Howdy all. I think the subject line covers it.
I'm GMing an S&S play by post, and after 3 months we've only reached Day 7.
On the one hand the players and I have been having a grand time with the roleplaying. On the other, the game mechanics are really slowing us down.
Waiting for the 1-2x a week poster to make his rat disease check, wait 3 days, job skill check, wait 3 days, rum ration check, wait 3 days, roleplay the fight with Owlbear for 2 weeks, and now its "tomorrow"...
You get the idea.
Now that we've done a good job setting the stage and giving the NPC's flavor, i was thinking of doing away with the mechanical part, and just jumping ahead to the action days.
And... the twice a week thing was the consensus we all came to when we discussed posting frequency at the beginning. There are actually 2 players that clearly want to play much faster and would post multiple times a day if given the chance. But this was our group agreement, so I don't feel I can jerk the rug out from underneath the others; "Post once a day or your out!"
Given this restriction, any suggestion for getting some more wind in me sails?
My suggestion is that you make the "daily" rolls for your players. Simply ignore the bonuses and penalties from the "Daytime Ship Actions" table on page 25, since they're pretty small penalties anyway.
1) You post:
Day 8
Bob the rigger is assigned to line work and succeeds
Tom the cook is assigned to fishing and succeeds
Pat the swab is assigned to swab the deck and succeeds
Tim the swab is assigned to repairs and fails (with a 1) take 6 damage from lashes
2) The players post their daytime and nighttime ship actions for that day.
This way you give them all the general information about how their day is going. All the stuff that's outside of their control, like what task is assigned and how well they perform it, is done in one swoop at the beginning of the day. In this post you can also include things like: NPC's job performance, rumors heard during the work day, odd officer behavior, weather, direction of the ship, etc.
Really the only option you're taking away from them is the chance to "Work Diligently" during the day, which is kinda boring anyway:)
My suggestion is that you make the "daily" rolls for your players. Simply ignore the bonuses and penalties from the "Daytime Ship Actions" table on page 25, since they're pretty small penalties anyway.
1) You post:
Day 8
Bob the rigger is assigned to line work and succeeds
Tom the cook is assigned to fishing and succeeds
Pat the swab is assigned to swab the deck and succeeds
Tim the swab is assigned to repairs and fails (with a 1) take 6 damage from lashes2) The players post their daytime and nighttime ship actions for that day.
This way you give them all the general information about how their day is going. All the stuff that's outside of their control, like what task is assigned and how well they perform it, is done in one swoop at the beginning of the day. In this post you can also include things like: NPC's job performance, rumors heard during the work day, odd officer behavior, weather, direction of the ship, etc.
Really the only option you're taking away from them is the chance to "Work Diligently" during the day, which is kinda boring anyway:)
I like it. Handle the stuff for them that is luck-based anyway. I might also do their rum rations for them, and only give them evening extracurricular time. That can be the time where they explore, or interact with npcs etc. So for each day they only have to describe and potentially role for one set of actions.
Right, the rum! Good call.