Suggestions on Play-by-Post

[Nevermet]

Hey there.  I haven't been around in forever.

 

Here's a question: What are some suggestions for running RQG in Play-by-post games online?

PbP is notorious for being a rough medium of play for a lot of systems, especially around combat, as things can slow down exponentially.  Does anyone have any opinions on how to manage that, or other potential problems?

 

Someone suggested the players all state their intentions for the round, and then the GM resolves all rolls themselves.  This would save time compared to having each player roll when its their PC's turn.

 

Any other suggestions?  Thanks in advance.

[Squaredeal Sten]

Whether the players or GM do the die rolls doesn't seem to me to be a time saver.

But establishing expectations about how promptly they will respond in each turn is very important.

[Questbird]

I used to run a play Elric! by post with a single player (29 sessions by post and email, over ten years). That character was quite advanced though and didn't get into too many individual fights by that stage. I would outline a situation and he would respond with his intentions. I would boil those down to a number of skill rolls, which I'd roll for him and interpret what happened. With fights I guess you could go similarly high level -- you could state your general intentions (fight to the death, flee, try to disarm the leader etc). The play-by-GM could then run the fight and interpret -- requesting more information from the player if the fight was going very askew.

[jajagappa]

On 5/22/2024 at 6:59 PM, Nevermet said:

Here's a question: What are some suggestions for running RQG in Play-by-post games online?

PbP is notorious for being a rough medium of play for a lot of systems, especially around combat, as things can slow down exponentially.  Does anyone have any opinions on how to manage that, or other potential problems?

Someone suggested the players all state their intentions for the round, and then the GM resolves all rolls themselves.  This would save time compared to having each player roll when its their PC's turn.

Well, I've been running RQG PbP games for ~7 years now (and PbP overall for 10). My general observations and suggestions (in no particular order):

• PbP has its own speed and style - DO NOT expect it to be like face-to-face or online.
• The style encourages narration (by both GM and players) - take advantage of that! The GM has the time to provide more detail. The players have more time to develop actions/thoughts for their characters.
• A "session" may well take a year or more to run. My run of the Smoking Ruins took a bit over 1.5 years to complete. I've been playing in the Borderlands scenarios - we're nearly through the Five-eyes Temple scenario now (the 5th one) and it's been about 3.5 years to this point. 
• The great thing about PbP for me is that it requires short time slices to incrementally move things along (i.e. it doesn't require several hours on a given day).
• It does require GM and players to commit to making those regular time slice responses (and as a group figure out what the response rate should be - it's often difficult to do every day; but you generally don't want a longer interval than every 2-3 days).
• It's not for everyone. Real-life intervenes. Etc. - You will lose players along the way (or occasionally the GM!) and you need to figure out how to keep the characters in play (recruit a new player to pickup the character; turn the character into an NPC; have another player run two characters...)
• In RQG whether face-to-face or PbP, combat can always be a time sink. The more PC's, the more foes you have, the longer the combat will be. Keeping the order of action going can be challenging.
• In combat - have a map, and keep it updated and posted where everyone can see the current state and positions.
• In my games and the one I play in, all players make their own rolls (I want players to be involved when I GM, and I want to make my rolls as a player). The easiest approach is this: when you as a player make your statement of intent, you make the rolls for your actions then (so you know what the "potential" of your action might be). The GM then organizes the actions based on SR's and rolls for NPC's. Occasionally an additional or different roll is needed, but that's sufficient to keep the action going. 
• As a GM, I try to keep the players engaged in the story. If they are working for Queen Leika or whoever else, they may get a mission to perform (e.g. the Smoking Ruins), but need to figure out themselves how to approach it, where to get information, etc. The more they can direct the action, the better (really no different from face-to-face in that regard).
• Keep separate In-character and Out-of-character threads - the first is the game, and I try to enforce that when players are in the in-character thread, their statements and actions are in-character (i.e. no meta-gaming in the in-character thread!). If you have questions to the GM or other players, do it in the Out-of-Character thread.  You'll probably need a thread or list or some common place for all the character sheets as well - the GM absolutely needs access to those.
• Since you have time to narrate, draw on the Wonder of Glorantha! That's part of what makes it fun for me.

Hopefully that gives you some thoughts. (And all my campaigns are available on RPGGeek if you are interested in reading through to see how they progress.)

Edited May 26 by jajagappa

[Nevermet]

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Hopefully that gives you some thoughts.

It does.  Thank you.

For various reasons, synchronous play (in person or online) is a logistical nightmare for me, hence this thread.

[jajagappa]

7 hours ago, Nevermet said:

synchronous play (in person or online) is a logistical nightmare for me, hence this thread.

An important part of asynchronous play is simply establishing a cadence. You might think of it as something like call-and-response. As a GM, you need to write something that others can respond to, and then encourage a response. Give a reasonable time for everyone to answer or make relevant rolls. Respond with the results of their responses, and so on.

 

[Zit]

5 hours ago, jajagappa said:

you need to write something that others can respond to, and then encourage a response

this is  a very important point. Your posts must clearly show that you are expecting a response (if you are expecting one), otherwise you may wait for a very long time.

I'd also add:

Try to avoid too long texts with too much info. This is a true challenge.

Considering the very slow pace, expect your players to forget the details of what happened a few months ago and who are the NPC their characters are supposed to know (at least their names).

For a long term campaign, iI'd allow faster character improvement, otherwise you'll be dead IRL before any character becomes a rune lord.

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Zit said:

Try to avoid too long texts with too much info. This is a true challenge.

There are points/places (e.g. starting out) where lengthier text may be appropriate, but I agree. Try to avoid significant lore dumps and walls of text particularly if there are important clues to decipher as it can be easy to overlook.

Also look at ways to break up text. Use different colors to denote different NPCs speaking (I also strongly recommend that each PC has their own color as it significantly helps the GM and other players in determining who is saying what).

1 hour ago, Zit said:

Considering the very slow pace, expect your players to forget the details of what happened a few months ago and who are the NPC their characters are supposed to know (at least their names).

Definitely True! You may want to create a Thread for the dramatis personae. I'm not always good with this, but it's a reference point for players.

1 hour ago, Zit said:

For a long term campaign, iI'd allow faster character improvement

Agree. Don't hold back or be stingy on character advancement.