PBP - a couple of thoughts

[dr fre0n]

Hello everyone,

I have been reading the forums for a while - with the objective of trying to prepare myself to ref a campaign. Also I recently met my friends who would be interested to play the game and we agreed that the concept of playing by post would be an interesting option.

So I am sharing with you my progress

I am in the course of reading Space Badger's Reaver's Deep intriguing adventure - it provides a lot of tips and pointer for a newcomer as to how the game is played and how PbP is played.

My time (mostly silent - reading take time) in here thought me a couple of things. First - I bought T5 the book- and MgT core during the last year. As a newbie I was expecting it (T5) to be a kind of encyclopedia, with a lot of general references but I was wrong. Some passages - especially on the history, and the universe, put the Universe in perspective where it was totally missing in the MgT core. Nice schematics and ships art also. But most of the character creation and rules were just impossible to integrate for me as a newbie (even with the erratum) and I gave up for now with T5 - concentrating from now on MgT. Also I do not see how I can ref my players using as a reference a book I have hard time understanding ! I am sure it will be useful somewhere to create stuff from scratch and such - I keep it on my desk anyway.

As a new ref for a PbP campaign, I am beginning to think about a place (forum) as a basis to play. The game will mostly be in french. I have a server or could rent server space to install (say phpBB) but I would rather spend time building the campaign than managing a forum from scratch. Also - since the campaign will be run in french - most forums hosting PbP seem to have some reserve on hosting french speakers.

I was looking for ideas or comments from experienced PbP if you had any issues regarding other languages on such platforms. Or any other suggestion regarding a good place or approach to host is welcome.

Also is it doable from your experience, to have normal session online PbP and then one day we meet for real and play the game for a day, and get back PbP ? What are the challenges if any ?

Finally, I wanted to help my player getting started -like especially reading about the skills and character creation. Short of making them buy (or lend to them) the core book - what usual option are you guys using for new players, what do you recommend them to read. There is the book 0 that provides a good place to start I guess. Just to make it clear we will meet for a character generation session so we will have access to all my printed material anyway - but it is always good to keep their minds entertained thinking about 'the' character if you know what I mean

 

[Vladika]

Hello everyone,

I have been reading the forums for a while - with the objective of trying to prepare myself to ref a campaign. Also I recently met my friends who would be interested to play the game and we agreed that the concept of playing by post would be an interesting option.

So I am sharing with you my progress

I am in the course of reading Space Badger's Reaver's Deep intriguing adventure - it provides a lot of tips and pointer for a newcomer as to how the game is played and how PbP is played.

My time (mostly silent - reading take time) in here thought me a couple of things. First - I bought T5 the book- and MgT core during the last year. As a newbie I was expecting it (T5) to be a kind of encyclopedia, with a lot of general references but I was wrong. Some passages - especially on the history, and the universe, put the Universe in perspective where it was totally missing in the MgT core. Nice schematics and ships art also. But most of the character creation and rules were just impossible to integrate for me as a newbie (even with the erratum) and I gave up for now with T5 - concentrating from now on MgT. Also I do not see how I can ref my players using as a reference a book I have hard time understanding ! I am sure it will be useful somewhere to create stuff from scratch and such - I keep it on my desk anyway.

As a new ref for a PbP campaign, I am beginning to think about a place (forum) as a basis to play. The game will mostly be in french. I have a server or could rent server space to install (say phpBB) but I would rather spend time building the campaign than managing a forum from scratch. Also - since the campaign will be run in french - most forums hosting PbP seem to have some reserve on hosting french speakers.

I was looking for ideas or comments from experienced PbP if you had any issues regarding other languages on such platforms. Or any other suggestion regarding a good place or approach to host is welcome.

Also is it doable from your experience, to have normal session online PbP and then one day we meet for real and play the game for a day, and get back PbP ? What are the challenges if any ?

