Question for Systems Based Roleplayers

[Bast]

Have you found much success with play by post games in general? If so, how much have you incorporated the system into the actual writing?


I've been toying with an idea that I think might fit well with a PbP or system based roleplay and wanted to hear about some of your experiences.

 

[Dr Bellwright]

I played a lot of forum system roleplays based on D&D3.5 and Pathfinder 1e, but not ERP ones, and with multiple players.

I tried DMing 5e ERP twice, and I have to say – I did not enjoy it. I find that Systems are useful when there is more than one character – it guards one from being too kind to players, also helps with dealing with natural human thing of having favourites.

But those things are quite useless when playing 1 on 1, some of the things I did not enjoy:
- You are not going to kill the character, the RP would end, sure you can kill them…but then they regenerate character, and have to start more or less from the beginning. When character dies in party of many – they rejoin them on quest, which is more natural.
- You are playing with single character, as DM you will have to be nice to the character and play it more or less easy-mode.
- Player does not have to compete with anybody, or cooperate with anyone, unless I create a henchman for them.

 

[Rising Of The Moon]

It really depends. I personally do enjoy it, but it comes with caveats compared to normal rp and even normal system rp. Depending what exactly you and your partners want to get out of it, you'll have to find ways for the party to suffer defeat without being killed. It can also slow things down considerably, especially with more than two people.

What a partner and I have settled on, for example, is to roll combat mostly out of character, and then one of us sums it up in a narrative post, while the actual RP is mainly RP.
Going for something like 5e or similarly indepth systems might also be overkill, again depending on what you want to get out of the game. A bit of randomness in outcomes can also be achieved by simpler systems.

On the other hand, I really like fiddling with rules, so we came up with some lewd rules and worked them into the game, though in general we do play things a bit more fast and loose than I would do in a proper 5e game with multiple people.

 

[Sepulchritude]

Almost all my TTRPG experience has been play-by-post. I'm running a Pathfinder game right now that has been going for over a year, with four other players, and I'm in two or three other games as a player myself. I've been playing in forums for most of the 201X's, but Discord has become the dominant platform lately.

The system is active. I use it as much as I would, playing the same games in another medium. Definitely doesn't move at the pace of face-to-face play, or even chat sessions, but that means plenty of time to coordinate the mechanics between posts. Did you have any specific questions about it?

 

[Apocrypha]

I've had some good luck with written-format games (PbP or live chat) that both used the system and had erotic elements. Using the system can add a sense of danger and uncertainty to a scenario - especially a system that models social as well as physical conflicts. Will the brave paladin be captured by the forces of the dark lord? Will the demon hunter succumb to the charms of the succubus? Ordinarily, the answer might be "yes, because that's how we get to the sex," but there's something to be said for the excitement of not knowing when or how it might happen. And it can be very nice to struggle to "win" as hard as you can, according to the rules - while knowing that when you finally lose, it's going to lead somewhere sexy and exciting.

 

[Nihilistic_Impact]

I've mostly used DM tools like reaction rolls, morale checks, random encounters then just straight up full system mechanics for my free form rp. Not seriously tried to do a play by post, though I have wanted to do so in the past. Most of my motivation for using ttrpg mechanics in free form has been a desire to be surprised by how the story will develop because I lose interest when too much is road mapped.

 

[Wapato]

Have you found much success with play by post games in general? If so, how much have you incorporated the system into the actual writing?


I've been toying with an idea that I think might fit well with a PbP or system based roleplay and wanted to hear about some of your experiences.

I've had good success in cases where I'm the GM. Though a curse of being successful is having gone through relatively few games total. Though I do try and have specific end points. Like writing for a TV series, I think it works a lot better to have an arc that plays out over some range of posts and/or years and reaches an actual conclusion versus an open ended series that just keeps going with no real direction until it starts sucking.

The type of game depends on setting. I had some on this forum with younger folks and a lot of churn. So those games were built around being fun and flirty with very simple homebrew rules underneath to resolve conflicts while the plot moved along based on some player actions, but I was essentially constantly recruiting to keep a rolling population going.

However I've done some Shadowrun games on different forums with much more serious players that have been extremely crunchy.

In terms of games with others were the GM I'd say I'd warn about "GMPCs" that is NPCs that the GM builds using PC rules and then adds them to the party. Most can't seem to resist eventually having them do something super duper awesome which I'm sure they love for a moment but that often kills the game.

 

[Silvered Sutures]

I found its easier with people who are active OoC and have a good dynamic. But then again, I tend to treat PBP games as a sort of "secondary RP" in which I post when it's my turn and then forget about it and just chill with the others OoC while responding to my other RPs until my turn comes up again. Trying to make it go fast is difficult when you don't have a strict reply rhythm, so I tend to prefer establishing a minimum reply time and a post order, especially in large groups.

 

[Wapato]

Have you found much success with play by post games in general? If so, how much have you incorporated the system into the actual writing?


I've been toying with an idea that I think might fit well with a PbP or system based roleplay and wanted to hear about some of your experiences.

One thing to add about 1 on 1 is that it can be a chance to explore aspects of a system game that normally don't work well in groups. Having a sneaky type actually pull off a whole mission would just leave everyone else sitting there doing nothing. Hackers tend to not really get to explore their abilities again for reasons of everyone else sitting around.

As for player death, many modern games have things to put a spin on that. Often they have mechanisms like Edge in Shadowrun or Fate chips in Deadlands where when things start going bad you can start burning those to at least get away and roll with the story from there. There's also a thing in Shadowrun where instead of the player dying they permanently burn edge and the GM is required to figure out a creative way to keep them alive. This can make for very interesting scenarios. The loss still stings for the player, and in games with multiple players they tend to not be bothered in the way they might if a GM just let a player off the hook without any cost.

I've toyed with the idea of a system RPG where it shifts between adventures that might not necessarily even have erotic elements, but then smut in between.