I’ve been considering running a play by post game for a while now but it’s not something I’ve ever tried. Are they just as fun? Do they ever make it to the end? What is your experience with them. What tips should you recommend or things you wish someone had told you before you did it?
Just be consistent and patient. This format will allow you and your players to update actions in a kind of relaxed pace. Establish from the beginning that you will be rolling for their initiative in order to save time in battle encounters. And well, just try it out, I've seen campaigns that have a lot of time played so it might just be a matter of consistency.
I've played in several dozen 'campaigns' that just fizzled out or abruptly ended. I have only ever finished one short Adventure League module. I personally currently DM two that I intend to see to the end:
Lost Mines of Phandelver for some out of town RL friends. This one is has me teaching as much as playing. I can also call or text the players if they are not participating.
Out of the Abyss. I'm running this for a face-to-face group and I found it such a shame that all my prep wasn't going to be used. So I started a PBP campaign.
Want some tips?
PBP is different. You're going to have to change up some of the game mechanics. As the poster above said, some DM's roll player initiatives. If you cross that line, then you may as well roll Saving Throws and 'automatic' skill checks too. Then let players narrate their character success or failure.
Make 2 threads: One for in character narration and actions. Then make an OOC thread for chit chat, explanations, questions and other related dice rolls.
If you're not well written with vivid descriptions, then I would strongly suggest using maps instead of theater of the mind. You can use some free VTT's players can log into, or frequently take screenshots and post maps in the forums for your players to follow.
As a DM, keep things moving (at the glacially slow pace that is PBP), or you're going to lose your players.
Figure out how to implement reactions or the help action without having to retcon too much.
I've played in pbp since 2001 or 2002 (can't remember). It's great and it's horrible. Great because I was in a pbp game that lasted 10+ years, horrible because sometimes a single combat encounter which can take 5 minutes IRL around a tabletop can take a month to resolve.
As a PBP DM, I roll all init and I use the 'group initiative' variant rule. 1 init for bad guys, 1 init for good guys. And PCs can post in whatever order within the group. As far as combat, most pbp players will post their roleplaying text and then combat actions with any modifiers/logic (PC1 attack goblin 1, PC2 attack goblin 1 but if PC1 kills it then move and attack goblin 2), because a lot of times they might post back-to-back before I can resolve the PC1's actions.
The biggest issue here is when you've got people with radically different posting rates. Your strongest posters can come to dominate every scene simply because by the time the slower posters respond the faster posters have already resolved whatever the discussion was about and are ready to move on -- if they haven't already. Also, since the game can very much become an exercise in story writing, be very clear on your expectations and ground rules. The player that posts nothing more than truncated sentences constantly is likely to either fall behind or generate a constant stream of follow up questions. Additionally, the nature of the game means we are limited solely by our imaginations -- and our imaginations don't necessarily splash about in the same gutter.
On the plus side, everyone has time to think their actions through and can deal with everything 'in character' much more easily as a rule. Additionally splitting the party is much less problematic as long as you've got something/anything for everyone to be doing (even if it's character interaction between players/NPCs while someone else is off scouting/whatever). Just be careful not to get so much going on that you can't remember what is happening when.
Combat, on the other hand, can take forever. Especially with slower players involved. Trusting the DM with things like saving throws and ability checks can help, or having the players provide a list of pre-rolled die results. Having players declare intent with primary/secondary options instead of specific actions for each round can also help move things along in secondary encounters.
PbP can be a real pain in the backside but can also be a good amount of fun. As another poster pointed out combat can take forever. One thing I would do was I would not wait for a player's response if they failed to post in a timely manor and I also would have no set order when it came to turns. Also I would handle initiative a bit different. The players would roll and I would take the highest number from the group and count that as the party initiative and do the same for the enemies. So its handled as player's turn then enemy's turn or vice versa. Again, I would not wait for players who failed to post and I would also treat it with no set order. This helped keep the pace going. Just make sure to set deadlines on posting and be firm on them. If players cannot meet the deadlines most of the time then drop them and replace them. Play by post is not hard to do as long as everyone understands that it will take a long time to get anywhere. I would also require a bit of thought to be put into posts. More then just a few short sentences. There should be some content with the posts/responses. There are also a few ways to speed up combat if your creative. I had a few ways that worked out well.
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I’ve been considering running a play by post game for a while now but it’s not something I’ve ever tried. Are they just as fun? Do they ever make it to the end? What is your experience with them. What tips should you recommend or things you wish someone had told you before you did it?
Just be consistent and patient. This format will allow you and your players to update actions in a kind of relaxed pace. Establish from the beginning that you will be rolling for their initiative in order to save time in battle encounters. And well, just try it out, I've seen campaigns that have a lot of time played so it might just be a matter of consistency.
LOL.
I've played in several dozen 'campaigns' that just fizzled out or abruptly ended. I have only ever finished one short Adventure League module. I personally currently DM two that I intend to see to the end:
Want some tips?
I've played in pbp since 2001 or 2002 (can't remember). It's great and it's horrible. Great because I was in a pbp game that lasted 10+ years, horrible because sometimes a single combat encounter which can take 5 minutes IRL around a tabletop can take a month to resolve.
As a PBP DM, I roll all init and I use the 'group initiative' variant rule. 1 init for bad guys, 1 init for good guys. And PCs can post in whatever order within the group. As far as combat, most pbp players will post their roleplaying text and then combat actions with any modifiers/logic (PC1 attack goblin 1, PC2 attack goblin 1 but if PC1 kills it then move and attack goblin 2), because a lot of times they might post back-to-back before I can resolve the PC1's actions.
PbP can work really well for RP heavy games.
The biggest issue here is when you've got people with radically different posting rates. Your strongest posters can come to dominate every scene simply because by the time the slower posters respond the faster posters have already resolved whatever the discussion was about and are ready to move on -- if they haven't already. Also, since the game can very much become an exercise in story writing, be very clear on your expectations and ground rules. The player that posts nothing more than truncated sentences constantly is likely to either fall behind or generate a constant stream of follow up questions. Additionally, the nature of the game means we are limited solely by our imaginations -- and our imaginations don't necessarily splash about in the same gutter.
On the plus side, everyone has time to think their actions through and can deal with everything 'in character' much more easily as a rule. Additionally splitting the party is much less problematic as long as you've got something/anything for everyone to be doing (even if it's character interaction between players/NPCs while someone else is off scouting/whatever). Just be careful not to get so much going on that you can't remember what is happening when.
Combat, on the other hand, can take forever. Especially with slower players involved. Trusting the DM with things like saving throws and ability checks can help, or having the players provide a list of pre-rolled die results. Having players declare intent with primary/secondary options instead of specific actions for each round can also help move things along in secondary encounters.
PbP can be a real pain in the backside but can also be a good amount of fun. As another poster pointed out combat can take forever. One thing I would do was I would not wait for a player's response if they failed to post in a timely manor and I also would have no set order when it came to turns. Also I would handle initiative a bit different. The players would roll and I would take the highest number from the group and count that as the party initiative and do the same for the enemies. So its handled as player's turn then enemy's turn or vice versa. Again, I would not wait for players who failed to post and I would also treat it with no set order. This helped keep the pace going. Just make sure to set deadlines on posting and be firm on them. If players cannot meet the deadlines most of the time then drop them and replace them. Play by post is not hard to do as long as everyone understands that it will take a long time to get anywhere. I would also require a bit of thought to be put into posts. More then just a few short sentences. There should be some content with the posts/responses. There are also a few ways to speed up combat if your creative. I had a few ways that worked out well.