How rules lite do you like your pbp?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

On another board, I just got into a big blow-up with some of my players because we had different expectations about how rules lite a pbp game would be.

Given the restrictions of playing online (especially when so many people are playing hooky from work to post), I prefer things to run pretty fast and loose, without a lot of clinging to rules that aren't in the SRD.

Not everyone agrees, let's suffice it to say.

When Ptolus hits the streets with a mighty thump in eight weeks or so, I was planning on running Legacy of the Reaper here as a Ptolus-based adventure, but I'm curious how interested folks would be in a more narrative style of play (yes, with a dungeon crawl)? Are there a lot of people up for such a thing, or would I pretty much be barking up the wrong tree around here?

 

[genshou]

I have no interest in Ptolus, but I'll talk about rules-light PbP for a moment.

When I'm playing PbP, I prefer the mechanics to take a backseat. Sometimes it's good if they just vanish altogether from the in character posts. I've had games where the DM rolls all the dice and all we have to do is level our characters and occasionally state we are using such and such ability. It gives players freedom to focus on running a character instead of a set of statistics. I'd suggest you let each player know (privately) their hit point total at all times, though. It's too hard to describe the abstractness of D&D wounds in a narrative sense.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have no interest in Ptolus, but I'll talk about rules-light PbP for a moment.

Whoops, sorry, that's my only intention here. No recruitment time until I've digested Ptolus.

 

[doghead]

... but I'm curious how interested folks would be in a more narrative style of play (yes, with a dungeon crawl)? Are there a lot of people up for such a thing, or would I pretty much be barking up the wrong tree around here?

I'm not sure. I recently posted a thread for a rules lite game. It doesn't appear to have attracted much interest. But that might be more about the choice of system (its not a d20 system) than the rules lite aspect. My other games have generally been core only, or as near as I could get. Recruiting has generally been slow. But again, it may be due to other factors, like the use of homebrewed settings.

I suppose, from my experience, there is some interest. But you are likely to get more interest in a game here that has more options rather than less.

Of course, there is always the question of whether rules lite leads to a more narrative style of play. I tend to think it does, but others disagree.

thotd

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm actually not opposed to more player options, for the most part. I just don't want to be beholden to 47 different books for rules adjudications when sneaking in a post at work.

 

[Velmont]

What I favor, it is fewest source as possible. The SRD, maybe the complete series and the base book of the world. Might add a few things with master approbation if the player come with something good, but it has to improve the roleplay as more rules degrade the rollplay. I just look at my characters I am presently running, and many of them are very social, and I generally try to solve problem socially. I find PbP easier to do roleplay as you have time to think about what you'll tell and can more make a great speech. Go narrative, that,s why I like. My table top group have enough action, I seek in PbP narration and social interaction.

 

[doghead]

I agree that paring down to the core rules simplifies things. But it doesn't change the fundamental nature of the game. dnd d20 is a comprehensive and coherant system. But that comprehensiveness does tend to lead to micro-managment of the game. There are rules for pretty much everything.

I have made a few efforts at simplifying the basics system. But it is very interconnected. Changing one thing leads to a cascade effect. So for now, I have to give some other systems a go, to try an get a more 'narative' type of game.

thotd

 

[Voadam]

I'm up for narrative D&D, one ongoing pbp game we agreed to switch to all narrative with only the character sheets having mechanics. Nothing in the IC thread mentions a single game mechanic number or rule. Unfortunately that game seems to be stalled.

I'm fine with DMs adjudicating on the fly and narratively.

As a DM myself I'm not quite up to abandoning dice in combat myself or taking the plunge and basing everything off of player's narrative descriptions. I find myself making references to move actions and provoking attacks of opportunity. However arguing and debating rules is one of my least favorite things in rpgs.

Having lots of non core material is fine for narrative, my character in the narrative game is an exalted AU race giant with the giant racial level, and I don't expect any more issues than if he was a dwarf monk out of the srd.

Most rules are in the srd. Classes, feats, spells, and monsters out of other source materials just provide other character and DM options, they don't make narratively running a D&D game more difficult IMO.

Btw I would love to play in a ptolus game.