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Old 09-22-2015, 11:02 AM   #20
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [OCC] Poll : What makes a good PbP game? (will be applied)

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
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?
Like: Historical, SF, fantasy.
Avoid: Supers, TV-inspired space opera.
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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?
Character development and interaction are the things that I prefer in PbP. Combat tends to be slow.
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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.
Whatever's appropriate for the game. Having complex sets of rules is on the whole unattractive. PbP allows time, in theory, for consulting rule books, but I'd tend to play during the working day on my 'phone, and consulting lots of PDFs or postings on it isn't that much fun.
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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 to have some idea of what the GM thinks the game is about, and hence what they'll respond to best. But given that, I can take a lot of plot, or very little.
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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 don't want to be helpless and insignificant, or totally unequal to the challenges, but given that, I have a wide range.
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House Rules: Are they annoying or wonderful? If depends, what determines this? or are they just all par for the course?
What matters is that they are clear, known to the players, and not too complex. For example, I'd class Technical Grappling as "too complex" unless it was the main activity of the game.
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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?
I prefer not to join games that have been running for a long while; it's hard to internalise all the history. PbP has a lot written down, but not necessarily the interpretations and meaning of events, which are the most important part. I would consider who was running a game important, and who was looking to play in it.
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Other issues: what other issues strongly effect how well a pbp game runs?
Regularity of postings. Getting stuck waiting for people drains the fun.
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