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#1 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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What makes a good Play by Post game?
this question has two purposes: the first is to allow GM's (such as myself) to guide PbP games in directions that are funnest for the players, and to avoid mistakes. The second is to allow the building of a one-shot adventure, assuming I like GMing with the parameters suggested (yes, I'm GMing two already. This would be a brief spurt during a period when I have a lot of time). There are a set of questions I specifically want to know. Please mention specifically what gets you excited for a game, and what makes you think you don't want to play. Remember that this is NOT gaming in general, but merely when using Play by Post. Also tell me which of these is the most important. 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? 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? 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. 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? 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? House Rules: Are they annoying or wonderful? If depends, what determines this? or are they just all par for the course? 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? Other issues: what other issues strongly effect how well a pbp game runs? Thank you for your answers, Eric the Red
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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#2 | ||||||||
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Bellflower, CA
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I was in a game where my character was purposely ignored by everyone and the GM did nothing to remedy that. When I asked about it, he tells me that my character wasn't fitting well with the group. I had asked everyone if the character was okay and no one said there was a problem. If they had I would have changed the character. But more than that...the GM should have said something to me and I feel he should have made an effort to include me. |
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#3 |
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Estonia
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I myself are interested in games of cthuluesqe horror and survival. Maybe in some more light scoobiesque mysteries solving or detective games also. It doesn't matter much if its PBP or some other game.
As for point range - I would like something that is not too massive as the creation of characters would take too long, also previously mentioned genres support more "normal" levels. Id say from 0 to 500 :D, from shocked couchpotatoes trying to survive monsters on a field trip gone awry to preppy teenage vampire hunters with moderate superpowers :P. For consideration of PBP games. I myself like rolling but on these sorts of games it would be probably good to keep it down a bit as it might ease and speed up posting. Adventures and trials that can be solved non-linearily and doesn't always require participations by all players would be suggested - also because of the form of the play. I do love combats but they would be one of the more demanding things in PBP - probably a good idea to set up some time limit (like say day ort two) after which playres turn will be done by a predetermined action (like wait or allout defence). Somekind of investigation etc. plots might lend themselves better to PBP - let say if someone says how they are going to go do some liobrary search and someone else how they are questioning people on the town, then later their posting times can float a bit relative to eachoter. Not so well with a combat sequence. So I'd guess these kind of actions might suit better a pbp game - invention and gadgeteering, magic and mundane research, preparing elaborate rituals etc., managing and administrating your store/corporation/intergalactic empire. So it might be good to look playstyles and genres that suit these kind of actions. |
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#4 | ||||||||
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: OK
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My preference for PbP is low-magic, low-power fantasy, since that seems to suit the medium best. Everyone can come in with the same understanding of what the world is going to look like and what kinds of characters are appropriate, which is most of the battle with a PbP game. If the players' expectations and characters don't match up to the game, then it's not going to work. Quote:
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I like psionics and divine powers. Those allow for flexible abilities without being overly complex. Quote:
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"For the rays, to speak properly, are not colored. In them there is nothing else than a certain power and disposition to stir up a sensation of this or that color." —Isaac Newton, Optics My blog. |
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#5 | |
Join Date: Jan 2016
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#6 | |||||||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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To answer my own questions:
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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#7 |
Join Date: Mar 2012
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Genre: I don't exactly have a preference for genre, but prefer the more fantastic elements.
Activities: Combat in PbP needs swift resolution. Puzzles and character development are easier to do, but just as satisfying. Supplements: I don't have DF or MH (I think), but I look to see if there are supplements appropriate for the genre, and might suggest additional ones for consideration if I think they were overlooked Plot: A game needs both plot and an interesting idea. Power level: Depends on genre, but more points than the players know what to do with is probably a bad idea. Shorter character sheets are better. House Rules: Be upfront about both the rules system, optional rules, and house rules. Group: I haven't played much on the forums, so I feel like I can't answer this well. |
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#8 | ||||||||
Join Date: Oct 2009
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#9 | ||||||||||
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: The Western Harbour
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Personally, I perfer a plot to work with, provided that it is well explained; some long-term games can take a long time to read through and some kind of centralised plot notes section can be very handy (on which note I could do with assembling one of those myself). Quote:
On the other hand low point games can be good; having to be careful about the way points are spent can be a lot more interesting than pondering how that final hundred points will be assigned. And it's possible to come up with some very interesting powers for less than 100 points. It's very much a genre thing though, as well as being a style one. The style in this case refers to things like how long-term the GM allows actions and consequences to be. I have been planning a story (which I keep thinking about turning into a GURPS campaign) where the main character was deliberately a 1000+ points psi compared to everyone else being 100-200 point normal Humans. There was a heavy element of "people with powers don't think like normal people" in the story, which could be interesting to carry over to an RPG. Games where players can do whatever they want and no one will ever question it ("no one" includes civilians, governments, deities of various levels, and non-sentient things like the Force) don't appeal to me. Quote:
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PCs in leadership roles need to be clearly stated in advance, and the other players need to be aware of and accept this (even if their characters have some trouble with it, within the limits of keeping things moving). The player taking the leadership role needs to be one who can commit to (in-so-far-as anyone with a Real Life can) regularly posting and actually handling the role, both as a PC and as a player; having a PC who can talk anyone into anything doesn't exactly mean you have a player who is willing to push that hard as well. Quote:
The same applies to in-game tech, the world in general... As an e.g. (I state in advance that I really liked this game and was disappointed when it shut down) one game that I was part of was set on a starship. Everyone took on a role as part of the crew, but because things weren't stated in advance I bounced through a key member of landing teams (there weren't going to be enough planetfalls to make that worthwhile) to being in charge of the computer systems. Because nothing seemed to have been prestated (that I could find) I was also working on the assumption of regular crew accessing the controls manually, where we actually ended up with a pilot with a Matrix style neural port to access the flight control systems. Such things need to be made clear in advance. So... Basically my main issue with PbP is the need for a pre-stated world and game style. The Star Wars RPG rules illustrated this quite well with an example involving naming conventions: Quote:
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"John Adams was a farmer. Abraham Lincoln was a small-town lawyer. Plato, Socrates were teachers. Jesus was a carpenter. To equate judgment and wisdom with occupation is at best... insulting." Last edited by Totem; 12-08-2012 at 01:10 PM. |
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#10 |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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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....
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