Painlord's Guide to PbP GMing: Make Your World a Better Place


Online Campaigns General Discussion

101 to 150 of 188 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | next > last >>

Love it! Contingencies are really awesome and it is great when players do them. Nice work to GM Rutseg for actively encouraging it. Lessons for us all to take on board (players and GMs alike).

By the way, Painlord, you have kinda touched on it a little (well the spirit of it, anyway) in your original PbP guide: Always Be Pushing (my favorite PbP rule ever). Contingencies allow a perfect way to keep things moving.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Painlord wrote:

These are the only two complete Paizo APs that I know that has been completed via PbP that I know of:

#1:This bad ass run as Pirates.

#2:GM Evilan's Curse of the Crimson Throne. There is a reason why GM Evilan is so mentioned in the original post.

And this mofo is in the final fights of Book 6:

Council of Thieves. 3 GMs, some early turnover, but...it's almost in the books.

Here's my completed COT AP link.

COT AP

I really liked the last few posts as the characters wrapped up and bid farewell.

I loosely tied the end events in the COT AP into the beginning of my current Razor Coast Campaign.

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Excuse me if this has been mentioned previously but before I started running my game, I took a look at my life and made sure I was in a stable situation for the foreseeable future.

I know stuff happens but I felt confident in my situation that I would be able to see it through to the end.


baldwin the merciful wrote:
Painlord wrote:

These are the only two complete Paizo APs that I know that has been completed via PbP that I know of:

#1:This bad ass run as Pirates.

#2:GM Evilan's Curse of the Crimson Throne. There is a reason why GM Evilan is so mentioned in the original post.

And this mofo is in the final fights of Book 6:

Council of Thieves. 3 GMs, some early turnover, but...it's almost in the books.

Here's my completed COT AP link.

COT AP

I really liked the last few posts as the characters wrapped up and bid farewell.

I loosely tied the end events in the COT AP into the beginning of my current Razor Coast Campaign.

Shadows over Westcrown This COT game also ended and they even did some Moonscar.


Hi,

I got a little trouble remembering how to use Google docs.

here's the Map I want to use.

How can I put the map on the background to place the character's tokens on it?

thank u for any help


Select it, and push shift+ctrl+down arrow to send anything to the "bottom". Shift+ctrl+up arrow sends something to the top. Ctrl+up or down moves them one layer at a time.


Thankies DM Jelani, you're full of pure awesomeness as usual! ^^
I missed the "shift" part, so it didn't work


MannyGoblin wrote:
baldwin the merciful wrote:
Painlord wrote:

These are the only two complete Paizo APs that I know that has been completed via PbP that I know of:

#1:This bad ass run as Pirates.

#2:GM Evilan's Curse of the Crimson Throne. There is a reason why GM Evilan is so mentioned in the original post.

And this mofo is in the final fights of Book 6:

Council of Thieves. 3 GMs, some early turnover, but...it's almost in the books.

Here's my completed COT AP link.

COT AP

I really liked the last few posts as the characters wrapped up and bid farewell.

I loosely tied the end events in the COT AP into the beginning of my current Razor Coast Campaign.

Shadows over Westcrown This COT game also ended and they even did some Moonscar.

Interesting that 3 of the 5 games listed that were completed have been COT APs.

The Exchange

COT doesn't climb as high in level terms as the other APs, which maybe makes it easier and quicker to run.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

And, since everyone "knows" it, there is little down time waiting for players to "decide" what they are supposed to do next

This, this thing right here, is what is turning me off of Pathfinder in general. It seems that the deeper I dig the more I learn that most players do not want to play role playing games at all, but just want to play APs (the ones they already know) for the experience of trying new character builds, feeding the need to make character building the only part of the game where decisions are even made any more.

Go ahead and run a home built adventure and put three characters at a crossroads, north, east, and west (or return to the inn, south) and see how long it takes the players to decide what to do or where to go when they don't already know where they are supposed to go and what they are supposed to do.

