I've started DMing a Play-by-Post campaign on Discord. I'm having fun. The players haven't gotten to the point to roll attacks, checks, saves, etc. using the Avrae bot. However, I've already learned some ideas, and I was wondering if other DMs already can share ideas.
1) I need to move the passage of time in the game. Players are bantering back-and-forth, and we haven't gotten to the end of the first game day. How do you move the passage of time in your PbP campaigns.
2) How often do you require players to post in the game? I have my rules set to every three days, but I'm thinking of changing the rule to certain days of the week.
I'll give you my impressions as a Discord PbP player and as a DM whose online campaign has some PbP activity outside of weekly sessions:
1) Check in if the players are bantering to fill time or if they're really enjoying the RP. My DM likes to ask, "Where to next?" or "We good to move on?" to gauge if we're okay to push to another scene and have a time skip. Sometimes we'll say we want to finish up the chatter, or sometimes we'll say we're just messing around and are okay to push forward.
Ultimately, though, you may have a group of players who will never stop bantering unless you steer them toward something. It's okay (and good) to let them have their RP fun sometimes, but not at the expense of your own fun. So if you're starting to feel left out or bored, shake things up with an NPC or an out-of-character prompt. Or, you can do what I did with my players and create an RP channel specifically for in-character chatter that doesn't affect the narrative. So if the party is having fun at the beach, you can let them continue to RP their sandcastle contest while you move on to another adventuring day in the main posting channel.
2) I've never been a part of a PbP that had specific posting requirements, but all of the ones I've done had a clear expectation that everyone's activity level would need to be roughly the same. So for my Icewind Dale campaign in 2020, we were extremely active every single day. My current PbP, we post maybe a few times a week. But all of us agreed to this when we started and we communicate when we'll be AFK. Players that aren't a good match with the posting frequency either bow out of their own accord or are eventually and kindly asked to step down due to the scheduling mismatch. There's no hard feelings.
For your game, only you and your players can figure out what will work, but I do encourage you to make it a group discussion rather than a mandate.
Regarding number 1, I need to move things along, and your suggestions are valuable.
Regarding number 2, I have a channel with expectations and rules, so everyone could see the expectations prior to commitment of the campaign.
We have multiple channels for off-table chat, story narration, questions, etc., so I feel as if this first PbP experience is off to a promising start. I can learn and improve with feedback like your’s.
I've started DMing a Play-by-Post campaign on Discord. I'm having fun. The players haven't gotten to the point to roll attacks, checks, saves, etc. using the Avrae bot. However, I've already learned some ideas, and I was wondering if other DMs already can share ideas.
1) I need to move the passage of time in the game. Players are bantering back-and-forth, and we haven't gotten to the end of the first game day. How do you move the passage of time in your PbP campaigns.
2) How often do you require players to post in the game? I have my rules set to every three days, but I'm thinking of changing the rule to certain days of the week.
Please share any ideas or best practices, please!
I'll give you my impressions as a Discord PbP player and as a DM whose online campaign has some PbP activity outside of weekly sessions:
1) Check in if the players are bantering to fill time or if they're really enjoying the RP. My DM likes to ask, "Where to next?" or "We good to move on?" to gauge if we're okay to push to another scene and have a time skip. Sometimes we'll say we want to finish up the chatter, or sometimes we'll say we're just messing around and are okay to push forward.
Ultimately, though, you may have a group of players who will never stop bantering unless you steer them toward something. It's okay (and good) to let them have their RP fun sometimes, but not at the expense of your own fun. So if you're starting to feel left out or bored, shake things up with an NPC or an out-of-character prompt. Or, you can do what I did with my players and create an RP channel specifically for in-character chatter that doesn't affect the narrative. So if the party is having fun at the beach, you can let them continue to RP their sandcastle contest while you move on to another adventuring day in the main posting channel.
2) I've never been a part of a PbP that had specific posting requirements, but all of the ones I've done had a clear expectation that everyone's activity level would need to be roughly the same. So for my Icewind Dale campaign in 2020, we were extremely active every single day. My current PbP, we post maybe a few times a week. But all of us agreed to this when we started and we communicate when we'll be AFK. Players that aren't a good match with the posting frequency either bow out of their own accord or are eventually and kindly asked to step down due to the scheduling mismatch. There's no hard feelings.
For your game, only you and your players can figure out what will work, but I do encourage you to make it a group discussion rather than a mandate.
Thank you for the insight and suggestions.
Regarding number 1, I need to move things along, and your suggestions are valuable.
Regarding number 2, I have a channel with expectations and rules, so everyone could see the expectations prior to commitment of the campaign.
We have multiple channels for off-table chat, story narration, questions, etc., so I feel as if this first PbP experience is off to a promising start. I can learn and improve with feedback like your’s.
Here's a link to my Discord server | https://discord.gg/xXPF6J4uux
Thanks, again!