So I have a few questions for those who are new and old to GMing a PBP game.
1. Character selection seems to be the biggest issue at hand, how do you pick the characters you want in you game?
2. Point buy, I know 20 is about standard but why not 25 or 15?
3. Extras from Unchained, I do like some of the sub systems that were created to help compliment PF.
4. Time frame to submit, Is less better because people will have less time to play around with a character? More seems to invite A LOT more submissions.
Thanks in advance.
I've been GMing PbP for about a year now.
1) I usually sort submissions into general party roles (divine, arcane, damage, skills, etc.) to help bring some order to the chaos. Then I'll look through the entrants and use the writing they've given me in their aliases and sometimes recruitment posts to gauge how well their style will work with mine. (I tend to be very verbose, so characters with two words and a statblock for an alias aren't likely to fit in well.) Finally, once I've shortlisted, I'll go through who's left and see which characters will come together to create a group that has most or all of the bases covered mechanically and is interesting and diverse in personalities, origins, and outlooks.
2) Whatever you prefer is just fine. 20-point buy is what a lot of people like, but it truly comes down to what you enjoy running. You can even use premade stat arrays or allow people to roll if you like - I've seen it all.
3) Feel free to use whatever subsystems you like - just let people know you'll be using them in your initial Recruitment post, so that no one's blindsided by a system they don't enjoy or that their character doesn't take advantage of.
4) I tend to go on the longer side for recruitments, but I also tend to run more esoteric material (modules rather than APs), so a longer recruitment can help make it more likely I get good people. With APs, you may benefit from a shorter recruitment simply to make it so you don't get overwhelmed.
So I have a few questions for those who are new and old to GMing a PBP game.
1. Character selection seems to be the biggest issue at hand, how do you pick the characters you want in you game?
2. Point buy, I know 20 is about standard but why not 25 or 15?
3. Extras from Unchained, I do like some of the sub systems that were created to help compliment PF.
4. Time frame to submit, Is less better because people will have less time to play around with a character? More seems to invite A LOT more submissions.
Thanks in advance.
I'm a PBP newbie, really so treat this opinion accordingly. FWIW, I was too wussy to choose the players (I had 12 or 13 submissions for 4 places. I upped it to accepting 6 and then selected the players randomly (other than a sole 'DM choice').
The accepted wisdom seems to be that that's a bad idea, but I was happy with all the submissions, and it's worked out okay for me so far (albeit it's pretty early days - the group is great though). I suspect I would have excluded people who didn't submit appropriate characters or something. Nonetheless, I plan on running another eventually and I think I'll do the same again - I'm not convinced you can learn that much about how a player is going to play based on how they submit (though again - I'm a newcomer, so take that with a grain of salt. Maybe it's just that I can't learn what kind of a player they'll be..).
I think clearly spelling out how you're going to run is more important. I've been surprised at just how many things have come up which I didn't think to state because our group takes it as obvious, but which I then realise have several valid approaches.
1. Check out Willmannator's Guide to Successful PbP recruitment. It's excellent and has great tips.
My biggest suggestion is to use your recruitment to set your posting expectations early. If you want to run fast, note that you expect people to commit to 2-3 posts a day. Make sure they're good with botting.
2. You can do whatever point buy you like. 20 allows for a variety of builds and is the standard for PFS. 15 is a bit more severe. It means people will likely dump stats and won't play the MAD classes, but there are people who swear by it. Some GMs have rolled stats. Others go with 25 point buy or gestalt or whatever.
At 20 point buy, you won't have to adjust the power level of your monsters if you run an AP. It's a good compromise, but run what you like.
3. Just about everyone loves background skills. If you want to do ABP, just eliminate all the stat boosters and +1 weapons that an AP hands out and you can do that too.
4. With PFS games I tend to run short recruitments because people tend to already have PFS characters to submit. For other things, two weeks is a good time frame.
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I've gotten to the point where I get too many excellent submissions when I run an open recruitment, even if it's for PFS. It'll happen. Still pick the best mix you can. If you think players will work well together, go with them. Stalk your potential players before you choose.