The Exchange

I'm surprised by that comment, Terquem. Is this in PbP or more generally?


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber
Terquem wrote:

And, since everyone "knows" it, there is little down time waiting for players to "decide" what they are supposed to do next

This, this thing right here, is what is turning me off of Pathfinder in general. It seems that the deeper I dig the more I learn that most players do not want to play role playing games at all, but just want to play APs (the ones they already know) for the experience of trying new character builds, feeding the need to make character building the only part of the game where decisions are even made any more.

Go ahead and run a home built adventure and put three characters at a crossroads, north, east, and west (or return to the inn, south) and see how long it takes the players to decide what to do or where to go when they don't already know where they are supposed to go and what they are supposed to do.

I think it's a bit harder to build the dynamic of decision making for the group in PbP, moreso than in live gaming. Back in the old Basic D&D days there was supposed to be a "caller" for the party, that made the group decisions (eg, we open the door or we turn west at the big rock), and, at least in my experience, that person rises to the fore during live gaming sessions. Harder to parse that out when you don't get non-verbal cues, and no one wants to offend the rest of the group in PbP.

Perhaps naming a party leader or caller is your solution, Terquem? Without a railroad to follow, someone has to blaze the trail.


I shouldn't derail the thread, sorry. To answer the question, briefly, and hope it is dropped, I'll just say that that is my feeling regarding PbP, which is all I do these days with anything more than a one shot game night when a player from my past just happens to be in town.

There is no solution, I've tried the "caller" approach, and it hasn't worked. But more important to the complaint I made is that I am slowly coming to understand that I was never very good at this, and that what I want to do isn't what most others want to do, and that I should stop complaining, enjoy what I have, and make the best of it.

The Exchange

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm not sure this is a derail.

On decision-making in general, I've found that some players are just more dynamic than others in PbP. It seems to be a matter of basic personality. While the other players contribute, some are more inclined to actually say "We do this". I think the others are maybe more diffident when deciding what the group as a whole will do. I have also noticed that if those players are not present, a game can really grind to a halt because the others are still not really willing to make decisions even if no one else is there to make the decisions for them. If you have a caller, chances are it will just be one of these more dynamic types anyway. So a lot of the time it will be player personality that makes or breaks this - you need to get the right mix.

On the other issue, I run five PbPs here on these boards. Two are Paizo APs, two are Eberron "AP" games with my own patent and copyrighted plots, and the third is a Dark Sun 4e game which is also my own plot. I've not noticed much difference in play between them in general. I haven't found much problem getting players either for my own confections compared with the APs (the 4e is more problematic, but I think that's down to the general lack of favour for the system, especially on this board). So if you think this is an issue, you should probably make it clear (I assume you DM) at recruitment that you'll only accept people who haven't read or played the AP before. I'm sure there are loads of people out there who would be happy to play under those circumstances. And you can always change things to confound people who might be just sleepwalking through things they think they know already. My RotRL had a section which had absolutely nothing to do with the AP as written. And it had nothing to do with me being inspired, it simply came out of in-character player discussions and ideas to which I reacted.

The Exchange

Terquem wrote:
But more important to the complaint I made is that I am slowly coming to understand that I was never very good at this, and that what I want to do isn't what most others want to do, and that I should stop complaining, enjoy what I have, and make the best of it.

So what do you mean? I think this is perfectly valid to discuss here, but you are being a bit mysterious.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16

2 people marked this as a favorite.

I agree decision making can be a little bit more of a labored process in PBP. I was recently asked in a PM about suggestions for starting a Kingmaker PBP and my honest advice is I wouldn't start that AP again. I think it's just a little too sandbox-y and open for PBP, where a more directed campaign works better.

