It is hard to say. I ran Jade Regent for two years but by the end it wasn't interesting anymore for me.
I have been running Zeitgeist for a year and a half and have to say I love it... so I don't really know.
The big mistake I think is the length of post requirements some GMs have on their games. Sometimes a sentence will do and other times you need a lot of supposition. As a GM, I will spend a lot of text setting it up but then when NPCs respond to questions, I set it up for follow up questions not just give them free info...
Diplomacy/Bluff or Intimidate DCs are modified by what the player writes not by DCs themselves... Just because the player rolls a total of 35 doesn't mean he or she can belittle the NPC and get what they want unless it is an Intimidate check... :)
But PBPs ebb and wane and it is up to the GM and the players to keep it alive sometimes the GM needs the players to push it along.
Hope that helps!!!
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I think PbP tends to work better if the GM posts (or at least checks to see if he needs to post) more than once a day. Sometimes the actions of character B depend upon the results of character A's actions. Sometimes that makes it so only 1 character does anything at all each given day.
I have seen GM's ignore or at least miss the questions asked of them. Or sometimes not actually answer the question when they respond. Then it needs to be asked again. Often that means there won't be any chance of a response before another day has passed. GM's please carefully read and respond to all of the players questions. Even if the response is just "You don't know."
When the general drift of a conversation is obvious. Just cut-out some of the intervening steps. I was in one where the bargaining question and answer conversation for the very first job took over 3 weeks.
It was similar to:
I have a job for you.
What do you have in mind?
{next day}
Your talents could help one of my business ventures.
I have many talents. To which do you refer and is the business one of which I would approve?
{next day}
Specifically you magical talents are needed. I reward my friends handsomely.
I still need to know what the business is.
{next day}
etc...
Yes, the GM was trying to set up a dodgy situation where the principal didn't want to give out any extra information and seemed very reticent. Yes, if you looked at the resulting conversation it did actually read like something you might find in a mystery/adventure novel.
But it was ponderous to experience. Even more so if you weren't the face character doing the talking. Most of the group dropped out sometime during the weeks long conversation without even being noticed because only the GM and 2 PC's were involved for all that time.
I think in a PbP, it is a very poor choice for any PC to totally skip social and non-combat skills and only be a combatant. I don't really like it in F2F games, but it is even worse in PbP. Sometimes there can fairly long periods of time with questioning, investigating, searching, tracking, etc... in between combats.
The player of the 5 charisma and 7 wisdom barbarian who has no skills and doesn't want to mess anything up, may not have anything to contribute for a long time.
Don't dump a bunch of stats. Take a few ranks in sense motive to try and gauge when people are lying to the face character. Take a few ranks in a knowledge skill. Try to think of a question you can ask even if you have to pass it off as a note to the face character.
As a player, try to post every day (or whatever the group posting frequency is) so people know you are present and don't feel like they have to wait on you. I saw one guy used to post things like, Agvarb prowls around the office while the word guys talk. He pokes and smells the strange stone images of strange people trying to figure out what purpose they serve in the room.
As a player, try to find some way to involve yourself and contribute to every situation. That will help to keep yourself involved with the story and show participation.
Both GM's and players, when possible and appropriate, use an if then else approach to speed things up.
... and that is my final offer.
These next few are much more subjective personal taste kind of things. Some people like them, but not all of us.
I’ve seen a few where the GM’s and/or players really push love/hate relationships within the party. If I hate someone, I will probably not be willing to travel with them for years risking my life to save and count on for support. Also, I have no desire to have a pretend romance with some stranger over the internet. Please don’t push it on me.
Some players will fill pages with their own internal monologue filled with teenage angst. Sorry, I’m just not interested in reading all that. I will end up skipping most of your posts and miss the tiny items of useful info or questions imbedded in it.
I haven't seen that, but I can see how that could be annoying.
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As far as the actual type of campaign that does well in PbP?
Well from my admittedly small slice of experience, I think a bit more RP heavy does better in PbP than might be the case for many F2F games.
There are at least some people that do not have the talent (or interest) to speak in a accent or use broken English. Will get too embarrassed to try hitting on the duchess. Don't want to seem like a jerk to not care about the slaves. Doesn't really know how to portray a stuck-up snob. Etc...