Finally, I wanted to help my player getting started -like especially reading about the skills and character creation. Short of making them buy (or lend to them) the core book - what usual option are you guys using for new players, what do you recommend them to read. There is the book 0 that provides a good place to start I guess. Just to make it clear we will meet for a character generation session so we will have access to all my printed material anyway - but it is always good to keep their minds entertained thinking about 'the' character if you know what I mean

Welcome to the Board

Relegate the massive T5 Tome to...wherever. Don't feel bad about not being able to follow it, nobody else really can either*. IMO CT was the simplest, clearest and best version. Every other version has addd errata, contradiction and confusion.

However each has had its following. You can pick up a boxed set on eBay anywhere from $20 us to $35 (and up). Better might be pending $35 dollars and ordering the CD from FFE. It's the best deal going and contains the first 8 CT LBBs.

*Even the play-testers have whined about parts of it and these board threads are full of discussion; pro, con and confused.

CT = Classic Traveller
LBB = Little Black Book
FFE = Far Future Enterprises

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Hi, and weLcome!

I'm a long time Dungeons and Dragons player, with a fair amount of experince of PbP online games, and also a fair amount of experience with introducing new players into the game.

first, the reason the MgT core book is so setting light is so they can seperate the rules and flavour, and use the same rules for several different settings (and to get you to buy another book.)

Anyway, some thoughts:

1) write up a quick "cheat sheet" that has fast and dirty reminders of basic rules mechanics (ie "a skill roll is 2d6, plus the relevant stat, plus your skill bonus, and your trying to beat a score of 8.", or "you can preform one major action and one minor action per round", etc), and give one to each player. That will save you having to answer the same questions 20 times, or at least let you answer them quicker.

2) if you wnat to, have a quick "setting sheet", with a few shortish paragraphs about the games setting ("you are in a massive stellar empire called the Third Imperium", "FTL travel is done by Jump drives that always take a week", "you are the crew and owners of a small merchant vessal", stuff like that). Roleplay (in the sense of acting ) is easier if they have some frame of reference.

3) Keep the first adventure really simple, for both your and their sakes. If none of you have played before, then a simple plot, with clear cut objectives ("Fix the ship", "deliver the cargo", etc) and a few simple encounters will make the workload on everyone much easier.
Once you and the players are a bit more comfortable with the rules, and you have a clearer idea what style of gameplay they like most (i.e. complex character interaction vs "I waste it with my crossbow!"), you can start writing more complex adventures.

4) the other option is to use a pre-written adventure, which makes it a bit easier on you (your not writing the plot, just helping the plays follow it). In DnD, this is what i'd normally recommend, but i don't know that much about the pre-written Traveller adventures, so i can't comment if they would make good learning tools or not.


5) keep a running summary of the adventure for yourself, and for the players. trust me, anything plot related you tell them will be forgotten within 30 seconds ("So we go in and grab....whats his name agian? that dude we are here to steal?"). when you finish your face to face part of the game, post a summary of what happen in the face to face part on the PBP thread, so that everyone can keep up.

6)Remember what I think are the two golden rules for a GM: 1) "the players are NOT my enemies" and 2) "Its only true if the players know it." The first is because a lot of new players come into the game thinking in "Us vs Them" terms, when it's really "Us and More of Us". the players and the GM write the story together, the players are the main characters of that story, and the GM provides all the bit parts. the second rule is becuase players, being free thinking individuals, often don't follow the pre-plotted story path and so your left scrambling to make it up as you go.

As a new ref for a PbP campaign, I am beginning to think about a place (forum) as a basis to play. The game will mostly be in french. I have a server or could rent server space to install (say phpBB) but I would rather spend time building the campaign than managing a forum from scratch. Also - since the campaign will be run in french - most forums hosting PbP seem to have some reserve on hosting french speakers.

why not run it here? while very few people here would be able to follow the game, i'm not aware of any rules saying that you can't have a play by post game in french if you really wanted to.

Another option i've seen done is using Google drive and having a shared "In Character" and "out of character" word documents that everyone can edit. you put things like dice rolls in the ooc doc, then the players discribe the results in the IC doc.

however, if you in a position to get everyone together on a regular basis (like weekly or fortnightly), then i would suggest you just play face to face. the pace is much, much faster, and you get more done, but you have a lot more time between sessions to prepare things (like find maps, flesh out backstory, etc), or to go do non Traveller related things. plus, you get more of the social aspect the roleplay, which i think helps keep the gaming group together.


i'm sure i can think of more things, given time, but i will stop thier for now.