As a player, I've discovered I tend to be a bit decision-averse in general, and in some ways it's even worse on PBP because I can't quickly check with my fellow players and make sure they're OK with what I'm about to do. In one of my PBP games, our battle-weary party encountered four giants at 2:30 p.m. Monday, while we were trying to find a safe place to hold up and rest. Unlike most of the party, my rogue has few expendable resources so felt we should take them out ASAP. It took us to 3:20 p.m. Thursday before combat began (and that wasn't because we were doing anything else in between; just trying to come to some consensus about engaging or sneaking away unnoticed).

That's the downside of PBP, which balances with some of its strengths.

The Exchange

I tried Kingmaker as a PbP and abandoned it. It was sandbox-y and wasn't something I concluded I really liked. The AP as written suffers a little bit from a lack of foreshadowing of subsequent events as well, although a DM can fix that if he knows about it in advance (I didn't). I'd also maybe inject some subsidiary plot threads in there too to run through a few episodes of the AP, if I was doing it again. It also probably didn't help I was running it in 4e, and doing the conversion was a drag - nothing I couldn't handle, but I really wasn't enjoying it enough to put the effort in. God alone knows how the town-building stuff would have worked in PbP (we never got that far) - that would probably have to be hand-waved or run in the background or that would probably bog down massively.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16

It's strange, since it seems like such a popular choice for PBP, but I think Kingmaker is one of the worst options for this format. I could be wrong, of course -- there are plenty of APs I'm not fully familiar with -- but that's my gut feeling.

--

On a completely different note, what are people using these days to extract images from pdfs? I've been using some PDF extractor, but the license has expired and it looks like they may be out of business.

The Exchange

Pdf extractor...? Wow, tech stuff of which I never dreamt...

Curious too.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

I use GIMP to extract the .pdf page and the scale the image as needed. (Full disclosure: GIMP has something of a learning curve if you're not well-versed in PhotoShop.)


I too make use of GIMP.


Terquem wrote:
... just want to play APs (the ones they already know) for the experience of trying new character builds, ...

That frankly astonishes me. I don't think I've ever heard that as a preference. I personally am willing to replay an AP if the rest of the group hasn't done it and it's the only game I have access to at that time. But it certainly isn't my goal and I've never had anyone tell me it was their goal.

A couple of times we have re-run a particularly tough battle to see if different tactics or PC's would have worked better. But never a whole AP or whole module.


I think that the reason for KM's PBP popularity is that there are elements to it that are that are very convenient to handle in a PBP environment, which is confused with the statement "KM is good for PBP."

For example, the kingdom building rules aren't to everyone's liking, so PBP is a great opportunity to turn it over to the players who want to run the spreadsheet that tracks the kingdom. They can do that offline. Same with exploration and any additional systems that the GM wants to add that's appropriate to KM, such as daily weather, for example. Those are great things to handle between posts in a PBP environment.

However, the fact that the story for KM doesn't really kick off until the later books, and the fact that the first two books mostly center around sandbox exploration, KM doesn't lend itself to a focused, goal-oriented environment, which works really well for PBP.

I'm running a KM PBP (not on Paizo), and we just finished the first book. I had to gloss over many of the encounters, others I had to enhance just to make them interesting. We are one scene away from finishing the first book, and I already plan on handwaving the exploration and kingdom building rules for the second book. Instead, I've already lined up a number of PC-oriented stories that the players can follow up on to fill content.


GM Niles wrote:
I too make use of GIMP.

I just use MS 'snipping tool' or just 'alt print screen' and then clip with PAINT.NET.


motteditor wrote:

In one of my PBP games, our battle-weary party encountered four giants at 2:30 p.m. Monday, while we were trying to find a safe place to hold up and rest. Unlike most of the party, my rogue has few expendable resources so felt we should take them out ASAP. It took us to 3:20 p.m. Thursday before combat began (and that wasn't because we were doing anything else in between; just trying to come to some consensus about engaging or sneaking away unnoticed).

That's the downside of PBP, which balances with some of its strengths.

This is really, like most of everything in PbPs, dictated by the GM.

