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Old 12-07-2012, 02:55 PM   #8
Dorin Thorha
 
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Default Re: [OCC] Poll : What makes a good PbP game? (will be applied)

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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 enjoy science fiction, DF, and especially psuedohistorical settings. I tend to avoid high fantasy/modern games.
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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?
My favorite aspect is generally the pre-action planning and positioning. I like to take a support role, finding clever tricks to stack the deck in the party's favor.
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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.
I enjoy the whole spectrum from cinematic to realistic. I'm not a fan of the complexities of the extra power systems aside from the elements of the core Magic rules necessary for DF. I like some of the techniques and extra options from Martial Arts on a case-by-case basis depending on the game.

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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 prefer open-ended games, where the PC's make the plot through their interactions with the world. If there is going to be a more structured plot, it's important for GM and Players to have a mutual understanding of this to avoid building characters that don't fit in well. Also, see Gaming Group below.

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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 think 150-250 points is the ideal power level: strong enough to be very competent, but weak enough to be interesting.

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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?
See Gaming Group below.

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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?
Who is involved is mainly important to me in determining how much effort I will put into a game. If I have the free time, I'll join any simple one-shot that strikes my fancy, but if a game involves complex backstory/plot and/or lots of house rules/setting info to absorb, then I'm not likely to invest the effort required if I don't know the people involved well enough to be confident it won't fizzle.

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Other issues: what other issues strongly effect how well a pbp game runs?
In the pbp format it's especially important that the GM keeps the players moving towards clear goals. When goals are vague, deciding what to do takes far too long, and that leads to games petering out. To that end, it's important that the party either has a GM-controlled force pushing them around (see for instance Totem's Worlds of Fire game), or has PC's in clear leadership roles (see for instance your Strange Neighbors game, or if you feel like an archive trawl the Keeping in the Black game (OOC/IC) from a while back).
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