 

[dr fre0n]

Welcome to the Board

Relegate the massive T5 Tome to...wherever. Don't feel bad about not being able to follow it, nobody else really can either*. IMO CT was the simplest, clearest and best version. Every other version has addd errata, contradiction and confusion.

However each has had its following. You can pick up a boxed set on eBay anywhere from $20 us to $35 (and up). Better might be pending $35 dollars and ordering the CD from FFE. It's the best deal going and contains the first 8 CT LBBs.

*Even the play-testers have whined about parts of it and these board threads are full of discussion; pro, con and confused.

CT = Classic Traveller
LBB = Little Black Book
FFE = Far Future Enterprises

Hey Vladika - thank you for your insight

I am trying to obtain CT - (in books ideally) so I can compare it with MgT core that I recently bought. I am reading a lot of great and positive things about CT too and I did not made my mind yet. From what I am reading in here there is still a strong base for CT going - which is amazing. The main strength IMO is the sum of all the playtime this system got over the last decades, which result in articles, in material, in custom, in board discussion, tons of great resources and inspiration, which resulted in a pretty much 'polished' and working system.

Also yeah I was reading you guys about T5, about how even veterans were not convinced it was usable, and how vets were thinking it would be hard for newbies to use it. I said : challenge accepted, followed Hemdian' s excellent youtube step-by-step howto but in the end, sorry - I really tried

On the other hand , as a newcomer - I think that the MgT - looks straightforward and is easily available in the neighboring game library, which somewhat count as well. I guess I will still have to try both and see for myself to be sure.

But from now on I will seriously keep checking it out for CT and related !

 

[dr fre0n]

Hi, and weLcome!

I'm a long time Dungeons and Dragons player, with a fair amount of experince of PbP online games, and also a fair amount of experience with introducing new players into the game.

first, the reason the MgT core book is so setting light is so they can seperate the rules and flavour, and use the same rules for several different settings (and to get you to buy another book.)

Anyway, some thoughts:

1) write up a quick "cheat sheet" that has fast and dirty reminders of basic rules mechanics (ie "a skill roll is 2d6, plus the relevant stat, plus your skill bonus, and your trying to beat a score of 8.", or "you can preform one major action and one minor action per round", etc), and give one to each player. That will save you having to answer the same questions 20 times, or at least let you answer them quicker.

2) if you wnat to, have a quick "setting sheet", with a few shortish paragraphs about the games setting ("you are in a massive stellar empire called the Third Imperium", "FTL travel is done by Jump drives that always take a week", "you are the crew and owners of a small merchant vessal", stuff like that). Roleplay (in the sense of acting ) is easier if they have some frame of reference.

3) Keep the first adventure really simple, for both your and their sakes. If none of you have played before, then a simple plot, with clear cut objectives ("Fix the ship", "deliver the cargo", etc) and a few simple encounters will make the workload on everyone much easier.
Once you and the players are a bit more comfortable with the rules, and you have a clearer idea what style of gameplay they like most (i.e. complex character interaction vs "I waste it with my crossbow!"), you can start writing more complex adventures.

4) the other option is to use a pre-written adventure, which makes it a bit easier on you (your not writing the plot, just helping the plays follow it). In DnD, this is what i'd normally recommend, but i don't know that much about the pre-written Traveller adventures, so i can't comment if they would make good learning tools or not.


5) keep a running summary of the adventure for yourself, and for the players. trust me, anything plot related you tell them will be forgotten within 30 seconds ("So we go in and grab....whats his name agian? that dude we are here to steal?"). when you finish your face to face part of the game, post a summary of what happen in the face to face part on the PBP thread, so that everyone can keep up.

