dungeon crawl

[kafka47]

Dear Referee Abbie

How to do a dungeon crawl on a Play-By-Email/E-board effectively without slowing the game to a snail's pace and purchacing elabourate software like GRiP?

Thanks,
Referee who wants to max Fun but meet certain Realism.

 

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

Kafka, is there supposed to be a link or more to the message?

 

[RainOfSteel]

Yes, please, what Marquis Deadlock said.

 

[kafka47]

No, just a question to gather together information so that it can become wisdom when I need to use in a game here on the board. So, help, please. Thank you.

 

[Maladominus]

NBOS Screen Monkey .... trial version is free.

Software is very simple to use. Players only need a web browser.

http://nbos.com/products/screenmonkey/SM-player-advanced.png

 

[kafka47]

Maladominus, I was rather looking for a solution that did not require software or webware, as I have already drawn the maps and they exist on paper. The prospect of entering them into computer would be way too much work for the adventure on this board.

 

[SanDragon]

I'm doing pretty well running an AD&D game on a play-by-post basis in a forum.

 

[kafka47]

Master SanDragon,

Please share how you go about describing detailed dungeons or do you have frequent posters that make go smoother?

 

[SanDragon]

My players seem to get by on the limited descriptions, as they are more into the interaction of their characters.

I have about 5 people I would call frequent posters.

The group started with 13 players and has dwindled, due to time zones and real life.

 

[kafka47]

Yes, thanks, that is what I have done with the adventure here on the boards (hopefully, I am succeeding). But does anyone else with experience with adding texture to a game where the players exist in different pockets in cyberspace for a Dungeon crawl?

 

[Ran Targas]

^ My friend, I have had the best luck in dungeon crawls by using personal messages to convey information versus public threads. The person in the lead never knows what the person in the rear knows, and vice-a-versa, until they communicate it somehow.

This makes the pace more of a function of player mandated actions than the flow of info from the GM. It also allows the GM to convey large amounts of specialized information without long drawn out and elaborate public posts. Let them decide to do things as a group, not you.

I think it does a great job of replicating real life too. I've had players get separated from the group because they've stopped to examine something and the rest kept going, not knowing they've left someone behind. It works even better to replicate the fog of war, even to the point of causing PC's to fire on each other without realizing it.

And there's something about it too that makes it even creepier to hear only your own thoughts as a player than the thoughts of everyone in the group.