Question of the Day

one group evolved from a miniatures game group
the other were family and friends before we were an RPG group

I wanted to try table games again and convinced some friends to put up with my GMing a Star Wars game. The rest are games on this site with a typical background of "Saw an interest check for a game that I was, in fact, interested in."

I have a group that is old high school friends. I actually started us playing RPG's by randomly getting the FFG star wars game and running it for them, blind zero TTRPG experience...wasn't great but we then moved to someone else DM's in DnD and have been playing for like 4 years now.

Other group is some co-workers. been fun, I DM that one but trying to convince someone else to DM a game of Daggerheart

My local FtF group is the same group I played with in middle school. We've had some additions and subtractions, though 2 of 5 players are childhood friends. I thought I bought a computer game with some of my confirmation money, but turned out it was the AD&D CD-Rom with all the rules. Didn't understand most of it, but we had fun. We try to play every weekend, but mostly it is 1-2 weekends a month. It is as much a social check in as game group so we're horribly unfocused, especially if there's been a few weeks since last time. First couple of hours could just become catching up.

I also am in an online PF2 campaign. I joined on a whim during covid close down, and now we're close to finishing our 3rd campaign (so this one is more focused).

One group started about 7 years ago as me getting invited to a game that a bunch of my partners' co-workers were playing, after they learned that I played and she wanted to play. We're in the middle of our 3rd campaign, play once a month in person.

My other group started about 15 or 16 years ago, when a bunch of random strangers responded to a MeetUp event I had created (after moving to a new town and wanting to find a group). The cast has ofc changed over the years (infact there's only 2 "originals" remaining). The group had died for a couple years after COVID and some central ppl moving and having life changes. But we recently revived things, and try to get together every week (tho not always successfully). We're doing this one online.

And then, yea... 5 pbp games here that I'm in currently. Which is not the most I've ever had going at once, but close to it.

Which one? ;-)

My very first group started as I was copying character sheets in the school and someone other saw it, recognized it as the same he played and approached me.

Next groups, I offered playing as a GM in school, or at leisure activities such as camping. Then, with the new gaming club in town, the number of people in this hobby I knew exploded.

Nowadays, I use personal acquaintances, player portals, LGS or social media to find new people to play with - which is relevant, as I recently moved to another country.

I currently play with several groups but I'll talk about two: the oldest and the newest.

1987. I'm a high-school freshman. I'd never heard of RPGs. Dungeon & Dragons to me was a TV cartoon series, nothing more. One morning at school the guy next to me plops down his lunchbox and says, "Anybody here play D&D?"
A knot of nerds gathers. I'm in the middle and get roped in. These guys become my best friends in the whole world. Almost 40 years later and we STILL play. Some of our kids play too.

Which brings me to my newest group. I got my partner, her siblings, and their nephew started with the hobby 8 months ago. We now play every weekend at home.

Nothing unusual. Just my first. It was a frostbrand sword that my Fighter-Magic-User pulled out of a gelatinous cube.

In my first PF game, which I played from 2016 to 2021, we discovered a scroll to a portable magic shop. The shopkeeper granted one wish, but for the cost of your soul. My character had rescued a fairy, and wanted to become friends with her. I thought the change would be temporary but it was permanent!

It was a blast, visualizing everything ten times bigger. We also managed to clear my character’s debt, and she ended up living on the island that the other fairies could never leave. (I suspect they were all figments of one NPC’s imagination… the whole game was a wild ride.)

Initially, back in 1979, it was me, my brother, and a friend. I was living overseas (military brat) and the resident group of role-players on the base were all over 18 and played Metamorphosis Alpha (I was 14, and my brother was 12). They refused to let us join their group, so we played on our own. It was both terrible and fantastic all at once. I had not yet learned the ins and outs of DMing, and the entire party rode unicorns (except the thief, who was of chaotic alignment). He rode a black dragon that the group had charmed with a ring of dragon control. The party mage carried his collection of staves and rods in a golf bag. When he opened his robes, one side was lined with wands and the other with potions. He had a coin changer at his belt to carry his supply of magical rings!

After we left and returned to the states, I got my own boxed set (the one I had learned on belonged to my friend). I sat down and really read the rules for the first time. I learned what I had been doing wrong and corrected the errors. I started a brand new campaign, which my father joined (mostly because it was just my brother and me, but partly out of some interest in the game). It was much more sedate and a lot more fun.

