Stop PbP death!

[Creamsteak]

I know some people have done combat three rounds at a time. How well does that work out? It seems to me that with the quickly changing nature of combat that most of the time the battle will be totally different by the third round and decisions made two rounds ago will be not be the best options.

I've done it, but it's not necessarily a solution to larger groups. It's effective for smaller confrontations where the end-goal is in sight right away. Not so effective when the goals can be changed, little decisions can drastically sway a particular attack roll, etc.

 

[Thanee]

One of my games has a DM who writes very elaborate (and nicely written I might add) posts as well as players who make an effort to pitch in additional details, dialogs, monologs, description, whenever possible. And you know what. Its infective.

That's exactly what I meant with "the interaction within the game".

If a player always writes elaborate posts, but the DM doesn't, then the player will sooner or later stop doing that. If the DM, however, often gives the players lots of information to play with, then players will make more elaborate posts, too.

Sometimes, a one-liner is more than enough, tho, if there simply isn't more to do or say, or when the flow is quick and thus the "actions" become shorter, but quicker in succession.

It may be the individual style of players, but it's certainly always afflicting the whole game in one way or another.

Surely is.

What you describe in the first example is the ideal way PbP games should work, it requires a lot of work for the DM (so, yeah, here one could make a point that DM'ing lots of games could be a hindrance, mostly because of time restraints).

As a player it's much easier to write good posts, as you have so much less to worry about, as compared to the DM, who usually has to keep track of a whole lot of things.

As with many other things, if there is a "certain chemistry" between the players, things work out great. But that seems hard to find, so consider yourself lucky.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

I know some people have done combat three rounds at a time. How well does that work out?

There's another THREAD about that.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Patlin]

As I said Thanee, I might be wrong. I'm only doing pbp games for a month or so.

One of my games has a DM who writes very elaborate (and nicely written I might add) posts as well as players who make an effort to pitch in additional details, dialogs, monologs, description, whenever possible. And you know what. Its infective. I find my self giving it all I can as well in that game, I'm motivated to post the same quality stuff the others do. Not only that, I find it easy to do. There's always some quote, some nitpick, some new setting detail that I can include in my posts. Actually, there's more than I can usually fit in one post.

The other game has a DM who's going for a very laid back style of gaming, basically spelling out the bare essentials but never giving much beyond that. The game is certainly not slow, there are daily updates, but there is never any meat to the bones, so to say.
And consequently, the players mainly (with one exception) just go for one-liners as well, and I can not blame them. I myself find it hard to post anything useful in that game since there are no hooks or details to play off, no flavor to toy around with to fill a post with should there be no combat about. I already know for sure that this game will likely never see it's end, or if it does, that it'll be a drag all the way.
(including dreary combat sequences with page after page filled with more numbers than flavor text - and again, I cannot blame people for it, if there's no flavor, metagaming and numbercrunching's all there's left to do)

It may be the individual style of players, but it's certainly always afflicting the whole game in one way or another.

I'm sufficiently self critical that I'm not sure which DM I am, or if you're in more than two games. If your looking for particular changes in my game, let me know. Hopefully I'm not DM #2, but if so I can reassure you that we are indeed heading to a conclusion -- fairly rapidly, in fact. As a DM, I know I can't be all things to all people, but I try to provide a fun game, so let me know what would make the game more fun for you.

 

[Krug]

I think first off, you need a committed DM. A PBP takes up quite a bit of time, and if you're starting out, don't take on too many players.

Round by round combat works for me fine, because that's like 50-60% of D&D, and things are just too fluid on the battlefield. A comrade might go down, a change in the environment might occur, a monster might reveal itself to be more resourceful than first thought. As long as the players can match the DM's pace, it shouldn't be a problem.

I'm also in the camp to keep the adventure simple. Those free adventures that WotC publishes on the website are actually pretty ideal. Dungeon crawls rarely worked, as far as I can tell.

 

[Zweischneid]

Hopefully I'm not DM #2,

No your not Patlin, I'm havin loads of fun in the Burning Tower and I'm in more than 2 games (actually way to many myself I guess) Besides, I have no doubt about the Burning Tower seeing it's finish (as you said, the characters are basically at the showdown).

Infact, even though I was at the beginning set back by the large number of players, I am starting to think the 6 or 7 people crew to be a nice number for playing good pbp games. With so many people, there'll likely always be someone that fits your 'chemistry'

Nice job Patlin.. don't feel yourself criticized.. at least not by me

I'll certainly be having an eye out for your next game (if you'd take me that is)

 

[Zweischneid]

Thinkin about it, that might also have something to do with it.
Like Thanee said, you could get lucky to find the right game... you could also help your luck a bit by signing up on half a dozend games and dropping out again of those that don't 'feel right'

Not sure if thats a common practice here, but it might go some ways to explain why so many games die at the start where one ought to believe the motivation to play is still fresh.

 

[Thanee]

Honestly, I believe most games die, because the DM doesn't find the necessary time to push them along.

And I really doubt, that any of the people here, that are signing up for multiple games, just try to find the "right" game. It's just, that most PbP games are running slow (there are very few exceptions, where a game has multiple posts (from different people, of course) per day on a regular basis) and thus they like to play a few of those slow games to "fill their schedule", so to say.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Hellzon]

Also some players tend to write more elaborate posts as you describe, while others tend to keep "to the essentials". I guess this has more to do with general style than playing too many games, as this is the same for players who are in only one game, really.

Basically, yeah.
And for those who didn't get that, I might have a reputation for short posts among those few I've played with. (Had that problem with writing assignments in high school too.) I guess it's my tendency to condense things that makes it that way.

 

[Patlin]

I'll certainly be having an eye out for your next game (if you'd take me that is)

The sequel is planned, and those in the Burning Tower have dibs if they want to continue. Which is to say, I'd love to have you. Your character should be well suited to the venue, too...