Play-by-post D&D impressions

[Steverooo]

1) What's the typical amount of time to devote to posting and reading that a player needs to devote to playing D&D by post?

Depends upon the player, GM, and group. I asked lotsa kveshtions, so devoted hours/day... Then again, I was the most active player, and ticked the others off, because of it (but when I left, the games always died off, some more slowly, others quickly).

2) How have your experiences playing by post been like? How do they compare with playing in a standard gaming session?

PbP isn't for me. It can take days to get answers to questions, resolve misunderstandings, etc. Also, you generally don't know the people you play with, and a lot of them don't care if you're having fun or not. You have no way of knowing the players' and GM's gaming styles before you join a game, and dust-ups between PCs tend to end in either one or more PC deaths, or a player quitting the game.

3) How do you work tatical maps and battles as there is no board, just word descriptions of actions going on?

As someone else said, there are various methods, from all-text descriptions, to ASCII maps, to .JPG graphics.

 

[fuindordm]

I've only played one PbP game, but have been in a PBEM (e-mail) game for going on about 3 years now.
We started at 7th level, and most of us are at or near 9th level, and although there's one main DM a couple
of other people have run 'guest adventures' in the world. We've gotten through four full adventure scenarios in all that time.

If everyone posts once a day, things are going well. If someone drops out for a couple of days at a time, keep things moving without them.

It is easier to RP, although conversations with NPCs are more along the lines of alternating monologues than real discourse, it's still fun to be able to write 2-3 paragraphs in your character's voice. This is really hard to get across in tabletop gaming.

Combats should be rarer but more challenging, because they do take a lot of time to resolve. They'd better be worth it. Players should have full control over their actions in combat, round by round, otherwise the game loses a lot of fun. A final showdown that leaves the characters nearly tapped out and with one or more KOs will usually net about 50% of the xp needed for the next level; this way the rate of advancement remains reasonable.

Typically posting rates go up and get more reliable when a combat is going on--if you're all in the same time zone you can probably count on getting through 2 rounds a day.

Mapping helps a great deal. We use Cyberboard (google it), a free WIndows program designed for wargames. ASCII maps can also work, but they look funny because the grid units aren't square.

All in all, I think they're a great alternative. Everyone can put a lot more care into the story, the DM doesn't need to make snap (and sometimes ill-considered) judgements or rule calls, and some aspects of the game are more satisfying. It's also a great way to stay in touch with old friends.

Of course, as always it's all in who you play with. It's easy to get people to sign up for a game, but impossible to know who will be committed to it.

Ben

 

[Li Shenron]

I've played in only a bunch of PbP here at ENWorld so far. Here's my experience:

1) What's the typical amount of time to devote to posting and reading that a player needs to devote to playing D&D by post?

I can imagine maybe posting 5 messages a day over the course of 8-hours (work hours ). If that's the case, combats and adventures would take forever. A single adventure with a party of people posting at this rate would probably take over months to complete.

Usually I think 2/day is about the average, tho often later on it slows down a lot. An adventure really takes months at least, and if you like PbPing you should definitely try to play in more games at the same time.

2) How have your experiences playing by post been like? How do they compare with playing in a standard gaming session?

IMXP, it's very different. Since combat really slows down the whole thing, you simply get much less combats than playing at the table OTOH, there is far more roleplay possibilities. Again IMXP at the table game some people are shy about roleplaying while others tend to dominate the scene; in PbP there is more equality, because the shy ones have a much easier time writing (compared to speaking in front of the others), and the dominating one cannot "speak over the others". The result of this and the lack of combats is that most often a PbP game focuses around conversations between PCs and NPCs, and the DM is also facilitated in long descriptions.

3) How do you work tatical maps and battles as there is no board, just word descriptions of actions going on?

Each DM has his own tricks, usually a simple map & grid drawn with some SW, or even a very simple map done with keyboard characters. Other DMs simply play combats in a full-descriptive matter "old-style", and don't care about precise positions. Playing D&D 3.0/3.5 combats with PbP can really take forever, and IMHO they should be played only in real-time. If you're looking for a very precise tactical game, stick with table gaming (or eventually play in a chat).

 

[Committed Hero]

I have played in and run pbp games here, at the WotC boards, and on rpgnet and I have to say for a person with limited time they are far better than the alternative of not playing. It's great as a GM because you have more freedom to improvise and split the party if that's needed. The games I've participated in are heavy on the investigation side, with a lot more narrative detail than anything else - that makes things go much faster, but you have to count on plauers willing to go with this type of game. Combat can drag down, but efficient posters can describe conditional actions and trust the GM to honor their intent.

Most people commit to less than five posts a day, so I would imagine that rate is acceptable.

 

[DragonSword]

The main advantage of PbP is that because everyone gets longer to think over and write their posts, the games can be a lot more descriptive, and the role-playing a lot better.

