p><p></p><p>1) To make it easier on myself, I am using modules for the standard dungeon crawls, and adapting the fluff as necessary. </p><p></p><p>2) I'm using a standard, popular campaign setting (Eberron), which on the one hand provides a ready made number of plot hooks for both me and the players, and, because I recruited specifically for Eberron, those who join are more likely to be fans and feel 'empowered' by their meta knowledge of the story, giving them a greater investment in the game.</p><p></p><p>3) I have a simple, 3 scenario campaign arc in mind, with each scenario relativly independent. This structure is reasonable in size and forces me, and hopefully the players, to want to complete each. It also hopefully gives the players reason to believe that circumstances won't leave them in the lurch mid storyline, encouraging them to hang on. I will adapt the details to the individual pcs.</p><p></p><p>4) The last a biggest change, is redundant recruiting. While many note that more players tend to slow games, they also increase the 'risk' pool, i.e. a game is less dependent on the timing of one specific person's sched. I fully expect attrition, especially early on. To that end, i recruited an initial group of 7, fully expecting atleast 2 of them to drop out within the first chapter. I can quitly retire there characters while leaving a viable party; the remaining players are likely to be more dedicated, so forming a coherent group can benefit from heavy recruitment early. I will also re recruit as necessary. Those players who hang on will be rewarded with their own character specific scenario.</p><p></p><p>This is from a DMs perspective, and it hasn't been thoroughly tested, but this is my current stategy. My guess as to why most games fail (other than rl issues) is because the DM comes simply throughs their pie in the sky ideas at players who are strangers with a notion of how it will play out in his or her own head, but with little regard for an execution that requires the participation of people he has never meet before; when he or she believes his ideas aren't getting through, or if he simply looses interest in his new fascination, the game collapses. So the twin, reinforcing goals of a pbp dm should be structure (this sounds railroady, but it basically means having a beginning and end point in mind) and trust.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SecondTime, post: 3320880, member: 42381"] I'm DMing a pbp game now. This would be my 4th game or so. The first one actually lasted quite a while, because half my players were from a previous chat based game and we kept in contact regularly by AIM. There was trust and chemistry. That game got to level 4 before petering out. The next two games died very early because of rl issues and/or a lack of interest on both my part and that of my new players. The game I'm dming now ('Memories and Portents' in the pbp forum), I expect to last longer than the recent game, because I'm doing several things differently. 1) To make it easier on myself, I am using modules for the standard dungeon crawls, and adapting the fluff as necessary. 2) I'm using a standard, popular campaign setting (Eberron), which on the one hand provides a ready made number of plot hooks for both me and the players, and, because I recruited specifically for Eberron, those who join are more likely to be fans and feel 'empowered' by their meta knowledge of the story, giving them a greater investment in the game. 3) I have a simple, 3 scenario campaign arc in mind, with each scenario relativly independent. This structure is reasonable in size and forces me, and hopefully the players, to want to complete each. It also hopefully gives the players reason to believe that circumstances won't leave them in the lurch mid storyline, encouraging them to hang on. I will adapt the details to the individual pcs. 4) The last a biggest change, is redundant recruiting. While many note that more players tend to slow games, they also increase the 'risk' pool, i.e. a game is less dependent on the timing of one specific person's sched. I fully expect attrition, especially early on. To that end, i recruited an initial group of 7, fully expecting atleast 2 of them to drop out within the first chapter. I can quitly retire there characters while leaving a viable party; the remaining players are likely to be more dedicated, so forming a coherent group can benefit from heavy recruitment early. I will also re recruit as necessary. Those players who hang on will be rewarded with their own character specific scenario. This is from a DMs perspective, and it hasn't been thoroughly tested, but this is my current stategy. My guess as to why most games fail (other than rl issues) is because the DM comes simply throughs their pie in the sky ideas at players who are strangers with a notion of how it will play out in his or her own head, but with little regard for an execution that requires the participation of people he has never meet before; when he or she believes his ideas aren't getting through, or if he simply looses interest in his new fascination, the game collapses. So the twin, reinforcing goals of a pbp dm should be structure (this sounds railroady, but it basically means having a beginning and end point in mind) and trust. [/QUOTE]
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