Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 blamekeiko Jan 12, 2015 2:12:53	Hey there. I picked up the 5E starter at christmas, I've played D&D 4E as a player on roll20 in the past and 'dabbled' with 4E as a DM but very briefly because life got in the way. But when I saw the 5E starter set I just couldn't help myself, it entranced me and after reading through the adventure inside just thought 'I need to run it!'   Because I'm new to the game and also I have a very very busy life at the moment where I am spread quite thin, I decided to try a game online using Play by Post methods on a forum I set up. I was just wondering if anyone has ever played any edition this way or ran a campaign this way?   I managed to get a group together fairly quickly, which surprised me, as I'd tried it in the past a couple of times and nothing ever came together, but it feels like the game is popular at the moment amongst new starters with the new ruleset.   I have been running my PBP game now for about 3 week and it's going well so far. I have an active group, and I'm finding it easy to DM and keep it running as I can read up rules as I go along and learn the game at a much more relaxed pace.   Does anyone have any tips on how to keep a game like this immersive and keep the players attention. I want to make it as exciting as a live game as much as possible.   Any advice from anyone would be awesome.
#2 feartheminotaur Jan 12, 2015 11:58:32	I have been playing a PBP game for 10+ years now.  My only two "suggestions" (in that, this is what I enjoy about the one I'm in) is to:   1) set a time limit - can't wait a week for the magic user to decide what spell he's going to cast, and   2) keep the posts going so players can interact with the game world outside of the current narrative stream.   Little almanac sayings, or weather reports, or history blurbs; anything that increases the detail of your player's knowledge about the world.     Our DM fills in the blanks with 'updates' concnerning events that are happening or have happened that we would be aware of, even if we aren't engaged in them, just as I know the names of Napoleon's battles without having fought in them or who the PM of Germany is without having used my magic hammer to smite her opponents.  We are in FR, so she uses a lot of the "did you know" or "this day in history" from the FR wiki.
#3 El_Condoro Jan 12, 2015 14:26:31	I am playing one using a Google docs format. The beauty of this approach is that players can add to the narrative at any time, simultaneously if it happens that way , and the storyline is coherent. We preface entries with OOC when making entries as a player and with their name when making entries as the character. It works really well and means the game goes on even at the same time that real life interferes!    In fact, I'm writing this reply on my phone on holidays and will now switch over to google docs to check in on my game to see how things are going.
#4 blamekeiko Jan 12, 2015 15:41:28	blamekeiko wrote:
#5 blamekeiko Jan 12, 2015 15:47:31	El_Condoro wrote:
(Reply to #4) feartheminotaur	blamekeiko wrote:
#7 El_Condoro Jan 12, 2015 17:41:16	blamekeiko wrote:
#8 El_Condoro Jan 12, 2015 17:46:19	Bersace OOC: no, not for "the most immediate on their minds" but you do if you want to go deeper or linger for more than 6 seconds on one person. Bersace would shift from person to person, but starting with the chieftain right after he asked questions. GM: Haven’t had to type out an NPC’s inner thoughts before, but I’ll say the chieftain is hiding something, and is suspicious of the outsiders. Bersace OOC: but nothing so obvious as, "hey! Fresh meat!" Okay, we'll Bersace isn't going to back up or anything until after he hears the answers. GM: “We do not recognize the name Maccath. Our lands teem with ravenous and dangerous creatures, I don’t the person of which you speak could have survived.” Bersace squints at this, "I mentioned the bright red skin? Probably that would stand out more than her name. When she was here, she sot a white dragon named Arauthator. Have you news of the dragon?" GM: Shaman: There was a white dragon known to us in these parts as Old White Death. But it was killed by ice giants. Its remains can be found on the waterside ice shelf, if you wish to see for yourselves. Bersace smiles at that. "On this very iceberg?" Lorcan: Lorcan looks very interested when the Shaman speaks of the Dragon, “A white dragon you say? We killed one that was acting like a huge dick a while back.” Bersace laughs and shrugs as if to say crazy little guy, what can you do?   Normally this is in paragraphs but my phone is having trouble with cut and paste so it has been pasted as a wall of text!
#9 blamekeiko Jan 13, 2015 1:21:23	El_Condoro wrote:
#10 blamekeiko Jan 13, 2015 1:24:30	El_Condoro wrote:
#11 El_Condoro Jan 13, 2015 1:28:03	I'll check with my DM but in the meantime just set up a Google docs account and give it a go. It's all free and really easy to do. As for the insertions of events, I guess you would just decide where it would fit best and go with that but I am unfamiliar with what you're doing so am not sure.
#12 El_Condoro Jan 13, 2015 1:30:46	For dice rolls we use secure dice.com and another one that I don't recall the name of away from my PC. We normally all send our actions and rolls in at any point in the round. This may be out of initiative order but the combat is resolved in initiative order. That can be a hassle and we adjust but not normally.
#13 blamekeiko Jan 13, 2015 1:52:58	El_Condoro wrote: