I was reading along with a few PbPs and I was curious to hear any summaries of experience GMs and players would care to share.
1. What PbP are you or were you in?
2. How would you describe your experience?
3. Did anything that happened in the game blow your mind? (Please use spoilers if you're revealing story details of a published adventure)
4. What do you like or dislike about PbPs in general?
Mine's pretty good.
Sometimes it's slow, sometimes it's a mile a minute; like fishing.
I'll elucidate more as time permits,
dislike:
combat can bog down and take a few days, but I think it still works pretty good.
also, if you try to get really descriptive and intricate about a combat map, you can screw yourself as nobody'll know what's going on.
like:
the rp'ing is, IMHO, infinitely more sophisticated than IRL; for me anyway, I'm enabled to be more descriptive and thoughtful about the interactions than when I'm face to face, thinking it up and shooting from the hip.
I don't have too much trouble with bogdowns. Hell, sometime a nice bogdown gives you time to get it together. People have real lives, and they can't be here all the time, so it's no big deal.
The main logjam fixes for me are:
1) If YOU are going to be gone for a while/days/weeks/whatever, let me know and we'll let another character do your action or semiretire you for a bit.
2) When nobody seems to know what to do next, grab the bull by the horns as dungeonmaster and fugue/storytell them into the next bit. Or, better yet, have some mook kick in the f$+!ing door and start rampaging on them.
Hell, sometimes I'M the bogdown. This March, for instance, I pulled a week with two 16 hour days and I did call 14 nights. Brain no workee, no time to build the next encounter, just gotta take a step back and breathe sometimes. Read some weird crap, come up with some evil schemes. Whatever...
... Whatever...
+1
I was running four, until recently, and I was playing in Heathy's psychadelic Sasserine masterpiece. PbPs are great if you enjoy atmosphere and settings. If combat is your fix, PbPs usually don't have a lot, or not a lot on realtime clocks.
As for mindblowing, in Heathy's game one character's dog just got the ability to change their headshape by eating the pineal gland of a rakasta, how perfect an example is that?
Heh heh.....GOODTIMES!!!
It's kruelaid's dog; he's a joker like me, so I figured I'd supply him with some raw material I just brainstormed up.
I am in like 8 or 9 of them, and i just started running one on my own when our DM flaked. Actually half the ones I joined have died. Since i only started a few months ago, nothing really important I missed.
|
I'm in Aubrey's Eberron and Rise of the Runelords games as a player character; good times.
He's starting a 4e kingmaker game; just got the 4e phb.
Aubrey just made our Eberron guys the victims of Sharn's equivalent of harrassment by bad British tabloids...our fame may be our undoing. (I have to admit to aiding and abetting him by purposely letting my cleric with drinking issues also be a drunk loudmouth and telling our story to them for publishing. It's quite disturbing and funny. It's a great schtick which I will file away to steal some time in the future if the opportunity presents itsself).
Heh heh.....GOODTIMES!!!
It's kruelaid's dog; he's a joker like me, so I figured I'd supply him with some raw material I just brainstormed up.
I like to throw a lot of things out there like that; see what if anything the players do with these things. I think the interplay, when it happens, spontaneously inspires me. It inspires us all...
I'm in Aubrey's Eberron and Rise of the Runelords games as a player character; good times.
He's starting a 4e kingmaker game; just got the 4e phb.Aubrey just made our Eberron guys the victims of Sharn's equivalent of harrassment by bad British tabloids...our fame may be our undoing. (I have to admit to aiding and abetting him by purposely letting my cleric with drinking issues also be a drunk loudmouth and telling our story to them for publishing. It's quite disturbing and funny. It's a great schtick which I will file away to steal some time in the future if the opportunity presents itsself).
I found that hilarious! Kudos to Aubrey for that! your games, FW Frostbite, and the PFS intro (Nik) PbP are ones I am following closely
I ran a Planescape game called Unity of Rings a while ago. It was a lot of fun, but I had to drop it due to both lack of experience/preparation and just being incapable of putting in enough time. Trying to stick in there with Explorers of the Inner Sea and the Scarred Lands Serpent Amphora game, which are currently on hiatus while I get all my ducks in a row. Currently playing Isaac in Patrick's Silver Rose pbp and Ragnar Stolen-Voice in French Wolf's Frostbite pbp, and I've been in one or two others where the DM had to drop out, notably mwbeeler's Dark Sun game.
I'd have to agree that ultimately the RPing is the most fun aspect of a pbp game; since real life time vs. game time has to be disconnected just due to the nature of the format, it's much easier to have a good time when you're not dividing time in rounds and waiting for someone's action in combat. Combat's always going to be a big part of D&D, but I think role-playing and investigation slanted adventures work really well. The most mind-blowing part is getting a much better sense of setting and place in a pbp as opposed to a game in RL; since French Wolf and Patrick have a bit more time to consider where they're going in a given post and what they want to say, it's much easier to feel like one is walking down a street in Sigil or setting out on a drakkar in a viking-themed setting. At it's best, a pbp can be like playing through a novel.
