General Discussion

[dammitbiscuit]

Not really LPF related, but I have some general PbP questions.

• How many games can someone safely participate in at once?
  • I'm pretty sure I can handle at least 2, but wonder whether it's a bad idea to get into 3 or 4. I can post from work, so time is not a big issue.
  • I'm of course going to stagger things. Now that my LPF character is done, I'm starting to poke at the LEB forum, but won't try for a third game until LEB is figured out and underway.
• I occasionally hear people mention "the legendary Piratecat" in discussions around here. Does he run PbP games, or is he legendary for something he did IRL? Is there a giant waiting list?
• I see a Zeitgeist* game happening in the Gaming Action forum, but can't find where or how they recruited for it. I would LOVE to play zeitgeis, but the only thing I can figure out how to get into is Living games.
• What generally happens to people who join too many games at once? Does it stop being fun? Do they play poorly? Other?

* - Or Slumbering Tsar, or other very-well-acclaimed megadventures, megadungeons, etc. NO AGE OF WORMS, lol.

 

[GlassEye]

How many games you can 'safely' participate in is an entirely personal number based on your free time and posting ability. Games sometimes move slowly and so people can theoretically handle a large number of them. When I first started on this site I restricted myself to one game and wouldn't allow myself to join another until that one had finished. These days I try to keep myself to my LPF games (three playing, one DMing) and one non-LPF game. I know a couple of people are in 10+ pbp games. My experience is that the more games you are involved in the less time you dedicate to each one, affecting the quality of your posts. It's hard to keep at a small number of games because sometimes you post for all of them and you still want to do more.

Piratecat is an admin here. From what I hear he is an excellent DM and a really nice guy. I think his games are all run face to face. At least, in the time I've been here I've never known him to be involved in pbp.

The Zeitgeist game's DM probably recruited a group of friends or through private message. I've noticed this is becoming the trend lately. When I first started on this site game recruitment posts were frequent and you would only have to wait a few days before something would come up that snagged your interest. Now it seems there are fewer games recruiting and that those games are filled by groups of friends or recruited in the background. I've been keeping an eye on recruitment lately because I'm interested in another game (not that I really have the time for it) but there haven't been very many games openly recruited in the past couple of weeks. Disappointing because I'm kinda in the mood for something a little less plain jane D&D.

Generally, when people join too many games they either spend less time on their posts or the time between posts gets longer. Spending less time on posting generally means the posts will be less interesting or won't fully address whatever is going on in the game. Increasing the time between posts slows down the game (already slow in the pbp environment), can cause frustration with other players who expect a certain pace, and can eventually kill a game. This doesn't happen with every game but it does happen and when it does you just have to let it go and find something else.

 

[Systole]

Up until last week, I was playing 3 and GMing 2, and I discovered that that was above my limit. 3-4 seems to work best for me.

Like GE, I've noticed more and more recruitment by PM. I think that thisis simply because if you're going to put in the work to GM a game, PbP or otherwise, you really want dedicated players who aren't going to flake out. And given that flaking out of PbP games is way easier than live games, it makes GMs even more inclined to play with people they know or people that their friends can vouch for. My advice is: start playing LPF and/or LEB, get to know the people who are in those other games you want to play. If you show yourself to be a good player, eventually the invites will come.


EDIT: Also understand the time commitment. In PbP, your characters are making 3-4 levels/year. An AP like Kingmaker that runs from 1st to 18th level is therefore a 5 or 6 year commitment. It's really hard to keep a game stable for 1 year, let alone 5. People get married, have kids, have medical emergencies, etc.

 

[Scott DeWar]

because i have too much time on my hands, sorta, i have 7 non lpf pcs, 2 lpf pcs, 1 game where the dm seems gone , another dm where the dm's computer crashed and 2 characters in living En World which looks to be dying, the forum that is.

 

[Qik]

What the others have said - it's specific to your personal situation. Coincidentally, I've settled into a number comparable to GE and Systole - right now, I'm playing in 3 games, GMing in one LPF game, and currently GMing for a group on another site in which we rotate GM responsibilities. As GMing is generally more involved than playing, I'm a bit stretched with that, but I'm basically keeping up. Once the non-LPF game I'm running wraps up, I'll be fine.

As I'm pretty new to playing PbP (started a little over a year ago), I can empathize with the desire to jump in. At first, when I was playing in only one or two games, things seemed to move too slow for me. But a year later, I've found that making sure I have the time to respond, and that I can integrate that time into my day-to-day life, is integral to having a worthwhile experience and keeping things going. The way I've come to think of it is that I want to make sure I have the time to respond meaningfully when it's really needed. The natural flow of games means that sometimes there won't be much room to "stretch your RP wings"; just a simple post will be required. So I want to make sure I can capitalize on opportunities to make it more than that. I can't always do that, of course, and I'll throw up a post just to keep things moving, but it's important to make sure you have the space to give the games you are in meaningful attention. At least, that's been my experience thus far.

 

[perrinmiller]

Hmmm, let's see. Perhaps we should take a poll to see how many games people think I play and DM.

Not to name names, but I have noticed that EnWorld has more than its share of people that cannot post more than a sentence or two. Some of those same people also do not/cannot post on a daily basis either. Frankly, I cannot blame people for private recruitment, outside of my first game, the only successful games I am apart of here, either came about that way or are part of LPF.

Taking the others' comments in stride, writing is a skill. So is PbP gaming. With practice and experience, you can get better at it and faster at it. If you want to, that is.

 

[DalkonCledwin]

to tell you the truth I am better at role playing in a pbp environment than in a person to person environment...

 

[jackslate45]

It depends on schedule. When work got really bad for me, it showed in every single game I was in ( 2 DMing, 4 playing). I have since dropped down to 3 games, and am considering adding 1 more.

As someone who does 90% of his posting from his phone, sometimes a one liner is all you feel like posting. Getting formatting down on a phone when you have 15 min to post/roll, you can get rushed into skipping posts, and missing details from fellow PbP's.

I would start small, and go from there.

 

[Systole]

Qik and I started in the same adventure, actually, and his experience mirrors mine. I was really chafing to get my second character started, but I feel a bit overcommitted now with 3 and some GMing. I'll probably settle for playing 3 characters who have a fair amount of between-adventure downtime and occasionally GMing 1 adventure. Having a story arc or two that I want to inflict on LPF encourages me to GM, as well.

On a side note, I don't know what it is about Daylily, but the poor guy never has time for R&R in the Dunn Wright. He keeps getting yanked into one adventure after another.

 

[Scott DeWar]

and I suppose never time for a bath?