M.T. Black
Hero
I'm thinking about running a game of D&D play-by-post, most likely in discord. If you have any tips, I'd be very happy to hear them.
D&D General Looking for D&D Play-By-Post Tips
- Thread starter M.T. Black
- Start date
FitzTheRuke
Legend
Here's a few tips of the top of my head.
PBP is very very slow. Run something short. Take good notes (because you'll probably forget things and reviewing the whole thread is tiresome). Expect players to leave without warning. Don't bother with initiative, just let people go in whatever order they post. Fit monsters in where they make sense. Post a lot of pictures.
Have fun!
Hit me up with any questions you have.
PBP is very very slow. Run something short. Take good notes (because you'll probably forget things and reviewing the whole thread is tiresome). Expect players to leave without warning. Don't bother with initiative, just let people go in whatever order they post. Fit monsters in where they make sense. Post a lot of pictures.
Have fun!
Hit me up with any questions you have.
I recommend using an "Us > Them" initiative system. This will have balance implications, but the speed you gain will be well worth it.
Be transparent with ACs and other combat info. You don't want to lose time with players asking if something hit.
Outright ask your players to always mention what they are doing. Lots of PBP posts can involve great dialog without anybody actually saying they do something, leaving you to wonder what decision (if any) was made.
Similarly, have a way to resolve indecision. This can be as easy as having the players roll a d20 to see which plan the party goes with. Players can spend hours planning in a F2F game - they can spend a week planning in PBP.
Be transparent with ACs and other combat info. You don't want to lose time with players asking if something hit.
Outright ask your players to always mention what they are doing. Lots of PBP posts can involve great dialog without anybody actually saying they do something, leaving you to wonder what decision (if any) was made.
Similarly, have a way to resolve indecision. This can be as easy as having the players roll a d20 to see which plan the party goes with. Players can spend hours planning in a F2F game - they can spend a week planning in PBP.
M.T. Black
Hero
By "Us > Them" I guess you mean that the PCs always go first?
FitzTheRuke
Legend
I'm not 100% certain what Seramus meant by it, but that's essentially what I meant when I said "don't bother with initiative". Though I will often insert a monster in-between players (using an "aggro-mechanic" - if you attack a monster, it might then take its turn). But generally, if two (or more) players post their turns before I do, I'll assume that both happen before the monster goes.
The important thing is all the players go in a clump, so nobody is waiting for any other player to post.
So you can let them go first (you always have more monsters), or roll initiative and take the average across each side, or any other system that ensures the characters all go at once.
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
I’ve been playing and running PbP games for about 13 years now. It can be great fun and incredibly frustrating.
Expect about 4-6 months of PbP to amount to about 4 hours of face-to-face play, and plan accordingly.
Don’t bother with initiative, as others mentioned. Let the PCs all act and post in whatever order. Have the monsters go after. This clumps your posts together, which saves time. React to and adjudicate all the PCs’ actions and do the monsters in one go.
Do what you can to minimize handling time of the game. Depending on the posting rate, something as simple as calling for a check can take days depending on time zones, work schedules, etc. If you’re going “super fast” at one post a day. Day one: What do I see? Day two: make a perception check. Day three: 21. Day four: Okay, you see… So whatever you do, don’t do that. Passives, pre-rolled list, you roll for them, assume auto success most of the time, anything. Collapse that to a question and an answer.
Don’t ask the players to preemptively roll for things in the above. “What do I see? 21 perception.” This can really mess things up, waste more time than it saves, and lead to weird metagaming
Make it clear to the players that dialogue isn’t an action declaration. A PC saying, “We should go over there” is not a player saying, “We go over there.” This matters because if you assume they’re the same you’ll have players argue when something negative happens.
Combat is slower than frozen molasses. Make combat as interesting as possible by ramping up dialogue, secondary objectives, using cool terrain, etc.
Always hard-frame scenes. Start as close to the action, drama, and conflict as possible. Don’t let things meander. Shopping scenes, long conversations, go nowhere dialogue, etc need to be avoided at all costs. A quick conversation at the table can take a week or more in PbP.
