Party of Four looking for GM to take over Giantslayer PBP

[Zavier Vitoly]

Hi,

I'm a part of a Giantslayer game being played on the forum where the GM has sadly stopped responding and progress has ground to a halt. We have a Brawler (me), a fighter, and a rogue, and a fourth player who's been waiting to jump in for a bit but never got a chance to.

It would be great if a kind GM could step in and take over. We're not very far in as we managed to finish the first dungeon of the game. You can see the game thread here:

http://paizo.com/campaigns/Giantslayer505dn/gameplay&page=1

[Haldhin]

Hi there, I'm tentatively interested. Sending you a PM.

[Zavier Vitoly]

Thanks much for considering us, sent a PM.

[Racket]

Hello potential GMs, I'm one of the players as well and we have a very fun group in the game, so feel free to read through and see our interations!

[DM Mathpro]

I two would be interested.

I am currently running 4 other groups through Rise of the Runelords. I am also two groups of Jade Regent, and two groups of Carrion Crown but I have the time to be able to fit you guys in.

I have been running games on this site since 2008 or so. I took a Hiatus from 2012-2015 but have been successfully running games since the fall again.

I should warn you I am not available to post much, if at all, on the weekends. But I available from 10 AM-4 PM Monday-Thursday and basically sit on Paizo and spam refresh during that time so I make several posts a day if my players are able to post then.

Let me know if you're interested in giving this a shot.

[Zavier Vitoly]

Wow, thanks for the offer from two GMs. Hope you don't mind if I ask a few simple questions.

What would you say your GM styles are?

How fast do you think you'd want to run the game and what would your posting expectations be for us?

Based on your experiences do you think it's realistic to be able to finish an AP over PBP? If so, how can the player and GM work together to achieve that objective?

[DM Mathpro]

1) My GM style tends to be more leanant than it probably should be. I'm the guy that allows most things and then six sessions in when they things allowed create a headache regret allowing things but don't really punish the players for my lack of forsight. Lately I've been valuing more role play over rollplay/combats. Games done over play by post are rich for character interaction and I feel it a shame to hinder this by excessive combats. That being said there will be combat it just won't be one after another after another. I find this helps keep the murderhobo's away from my table.

2) I can run starting tomorrow or Thursday. As I stated before I am not available on the weekends and would need time to read through the game play and discussion threads as well as familiarize myself with the characters...so I'm now leaning more towards either Thursday or Monday next week. My expectations would be the fairly common 1 post per day during the week. As I am not available on the weekends I won't require the same frequency then, its only fair after all. I do understand that life comes first and there are times when players just can't get posts in which is fine with forewarning or explanation with the player returns. More on this in part 3.

3)While I have never finished an entire AP in the play by post format I have run several so either I'm a glutton for punishment or I believe it can be done. Communication between the players and the GM is what is key to accomplishing this goal. Life happens, and it has happened to me a lot in the last few years so I understand when players can't post. That being said if something comes up try and get on and keep me/your fellow gamers updated on whats going on. We don't need private details but to know you haven't just dropped off the face of the earth would be nice.

[Haldhin]

Zavier Vitoly wrote:

Wow, thanks for the offer from two GMs. Hope you don't mind if I ask a few simple questions.

Do not mind at all... but if I was your GM, I would mind. >:)

Quote:

What would you say your GM styles are?

When running tabletop games, I usually tell people that what they say and do means as much, if not more, to me than their dice rolls. For example, you may roll a '20' on your Diplomacy check, but I also need to hear something reasonable to go along with it. "I rolled a 20! What does the guard tell me?!" doesn't work in my games.

With PbP, I also encourage players to post their intentions as well as their action. For example, a player may post "I want to look in the bird's nest, so I try to climb the tree." That is so much more helpful than the simpler (and far more common) "I climb the tree." I've found it leads to better, more descriptive games, as well as more involvement from players. (Combats tend to run faster too!)

Speaking of combat, we'll probably use Combat Zones for most of the fights. I've found Zones to be a good compromise between using grids/minis, and theater of the mind.

Quote:

How fast do you think you'd want to run the game and what would your posting expectations be for us?

I would hope at least one post every 48 hours. That gives people two days to find time to post. I will usually post game updates in the evening EST. I may be able to squeeze in a post or two during work, but only for answering questions, discussion topics, etc.

Quote:

Based on your experiences do you think it's realistic to be able to finish an AP over PBP? If so, how can the player and GM work together to achieve that objective?

Based on my own personal experience, and what I've seen here and on other PbP sites, finishing an AP is almost impossible. Sure, it can be done, but it takes lots of dedication. We would have to work together to keep up the momentum and interest in the game.

To that end, if I end up running the game, I plan to go through the AP and remove encounters and events that don't contribute to the main story arc. For example, do the players really need to fight another room of giants who are identical to the ones they just defeated? No special treasure, no plot advancement, no cool tactics or terrain features. Just some mooks hanging out waiting to fight the PCs. No, they're only there to burn resources and give the PCs a few more XP. That's not what PbP games need. Pointless encounters that don't contribute to the story is precisely what PbP games don't need.

So that's the kind of encounter grind that I'll be looking to remove. All the big set pieces, major NPCs, cool encounters - those will still be there. But the PCs may only kill 435 giants instead of the AP-recommended 498. ;)

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Phylotus]

Haldin wrote:

"I want to look in the bird's nest, so I try to climb the tree."

Is that a Zork reference? :-P

[Haldhin]

Ah man, I'd love to say yes, but wasn't thinking of that. You get a jewel-encrusted egg for calling it out though!

Had a home game for a while, a group of bandits used nests to pass messages. Became a thing for the PCs to assault every single nest they found after they figured it out. :)

[Phylotus]

I feel that's a reasonable thing for them to do :-P and awesome, I'll start my Faberge Egg collection immediately!

I'm the fourth player, by the way. Hello!

[Zavier Vitoly]

Thanks very much to both Haldhin and DM MathPro for offering to take over the game.

The players have discussed and we have settled on Haldhin. Thanks very much for the offer and hope to have a great game with everyone!

rknop has offered to hand off the game thread to you Haldhin.

[Haldhin]

@ Phylotus
Now I'm going to have to add extremely valuable, but fragile, eggs throughout the AP. :)

And thank you, glad to be aboard!