In my games, a player has 24 hours to post for 1 round of combat. If he doesn't, then I make some educated guesses on his part.

If this happens too often, then I talk to the player and eventually drop him if he can't/won't keep up.

I make it clear during recruitment that this is the type of game that I want to run.

Problem solved and game continues.

It's similar for non-combat situation. If the players don't come up with a definite plan in a timely manner, I just make an assumptions and tell them to 'let me know otherwise'.

Idem as for combat situations.


motteditor wrote:

It's strange, since it seems like such a popular choice for PBP, but I think Kingmaker is one of the worst options for this format. I could be wrong, of course -- there are plenty of APs I'm not fully familiar with -- but that's my gut feeling.

--

On a completely different note, what are people using these days to extract images from pdfs? I've been using some PDF extractor, but the license has expired and it looks like they may be out of business.

Use Foxit pdf reader. Then use the snapshot tool to grab just the image from the page and copy paste wherever you want. Quick and east, you only need one piece of software and it’s free. I use GIMP as well to edit out secret door markers and stuff.


@Fabian I run my games much the same. Luckily I have PbP players who usually make a decision.

Also, I live by the mantra "There is no such thing as consensus, 2 votes and go." So if two players post some similar decision, that is what I usually do...


For PDF snipping, if any of you have access to Photoshop, it does a magnificent job of getting the full-scale images out of PDFs, with no markers. Since you're asking, though, I'm assuming you don't have Photoshop. :-) A Google image search can often bear fruit also. Depending upon what you're running, you could also grab map-packs as a lot of them have the un-marked up maps that appear in many PFS scenarios.

Regarding the decision gate question posted a while back by Terquem, see Painlord's "4.3 Beware of Doors". Give them a push yourself as the GM, as Painlord suggests. Works wonders for me. Luckily, I play with superstars, and I rarely need to these days! When I do it really well, they don't even know I'm doing it.

Also... if you're playing a more open-ended PbP. Embrace the sandbox! What, you've got something else to be getting on with? That's why you're on PbP? I think not. Sit back and enjoy the roleplay. So long as the posting frequency is there, your procrastination outlet be waiting for you whether they go east, west, south or sit there at the crossroads and start arguing about why Jeff always seems to have an empty potion bandolier. As always, GM or player, you have a voice in your game! Speak up, and have fun.


Wilmannator wrote:

...

Also... if you're playing a more open-ended PbP. Embrace the sandbox! What, you've got something else to be getting on with? That's why you're on PbP? I think not. Sit back and enjoy the roleplay. So long as the posting frequency is there, your procrastination outlet be waiting for you whether they go east, west, south or sit there at the crossroads and start arguing about why Jeff always seems to have an empty potion bandolier. ...

I don't think most would have a problem with that. Unfortunately you get a lot of "I don't know. I have no opinion. What do you want to do? What are we supposed to do now? Did I miss the GM telling us something? ... "

There often is zero RP. Just days of sentence fragments putting off the decision onto 'someone/anyone' else.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I don't have alot of that in my games at all ElterAgo.

The Exchange

2 people marked this as a favorite.
ElterAgo wrote:

I don't think most would have a problem with that. Unfortunately you get a lot of "I don't know. I have no opinion. What do you want to do? What are we supposed to do now? Did I miss the GM telling us something? ... "

There often is zero RP. Just days of sentence fragments putting off the decision onto 'someone/anyone' else.

I put this on your GM. It's section 1.4, above.

Painlord wrote:
Don't be afraid to cut bad players. You can replace them easily enough...but if a player is not contributing, or is sucking the soul from you or other players, it is your duty to cut them before they do too much damage. As one Venture Captain once told me: “You got to scrape the barnacles off the boat if you want to sail quickly."

Get, or get with, players who want to play, and who want to push. If they aren't playing, they need to yield the chair to the hundreds of players who want to play.


