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Hello, I would like to ask a question to those people who participate in play by post (PbP) games - what was your favourite PbP campaign or adventure?
I would also like to know why you consider it to be your favourite - things like what the GM did, what rules system you used, how regularly you posted etc.
Thank you for your time!
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My favorite to GM: Ironbound Schism
My favorite to play: GM Aest's Kingmaker (though GM Samy's Mummy's Mask is a close second)
My favorite to read as an outsider: DM Ravens's Long Vigil
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All three share the same qualities:
1) Fabulous group chemistry amongst the players and characters
2) A GM who enjoys roleplay and likes to set a scene
3) Surprises and excellent story immersion.
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Thoughts on pacing. Ironbound Schism ran at a frenetic pace. I had hold of a tiger, and it was dragging me along with it at full speed. Since it was a scenario, for the most part I could keep up with that speed, but I called for GM breaks (1-2 day hiatuses) to keep my mental sanity.
My mummy's mask game is frantic when it goes, but also goes on hiatus days at a time. My kingmaker game has one GM post a day, but it's so magnificent that we don't care. Pace is important, but for the right game, people will tolerate it going a little slow.
Hmm
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My three current favorites as a player are, in no particular order, Cap'n Voodoo's Freebooter PBP, GM Blood's Age of Worms in Golarion, and GM Endless Forms' Shattered Star. All have excellent players with interesting characters, and creative GMs. Cap'n Voodoo's game is lower-powered than the other two, and much more freeform--the GM lifts stuff from various scenarios, but puts his own spin on them to account for the fact that we're a far from optimized party. It's also P6, so there's a hard limit on the amount of raw power we can have in the first place. GM Blood and GM Endless Forms are both hewing much more closely to the source material, but that source material is pretty good and they're handling it well. They both set a pretty decent pace--we've been at AoW for a little over four years and we're halfway through it, and we're well into Part 6 of Shattered Star after less than three.
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Wow...really hard to pick a single favorite so I'll go with what others did and list my top three as of this point in no particular order of preference.
Lady L's Top 3 Favorite PbP Games
This game has a fantastic GM who does a wonderful job with setting the scene and isn't afraid to adjust the campaign to suit the group or to make things flow more easily for PbP format. For example, Shattered Star is quite dungeon-heavy so in order to break up some of the monotony he inserted the module Feast of Ravenmoor into our game which made for a great diversion and some highly memorable story moments.
Similar to the above, this game has a GM that's good at setting the scene and also puts a high emphasis on character interactions both within the party and between the party and other NPCs. As Hmm mentioned above (*waves*) the game can slow down from time to time but when it's on there can easily be 10+ Gameplay posts in a single day.
(3) The Walking Dead of Golarion
Normally I'm a bit wary of homebrew games but this one has been a blast to play in. GM Fiendish lives up to her name by throwing all sorts of surprises and plot twists at our characters! This game is also a bit of a rarity in that we just had our 2nd anniversary, 5 of the 6 current players have been playing together for probably a year and 1/2 of that, and we've still got 3 of the original 6 players that we started with.
Honorable Mentions
JZ's Stand Against the Darkness - Carrion Crown
This one will either become a contender for one of my top 3 spots or it's going to force me to expand my top 3 to a top 5 list. GM JZ does a great job of setting the scene and is another GM that has no problem with adding in plenty of twists and surprises. Combined with an active and colorful cast of characters as well as a fairly fast pace, this game has been a pleasure to play in.
Though the game concluded in October of last year, this was a fun change of pace from the majority of my other games. A rather dark and gritty setting with a GM that didn't pull any punches in combat or with the story and setting, made even better by what was probably one of the most unique and varied cast of characters that I've seen to date.
The Town of Grundy: A Tale of Meteors, Metal, and Men
Sadly the GM for this one vanished but it was a blast and a half to play in. The slightly over-the-top and campy atmosphere of a bunch of strange and ridiculous heroes protecting their hometown from all manner of threats made for an extremely memorable game that I was very saddened to see end.
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There are plenty more games that I play or have played in that were great games, but the ones listed above stand out for me the most. One thing that they all have in common are GMs that do an excellent job with setting the scene, keeping the game moving without being heavy-handed, and allowing plenty of opportunities for character growth and interaction. A second is that they all have (or had) players that were able to post consistently (and for me even just 1/day or 1/most days is consistent as far as I'm concerned) and who had good chemistry together. Those two things combined make for the best games, in my experience :)
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I did love To Rule the Razor. It was a good game that came to a great conclusion. And I loved my fellow players in it so much! Most of the players in that campaign lasted the whole game, too.
Hmm
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So Museum Revenant, I see that was your one and only post... Welcome to the Paizo boards!
Are you thinking of trying PbP?
Hmm
Thanks for the replies everyone, it's been interesting to read about people's great play by post experiences!
So Museum Revenant, I see that was your one and only post... Welcome to the Paizo boards!
