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[Creamsteak]

God that's awkward to do. Stepping in for another DM I mean...

One thing that I think we should do as a community is collect our thoughts on ways to improve the chances of a game continuing. Not just things like "post once a day if you can", but real help: How to handle a combat in a fun/quick/efficient manner without sacrificing the depth of combat, How to get players to make 1 more post with every post the DM makes, and Dividing the game into chapters so that players can constantly be refreshed about the action or so that new players can replace old ones.

These are 3 reasons why some games I've seen have lasted for a long time. Most of us get 1 or 2 of those 3 things down, but it's hard to really do all 3. And, this is all just my single opinion. Other people have different opinions and perspectives on the manner.

 

[Majin]

I was actually putting some thought into when to split my IC thread into it's 2nd part. Its quickly approaching 500 posts after only a month (Great job guys ) and noticed the thread discussing posts that had to be split because they were growing too large. Creamsteak, as a mod, do you have a suggestion as to how many posts a thread should have before it gets to be just too large and should branch off into a fresh one? (I was thinking around 500 of course from what I got from reading that thread, but wasn't sure if there was a physical limit, as IIRC it was starting to cause problems when nearing about 1,000 or so?

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

God that's awkward to do. Stepping in for another DM I mean...

I would prefear that over not having the game. Even with my many I hate seeing a game closed. Theirs always so much potential lost that can never be recovered.

One thing that I think we should do as a community is collect our thoughts on ways to improve the chances of a game continuing.

I agree we had a thread on this not so long ago garyh made it

Not just things like "post once a day if you can", but real help: How to handle a combat in a fun/quick/efficient manner without sacrificing the depth of combat.

PbP slows to a crawl during combat. I think there should be a common sense clause. If you don't post the DM should use his or her common sense to make combat move along. If you don't like that you can always do what I call "scripting". If you've played Baldur’s Gate you know where I get the idea. Each player makes a list of his normal actions from most important to least important. If nothing game wise is change this... Say theirs some dying who needs to be checked or a plot device is being stolen then the above characters should do their script.

How to get players to make 1 more post with every post the DM makes.

I have no ideas on this one that doesn't involve physical harm... :shurgs: It just seems like common sense or politeness to do so.

Dividing the game into chapters so that players can constantly be refreshed about the action or so that new players can replace old ones.

A most excellent idea their.

 

[Storminator]

I feel your pain. I've played in a total of 6 so far and each one has not lasted past the first battle except one. (That was 2 battles ) I got so frustrated that I just started to DM one of my own, and thats been running great so far, but unfortunately has proven to be too fast for some!

Yeah, I'm running my own games (via email, not here), but I've been looking for some playing. I barely have the strength to keep my two games going, there's no way I can do a third. Unfortunately, all the games I joined here seemed really cool. They just didn't pan out.

If anyone's interested, my first game is archived here: http://fomoss.rpgoffice.com/

PS

 

[Creamsteak]

I only know what I'm told, and I'm told to split and close any threads over 1000. A long long time ago we were forced to close threads at 200 posts, which was too soon (sometimes you lose players to switching threads). Then the limit was raised to 300 late in the 3rd IR, then 400 when we had the boards moved. Then the limit was removed (about the time the hive appeared). I say go on gut instinct, when a climax has been made, it's a good time to switch threads. Most of the time, with my DMing (your mileage may vary), that's at 400-450 posts. If your feeling like it might be wise at 500, do it at 500.

Also, if you use the "Book" thread at the top of the Playing the Game forum to record all the threads for a particular game, you can have me or gary come by and close the old threads so that they can be saved for future reading.

 

[Majin]

I'll certainly make it a point to do that when it comes time for Part 2 of my thread Creamsteak, thanks!

 

[Knightfall]

But anyway, Knightfall. Please don't get discouraged from running your game. Instead ask yourself if you really have the time and inclination to see your game through to the end. If you lose players eventually down the road recruit some more! There are always players available looking for games to jump into. As long as you the DM, do not let the game die and fade off into oblivion it will stick around and join the ranks of those other games that have lasted just as long and the great DMs that run them!

