Shards of the Titanswar

Game Master EldonG

*Looks at her AC and BAB*

...

Still squishy. XD Could probably take a few hits from commoners - and they probably WOULD hit - but definitely squishy.

I'm sorry, Eldon. I just don't enjoy this game. I see a post and I go 'okay, maybe this time.' and I read it... and it's just more frustration.

As a general rule of thumb, the more complex an area is, the shorter and easier any given fight should be (say, three or fewer rounds for a complex place?), especially in PbP games. It's often hard to get an "image" of a place, especially if we're not using any kind of map tool, on forum games.

(Actually, in general, PbP encounters should lean short. I've found it makes everyone a lot happier, and I no longer hesitate to simply handwave easy encounters and move on in my own games. ^^ Perhaps a bit more of that would help here?)

This encounter was a throwaway. I expected absolutely no trouble at all.

Yeah. That became obvious 4 weeks ago. Which is why it was so annoying that it still took something like 7 weeks for it.

Yes, it is.

I've lost interest in even trying, at this point. I'll run it as a tabletop campaign, someday. I had asked for 2-3 posts a day, and now if I get 2-3 a week, it's somehow supposed to make me feel good?

Well, it isn't. I'm not blaming everybody, or anybody - maybe it's just me. Maybe the ridiculous amount of work I put into it was just bad for PBP, or just not enough. It drove my father away from the game - it was just too excruciatingly slow.

Yeah. The speed is ultimately the problem, and when it comes to combat player speed is almost always the clincher. Not -every- time, but...

In this case, it was waiting a week each round for the one person who could do something to do something. I posted pretty much every round that there was one to say 'still doesn't do anything'. I recognized that I could have messed with the fish, but again, dc 25 with only a +3. So on and so forth. I couldn't do anything, so I couldn't make your requirements without breaking character.

*Glances in*

By the way, I 100% agree that speed is important. I roll Init and Saves for my own players (always with the caveat that they can use modifier powers like Mythic Surges and rerolls after the fact, even if they normally can't after the result is revealed - it's the tradeoff for losing a bit of control) and generally try to actively nudge things forward at all times, even if that means hand-waving the end result of an encounter if it feels a bit slow.

PbP GM'ing is actually really hard, even for experienced GM's. Things that work on the tabletop may work here, pacing and structure can be different, et cetera. I think it's almost inevitable that there will be mistakes and rough patches that you have to identify and overcome if you're going to keep doing it. ^^ Times when I couldn't do much aside, I DID enjoy this game.

Pretty much that. I definitely enjoyed the game when it was moving, so it definitely isn't anything wrong with the world. It was just the pacing... and honestly, you have very little control over how often specific players post. It's part of the beast... and part of why I'll be adding 'bot' and 'removal' rules to future games I DM. Waiting weeks on specific players ruins an entire campaign for people as impatient as I am. :(

(It's also why I tend to run smaller groups here for PbP, typically not more than 3 players. Having fewer people in a game helps to measurably increase the speed at which it goes, which reduces frustration all-around.)

Okay, so, I crunched some numbers.

For all major characters, approximate posts per day, since joining. Starting on first incharacterpost (I may have messed that up for some) and ending on most recent post (in this thread) If you exclude the last two months, the numbers are significantly higher. The following is # of posts per month, with remainders dropped.

Antonio 20.
Auric 25.
Aya 23.
Baldek 23.
Jun 13.
Nala 32.
Nia 20.
Seiko 22.
Sakuro 22.

If you exclude the last two months, nearly all of these balloon significantly, especially for players who haven't been around forever.

For example, I zoom up to nearly 50/month.

People are definitely -not- managing 1/day, though. This is fairly understandable, given what combat does. The last two months have been combat. We can only move as fast as our slowest piece in combat... and that person managed four posts in nearly a month. (Excluding the person who has continuously stated that they're too busy for the game.)

Nala only has ~ 160 posts since actually joining. On one other character of mine, that's about a week of posting. Unfortunately, I'm sort of gated. I could throw a tea party with Sakuro if you like... but... :(

Mew....

