About Mike the GM
Hello! My name is Mike Kimmel, and this page includes helpful tips and expectations for players in my play-by-post games.
Recommended Reading and Resources for PBP
PBP Resource Kit (Google Drive folder)
DH's Guide to Play-By-Post Gaming
Building a Better Doomed Hero: Painlord's Advanced Play-by-Post Play
Painlord's Guide to PbP GMing: Make Your World a Better Place
Posting Expectations
Rather than insist on a certain number of posts per day or week, I hold players to the same standard as I hold myself: I expect you to post as often as is needed, adjusting to the pace of the group, as set by me. I plan to post at least once per day. On weekdays, sometimes more. On weekends, sometimes less. When you do post, I expect you to push the action/story/RP or leave/pick up RP hooks. If our pacing changes to the point of negatively impacting your ability to keep up, or if circumstances require your posting pace to temporarily slow, I hope and expect that you will communicate to me earlier rather than later. (Credit goes to Painlord for his helpful guide.)
Character Sheet Expectations
I expect your full character stats to be available in your PC's profile. The shared PBP Resource Kit, above, includes useful stat templates. Please use this format or something similar.
If you are playing in a PFS game I may occasionally ask to see chronicle or inventory sheets, especially if that information is not clearly spelled out in your profile. Be prepared to share this with me.
Role-playing Expectations
The play-by-post format lends itself well to in-depth role-playing. Refer to the guides linked above for tips on role-playing in a PBP game. In particular I expect my players to engage with one another and with the events and characters of the game. Do not sit back and roll dice without also narrating actions, offering role-playing hooks to other PCs, and so on.
Formatting Expectations
Again, refer to the guides for very helpful tips, and follow my lead. I use bold text for speech and blue text for OOC comments. I label my dice rolls and spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, I sometimes use them to condense or call out specific information, and I sometimes use them to hide information that may only be available to certain PCs. If I label a spoiler with a specific skill DC, that information is only available to characters who make the required check. I might also label a spoiler with a specific PC's name.
Combat Maps
I use Google Drive for combat maps. I provide convenient links in my profile tags so that they are accessible in each post. After I set up the map, I expect players to move their own PCs as necessary during combat and narrate their actions and movement in their post for that round. It is especially important to describe your movement if you are trying to avoid an attack of opportunity.
Thank you for reading these expectations. If you have any questions, let me know in a discussion thread or by PM.
I will add other information to this page as necessary.
Thanks to Doomed Hero and Painlord for their excellent guides for play-by-post players and GMs!
