How hard is it to DM a PbP?

[2xMachina]

How hard is it to DM a PbP? I've a story idea, and would like to DM it. I've never DM'ed though. Or at least, the encounter design part. Running encounters, I've done before.

[The-Mage-King]

A bit less hard than IRL- you have a bit more time to start winging it, should things go awry.

[Fri]

Less hard than IRL. you'll have time to improvise, get resources or references, or wing anything. You can write flavourful stuffs easier than talking about it.

The problem is with the time, usually. When IRL one combat round can be done in one minute, in PbP it could take days.

[Ernir]

I'm going to go out and say just as hard.

You get a get-out-of-jail card when it comes to certain problems of tabletop gaming... everything from you forgetting your notes at home to you just being a bit awkward when RPing certain things face to face with your friends. You also have a lot more flexibility when it comes to scheduling.

But. Instead of the practical issues with tabletop gaming, you get the practical issues with PbP. And the issues being on the internet doesn't make them less real, or less in need of being dealt with.

And the actual DMing work (plotting, designing dungeons and encounters, and so on) is exactly the same.


you'll have time to improvise, get resources or references, or wing anything.

On the subject of winging things in PbP.
You kind of... can't. You get much more time to pull your pants up when the players do something you hadn't prepared for, but those pants need to come up. Because the post you make is going to stick around for the next few years, and the players can and will reference your old stuff, and notice when you're being inconsistent.

Yeah, when your players decide to punch a random guard that didn't exist 5 seconds earlier, you have time to come up with stats for him. But having the stats consist of "+5 to hit for 1d8+3, AC 16, 10 HP" doesn't work as well. =/

[Dr Bwaa]

I'm going to go out and say just as hard.

I agree. The problems are different, but no less challenging. Another issue in PbP that Ernir didn't touch on is keeping your campaign running. When you're not all meeting face to face once a week (or whatever), keeping a steady schedule can be hard, and in my experience, the vast majority of PbP games die within the first couple encounters, just from random disappearances of players/GMs. IMO, dealing with that (or ideally, preventing it) is the hardest thing about running a PbP.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I agree. The problems are different, but no less challenging. Another issue in PbP that Ernir didn't touch on is keeping your campaign running. When you're not all meeting face to face once a week (or whatever), keeping a steady schedule can be hard, and in my experience, the vast majority of PbP games die within the first couple encounters, just from random disappearances of players/GMs. IMO, dealing with that (or ideally, preventing it) is the hardest thing about running a PbP.
QFT. Game evaporation is the biggest challenge/disappointment of PBP gaming.

[Unrest]

IMO, dealing with that (or ideally, preventing it) is the hardest thing about running a PbP.

This. Because everything takes a lot of time if your players aren't hyped to check/post two times a day, it will be going slow. It's not their energy that runs out, like after a 7-hour long session - it's their interest. Also, depending on what your expectations towards others' writing are, 40%-80% of what is going to be written in the thread by others will simply not interest you because it's either their style or it's simply not fun / interesting enough to read - but you feel you would need to, because otherwise you'll be lost on what's happening.

Therefore, in my impression, running a hack-n-slash or a 'puzzler' (does anyone do games like that?) is easier than a roleplay. If there's just reading, and reading, and reading, and it's tedious, unentertaining, or At Least lacking character development - then it will die for the same reason people don't read books.

Also, remember it's always easier to do over-the-top, we-use-3-stats-and-HP style games than a realistic game in 3.5 or any complex system that assumes its target is verisimilitude.

[The-Mage-King]

Oh, and don't get me started on maps. It's a pain to do, and you need a reliable way to update them.