View Single Post
Old 12-08-2012, 09:36 PM   #10
LemmingLord
 
LemmingLord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Default Re: [OCC] Poll : What makes a good PbP game? (will be applied)

Genre: Fantasy, DF, Science Fiction, Supers, Space Opera and others. Which make you say "I've got to play this", and which do you particularly avoid?

I prefer supers in the 20th or 21st centuries.


Activities Planned: Do you prefer solving puzzles? or is it combat that enthuses you? How important is character development? Is negotiation an enjoyable part of play?

I like playing in-character... character development is very important to me. Although I like facing puzzles or combat or negotiation, my enjoyment comes from getting to do so in-character. Story arcs are also important as they show continuity of a character and how the larger picture is shaping the character. For me failure is as important as success... there needs to be a balance of the two, obviously with success eventually winning out...


Supplement materials: Which sets of rules make or break a PbP game for you? This includes Cinematic vs Realistic, G:Magic, Thuamology, Supers, Psionic Powers, DF, MH, MA, and so forth.

As a player, I feel the gamemaster should do what he/she can to make the rules completely invisible to me. I don't care what rules are used as long as I don't have to read them and the gamemaster allows me to play my character.

Pacing is EXTREMELY important to me... so I'd like the gamemaster and players to favor a "roll and keep moving" over making sure the rules get followed.


Plot: how important is the plot? do you avoid games without it, and only go for ideas that sound cool? do you prefer just wandering around letting characters make their own decisions? And is this question even an issue?

I like a game to be driven by all the main characters, including PCs and major (or at least thematically important) NPCs... I like the idea of the gamemaster and players working together to figure out what kind of plot they'd like to play in the game.. "I'd like my boring kid character to find the adventure he's been craving and somehow get off the boring backwater planet he's from and fight the evil empire you were talking about... and I don't mind if they have to kill off his old friends and family to do it!!!"


Power Level: Do you love working with mounds of points? is such a prospect dull to you? does it matter by genre? similarly, (but not the same) do you enjoy being world shakers, or do you want to deal with peers? or is this even an issue?

I hate bean counting. I'd honestly rather the gamemaster suggested what kind of game he wanted to run, I told him/her what kind of character I'd like to play, and the gamemaster take care of game statistics. I want to build my character not as a finite list of what makes the character but as a writer might make notes for a character that is going to be played by an actor in a movie or television series.

Since I am in love with character development, I like power levels changing over time.. but not necessarily making characters MORE powerful.. my character (and everyone elses!) should be important to the storyline regardless of his/her power level.. but obviously in an epic storyline you are going to see weaker folks trained up to become the big bad guy ending heroes....while their mentors are likely to have been killed by the bad guy sometime earlier in the story...


House Rules: Are they annoying or wonderful? If depends, what determines this? or are they just all par for the course?

As a gamemaster I love house rules. Just like any rules, if the house rule interferes with the pacing of a game or keeping the story going or results in any uninteresting departure from the expected genre convention I'm going to want a gamemaster who can listen to my concerns and allow retconning.

Make whatever rules decisions that need to be made behind the GM screen and make things happen.


Gaming Group: Different players and GMs cause games to behave differently. when using PbP on this forum, how important is who is already playing in the game, or GMing it?

It is nice to have players who post with consistency... and play their character consistently... When a new player is introduced, whether in PbP or elsewhere, you are taking a risk that this player will slow things down by posting less frequently or playing their character in a way that derails what may already be an enjoyable character driven storyline.


Other issues: what other issues strongly effect how well a pbp game runs?

The number of players can have a larger effect on PbP games than in other games. There should probably be a convention determined for how fast players and gamemasters are going to post and how to move the game along when a player doesn't post for a few days....
__________________
Villain's Round Table
LemmingLord is offline   Reply With Quote