Play by Post?

[TheCrawdad]

I have the new RCQ rules but I’m not quite well versed on the rules and especially the lore, though I keep reading.  With the lockdown there’s no face gaming and with my crazy work schedule there’s no online time. So that leaves me with PbP and I’m well aware of the inherent pitfalls. Still, ever the optimist, is there interest in a PbP game? I would be willing to play for the long term.

[commandercrud]

Pretty much in the same boat here. I'm willing to give play by post a try.

[Squaredeal Sten]

Play by post as in e-mail? Or text on Discord?   Sure, I'd like to try it.  We may all learn something. 

What schedule would you run it on?  Nightly or weekly or every three days .....

How will you handle die rolls?

 

 

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Play by post as in e-mail? Or text on Discord?   Sure, I'd like to try it.  We may all learn something. 

The easiest place to run play by post (aka PbP or PbF) is RPGGeek.  I've been running an HQG game there since 2014, RQG since 2017.

If you want to get a feel for what is looks like, you can check out my Broken Tower scenario run here:  RQG The Broken Tower

Pacing is VERY different from face-to-face or other online sessions.  It's more akin to reading a page of a book a day then a full chapter.  Combat particularly can stretch out.  So, you're left with a lot of anticipation and desire to move forward, that sometimes is hard to keep in check (even for the GM!).

At the same time, it offers a lot of opportunity for narrative embellishment both by the GM and the players, and there's more opportunity to think through options (for instance, the next melee round likely won't take place for another day, or two).  It's important for the GM to particularly think about pacing, moving the story along, and including satisfying obstacles and climax to the story (not really different from any other RPG session, but it's important for the players to invest in and contribute to the story).

Games vary on posting frequency - I used to be able to manage posting responses nearly every day.  Currently its more like every 2-3 days.  That's probably fairly typical.

Dice roller is built-in - very easy to use and highly customizable (e.g. you can randomize with names who is getting attacked by the horde of scorpionmen).

Loading images (e.g. maps) is straightforward, too.  

On 8/27/2020 at 11:14 PM, TheCrawdad said:

So that leaves me with PbP and I’m well aware of the inherent pitfalls.

Main pitfall tends to be players joining and then deciding it's not for them.  I usually expect some level of upfront attrition when bringing in new players.  

Even with established players there is periodic attrition - my HQG game has largely turned over twice, but still have enough continuity to keep in moving along.

[TheCrawdad]

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

The easiest place to run play by post (aka PbP or PbF) is RPGGeek.  I've been running an HQG game there since 2014, RQG since 2017.

If you want to get a feel for what is looks like, you can check out my Broken Tower scenario run here:  RQG The Broken Tower

Pacing is VERY different from face-to-face or other online sessions.  It's more akin to reading a page of a book a day then a full chapter.  Combat particularly can stretch out.  So, you're left with a lot of anticipation and desire to move forward, that sometimes is hard to keep in check (even for the GM!).

At the same time, it offers a lot of opportunity for narrative embellishment both by the GM and the players, and there's more opportunity to think through options (for instance, the next melee round likely won't take place for another day, or two).  It's important for the GM to particularly think about pacing, moving the story along, and including satisfying obstacles and climax to the story (not really different from any other RPG session, but it's important for the players to invest in and contribute to the story).

Games vary on posting frequency - I used to be able to manage posting responses nearly every day.  Currently its more like every 2-3 days.  That's probably fairly typical.

Dice roller is built-in - very easy to use and highly customizable (e.g. you can randomize with names who is getting attacked by the horde of scorpionmen).

Loading images (e.g. maps) is straightforward, too.  

Main pitfall tends to be players joining and then deciding it's not for them.  I usually expect some level of upfront attrition when bringing in new players.  

Even with established players there is periodic attrition - my HQG game has largely turned over twice, but still have enough continuity to keep in moving along.

Perhaps you can be inspired to run a RCQ game? I would certainly be committed to seeing it through barring death.

[jajagappa]

12 hours ago, TheCrawdad said:

Perhaps you can be inspired to run a RCQ game? I would certainly be committed to seeing it through barring death.

I might be persuaded to start another RQG play-by-post game - not quite sure how my time will be to support given real-life work and other commitments, but can see how that goes.  I would be looking for folks willing to commit to at least a 3-6 month timeframe to reasonably finish a "session".  There would be a few other caveats that I can cover by private message if interested.

[TheCrawdad]

5 hours ago, jajagappa said:

I might be persuaded to start another RQG play-by-post game - not quite sure how my time will be to support given real-life work and other commitments, but can see how that goes.  I would be looking for folks willing to commit to at least a 3-6 month timeframe to reasonably finish a "session".  There would be a few other caveats that I can cover by private message if interested.

I can commit. I’ll toss my hat in for a spot if you ever get around to doing so.

[Squaredeal Sten]

12 hours ago, jajagappa said:

I might be persuaded to start another RQG play-by-post game - not quite sure how my time will be to support given real-life work and other commitments, but can see how that goes.  I would be looking for folks willing to commit to at least a 3-6 month timeframe to reasonably finish a "session".  There would be a few other caveats that I can cover by private message if interested.