I wonder—would a sandbox PbP work better if you only had 2-3 players, each determined to be reliable?

motteditor wrote:

It's strange, since it seems like such a popular choice for PBP, but I think Kingmaker is one of the worst options for this format. I could be wrong, of course -- there are plenty of APs I'm not fully familiar with -- but that's my gut feeling.

--

On a completely different note, what are people using these days to extract images from pdfs? I've been using some PDF extractor, but the license has expired and it looks like they may be out of business.

Screenshot, paste onto MS Paint. Select the "map" part of the screenshot and paste it in its separate area.

Not elegant, but it works fine, and it's free. ;)


Kobold Cleaver wrote:

I wonder—would a sandbox PbP work better if you only had 2-3 players, each determined to be reliable?

...

Just a guess, but I would think that yes it would.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I recently ended my first-ever PbP game as GM. It had been running for 10 months, but I was starting to see issues between what I had planned, what had happened so far, where it was going, and how it would get there. It's like if you stand on a wheeled chair to reach a high shelf, then realize that you can feel the chair slowly creeping backwards under you. Technically everything's still fine, but it's only a matter of time before it all falls apart. I think item 2.2 from the OP was my biggest issue. Heed Painlord's advice!

The Exchange

Jiggy wrote:
I think item 2.2 from the OP was my biggest issue.

Section 2.2 is a big section. What is happening? Is there no fix? What can we learn from?

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Painlord wrote:
Jiggy wrote:
I think item 2.2 from the OP was my biggest issue.
Section 2.2 is a big section. What is happening? Is there no fix? What can we learn from?

I didn't have a proper understanding of scope/scale/level.

I originally planned for the PCs to basically be "tough civilians" who get caught up into bigger stuff and "have greatness thrust upon them", so I started them at 2nd level.

The big, overarching plot was something that would, eventually, require extremely high-level magic (possibly deific intervention) to resolve.

It did not occur to me at first that this meant I was trying to run a campaign that would span 16+ levels. :/

Additionally, an element of the campaign which I originally pictured myself relying on as an "action backbone" (retrieving fragments of an artifact) turns out to take waaaay more time than I accounted for.

Putting it all together, it means I'd written myself into a spot where levels 3 through probably 17ish would just be iteration after iteration of "find the next chunk of artifact" and trying to make each one feel different than the previous "find the next chunk of artifact".

I may someday reboot the campaign, narrowing the gap by raising the starting level and/or changing the nature of the goal to allow a lower-level resolution. But the campaign already in progress seemed, to me, unsalvageable.


Jiggy wrote:

...

Putting it all together, it means I'd written myself into a spot where levels 3 through probably 17ish would just be iteration after iteration of "find the next chunk of artifact" and trying to make each one feel different than the previous "find the next chunk of artifact". ...

Way back in second, we had a campaign going that way. The GM was getting even more frustrated than the players.

So when we were going after the 4th or 5th piece, the was an evil guy and his cronies also tying to recover the same thing.
He had most of the rest of the pieces since he was also trying to assemble the thing.

The Exchange

5 people marked this as a favorite.

To be honest Jiggy, there is nothing wrong with the basic outline. Most campaigns are along the lines of "Go to this place, kill the baddies there, gain plot item, repeat". And the benefit of long campaigns in PbP is that is gives you plenty of time to think through the details of what the individual "scenarios" and set-pieces will be in your campaign. And when I say plenty of time, I'm talking years. There is a lot of people going on about how they completed this or that AP in two weeks by PbB, but that is incredibly rare (and, to be honest, I wonder slightly about what sort of experience that would be) - any PbP that aspires to be more than a one-shot will most likely take years. That actually takes a lot of pressure off the DM, as they don't need to churn out ideas on a weekly to fortnightly basis as with a regular face-to-face game. PbP is, in that way, somewhat less intimidating and you also get time to do it right rather than in a rush.

