Are your games dying?

[Uriel]

Jemal, I am not mean It's not my fault you charged an enraged Behir and got eaten...
BTW, we are waiting for you to Post so that I can get back to eating..er, I mean making sure you make it to the Title of Duchess Ferach (I'm sure Kitana is OK with that).

On-Topic: Speaking of keeping games alive, and regarding the above mentioned game in particular.
I think that it is very important for the group to have a definate cohesion prior to the game starting. The characters in my UaVS game were all pregenerated (moans from the audience), but as we all know from Game Conventions, these can be some really fun ones to play. The group is a scheming, backstabbing, sneaky email proliferating bunch of Blackhearts...and I feel a tear welling up now in pride at the players Wickedness...Everyone seems to be having fun with that, although a couple of the characters are pretty much combat machines and not Devious Courtiers.I created each one with the result that I was jealous that I didn't get to play them myself. I'm thinking of running That adventure using those characters at a Con in a few weeks.
Regarding Longevity:Jemal, I wasn't offended. I see games fall by the wayside here all of the time, and I'm fairly new. The UaVS game will be completed, primarily because it is designed as a 'One Shot'. A smaller piece of a larger pie, so to speak. I will happily run more adventures for those characters, although, I seriously doubt that (a) they will want to adventure together if they aren't forced to and (b) they will all survive.


Pros and Cons of PbP as I see them.

I have played in games (PbP and real life) where each person just made a character and had no tie-in to anyone else. These games, almost without exception,suffer from that deficit.
PbP games suffer on a few fronts by design. The tactile aspect, rolling the dice, cracking jokes to your buddies,ordering pizza, using miniatures (I have over 5,000, and I like using them, battle mats, scenery etc...), the pace.
However, R-L games suffer as well, in that folks are often too embarrassed to 'do a voice' or use grandiose language appropriate to their character.
Who wants to be laughed at by your buddies when your Paladin finds his True Love and recites a Poem to her? Not me...
PbP also lets those of us with a flair for the descriptive go a bit wild. Too many times in RPGs do we find ourselves weaving a tale, describing the mood of the Peasants in the Town,the still of the wood after a Dragon's attack, etc...to have some knucklehead (friend though he be) say 'Yeah,yeah,dude...get to the good stuff, I made a Spot of 23, what do I see?'
it is far easier to read through a block of text at your own leisure and respond than to sit at a table listening to a windbag (Mocks descriptive DMs here, see, I'm neutral ).

Just a few observations.

Anal Spelling Edit.

 

[Vargo]

Y'know, I've tried three seperate games, and tried to stick around for all of them. Two have died, and one is kind of hovering in between death and life, with the DM trying hard to resuscitate it - "From Citadel to Bastion" - and I'd *LOVE* to get a chance to play in one of these things that lasts longer than a month.

*FUME*

I'm a consistent player, I post regularly, I try, and I'd like a game where everybody else does the same.

If anybody has a game where one player has stopped showing up, and they want another player, let me know. I'll pop in.

 

[KitanaVorr]

Y'know, I've tried three seperate games, and tried to stick around for all of them. Two have died, and one is kind of hovering in between death and life, with the DM trying hard to resuscitate it - "From Citadel to Bastion" - and I'd *LOVE* to get a chance to play in one of these things that lasts longer than a month.

*FUME*

I'm a consistent player, I post regularly, I try, and I'd like a game where everybody else does the same.

If anybody has a game where one player has stopped showing up, and they want another player, let me know. I'll pop in.

I've been kind of lucky with the games where I DM. I state from the beginning what I expect from them and they've delivered very nicely. Just look around and find out who the good posters are and watch for games they're in.

 

[Tokiwong]

Well I'm in 4-5 games and there's only one game that's lasted a while; Feint Whispers. Credits to the DM who has kept us on our toes.

I think the best thing might be to go for smaller adventures, and no dungeon crawls. Waste of time. And players should go for diversity rather than quantity. If you feel you're playing the same character in two games, time to forget one of 'em.

Yeah I have to give it up to Feint Whispers, the DM is doing an awesome job, really awesome, a good player too, ran in an FR game I ran, the bad-ass wizard Xenon, remember that Carl?

Anyways, I agree with much that has been said, and I hope to have my game stick around for awhile, we need some Rokugan love on the boards.

 

[jasamcarl]

Yeah I have to give it up to Feint Whispers, the DM is doing an awesome job, really awesome, a good player too, ran in an FR game I ran, the bad-ass wizard Xenon, remember that Carl?

Anyways, I agree with much that has been said, and I hope to have my game stick around for awhile, we need some Rokugan love on the boards.

And props to you Toki for that excellent campaign. It will hold a place for me, being my first and all. I learned a lot about being a DM from that campaign. And DMing has taught me alot about being a better player.

 

[reapersaurus]

I think it is the height of rudeness to short change a game, any game at all, be it a serious game or a silly one. This is what we all have decided to do with our free time. Shortchanging a game is not just affecting the game for you, it can effectively ruin the game for other people as well, people who are trying their best.

