FitzTheRuke
Legend
As most of you know, I run a LOT of Play By Post here on ENWorld. Six games, currently! I've made a few observations on the style over the last few years that I'd like to share with you. Food for thought. As always, I welcome your feedback.
PBP is, at the best of times, a juggling act. The GM and players are the jugglers, and our posts are the pins/balls/whatever. It's all about timing. If I'm thrown a ball (post) while I have too many other balls in the air, I drop it. Then I have to get the rest under control to go pick it up and get it back in the game, so to speak. (I'll try not to take this metaphor too far, but I make no promises). Early in any given game, the timing is usually pretty tight. Everyone is excited, and they post quite often. Inevitably, as the game goes on, timing gets more screwy. This is a vicious cycle! The longer it takes between posts, the longer it takes between posts. Back-and-forth is the bane of PBP.
It occurs to me that the worst sort of game for PBP is a proper Sandbox. (I'm going to treat "Railroad" and "Sandbox" here as if they are polar opposites, though I don't think they are, exactly). A Railroad actually works BEST for PBP for reasons I hope to get into. Gamers, like cats, will go in all different directions if given the chance. In a Face-to-Face game, it'll get worked out relatively quickly with some discussion (or arguing). This doesn't work well in PBP because back-and-forth takes forever; no one really knows each other (therefore lacks any 'shorthand' solutions); and typing out one's feelings on any subject takes time, patience, self-reflection, and writing skills (all of which we can't expect any of us to have).
On top of those problems, anonymity combined with the true fact that none of this is very important (in the grand scheme of things) allows people to drop out (permanently or temporarily) of a PBP game often without feeling any responsibility to LET ANYONE KNOW. Ghosting is a common practice. While I find it immensely annoying, I also find it forgivable - it's just part of the way things work. I'd rather everyone would just tell me if they want to quit, but c'est la vie.
At any rate, the more choices that are presented to a party, the more bogged down the game becomes. "Go anywhere; do anything" doesn't work well when you have to get a half-dozen people to AGREE on what that is going to look like. It seems that less is always more when it comes to options. One option is easier to deal with than two, which is easier than three, etc. To make matters more difficult, many players seem to think that "quiet" (ie no post) is the same as "agreement". Unfortunately, no post is no post. It could mean anything. This is why I will often use what I call a "consensus of two" (if the first two players to post agree on an option, then that it where we are going, in particular if no one cries out "WAIT!")
For various reasons, my entire life is built around guessing/intuiting/asking/listening/finding out what people want, and providing it. (I'd explain more about why that is, but maybe I should just seek therapy). I'm very good at it, but it's exhausting. It does make me uniquely suited to running PBP, though.
Like nearly everything, PBP is made easier by people clearly communicating what it is they want. If you're in one of my games, keep in mind that there's no such thing as TMI. I'm not asking for long-winded essays (like this one?) but a lot of quick-notes, made often, would help to alleviate a lot of the burden. Thanks for reading!
PBP is, at the best of times, a juggling act. The GM and players are the jugglers, and our posts are the pins/balls/whatever. It's all about timing. If I'm thrown a ball (post) while I have too many other balls in the air, I drop it. Then I have to get the rest under control to go pick it up and get it back in the game, so to speak. (I'll try not to take this metaphor too far, but I make no promises). Early in any given game, the timing is usually pretty tight. Everyone is excited, and they post quite often. Inevitably, as the game goes on, timing gets more screwy. This is a vicious cycle! The longer it takes between posts, the longer it takes between posts. Back-and-forth is the bane of PBP.
It occurs to me that the worst sort of game for PBP is a proper Sandbox. (I'm going to treat "Railroad" and "Sandbox" here as if they are polar opposites, though I don't think they are, exactly). A Railroad actually works BEST for PBP for reasons I hope to get into. Gamers, like cats, will go in all different directions if given the chance. In a Face-to-Face game, it'll get worked out relatively quickly with some discussion (or arguing). This doesn't work well in PBP because back-and-forth takes forever; no one really knows each other (therefore lacks any 'shorthand' solutions); and typing out one's feelings on any subject takes time, patience, self-reflection, and writing skills (all of which we can't expect any of us to have).
On top of those problems, anonymity combined with the true fact that none of this is very important (in the grand scheme of things) allows people to drop out (permanently or temporarily) of a PBP game often without feeling any responsibility to LET ANYONE KNOW. Ghosting is a common practice. While I find it immensely annoying, I also find it forgivable - it's just part of the way things work. I'd rather everyone would just tell me if they want to quit, but c'est la vie.
At any rate, the more choices that are presented to a party, the more bogged down the game becomes. "Go anywhere; do anything" doesn't work well when you have to get a half-dozen people to AGREE on what that is going to look like. It seems that less is always more when it comes to options. One option is easier to deal with than two, which is easier than three, etc. To make matters more difficult, many players seem to think that "quiet" (ie no post) is the same as "agreement". Unfortunately, no post is no post. It could mean anything. This is why I will often use what I call a "consensus of two" (if the first two players to post agree on an option, then that it where we are going, in particular if no one cries out "WAIT!")
For various reasons, my entire life is built around guessing/intuiting/asking/listening/finding out what people want, and providing it. (I'd explain more about why that is, but maybe I should just seek therapy). I'm very good at it, but it's exhausting. It does make me uniquely suited to running PBP, though.
Like nearly everything, PBP is made easier by people clearly communicating what it is they want. If you're in one of my games, keep in mind that there's no such thing as TMI. I'm not asking for long-winded essays (like this one?) but a lot of quick-notes, made often, would help to alleviate a lot of the burden. Thanks for reading!