I am extremely busy but things are slowing down again. *I HOPE*

Eldon Do you wish to drop this?

I know it has been frustrating and tiresome. I am willing to stick with it. But I won't force you to do something you have lost your passion for. Combat is always slow and I made a rule with other GM's that would work well in Play by post.

If you haven't responded in combat in two days auto bot characters until the player returns. This Goes for me especially since I can be called into work without warning to travel.

Either way I am super curious about the story, the book, the cultists all of it.

Ditto to what Nia said. I've said before that I really enjoy this plot, setting, and character. I hope to be able to do more than just read posts soon, because I would love to see where this all ends up.

That being said, I understand GM frustration. Do what's best for you, Eldon.

Also,.... I wouldn't be against. Hand waving small combat. Since that is the biggest killer of time. Major combat I say we still do.

Yeah...

Regardless of whether you continue or not, I think I should go. Like I said, anxiety and depression. Worse though, is the fact that it makes me frustrated over little things that don't bother other people, and I'm just probably going to stay pretty crabby unless everything is completely fixed... and that's a ridiculous expectation.

By the way, I like everybody - I just can't keep the game going and even remember details at this pace. I hope it wasn't the pacing of the adventure - that even felt rushed - which was my attempt to keep things moving, in some cases.

At the rate things were moving at, the monastery would have taken a couple of years. Minimum. I have something like two dozen other places - most smaller. I just can't commit to a 20 year game.

Do people want spoilers?

I can offer one other possibility - posts I didn't expect were here as I added this one. I could put the game on hiatus, if people think they can post regularly after a week...two weeks...a month...whatever it takes.

I can throw out some hints as to what the future may bring, to keep you interested, if you really still are -

I'll start with this - Shards of the Titanswar actually refers to physical objects - objects so powerful that they strongly influenced the Titanswar itself...and their slow re-emergence is affecting the area, and is a part of the reason strange things are happening.

Most people might think of it as titan magic - but its roots are older than even that.

I for one am still interested. And as long as everyone wants to continue, there ARE steps that can be taken to improve speed of play.

You don't have to make me interested in the story, Eldon. I've been interested in that since I started reading. You've done a great job of developing a story with an air of mystery, with tidings of things to come. The problem is the speed at which things present themselves, and how the combats have paced. There have been lulls where folks were incapable of decision-making (because that's a total thing in real life, too.), but overall, it's just combats taking -forever- to settle.

Well, Antonio, I'm open to suggestions. I'd still like to put the game on hiatus for a while - it's become more of a frustration than a joy - but I enjoy discussion. :)

Antonio?

One of my suggestions for speeding up combat would be to autobot people. Have people put down what they want to do in general.

Like for instance, provide bardic music/trip people with my whip. Would be Nia's preferred things. If that doesn't work, bow or sword.

I believe at this point, it's safe to say what I believe is the primary problem. What's happening right now. It has been more than four days since you asked a very direct question, and two days since you followed it up by prodding the player in question.

Yeah, PbP is pretty slow. XD; Basically, ANYTHING that speeds stuff up is generally a good thing.

(In fairness, this WAS a holiday weekend...)

I'm assuming that people have been extra super busy.

Sadly, lately I make that assumption regularly.

Yeah. I really haven't been. I've been emo. I -was- busy for about two weeks. And right now I'm sick and grumpy. :p

Well weekends are also very slow for PbP

As for speed of play suggestions, well the top, number one, no question, absolute must is to do away with individual initiative.
Instead, the GM determines which side (heroes or enemies) goes first (average initiative, sliding scale, flip a coin, etc.).
On the players turn, they act in order of posting. Later posters can see who posted ahead of them to clarify what they can do on their turn. Then give the players whatever time you want for them to post before moving the game along. For tight games, one maybe two days. Looser games can go longer between posts. (Anybody who doesn't post by the deadline gets boted.)

A close second is having a battle map of some kind. It is real helpful in showing people where the enemy is, where they can have cover, difficult terrain, hostages and so forth.
I know some GMs use a no map technique, but I've never been able to make that work in PbP.
I use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for the grid and post it to Google Drive. You then post the link you get there to your post.

