I'll be running a playtest of PF2.
Work has limited my original plans so the only table I'll run will be live over Discord. I'm not planning on using other tabletop simulator programs.
Group gets to vote whether to play my Test of the Starstone or Hell's Rebels (I have only the first three books, but I'd be surprised if it lasted that long). I'm not adverse to running a different AP or module if someone buys it, and importantly, the group wants to.
I do want to note that I am non-standard in gming style. This is not a minitures combat game. This is a player agency game that sometimes just happens to include combat. There is no need to cover all roles, nor focus on combat only stats.
Therefore, I want characters that aren't described as race/class combos.
Additionally, you can expect the world to be more responsive to you (no shagging in the king's throneroom unless you want the royal guard to toss you in jail), and I will not be leading you by the nose.
Any questions can be asked here.
So, is there anything off-putting about this game that means no one wants to join in? Or is it just the time schedule?
For me I can not say I am familiar with playing something like this on Discord. I have only used Discord for raiding in games. Is there a dice program for it?
Not sure what agency game means, maybe explain that a little more.
Discord can indeed run such games easily, and some servers exist already just for such gaming.
In fact, a neat feature of Discord is that it can have bots that are basically custom scripted and therefore can do all kinds of things, including rolling dice.
You could in theory even make an entirely text based video-game played via bot commands.
Several bots are available from places, though without an external server, they'd only be running on my laptop while I'm online.
I figured on Discord both because voice-chat, and because it could keep notes and stuff saved as text for everyone to see even for following sessions, right there within the program.
Roll20 is a possibility, but I don't know anything about it, I'm looking into it this week. I thought it was paid, but someone said it could be used free, just not all features enabled.
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Agency games,
A sandbox is the ultimate agency game. Agency game is the opposite of railroading.
The APs and PFS I've played so far are all highly railroaded. You are at point A and you will get to point B, then C, then D.
An agency game however, you start at point A, but where you go from there is up to you. Generally for a story the gm wants to tell, there are two options, first is to set up a situation where the PCs have something the villain needs and therefore the villain comes after the PCs no matter what they do, or alternatively, the GM plays destiny, which is like a hybrid or a disguised railroad depending on how the gm goes about it.
But the big thing to remember about agency games is that the gm will not indicate where to go. PCs must choose for themselves and generally the entire concept of how the story will play out changes based on the players.
With standard PFS, the basic idea of what happens is set in stone, and only the details change.
For an example of railroading in one module, the PCs are investigating a ship, and they join the port inspector so they can see the ship, and while at the port's records office, they must take the ship's registration and destroy it.
The players must do it like that. The modules was written around this progression of events, and while the players might choose what to say, or choose how to obtain the ship's registration, they didn't get to choose to follow this plan. This basic plan was laid out for the players and the players must follow it's basic structure.
An agency game is the opposite. If that example were an agency game, the players would decide whether they wanted to investigate the ship, look for other clues, or do something else. And even in investigating the ship, the players could choose to skip the port office and sneak aboard the ship via a different tactic, perhaps using the wizard's new water-breathing spell. Or the players might watch the ship from a distance and follow it to it's next port.
Basically, a game is an agency game, when the point of the game is for the players to make the big choices, for the players to express agency over the actual story plot itself.
Well that's probably a big negative for people. That is a concept that sounds good on paper, but in execution usually lacks especially with a group of players thrown together at random. If you are very familiar with the source material and very good at the game mechanics a GM can be successful with a game like that, though my experience is this is the type of game for GMs that like to do little prep and expect the players to do most of the heavy lifting.
GMs also tend to over-estimate the average player's ability to drive a story. I know I did when I first started doing PbP. It takes a special kind of player to play in a game like that, usually those that themselves have some GM experience.
Perhaps try the gamer connection forums, this board is mostly for people interested in doing standard PbP on this website and not always the best for reaching out to those interested in other formats.
Other than that your game sounds fine I hope I was helpful.
It was good to be reminded of.
Though what is gamer connection?
Given that I'm online mostly out of need, I'm not very good at knowing all the places. I've got here and rpol, plus rpg.net but that one seems mostly freeform.
As for style, agency style is what I started with. It was my introduction to rpgs and my favorite style. I mainly want to see how well pf2 can run such a style.