6)Remember what I think are the two golden rules for a GM: 1) "the players are NOT my enemies" and 2) "Its only true if the players know it." The first is because a lot of new players come into the game thinking in "Us vs Them" terms, when it's really "Us and More of Us". the players and the GM write the story together, the players are the main characters of that story, and the GM provides all the bit parts. the second rule is becuase players, being free thinking individuals, often don't follow the pre-plotted story path and so your left scrambling to make it up as you go.



why not run it here? while very few people here would be able to follow the game, i'm not aware of any rules saying that you can't have a play by post game in french if you really wanted to.

Another option i've seen done is using Google drive and having a shared "In Character" and "out of character" word documents that everyone can edit. you put things like dice rolls in the ooc doc, then the players discribe the results in the IC doc.

however, if you in a position to get everyone together on a regular basis (like weekly or fortnightly), then i would suggest you just play face to face. the pace is much, much faster, and you get more done, but you have a lot more time between sessions to prepare things (like find maps, flesh out backstory, etc), or to go do non Traveller related things. plus, you get more of the social aspect the roleplay, which i think helps keep the gaming group together.


i'm sure i can think of more things, given time, but i will stop thier for now.

a wealth of answers here ! My friends and I were long time D&D player, from original up tp 3rd Ed for me and 4th for them - I think that for most of us it will be the first time in a while we play in another system than D20. So yes for MgT I understood that if I need the flavor I would have to read something like the Spinward Marshes to put some context and background into the world, which I first found (lightly) in T5. Am currently reading a Spinward Marshes campaign setup, Freelance magazine, those are helping a lot for perspective tips, and context

for 1) and 2) completely agreed, I am in the process of writing some basic material for them - as guidelines - so they get the basics, thanks for confirming;

for 3) I have been already suggesting something along those lines, I will surely do it just to be sure that we have a 'hand on' and if something get wrong it easily fixed and doesn't get into the way of a broader campaign setting. Still thinking about it - but I think that if it is simple, I have to touch a couple of concepts like social and intrigues, combat, ships and such so I got the feeling of it.

for 4) I obtained 'Beltstrike' a campaign setting in a pre-TL setting featuring belters, kinda indies vs corps so it will be in a limited setup regarding multi-system and such. Anyway I am open to other adventures but at this stage I guess it is better if those are written so I get a hold on things.

5) Summary yes when we play live we have someone recording - if we play PbP it will be kinda default!

6) Yes I hear you ! I am not sure yet how I will handle this yet as starships can go wherever they are programmed to - at the opposite of a bunch of medieval character stuck in that dungeon. But I am sure I will manage !

thanks for all the tips - I will see when I am ready if I can arrange something with the managers a forum space to start something for PbP - but else our first choice is of course face to face, but everyone is having 2-3 kids and wives are like wtf traveller so I try to be the realistic here haha

 

[CosmicGamer]

As a new ref for a PbP campaign, I am beginning to think about a place (forum) as a basis to play. The game will mostly be in french. I have a server or could rent server space to install (say phpBB) but I would rather spend time building the campaign than managing a forum from scratch. Also - since the campaign will be run in french - most forums hosting PbP seem to have some reserve on hosting french speakers.

I play on RPoL - Roleplay Online. Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait un problème avec la création d'un jeu en français. I can ask one of the moderators if you are interested.

Finally, I wanted to help my player getting started -like especially reading about the skills and character creation. Short of making them buy (or lend to them) the core book - what usual option are you guys using for new players, what do you recommend them to read. There is the book 0 that provides a good place to start I guess.

The Traveller Introduction Book 0 is free at the following site
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/...duction-to-Traveller
Another good free resource is the Traveller SRD
http://www.travellersrd.com/

 

[SpaceBadger]

First, I'm glad you are enjoying following along on our SBRD game - that will also help as I can refer to it for examples.

As for running a PbP game here in French, I believe Aramis would be the person to ask, but I see no reason why not. You would of course need your players to be reasonably fluent in French - not necessarily as their first language, but enough to get by. For example, in Aramis's Space:1889 game, which is conducted in English, McPerth's native language is Catalan but his English is good enough that we all understand each other.

