Several players to my RotRL real-world game have expressed an interest to "online RP", allowing them to meet directly with NPCs to chat and explore the world on their own without tying up group time, or for having PC to PC interaction without splitting the live group.
We tried using our Facebook group page for this purpose, but Facebook really REALLY sucks for that purpose. Badly. Everyone in the group does have a Paizo account because they have a PFS ID#.
What would be a good way to go about allowing PC's to interact in an online format for low-level sandboxing or interaction between the live game sessions with the whole group? Is this something I could start a thread here for and have them play? Of course, the thread would ONLY make sense for those who are playing the live game, but things like "dice" tags would also be quite the boon. If this board is not the best place to do that, what other options are there?
Thank you all for your time.
Easiest and simplest solution is to just start a thread in the Play by Post forum and get your players to chime in on it.
You would then have a primary (IC RP) thread for the roleplay and can even open a discussion thread for the OOC banter.
Lastly you can set it up as a Campaign so that you can share whatever you like in the campaign info page for easy reference.
In short, it's exactly the purpose of the boards so go for it :)
A big +1 for Mark Sweetman's suggestion there. You could even use the discussion thread as a way to socialize / discuss strategy between RL game sessions. The only issue, really, is that theoretically anyone can jump on (though I think you can report them if they start spoiling your game).
If you really felt like it, you could progress some of the plot forwards between games using the boards, too... then just pick up when you meet in real life again. Personally, I'm starting to like PbP more and more for roleplaying - it gives you so much more time to craft your character's responses, and also gives you subtle tools (like revealing character's thoughts, Why did I just tell him about that, now he can read my mind!).
If you need to know, to get yourself set up, just go here:
Online Campaigns - Play By Post
Then click ADD NEW THREAD. The Subject will become the name of your campaign. You can then click on the "discussion" tab to start up a separate discussion thread (just write the post and then the system will automatically ask you if you want to add it to your new campaign).
Hope that works for you, and good luck adding a new dimension to your real life game!
Thanks! I'll ask the group about it and direct them here. :)
Oh yes, and works! If I just now did it correctly, that is.
If you label your game as a Private campaign in the subject line I doubt you'll have anyone jumping in to bother you. People are really good about that stuff here. After all we're all here for the same reason.
As it turns out for the moment, I get a better response using an FB chat room "live". So long as I make good notes, it ought to work. Things ya gotta do to keep the players happy. :)