I only started PbP in December, but I'm having a blast. I'd love to start a game, but the earliest that would be is May, so I have plenty of time to think about it. As much as I'd love to start an AP, I've never GMd a PbP, and I understand that many have failed due to the GM not understanding the difficulties of such a long term campaign.
To those of you who have been successful, how much experience did you gain before starting a long-term campaign?
I hope you get a lot of other posts because my 2 experiences involved all the others stopping posting and the game died. This wasn't pathfinder or even D&D.
I advise you to look at the topics stickied. One of the main things they advise is playing in some games before you try GMing one.
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Wicked is playing in some games, including one of mine. :) Take my advice with a grain of salt - I haven't run what could truly be considered a long-term campaign yet.
I'd been playing Pathfinder for about a year and a half, GMing off and on for a few months, and playing PbP for about five months before I started GMing my first PbP game last October. I had done a fair amount of PbP in that five months, though - by the time I started, I'd gotten some experience with six or seven different GMs, getting to evaluate what worked and didn't work about their games and glean tips for my own games.
I will definitely echo the advice given by most advisors on the topic - start with something short, so you have a chance to evaluate if the format's for you before getting into what could be a several-year game or disappointing people by cutting it off. Modules tend to be a good length, which is why my first two games have been modules; they finish in two-four months depending on your group's posting rate. Getting started that way also gives you some experience with the character selection process, so you have a better understanding of what personality types and attributes are going to make for good matches with your play style before getting into a longer game.
There's also nothing stopping you from starting with the first book of an Adventure Path, but advertising that you'll continue to the rest if the group is up for it and you've established you'll be able to handle it. That way, no one is disappointed if you only do the first book, but if you're ready your players will hopefully be ready, too.
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Hey, we play together in Crusty's Hell's Rebels!
All that I can say is that starting off with a module is not a bad idea at all: you get the chance to see how you feel about being a PbP GM, what is the pace that you can handle, and, most importantly, how good does it feel to actually close an adventure!
My advice:
If you expect your players to maintain 1 post per day, that typically means the GM needs to be checking the game for their responses several times a day, and maybe posting several times a day as well. Games can often slow down because one player is waiting to hear back from the GM about something, so it is best to keep a close eye on the posting. In other words, you have a much greater responsibility toward keeping the game flowing that you have as a player only.
If you know the adventure you want to try, if you are familiar with the tools available (spoiler boxes, bold text for speech, etc), then I say go for it! I started a game on this forum some time ago and it has been a very rewarding experience.
...I'd gotten some experience with six or seven different GMs, getting to evaluate what worked and didn't work about their games and glean tips for my own games.
This is a good point. Before I decided to GM a game I clicked on a few PbP games that had an interesting name or something that appealed me. I found a handful of really neat GMs on this site and their methods/styles helped to influence my own.
PbP has a fun style all its own, and with clever use of text and descriptive language you can pull off a neat story.
I was a player in PbP campaigns for more than three years before I started my own game. Granted, I tend to be a commitment-phobe, so that's probably excessive. But it gave me time to learn what I enjoy and don't enjoy in PbP (for example, I love dungeons at the table, but they're way too slow in PbP), what kinds of players I have a good time with, what common problems are likely to crop up and how to deal with them, what sort of pace I'm comfortable keeping up with (I don't have the time or energy to keep up with a dozen-posts-per-day game, as much as I'm amazed by the people who actually can complete a module in 2 to 4 months), and so on. The point of all of this is that there's no right or wrong pace or group or adventure type, but as GM, you have to know what works for you, because the onus is going to be on you to keep it going. If you're not having fun, no one else will either.
As a result, when I started my first campaign I had a very clear idea of what to do and where I wanted to go with it. It's been running for four years now, and I started a second game last year.
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(for example, I love dungeons at the table, but they're way too slow in PbP)
Oh gods, this. A heavy dungeon crawl is not likely to work out well in PbP, at least not in my experience. Especially if said dungeon crawl relies extremely heavily on traps or square-by-square searching. Waiting a week or more for a meaningful post because the rogue-type and GM are trading "here's my Perception check" and "you don't find anything" gets old really quick.
