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Kyrene
Senior Scribe
South Africa
757 Posts |
 Posted - 22 Jan 2010 : 07:16:50
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Apart from Hoondatha's "Dark Ways and Darker Secrets", are there any other current games, or is any enterprising DM thinking of starting up a PbP game here at the Keep? I would very much like to try one (as a player not as a DM, as I have no experience), and was wondering how many scribes feel similarly?
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4436 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jan 2010 : 12:21:16
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| I've always been interested in trying a PbP game, but I just don't know how the mechanics work or is it all done with RPing? I've definitly got some character ideas brewing for such an occasion, but i'd like to see how one goes about the combat of a PbP before I commit to any sort of character concept. |
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Ashe Ravenheart
Great Reader
USA
3243 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jan 2010 : 14:00:30
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PbP games are usually RP heavy, with lots of character exposition and dialogue. Mechanics are usually secondary since it's a bit more difficult to monitor everything with a die roll.
The major problem with PbP games is getting everyone's interest and availability on the same page. I've been a part of more than a few games (mostly on the old WotC boards) and almost every game has fallen apart because a player or DM (or multiple) have had to cut back on the time in the boards. It all sounds pretty easy, "post when you can", but the truth is that once you get into a combat situation and you're dependent on initiative order, if that one person who's up next can't get to the boards for a few days, interest in the game seriously dies down.
Mechanically, I preferred sites like Invisible Castle for the dice-rolling requirements since they record every dice roll and you can actually see if a player is cheating or not since you can look up all their rolls, not just the one they link to (so if they roll twenty times before getting that natural 20, you can call them on it). |
I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.
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Alphabetized Index of Realms NPCs |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jan 2010 : 14:06:06
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One good thing pbp games can do, however, is run multiple tracks at the same time. For instance, in your usual in-person game, the DM usually tries to keep all the characters together, or at least into a few main groups, because every time you're working with someone one-on-one, everyone else is just sitting around twiddling thumbs. That isn't an issue in a pbp, which makes side-quests or straight-up fractured parties much easier. Each part posts as they're ready and advances at their own pace.
One game I played in had a party of five, and at one point there were four different plot threads going at the same time. Two of us were off together, and everyone else was by themselves doing something different, spread out all across an in-game day. That would have been much harder to pull off in-person. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Darkmeer
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 22 Jan 2010 : 14:33:29
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I tend to run my PbP's over at Paizo, simply because they now have a dice roller built into their boards. I like Invisible Castle, as well (and used that at paizo due to the ease of use prior to their dice roller).
I actually have 2 games going for Toril (or around Toril) over at Paizo. I have one that is a modified/converted Shackled City game, and the other is an Expedition to the Demonweb Pits/City of the Spider Queen game.
As to the multiple tracks Hoondatha mentioned, I agree whole-heartedly. It will be much easier for me to run multiple tracks via PbP than in real life.
Kyrene, given your experience with PbP's, I might recommend finding a one-shot adventure to play in before delving too deeply into PbP. PbP was my only gaming outlet about a year or so ago, due to my work schedule and when everyone else got together to game.
Oddly, I think PbP requires more devotion to it than a normal game, beccaue you're all trying to create this wonderful narrative... but the pace is much slower than a real life game.
Two examples from my games:
My Shackled City opening adventure (not of the AP) took about 1 year to complete. That was going as fast as I could.
My Expedition to the Demonweb/CotSQ game sprinted through the first chapter in about 2 months, the players moving sometimes faster than I could!
Both games are going strong, but I've had dropouts in both games, which happens more in PbP than real world games I've been in.
As far as interest in running another PbP... I'd likely get shot by my wife if I started another PbP. If I do get one started, I'll post here at the 'keep, as I'll still likely run another at Paizo if that's what I do.
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"These people are my family, not just friends, and if you want to get to them you gotta go through ME." |
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PbP Games?
