Thinking about setting up a game. What is some advice for running a successful PbP game?

-Havard

Noone noticed this in the Bard's Bench, so I moved it here :)

-Havard

Make sure everyone knows the posting rate you would like to achieve before they sign up.

Similar to this is: make sure one character who can post 5 times a day doesn't monopolise the story thread, when you've only asked for 2 posts a week.

And again: don't burn yourself out as DM by starting off with a high rate of posting you can't keep up over the long term.

Define what sort of a game it is, right from the start. Are you looking for deep character development, or is this a 'Hack and slash, who cares about plot?', sort of game?

Make sure you don't get any rules lawyers as players. :)

Here's a good one: If the party thief openly posts that he pockets items of jewellery and possible magic items before passing the contents of the chest to the rest of the group - expect the party mage to find an excuse to turn the little punk into a frog. Yes, I was that mage and no, I have not yet taken my revenge in character. But does that sort of thing fester like a gangrenous wound? Oh yes.

If you let the players communicate with each other by email, insist you get copied in. Then when a player leaves because of a mortal personal insult, you'll know about it before it tears the group apart.

Oh yes - and let us know what the setting is, I might want to sign up! 8)

Go lifting, shave your head, put some nerdy glasses on, and get the tattoo of a Final Fantasy character on your thigh.

In other words, try to be me.








(In case anybody wonders, of course I have long tutored my world's favorite viking behind the scenes.)

I for my part really think there is only one rule, for a PBP campaign, as for any other kind of game:

Make your players care.

The biggest piece of advice is something that goes strongly against my usual gaming and posting philosophy - stay sober. I can tell from experience that the DM post that seemed like the bestest of ideas at 0337 on saturday night, really doesn't work in the deep character moment the game was at. Face to face gaming under the influence works, posting under the influence works, but mixing them two...

Surprised player: "A garlic bread golem?!"

I think that the only real trick to learn is to have the "right" players in the game.
The "right" players for you and for each other.
Very difficult.

I currently play PbP on Discord that is set in Blackmoor. What I like is that it is a literary server, meaning those interested in writing tend to be attracted. Now actual gameplay does not require a 'wall of text' for each post, but the post should be thought out and in alignment with the character. In order to join every person does a "RP Submission" from a prompt to see if they can make a cogent sentence in English, then when enough newbs are on the server a 'prologue' is done to see if they fit and can manage.

What I don't like is that we don't have any sort of mandatory 'check' in requirement meaning I believe that a minimal post of every day or 48 hours should be spelled out even if its only in Out Of Character (OOC) chat just to show the player is checking and not blowing the game off.

The other thing I would say is have a good grounding of lore for the players to know (common knowledge) so there isn't a 'what is a Cumanasti?' question like I had and went web surfing to figure that out.

There is nothing like a "" post to generate interest.