I recently realized that all of the APs I have been in are either no longer running, or I am no longer apart of.
I have been in 3 or maybe 4 different Rise of the Runelords, I believe two Carrion Crown, two Way of the Wicked and a Kingmaker or two(I forget), all PbP.
All of my current and active games are homebrews, some set in Golarion, some not.
I really, really want to try and play an AP PbP all the way through. I had high hopes for this last RotRL, but I think real life seriously waylaid the GM.
If I had my pick, I would probably go with Rise, WotW, CC, and then any others after, though I would rather not play Shattered Star, if possible.
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Sorry to any who read this for such a long post, but its been something that's been bothering me for about a week now, and I finally got around to posting.
Check the Online Campaigns Recruitment boards regularly.
That is what I do whenever I have a new Character idea I want to play, or one of my current PbP Campaigns dies.
I can see the frustration. It is difficult, but with an AP, you are looking at at least a year for most of them and well it is a bit hard to predict that what is going to happen in rl over such a relatively long period of time. I think in a week or two I may start up a Zeitgeist ap...
I'm new to the boards, but I am thinking of starting up a pbp, due to lack of a real life gaming group. I could definitely see running an AP.
Some caveats:
-It wouldn't be the fastest moving game, because I don't have internet access at work. Most days, I'd be posting once or twice on average.
-It would be a fairly low tech game, probably often without combat maps and such. I would prefer to run a game which focuses on plot and characterization.
-It would be my first attempt at DMing a game using Pathfinder rules. I'm sure mistakes will be made.
I'll think a bit more and perhaps start up a dedicated recruiting thread in the near future.
If you guys have any words of wisdom, let me know.
Go for it, Winter's Herald!
--That's about the pace you see in most games. If anything, GMs tend to call for at least a post a day, and that actually knocks some other people out, believe it or not.
--Plenty of games are like that. One of the best games I'm in right now has the extent of Google Doc spreadsheets with little image tokens and color coding for terrain.
--GMing can always be tough at first, touch and go, whatever. Just warn people of that, and they'll be less likely to rage if there's an error.
I can see the frustration. It is difficult, but with an AP, you are looking at at least a year for most of them and well it is a bit hard to predict that what is going to happen in rl over such a relatively long period of time. I think in a week or two I may start up a Zeitgeist ap...
Insnare, hi, I'm Ryan Nock, the product line manager for ZEITGEIST.
If you do run the adventure path, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. We get a fair number of 4e GMs sharing their experiences over at EN World, but not as many Pathfinder groups.
Our latest adventure was written by a Pathfinder Society guy, Thurston Hillman, who also wrote the recently released PF adventure "The Blakros Matrimony." (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8u8v?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-4-09-The-Bl akros-Matrimony)
To Monkeygod, what tends to cause your Play-by-Posts to end? The ones I've tried always peter out when combat gets too thick, because people get impatient waiting their turns. ZEITGEIST tends to be more roleplaying and investigation oriented, in my opinion, so it might adapt well to PbP.
In fact, the first playtest I ran for the campaign was on a messageboard. Admittedly whenever combat came up we ran it narratively, testing out the tactics and pacing more than the numbers. If you're interested, just search for ZEITGEIST here on Paizo's site. The intro material is all free in the store.
Whatever you end up trying, I wish you luck.
DMs going missing seems to be a common problem.
In fact, most of the ones I can think of that died out were due to the GM just disappearing. Two RotRL, the Kingmaker, I think both Carrion Crowns, and plenty of non AP ones.
I was in at least 4 Rise of the runelords games and all died due to DM leaving. (1 was an announced departure though)
I share your pain Monkeygod. New DM should try with a module dirst. They can take close to a year to finish. My experience of AP (I run two at the moment) is they can take about a year per volume... One DM suggested starting a game in volume 2, which I thought would be a great way of involving players who played part of the first before it died.
I started a Carrion Hill module, and since it went very well, I'm transitioning into Carrion Crown, vol. 3.
I also think PbP APs should be run very differently, cutting away the encounter that don't bring much and leveling at the DM's discretion.
But for sure it's tough out there. I don't care to count the number of games that never started or got past page one...
dming requires a much greater commitment and therefore dms tend to drop out as the demands wear them down. I've recently ended a campaign i was dming for just that reason. i personally find i like making up the story. i like writing the battle recaps but i hate the mundane mechanics of running a pbp game. the pbp format is a bit clunky in that regard
but Krallek I so much enjoyed your game !!!!
I had all sorts of songs lined up for future encounters
Sorry Fulito. Things just got real busy all out a sudden and i hate not being fully committed to something line that. Your character was a hoot.
DMing an AP is a big time commitment, hence why I don't start them.
I have saved a few AP's from missing GMs,
but it's a 33% chance that it'll still go strong.
33% chance it'll still die
or 33% chance it'll be on a knife's edge of dying.
I only start PBP games with modules since the time needed to finish one is much less than an AP.