Have any advice for a new Play-by-Post MC?

#1

I’ve seen at least a few Gauntlet members who have said they either enjoy and have experience playing in Play-by-Post (PbP) games or running them. After a couple years of running PbtA games face-to-face, both online and in person, I’ve decided to try and add PbP to my tool kit. I have rounded up some of my best players for an Apocalypse World game on Discord. Honestly, I’d love to hear any and all tips the Gauntlet Community has for successfully running a PbtA PbP either in general or on Discord itself.

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#2

I think the biggest item you’ll have to watch out for is the fact that people will forget to post unless you set deadlines/timelines for things to happen. By it’s nature PBP can slip off people’s plates since it is not an immediate item on their agenda

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#3

I know that @richrogers is a pretty big proponent of PbP games. I certainly am fascinated by the idea but haven’t gotten into it yet myself.

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#4

This is the number one reason I’ve seen PbP die. People wait for specific people to respond, then it doesn’t happen, and people slowly start losing motivation and it withers.

Listening to the thread for advice from people who have made it work.

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#5

I’ve been using Telegram for a couple different PbP games for a year or so now (Yoon-Suin with WoDu, a D&D 5E game, Ravenloft with TBH). I recommend finding players who are already inclined to writing. It shouldn’t be hard, since the RPG and novelist attributes are regulated by the same gene. You’ll get better responses and more engagement if you select people with a lot of interest in not just story games but the written word.

Find a system that fits. It makes a big difference. The parsimony of die rolls and rules overhead should be a primary focus. You do not want to leave any room for unneeded complexity. Tighten any system edges so that each post can be a driver of further action. I’ve had good luck with The Black Hack, modified a bit, and would recommend it as a good system to start with.

You’re going to want to read everything here: http://abominablefancy.blogspot.com/search?q=pbp
It’s all great stuff.

PbP is missing some of the greatness of face-to-face, but it has much more going for it than almost anyone gives credit. I think it’ll be a staple of my gaming going forward, so I hope you have good luck with your own posting adventures!

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#6

I’ve often used TBH for pbp games — what have your modifications been?

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#7

Hey Troy, welcome to the fun of PBP!
As a starter for previous games, I created a little “How To” that I provide players of new games. Here’s that document (it’s for playing on a website called Tavern Keeper).

I’m headed to work, but I’ll post up some MC thoughts shortly, but if you want to listen to a podcast about it, I was on The Jank Cast back in the day talking about PBP, and @mease19 and I discussed it on +1 Forward, too.

Rich Rogers

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#8

Some MCing thoughts for PBtA via PBP:

  1. Split the party. All the time. Anytime.
    Because the game is played asynchronously, it’s a very good idea to split PCs into their own scenes for most of the game. This allows you to keep things moving at a generally even pace, plot-wise. For slow posters, you can broaden the scope of each post. For speedies, you can drop into more conversation between characters and slow down the progression of overall plot.

When PCs would meet up, then you let them meet up. But look for ways to split them apart when it makes sense.

  1. Forgiveness rather than permission
    Let players trigger and roll moves themselves, and check them if they’re spamming a move. It’s easier to let play progress and follow the PbtA move structure. If there are specific moves you want to keep a handle on, just state: “Going Aggro is something I’ll let you know if you’ve triggered it”.

  2. Side-chat
    Sometimes folks can feel lost in a PBP due to times when posts are coming slowly. I always, always have a Slack channel or Discord server set up for real-time chat between players. It’s incredibly helpful for players to have a place to ask questions, give schedule updates, and just “hang out”. I see that you’re talking about a Discord game, so it looks like you’ll have that covered.

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#9

While I’ve definitely played a lot more PbP than GM’d it, one of the things I’ve seen be really important to the success of a game is explicitly clear expectation setting from the very beginning. And by “very beginning,” I mean before players even commit to the game.

Most of that expectation setting centers around what @RedMagus77 mentioned – set the expectation for how often you expect players to post, what will happen if they’re unable to post within that timeframe, how people should communicate if they know they’re going to be away for a period of time (@richrogers suggestion of a “side-chat” channel is perfect for this), etc. etc.

This will go a long way toward avoiding the silent killer of PbP games, which is, well…unexpected silence.

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