I'm about to run two online games of the Kingmaker AP (Play-by-post on another forum). I have run many long-term campaigns online.
Two questions I have been asking myself is whether the online nature of the campaign will make Kingdom-Building more difficult or less and whether there is a good method of getting the players involved and interested in kingdom-building while also not bogging down the play.
What have other online Kingmaker GMs done in this regard? Grateful for all insights. Thanks.
I have GMed a lot on both PBW and RPoL - and have included various kingdom building elements in some of the games I have run there and face 2 face.
The answer, unfortunately, is that it will depend on your players. Different players will want to get involved at different levels, and the levels of involvement will change as the game progresses. What I do with stuff like that, is to throw out a "How do you want this bit of the kingdom to develop", followed up by a "Would you like to deal with it?" type question to see if anyone really wants involved.
I normally finish up making two or three suggestions, based on their comments, and then talke the one they like best :)
Do you put a time limit on it?
Do you provide graphics or use spreadsheets?
Do you stop the flow of the story to handle it or do you proceed in parallel with whatever's going on in the story?
Always in parallel with the story.
The time limit is 'By the time I need it for the game' so it varies from scenario to scenario. However, I generally find if there is any interest I get a quick response - a slow response generally means they aren't too worried.
Sometimes there are tables, sometimes graphics - it depends on the issue. However it all finishes up on a wiki now-a-days. (it used to be a web site)
http://new-haven.wikidot.com/ Is the wiki for our F2F Kingmaker game.
http://urgon.wikidot.com/ Is the wiki for a 3.0 game on RPoL.
Both have GM and Player contributions (although both are GM heavy)