How I Lost My Play-by-Post Virginity, Part 2

This is second installment of a two-part case study of a play-by-post (PbP) game that I ran a couple of years ago. The first installment, How I Lost My Play-by-Post Virginity, Part 1, covers the info I provided to my players before the game — an introduction to PbP gaming in general, as well as specific guidelines for our game.

This was my first PbP game — as a player or GM — and in the process of GMing it I learned several lessons that would definitely make things go more smoothly the next time around. Here’s what went well, what went badly and what I should have done differently.

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How I Lost My Play-by-Post Virginity, Part 1

I moved from Michigan to Utah in 2004, and my Michigan gaming group was mid-campaign — so we decided to try and keep it going as a play-by-post (PbP) game. None of us had ever played in a PbP before, and it was my first time running one, so I did a lot of homework (reading other PbPs, checking out their intro posts) to make sure it went smoothly.

For the first part of this case study, I’m going to post the outcome of my research: the PbP guidelines and info page I created for my players. If you’re putting together a PbP game of your own, these guidelines might be useful to you.

There are definitely things I’d change about them if I ran a PbP game again — and that’s what part two if this case study will be about: what went well, and what went poorly.

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Helping Your Players Connect with Their Characters

In longer-running campaigns, one of the things I enjoy most as a player is feeling a connection to my character. It usually doesn’t happen right away, and it doesn’t tend to happen much at all without some initial outlay on my part (good background hooks, fun concept).

In my group’s D&D game this past weekend, I crossed the line from “I’m having fun playing this character,” to “I really like this guy, and I’ll remember him for years after the game.” That might sound odd, but it’s the best way I can think of to express the connection I’m getting at here — it adds another very enjoyable layer to the game.

The interesting thing in this case was that this happened when it did because of choices our GM made, and that got me to thinking about ways that GMs can foster a lasting connection between players and their PCs.

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Progressing Side Plots in the Background

When you’re using a campaign model like the octopus, in addition to a main plotline or two, you have a number of side plots going at any one time.

Side plots can be events that spun off from PC actions, threads that the PCs ignored (or missed) in favor of other options or simply background events — part of a living, breathing campaign world.

As a GM, I enjoy progressing these plots while the PCs tackle the main storyline, but I have trouble with two things: making the side plots matter to the main game without muddying the waters, and finding ways to show my players that there are side plots at all. And if my players never see them, do they really matter?

Do you keep smaller storylines running in the background in your campaign? How do you handle them? Do your players ever get to see or interact with them?

Video Games, Meet Old School Gaming

Over on Jeff’s Gameblog, Jeff Rients quotes Settembrini (author of the The Prussian Gamer) as describing two ways to play D&D thusly:

“Challenge but don’t overpower the PCs,” which I think of as the video game approach to GMing, vs. “If the PCs tug on Superman’s cape it’s their tough luck,” an approach that Jeff rightly points out was a lot more common in earlier editions of D&D.

He also mentions that there’s a hybrid approach, and he’s absolutely right. Combining the video game model of scaled challenges with the possibility (really, the threat) of Shit You Shouldn’t Mess With is a lot of fun.

Mentally reviewing my GMing history, this is a core part of my default approach to running games, and it’s one I’ve used across multiple systems and genres. It’s not a new idea by any stretch, but I find it useful to see things like this spelled out — it makes things click in my head, and gives me a new perspective on how I GM.

Do you use this same hybrid approach in your own games, or handle things differently?

NPCs Don’t Sit on Fences

After linking to this post last week, I also wanted to feature it here as a guest post. Patrick, who writes Avonia d20, was kind enough to let me do just that — thanks, Patrick!
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There are times when the players aren’t willing to see anything but what they want to see. To illustrate, you introduce an NPC that is down on his luck, being blackmailed, and has trained questionable skills to get by.

You want to display him as someone who is a little misguided but good at his core — the players want to see him as a waste of space and a greedy back-stabber. Try and try as you might, your players won’t see any redeeming value in the poor guy. To them, he is exactly as they peg him.

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RPG Sheets: Over 3,000 Character Sheets

Courtesy of orychle on the TT forums comes this link: the largest repository of character sheets I’ve ever seen, RPG Sheets.

They cover more than 250 games, with 3,000-plus different character sheets. How have I been writing TT for this long without hearing about this site before?

Share them with your players, use them for your NPCs, tweak them to suit your own purposes — when it comes to character sheets, having options is always a good thing.

Pacing: Five Key Things to Consider

Pacing came up in the comments on Have You Ever Padded a Session?, and TT readers Cliff “kaelbane” Nickerson and Rocket Lettuce suggested that I cover the topic in a follow-up post (thanks, Cliff and RL!). It’s a big topic, so I’m going to come at it from a few different directions.

In thinking about pacing, it’s important to consider these five things: how you start sessions, how structured your sessions are, what bogs your players down, how to pick up the pace and how your sessions end.

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