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View Full Version : 4e- Suggestions for DMing a PBP game



Asbestos
2009-05-28, 08:16 PM
Hi all, I was thinking of running a delve (and then more?) in 4e via PBP but... I've never DMed a PBP game before and, besides have shaky command of the sites dice roller, have no real clue how best to do it. Helpful tips?

This is NOT a recruiting thread, if I get some helpful suggestions and get really committed to the idea I'll go and start one of those in the correct forum.

NecroRebel
2009-05-28, 08:30 PM
Demand a schedule for posts; it doesn't have to be super strict, but be ask up front that people post every, say, weekday, or four times a week, or whatever. If they don't post, go without them, and if they're in battle, take their characters' turns for them, using intentionally suboptimal actions (not actively screwing them over, but, for example, not moving into a flanking position even if its available and using only at-will attacks).

Maps are extremely important for 4e, so you need some form of map. There's many ways you can create them; I prefer maptool (http://www.rptools.net/), myself. Maps don't have to be fancy, and to be honest I actually prefer bare-bones, extremely stylized maps to more ornate and realistic ones.

The roller isn't difficult to use once you know how. [ roll ]XdY+Z[ /roll ], without the spaces between the brackets and roll or /roll, rolls X of a die with Y sides and adds Z to it. You can also do rollv in place of the first roll; that will tell you exactly what each die you rolled came up as. Finally, if you put =something in between the first roll and the first ], it will actually name the roll something.

I've found that most games work better if there are seperate IC and OOC threads; it seems to encourage interplayer banter, which in turn encourages them to stick around.

Just bear in mind that DMing can be a lot of work; I'm DMing a pair of epic-tier games right now, and I can tell you that it takes about 45 minutes, per game, to do DMposts involving enemy actions in combat.

RTGoodman
2009-05-28, 09:22 PM
You'll definitely want some maps. Fortunately, it's easy.

You can basically make all your maps in Excel, which is what I did for my short-lived Dragonlance 4E PbP. (I really hate that I kinda caused that to die because of real-life stuff...)

Here's an example of one of mine.


http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd40/rtg0922/Dragonlance/En1C2.png


The other thing is make sure you're ready and have time to run a PbP, and that your players can, too. The bane of PbPs is people disappearing or just not posting, causing the game to fall apart.

Asbestos
2009-05-28, 10:45 PM
For my initial purposes I think that Excel should work just fine, until I can really sit down and sink my teeth into Maptool (it does look quite interesting) Really this all makes me hate WotC for not picking up the dang pace with their virtual game table... which isn't even out and they're increasing the cost of a DDI subscription :smallsigh:

Anyway, NecroRebel, 45 minutes per/game to post the bad guys actions? How long is one of your games generally/how many rounds/how many baddies?

About how long does an encounter take in PBP?

NecroRebel
2009-05-28, 11:11 PM
Anyway, NecroRebel, 45 minutes per/game to post the bad guys actions? How long is one of your games generally/how many rounds/how many baddies?

This is epic tier, so it takes much longer than it would at earlier levels because there are A) more enemies per battle, B) more abilities per enemy, and C) as a corollary to B more attacks to roll. Largely, it's just that it takes me a long time to type out thirty roll scripts.

Calculating enemy HP from player actions, movement from the same, and all that stuff takes probably 7 or 8 minutes most times, another 10 to 15 to decide on enemy actions including movement and such, and then 20 or more to type out a paragraph or two of fluff and the dozens of rolls... But, again, that's epic tier.

Most battles I deal with have between 4 and 12 enemies. Less than 4 just get owned by players' action advantage, while more than 12 is simply way too cluttered, even with minions who die rapidly. It usually takes about 5-7 rounds to take out a monster group at heroic tier, with battles lasting 6-9 at paragon and 7-11 at epic.

Generally, fewer monsters (solos) actually surprisingly take more time to run because they tend to have area of effect powers, minor action powers, and/or move action powers, all of which take a lot of time to do due to, again more dice rolls.


About how long does an encounter take in PBP?

Days, sometimes weeks. Generally, it takes about 1 1/2 days per round. Sometimes faster if everyone is within a couple timezones of one another and are watching for posts, but on average, about 1 1/2 days per combat round.

The advantage to this of course is that you as DM have a lot of time to contemplate monster tactics or, if you're doing roleplaying stuff, NPC reactions. The disadvantage, of course, is that it takes a tremendously long time to get any significant amount of plot done.

Colmarr
2009-05-28, 11:36 PM
The disadvantage, of course, is that it takes a tremendously long time to get any significant amount of plot done.

Which incidentally makes using Delves a great idea for PbP. There's no real plot to speak of :smallsmile:

Asbestos
2009-05-28, 11:37 PM
Generally, fewer monsters (solos) actually surprisingly take more time to run because they tend to have area of effect powers, minor action powers, and/or move action powers, all of which take a lot of time to do due to, again more dice rolls.
Yeah, I've learned this from running 4e on the tabletop. Standards= Easy, Solos= Not so easy.




Days, sometimes weeks. Generally, it takes about 1 1/2 days per round. Sometimes faster if everyone is within a couple timezones of one another and are watching for posts, but on average, about 1 1/2 days per combat round.
:smalleek: Holy heck, I didn't think it'd take that long. Though, all things considered, I suppose it makes some sense.


The advantage to this of course is that you as DM have a lot of time to contemplate monster tactics or, if you're doing roleplaying stuff, NPC reactions. The disadvantage, of course, is that it takes a tremendously long time to get any significant amount of plot done.
Well, for the first game I (may) run I'd probably just go with a delve to get a better feel for everything so the plot advancement wouldn't be that important.

Edit: Ha, ninja'd

Jokes
2009-05-29, 12:10 AM
I second using excel for maps, but if you really can't be bothered uploading pics every round, you can try an online one like editgrid.com and give a link to your spreadsheet to your players.

Here's an example (http://www.editgrid.com/user/jokes/Example). You can change permissions so only your players can edit them, or have it so only you edit it. The only downside is that you can't embed it into your posts, you can only add a link.