Here are my top ten tips for playing a successful PBP game. I hope you find them useful and please feel free to share your own on this thread. It would be great to here how other DMs are running their games on here!
1 Be absolutely clear at the beginning about your game setting, your expectations of your players and any homebrew rules you will be running. This one stands for any kind of game, but I think doubly so in PBP because you cant easily "chat" and resolve misunderstandings later on.
2 Be clear and concise. Ok, I don't always do this but I should. They players have turned up to play your game, not read your book. By all means write compelling dialogue and cool descriptions but do not take three paragraphs describing how the flames of the torchlight dance softly upon the ancient walls of the cavern, while the soft dab of falling moisture strikes the slime covered stalagmites below. Bla bla bla yawn.
3 Every post should include a call to action for you players, it can be subtle but it must be there. I have often written post only to sit there for days wondering why my players have not responded. I just wrote a great speech for one of my NPCs, I put hours into it and... nothing. Turns out all of my players are sitting there not knowing what to do because I as the DM gave them nothing to do! Now some players will help you out and nudge the action forward with a question or a bit of impromptu RP, but you can't count on that. Always leave a hook.
4 Agree to make group rolls like initiative, stealth and perception etc up front for your players. Keeping BPB going is all about building and maintaining momentum, and nothing breaks it as much as sitting there for three days waiting for everyone to come back with their initiative roll. Leave individual rolls to the players or you risk losing player agency, and agree all this up front to save any agro down the line.
5 This one might be contentious, but I advise you play fast and loose with initiative. See it more as a guide to help you order events rather than a fixed rule of order. Again being able to deal with action posts as they come in and allowing your players to post their intent ahead of their turn maintains momentum. Again communication is key with this so let your players see the initiative order, remind them of it during combat and let them know when you are bending it.
6 Do not clutter your game with OOC posts and discourage your players from doing the same. It breaks immersion and the flow of your game. Set up a chat group at the start and when you want to communicate OOC in game do it as a footnote in your RP posts like so... OOC: Who's turn is it next?
7 Use the tools on D&D beyond. I've already mentioned the chat function, which is invaluable for not only OOC but also private RP, such as a Warlock talking to their patron out of earshot of the others, or the same Warlock picking through his companions packs while they are fighting the big bad downstairs. (You know who you are!". We also have a great initiative tracker now and a campaign tracker to bring your characters all together in a handy way. Use it all.
8 Avoid using multiple platforms. It just gets messy and boring in PBP. The format takes longer as it is and having to dance back and forth between here and Discord etc just gets old eventually. DND Beyond gives us everything we need to run a PBP game in one place.
9 Use art work!! We have loads of it in the source books etc so link it and use it. A picture speaks a thousand words and also makes your posts more engaging and fun to read.
10 And finally, if you have the time use maps and tokens for combat and complex dungeon crawling. You do not need to update them for every turn, I tend to update the map once per round or as new rooms are discovered. For this I use Dungeon Painter and then link from Pinterest. Once you have it set up its easy enough to do and the beauty of PBP is that you have no shortage of time to set things up.
Well that's my pennies worth. What do you all do to keep your games fun and engaging?
#1: A new play-by-post call for recruitment that shows no effort on the DM's part nor tells potential players what they need to know about the campaign or character creation is a huge red flag for me. It's likely someone who hasn't fully considered the time commitment it will take to see a campaign through if they can't even put the proper effort into the intro post. It may even be someone on a short vacation from school, etc who is just bored. I would not apply to these campaign posts.
#2: Thank you for this one. I can't be the only player who has their busy days and keeps up with campaign updates on their phone in between meetings, while on the elevator at work, etc. This allows me to ponder my next post, which I can submit in 5 minutes or less when I have a chance. If I run into a six paragraph wall of text I'm probably forced to put the phone away and just wait until I have a much larger chunk of time available to catch up on all of the lengthy posts, which could take 12 to 24 hours.
I'd also add, in my opinion the fastest poster, nor the slowest, should rule the pace of the game. The DM should not trade posts back and forth every two minutes with the one player who has copious amounts of free time, pushing all other players who are busy going to work, taking care of their families or gods forbid sleeping to the sidelines and removing their influence from the game. (This, of course, does not apply if resolving something specific only to that one player.). To me the purpose of play by post is to allow room for everyone's varying schedules, and I believe the default expectation around here is about 24 hours or so for a player to have some input. The DM and players can of course tweak this when getting the campaign started.
Of course you may not be able to wait 3, 4, 7+ days for a single player either, as momentum is indeed important in this format. Perhaps the DM may need to take a simple combat action for a PC who is absent for an extra day or three, or that PC simply missed the opportunity to voice an opinion about the group's course of action. Likely there is little harm done.