If you are going to run a PbP game here, and are not already a Moot member, it is worth subscribing to the Moot at whatever level is necessary to get the benefit of a sub-forum just for your game, as it is a tremendous help to the GM to also be sub-forum moderator with the ability to move and edit posts as necessary for clarity, and to keep IC and OOC posts in the correct threads.

I have also found having a sub-Wiki on the Traveller Wiki just for my game very useful as a place to accumulate Library Data - especially relevant to SBRD as it is a non-standard setting - as I dislike handing over limited sample of Library Data which practically point the way to the players that This Is Important. I much prefer having a large base of applicable Library Data, and if the players think they may want to go to System X, they can look it up and read about it, along with following any cross-links to related articles. Much less of a GM-railroad that way.

The sub-Wiki also makes a useful place to post any houserules (although I haven't completely gotten around to copying them all over from my Moot Blog, where I originally started writing stuff for this game before I had the sub-Wiki).

If someone seems to be forgetting a houserule, or the name or details of someplace they have been, or some event that happened, rather than write a whole post reminding them it is easier just to post a link to the applicable page in a thread, or in the sub-Wiki.

What I Enjoy About GMing PbP as opposed to tabletop is the luxury of time to think over what the proper result of a player action should be, or what is really going on in an NPC's head, and possibly even to change my plans in response to what the players do. There is a post near the end of the Chapter 01 OOC thread in which I explained after it was completed how the whole plot of the big Lanthanum strike needing transport all grew out of a little post by Fritz for Donoma to go on some messenger runs for rent money. This is especially nice in what is supposed to be a "semi-sandbox" game without any GM-planned adventure that the players must follow.

Problems I Have Had GMing PbP as opposed to tabletop are: 1) difficulty of running any sort of combat or "fast action" scene; 2) keeping players posting frequently to keep things moving; 3) losing players who become bored as others don't keep things moving as fast as they would like; 4) players forgetting what is going on, or where they are, or events that have happened, or other setting details (yeah, it is all available right there in the threads, but getting them to re-read for something they don't remember is :file_28:, and pointing them by link at something they forgot can get them a bit snippy ).

Finally, if there will be any kind of Ship involved, look at GM Maxim #2 in my sig below, and have a deckplan ready (or get one ready ASAP if the Ship is encountered after the game has begun). I've played in two other PbP games where a ship was a major piece of the setting, and there was no deckplan, and people were posting all sorts of stuff showing that they had different and contradictory ideas of what was located where. You can either use standard ships with deckplans available, or for non-standard ships either make them yourself or have one of the players make them, but trust me on this: have a deckplan.

 

[flykiller]

Also is it doable from your experience, to have normal session online PbP and then one day we meet for real and play the game for a day, and get back PbP ? What are the challenges if any ?

this depends on your personal skill set. the two approaches are entirely different. I've found that I'm unable to keep up with face-to-face gaming but I'm fairly decent at pbp because I have time to think and plan between posts.

in my sig below I have a link to advice for referees. you may find some of it useful.

 

[Vargas]

I am trying to obtain CT - (in books ideally) . . .

I know you'd prefer books but DriveThruRPG has CT for free at: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/80190/CTSTStarter-Traveller

That would let you at least check it out before you invest a lot of time and money elsewhere.

 

[Kilgs]

Rpol.net is my preferred place to play PbP. It has some non-English (French, Quebec-French, Polish, Portuguese and some others) games on it. Not sure about support for special characters.

General Advice:

1) Don't worry too much about the rules because PbP is very slow so you have time to look them up.

2) I would recommend your first play session be face-to-face if everyone is new. That way you can stumble over any rule issues right away and deal with them.

3) PbP is very slow... jump the plot and scene a lot. Don't spend time on docking, or loading or buying goods or anything like that. Almost every traveller/sci-fi game I've been in eventually crashed at a starport because someone kept buying loot or wanting to etc.

