Online roleplaying

[Space_Cadet]

I've always played face to face Rpg sessions and i'm curious about how the online way works. How does it work?

[Robbert Raets]

Everyone just posts what they would say if they would be at the gaming table.

[Scottomir]

Originally posted by Space_Cadet
I've always played face to face Rpg sessions and i'm curious about how the online way works. How does it work?

It depends on what style of online gaming you are playing. Online gaming is quite different than tabletop, and it requires some considerable adaptations. The online method most similar to face-to-face gaming it online play by real-time chat. In this case, players are merely typing their words and actions instead of stating them verbally. Rolling is done either with an online dice roller (there are several out there), or simply by having people roll on their own and honestly report the results via chat. Personally, I find this online style unfulfilling because it is substantively the same as tabletop gaming but is much slower and more awkward (the Narrator really has to do a lot of preparation in advance, even having large blocks of descriptive text pre-written and ready to cut-and-paste or else the game drags while everyone is waiting for him to type).

Another online variant is play by e-mail. This is my preferred venue, although it surely is not for everyone. Play by e-mail completely changes the feel of the game, because instead of everyone playing at the same time for a few consecutive hours you have people writing e-mails to each other "in character" over a number of days that constitute the game turn. For example, many leisurely PBeM games have only 1 "game turn" per week; the players all write back and forth, the Narrator responds as necessary, and then at the end of the week the Narrator combines elements from all the players' posts, resolves the stated actions, and then advances the scene to the next plot point. The more typical PBeM operates at 2 "game turns" per week, and I've even played in a few games that have tried 3 per week (although this rapid pace is extremely time consuming and such games tend to burn out). PBeM gaming encourages "long-term" thinking about a game, since it unfolds over days, weeks, and months. It also requires a lot of reading and writing, especially for the Narrator.

If you would like to see an example of the product of online PBeM gaming, please feel free to visit my website listed in my information below. In my LOTR RPG section, you can find a link to weblog of "The Lord of Darkness" PBeM which my gaming group played from this past March - September.

[Tobian]

From what I've seen online the PBEM is largelly the favoured format - it's what I play in and run myself - however the way this is done is vastly different accross the board.

Generally like the Rules based real version there are limits on the generation of characters (I.e. no Q, half Q, Quater Q etc ) However as a rule of thumb players use common sense and their rank to delimit their actions - since the idea of PBEM is really one of an interactive story writing idea, than a game in a conventional paper and pen sense.

One of the nice things about Startrek in this setting is that the characters (for the most part) are inherantly ordinary (albit with superscience knowledge and gadgets) - they generall can't suddenly develop super powers / mind bending telepathy and become an admiral in 8 days (maybe 9 ) - the one's that do shed players - The players are also bound by in game concerns like rank and superiority - and as long as you haven't got an A**ho*e for a CO or commanding officer, again the GM can ballance all such issues out.

I'm not sure about other games, but what i do like about the way that we run games is that the do wags the tail and the tail wags the dog - the GM has just as much no idea what the players will do as the players don't know what the captain will do - so it keeps everyone on their toes! (and makes it fun for the GM!)

Munchkinism is always endemic, but not nearly as bad as you might think!

[TheAntisocial]

Another great way, and the way I play online, is PBP, Play-by-Post, on a message board, it is better than PBeM because you don't have to set up an email account per game, you can see what has been posted previously, without having to search though a whole bunch of email, and some PBP sites have an onsite dice roller, such as www.rpol.net