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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zhure" data-source="post: 670223" data-attributes="member: 308">HA! I got mentioned. Third, but still mentioned! HA!I think Drell has a long duration because it's a very detailed world but the players don't have to know the details to jump in. I can include tidbits as it goes along. It's also generic-fantasy enough to incorporate lots of concepts, so players can port over whatever character they want from other games (although this time I did make strict hit dice ceilings for PCs).Another key is a limit to the number of PCs. I find six is optimal, because you can gloss over players who drop out and give them time to get their stuff straightened out and get back. More than six leads to too many subplots and waiting on too many people. Less than six leads to stagnation because the synergism is lower.I also think the DM has to be ready to do things you normally shouldn't in P&P games. In PBP, you can split the party, as Drell is right now, with little danger of losing interest as half the players go to the living room while you game in the kitchen in P&P D&D.I've only been in one PBP game on EN World that died and part of it is the players' responsibilites. They have to post, even if they have nothing important to do. It lets the DM know they're roleplaying their apathy rather than having actual apathy. Conversely, the DM has to post regularly. In my PBP games both as a DM and as a player, I try to set myself a schedule and post a *minimum* of five times a week.A long while back I used to run an email campaign and it died. It was the most detailed and crafted campaign I've ever been in and it was my fault it died. It was IME well-written and beautiful, but *my* lack of discipline caused it to die.My absolute favorite email game (I was a player) died for no known reason. In mid-combat. I think that was because of the DM lacking discipline, too.I think my favorite PBP game on EN right now is the Iconics game. Not because of Gnomeworks or the players, but because of the set up. Although Gnome and the players are doing a fine job, as did P-kitty before, but because the characters are easy to follow, have good imagery associated with them, and are simple to grasp. Because of their iconic nature, they are almost caricatures of good characters; their simplicity is their strength.(If an opening comes up in the Iconics game, give me a holler.)In sharp contrast to that, a lot of PBP PC's are so detailed and so intricate, the DM can't get a handle because there are too many handles. Unlike novels, the DM doesn't have the same infinite insight into the minds' of the main characters as does the writer of a novel.As of this writing, the one PBP game I am most fond of is the Game of Opposites: Heroes. It's the early stages, which is the most fun, because character generation is exciting and mutable. When (if) the game commences, it's hack & slash and neither the players nor the DM have to be terribly concerned with backstory. It lets everyone concentrate on the future and their current actions...Greg</blockquote>

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