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Alastor04
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Joined: 05 Nov 2013
Posts: 48
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 Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:49 am Post subject: Star Wars Pbp? |
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Hello people of the Rancor Pit!
I have recently discovered Star Wars d6 and would like to play. My problem is my gamers dont want to leave d20 and honestly Id like to be a player for once instead of a GM. So I have two questions:
1) How does pbp work? I have only gamed in person.
2) Anybody still looking for players? I have many of the books. |
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shootingwomprats
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Joined: 11 Sep 2013
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Location: Online
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Jedi Skyler
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Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 8440
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| Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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| PbP goes WAY slower than face to face. If that's an issue for you, ya might consider womprat's suggestion. Otherwise, I'd go to the OOC threads of any games under the PbP games section and post an inquiry there, or PM the GMs to see if they'd like another player. |
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Hellcat
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Joined: 29 Jul 2004
Posts: 11921
Location: New England
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| Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:21 am Post subject: |
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| Alastor04 wrote: | | 1) How does pbp work? I have only gamed in person. |
If you didn't already know, PbP stands for Play by Post. Which means you post your actions and then wait for other players to respond to your post or for the GM to tell you if you're actions are successful or not. Different GMs will have different rules on how their PbP goes, though generally in most of the PbP's I've been in the basic rules are you call out an action that needs to be rolled, an maybe call out CPs, FPs, or DSPs to improve your odds of success. The GM then does all the rolling. Though one of our GM's, jamfke, on his old website used a dice roller that was set up so the players could make their rolls more like traditional table top games.
Like Skyler said, PbP can be way slower than table top gaming. Right now my game is in a stall (I'm waiting for folks to respond in the game), and this isn't the only time it's been stalled. It's one of the curses for both table top and PbP, Darth Real Life. We've all had periods where real life takes us away from the game for however long. But at least with table top play you can get a lot more done in one night than you might get done with PbP. You can ask Skyler about some of the marathon PbP sessions he's seen, you can also ask him about some times going months, or even a year, without activity in a PbP. And as a GM I've been guilty of having to leave my players hanging as real life as dragged me away. You can't always be sure of when a PbP will have some hot gaming taking place that might get you through an entire adventure, or even a single episode of a campaign. And you can't be sure that battle or chase scene is going to end in a day/night or if it will take weeks, months, or years for it to end.
Obviously table top gaming has advantages over PbP. You are more likely to get through a scene, an adventure, or an episode in a single session than you can be sure of with PbP. You can use voices to further develop a characters personality. Play tends to be faster since folks don't have to write anything out or wait for the GM to do the rolling.
But PbP has it's advantages to. For one, imagine living in Boston, Massachusetts and playing with folks in Battle Creek, Michigan, Elon, North Carolina, Omaha, Nebraska, Perth Australia, London, England, Manila, Philippines, and Oslo Norway. This advantage can slow a PbP down, but when's the last time you could say you regularly sat down and played a table top game with folks who lived hundreds or even thousands of miles away from you. PbP also allows for something I like to do from time to time, the dream sequence/monologue. In table top gaming how much fun would it be to show up to play and then have one player spend half or all of the session telling a character building story and none of the other players being allowed to do anything until their done? But with PbP you can sit down and type up long sequences that the other players can then ignore in order to check for their posting needs an then go back and read at their leisure. You don't want to constantly have every post or even every fifth post be a dream sequence, but the dream sequence/monologue can be something fun to do that doesn't have to always slow down play. And maybe you'll get a GM who actually asks for something along the lines of a dream sequence/monologue from the players as a part of the game play.
| Alastor04 wrote: | | 2) Anybody still looking for players? I have many of the books. |
As I've said in the past, try PMing the GM's in the active PbPs and see if their looking for some fresh blood.
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Mikael Hasselstein
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Joined: 20 Jul 2011
Posts: 810
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 2:20 am Post subject: |
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I agree with what Hellcat just said, but I think he underplayed PbP's advantages.
Because the space-time continuum is so much different, the sorts of gamers you can attract is also different. In my opinion, as a GM you need to be much choosier about the players you attract. Because a PbP takes so much longer, it can also mean a LOT more investment of time and effort on the part of the GM. (That's the case with me anyway, because in my game I go all out.) A lousy player who drops you at the drop of a hat can be really annoying.
But if you do get a good crew - and presently I feel I do have one - it's a thing of beauty which allows you to develop a much more intricate plot, much more developed characters, more finely crafted wording and imagery... I could go on, but that's something that PbP can offer that I really can't get at the gaming table.
