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View Full Version : Non-Traditional Play Schedules/Groups?



FreakyCheeseMan
2014-01-27, 10:47 AM
I'm trying to put together a game, but it's proving exceptionally difficult, given schedule conflicts and the fact that two of the people I want as players don't live in this city. I've been considering doing something like a play-by-post or skype game, or maybe run two games, one IRL and one online. I've also been entertaining crazier ideas, like having the local people as a cohesive party, and letting the online people play as a different group in the same world, maybe even as behind-the-scenes villains.

This got me wondering - what styles/formats have you all experimented with? What worked, and what didn't?

Dawgmoah
2014-01-27, 04:25 PM
Last few years I've had either a:


A party of players all sitting around the table.
A group completely run over Skype/VTT.
A mixture of local and remote players coming in with Skype.


Having any of those three groups still dictate one thing to work: common courtesy. As in giving the time for everyone to participate.

One spotlight hogger can ruin everything.

inexorabletruth
2014-01-27, 04:39 PM
Play-by-Post has worked for me all these years. I work nights, so most of my friends are asleep when I'm awake. Playing through forums, like the ones available here, have been a great way to work through difficult schedules or close the distance between international gamers.

Ailowynn
2014-01-28, 08:53 AM
I don't like non-IRL games. But I still deal with schedules. Right now, I'm in the middle of a Shadowrun campaign, which we made episodic--like a a TV show. Everyone who can show up, does, and we play a complete adventure in one session. It's especially easy with SR as "real life got in the way" also works as an in-game excuse.

FreakyCheeseMan
2014-01-28, 12:49 PM
Hmm. So, has anyone tried a game where players engaged in fundamentally different ways? (Not just "Some show up in real life, while others watch/join the IRL game through Skype.") Like, say, two independent groups in the same setting/involved in the same plot, that almost never meet at the same time? Or a real-life group and a play-by-post group that someone influence one another?