How to handle "Start/End of Session" moves in PbP Games

#1

My question is pretty self explanatory. I’m about to start playing in a PbP game of The Sword, The Crown and The Unspeakable Power but we’re not sure how to handle the moves that are built around specific sessions which start and end. Does anyone have any alternatives to recommend?

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#2

You could declare a session to be done when you have gone through a certain number of “scenes”

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#3

You could handle sessions:

  • Based on some written unit of play - number of scenes, number of posts, number of posts per user, or word count.
  • Based on some game unit of play - perhaps a number of rolls made.
  • Based on some recurring event in the mechanics or fiction - every time a PC dies, every time someone scores an advance, every time the volcano on the island erupts, after each meeting of the Water Cult…
  • Based on a real-world calendar - every Sunday, we start a new session
  • Based on an in-world calendar - each “day” in the game is a “session”
  • Based on dramatic needs and pacing: basically, each “session” is like an episode of a TV show or a chapter in a book, and at some point in the action, someone declares a “new session”. When it feels right, you declare the end of one chapter and that we are starting a new one. Maybe you fast-forward a little bit, maybe not; but it marks a break in the story.
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#4

When I do these games online (say on Tavern-Keeper) - I generally go by “significant pause/change of scene” which is a fairly subjective call.

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