Playing by Post?

[Yepesnopes]

I will like to join.

I played a few months ago in a play-by-post TOR campaign and it was mind blowing! I think TOR is a game that really adapts well for this kind of play. Sadly, we stopped because the LM got disappointed with the TOR mechanics, a pity.

So, if it is ok for you, count me in! Fully committed!

Cheers,
Yepes

[zedturtle]

Not surprisingly, I have lots of thoughts on this subject.

The divide that works best for me is three threads: Recruitment (for making new characters as needed and coordinating the shape of the fellowship), In-Character (posts from LM and Players are in the characters voice or at least in the shape of 'Amroth dances a little jog for Woodman Lord') and Out-of-Character (for rules discussions, clarification of the narrative and scheduling)

This is precisely how I'm envisioning this app...two separate chat logs.

Well...three chat logs. Another completely separate one for dice rolls. One of our (Hermes Serpent's group) frustrations with roll20 is that HS has to scroll back up through chat dialog to find roll outcomes. They should be aggregated in one place.

Also notifications: when it's your "turn" you should get a message on your smart phone. If you choose. And if you time out, you get a notification saying what your character did in your absence (whether the LM chose the action, a designated player chose the action, or your default actions/scripts fired.)

Well, that all sounds very intense (and possibly useful), but coming from a different point of view, I'm not sure it's my ideal solution. My game on rpg.net is for my players first and foremost, but it gets lots of page-views, many more than just the twelve or so unique posters that have been in the game so far. I read along with other games that I'm interested in... I hope that maybe my game has gotten somebody interested in TOR or pushed someone over the edge into buying the game.

So, what I'd love is a web page (like Invisible Castle or Orokos) that will do dice rolls for me, save them forever, and let me link to each dice roll in the forum posts. That way everyone can see when someone rolls a Sauron or a Gandalf when it's do or die.

One of my own back-burner designs is for a RPG built from the ground-up for PbP. One idea was that non-responding players always took the second-best option for their turn. That way, the system built in a desire to post, because ignoring the game created sub-optimal results for the player.

[Glorelendil]

Certainly the notifications would be on sliders from "off" to "verbose".

What I'm imagining for the "in-character" chat is that it's more than just dialog; it's narration.The result, to an external viewer, reads like collaborative fiction. (Perhaps illustrated, if the LM wants to insert images, perhaps of terrain traversed, or towers seen in the distance, or that sword you find.) But if a reader wants to click on the narration and see the dice rolls, and even the OOC chat, they can see the scaffolding behind the narration.

The secret goal behind this is to create a game that encourages writing, and thus is welcomed into schools (or by parents) as an educational tool.

EDIT: Oh, and I know you prefer to do the dice rolling, but I'm also envisioning letting the players do their own rolls, unless they "time out" in which case the LM rolls. Either way it's clicking a button, not actual rolling*, but still...it's such a visceral part of these games.

*But now that I've mentioned it...last year I called a friend who is an electrical engineer and said, "Hey...how hard would it be to stuff an accelerometer, a bluetooth chip, and a battery into playing dice?" He wrote back minutes later with a photo, "Like this?" Turns out he had already been working on exactly that. Crazy, huh? He's not even a gamer, at least as far as I know. The idea is that you could roll actual, real dice, your computer or smart phone would sense that you rolled them and broadcast the result to the game.

Then we ran into patents by people doing a bad job of the same thing, and haven't worked on it since.

Here's the photo he sent me (I made a video of the die rolling and a nearby iPhone showing the result a half second later, but I can't find it now.)

[nazgul_2000]

I'd like to play. Here's my sob story.

I currently LM a live game here in Olympia, Washington, but I've never played as a hero. I'd like to try it out sometime. I've asked someone in my group to run a little side trek, but the response was lukewarm. I'm the Tolkien junky of the group, and I think the rest of of the players are just humoring me (not to say that they don't enjoy the game, because they do. But I guess just not enough to run it - ha).

Given that this is a small town, and more importantly, given that I don't have any more time to devote to it, it appears that playing by post is the only way I'm going to get to experience it.

Full disclosure: I've never played by post before, so I'd have to learn. Mike D

[Glorelendil]

I'd like to play. Here's my sob story.

I currently LM a live game here in Olympia, Washington, but I've never played as a hero. I'd like to try it out sometime. I've asked someone in my group to run a little side trek, but the response was lukewarm. I'm the Tolkien junky of the group, and I think the rest of of the players are just humoring me (not to say that they don't enjoy the game, because they do. But I guess just not enough to run it - ha).

Given that this is a small town, and more importantly, given that I don't have any more time to devote to it, it appears that playing by post is the only way I'm going to get to experience it.

Full disclosure: I've never played by post before, so I'd have to learn. Mike D

You could also try to join a roll20 game.

[Rocmistro]

That'd be really useful. Will check out that board or do you have direct links to particularly helpful ones?

