PbP GMing: Maintaining Desire

[Endur]

How do GMs handle the desire level when Playing by Post?

I ran a PbP campaign for a year, and near the end of it, my desire to GM was running low. The Campaign was Awesome, but there were times it was hard to motivate and you question the return for your effort.

As a Gm, you have all these thoughts and plans for a campaign. But its not enough to write a novel. You need to persuade others to participate in your game.

Some players tend to fall into a rut on their characters. Over time, their posts tend to get shorter. Ever notice how some players have really long posts when a game starts and their designing their new character, and then weeks and months later, its pulling teeth to get more than a sentence out of them.

Then there is the whole question of player enablement. How much do you, as a GM, want to enable your players so that they can accomplish their character's dreams? Do you bend your world to fit the players? Or do you bend the player's characters to fit your world? What do you do when it becomes obvious that you really should be running multiple PbP campaigns (i.e. one or more characters do not belong in the same party)?

 

[Manzanita]

I've certainly encountered these same issues. For what its worth, you might try DMing in a persistant world, such as Living ENworld. There, you can run a single-shot adventure, and have it done with, hopefully before you or any of your players burn out.

There is a sacrifice for this, of course, in that you lose control of much of you creation. You can't define PC creation rules, don't have a free hand with the world, and are limited in your options on getting the PCs involved.

It's worth a shot for many DMs. I might mention though, that the very best games I'm part of aren't in persistant worlds. To create a truly captivating setting, it does help to have that free hand you only get when you're the only DM in your world.

Beyond that, I'm not much help. My own long term game seems to be dying and I lack the wherewithall to really get it going again...

 

[Vendetta]

I'd like to know the "Secrets" to this as well. I've just started DMing here not so long ago and had one game die already and another currently working through. It is hard to get a feel for what your players are feeling, how the game is lagging, why your players are bored, etc.

In tabletop gaming, I GM a lot and, knowing my players, I can tell when they are starting to get bored or lose interest. I can then toss something out there to hopefully remedy the situation. But you don't get that body language in PbP. It is also hard to feel the rewards of a good scenario. In tabletop, you can see your players getting excited about a hit, or nervous that they might die, their emotions are on their sleeves and that is motivating to me.

But again, here, you can't see that. You don't know if your players are even having fun or not. I wonder if sometimes people are just hanging around hoping something good will happen. All I know is that when I log in and see 4 or 5 or more posts in the RP thread, I get excited because that gives me, the GM, something more to work with and at the least lets me know people are checking out the thread. When I log in after 24 hours or so and there is no new post or only one, especially after I post a map and update the situation, it is kind of discouraging. For me, I just assume people are bored when who knows, they could have gone out of town for the day, had a nice evening with the wife (That means no computer for most wives), Computer was acting funny, EnWorld site itself acting funny (i've often surfed away from EnWorld simply because it was SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO slow that day/time when I logged in)

So... to sum it all up... I have no idea

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

How do GMs handle the desire level when Playing by Post?

Well, I can't really answer this as I've never really gotten one of the ground... but in my latest downfall, which wasn't on ENworld, it came down to not liking many if any of the characters that where created and a few other board specific issues. (It was M&M)

but I'll try to address some of what I can...

As a Gm, you have all these thoughts and plans for a campaign. But its not enough to write a novel. You need to persuade others to participate in your game.

Indeed you do, I've noticed something lately mainly do to a number of solo games I have, but it really comes down to communication.

Now Endur I’m not saying your game lacked communication I’ve just noticed that my favorite games have lots of communication going on, either in OOC stuff, chat, emails, or PMs. I can’t help but feel that this is a meeting of the minds where the player feels more drawn into the game cause he’s helping to shape some facet of it. (You know from first hand experience that I’m a constant pain when it comes to communication. )

Sometimes its major, I have one game where I, as the players, have created every character introduced so far, other times its very minor like asking the GM/DM for this or for that but without open lines of communication then eventual either the players or the GM/DM is going to feel lost and their desire for the game is going to diminish.

You are right about the novel, it’s the approach I take and like, your not so much running/playing in a game as you are collaborating on a novel. Unlike a novel though no one really truly knows how it’s going to end. (Yes even the GM/DM doesn’t know.)

Then there is the whole question of player enablement. How much do you, as a GM, want to enable your players so that they can accomplish their character's dreams? Do you bend your world to fit the players? Or do you bend the player's characters to fit your world?

Honesty, this is all about personally preference... I've seen games work in all versions of the above but rather your wanting to bend the players or bend the world around there dreams your going to need communications.

What do you do when it becomes obvious that you really should be running multiple PbP campaigns (i.e. one or more characters do not belong in the same party)?

I've seen this one done many different ways also... It involves more work and thought but I've always preferred the splitting them up method.

I hope that helps!

(I got the email the other day, I've been insanely business and Kilcif has been retired for what seems like a year now... I'll get you a real reply soon. )

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Well, I've been running a great many games, some of which have been going on for a year or more. I've only had two (out of over a dozen) die on me, one due to me taking over an established game at very high levels, and one due to lengthy complications.

Overall, I generally run games that interest me very much, ones that I have either developed on my own or have a very original idea for. I try to stimulate interest for my players with descriptions and some individual character attention when I can. I haven't lost the desire to DM yet, so I guess I'm still doing ok. I would say simply do games that interest you, and make sure your players are interested in their characters.

 

[Ferrix]

I saw this great suggestion by this great DM here once.

If in doubt, post.

Both as a player in a ton of games, and now running two of my own, I find that if you follow that above statement and keep in touch with your players it really helps.

I also love it when players help me build parts of the unfleshed out areas of the world, check out the Halfling Quest game that I'm running and look at all the NPC creation that some of the players have done. That is what really gets a great game.

 

[doghead]

I think that the first thing to do is accept that it happens. At least, for me, that was a big step, and weight off my shoulders.

When it does, sometimes you just have to work through it, sometimes you need to take a couple of weeks off, and sometimes you need to wind the game up.

Recently, I have found myself much less concerned about missing players. I used to spend a fair bit of effort trying to keep the party number reasonably constant. Now I just edit the characters out (or kill them) and concentrate on keeping the game moving for those that remain. So at the moment I have two games going with two players each.

 

[Thanee]

If in doubt, post.

Yep, that's a very good suggestion. For both DM and players.

Don't wait on something for more than two days, unless it is absolutely necessary (it's never absolutely necessary to wait on something, by the way). Continuous posting makes a continuous story. Frequent posts by the DM encourage frequent posts by the players and these again encourage the DM to go on. It's a constant back and forth that way and mutual inspiration gathering.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Endur]

Thanee,

While we're on the topic of frequent posting, Brother Shatterstone said you'd be a great candidate for my Return to Temple of Elemental Evil game that we're starting up. If you are interested, make a post in the OOC thread. Its ok if you've read the module or played in it before, so long as you aren't playing in it right now.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

ignore, wrong thread.