D&D 4E Will 4e kill PbP D&D?

[CarlosDosBrickos]

I've been studying the rules for a while, and ran the Raiders of Oakhurst adventure for my local gaming group last week. Overall I'm very positive about 4e, and can't wait to get my hands on the new books.

However...

I'm a big fan of Play by Post D&D too. It's a very different vibe, and gives the opportunity for some really in-depth RP. And my site of choice (Woldian Games) is pretty much the best site of its type I've found. Around 100 or so players in many seperate games at last count. The DM posts once per day, and then all players post in whatever order they post in (initiative kind of goes out the window, replaced by a loose first post, first strike policy).

What concerns me is that the change from 3.5 to 4 may be a step too far for this site and others like it. The shift from 2 to 3 was quite an upheaval for Woldian Games, but was ultimately more a logistics excercise than an issue of gameplay mechanics. But the move to 4e may simply not work. By moving to an exception-based mechanic that allows far more "out of turn" actions than previous versions of D&D, the whole "DM posts, players all post, rinse and repeat" structure is gone. And my guess (only a guess!) is that the interaction between powers will only increase the out of sequence aspect to the game as charactesr rise in levels and the interaction of powers becomes more complex.

I'm not saying 3.5 didn't have some of this out of turn stuff. AoO's of course. And grapple and other special attacks, for example, were so conditional that we had to create house rules to simplify them for online play.

But now with 4e and the increased focus on trigger effects, interrupts and the like, I'm not sure how a PbP game would work.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

[Trolls]

I've got more than thoughts...I've got experience!

I'm running PbP Raiders of Oakhurst at the moment here. There are also 2 more 4e games running at the same place, and I'm playing in one of them.

So, what have I learnt? It has it's ups and downs, that's for sure. Positives include the DM rolling attacks rather than players rolling saves - it means the player always knows what's coming, and you're never having to wait for someone to make a saving throw. There's also the 'it's more fun' aspect, but whether that's true or not if based on your own experience of 4e.

On the negative side, immediate actions do introduce problems, but they're not insurmountable. All that is required is that you shift your DMing style a bit. Sometimes, you'll have to rewrite what has happened, so leave things a bit more open ended. It does slow things down a little if people are waiting for the outcome of their interrupt, but PbP is already slow, it doesn't change things too much.

In my game, a few interrupt actions have been used: Meepo's Wicked Dodge, Corrin's Second Chance and Nightscale's Tail Lash to name three. They've seemed to work pretty seamlessly.

 

[SoulsFury]

We are going to be starting a minimum of three PBP games starting when 4th edition comes out. We definitely will have to come up with something to make combat quicker. With 3.5 edition we just had players post 3 rounds of combat. I guess we will have to cut that back or have them post several If/Then situations to keep things going.

 

[WyzardWhately]

Well, the game clearly isn't optimized for PbP play, but I rather doubt that's going to stop anyone who really wants to do it.

It's probably one of those games that will work best for players who are in front of a computer all day for some reason, and so are able to reply constantly, all the time, whenever they need to.

 

[phil500]

I think DnD insider will kill play by post.

 

[Kordeth]

I think DnD insider will kill play by post.

I doubt it, any more than WoW killed tabletop gaming or MUDs. Like the OP says, it's a very different vibe, and there are going to be plenty of folks who don't want to shell out $15 a month to use DDI. I expect what we'll see is a dropoff of people playing PbP because their gaming group is scattered across the country or what have you, but DDI isn't going to truly kill PbP.

 

[SuperJosh]

I am also DMing RoO for a PbP game. It takes some getting used to, but as long as your DM is on the ball and can check the game 2-3 times a day and you have reliable players it is not that different from DMing 3x in a PbP. Of course when i DM i roll for everyone, players monsters, everything, so the only things that really effects my style are things like the fighters ability to shift the enemy since actions like that need to be resolved before the next player can go.

 

[Masquerade]

Everyone PBPs differently. My group is accustomed to some rather unorthodox ways of handling combat that sacrifice some player choice and most player die rolling in favor of a quick, RP-heavy experience.

If it is an issue, just have each player write a short description of how their character behaves out of turn. "Under circumstances X and Y, I perform action Z."

 

[Hussar]

I think DnD insider will kill play by post.

I highly doubt it. The existence for the past several years of VTT programs hasn't made a dent in PBP games.

Why do people think that DnDI is somehow the first of its kind?

 

[arscott]

I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that PbP will see a decline in the wake of DDI:

I don't expect D&D insider to be particularly better as a virtual tabletop than previous programs. But I do expect it to have much better player-matching capability than it's competitors. First, simply because it will likely have a broader player base, and second, because It's a smart thing for WotC to focus on (and lord knows they're not focusing on their character visualizer).

People who are playing PbP for the unique opportunities it provides (that is, the in-depth roleplaying mentioned by the OP) will probably stick with it. But folks playing because they can't find a good group IRL will migrate over pretty quickly.