That said, if you aren't feeling the concept, it's best to end it (like I have done with a couple of PbPs) since you don't want to be dragging the whole thing out for an extended period of time while not really enjoying yourself. But there are lots of things you can do to bring a bit of colour and additional plot lines into the basic idea. As ElterAgo suggests, there's nothing like antagonists to wind up players. Also, plotlines revolving around the PCs are also good (and players love them). This adds elements to the campaign that are not directly related to the actual overarching plot, but which nevertheless anchor them in the world and invest the players in their characters. And also engage in foreshadowing, dropping hints about what is to come next.

An interesting bit of campaign advice I read came out of the old Call of Cthulhu game, where they referred to plotting as being like the layers in an onion. As the characters progress they peel back the layers of the onion, only to discover what lies underneath is more layers. It's quite important not to reveal to the players what is immediately around the next corner. Then part of the pleasure of playing the game is the gradually revealed information about what is going on. For example, in the above plot you mention (and I don't know how you presented it, so this contains assumptions and please forgive me if I assume wrongly) rather than having them know from the outset that the campaign will involve them obtaining a series of artifact fragments, this should maybe be something which is gradually revealed to them. For example:

Weird stuff starts happening. No one knows why, but it needs to be stopped. The PCs are asked by someone (motives unknown) to retrieve an item to stop weird stuff. They do so (after some monster related difficulties). But what is the impact on the weird stuff - does it get better, does it get worse, does it change in some other way? The PCs now have the item - what is it, what does it do? Whose attention have they attracted through garnering this item, what are their motivations, and how do they react? What are the motivations of the PCs' patron - is he a goodie, baddie or somewhere in between? What does he/she/it do now they have the item? And so on... These questions will then give you ideas about how matters will develop, and provide ideas for conflicts (combat and RP) which can drive the action on. You can go on like this for levels.

As part of this, it's quite good to NOT have a NPC lay down a load of exposition - it's good to have the players make the discoveries and decisions rather than have it delivered on a plate as it makes them feel clever. You also need to consider what will motivate the PCs to continue with the quest and lay down hooks to grab them and move them forward through the plot. This is normally quite easy, since most players are interested in the development of the plot - cryptic comments, journal entries, the results of skill checks are all fine for this.

Oh, and don't forget the issue of travel. At lower levels, a journey to get to where the PCs are going can be an adventure in itself. That can be a few levels. And relatively fresh PCs can also handle set-piece battles quite a lot more powerful than normal, which also helps generate xp and push the experience levels up. Contrasting adventures in civilized areas with others in more out-of-the-way places will also provide contrasts. All of these will help fill up a campaign and help keep it fresh.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I appreciate all this good advice as I'm about to venture into the role of PBP GM.

I thought I'd add a few bits of advice I would put somewhere in the section on posting formats, posting etiquette, and creativity.

Use the preview button and proofread your post before submitting.

I've seen a lot of obvious typos and some pretty glaring grammatical errors by both players and GMs. It only takes a moment to preview a post. Editing is not something everyone does well, of course, but obvious typos should be easy to catch. This will also catch bad URL links, botched formatting tags, etc.

As someone who has taught writing, I can say that it helps to step back from the post and try to read it as if you did not already know what you intend to say. Read it word for word, rather than skimming, and make yourself think about basics like subject-verb agreement and when to use an apostrophe and when to leave it out. Watch for words that are often mixed up, like there/their/they're.

Another good piece of advice is to copy your draft text and paste it into a wordpad document from time to time. It's very frustrating to spend 30 minutes on a post, getting it just right, and then when you hit "Submit Post" have the submission get lost and have to start over from scratch.

Try to put in descriptive detail that shows the reader what he/she would see if he/she one of the PCs.

Compare the following two examples:
George gets angry and hurls an insult at the elf.

George throws his mug of ale hard at the ground, spraying fizzing ale and ceramic shards at the feet of the party. Glaring at the elf, he yells, Yer father was an orc and your mother was a dretch!

