It always strikes me that so many tips revolve around gaming at a table. Granted, the majority of gaming takes place at the table. But I rarely see any thing that offers to the Online gamer. So, here you are. Let's grab together some suggestions for those who play online. While I play on a chat interface, I hope some of these can help PBMers; I myself have never experienced it, so sorry if I can't help.
1) Pacing. Online games are slower, because it takes longer for people to respond. So try to keep it moving, keep it interesting, and poke people if they draw idle.
2) Make sure everyone is atleast focused. Some people could be doing stuff in other windows, or just nto really at the computer, so you need to smack them around a little if they just idle for no reason whatsoever. This means you must make the example of being at your computer. Instill rules that say if they're going to grab something in another room, or go away from the keyboard, to let you know [Brb; bathroom] [ACK! Cat's on fire!].
3) Describe things very well. On a text medium, it allows you to feed them a lot of text, so you can edit what you say, and be as descriptive as possible. Since you can't use your hands or other medians to get it across, be sure to word things clearly; it's easy to overlook or type something that just doesn't go through very easy.
4) Pre-write things. If you're working in a Chat medium, and the PCs are going through areas where you can feed them rather large descriptions (For instance, room descriptions, what happens when they Open the Big Box of Doom, the badguy's sililoque), have it written up beforehand, so you can cut and paste it, then give it to them without much waiting. Cut and Paste is your friend, online.
5) Bookmark the SRD. Trust me. Just do it.
6) Pass notes to individual people via whisper commands, emails to that person alone, etc. Time saver.
7) Battlemaps. If you have photoshop, or some other program that allows you to make grids and little battlemaps, post them on the web. It will make things a LOT easier then trying to visualize a battlefield purely through text, and will cause fewer snafoos.
8) Offer a break, at some point and time. Since 1 and 2 can be hard to do, make sure that the players Have a time to get a break, so they can wander around and stuff.
9) Be aware that tones cannot be given over text, so again, you may wish to be as clear as possible. Especially in dialog, where the players can't hear the tone of voice, adding descriptive words will always help.
10) If you can, keep a log of the game. Even moreso if you can, Post it online. This will allow PCs to catch up with what happened last session, and everyone can get a refreshing of memory.
1) Pacing. Online games are slower, because it takes longer for people to respond. So try to keep it moving, keep it interesting, and poke people if they draw idle.
2) Make sure everyone is atleast focused. Some people could be doing stuff in other windows, or just nto really at the computer, so you need to smack them around a little if they just idle for no reason whatsoever. This means you must make the example of being at your computer. Instill rules that say if they're going to grab something in another room, or go away from the keyboard, to let you know [Brb; bathroom] [ACK! Cat's on fire!].
3) Describe things very well. On a text medium, it allows you to feed them a lot of text, so you can edit what you say, and be as descriptive as possible. Since you can't use your hands or other medians to get it across, be sure to word things clearly; it's easy to overlook or type something that just doesn't go through very easy.
4) Pre-write things. If you're working in a Chat medium, and the PCs are going through areas where you can feed them rather large descriptions (For instance, room descriptions, what happens when they Open the Big Box of Doom, the badguy's sililoque), have it written up beforehand, so you can cut and paste it, then give it to them without much waiting. Cut and Paste is your friend, online.
5) Bookmark the SRD. Trust me. Just do it.
6) Pass notes to individual people via whisper commands, emails to that person alone, etc. Time saver.
7) Battlemaps. If you have photoshop, or some other program that allows you to make grids and little battlemaps, post them on the web. It will make things a LOT easier then trying to visualize a battlefield purely through text, and will cause fewer snafoos.
8) Offer a break, at some point and time. Since 1 and 2 can be hard to do, make sure that the players Have a time to get a break, so they can wander around and stuff.
9) Be aware that tones cannot be given over text, so again, you may wish to be as clear as possible. Especially in dialog, where the players can't hear the tone of voice, adding descriptive words will always help.
10) If you can, keep a log of the game. Even moreso if you can, Post it online. This will allow PCs to catch up with what happened last session, and everyone can get a refreshing of memory.
