Roleplaying in the CWBP.

[Alecthar]

Thanks for that. I dont have any preplanned ideas about what style to go for. I was looking for experience from others about what works. I would be cool with a free form style tho but I could imagine that others might want a more rigid - by the book approach.

I was estimating making a statement per day or so with a sort of pace of about a room per week kind of thing. Perhaps a touch faster but I cant see how it can be done unless you make statements every few hours. Would be good if you had this sort of thing running in your day job but I doubt that many people could do that. At a max I could make maybe three statements per day so if a player I might be able to move, attack and kill an opponent, choose and move to the next one and attack them in one day. Maybe I could pre plan to search the bodies and room afterward and hint at which exit to take too. All that is assuming the GM can keep up with that. Else as a GM I think that maybe one round of combat per day from the 3 statements to various people. Is this sort of pace normal ? Maybe the whole thing would be too slow. But how did people cope in a play by snail mail set up ?

In the 4E PbPs I'm in, generally a post a day is considered the bare minimum. Most make more posts than that, especially outside of combat. Combat isn't problematic so much as simply slower than other parts of the game usually are. RP between characters can go really quickly if the person you're talking to IC is online. Between NPCs it depends on how often your GM is online.

Combat is slower because, at least for 4e, you're bound by initiative order, so you can't act whenever you wish. Because of this you might find yourself waiting for a player to take their turn, or the GM to complete the combat update (where did the enemies move, what actions did they take, etc.) Many players find that a good way to make sure that combat flows well is to plan out their actions somewhat, a good strategy is to PM your GM the possible actions you wish to undertake, given certain happenings, and include the relevant rolls with that PM (we use Invisible Castle for rolls). The worst thing that can happen, then, is that the situation ends up outside of those predictions and you have to wait for that person like you would have had to anyway. Best case the GM says "so and so takes this action, next..."

[Notsonoble]

I'd be up for this... but not as a DM mostly because lately that's all I seem to be doing ...

I think the best way would probably be a combined play-by-post, and "Living Setting" setup... but remove the specific ruleset function from the "living setting" bit... This would allow people who worry about speed to simply arrange a VTT session and get things done... and people who can't keep some kind of VTT schedule to continue to contribute...

[Feralspirit]

Well, the sinking game I mentioned above has sank. I am surprised there has not been more discussion in this thread. Do we have a ref/GM? The only fantasy format I am really familiar with is AdvD&D 2nd Ed, but I may be able to try something different (with a little coaching). Is there still interest/enthusiasm in pursuing this?

[Korash]

in answer to your question FS,

"Hoist yer ale, ya scallywags, or by the Gods me sab'r'l be hav'n a drink of its own!!!" says the burly man through his flaming red beard as he waves his sword towards the rafters.

[industrygothica]

Thanks for that. I dont have any preplanned ideas about what style to go for. I was looking for experience from others about what works. I would be cool with a free form style tho but I could imagine that others might want a more rigid - by the book approach.

I was estimating making a statement per day or so with a sort of pace of about a room per week kind of thing. Perhaps a touch faster but I cant see how it can be done unless you make statements every few hours. Would be good if you had this sort of thing running in your day job but I doubt that many people could do that. At a max I could make maybe three statements per day so if a player I might be able to move, attack and kill an opponent, choose and move to the next one and attack them in one day. Maybe I could pre plan to search the bodies and room afterward and hint at which exit to take too. All that is assuming the GM can keep up with that. Else as a GM I think that maybe one round of combat per day from the 3 statements to various people. Is this sort of pace normal ? Maybe the whole thing would be too slow. But how did people cope in a play by snail mail set up ?

Having not read past this post, this might have been answered already, but in my experience with pbp, the pace your are describing is nearly impossible. If everyone posts once per day, you MIGHT get one round done... assuming they post actions in those posts, and not just questions for clarification.

I recently wrapped up the first chapter of a game on ENWorld which took 24 hours game-time. It took us just over 2 years to complete it... granted, that was a slow game, but that's what you get sometimes if you actually want to be able to finish one. Otherwise people get burned out and want something new and different.

Just my two cents - now I'll finish reding this thread and see if someone's already answered you.

-IG

[Redrobes]

Crikey ! That's a lot slower than I imagined people would put up with. I mean, how satisfying was the playing during those two years then ? Was there a feeling along the lines of "for gods sake when are we getting out of this room" or were people happy to stay in that groove for long periods.