Yeah, either of these 2 adventures:
The Raven & The Waterhorse http://torrpg1.proboards.com/thread/40/ ... ure-thread by Halbarad is one of the finest adventures I've ever seen. And my rendition of Darkness in the Marshes is not half bad if I do say so myself: http://torrpg1.proboards.com/thread/33/ ... ure-thread Depending on how much time you have, give them both a read. Zedturtle's ongoing adventure thread is also very good, though he doesn't parse it so it's tough to figure out where one adventure stops and the next begins, and I have not been a part of it for as long: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?711 ... Wilderland (ie, time commitment!)

Would probably be using a lot of the house rules I've collated (re: stolen!) from various sources, so in this particular instance I'd use the one where the Fellowship Pool refreshes at important narrative points within the story rather than at the end of each 'session'. I'd therefore need to be clear with the players about what alterations and changes I was bringing to the table.

That's fine, though I'm sure as an experienced player you know that there are several things triggered by "game sessions" (XP awards, Hope replenishment, among others...) Also I'd be sure to let everyone know up front that you are using a modded ruleset and publish the document so everyone can refer to it. (I'm sure you'd do that anyway). If you are using the robust Rich H houserules, I'd recommend recruiting experienced players as newbies will probably get overwhelmed trying to sort out what's what.

-get a good die-rolling mechanism for yourself and the players, or else you'll be tasked with a lot of book-work.

Any that you can recommend?

In my experience, out of the forums I participate on, RPOL.net actually has the best framework for running a play by post campaign. There is a die-roller mechanic built into the campaign framework, which is nice, as well as a host of other tools for players and Loremaster alike. That being said, I only participate in three games (RPG.net, the Prod Boards one, and RPOL.net) so there might be other even better solutions.

I humbly volunteer for your game if you are taking applications

Be happy to have you on board - I'll need a lot of help as it will be a completely new way of RPing for me so engaged and proactive players will be a real benefit!

That's exciting to hear and I'll check back often to this thread.

[Rocmistro]

What I'm imagining for the "in-character" chat is that it's more than just dialog; it's narration.The result, to an external viewer, reads like collaborative fiction.

This, this and this again! I try to write all my posts in a consistent 3rd person voice, so that a reader could read it as if they were enjoying a novel. The enjoyment from reading back over your adventure is pretty high indeed.

[timb]

When I saw the title my first thought was "Oh no, Royal Mail will kill your game!"

Sorry, no help I know!

I keep looking at the Fantasy Grounds system, I'd like to try that sometime, there is virtually (sorry, not a pun) no chance of setting up a game where I live here, I am an older player and even the great idea of the gaming café in Liverpool or the cool rpg shop in Manchester don't appeal to my oldish self. Both are near to me, but I prefer home comforts and a relaxed situation to play games. Bah!

[Southron]

I too offer myself for your game. I play and have played in a few TOR PbP and I enjoy the experience greatly.

Might the fan-made Ranger of the North class be an option? Or maybe a Man of Bree or Gondor with your approval?

SL

[Falenthal]

We just added a player and I told her in the 'welcome aboard' message: I AM RELENTLESS. The story moves forward every 48 hours (every 24 hours for combat). Participation is desirable, but I try to never get hung up waiting for one player to respond.

Here you can see how different LMs play their games differently:
My turns tend to last for 1 or 2 weeks, and we normally wait for people to answer. If someone's too late, I usually PM him asking if he can post shortly or we should move on the story.

Probably the content and lenght of the posts is also different.
If you have to answer every 48 hours, than the turns are maybe something like this:
"Leifstan walks into Esgaroth, looking at the people there hurrying to the market place. He made his way into the nearest inn and asked the bartender for a beer. After that, he looked for the dwarf that had made him meet there."

Then you, as LM, post if he sees the dwarf, what the dwarf says, etc.

In my game, players describe the streets of Esgaroth, what his character thinks and feels there, the looks of the inn and the kind of people who are there, even the flavour of the beer.
Of course, everyone needs more time for this, and it's also not everyone's taste.
You just choose what kind of game you want to play.

Also, with situations like combat, player's don't control their PCs during every turn. They say how they want to fight, whom they attack, and some specifics like how many Hope points you'd use maximum. Then everyone makes 10 or so rolls and the LM uses this rolls in order as needed for the attacks or protection tests.
The LM makes a narration of the combat once he resolves 3 or 4 turns together.
For example: "My dwarf takes a defensive position and engages the toughest orc. If the beorning gets weary or wounded, I'll use a maximum of 3 hope points to defend ally. Otherwise, I'll only use hope points for protection rolls." Then the dwarf player leaves a row 10 rolls in the post. When everyone has done that, the LM can resolve a few turns of combat on his own. Then he posts a narration, normally without numbers.
If the combat is not over, the players can make changes to their tactis for the next turns.

If you played the PC game "Baldur's Gate", is the same idea as when you set the IA of the companions of your group. (I think Dragon Age also had it).