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<blockquote data-quote="covaithe" data-source="post: 5121401" data-attributes="member: 46559"><p>This. In my experience, PbP games start off with a burst of enthusiasm. People are excited about new characters, new settings, new challenges, and can't wait to post. It's great. But sooner or later, every game slows down. Someone gets busy at work, or goes on vacation, or gets sick, or loses their internet connection, or just has a case of writer's block. While waiting for them, everyone else's posting rate falls off a bit, and it gradually... relaxes. The longer the game goes on, the slower it gets. Eventually, it will grind to a halt completely. A dedicated DM and players can slow this trend, even reverse it for a while with effort, but never stop it completely. Exactly how long it takes for a game to slow to a crawl depends greatly on the DM and the players and how much they put into it. It might be a week, or six months, or, with an exceptional group, it might last years. But sooner or later, <em><u>every</u></em> PbP game will die of inactivity. </p><p></p><p>That's okay; it's nobody's fault, it's just the nature of the medium. As DM, the trick is to accept this and plan for it, by making sure your adventure finishes before the pace slows to the point where it becomes work rather than fun. How? Lots of ways, but it boils down to: 1) do what you can to keep the pace up, and 2) tighten your adventure to the bare essentials. </p><p></p><p>I won't go deeply into 1, except to note that the easiest way to screw this up is to take on too many games at once. We've all known, or been, someone who was having a great time playing or running a few games, and, having some extra free time, decided to fill it with more games, only to find that that free time disappeared a month down the road. That's a quick recipe for burnout. </p><p></p><p>With regards to 2, plan your encounters sparingly. Use fewer encounters, but (depending on your players, your system, and the needs of the story, of course) make them slightly tougher. If your adventure calls for 6 encounters, granting 1 level's worth of XP/treasure, consider finding a way to cut it down to 3 or 4 encounters, and simply award the same xp/treasure that you would have normally. Combine encounters: have the Big Bad fight alongside his lieutenant, rather than making them separate encounters, and drop some of the mooks and henchmen to balance it. Be very cautious using traps; nothing will slow your party's posting rate down like the feeling that they have to specify all their movements explicitly and in detail.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="covaithe, post: 5121401, member: 46559"] This. In my experience, PbP games start off with a burst of enthusiasm. People are excited about new characters, new settings, new challenges, and can't wait to post. It's great. But sooner or later, every game slows down. Someone gets busy at work, or goes on vacation, or gets sick, or loses their internet connection, or just has a case of writer's block. While waiting for them, everyone else's posting rate falls off a bit, and it gradually... relaxes. The longer the game goes on, the slower it gets. Eventually, it will grind to a halt completely. A dedicated DM and players can slow this trend, even reverse it for a while with effort, but never stop it completely. Exactly how long it takes for a game to slow to a crawl depends greatly on the DM and the players and how much they put into it. It might be a week, or six months, or, with an exceptional group, it might last years. But sooner or later, [i][u]every[/u][/i] PbP game will die of inactivity. That's okay; it's nobody's fault, it's just the nature of the medium. As DM, the trick is to accept this and plan for it, by making sure your adventure finishes before the pace slows to the point where it becomes work rather than fun. How? Lots of ways, but it boils down to: 1) do what you can to keep the pace up, and 2) tighten your adventure to the bare essentials. I won't go deeply into 1, except to note that the easiest way to screw this up is to take on too many games at once. We've all known, or been, someone who was having a great time playing or running a few games, and, having some extra free time, decided to fill it with more games, only to find that that free time disappeared a month down the road. That's a quick recipe for burnout. With regards to 2, plan your encounters sparingly. Use fewer encounters, but (depending on your players, your system, and the needs of the story, of course) make them slightly tougher. If your adventure calls for 6 encounters, granting 1 level's worth of XP/treasure, consider finding a way to cut it down to 3 or 4 encounters, and simply award the same xp/treasure that you would have normally. Combine encounters: have the Big Bad fight alongside his lieutenant, rather than making them separate encounters, and drop some of the mooks and henchmen to balance it. Be very cautious using traps; nothing will slow your party's posting rate down like the feeling that they have to specify all their movements explicitly and in detail. [/QUOTE]
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