Thanks, everyone.
I wondered if having more time to write out what you mean to say helped hone play somehow. IRL roleplay has me sink deep into character, but I can see how having the time to get things just right brings a whole different glow and unique level of immersion to play.
And the pineal gland scene... definitely out of left field greatness. Aubrey's fame gone wrong plotline sounds really engaging.
I know these PbPs suffer a high mortality rate and never knew why. Thanks Keegs for explaining how that can happen.
Yeah, it looks like less work than it is to keep these games organized. It's easy to start it out and run for a few weeks, but consistently making the time can be difficult. The slow pace can also be a problem if you aren't really patient.
Man, I freakin love pbp. It's like a t.v. show except I'm writing it, and I get to go write it every night or every other night or whatever, same bat time, same bat channel, whatever.
Freaking awesome.
It's like a serial, man. Really really bottom basement lowtech and all, it's not quite the "WoW" experience, but I think it subsumes "cromag's sitting around the campfire telling ghost stories and inventing mythology" better than television's "cromag stares into the fire until he's blind and his brain no workee no how."
Not that tabletopping with meatpeople doesn't do that either,...
|
3. Did anything that happened in the game blow your mind?
I thought this encounter was pretty cool.
As for what works and not:
* Dungeons can get tedious in the PbP format, as do any area containing traps.
* Loot distribution can be a problem, especially if you are using a pre-written adventure.
* Roleplaying gets better onine, as you have more time thinking up witty remarks. Of course, that may hurt people who play (or are) quiet. Combat works well, but takes a while, so those who thrive on constant action will be bored.
So far
Ran two..My Wilderlands/Goodman 1e feel game which is now coming up for 20 monthsand my take over on a failing RotRl which is now 18 months old.Both doing well with solid player cores.
Played in..well lots..some disappointments..2 second Darkness games that failed before we got to the second fight and a Lost Baron game that ended just as it was about to get interesting.Also a 20th level game that
Was in Pat's homebrew Tharkad Kul game which just ended..
Currently have characters in 2 homebrew and two AP games(Curse and Council) and also Expodition to the Demonweb Pits and having a blast with all off them.
JAMES KEEGAN
Drop a line when the Serpent Amphora game is ready to go again, mmmmkay? Amon Goethe will be ready to go again.
I've dabbled in a few as a player - none of which ended up running more than a couple of hundred posts. I was running four for a little while and was really enjoying it - I don't get the chance to play much face-to-face anymore and it surprised me what a decent substitute it can be. However, I underestimated how much time can be required - when all four games got busy I was easily spending a few hours each day keeping up as DM. Eventually Real-Life won out. :(
I think a committed DM who can guarantee to keep posts coming is one of the most vital ingredients to the success of a PBP. It seems to me that the odd player absence can be glossed over without too much drama - an active DM prodding the group when things bog down and responding to player activity promptly really seems to help keep the game alive.
Like others,I found the roleplay/descriptive side of pathfinder easier in the PBP format than face-to-face. However there was the two-edged sword of playing with people with widely varying playstyles to your own - I experienced a few moments of just "not getting" where someone was going. Combat seemed to go OK - players rarely go AWOL at that point and provided it doesnt drag on through too many rounds I still found it 'exciting' in a strange kind of way.
I know you asked for experienced GMs' opinions, but I thought I'd also give you a newbie DM's perspective. So far, it has been great, the amount and degree of rping between the players and the NPCs and among the players themselves is amazing. In my RL games, I've never seen such creative commentary. I find myself refreshing the page just to see players' reactions or comments. It's also easier for the DM to go with the flow of the game than in face to face games and let the creative juices loose. I'm currently running a Legacy of Fire PbP and 200+ posts in, we're not yet even on Page 1 of the Adventure Path and I currently have the players looking for shelter and fleeing a sandstorm...at 1st level!
The main downside with the PbP format I see is visualizing combat with grids and squares (the tactical side). I'm not too computer savvy to know how to post or create combat maps online, etc.., so it will be a lot of description. Any suggestions or tips that do not involve using maptools or other such programs (which I don't have) to improve this would be great.
The main downside with the PbP format I see is visualizing combat with grids and squares (the tactical side). I'm not too computer savvy to know how to post or create combat maps online, etc.., so it will be a lot of description. Any suggestions or tips that do not involve using maptools or other such programs (which I don't have) to improve this would be great.
Lucendar: I learned most of my online mapping skills from this sticky thread
I actually find it easier to do maps online. I can 'draw as I go' or set up an entire battlefield in advance. I just mapped a floating rock in the Elemental Plane of Fire from an old 2e Planescape module a few months back, and the dynamics worked out really well.