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View Full Version : So I Wanna Be a DM (PbP Version)



OMG PONIES
2009-07-29, 04:46 PM
After reading the GREAT DM guide on this forum, I was wondering about something. I'm about to start DMing a PbP DnD4E game, and I am curious to see what advice everyone has. Has anyone here successfully DMed a long-running PbP game? Most of the 3.5 and 4E games I have played online have been short-lived, either by nature or necessity.

Sinfire Titan
2009-07-29, 04:55 PM
The title of this thread reminds me of this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EzaE-4MPbw&feature=related)

ColdSepp
2009-07-29, 05:00 PM
I'd advise against running a 4E game with PbP. Due to the nature of combat, and the many abilities that grant movement to an ally/push an enemy/grant an attack it makes combat extremely slow, since you need to know where everyone is, including the monsters.

Just my experience, though, others may have had better ones.

Kallisti
2009-07-29, 05:05 PM
I'd advise against running a 4E game with PbP. Due to the nature of combat, and the many abilities that grant movement to an ally/push an enemy/grant an attack it makes combat extremely slow, since you need to know where everyone is, including the monsters.

Just my experience, though, others may have had better ones.

QFT. On the other hand, if you really want to do all of that work, and can find good players, go for it. Advice for DM's: Don't give them too much money. It's an easy mistake to make, and it leads to them being overpowered. Don't use encounters they can't win, but don't pull your punches either. If they're being stupid and the logical consequence of their stupid actions is their death, don't save them. Never use a DMPC unless you're really confident in your roleplaying and DM'ing skills. If people aren't posting as often as they said they would, PM them, and if they don't respond soon, find someone else to run for them. They can have their character back when they start showing up again.

Hzurr
2009-07-30, 02:08 PM
A bit more on topic rather than just saying "don't run 4E"

One thing that I found very helpful (back in the days when I DMed a couple of PbP games), was to have some sort of map the players could look at. I'm sure there are all sorts of awesome map-making tools available now (I used Paint.net back in the day, and did it all by hand, which is pretty time consuming).

For a 4E game, a map/grid showing player and enemy locations is even more critical, because movement and tactics are so key in 4E

Some general advice for PbP games:

1) Ways to uniquely identify each poster/character at a glance. - Since the PCs don't have faces or voices, sometimes it can be easy to loose track of who is playing who (especially if a poster uses a lot of pronouns). I recommend doing two things to combat this: A) At the start of every post, have each player put his name, race and class. Ex: the first line of my post might have something like Tordek - dwarf fighter. That way you know instantly who is posting without having to remember which character Hzurr is playing. B) Give each character his or her own font color when they speak. This also helps to identify the various characters, but it also helps solidify what is said out-loud vs. internal monologue/flavor text. Assign a unique color to each character (for example, Tordek may get red), so that when a character says " I think we should kill the goblins" You can instantly see what he says, even if it's buried within a wall of text.

2) Determine how combat will be run - Will you be rolling, or will the PCs be rolling? (I recommend having the PCs do it, using the GitP dice roller). Will you be going down each person in order of initiative, or at the top of the round will you have each person declare what they intend to do that round? (Having everyone declare in advance makes things go faster, but it can be a little tricky if the fighter declares that he'll attack the zombie, only to have the wizard kill the zombie before the fighter's turn comes up. In situations like this, you need to decide in advance if the player will choose his new action, or if the DM will choose).

3) PbP games offer some of the best roll-playing possibilities, and some of the poorest combat possibilities. Be very careful of running combat heavy games, and give the PCs more of a chance to interact with one another and with the NPCs. This for me is the highlight of PbP games, is because everyone has more time to think about their character and how he/she would respond. Some of the best RPing I've ever had has been in PbP games (and because of it, my all-time favorite PC I ever made was from a PbP game)

4) Determine posting schedule ahead of time, and stick to it. Be clear with the players about how often you expect them to post, and what happens if they don't post (will you assume they go along with what the party does, will you NPC them, will they more or less just "disappear" for a few rounds, etc.)


Hmm...that's all that's hitting my head right now. I'll add more if I think of it.

(oh, and send me a PM when the game recruiting starts. I've been meaning to jump back into a PbP game, but I never seem to find the recruitment threads early enough :smallsmile: )