APs get tons of interest and submissions. Recruitment threads for them can be overwhelming.
For your first PbP game, I advise running something short. Pick up a PFS scenario or Master of the Fallen Fortress or something equally short and run that -- even if you're not running it with PFS rules. Run it from beginning to end and learn on it. Once you've tried out something short and had a successful run, you can invite the players that you enjoyed to come back for your AP, and then recruit to fill the remaining slots.
You can also skip recruitment altogether and invite a hand-picked group of players in to your game. I do this half the time because I hate rejecting people. Unfortunately, it also means that I might miss out on newcomers that way, so I try to openly recruit about 1 in 3 of my games.
You can't find great newcomers unless you give them a chance!
Hmm
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1. Character selection seems to be the biggest issue at hand, how do you pick the characters you want in you game?
I have no fixed formula, but it's a combination of what the players offer me for background of their character, the communication we already establish during the recruitment, what I can glean from other games they run or partake in, and the feel that I get from those three factors.
I'm not too much concerned about the roles in a group all being covered, though that might factor in if it's a narrow decision between two or more players. As is the number of games a player might already partake in. I'm not strictly going by numbers, but as someone who got a major GM burnout by running to many games elsewhere, and having seen the same on the players side, this might give players with less games a slight edge. I also think that it might be a good idea to include a player new to PbP, just for broadening the player base.
Point buy, I know 20 is about standard but why not 25 or 15?
I actually prefer PB 15, but don't mind PB 20 too much, so this is often kind of a compromise to allow players in who might feel punished with the restrictions that may come with PB 15. PB 25 to me already has the sound of a super-hero game, which is not my preference. But in the end, that's a matter of taste. (and given that my actual game is the mythic AP, PB might not even really matter ^^).
3. Extras from Unchained, I do like some of the sub systems that were created to help compliment PF.
Why not? I'm probably not using everything in any campaign, but while I have gone with offical Paizo stuff only with my first game here on these boards, I used to allow all kind of stuff in my former games, and would probably do the same in possible future games here as well, depending on what the players suggest. I mean all the 3PP material out there is there to be used after all. :) So Unchained stuff is definitely no problem
Time frame to submit, Is less better because people will have less time to play around with a character? More seems to invite A LOT more submissions.
Can be a good, but also can be a bad thing. I would probably have not the time to do more than a fixed number of submissions justice, so I experimented this time with only taking 10 submissions before choosing. That already gave me more characters I wanted to include than I had places, and while I chose the number arbitrarily this time, I think it's a compromise that actually worked for me. On the other hand, more submissions mean that there is more opportunity to find the right players for your game, so I think that that is something you have to find out for yourself
Wormy I submitted a Shaman to your group about 2 weeks ago and had good feed back from you.
All is great feed back, I may pick up a few more of the PDF modules and just give a few of those a try before delving into an AP.
How do people handle maps?
I do my maps on Google Slides, since most mobile users can manipulate slides on their phones. I link them in my GM header (which only shows up in the gameplay and discussion threads) so that the players can find the maps easily.
Here are my slides for Kortos Envoy and Murder's Mark. You can see that we can have all sorts of maps linked, as well as handouts or slides showing major NPCs.
If you want module recommendations, let me know. I've tried many of them as a GM, and like most of them.
Hmm
All is great feed back, I may pick up a few more of the PDF modules and just give a few of those a try before delving into an AP.
How do people handle maps?
It seems to be commonplace, but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to publicly cut-and-paste maps out of paizo PDFs (or other companies' IP, for that matter). Certainly the community use policy specifically calls out not copying maps directly but rather making your own versions of them. I'd recommend putting any such material in some form of private 'by invitation only' place.
As I say though - it is quite common and I've never seen Paizo list an objection, so perhaps I've got hold of the wrong end of the stick.
Steve, good point. I should probably make my maps only open to those signed in to slides. I just hate having another barrier to my players seeing the maps.
Hmm
I would check (with community@paizo.com, I guess) first though before going through all that hassle. Like I say - it's very widespread, so perhaps it's allowable. I don't have a very good understanding of the OGL/PF Compatibility License/CUP.