I've been occasionally looking at some of the play by post games and I 'm rather interested in starting one. But this is something I've never seen before; things are so alien I feel like a Warforged who stepped out of his crate to find himself on Krynn.
Can anyone give some basic starting advice for a fledgeling DM?
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Where I play PbP, we have "setup" threads, where the DM describes the basics of the game, and characters are created/leveled and various meta-game discussions are held, and the "game" thread where the game takes place.
Lots of times it's easier for the DM to do all the rolling, although there is software and sites out there that let you do a more collaborative "virtual tabletop" experience. Oh, and make absolutely sure you explain any house rules you might have, and usually its a good idea to have time limits ("Post at least once every 24 hours" is a common one).
You can tell what books you will allow your players to use, also give your players a little history about the world where your players will be playing in. As said already tell the PCs what level you want them to start off on and if you want can have starting gp. You could also have your characters make a profile for there character with all there stats there, yup there are other programs to, or you could have your Pcs use Microsoft word to send the info to you by e-mail. Also have your PCs, if you want to write a backround about their character,(everyone has a story.)
I hope this helps and i wish you luck starting a campaign up.
AWED
I noticed some players were using a website called Invisible Castle for some posts. Do you need any website other than the forums? For Dm or players?
I noticed some players were using a website called Invisible Castle for some posts. Do you need any website other than the forums? For Dm or players?
I don't think so, you could ask other DMs about that, as you can see Invisible Castle is for players or DM to roll dice.
and this is from Mothman when he started in the discussion post "The age of Darkness" For character cards:
Character sheets. If I could get characters on an Excel, Word, or editable PDF type character sheet that would be very cool – no massive files please! Some good sources of such sheets I have found are www.dndadventure.com, www.rpgsheets.com, and there is a good editable PDF sheet on www.d20srd.org. These are the sites where you can get the character cards to make (If your players want to use this.)
I can't seem to open the sheets from rpgsheets. Other than that one, which do you recommend?
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If you are doing your pbp here, get them to set up aliases and use the "Profile" page for the alias.
Personally, I've never run one of these before the one on here. It isn't really that difficult - easier, if anything, since you don't need to come up with an instant reaction to an unexpected PC action. Just do it, is the advice I would give.
One more question; Can I use Dungeon Modules for play by post on this site?
While Pbp DMs are around, how often do you expect your players to log on?
I'm interested but don't want to jump into something I don't have the time for.
Thak you Mothman, and Kruelaid , I'm still working on it.
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I've been occasionally looking at some of the play by post games and I 'm rather interested in starting one. But this is something I've never seen before; things are so alien I feel like a Warforged who stepped out of his crate to find himself on Krynn.
Can anyone give some basic starting advice for a fledgeling DM?
What has worked well for me over the past three-four years is simply pulling together a small group of loyal posters and playing via e-mailing. It's much slower that Tabletop Gaming, but allows the opportunity to design maps that evolve via play, you don't have to think on the fly so much, and it really gives you the opportunity to think through an enemies strategy much more thoroughly, as well as take time to give really good descriptions to the events that play out.
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While Pbp DMs are around, how often do you expect your players to log on?
I'm interested but don't want to jump into something I don't have the time for.
It varies from game to game, DM to DM. I have a bunch of really good and motivated players in my game, most of whom post (at least) once a day, and usually several times, although our game slows down on weekends when I am usually not around.
Generally things seem to work as long as people are posting at least every few days. A lot depends on the DM's posting schedule as well.
Do you guys use IMs (in particular MSN or Yahoo) to keep in touch while you are playing?
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While Pbp DMs are around, how often do you expect your players to log on?
I'm interested but don't want to jump into something I don't have the time for.
If they are interested and nothing much is interfering, I reckon once a day is reasonable, though not everyone can manage that. I find they wind down at weekends and kick off again during the week - people aren't as bored at the weekend, I guess. ;-)
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Do you guys use IMs (in particular MSN or Yahoo) to keep in touch while you are playing?
No - as Mothman says, that only really works in the same timezone. As with Mothman, I think the players in my game are spread over four timezones, only two of which are American.
The big problem I am finding with PbP is the clear description of combat areas without the use of a visual aid. It can probably be done reasonably easily, but probably not at work where the websites are blocked. If Paizo could fix this, the site would be perfect for PbP. I'm relying on a text-based desciption, and I'm being fairly loose on some aspects of position and its impact on combat, but sometimes players don't see it like you do, probably due to misinterpretation of ambiguities in the description. So it doesn't work brilliantly for this aspect of D&D.
What it is superb at, however, is the roleplaying aspect, especially for those (like me) who aren't very good at face-to-face roleplaying. Writing it out in a novelistic style seems to convey things better for me, and it is fun (and not embarrassing) to do, if you have the time.
getting started is easy if you have some players who are motivated; keeping the game going seems to be the big problems imho; it is really cool how some pbp games have taken off and are still going; is a real bummer that some dont and I don't know why....
There is in the looking for players thread; a post from some people that run a pbp site; with the utilities there you can post maps and it has a lot of other neat stuff to help players and a gm; my only problem with it is getting players to post.
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/connection/playByPost ForumBasedSiteLookingForDMs
this is the path for it; or you can look for DMSirine; everyone has been very helpful over there; I just cannot seem to get my players to give me a character sheet to get the game going; maybe it is because it is summertime and peeps are out doing other things all the time; maybe fall and winter is a better time to run a game; who knows.
anyway; the post above is in the looking for players section; you can just look for posts by DMSirine also; you can learn a lot by reading their boards about pbp games and dming.
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getting started is easy if you have some players who are motivated; keeping the game going seems to be the big problems imho; it is really cool how some pbp games have taken off and are still going; is a real bummer that some dont and I don't know why....
As with most games, the players are normally very happy to keep things running. I think that if the DM gets distracted or loses enthusiasm, the games will expire quite quickly.
I can't seem to open the sheets from rpgsheets. Other than that one, which do you recommend?
I would recommend www.dndadventure.com because there are different character cards there, and it is neat to see what different to see what is there.