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Here are my top ten tips for playing a successful PBP game. I hope you find them useful and please feel free to share your own on this thread. It would be great to here how other DMs are running their games on here!
1 Be absolutely clear at the beginning about your game setting, your expectations of your players and any homebrew rules you will be running. This one stands for any kind of game, but I think doubly so in PBP because you cant easily "chat" and resolve misunderstandings later on.
2 Be clear and concise. Ok, I don't always do this but I should. They players have turned up to play your game, not read your book. By all means write compelling dialogue and cool descriptions but do not take three paragraphs describing how the flames of the torchlight dance softly upon the ancient walls of the cavern, while the soft dab of falling moisture strikes the slime covered stalagmites below. Bla bla bla yawn.
3 Every post should include a call to action for you players, it can be subtle but it must be there. I have often written post only to sit there for days wondering why my players have not responded. I just wrote a great speech for one of my NPCs, I put hours into it and... nothing. Turns out all of my players are sitting there not knowing what to do because I as the DM gave them nothing to do! Now some players will help you out and nudge the action forward with a question or a bit of impromptu RP, but you can't count on that. Always leave a hook.
4 Agree to make group rolls like initiative, stealth and perception etc up front for your players. Keeping BPB going is all about building and maintaining momentum, and nothing breaks it as much as sitting there for three days waiting for everyone to come back with their initiative roll. Leave individual rolls to the players or you risk losing player agency, and agree all this up front to save any agro down the line.
5 This one might be contentious, but I advise you play fast and loose with initiative. See it more as a guide to help you order events rather than a fixed rule of order. Again being able to deal with action posts as they come in and allowing your players to post their intent ahead of their turn maintains momentum. Again communication is key with this so let your players see the initiative order, remind them of it during combat and let them know when you are bending it.
6 Do not clutter your game with OOC posts and discourage your players from doing the same. It breaks immersion and the flow of your game. Set up a chat group at the start and when you want to communicate OOC in game do it as a footnote in your RP posts like so... OOC: Who's turn is it next?
7 Use the tools on D&D beyond. I've already mentioned the chat function, which is invaluable for not only OOC but also private RP, such as a Warlock talking to their patron out of earshot of the others, or the same Warlock picking through his companions packs while they are fighting the big bad downstairs. (You know who you are!". We also have a great initiative tracker now and a campaign tracker to bring your characters all together in a handy way. Use it all.
8 Avoid using multiple platforms. It just gets messy and boring in PBP. The format takes longer as it is and having to dance back and forth between here and Discord etc just gets old eventually. DND Beyond gives us everything we need to run a PBP game in one place.
9 Use art work!! We have loads of it in the source books etc so link it and use it. A picture speaks a thousand words and also makes your posts more engaging and fun to read.
10 And finally, if you have the time use maps and tokens for combat and complex dungeon crawling. You do not need to update them for every turn, I tend to update the map once per round or as new rooms are discovered. For this I use Dungeon Painter and then link from Pinterest. Once you have it set up its easy enough to do and the beauty of PBP is that you have no shortage of time to set things up.
Well that's my pennies worth. What do you all do to keep your games fun and engaging?
Hob
DM - Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Great post, Dreamhobbit!
I agree with all of your points. A few comments:
#1: A new play-by-post call for recruitment that shows no effort on the DM's part nor tells potential players what they need to know about the campaign or character creation is a huge red flag for me. It's likely someone who hasn't fully considered the time commitment it will take to see a campaign through if they can't even put the proper effort into the intro post. It may even be someone on a short vacation from school, etc who is just bored. I would not apply to these campaign posts.
#2: Thank you for this one. I can't be the only player who has their busy days and keeps up with campaign updates on their phone in between meetings, while on the elevator at work, etc. This allows me to ponder my next post, which I can submit in 5 minutes or less when I have a chance. If I run into a six paragraph wall of text I'm probably forced to put the phone away and just wait until I have a much larger chunk of time available to catch up on all of the lengthy posts, which could take 12 to 24 hours.
I'd also add, in my opinion the fastest poster, nor the slowest, should rule the pace of the game. The DM should not trade posts back and forth every two minutes with the one player who has copious amounts of free time, pushing all other players who are busy going to work, taking care of their families or gods forbid sleeping to the sidelines and removing their influence from the game. (This, of course, does not apply if resolving something specific only to that one player.). To me the purpose of play by post is to allow room for everyone's varying schedules, and I believe the default expectation around here is about 24 hours or so for a player to have some input. The DM and players can of course tweak this when getting the campaign started.
Of course you may not be able to wait 3, 4, 7+ days for a single player either, as momentum is indeed important in this format. Perhaps the DM may need to take a simple combat action for a PC who is absent for an extra day or three, or that PC simply missed the opportunity to voice an opinion about the group's course of action. Likely there is little harm done.