4) Be patient. There's a flurry of posting in the beginning, then it slows, and around the 3rd month you just want to quit. Don't. Just push through it and you'll regain momentum. It comes and goes in a game's lifetime. Remember... momentum is up to the GM. Do not wait for players if they take too long. Be forgiving if they post late and allow some retconning if possible, but do not wait for them.

5) As for mixed PbP and face-to-face... I don't see any reason it wouldn't work swimmingly. But be careful for there being significant gaps in the storyline or info available. One neat thing about PbP is all the information is still there at your fingertips. If you mix the two, you may miss out on some of that.

 

[flykiller]

Rpol.net is my preferred place to play PbP.

I will no longer post there. They host the most vile "adult" games imaginable and some you can't even begin to imagine. These "games" are advertised right alongside the games for children, and in my opinion this is deliberate and the entire purpose of the entire site.

 

[dr fre0n]

I play on RPoL - Roleplay Online. Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait un problème avec la création d'un jeu en français. I can ask one of the moderators if you are interested.
The Traveller Introduction Book 0 is free at the following site
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/...duction-to-Traveller
Another good free resource is the Traveller SRD
http://www.travellersrd.com/

Hey CosmicGamer - pretty relevant links - writing this down

I could PM you when I am ready for RPoL if you are ok with this as I am not ready to start yet ! thank you

 

[dr fre0n]

I will no longer post there. They host the most vile "adult" games imaginable and some you can't even begin to imagine. These "games" are advertised right alongside the games for children, and in my opinion this is deliberate and the entire purpose of the entire site.

Ow I see your point - nevertheless I will keep that in mind when I will be setting this out

 

[dr fre0n]

I know you'd prefer books but DriveThruRPG has CT for free at: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/80190/CTSTStarter-Traveller

That would let you at least check it out before you invest a lot of time and money elsewhere.

ok so it's Christmas again and no one told me before :devil:

I will be, with this in hand, in a much better position to take the best decision before putting down the credits. Very much appreciated !

 

[dr fre0n]

Rpol.net is my preferred place to play PbP. It has some non-English (French, Quebec-French, Polish, Portuguese and some others) games on it. Not sure about support for special characters.

OK so apparently no problems with various languages - that is great. French characters such as accentuated (à é ê) are usually well supported these days but we will check that out !

General Advice:

3) PbP is very slow... jump the plot and scene a lot. Don't spend time on docking, or loading or buying goods or anything like that. Almost every traveller/sci-fi game I've been in eventually crashed at a starport because someone kept buying loot or wanting to etc.

ahh nice one here - I need to keep it on the essential - I am seeing how this could crash in a starport - I had some D&D games crashing in a market - but since it was face to face we were able to work something next session which is a no-no in a PbP. Got it !

5) As for mixed PbP and face-to-face... I don't see any reason it wouldn't work swimmingly. But be careful for there being significant gaps in the storyline or info available. One neat thing about PbP is all the information is still there at your fingertips. If you mix the two, you may miss out on some of that.

There will of course be a gap - and otherwise a big one since a lot of action could happen in a face-to-face session. I guess if we keep a log, I'll have one of the players transcribe it and we will put it online so we are not loosing the story.

Some great pointers thank you again !

 

[dr fre0n]

First, I'm glad you are enjoying following along on our SBRD game - that will also help as I can refer to it for examples.

Yes I noticed your game right away and saw some of the challenges you had to go through and I was immediately curious on how you handled things. I also realized that the preparation required before running anything like that is staggering - but it is not driving me away. Of course I will not have these rules printed on that dot-matrix-printer from back in the time, but I am sure that within the setting we will define, I will have enough material to run something fun

As for running a PbP game here in French, I believe Aramis would be the person to ask, but I see no reason why not. You would of course need your players to be reasonably fluent in French - not necessarily as their first language, but enough to get by. For example, in Aramis's Space:1889 game, which is conducted in English, McPerth's native language is Catalan but his English is good enough that we all understand each other.

We will all be people with French as our first language and fluent in English so it should not be an issue either with the community, rules, etc. But I got your point.

