I don’t get to role-play nearly as much as I want to, pretty much like most adult gamers who’s schedules become to full.. Damn real life..
Anyways, I also have friends back in Montana (I’m in New Jersey now) who I miss role-playing with and was thinking of doing a play by post with them. The only thing is, I’ve never ran a play by post.
Any suggestions on how to handle it, what I need for set up, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
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If you do play by post, as in setting the game up on a messageboard, you don’t need much. Regular forum software lets you upload images, which you can use to upload any maps you need. Just set up the forum, generally the game runs in character in a main thread and you have a separate thread for OOC chatter, maybe even a separate thread for mechanics, if you want just in character roleplaying and description in the main thread. I find that gets a bit bulky after awhile, and prefer to just my players post mechanics separated at the bottom of a post. You can set up any other threads you need, like one to keep character records in or one for reference with notes about the game world and the like.
Play by post is fairly slow, it’s hard to expect more than a post a day from your players and a combat, especially in a combat heavy game like 3e or 4e D&D can take a month. Still, it can be a lot of fun.
A better way is if everyone can meet online at a certain time to play by Instant Messaging. You can do this with any IM program, skype if you want voice, or use one of the many free virtual tabletops like Maptools, which include mapping software, chat boxes and other RPG specific features. Players typically log into the DMs program from their browsers to play.
If meeting consistently is not possible but meeting sometimes is, running the game as a hybrid works great and is probably my favorite method. Run a play by post and have an online meeting once in awhile when schedules permit. Use it to speed through a combat or two or generally advance the story leaps and bounds in a short time (about the speed of tabletop).
Awesome! I’m thinking of utilizing Obsidian Portal for my Play By Post. It seems to have everything I need! I think I’m going to run a Savage Worlds game by pbp.. Simple and lite enough on crunch. Probably going to set it in Sundered Skies.