Some good advice on play-by-post gaming?

[Geron Raveneye]

I'm pondering on starting a play-by-post game on a message board I'm a co-admin on. The only "problem" is that it'd be a completely new medium for me, and, given the nature of participation on a message board, it probably will bring up a whole different set of things to watch out for than the "standard" gaming around a table.

So, I'd like to ask the folks here at ENWorld who already have some experience with that style of gaming for some hints and advice on how to keep a game like that going and what problems to look out for. Please?

 

[IronWolf]

Play by Post or Play by Email games can be fun *if* you get a good group of reliable people together. But, be prepared for a very slow pace, some would say glacially slow. Aim for a high role-playing weighted game, email and message boards are quite allowing for this as people seem to be more willing to "fall" into character.

As for mechanics of such a game. When looking for players try to limit your group size to 4 to 6 players. It helps reduce the time it takes for everyone to reply to a DM post. Also set a minimum number of posts for people to give them a rough idea of how fast you expect the game to move. For example, you expect to see three posts a week or five posts a week. People can get the idea of how quickly the game will move based on that and decide ahead of time if they have the time to join.

Make your policy of how you handle someone not posting when you are ready to post the next DM post. I find it best to NPC that person or have them doing something they nearly always do (i.e. they are always listening at doors before entering, tailing behind the party, etc) It takes awhile for you to see what the characters typical actions are before you can guess them though.

I find combat is best handled behind the scenes by the DM. Let the DM make all the die rolls, the players just describe their actions, list their bonuses and modifiers and then let the DM roll. I think it makes for a little cleaner posting, though it definitely increases the burden on the DM.

I am sure I am leaving a ton of stuff out. PbP and PBeM are fun if expectations are set correctly going into it. I am sure there will be many other good ideas and suggestions added to this thread as to what works well for some and what doesn't for others. Have fun!!

 

[Knight Otu]

I'm just a fledgling pbp DM, but a bit of input:

Participation is propably THE keyword for a play-by-post. Prepare for slowness, and don't be afraid to move things along (I'm currently still in the process of finding my pbp DMing pace).

Die rolls shouldn't be much of a problem; there are online die rollers, and you can roll dice at home. Some forums have their own die rollers. (I prefer to roll actual dice)

The information the DM gives out will always be there for checking. That can be both good and bad for the players. Good in, they can check it if they forget. Bad in, "I can read the details later," and then forget to do so, missing an important detail.

Most of all, post! I'm propably still to slow in that regard, but, when in doubt, post.

One big problem with the message board dynamics is, a game can fall apart quite easily, more so when there is a definite leadership personality that drops from the game.

 

[haiiro]

I started my first PbP game a couple months ago (as a continuation of a tabletop campaign), and spent quite a bit of time beforehand reading existing PbPs and taking notes on how I wanted to approach things. I'd recommend doing something similar -- it was really helpful for me.

Since none of my players had ever been in a PbP before either, I put together a long page that explained the basics and outlined some of the approaches I was going to use. If that's of interest, you can find it here: http://3d6.org/pbp_info.php.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Very helpful comments so far, thank you all very much...haiiro, I really like your write-up. Going to check it out in more detail when I'm less tired and probably steal a few ideas there