Lean into the form. You’re collaboratively writing a story together. Embrace that. Things that work at the table won’t work here. Things that work in fiction writing work here. If you’re not a fiction writer, read up a little on some basic tips and tricks. You also have way more time to think between posts, so use that. It’s far easier to “improvise” a PbP game. You can read the posts in the morning and not respond until later that day or the next.
Expect about 4-6 months of PbP to amount to about 4 hours of face-to-face play, and plan accordingly.
Don’t bother with initiative, as others mentioned. Let the PCs all act and post in whatever order. Have the monsters go after. This clumps your posts together, which saves time. React to and adjudicate all the PCs’ actions and do the monsters in one go.
Do what you can to minimize handling time of the game. Depending on the posting rate, something as simple as calling for a check can take days depending on time zones, work schedules, etc. If you’re going “super fast” at one post a day. Day one: What do I see? Day two: make a perception check. Day three: 21. Day four: Okay, you see… So whatever you do, don’t do that. Passives, pre-rolled list, you roll for them, assume auto success most of the time, anything. Collapse that to a question and an answer.
Don’t ask the players to preemptively roll for things in the above. “What do I see? 21 perception.” This can really mess things up, waste more time than it saves, and lead to weird metagaming
Make it clear to the players that dialogue isn’t an action declaration. A PC saying, “We should go over there” is not a player saying, “We go over there.” This matters because if you assume they’re the same you’ll have players argue when something negative happens.
Combat is slower than frozen molasses. Make combat as interesting as possible by ramping up dialogue, secondary objectives, using cool terrain, etc.
Always hard-frame scenes. Start as close to the action, drama, and conflict as possible. Don’t let things meander. Shopping scenes, long conversations, go nowhere dialogue, etc need to be avoided at all costs. A quick conversation at the table can take a week or more in PbP.
Lean into the form. You’re collaboratively writing a story together. Embrace that. Things that work at the table won’t work here. Things that work in fiction writing work here. If you’re not a fiction writer, read up a little on some basic tips and tricks. You also have way more time to think between posts, so use that. It’s far easier to “improvise” a PbP game. You can read the posts in the morning and not respond until later that day or the next.
Quickleaf
Legend
Hey M.T.
Hope you are doing well!I've run a bit of play-by-post on ENWorld's forums and also Discord; currently running Rime of the Frostmaiden on the forums here. If you're looking for a PbP game to play in, the party could use one more front-line PC!
Others have shared a good overview of what's different about it, especially the weaknesses around taking longer, etc. I have a few tricks I use...
We establish a group agreement about how long to wait for a critical reply from a player before GM just advances the scene. While in PbP I try to avoid chokepoints dependent on one player, sometimes they happen. Something like 2 days or 72 hours or whatever works for your group.
Initiative – either remove it entirely and go "chaotic popcorn", or do clustered static PC initiative (i.e. everyone with +2 Dex is in the "medium initiative group"), use monsters' Dex bonus, monsters always go after PCs. Depends on how important adhering to initiative / giving benefit to high initiative build PCs is for your group.
Logistically, as GM I have a document I copy-paste from, especially when it comes to keeping track of things (what spells the party has active, hit points, conditions, limited gear resources, number of dwarven hirelings who haven't lost their mind, whatever) that are so easy to lose track of after weeks of asynchronous play. Something like a little "status" box that you can just copy-paste below a post is very convenient.
Play to the strengths of the medium. Long descriptions and rapid back-and-forth dialogue rarely work in PbP. You might be able to pull it off in Discord if timing works, but that would be a miracle in my experience! Instead, things like spoilers for whispering/language-specific conversation are unique to the PbP medium. Throwing up little pictures to illustrate a scene or NPC works great too. Moving rules or OOC conversations to a different channel/sub-forum. Those all work really well.
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
Yeah, that’s all good advice.Hey M.T.