I'm not so much discouraged as I am being very cautious. My homebrewed world has quite the learning curve and borrows concepts from multiple campaign supplements and other EN Worlder's homebrews.

Specifically, I have borrowed the following from several EN Worlder campaigns:

Calphas (god) - Spira *
City of Eversink - Spira *
Classes & Prestige Classses - Cydra **
Mor's End/Kul Moren - EN World City Project
NPCs - Several campaigns *
Spells - Several campaigns **

* Piratecat's Defenders of Daybreak. I'm not one for borrowing a lot of NPC concepts but Sialia is allowing me to use an 'incarnation' of Dylrath Birdhouse in my campaign. The character has a slightly different name, of course.
** the Jester's homebrewed campaign. Most of the spells I've borrowed are from the Jester's Cydra campaign, although I've gleaned many spells from others such as Piratecat, Sep, and several other EN Worlders.

My campaign world also has several well-known published locations, which have been integrated into my campaign. Cauldron, Freeport, Kaaluntor, Parma, Bluffside, Khemit, Zakhara, The Dark Continent, Kozakura, Wa, as well as several other locations. The most recent addition to my campaign is Redhurst. (Redhurst is going to be my way to link some of those regions.)

I'm also looking for a place to put Opulentium and Scopula from the Sojourner's Diary articles from the Ethos E-zine.

Also, I've got my own yahoo group for my hombrewed world...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldofkulan/

...which has several key documents for my campaign. I have a very specific list of gods, classes, prestige classes, spells, and domains.

Opinions? Comments? Interested?

KF72

 

[DrZombie]

I'm not so much discouraged as I am being very cautious. My homebrewed world has quite the learning curve and borrows concepts from multiple campaign supplements and other EN Worlder's homebrews.

My campaign world also has several well-known published locations, which have been integrated into my campaign. Cauldron, Freeport, Kaaluntor, Parma, Bluffside, Khemit, Zakhara, The Dark Continent, Kozakura, Wa, as well as several other locations. The most recent addition to my campaign is Redhurst. (Redhurst is going to be my way to link some of those regions.)

I'm also looking for a place to put Opulentium and Scopula from the Sojourner's Diary articles from the Ethos E-zine.

Also, I've got my own yahoo group for my hombrewed world...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldofkulan/

...which has several key documents for my campaign. I have a very specific list of gods, classes, prestige classes, spells, and domains.

Opinions? Comments? Interested?

KF72

Interested? allways. I think the problem with this kind of gaming is always the difficult start. The solution is to have players start al lvl 1 in a flyspeck village, who think traveling for 20 miles is a journey filled with adventure.

 

[Knightfall]

Interested? allways. I think the problem with this kind of gaming is always the difficult start. The solution is to have players start al lvl 1 in a flyspeck village, who think traveling for 20 miles is a journey filled with adventure.

The thing is I want to start an urban campaign set in Mor's End, the EN World City Project from several months ago. I'm in the process of creating the city map in CC2, which can be found on the following thread: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73364

I will be starting at 1st level though.

 

[reapersaurus]

In my (long) experience here, the MAIN reason that PbP's fail (other than DM flaking syndrome) is because they are too dependant on having almost ALL of the original group continue to play.
When an original player leaves (for whatever myriad of reasons), they take with them a huge part of the interplay of the game, the history, the tenuous relationships that are built between characters and players/DM.
And we all know how inevitable a player leaving is, over time.
Invariably, if new players are required to fill holes, the adventure is dealt a huge blow in verisimilitude and player involvement.
It basically Just Isn't The Same Anymore.

I'm afraid that because of this one factor, that PbP are not a very realistic, or ultimately rewarding/satisfactory style of gaming. <-- that's a BIG frown, because I'm a BIG proponent of PbP gaming in general.