If you are going to run a PbP game here, and are not already a Moot member, it is worth subscribing to the Moot at whatever level is necessary to get the benefit of a sub-forum just for your game, as it is a tremendous help to the GM to also be sub-forum moderator with the ability to move and edit posts as necessary for clarity, and to keep IC and OOC posts in the correct threads.

I entirely agree - regarding the Moot membership - for the reasons you stated but also to contribute in here - bytes, maintenance and hosting are not free and that is what I call supporting - especially if we are hosted in here. I will see with Aramis when I will be ready as you and others already suggested to me if we take that path

I have also found having a sub-Wiki on the Traveller Wiki just for my game very useful as a place to accumulate Library Data - especially relevant to SBRD as it is a non-standard setting - as I dislike handing over limited sample of Library Data which practically point the way to the players that This Is Important. I much prefer having a large base of applicable Library Data, and if the players think they may want to go to System X, they can look it up and read about it, along with following any cross-links to related articles. Much less of a GM-railroad that way.

The sub-Wiki also makes a useful place to post any houserules (although I haven't completely gotten around to copying them all over from my Moot Blog, where I originally started writing stuff for this game before I had the sub-Wiki).

If someone seems to be forgetting a houserule, or the name or details of someplace they have been, or some event that happened, rather than write a whole post reminding them it is easier just to post a link to the applicable page in a thread, or in the sub-Wiki.

ok so this concept is to help them think ahead, see what they got, what would be possible, especially because your campaign is having a bit of custom rules - but is a good overall support for PbP. Just curious, how long did you prepare yourself before even announcing that you would ref a campaign ? Like planning the ideas, starting the Wiki's, refreshing your house rules and such ? I expect it is intensive before beginning but once everyone is rolling it is less and less

What I Enjoy About GMing PbP as opposed to tabletop is the luxury of time to think over what the proper result of a player action should be, or what is really going on in an NPC's head, and possibly even to change my plans in response to what the players do. There is a post near the end of the Chapter 01 OOC thread in which I explained after it was completed how the whole plot of the big Lanthanum strike needing transport all grew out of a little post by Fritz for Donoma to go on some messenger runs for rent money. This is especially nice in what is supposed to be a "semi-sandbox" game without any GM-planned adventure that the players must follow.

Yes either for the GM and the players, everyone can think twice how to maximize this action or how to beat that challenge. Less spontaneous but more thoughtful

Problems I Have Had GMing PbP as opposed to tabletop are: 1) difficulty of running any sort of combat or "fast action" scene; 2) keeping players posting frequently to keep things moving; 3) losing players who become bored as others don't keep things moving as fast as they would like; 4) players forgetting what is going on, or where they are, or events that have happened, or other setting details (yeah, it is all available right there in the threads, but getting them to re-read for something they don't remember is :file_28:, and pointing them by link at something they forgot can get them a bit snippy ).

fast action - Yes since we have to wait for a while (hours and days) until something new happen. I was playing a BBS Door game called BRE (Barren Realm Elite if anyone remember) and while it was not fast, once we as a team were setup things were relatively fast. I will keep reading your game, and try to focus on the timeline to have an idea on any 'slowness'. As for players forgetting things, yeah it is happening anytime, anywhere so I guess I am not that worried

Finally, if there will be any kind of Ship involved, look at GM Maxim #2 in my sig below, and have a deckplan ready (or get one ready ASAP if the Ship is encountered after the game has begun). I've played in two other PbP games where a ship was a major piece of the setting, and there was no deckplan, and people were posting all sorts of stuff showing that they had different and contradictory ideas of what was located where. You can either use standard ships with deckplans available, or for non-standard ships either make them yourself or have one of the players make them, but trust me on this: have a deckplan.

ok well Maxim #2 recorded - I will have that deckplan. Anyway it is important to know who is where doing what especially since we are not face to face. Maybe I could always have on a secondary site an up to date deckplan which I could print, update, scan and upload each time it is relevant.

with all of this I think I know much more where I am going as an aspiring referee either for PbP or face to face - thanks for sharing your experience

 

[SpaceBadger]