I've run a bit of play-by-post on ENWorld's forums and also Discord; currently running Rime of the Frostmaiden on the forums here. If you're looking for a PbP game to play in, the party could use one more front-line PC!
Others have shared a good overview of what's different about it, especially the weaknesses around taking longer, etc. I have a few tricks I use...
We establish a group agreement about how long to wait for a critical reply from a player before GM just advances the scene. While in PbP I try to avoid chokepoints dependent on one player, sometimes they happen. Something like 2 days or 72 hours or whatever works for your group.
Initiative – either remove it entirely and go "chaotic popcorn", or do clustered static PC initiative (i.e. everyone with +2 Dex is in the "medium initiative group"), use monsters' Dex bonus, monsters always go after PCs. Depends on how important adhering to initiative / giving benefit to high initiative build PCs is for your group.
Logistically, as GM I have a document I copy-paste from, especially when it comes to keeping track of things (what spells the party has active, hit points, conditions, limited gear resources, number of dwarven hirelings who haven't lost their mind, whatever) that are so easy to lose track of after weeks of asynchronous play. Something like a little "status" box that you can just copy-paste below a post is very convenient.
Play to the strengths of the medium. Long descriptions and rapid back-and-forth dialogue rarely work in PbP. You might be able to pull it off in Discord if timing works, but that would be a miracle in my experience! Instead, things like spoilers for whispering/language-specific conversation are unique to the PbP medium. Throwing up little pictures to illustrate a scene or NPC works great too. Moving rules or OOC conversations to a different channel/sub-forum. Those all work really well.
Splitting in game and OOC threads is standard.
Documents (Word, Excel, etc) to keep track of things is a great idea.
And definitely give a “post by” timer. Things will happen, posts will be missed, real life will get in the way, etc. So having an explicit “we move forward after X days or Y hours regardless” is a game saving tip.
Just to add:
Just about all Role Playing takes forever, so you really want to avoid:
Post 1 "the man in the cloak tells you to sit down."
Post2 2-5 each of the players does a "my character sits down."
Post 6 "the man in the cloak says 'do any of you know why I asked to see you today?'
Posts 7-10 each of the players has their character say "no"
Post 11 "A well, I have asked you here for a wondrous quest"
You want to take a page from TV Writing/movie:
Post one: "My name is Darl Lightbringer, cleric and lion knight of Torm the True. I have asked you here to help the cause of good in our darkest hour. The Chalice of Truth, a holy relic of Torm that can detect lies and unfaithful has been....misplaced. Well, stolen. Except no one know that part...for now. What i need is a group of hardy adventures with no direct connection to the Church to get it back. I can offer the free casting, no questions asked, of a single divine spell each, as payment. I'm sure people in your line of work can't pass up a free Raise Dead casting, humm?
That is a huge exposition dump that just moves the game forward.
And for shopping, never do "browse the shop", you want to do: "talk directly to the shopkeeper and say exactly and specifically what your looking to buy."
Just about all Role Playing takes forever, so you really want to avoid:
Post 1 "the man in the cloak tells you to sit down."
Post2 2-5 each of the players does a "my character sits down."
Post 6 "the man in the cloak says 'do any of you know why I asked to see you today?'
Posts 7-10 each of the players has their character say "no"
Post 11 "A well, I have asked you here for a wondrous quest"
You want to take a page from TV Writing/movie:
Post one: "My name is Darl Lightbringer, cleric and lion knight of Torm the True. I have asked you here to help the cause of good in our darkest hour. The Chalice of Truth, a holy relic of Torm that can detect lies and unfaithful has been....misplaced. Well, stolen. Except no one know that part...for now. What i need is a group of hardy adventures with no direct connection to the Church to get it back. I can offer the free casting, no questions asked, of a single divine spell each, as payment. I'm sure people in your line of work can't pass up a free Raise Dead casting, humm?
That is a huge exposition dump that just moves the game forward.
And for shopping, never do "browse the shop", you want to do: "talk directly to the shopkeeper and say exactly and specifically what your looking to buy."
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