Been a fan of RPGs for a long time, but have never really played with any regularity. You see, I really got into them in my mid-twenties after I acquired an independently earned income after grad school. The problem is that the particulars of my job make it pretty difficult to find other gamers. "How so?", you might ask. Well...
I'm in the military. But, as we all know, lots of active-duty folks play, right? True, true. But my position as a fairly senior officer (and the attendant culture inherent thereto) makes finding a group basically impossible, not to mention that my actual job only adds to this limitation.
Thus, I have been looking at PbP options, but am unsure if they are really worth the time. There are several on this board that seem really great, but there appear to be just as many that die off rather quickly.
Thoughts?
Of course, being overseas does not help either. 'Speciallly when the local nationals don't really speak English (and vice versa).
Having never tried Pbp I can't comment on that, but you could try playing through a virtual tabletop (VTT). I use that to play with friends in four different countries.
Fantasy Grounds II is a great one an has an active community, but there are other programs too depending on your preferences.
Having never tried Pbp I can't comment on that, but you could try playing through a virtual tabletop (VTT). I use that to play with friends in four different countries.
Fantasy Grounds II is a great one an has an active community, but there are other programs too depending on your preferences.
I've been looking at that, too, as I do have some friends back in the States that may be up to it. Prob is the timezone differences. It's tough to do something "live."
I've been looking at that, too, as I do have some friends back in the States that may be up to it. Prob is the timezone differences. It's tough to do something "live."Having never tried Pbp I can't comment on that, but you could try playing through a virtual tabletop (VTT). I use that to play with friends in four different countries.
Fantasy Grounds II is a great one an has an active community, but there are other programs too depending on your preferences.
Our group has 7 to 8 hours time difference depending on daylight savings, which usually works on the occasional weekend, but of course it depends on your schedule.
You might find others closer to your time-zone on various VTT forums too.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
|
Hi Sojourner,
First, is a PbP worth it? Do you sit at a computer most of the day and have serious work to do but need an occasional five minutes of fantasy to rejuvenate yourself? Consider a PbP. I think I'd pull my hair out if it weren't for my stolen moments with Galadar, Liandra, Eria, Hru, Sir Manfred, Sykala the Druid, Korian, Asim, Ovirid, Ixius (who am I forgetting?) ...
Two, will the group stick around? There's a thread analyzing why PbPs die. Try to find a PbP run by an experienced GM or PbP player. Try joining an existing PbP that has been running for a while but wants to pick up one player.
Cheers and good luck.
Tarren,
Thanks for the encouragement. My days can be very busy, but I would lying if I said that I could not find 20 mins or more to post (as I am doing now ;) ). Work is probably the best venue as I also have 7 week old twin boys (they rock! my sleep? not so much). I find that I love reading, buying, collecting the RPG materials, but have rarely actually used them.
Best,
Sojourner
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
|
A great site for all kinds of PbP is Myth Weavers.
They've got a built in dice roller, interactive character sheets for tons of systems, and a pretty active community.
If you decide to join there and have any questions, shoot me a message either here or on MW (Screen name is 'Geshko').
Game on!
EDIT: Fixed the link. ^_^;
Obsidian Portal is pretty good too. TTopRPG is a free VTT for Windows - Pygon in the chatroom has a demo adventure set up to walk you through how to use it. MapTool is also quite popular.
Hope you get some gaming action soon! *offers a handful of virtual cookies*
I've been running a pbp for a group of seven friends (some of whom I have not met face to face and one of whom is out of state)for over a year now. It has been fantastic! Though we do post several times a day.
It becomes more of a collaborative storytelling endeavor and it is easier in a pbp to run sub-plots or have some characters go off on their own.
As the GM I also keep a master narrative where I write up all the action and dialogue as though it were a novelization. Each player only knows what I as GM tell them as a group or each of them as individuals. So many times no one has the full picture of the action except myself - which creates levels of intrigure and fog-of-war and mystery that I don't think I could pull off if we were all playing face-to-face.
Anyway, I highly recommend giving it a try.
If anyone is interested the first 24 chapters of the story are here:
http://gutwrenchingrpg.org/atss/narrative/
The campaign is set in the Hold of the Sea Princes in the Greyhawk campaign world wherein I have placed the Necromancer Games revision of The Caverns of Thracia.
A great site for all kinds of PbP is Myth Weavers.
They've got a built in dice roller, interactive character sheets for tons of systems, and a pretty active community.
If you decide to join there and have any questions, shoot me a message either here or on MW (Screen name is 'Geshko').Game on!
EDIT: Fixed the link. ^_^;
Thanks, friend! I will definitely take a look at that (in addition to all of the other suggestions). Greatly appreciate all of the advice.
Lilith, thanks for the cookies! I am up late with my twins boys again and snacks that I can pile in my lap are KEY! :)
I plan to set aside some time tomorrow morning at the office to see what websites work with our network. The most popular bandwidth hogs are often blocked. Thankfully, Paizo has not registered on their radar as it is not graphics intensive nor does it rely on streaming video.
Great community, this one!
I've been looking at that, too, as I do have some friends back in the States that may be up to it. Prob is the timezone differences. It's tough to do something "live."
I'm in the UK, and I play online weekly with my brother in the States, using Fantasy Grounds. We play on Sunday - afternoon for him, evening for myself and the rest of the group. It works great for us, but obviously whether it would for you depends on your schedule.
Thus, I have been looking at PbP options, but am unsure if they are really worth the time. There are several on this board that seem really great, but there appear to be just as many that die off rather quickly.
Thoughts?
My suggestion: if you're going to try play-by-post (or play-by-email) games, try to play several at once. Then it's more likely that one or two of them will survive.
I just have one question. Who is Job?
|
Been a fan of RPGs for a long time, but have never really played with any regularity. You see, I really got into them in my mid-twenties after I acquired an independently earned income after grad school. The problem is that the particulars of my job make it pretty difficult to find other gamers. "How so?", you might ask. Well...
I'm in the military. But, as we all know, lots of active-duty folks play, right? True, true. But my position as a fairly senior officer (and the attendant culture inherent thereto) makes finding a group basically impossible, not to mention that my actual job only adds to this limitation.
Thus, I have been looking at PbP options, but am unsure if they are really worth the time. There are several on this board that seem really great, but there appear to be just as many that die off rather quickly.
Thoughts?
Well, depending on where you're at overseas, this might not be much of an issue. I was in Germany, and there were alot of small posts located close together that didn't really have much contact with each other. I would just check the stripes classifieds, find a group that isn't on your post, don't mention you're an officer, and make the drive up there to play.
I played alot of wow over there and we had a full bird in our guild and his rank was NEVER an issue (we were all lowly SPCs)...also, no offense, but rank typically is only an issue when the higher ranking person makes it an issue. As long as you don't throw your rank around and "play it cool" there's no reason why you can't stay in cognito and what your CoC doesn't know won't hurt you.