Are you thinking of trying PbP?
Thanks for the welcome! I am thinking of running a PbP game at some point in the future, although it does look like quite a lot of work to set up (based on what the guides stuck at the top of the forum say).
Do you have any advice on how to run a PbP game?
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Indeed, welcome! :)
The stickied guides do a very nice job of summing up a lot of the quirks of running Play by Post games. This thread has more good advice for starting PbP GMs as well.
In terms of actual storyline prep, the work is about the same as you'd do for an IRL campaign, and it can actually be a little more relaxed since the pace is going to be slower. Running recruitments can be a bit of work, but it's not undoable - look at a few different recruitment threads for ideas to poach.
Probably the biggest piece of advice I'd give is to start with a shorter piece - a module or scenario rather than a full Adventure Path or other 1-high level campaign. Longer campaigns are a years-long commitment, while modules can let you get into your rhythm with something that'll take only about three to six months, and have a better chance of coming to completion since the time frame is short enough to hopefully avoid too much player attrition.
I would also advise you to review other games and get a feel for what about them works and doesn't work - as you've already been doing! :) Getting ideas from other games I've played in was a huge help for me when I moved into running things; while I don't run things identically to any of the GMs I've played under, all of them have helped to shape how I handle the GM seat.
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My advice, from having run a craptastic recruitment (and then not being able to keep up with the game), is to make sure you DO run a recruitment. Give it a while - two weeks seems to be a good amount of time - and see if someone will make and keep track of the list of applicants for you, just to post it so they're all in one spot.
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Anything by: Aubrey, Baldwin,
Euan, Motteditor
These guys are the gold standard IMHO, study their games.
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Thanks for the welcome! I am thinking of running a PbP game at some point in the future, although it does look like quite a lot of work to set up (based on what the guides stuck at the top of the forum say).
Do you have any advice on how to run a PbP game?
Reading the guides is a great place to start. My personal advice for new GMs is posted in another thread, but it can be summed up like this:
- Start small;
- Use PbP conventions and tricks to move gameplay faster;
- Study the PbP styles of a few other GMs. Stalk them a bit and see how they do what they do.
- Communicate with your players!
Don't be afraid to take GM breaks, but always let your players know when you're planning to return. Then come back when you say you will!
Aw man! How does one get on this list of greatness?
Point your players to this thread?
Seriously, I'm hoping that more people respond in here about what makes a great and memorable PbP. Don't just link to the games you list, but talk about what the GMs and players did to make them awesome. I'm still learning, and want to know more about what players enjoy.
Hmm
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I was only following it and not a player but I LOVED Doug M's Way of the Wicked arc.
As a DM Doug is clearly a master in his craft and kept several seasoned players on their toes for the whole ride, every step taken through the adventure was hard fought.
The players, to their credit, were exceptional, inventive, and properly comically entertaining at the right times.
I wish this game was still going.
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Euan, MotteditorThese guys are the gold standard IMHO, study their games.
Wow, thanks for the kind words.
My big advice is . A game where momentum starts to slack is a game that's going to die. I know if my players slack off, then I get less interested in a game and I'm less likely to post quickly. If I post less quickly, my players will follow suit. It's a vicious cycle. Similarly, if you have good players who play off each other, they'll want to post more and you'll want to post more and it's fun for everyone. I will and have told my players to step up the action.
Other thoughts:
* It does take time. Be ready. No one wants a GM who starts a game and then disappears. It's not overwhelming -- I try to go through all my games and can usually update them over the course of an hour (that includes the ones I'm playing in, and I have more than I probably should) -- but you're making a commitment. Know that in advance.
* Similarly, some prep time is smart, especially depending on what module you're playing. One of the things I like about PBP is I can take a moment to look something up or think about what I want to do but in my Skull and Shackles game, for example, I wish I'd had a better idea of what all the NPC pirates on the ship looked and acted like (the quick sketches the module offered weren't always that helpful; saying someone's a young lad talented at scrimshaw doesn't really let me know what they look or act like. You can probably do this while you're running recruitment.
* Communicate. If you're not going to post for a couple days, let people know. If worst comes to worst and you realize you can't/don't want to do it anymore, tell people. I don't think I'd mind as much that games are dropped if the GMs said something. I'm not happy when GMs have dropped games I've been in, but if they're upfront about it, I've appreciated the honesty rather than just waiting and wondering what was going on. I've had to stop a couple games and I always said I was going to do so and explained why.
* Read the guides. Painlord's especially is good, IMO. Make your players read the guides (his point on "pushing" is vital and it's part of why my games are good). Seriously, that should be part of the recruitment.
* Avoid modules. It may seem like a strange suggestion, but in my experience they just don't run as well (and I have no idea why). I think I've ended two games before finishing and both were modules (and one of the modules I did finish was a close call). People like Adventure Paths and PFS scenarios.