Same result, but one draws the reader in and makes it more dramatic. The other forces the reader to imagine some reasonable indication of anger, like a scowl, and some insult, like "You smell rotten." In this case, however, the descriptive approach creates a stronger experience.

GMs could benefit from this advice when describing an environment. Even if it doesn't affect game-play, describe the weather, local flora, smells, some colorful dialogue overheard, etc. I've played in campaigns where every day was dry and sunny and neither too warm or too cold. The real world isn't always so bland. Just a few details every time you post can over time give a very vivid reality to the world that is always better than what the player fills in when there is a lack of specifics.

Of course, don't make it so descriptive you've got a wall of words. A little descriptive detail goes a long way.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Here's something I've started doing with my newest campaign, that I'm not sure is mentioned in the OP:

On the "Campaign" tab, there's a "short description" field that the GM can fill in. This information is displayed at the top of the page in both Gameplay and Discussion, as well as in each player's "campaigns" tab on their own profile pages.

Thus, I've started putting various background information in that field. Things like:

Current location: Korkas (library)
Day 3 (late afternoon)
XP - 325/300 ---- Level up at the next long rest!

I've been thinking about adding weather effects as well. This is like the GM version of having the PCs all put "quick stats" in their classes/levels line.


I use that field for links to Dropbox images like maps and other clues

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Terquem wrote:
I use that field for links to Dropbox images like maps and other clues

Heh, forgot about that, since I've given up on using maps (or other images). That's a good use, too. :)

Relatedly, I'm finding that the 5E ruleset is very compatible with mapless PbP gaming. I've run mapless 5E encounters in places with actual terrain without the slightest problem.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16

I also use that field for links to maps. That said, I use the full description for lots of information of that sort. I find it's really useful (and since I don't think players check it all that religiously, I'll even sneak an NPC in there sometimes so I have instant access to his/her stats and combat macros if needed).

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I'm currently using the Full Description field for a blob of initiative dice, the weather chart I'm about to implement, and to keep a list of names I've made up so far (since it's a homebrew where I'm inventing the world as I go).


I tried to run my 5e PVQ adventure here as "mapless" even throwing down the gauntlet to the players that they should make their own maps, and share them with each other if they wanted to, but the game almost died because of that reason.

The players I recruited were simply not interested in playing in a game that was Mapless, and demanded at least a simple map, from me, for them to be able to "see" the dimensions of the place they were in.

It sort of broke my heart a little bit.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Huh. I just went back to see if I mentioned anything in my recruitment thread about being map-free, and I didn't. Maybe I got lucky in finding an entire party of folks who were okay with playing mapless? Maybe you got unlucky finding the opposite?


Nah, I just suck at the whole PbP thing.


I saw that Jiggy, the Current Location, Day XYZ, etc. right up top. That is a great idea.


Speaking of Players expectations and the like, giving characters creation guideline in an interests check thread can be a good idea at times, could help avoid having too many players saying they are interested, but drop once Characters Creation (and other) Rules are posted.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gars DarkLover wrote:
Speaking of Players expectations and the like...

Lately I have seen some other recruitment threads giving more details on what they want from the group. I really like that! Thank you.

One said the GM was looking for the "5 man band" troupe. Not my thing. So I didn't have to waste a bunch of time (for both of us) on it with bad feelings on both sides.
Another said the GM was intending it to be a pretty lethal game. I actually sometimes like that, but not right at this time.
Another wanted a bizarre dysfunctional family vibe. Great! I jumped in with both feet.

Over the years I've accidentally gotten into some that had 'unadvertised' expectations.
One the GM really expected every PC to get into love/hate relation ships with other PC's or NPC's.
Another was basically upset that we weren't giving big long expositions of internal dialogue and emotional angst.
Sorry, I'm just not into those. If you'd said something about it in the beginning I would have avoided. Both seemed to feel that 'RP focus' covered their expectations.

101 to 150 of 188 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Online Campaigns / General Discussion / Painlord's Guide to PbP GMing: Make Your World a Better Place All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.