 December 30, 2012 - 5:30pm | As many of you know, we are working through a pbp game on the Network, going through some of the old modules, with some slight changes. I am interested in hearing ideas on what works best for pbp when the action starts, such as die roll conventions, etc. Best ways to integrate them, and work them in. Including best ways to address and handle xp awards, character advancement, and dividing responsibilities for keeping most recent characters posted current. Also interested in any house rules, or things you generally think makes a PbP engaging. I am looking forward to learning from your collective wisdom. These two yazarians and this vrusk walk into a bar... |
 December 30, 2012 - 6:45pm | Game I played in the referee just rolled the dice and announced it in brackets in post. that worked fine for me. I never knew for sure what in my post would get used and one time I supplied him with 3 post (via email) since my actions really required his approval so I envisioned how the NPCs might react to my character and simply supplied the 3 possibilities as post which let me then add my immediate response to the NPCs (luckily he gave me the best response of the 3 that I really wanted) It might be good if you compile an official game post especially if someone takes a scene where you dont want it to go with an NPC then you can modify it and the official game post is then the story despite what anyone has posted. its not so much about playing god with the game as you do need to keep things moving, prevent stuff from bogging down or perhaps an arguement pops up between players through their characters and you might just need an NPC to settle it by blowing something up or what have you. One thing that I liked about that game was that I new that Sunday morning there would be a massive post where the GM took all the post on the yahoo group and composed a big what happened with dice results and NPC reactions. I'm not a morning person but the minute my eyelids would open on Sunday morning I'd rush to boot the computer and start coffee. All week long every one would post their responses and the referee would come back on Sunday though it might have been Saturday for him since he an Aussie, i get confused by the international Dateline. Get everyone in the habbit of using IC and OOC but the space where your game is running has space for multiple threads unlike a yahoo group so you can have threads for OOC and IC. Most frustrating thing in the yahoo PBP that I played was that it had gone on for years and I was starting new and I had to start with only two skills as per AD rules or take one of the NPCs that had been around for a while which had skads of skills and were moving toward KHs skills. I wanted to develop my own character and figured I'd be ok starting so far behind everyone but it became pisser frustrating. One thing I liked was the GM gave out a free EXP each for character portrait, description, and background which was a quick 3 EXP boost at character creation which I liked. Background material is good as people will read it and incorporate it into their post or character. I'd be clear about how exp is earned- not sure that frequent posting is a good measure (and I like to post a lot). Players will have ideas that you never thought of and if it wont disrupt the game too much roll with them. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 30, 2012 - 7:54pm | My thoughts: 1) Die rolls: In the game I ran, I rolled the die and posted the results as I described the outcomes in the threads. In a couple other games I've played in, it was done the same way and it worked fine. If you're playing "on-line" (i.e. in the chat room or on a virtual tabletop like OpenRPG or MapTools), the players can drive the die rollers as they just appear in the chat windows. In AZ_Gamer's game, he has us roll and post in our responses, which works as well. 2) Forum topics - I found that it's best to create one thread per bit of the adventure. So for Crash on Volturnus, you would have a thread for the pre game, then one for the section on the Serena Dawn, then one for the wanding through the desert, etc. At the end of each one you could then award the XP and point to the new thread for the next section. If you want an example of how I did this, look at the adventure threads in the Obar Enterprises game. I think that works well. (And it's something I kind of stole from the play by e-mail game jedi was in.) If a thread starts to get really long, you could always split it up into a new one (I did that as well). 3) Maintaining characters - This is somewhere I'd recommend using the wiki for the character sheets. You can use the forum threads as well but the wiki has the advantage of tracking changes, you can go back and see what the character was like at an earlier time. That isn't possible in the forums. Since the wiki is freely editable, you can just go in to each of the character pages and add XP when they've earned it and then the players can go in and spend them. You can have discussions about the character on the forum threads but have the actual sheet in the wiki. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
December 30, 2012 - 7:58pm | So, would each player create a wiki page, or do I do that? These two yazarians and this vrusk walk into a bar... |
December 30, 2012 - 9:58pm | Either way. I created mine already. You could create them and then they could edit them or vice versa. I know you and jedi have wiki editing capabilities and it's easy enough for someone to give themselves that ability (a link to the instructions are on the first page of the wiki or here's the link http://starfrontiers.info/wiki/index.php/Instructions_for_Gaining_Wiki_Access) or I could do it for all the players. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 December 31, 2012 - 6:34am | I'm playing Keep on the Borderlands on RPG net. The DM is fantastic and IMO I really can't think of how to do better than what he's doing. He does the die rolling, and will ask for statements for a series of actions as well as a "standard" type of attack in situations in order to speed up the combat process. But rather than trying to describe all the little things, here's some links we're using in our game: IC thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?667630-IC-Keep-on-the-Borderlands OOC thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?662590-OOC-Keep-on-the-Borderlands Wiki page (VERY useful): http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Keep_On_The_Borderlands |
December 31, 2012 - 6:48am | I created my character sheet. BTW after you create your sheet you should look it over and then edit it to get the spacing between lines right especially if you are creating a list of equipment then you need double spacing between items. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 31, 2012 - 5:57pm | The pace will be determined as the game progresses. It's nice when everyone can post once per day, but that isn't always the case so expect to resolve an action every few days. If things start to lag, it's not out of line to declare one of the more active players as the "caller" in order to expedite things. As mentioned, in the absence of a dice roller* the GM can physically roll dice and post the results once all declarations are made. Again, it's not out of line to NPC a player if he hasn't posted as frequently. More often than not if a player is going to be notably absent they will usually post something in advance...but there are players that simply vanish over time (and I've been guilty of that myself in the past). Also not out of line --- if you feel the pace is slowing there's nothing wrong with speeding through a mundane portion of the game. In the B2 example, there's no need to spend two weeks hashing out that the collection of skulls in the orc lair entrance contains one orc skull...if you feel that you need to whip through this simply declare it and posit what the characters may interpret it as --- "One skull stands out from the rest of the human, demi-human, and goblin skulls; this one being orcish in nature. Perhaps it belonged to a traitor or a rival tribe." If the group wants to examine it any further then handle it as you see fit. Voila: skip the rabbit food on the side of the plate and move on to the juicy meat. The bullet point here is don't be afraid to nudge the game along. *Terl, is there any way to incorporate on in the forums? Something like myth weavers: http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/Help:Myth-Weavers:DiceRoller |
December 31, 2012 - 6:08pm | There probably is a way to add a die roller. I know Larry kept asking about one. I'll poke around and see what I can find. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