I guess I would be prepared to go a lot more loose and laissez faire just to get the pace up and would accept decisions being made on my behalf if they were approximately what my character might have done. I remember the old times with real face to face round real table and real dice. That got pretty slow at times and it doesn't get any faster than that.

I don't know what people want but I am getting the feeling that there's not a lot of interest here for playing. I don't think ill be putting any effort in to write tons of software to make it happen.

Edit -- I think ill echo FeralSpirits comment that it is quite surprising that there hasn't been more interest and posts. I agree that in the past it might have been terrible and slow but I think things really are different now. We have VTTs including free ones so there's the option of live running as and when to get past a sticky moment in the game. The broadcast ability of mobile devices and ubiquitous email esp in work locations mean you can get those updates more quickly than waiting for the mail man.

[industrygothica]

The DM in this game is just that good. He's an artist when it comes to scene settings and descriptive text. Definitely worth the wait.

The game I'm running on ENWorld has been running for about two and a half years as well, though more than 24 hours have passed. Actually, now that I think about it.. not much more than 24. Maybe 48? Anyway...

I've thought about moving that game into the CWBP several times, and am working in that direction... just taking a bit to get it there. In any case, if someone here wants to run a pbp game, I'm certainly interested in playing. I'd be willing to DM a D&D 4e game somewhere, but I won't promise that it'll move fast.


-IG

[Redrobes]

Thats good. So lets see, thats you, FeralSpirit, Korash (I think ! and with limited time), Talroth (maybe interested), NotSoNoble (as a player), Midgard (as a player). Myself, I would like to play but would consider GM too though I have not done a pbm type system and last GMing I was doing was 2nd ed AD&D. If I DM then I would go for a stripped down affair with less reliance on rules and dice. I can host pages and generate some interfaces to modify characters.

We have enough for one party so maybe instead of this being a big affair maybe we start with just a private group. Should I set up a web forum off my site and try to bootstrap this ? IG would you like to GM or shall I take the plunge and go for it ?

[Midgardsormr]

That Rifts game I mentioned running earlier ran at a significantly faster pace. I ran it for about two years, and that was long enough to get through a fairly big campaign arc. Battles typically lasted three to nine days. The City of Veils was much slower. It only lasted a few months once I got involved, and I played, perhaps, five or six turns, but they only covered a little more than two days.

The pace largely depends on the style of the game and how much attention the participants can give it. If you're dealing with "Gimbal darts forward and savagely attacks the goblin with the gimpy leg" then it will take a long time to get through a combat. On the other hand, you can play it like "Gimbal joins the fray, laying about him with his pickaxe, striking at any goblin flesh he can reach." With that kind of approach, the GM's next post can tell about how Gimbal slew six of the goblins before taking a spear in the leg, and now what does he do?

The thing of it is, it's really difficult to satisfy both people who want tactical combat and people who want in-depth storytelling at the same time in a PBeM. Splitting battles off into VTT space might ameliorate that, though. I've never tried a game that exists in both spaces before.

I'll be happy to participate if you want to get the ball rolling.

[industrygothica]

Thats good. So lets see, thats you, FeralSpirit, Korash (I think ! and with limited time), Talroth (maybe interested), NotSoNoble (as a player), Midgard (as a player). Myself, I would like to play but would consider GM too though I have not done a pbm type system and last GMing I was doing was 2nd ed AD&D. If I DM then I would go for a stripped down affair with less reliance on rules and dice. I can host pages and generate some interfaces to modify characters.

We have enough for one party so maybe instead of this being a big affair maybe we start with just a private group. Should I set up a web forum off my site and try to bootstrap this ? IG would you like to GM or shall I take the plunge and go for it ?

If you're giving me the choice I'd rather you take the GM role, though with you not having done pbp before, it could be considered baptism by fire. The first thing we need to do is decide on a rules system. No matter how stripped down i is, we're still going to have to have rules. I can do d&d 3e-4e, but any previous versions allude me. I've done a small bit of WoD, but never in a fantasy setting.

It might be best to start with something small--3 to 4 combat encounters and a few skill-based scenarios, just to get a feel for it, and make sure people are going to stick around. I don't think any extra programming will be necessary, just three separate forums; one for game play, one for out of character discussion, and one for character records. Anything more than that would be overkill I think.


-IG