Just curious, how long did you prepare yourself before even announcing that you would ref a campaign ? Like planning the ideas, starting the Wiki's, refreshing your house rules and such ? I expect it is intensive before beginning but once everyone is rolling it is less and less

Actually, this would be a case that I might recommend not to do as I did. For SBRD, I kinda got the idea of running a game, PMd a few people to see who might be interested, then we had a public discussion of what kind of game we wanted to run. After choosing the Long Night setting and realizing that I was going to need a LOT of Library Data, we started discussing wikis and so forth and tjoneslo volunteered the idea of a sub-Wiki within the Traveller Wiki, and that was when I got started on that. Before the Wiki, I had been posting setting notes in my Moot Blog (another benefit, not sure what level of subscription is needed).

I think from idea to starting play was maybe 3 or 4 weeks. A lot of that was by PM and email, but the public thread is still available.

Disclaimer: due to illness that keeps me home in bed a lot, and also makes it hard to sleep sometimes, I often have a LOT of time on my hands. For someone working normal job hours and trying to keep relations with family and friends, a substantial background like what I did for SBRD would probably take a lot longer to accomplish.

 

[Kilgs]

I will no longer post there. They host the most vile "adult" games imaginable and some you can't even begin to imagine. These "games" are advertised right alongside the games for children, and in my opinion this is deliberate and the entire purpose of the entire site.

I'm aware that you had that experience. It's really unfortunate as I've been on Rpol for almost 8 years and have only anecdotal stories about such experiences. The moderators are excellent and quite stringent about the rules. Every once in awhile, I see an ad for a game that is risque but it's pretty rare. My impression is that there is a small population that likes adult-fantasy games and they all know each other so no advertisements. Because I almost never see them...

The moderators are extremely paranoid about those games and regularly ban people. Can't ask much more from a free site. The Rpol rules have clear guidelines that ban much of what concerns you so those folks get banned, then find another way on, then get banned again. But they don't advertise (for that very reason) so I never see them.

I ran a Dogtown game (1970's crime) which was fairly brutal so I made sure that I adhered to Rpol's rules rather strictly and added some of my own. I had regular contact with a moderator (also happened to be a Traveller fan and GM) about my game which gave me the impression that the moderators were constantly monitoring Adult games. He even contacted me with suspicions that a new player was a possible banned alt (banned for non--icky reasons, more attitude) and indicated that they were keeping an eye on him.

Like I said, I think Rpol.net is fantastic. I'm sorry you have such a bad opinion of it.
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Not sure about french grammar but I have seen Hungarian letters done (I think) correctly so I can't imagine a few french accentages being a problem.
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As for prep time on games... I've put together a game in around 4wks and I've spent over a year and a half preparing one. Since you know your players, you can cut down on a lot of determining expectations and thats the tough part. When you spend a ton of time on a certain idea/theme, and then the players you recruited aren't quite buying it... you tend to lose steam.

Half the fun for me is the prep so sometimes I needlessly prepare/write/edit simply because it's my relaxation. So that year and a half thing was pretty much an outlier... but it is a Harn game so complexity/detail are mandatory ;-)

Can't lose steam in PbP.
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My Traveller game (defunct) is still up and available to read... You can see all the neat things you can do with images and Traveller maps. Do a search on "Gateway Drift"...

 

[flykiller]

Like I said, I think Rpol.net is fantastic.

it is. it's outstanding technically. setting up, advertising, and running a game are a breeze. the in-game tools are executed flawlessly. it's beautiful, almost intuitive. I loved posting there.

The moderators are extremely paranoid about those games

paranoid? they are terrified. they have every reason to be. those "games" are run by people with severe issues. if anyone's kids were involved the parents would spontaneously rush the place and burn it to the ground and they wouldn't stop there.

despite all of the free bb software available the owner of rpol wrote its code himself, with the express purpose of guaranteeing absolute confidentialiy and security. despite the costs of running such a large site it is free. all games are open to anyone with only the referee - only the referee! - in charge of who is admitted and who is not. and these - these horrors - are advertised right along side the pokemon challenges and everything else. the intent is obvious.