It took me awhile to get to post, but I just wanted to say:
Straight up, that is exactly how I feel as well, Shalimar.

I take the "covenant of gaming" (whatever that is) fairly serious, and consider it a commitment, and a promise that you will uphold your end of that commitment.

From what I've experienced, many people don't approach gaming like that. Maybe it's an age thing somewhat, but more likely just a personailty thing.
I guess that's why it burns me so much when the _DM_ himself backs out of a game, citing lack of time/interest.

Didn't they think about that commitment in the beginning?
I have asked pointed questions of many DM's in their recruitment threads to try and impress on them the magnitude of what they are proposing to play. Some seem to say "Let's start a game" without thinking thru the implications.

For this reason, I know think there should be a warning on the FAQ for players: DON'T spend too much personal time in creating your PC and customizing it for a PbP game unless you're darned sure that that DM is serious enough to come through.
If we calculated the hundreds (probably thousands) of player-hours that DM's who back out of PbP games cost them, perhaps the slavish devotion to DM's this board typically has might be lessened healthily.

[rant-ish] My personal opinion about DM's is that they are just more motivated players who choose to have more control over the game - they're not gods, the way most people react to them.
They aren't even usually objective, since they have so much to keep in mind, they usually lack the distance re: their world that's necessary to see it from the players' perspective. [/rant]

 

[DM_Matt]

Against the Storm is unique : it's the one PbP I've been in that has not stalled due to DM disinterest, but player disinterest.
While DM_Matt alienated some players (myself included), I think he's done just about everything he can to revive the game, and his effort is admirable, including recruiting others to fill some roleplaying holes. Hopefully that will revive the game.

Thx for the encouragement. Its looking like this one might last a bit.

As far as what I've learned:
1. (least useful to others) I found that I needed to tweak my style a bit and move more towards tactical as-if-there-were-miniatures combat methods. More holistic and non-specific methods do not work in games where the DM and players do not know eachother well and thus little trust has been built up beforehand. Unfortunately, I learned to PBP DM from a guy who took a preexisting game online due to sceduling conflicts, where it fourished. It took me a bit to move away from that.

The map use in the new players thread was a success. I used Photoshop (in many ways vector apps would be better, but ps is what I know best) to make a background, and I put all the characters/NPCs as text on their own layers, color-coded by what side they are on. I activated the grid and labled it. As combat progressed, I was able to just drag the figures around. When I wanted to take an image and post it, I used a screen grab app that grabs only selections and saves to JPEG, allowing me to only grab the Photoshop window and keeping the grid visible. This had the very useful side effect of allowing players to be very specific in their movements. i.e. they could add in parentheses, (partial charge to G11, attack vampire X5 on G10) etc. This fixed my problems with tactical combat in my PBP game, which is what got Reaper so mad in the past.

2. The main problem for the game was that people who initially joined were lost from the board altogether. Those who are still posting in general are still in my game. Frankly, I am now wary of acccepting people with reletively low post-counts or who havent been around that long, unless of course they are some of the hyperposting newbies like Timothy.

If anytihng, the fact that the IC forum is part of a much larger board is highkly advantagous at keeping players active.

3. DM consistancy matters. A lot. A DM does not need to be overall apathetic to deal serious damage to his game. All that is required is taking a few days off posting to cause serious damage.

 

[GruTheWanderer]

Y'know, I've tried three seperate games, and tried to stick around for all of them. Two have died, and one is kind of hovering in between death and life, with the DM trying hard to resuscitate it - "From Citadel to Bastion" - and I'd *LOVE* to get a chance to play in one of these things that lasts longer than a month.

*FUME*

I'm a consistent player, I post regularly, I try, and I'd like a game where everybody else does the same.

If anybody has a game where one player has stopped showing up, and they want another player, let me know. I'll pop in.

Yeah, that's how I'd describe Citadel, too, but the current fight scene should trim the fat and get things moving.

MeepoTheMighty left without a word, Novyet could no longer access the boards, StalkingBlue got busy, and Ashrem decided he was committed to too many games (and he's the one that started the game). Thanks for hanging in there.

This is why I want to be more selective when and if Dragonlance Classics becomes a reality.

 

[Vargo]

Gru, just wanted to add - thanks for trying. And heck, if you're looking for a player when you get your game going, let me know - I don't quit.

 

[Pbartender]

Vargo... If you would be interested in Star Wars, the Star Wars Iconic game is looking for a new Sia-Lan Wezz and a new Kaz Lo.

Anyway... In my experience with PbPs, it isn't so much the frequency of posts, but the consistantancy of posts that's a problem.

I usually post in my games about two or three times a week (depending on how fast the players post). It'd be too much to post every day. And if I or someone else in the game is going to be absent for an extended period, it is only polite to warn everyone else ahead of time.

It is most difficult when people simply dissappear without a word.