D&D 4E Seeking 4e PbP advice

[Xethreau]

Hi everyone,

I am recently putting together a campaign for me and my D&D buddies, who have all moved apart. Best RPers I have played with, even if they have never all played with each other. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody had experience with play-by-post games, especially D&D4.

Most especially, I was wondering what to do about triggered actions, quick responses on player's/DM's behalf ("No wait, I do this!" and "No wait, this happens!"), traps, all that.

Also, I was wondering if anybody knew a good mapping system for online encounters. I plan not to use them most of the time, but then again I think it is good for an experiment at very least. The forum I am signed with has an on-site mapping program... but it looks and feels like something out of the 90's.

Any and all advice is appreciated!

 

[Ferghis]

I've played a 4e play-by-post game for a few years. It's very laborious. As a player, it would take me about a non-consecutive hour per day for combat posts (including catching up with everyone else's posts and discussing tactics in an OOC thread), at least if I wanted my post to be any good. If players were consistent, we got a turn completed once every couple of days. It's probably even more work for the DM.

To make things work, the players all took their turn once, and then the monsters went. We had a house rule that if you dropped and were healed, you couldn't get right back up. OAs and Immediate Actions either had standing orders that the DM executed, or were given a bit of latitude to work. Maps are essential for 4e combat, so we mostly used ascii maps (color coding the good guys and the bad guys). Sometimes we used Maptool and posted screenshots of the end of each DM turn on imgur.com. I couldn't tell you what was better, since the players could copy and update the ascii map in the tactics thread. Tracking effect endings was... work. There was a LOT of player attrition. Including, ultimately, myself.

Having said all that, it was a great game. You just need to know what kind of work awaits you.

 

[Xethreau]

Thanks for some of the warning! I think we already have some of the guidelines set up, such as "post your turn all at once." Apparently the forums I go to have a system they use where they keep track of initiative, defenses, ongoing effects, and HP/Damage for all creatures on GoogleDocs, and I think that sounds like a good way of speeding things up, as players can determine for themselves if they hit the beast or not.

As for the map, that sounds like what is laborious to me, and I do disagree about the needing a map business. 1sq = 5 feet, after all. But for dungeons and tactical combat, it is better. As I say, the forum we will play in has a built-in map feature, though its not exactly top quality.

My playstyle has less in the way of encounters and more in the way of experience through quests and RP. This causes problems with daily resources, but really cuts down on combat drag. Thoughts?

 

[Someone]

I'd suggest checking the living fourth edition pbp forums here about this. Basically, 4e pbp faces the following troubles:

Initiative. This is common to many systems, but in 4e may be problematic since your actions are much more likely to be dependent on what the previous characters do.

Solutions:

a) Block initiative. Player turn is supposed to happen in the same order as their posting order. To avoid wonky effects with “until the start/end of next turn” each player can benefit from these effects only once at most, independently of the posting order.

b)Some map the players can edit, so they can move their characters and NPCs when they use a forced movement power. Google docs is very good for this.

c)Not being secretive with monster defenses and HP. Having them in the open saves a lot of headaches.

Out of turn actions: No good solution, except making a list of likely triggers for each character. Even then you'll frequently have to retcon monster turns.

Time spent: It may take a good while to make a combat round if you don't have all the info at hand. Make the players prepare a summary of their combat stats – defenses, hit points, powers prepared and basic attacks, and either have it handy, or ask the players to include and keep up to date this summary at the end of each combat post. Ask the players to be as detailed with their combat posts as possible, specially including the effects of their powers so you don't have to look them up each time they're used.

 

[renau1g]

I can give some more tips when I have more time on Wednesday (just about to leave on vacation).
[MENTION=54810]renau1g[/MENTION] - just a reminder for me.

Someone's got some good ideas.