Rules for a Successful PBP

[Kobold Stew]

This is a great question. The answer I offer is not from the perspective of a DM, but of a (frustrated) player.

I'd say over the past 3-4 years, I have been accepted into about ten games, none of which has lasted more than two months of real play; most less. Almost all of them has stopped during the first combat, which drags into eternity.

Pbp are special games. I think they have a great potential as a medium for rpgs, I think, but I've yet to experience it over a reasonable period of time. I keep hoping, though.

Here are four and a half observations based on that experience:

1. Four or five of the games have stopped because the DM got tired. Be sure that you can commit the time to running a game.

2. Combat needs to go quickly. The previous comments about initiative are part of that, but two weeks of RL is too long for a single combat round. Players get bored. Be sure you know how you are going to represent the map (assuming there is one) and how you will keep it updated.

(2b). Even though games have had a post-every-48hrs or whatever guideline, in combat weeks can go by without anything for a player to do, as the initiative order clicks through. For those of us who hit refresh many times a day, this builds the frustration. If I were running a game, I'd be sure everyone had the opportunity to post (and affect things) every three days.

3. While I agree that some posters with only a post or two might drop quickly, I have seen multiple games broken by one poster with a high post count on this forum who regularly has prolonged absences. There's no real rule, but great amounts of goodwill (from me at least) is gained by considering posters who aren't already in three or more games.

4. I would start assuming that players will get to level up once (I'm thinking D+D, 3.5 or 4e here). If they get more, that's only a win, but I'd suggest you start in what you think is the sweet spot -- if that's level 1, then power to you; if it's 5-6, 11-12, level 20; whatever. But let the players be where you think they can have best fun. I have yet to level up in a pbp game.

I hope this helps.

 

[covaithe]

I feel your pain, KS. I think that's one of the reasons the Living Worlds here are so successful. They're designed specifically to address many of the problems you mentioned, and they seem to be doing a reasonable job. In L4W, we have characters who started at level 1 and have reached level 6 over about a year and a half of play, spanning three or four successfully completed adventures. I think we've only ever had one or two abandoned adventures, and the players in those were given partial rewards and returned to the tavern, and have since gone on to other, more successful, adventures.

 

[renau1g]

Also in L4W (and LEB) the judges or another DM will usually pick up the reins if a DM disappears. I've picked up two adventures there myself, and I know covaithe has also. There's also a lot of prospective games coming up there so if you're interested now's a good time. The grouped initiative style that most of the DM's there use really works well.

We've got a number of PC's who've gone from 1st to 4th-6th over that year so about every 3 months or so you'd level up.

 

[HolyMan]

In my Off to War campaign I give out XP twice a month. Not getting a reward for posting/playing was one of the things I dislike about some games also.

Characters who started the game are now LVL 3 and it is only about 9 months old. Not bad for pbp.

HM

 

[Scott DeWar]

In LEW the judge picks up the game if the dm dissappears as well as L4W and LEB. That is a great rule for the living worlds.

 

[Thanee]

I found it very useful (both for myself and for the players) to have a special topic just to keep information about the campaign handy.

Here's the inevitable example from my own campaign on this site.

Bye
Thanee

 

[GlassEye]

Kobold Stew, I've experienced some of those very things myself. It is very frustrating.

Wow, Thanee, that is a really nice thread! Good idea, great info. Thanks.

 

[pneumatik]

Because of the pace of pbp I've learned the hard way that I need to prep differently. Normally when I prep I reduce the session to a set of notes that I can almost memorize. During play I skim the notes for an encounter right before that encounter starts and normally play the encounter from memory. Pbp encounters take so long that I've found what I thought my notes said is not what they actually said. There are places where my WotBS pbp deviates from the published adventure for no reason other than because I forgot stuff.

Blatant plug: my WotBS game is restarting after an extended hiatus and looking for new people. I'll have something in the recruitment thread later today.