The best material for PbPs is stuff that involves lots of roleplay interaction - with NPCs and between characters. At a table, it can feel like your conversation is eating into others' time, but in PbP, everyone can carry on a conversation at once in various combinations if they wish and the GM can maintain all of them. It's also much easier to say more complex and clever things in PbP, at least for me - I communicate far more effectively when I have a chance to think it out, which PbP gives.
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There are lots of tricks for speeding up dungeons in PbP.
I use spoilers extensively for skill checks. I also put lots of emphasis on my players to push the action forward with posts...we don't wait on "one person" to move us forward. This includes using maps and labeling options with color coded arrows. I also never ever wait for consensus, I operate on a "2 and go" rule. 2 people say something is happening and that's the decision. It rewards the players who post more often with being able to make the decisions that lead the group.
However, like Zedth said, its the GM's responsibility to make the most posts and if need be move the action along themselves. For example, if you have 6 players and you are expecting one post each from them per day...then you need to check and make about 3 posts per day.
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I had very little experience playing PBPs, though I'd been gaming for decades.
I don't remember exactly, but I know I had one PBP that died after I got about 25 posts in (as a player). I was throwing my hat in for a Kingmaker game (which may well have been my second ever PBP attempt) when the GM dropped out before even picking the players -- I got frustrated and said what the heck, I'd give it a try. I've been doing it ever since, including that campaign.
A few thoughts:
* Momentum is king. Players are important in this, but you as the GM set the tone. If you start missing days, players will stop being as involved and it will then spiral down. Post regularly! If you can't post for a couple days, let your players know.
* It is a commitment. Be ready for it. If you drop out, at least have the decency to tell your players.
* Momentum is king. Go read that first point again.
* I've found modules are the toughest thing to do in PBP. For whatever reason, every time I've tried to run a module, it's struggled to reach the end. If you don't want to start with an AP (which is a multi-year commitment), I'd direct you toward a PFS scenario. They also seem to be popular.
* Momentum is king. Can I emphasize that any more?
* Seriously, momentum is king. It is IMO the single most important thing in keeping a PBP going.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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(for example, I love dungeons at the table, but they're way too slow in PbP)Oh gods, this. A heavy dungeon crawl is not likely to work out well in PbP, at least not in my experience. Especially if said dungeon crawl relies extremely heavily on traps or square-by-square searching. Waiting a week or more for a meaningful post because the rogue-type and GM are trading "here's my Perception check" and "you don't find anything" gets old really quick.
You've misidentified the problem.
The situation you describe is indeed a killer situation in a PbP. However, the reason it's an issue is not because it's a dungeon crawl; the reason it's an issue is because you're trying to pretend your PbP is a tabletop.
It has nothing to do with being a dungeon crawl. The same "one player goes back and forth with the GM while other players wait forever" can happen whether you're checking each room for traps, having a dialogue with an NPC, or talking back and forth OOC about how a spell or ability works.
The issue is not the type of task (dungeon crawl, dialogue, chase, etc), it's the fact that the GM is trying to use tabletop methodology in a PbP.
The exact same trap-checking scenario can play out smooth as a dream if you just don't run it like you're at the table. Look at the methodology: the GM is trying to resolve the rogue's intent to check for traps by using a multi-step process:
1) Require the rogue to perform multiple searches, each resolved individually.
2) Resolve every search with a roll, no matter what.
3) Pause the game for every resolution.
None of these things are necessary or inherent to the situation you described. They may be the usual methodology at the table, but there's a different way.
Imagine the same dungeon crawl, but before entering, the rogue's player simply announced that he wanted to only move 15ft per round and spend his other action each round searching for traps. He says he wants to take 10 on these searches, which gets him such-and-such a number.
How does your dungeon crawl play out now? It's the exact same dungeon crawl, but instead of weeks on end of a back-and-forth between Rogue and GM, the GM can just keep the party moving until they encounter a trap, and already know whether it gets spotted or not and just proceed to the results.
Heck, even for those GMs who drop their monocles and go red in the face at the suggestion of taking 10 to search for traps, they can still just establish the rogue's searching procedure and then let the GM roll the dice when it actually matters instead of waiting for the rogue to post every time there's a door.
It has nothing to do with dungeon crawls. It has everything to do with methodology.
Thank you all for your responses. There are some true pearls of wisdom floating in here. I really like the idea of only committing to Book 1 of the AP and then going from there, partly because the AP itself is what I want to run!