As a result, I can't say that I'm really drawn to the in-person gaming table much anymore. It's all PbP for me. |
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DougRed4
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Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 2286
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Hellcat wrote: | | For one, imagine living in Boston, Massachusetts and playing with folks in Battle Creek, Michigan, Elon, North Carolina, Omaha, Nebraska, Perth Australia, London, England, Manila, Philippines, and Oslo Norway. This advantage can slow a PbP down, but when's the last time you could say you regularly sat down and played a table top game with folks who lived hundreds or even thousands of miles away from you. |
Actually, I've put together a small, annual gaming convention that has drawn players from all over. Not only from across the U.S., but we've even had players from other countries. One came from Toronto (a long way from the Seattle area), and another fellow has travelled from Sweden a few times to attend! But I realize this is not the "norm" for tabletop stuff. 
Mikael posts some things that are benefits for PbP, but many of those same things can be done with a FTF group, too. I personally go all-out for my tabletop games, and I handle things like he's described (like dream sequences) via email, as opposed to bogging things down at the table for everyone else (that aren't involved). I vastly prefer FTF/tabletop, as you can not only cover far more material much quicker, but the inclusion of non-verbal communication makes things vastly easier. IMHO.
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Mikael Hasselstein
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Joined: 20 Jul 2011
Posts: 810
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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| DougRed4 wrote: | | Mikael posts some things that are benefits for PbP, but many of those same things can be done with a FTF group, too. I personally go all-out for my tabletop games, and I handle things like he's described (like dream sequences) via email, as opposed to bogging things down at the table for everyone else (that aren't involved). I vastly prefer FTF/tabletop, as you can not only cover far more material much quicker, but the inclusion of non-verbal communication makes things vastly easier. IMHO. |
There's no question about the benefits of FtF in terms of speed and the non-verbal communication that he's talking about. Absolutely, those are great story-weaving abilities that PbP doesn't have.
However, what I think standard PbP doesn't tend to do well, because many GMs lack the skill, is the ability to use visual and audio imagery. I'm decent-enough at image manipulation that I'm able to post images that depict what I'm trying to describe. I'm also starting to play around with sound more.
Because PbP doesn't have the immediacy of FtF, it allows the GM time to create stuff that enhance the experience.
I will say that I don't (generally) run my games of BBS forums like this one. I find their capacities too limiting, so I have a home-brew website that I manage. I realize that this is beyond the technical expertise of most, but I also developed the technical expertise to do so while doing it. It's definitely more intense, but - for me - it's really worth it. I can also manage what the players don't get to see and read, which is a real plus. It allows for more intrigue between players, allowing them to actually be one another's antagonists, rather than cooperative actors.
(Yes, you can do this in FtF too, but I've found it a bit more awkward to pull off.) |
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Hellcat
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Joined: 29 Jul 2004
Posts: 11921
Location: New England
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| Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 9:28 pm Post subject: |
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| DougRed4 wrote: |
Actually, I've put together a small, annual gaming convention that has drawn players from all over. Not only from across the U.S., but we've even had players from other countries. One came from Toronto (a long way from the Seattle area), and another fellow has travelled from Sweden a few times to attend! But I realize this is not the "norm" for tabletop stuff.
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As you say, their not the norm for table top games. Which was my point. When a PbP is facing a lot of activity just about everyone in it can be posting on a daily basis. And you can all be in vastly different locations doing that. Conventions aren't a daily occurrence (well, they can happen over the course of several days, but you know what I mean) so like you say, what happens in a convention may not be norm for table top.
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DougRed4
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Joined: 18 Jan 2013
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Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 12:46 am Post subject: |
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You guys are right, and conventions are still relatively rare.
Mikael, those little 'extras' sound like your game does indeed go quite a bit beyond. Finding the right images (and sounds) sure would be a big + over FTF, where you're usually limited to what you've prepared for.
BTW, being as you're only a few hours away, you should consider coming up to our annual convention. It's at the end of June each year, and we've had people from Portland pretty often.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green |
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Mikael Hasselstein
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Joined: 20 Jul 2011
Posts: 810
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 2:20 am Post subject: |
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| DougRed4 wrote: | | BTW, being as you're only a few hours away, you should consider coming up to our annual convention. It's at the end of June each year, and we've had people from Portland pretty often. |
I'll have to see what I'm doing next June. Thanks for the invite. |
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