 

[Pinotage]

1) What's the typical amount of time to devote to posting and reading that a player needs to devote to playing D&D by post?

I can imagine maybe posting 5 messages a day over the course of 8-hours (work hours ). If that's the case, combats and adventures would take forever. A single adventure with a party of people posting at this rate would probably take over months to complete.

2) How have your experiences playing by post been like? How do they compare with playing in a standard gaming session?

3) How do you work tatical maps and battles as there is no board, just word descriptions of actions going on?

4) How to do register and activate your account? I've registered on the site with a valid email address, but I never received a reply email to activate my account, therefore, I haven't been able to post on their boards to actually try to join a session.

I'm in a similar situation where commitments allow me to only play D&D online in PbP games. I'm currently playing in three games on PlaybyWeb, a nice site which allows forum based posting with an integrated dice roller, private messaging and as many threads as you want on your game board. Here are my opinions:

1) My longest lasting game has been going for 2 years now. It's Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and we've cleared almost half of the outer fane of the temples in this time. Slow, yes, but very enjoyable. Everybody posts about 3-5 times per week, but posting is always such that there's at least one or two new posts per day, mostly more. Of course, there are many more private messages that fly around between players and the DM. Don't let the slowness put you off - as DragonSword said, it's far better to play than not to play, and the roleplaying is much better given the time you have to consider a post. Creativity abounds, if you like writing.


2) I haven't played in a over the table game in more than 10 years so I can't really compare. I've been playing PbP for 3.5 years now, and my longest games have been 2.5 years, 2 years, 11 months and 10 months, three of those which are still carrying on. Make sure you find a good and committed DM and good players. These days I generally play in the same games with most of the same players since the good players get recommended from one game to the next. I have had my share of lousy games that end after a week or a few months due to player disinterest of DM disappearance.

3) I post battlemaps for my combats as bitmap images. Very tactical as it's all on a grid. Combat runs on 1 day per round basis, and I'll NPC any player who didn't manage to post to the best of my ability. I always keep the players informed if their actions are going to be affected by monster actions, and most players include caveats in their posts. My combats last a week or so, but it's fun and exciting as far as I'm concerned.

4) I don't know about the site you're after, but you should look at rpol.net and Playbyweb.com, both which are easy to register on.

Personally, I love PbP games. It takes 10 minutes to post and you can still game. It's a highly recommended alternative if you can't find a over the table game.

Pinotage

 

[mostholy2]

Actually, I was able to log on, but as my account was not yet activated (by my email response back to them), I have limited access to the message boards and I cannot post. Don't know if you are having similar problems.

 

[mostholy2]

Thanks for everyone's imput.

After reading, I'm not sure that this format is really what I am looking for. Although I do enjoy some aspects of roleplaying in D&D, the main attraction for me is the tactical battles and combats. That being said, I don't know how much I would enjoy playing a game that involved an adventure that was primarily puzzle-solving, NPC interaction, and roleplaying with only a little combat.

I may try pbp out, but for now I think I will have to be satisfied with playing vicariously through my brother's stories of him DMing his son and friends through their adventures.

 

[Pinotage]

After reading, I'm not sure that this format is really what I am looking for. Although I do enjoy some aspects of roleplaying in D&D, the main attraction for me is the tactical battles and combats. That being said, I don't know how much I would enjoy playing a game that involved an adventure that was primarily puzzle-solving, NPC interaction, and roleplaying with only a little combat.

I may try pbp out, but for now I think I will have to be satisfied with playing vicariously through my brother's stories of him DMing his son and friends through their adventures.

You lose nothing by at least trying it. It takes so little of you time.

For what it's worth, the one game I'm in has about a combat every month. It takes a week to ten days to complete, so you're generally talking two-thirds roleplaying and one-third combat. I find it very rewarding, but then that might be me!

Good luck!

Pinotage

 

[Vrecknidj]

As I am a new Dad as of last December, I have pretty much given up on spending hours in a single session together with my brother playing D&D.

I started playing in 1980. My first son was born in 1989 (my second in 1994). I've played D&D the whole time. During those first few years, my friends and I would pass then-baby Alex around the gaming table when he needed to be fed or changed. My wife certainly needed Saturdays off (we were both full-time students, and we both had at least two part-time jobs, but I wasn't about to let my D&D habits die).

So, Alex grew up fed, changed, and adored by a bunch of role-playing geeks. Of my big group of friends, only one other had a child at that time (and his kid was less than a year older than Alex). Today, anyone can tell, I think, that Alex was raised by gamers. This year will be his 11th consecutive GenCon--he's a fantastic DM for a 15-year old.

As far as things others have worried about, he has plenty of non-D&D hobbies (he's a volunteer at a local theater guild where he's worked as assistant director for the past two years). He's homeschooled, but doing very well, the last four semesters I've had him taking one class a term at the local community college, and his GPA is over 3.0.

So, welcome to Daddy-hood, but, there are ways to keep your D&D hobby.

Dave