Group RP idea, noob GM, send HELP!

[Zazaz]

Hello BlueMoon, I have been a DM before in real life but not on a forum and I never hosted or even played a group RP despite not being new to roleplay and I had an idea brewing but I honestly don't know how much of an undertake it will be so I'm seeking help and advice.

How does a GM manage group RPs, if players are in different locations do I make several threads(one for each player)? If post at different rates, how does the gm keep track of each player being in varying points of the roleplay time line? If player meet each other, does one post in both player threads?

My idea is about a labyrinth, I will design the labyrinth in grid style so that players can map the labyrinth by themselves.

My issue is play by post is very different than the group being in front of you, actively playing, so I don't know what to do about movement.

Imagine labyrinth made on a grid of 50x50, if the players move only one square per post we would not get very far and everyone would lose interest fast with no actual roleplaying going on.

I'm pondering making the players simply choose a direction and I will manage how far they will go.

This leads to my next problem, how does the player map the labyrinth/dungeon if they're not moving 1 square at a time?

My idea is to relay coordinates and players would be able to map themselves on a grid, or I would have to go through the trouble of making the map for each player/movement post, further increasing the amount of work and things I have to manage.

 

[Tazreale]

How does a GM manage group RPs, if players are in different locations do I make several threads(one for each player)? If post at different rates, how does the gm keep track of each player being in varying points of the roleplay time line? If player meet each other, does one post in both player threads?

I think that would be a bit chaotic. It is easier for GMs to set up 'zones,' and have players in each zone. For example a place dedicated as a town. If we going dungeon sense, you could even divide it by 'floor.' Then just read up and interact when appropriate to whichever player. You may also have to establish some type of 'turn order,' rule in posting. By this, I mean if players are grouped up in whatever scene.

Example. I am just going to make up names.
Lets say Bob, James, Sally, Susie joined your group.
Out of the four Bob is off soloing.
So you have to figure something of a turn order for the other three. Whether it be James post, then Sally, then Susie and finally you if you have some GM interaction input. You can also have feature to opt for players or yourself to 'skip' your turn and allow the flow to continue. You can also time limit and force a turn to skip to avoid inactivity and inconsistently. Like a 3 day limit(or less or more) if someone doesn't post by then they are autoskip.
At the same time if Bob is active I guess you can go back and forth with him while waiting on next turn from other party.
In short Turn Order is used to control a party that are interacting with one another and possibly the GM; while maintaining natural flow of a game.

This leads to my next problem, how does the player map the labyrinth/dungeon if they're not moving 1 square at a time?

Unsure there, I really don't do much for systems. Probably someone more adverse can help there.

 

[Zazaz]

*snip*

*Takes notes*
Thanks for the advice.

Maybe I should try to join a group RP first to see how the GM handles things and have some experience.

 

[Staine]

There was actually something like this on an RP forum a long time ago, I remember it was pretty much a full time subforum requiring several volunteers to play monsters in the Labyrinth. Members would make their own character who was allowed maybe a weapon to aid their roles and skills to get through the Labyrinth, and after discussing it with the owner they would have their own 'table' to roll encounters on, obviously consisting only of things that player personally was okay roleplaying against. They would use dice rolls on the forum to see how the encounters went, most of which were stacked against the player but the table was so huge that you never knew what any one person would encounter and in what order, it really did seem to take a hell of a lot of work to just keep one person's journey in order so I shudder to think how much the owner put into the Labyrinth as a whole.

 

[Zazaz]

There was actually something like this on an RP forum a long time ago, I remember it was pretty much a full time subforum requiring several volunteers to play monsters in the Labyrinth. Members would make their own character who was allowed maybe a weapon to aid their roles and skills to get through the Labyrinth, and after discussing it with the owner they would have their own 'table' to roll encounters on, obviously consisting only of things that player personally was okay roleplaying against. They would use dice rolls on the forum to see how the encounters went, most of which were stacked against the player but the table was so huge that you never knew what any one person would encounter and in what order, it really did seem to take a hell of a lot of work to just keep one person's journey in order so I shudder to think how much the owner put into the Labyrinth as a whole.

The more I thought about it the more I realized it would be a major undertaking if it was to be fun and work properly, what you described is pretty much what I was slowly realizing it would take to host such a game.
To be honest, it is disappointing to think this but I am far too inexperienced and a little time constrained for this to work.

Like you said volunteers would be essencial as I would not be able to keep track of everything in timely fashion.

I'll drop the idea, but it would be a a lot of fun to design a labyrinth with monsters, traps and unique rooms for players to solve.

Maybe I'll do that someday but I think I should probably do it solo first or with two players only.

 

[Staine]

It was indeed a major undertaking, the owner of the Labyrinth had the power to create a subforum for each individual that wanted to explore it, a separate roll sheet for encounters based on their preferences, limits and kinks, different roll tables based on the characters themselves as some were just prisoners thrown in defenceless and some were guards who went in with weapons to challenge the Labyrinth...all in all it must have taken a monumental effort to keep track of and that's before anybody even wrote in there.

 

[Black_Out]

I sort of had similar intentions for a group I was running a bit ago. Fortunately I had the map already on hand since it was all out of an actual module but I fully expected that there would be points when the group would be split up. I'm even running another group now where that's more then likely going to happen. Best and easiest way to probably handle it is to simply break your post down into its own subsections.

For example
Location-Main Floor of the Chapel
Characters Present- (here you can just use the handy dandy tag function @ (followed by the usernames of the characters in that area)
Then just explain the situation for that particular group and let them reply using a similar format to keep everything organized amongst the players.

As for mapping, well I certainly would have a map for my own sanity, but if the players didn't express an interest in having their characters spend time mapping or have the foresight to bring it up then I wouldn't feel obligated to make it happen. That said, if someone did want to then you could simply share the map you have with them in a piece meal fashion as they discover more and more of it.

Hope that helps some, another good idea might be just to look over some of the group plays and see how they've been run. It's a different beast then tabletop but it can be quite a lot of fun when its rolling along smoothly.

 

[Zazaz]

I've decided to put my idea on ice for now, but you raised some points that I'm going to take note, thank you.