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Aron Times
2011-05-13, 01:59 PM
I like the nWoD, particularly Vampire: The Requiem, though I have played it only a handful of times, with large gaps in between each game. I play exclusively though PbP, in here and in other forums, so I'm not sure if it would be different in a face-to-face session, but I've noticed that PbP DMs have a tendency to go out of their way to subvert my uses of Dominate.

One egregious example was a sandbox game on rpol.net where my character was looking for a random gangbanger to use as his pawn. When my character tried to Dominate him, spending a willpower point to ensure that it sticks, the DM responded by having the gangbanger not only interpret my command in the most unfavorable way, he also had him spend a willpower point on his opposed roll. Note that this wasn't a named NPC, just a random thug and his friends that my character happened to run into. :smalleek:

Maybe I'm just unlucky, but this has happened to me too often that I now shy away from Requiem PbP games even though I really like the system.

What about you?

P.S.

My favorite clan is Ventrue, just in case you didn't figure it out. :smallsmile:

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-05-13, 02:03 PM
My biggest pet peeves with PbP is generally how long it takes to do anything since you have to wait for other players in other time-zones, and the fact that this, along with many other possible factors can cause someone to drop from the game without warning, which grinds it to a halt for the rest of us.

Anytime you check the forum, please check the PbP for updates, and if you can't participate anymore, PLEASE tell me so I can start rerecruiting and the rest of us can move on.

Forged Fury
2011-05-13, 04:19 PM
I think speed and MIA PCs/DMs are probably the biggest faults with PbP.

I just finished up a PbP game in which I was a player. It started in 2004 and ended a few days ago. We leveled from 2-7 over the course of those 7 years. Another big problem is trying to remember everything that happens and its relevance to whatever quest you've undertaken. An NPC we encountered three weeks ago in game may have been introduced to us 3 years ago in real life. You have to take good notes.

The other pet peeve I have involves metagaming. I've been in way too many PbP games where other players will use OOC knowledge or IC knowledge to which they're not really privvy, either because the knowledge was gained through "listening in" on another character's inner monologue or through OOC posts. Yes, I realize the answer to this is to not post a PC's inner thoughts for everyone to read, but that tends to make the games pretty dull. To me, PbPs definitely highlight the "shared narrative" aspect of RPGs. Without those inner monologues floating around, it doesn't seem quite as fun or interesting.

LibraryOgre
2011-05-14, 08:51 AM
Aside from the infamous MIA, I think my biggest pet peeve is people who don't understand how to make PbP characters. They make the same silent bad-ass they always do, and then are unhappy because being a silent bad-ass is kinda useless in a game where a lot comes down to talking.

druid91
2011-05-14, 09:29 AM
Aside from the infamous MIA, I think my biggest pet peeve is people who don't understand how to make PbP characters. They make the same silent bad-ass they always do, and then are unhappy because being a silent bad-ass is kinda useless in a game where a lot comes down to talking.

Wait... People make strong silent types?

I've never seen one... Maybe me and my freinds are just talkative.

Along with everyone I've PbP with....

LibraryOgre
2011-05-14, 09:33 AM
Wait... People make strong silent types?

I've never seen one... Maybe me and my freinds are just talkative.

Along with everyone I've PbP with....

Might just be me. I ran into a number of them when I still believed I had time and energy for PBP.

crimson77
2011-05-15, 04:09 AM
My biggest Pet Peeve (which i have no solution to fixing besides nagging players to please not due it) is when players post something that does not require a response from anyone. It is just information that is not irreverent but does not further anything. I usually just move things along and if the player complains then state how their post did not lead to anything that anyone could react to.

Instead of listing my pet peeves I thought it would be useful to give my solutions to some of my pet peeves.

1. Reject characters who may be the "strong silent type" or the "super dumb" or any concept that deters from party unity (e.g., monster classes, evil parties).

2. Give players 24 hours to post for combat (except the weekend which counts as 48) and then the round ends.

3. Use party initiative (NPC then players or vice versa).

4. Use simple rules (basic dnd such as S&W, L&L, core rules, etc).

5. Always try to post something that players can respond to.

6. Reward creating thinking with XP.

7. If a player has not posted for a week (or logged into the site) then I PM them. If they do not respond, I give them another week to respond then I drop them. I continue play as usual using them as an NPC if needed until they can be written out.

8. I try to pre-screen players so that I know if they drop out of games quickly.

9. I do not base the quest on anyone player but try to develop plots with all the players along the same lines or give them reason to follow one of the player's plot.

10. Most non-essential roleplaying is skipped (e.g., buying and selling normal equipment) and is done in OOC. If there is something special, (e.g., a magic sword) then it can be done in character.

11. I try to keep a NPC with the party to help move things along and prompt them (e.g., "which direction should we go?")

12. I skip all non-essential traveling and just discuss it in a post. Thus a party might travel for 4 days without any problems then then have a random encounter on the 5th day which will be played out.

13. PVP is not tolerated and players who engage in it will be dropped from the game.

14. Orientate new players to PBP and discuss how it is different from IRL gaming.

15. Let players be co-creators of the world and allow yourself to have a loose idea of the plot but know it will change over the months to come as new ideas come to you.

16. Always be thinking of new players when you suspect a player will drop. Invited players (or potential players who read your game) will be more likely to stick around.

17. If you have four players and there is a fifth that is really into your game, take on the fifth knowing that you will likely have a player drop.

18. Tell people when you will be MIA before it happens. This goes a long way to keeping a good relationship with other players and the DM.

19. Forgive players and DMs that become MIA; we all have life events that cause us to drop our internet lives.

20. If you are a DM, always keep the game moving. Don't wait for a players response if it is within a designated time limit (e.g., a day or a week). It is important to keep the momentum up. Low momentum will keep players from checking the site.

21. Bookmark or subscribe to your game (and check daily).

22. Always post something that others have to respond to.

Volos
2011-05-15, 12:19 PM
One of my biggest pet peeves with PbP comes down to players forgetting my ruling on certian things. I'm running a Bleach D20 game, which means we're using a completely homebrewed system to run a game. I'm mostly in it for the story and interesting fight mechanics, and it seems that I've been able to hold my player's interest so far. So in the beginning there were alot of questions, what do certian attacks do and how many times can I do X and etc. I was more than happy to answer all of these questions for my players, some took longer than others to answer but in the end we all got a good understanding of how things work. It helps that one of my players had run this system as a DM before.

That isn't what bugged me. What really got under my skin is that this one player of mine asked some very specific questions early on about how many times he could do certian skill checks in a round, how his attacks worked, how to cast spells, and everything else. I gave him clear rulings and made sure he understood. It took alot of back and forth to come to a solution, so I figured he would remember. It didn't stick. Now every few IC posts he does something that is the exact opposite of the ruling I gave him before.

For example he wanted to intimidate something twice in one round, which before I had told him he could only do once. Before that he was trying to ready an action when he already used his standard action to summon something. And all throughout he's been having his character with poor manuverability trying to fly straight up, make sharp turns, and hover... all of which is impossible for him to do without falling out of the sky. It hasn't been all the time, but it is annoying enough that when it happens I get rather fustrated. I'm sure he'll get it eventually, but is it really that hard to put search terms in the OOC thread to find the answer to an old question from your DM, or better yet is it that hard to just ask again? I'd be more than happy to explain to him again, but instead he just posts out of the blue doing exactly the wrong thing. I don't have time to have him take it back, so I have to modify his post in my head and explain in a spoiler what I had him do instead.