But with PbP you have the time to think about how to do what you want. And You don't have to worry about being embarrassed behind the anonymity of the internet. My nagaji can speak with a lisp and my half-ogre will have very broken English. My wanna-be taldan noble can be a snobbish prig.
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Scouting... thats also a game killer.
The scouting/sneaking process needs to be abstracted and truncated to a set of posts. We lost almost two weeks in a PbP when the too clever rogue went off by himself to play with perception checks ad naseum and stealth rolls to the end of the earth exploring the dungeon solo.
No.
Just no.
The scouting/sneaking process needs to be abstracted and truncated to a set of posts.
How do you go about this? I have tried the method of automating the rogue to execute a standard set of procedures and I didn't care for that approach.
I felt like I (the GM) was playing a game by myself.
In Shifty's case, I would have added a random encounter to keep the party busy...
Personally, my view is to have them give a 'general gist' of what they are looking for, and a couple of ley rolls made - then give them a description of what they managed to achieve. No blow by blow, no turn by turn, more an abstrated "You set off tp do this, you got this far before cover looked likeit might have been blown' etc.
One or two posts MAXIMUM, which is in line with any other individual effort.
Makes sense to me. Thanks.
From what I have seen successful play by posts require several things, some of which are rather luck based.
Players and GM all have the same general expectations and posting pattern. This can be hard to gauge with people you don't know but if some people post several times a day and then the other of the party posts several times a week then things go off the rails quickly. The same thing can happen if some people are big on long posts with lots of internal monologue and another guy only ever does one liners or if you have a mix of min/maxers and more RP focused players.
The GM keeps things moving. If posts have stopped or died down for a bit, the GM needs to do something. That could be moving to the next morning, a random encounter, an NPC saying something or anything else that keeps things moving.
No players lost really early. For some reason losing a player early seems to throw everyone else off. This can be hard to prevent if you are trying to add new blood to your new campaign. Once things get going it seems to be easier to deal with lost people.
As long as you can cover those, things generally go ok. Unfortunately real life often throws a wrench into the first two, torpedoing previously successful campaigns. But a lot of it seems to be luck. My most successful GMing to date for a play by post is a completely random group of new players that were intimidated by the mess that applying for campaigns can be. I figured it would last a few weeks to a month before most people flaked off, but we are a month and a half in with no lost players and over 1000 posts in gameplay, and actually had to talk about slowing down posting so the guys that posted less could keep up.
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First off a big thanks to the OP: Terquem. His was my very first PbP game.
The sweet spot is different for everyone, it's not one size fits all, and it depends on if I'm a player or DM. The key for me is communication. Everyone needs to chat the DM has to say if he/she is busy in RL and likewise so do the players. Communication solves most problems besides it's the considerate thing to do.
The second thing is laying out clear expectations and try to maintain a posting schedule. If players expect the DM to post in the morning, they tend to look for those posts and reply.
The third item is organization. As a DM, it's easy to get overwhelmed with all the balls being juggled and hats being worn. Understand where you want to go from the big picture story arc, and any sub-plots you want to include, but ultimately, you need to connect the dots in a reasonable time period. Players want to feel like they accomplished a goal. It also helps to put reminders of important people, places, things, plots, and clues under the game campaign thread for everyone to refer back to from time to time.
I have the luxury of owning my own company, so I'm online all the time that really has helped my games because there is little dead time, and it allows me to really develop NPCs and plots.
I tend to run three different type of games at once:
1. My main game which is very fast paced with posting ranging from 30 to 100 times a day. At times this game is like sitting at a table top setting where you can have a scene or conversation develop. This is also one of those games were you can log on and see 30 posts. The key here is communication of expectations, and so far, nobody has really complained about the depth or speed. Currently my Razor Coast game fits this category.
2. My long term meat-grinder. This is a combat heavy game and most of the RP is inter-party with a few key NPC's to convey information. The group averages 15 to 30 posts a day. Currently my Rappan Athuk fits this category. Slow and steady.
3. Then there is my one shot game. I like to run one-shots for a breath of fresh air. It keeps me sane. These tend to last 2 or maybe 3 months. Short and fun, nobody cares if a character dies. Currently We Be Goblins fits the bill.
As a DM, I like to mix it up and keep things fresh. I have no problem veering from script, and I like to add new and interesting events and memorably monsters. Mixing in social, skill, and combat situations is helps to keep to avoid fatigue.