I will commit.  This does not look like a highly demanding commitment.  I don't see anything that would get in the way.

 

[Marc]

I'd like to give it a try. I can commit to at least six months, probably a year. Even if I decide that PbP is not for me, I'll finish out any scenario we've got started. Who knows, after I give it a try I may be willing to run one of my own.

[g33k]

23 hours ago, jajagappa said:

I might be persuaded to start another RQG play-by-post game - not quite sure how my time will be to support given real-life work and other commitments, but can see how that goes.  I would be looking for folks willing to commit to at least a 3-6 month timeframe to reasonably finish a "session".  There would be a few other caveats that I can cover by private message if interested.

I've tried several PbP/ PbEM / etc games.  Several just died aborning, before everyone had a chance to post more than once or twice, or even before OOC / setup completed; only one went any further than that, and it too died out, just shortly after we hit our 1st major action, before we could resolve it.  None were particularly "successful" or seemed like a good use of my RPG time...  😞   I conclude that I'm cursed for the format; or maybe I bring a curse to the format, and shouldn't bring it to your game...

Otherwise, I'd be interested.

[jajagappa]

At the moment, I've got 1-2 spots available in my current RQG Colymar campaign.  This would be picking up characters mid-session (they are in Snakepipe Hollow at present).  One is the pre-gen Harmast (though with some development from earlier sessions).  The other is an NPC ex-Lunar soldier named Pagara who has abandoned her Lunar gods to embrace Life, but hasn't found a new deity to embrace yet.  My current players are open to filling these positions, so if anyone who has expressed interest in PbP would like to join, just indicate that here (or in PM) - I will add in the first 2 to indicate interest in that.

As noted upthread, I might be able to start up a new RQG campaign.  I generally find I need 4 players willing to commit to make viable (which we may have), but no more than 6.

@TheCrawdad, @g33k, @Marc, @Squaredeal Sten - you've all noted interest and willingness to commit.  If you'd prefer to come into existing game, please note that - we're getting past vacations and should be back in action in a week.  If you prefer a new game starting characters from beginning, I can PM you to discuss what I'm planning. 

[jajagappa]

9 hours ago, jajagappa said:

If you'd prefer to come into existing game, please note that - we're getting past vacations and should be back in action in a week.  If you prefer a new game starting characters from beginning, I can PM you to discuss what I'm planning.

Just an FYI for any following this thread - I have now filled the pre-gen Harmast spot in my current game.

For others, I will PM my thoughts on a new RQG game.  Ideally we'd have at least one more willing to commit for some period in PbP game, so post here if there is interest.

[nabda]

I guess I could speak up too. A few months ago I discovered a site with a companion app still in development for PbP roleplaying called Rolegate. Its a pretty small community, compared to something like RPGGeek but I was intrigued by it because it has obviously had some programming work go into it, to integrate character sheets with rolls and things like that (for example, just being able to type out something like [[1d100<Homeland Lore]] to determine pass or fail on skill use), and on closer inspection I noticed that someone had made an RQG character sheet, but as near as I could tell it had never been run using the site.

So I tried and it fizzled out before it started, as PbP does sometimes. People got impatient with waiting and it went from having three players who were up for trying to one in a single weekend and I closed it and gave up for a few months. But I still wanted to try it, I was thinking of it as a stealth advertisement for RuneQuest and Glorantha and when the fresh faces showed up in my chat I was eager to talk up the more accessible and individual ways to read about things without a large investment of a new system and needing to find groups, King of Dragon Pass, Prince of Sartar and so on. I also wanted to test how feasible it actually was for me to run a game by post. I've only ever done it face to face and video/audio chats don't work for me for social anxiety reasons.

I hadn't seen this thread when I decided that I was going to try it again but I'm also not particularly having much luck at getting any attention over there though yet. So I guess I'm throwing my hat in the ring, but I would prefer people who aren't long term veterans of runequest, especially folks who have read every book backwards and forwards, since I would like to be able to be the one sharing new experiences and stories with someone (hint hint to the lurkers and new gloranthaphiles). My current plan was to do Broken Tower as a one-shot and then possibly expand into some of the other stuff in the Gamemaster's Screen Pack if things went well enough that people wanted to keep going, but I was planning on capping the entire thing and not turning it into a real campaign, because I want to do a real actually original campaign sometime after Gods and Goddesses and the Campaign Guide (not that I know what that will be, or when, yet.)

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 8/31/2020 at 10:09 AM, jajagappa said:

As noted upthread, I might be able to start up a new RQG campaign.  I generally find I need 4 players willing to commit to make viable (which we may have), but no more than 6.

@TheCrawdad, @g33k, @Marc, @Squaredeal Sten - you've all noted interest and willingness to commit.  If you'd prefer to come into existing game, please note that - we're getting past vacations and should be back in action in a week.  If you prefer a new game starting characters from beginning, I can PM you to discuss what I'm planning. 

I am up for that new game.  Yes, PM me.  guidance on character generation, or premade?

 

[Squaredeal Sten]

Sent my email reply Sept, 2d, Jajagappa.

 

[jajagappa]

Just now, Squaredeal Sten said:

Sent my email reply Sept, 2d, Jajagappa.

 

received. 🙂