In my own games, I (as GM) roll Initiative for everyone. Whoever beats the enemy gets to go ahead of them, then the enemy acts (all together), and that's the end of a 'round'. Then the PCs can act again in any order before the enemies, and each time the enemies do something, that ends the round. It's worked out fairly well. ^^

To a great extent, that's what I do, and have done from the beginning - only worrying about initiative when I break down the round's actions. I've all but begged people to simply post what their round would be, and sorted it out afterward - which becomes twice the chore when people just won't post.

Question - anybody that uses block initiative, how do you do it? Average? - maybe have the initiative based on the first responder?

I just check the average initiatives.

Average. Sometimes, if its going to be an extremely tough fight, I may roll for it. Usually I ask the group before that though. Make a contract pre-game.

I will use average initiative for most combat. For Boss Fights do you wish me to keep with that or roll for party vs Bad Guy init?

OH and something I saw that I was going to adopt.

Sometimes its hard to realize its a new round.

So Post a summary of the round and Do a post with

NEW ROUND Post Actions

Then post any actions if enemies go first.

*Points upwards to previous explanation*

I handle it exactly as already described. ^^ For enemies, though, I use the highest initiative in the group for their roll. Players get rolled individually to see how many of them get to go before the enemy, and after that it just settles into Players -> Enemy -> Players. One benefit of this is that EVERYONE knows when the next round is, because it's always after the enemies go.

Sakuro - that's how I've done it. Apparently, that doesn't work. For me.

I think what she means is that the gm rolls for everyone at the beginning of combat, and then posts a blurb like:

Reiko
Antonio
Sakuro
--------------
Enemy 1
--------------
Nala
Nia
--------------
Enemy 2
Enemy 3

And then updates next to each persons name as they go. It really expedites combat.

Actually, it's be closer to...

[GM rolls Init for everyone]

"Reiko, Antonio, and Sakuro get to go before the enemies."

[Those three players act]

"All right, the enemies do blah blah blah... party's up!"

[EVERYONE in the party acts]

---

It's worked very well for me. ^^

Other than me doing the initiative, that's what I've tried to do - and when someone else did do it - well, it's still not happening.

Let me know when the time is right to restart - I want to start back up only once people can stay active.

I'm always active. ^^ If something changes, I'll let you know.

I'm always active. ^^ If something changes, I'll let you know.

I appreciate that. :)

I'm pretty active. Whenever the GM is ready.

falls on face and lifts small flag

Never again will I do party then run/play games for two days straight.

Im here weekends are hit and miss for me if im hashing or like this weekend had a gaming palooza.

But have steady internet now and more planning for work so i should be a regular

I gave up on weekends long ago. I'm just not going to worry about that. :)

I just think it's better that I go. :(

If you really feel that way, I can't stop you. I won't blame you, either. I'm not ready to restart the game yet, anyhow, so I can give you time if that helps.

Hopefully there will be more discussion. I'm willing to run the game - I even want to - but the speed of the game has chased off players. I won't run it that slowly.

I think the speed of the game is very dependent on the GM. How fast a pace are you comfortable in committing to?

I started with a hope for an average 2-3 posts per day, per person. I asked for that when I first recruited. I was, after a time, resigned to 1 a day.

Running it at significantly less will take far longer than I could reasonably commit to.

How is it even remotely possible that I can get posts out of people more regularly other than creating an interesting storyline, and vigilantly posting, myself?

I really am open to answers, but let me say that just mysteriously suggesting "there are ways" gets me nowhere, and is rather irritating.

Sorry, apparently this thread of all was blocked where I was at.

Hmm, well one thing I know that helps is a notice in discussion. Incase I looked at the thread at work and when I got home I forgot to answer.

Second thing is a synopsis of what our actions do if no one else posts. This usually prompts other players and gives the player posting some reaction so they can post more/prep their next.

Combat of course makes this iffy but it does help.

Umm..., I cant think of anything at the moment but I have been on an airplane for over 10 hours so brain is a little fuzzy.