SS' Referee Preparation

How does SS prepare for online play? With style! Believe it or not, I penned most of Basically Speaking within two days after opening it in the game room. Other games were written inthe past and brought online, or are merely rewrites of existing games/modules.

As for my play by post games, one of them is a previously written adventure/rewrite (Space Pirates --- players portray the Star Devils in the Volturnus module trilogy and attack the Serena Dawn etc), another is simply throwing players into my alternate reality (Dominion), and a third is just as random as it can get with nothing preordained with the players choosing their way around (Space Rats). And then there's Port Loren Raiders, a rewrite for higher skilled characters using the expanded rules rather than the basic game. BS is simply a reverse of that, using the Basic Rules in a Knight Hawks environment.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle would be maps. How you go about this is up to you, I have some pregenerated maps and make additional file copies using MS Paint and/or Paint Shop Pro and copy/cut/paste updates onto them.

What materials do you have in front of you?  My notes for the game, either in outline form or written out as an adventure module per se, depending on what game it is. I also keep a pair of d10 and d6 by the computer for the play by post games. And they're not loaded, just rounded out from years of use. For my play-by-post games, I also keep a three ring binder with all four of the boxed set rulebooks within. Having the rules handy is a surefire way to settle any disputes, moreso since I'm on dial-up...

During combat, how does SS keep track of STA, who's turn to fire, NPC stats, recovered equipment? Mentally! I wish...again a notepad is always at my side. The NPCs are already written out on my adventure notes/game. A second notepad is there for temporary info such as PS wounds/current STA, new weapons/equipment they pick up, etc. The rest is done as live play, side A and side B etc. I also have a lot of the online game stuff saved to my documents section on the PC and will have a window open to access said info.

Are NPC responses pre-thought out? Some are, some aren't. I generally have a preset course of action that the NPCs will follow, with an occassional if/then statement. The rest is purely random, for example an outnumbered NPC will surrender via a successful LOG check, or keep fighting if failed. Unless of course said NPC is an ultimate bad azz sporting some serious hardware...