How does Play by Post work?

[Bugb34r]

How long does it take? I would appreciate any specifics please...thanks

[Doctor Kash]

Bugb34r wrote:

How long does it take? I would appreciate any specifics please...thanks

Typically it depends on the forum, but in a Play-by-Post game, you post your character's dialogue and actions on the forum. People are generally expected to post at least once a day. When combat occurs, your turn is generally one post. Depending on the forum your dice rolls are generally handled by the forum software, different GMs have several different methods for handling minis/battlemaps.

A PbP PFS scenario usually takes anywhere from 3-5 months to complete.

[Derek Weil]

I'd like to comment that in my experience PFS sceanrios can often be completed much more quickly if the group really does post 1-2 times per day. Games I've run have finished in as little as 3 weeks, but I'd say that around a month is the average.

So my experience shos that 3-5 weeks is very doable.

I played in a group that did Snows of Summer (the 1st part of the Reign of Winter AP) in 2 weeks, but that involved HEAVY posting volume.

[Hawkwen Agricola]

I would say that 6-8 weeks is a reasonable expectation for the length of a PbP, ran by a diligent GM with active players.

[Bugb34r]

And the character in use is locked in to that scenario for the duration, right?

[Hawkwen Agricola]

Bugb34r wrote:

And the character in use is locked in to that scenario for the duration, right?

That is correct.

[Aeshuura]

I am with Jeremy and Derek, I try to finish my PFS Scenarios in 4-6 weeks. I think the fastest that I finished was 3 weeks, and the longest was 2 months.

[DM Rah]

I'm averaging about 4 weeks. Just finished running Night March of Kalkamedes in nearly 1 month, which started August 13 and ended September 14.

[Avatar-1]

Fair enough that maps are handled differently by different GMs, but what are the options they have? Is there anything more commonly done?

[Mystic Lemur]

ditzie.com takes some getting used to, but I find it works well. The GM loads a map and tokens to represent characters/monsters and then posts a URL to the map. The GM, or even the players, can then edit the map and post a new, unique url to the altered map.

For example:
Round 1
Round 2

[DM Rah]

For the first few PbP games I ran I used a process similar to Mystic Lemur's, though I used photobucket to store the maps. I have since moved over to using google drive, which allows you to create a drawing with layers, which you can give editing access to those with the link so they can add notes or area of effect shapes.

EXAMPLE