That Christmas, I received the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, while my brother received the AD&D Player's Handbook, and the Monster Manual was a shared gift to both of us. Again, it was mostly my father, my brother, and me (we had a few other friends in the interim, but we were still on the move every two to three years, so it was hard to form lasting friendships).

Finally, Dad retired, and we settled into one place. My brother, Dad, and I still played. It was in my first year of high school that I met Don. We became fast friends, and he incessantly teased me about my "demonic" books until I finally said, "Why don't you try it before passing judgment?" He played one game and was hooked. Our gaming repertoire expanded with games like Villains & Vigilantes and FASA's Star Trek, but D&D remained our main passion.

We eventually gathered some like-minded friends and formed a group that played regularly. Dad drifted away from it, but my brother still played. After graduation, the group broke up as everyone went their separate ways, and it was back to me, Don, my brother, and my girlfriend. Then I got married to my girlfriend and joined the Air Force. I was sent to California, where we formed another group that met weekly at our FLGS. Back home, Don, my brother, and my father still played on occasion.

Eventually, I made it back home and left the service. Both my brother and father had drifted away from the game again by this point, but Don and I still played often. Our Villains & Vigilantes campaign was going strong (and was going on 15 years by this point). My wife had picked up her dice in California, when I had trouble finding anyone else to game with, and she occasionally joined in.

For a while, it was just us, but then a new game shop opened in town and I decided to give it a shot. That was where I met the core of my current group. We transitioned the game from the shop to my home and met weekly. The membership has changed over the years, with some friends leaving and others passing away, but we are currently nine members strong. Don took his own life three years ago. Our oldest member, Frances, and her daughter (our youngest member) joined. Currently, I run three groups.

My Wednesday night Savage Worlds game has ten players, including my wife. On Friday nights, we play Pathfinder 1e with seven of the players from the Wednesday night group and another friend who joins us remotely. Finally, every other Saturday, I run a Pathfinder 1e game for my brother, his daughter, my father, and a friend from the other two groups, as well as yet another friend. We all play remotely; Dad from Georgia, my brother and his daughter from upstate, one friend from Alabama, and the other from two cities away.

So yeah, I stay busy, and I'm proud to say that my sister's children are beginning to show an interest (they are 13 and 11), and I am grooming them to join the Saturday games (they live in Georgia with my parents and sister). As my wife and I were unable to have children, this is our way of keeping it in the family.

I feel ya, brother. Two of that original group I talked about have passed as well. I miss them every day.

I love coming up with quirky magical items for the games I GM. There's a sweet spot between "is this even worth taking with me?" and "I have the perfect item for this situation!".

The one I personally liked the most was an item called 'Cloak and Digger', a cloak that when you hold it just right, it can be used as a shovel. Folds away neatly.

It's probably quite useless mechanically, but I hope a player will find a moment for it to shine. :)

I literally cannot sit down to work on adventures or play without thinking about Don. He was my best friend, my brother from another mother. He and my wife were the only ones who played Villains & Vigilantes. The campaign has never ended. I keep it open in his honor. We're 42 years deep into that one.

Question: Were you ever bored with a PbP game plot or with a character arc of another PC? What did you do? Did you ever let them know?

Yes, I'd say the majority of games I've played in have had low moments that did nothing for me. I've had roleplaying ignored, ridiculous combat guantlets, and character moments that felt rushed.

But putting yourself out there creatively is kinda scary. I try to focus on the positives when they occur. Encouraging the things I do enjoy.

I have given feedback a few times, but it's typically just addressing my preference over criticizing the group efforts. If a game doesn't work for me. I try to stick it out for a while before deciding on leaving.

One of my favorite lyrics from a song is "if you're bored than you're boring".

If things are lagging? Bring the life to the game. Post every day. You need to be the activity you want to see. You can't expect others to put energy to a game if you don't.

And that goes for everyone at the game ofc

If you don't ever see that same energy in others? Then talk about to the group. Maybe there's something that can be adjusted? Or understanding an oic/irl situation may allow you to push through the slow spots, or put in extra effort to pick up the slack if you know someone is just having a tough time?

If nothing changes? It may be time to leave. Whether you're a player or GM. Doesn't mean anyone did anything wrong necessarily, but PBP takes energy, and sometimes real life drains our energy.

It sucks to put energy and effort into a game or narrative that you don't see given back to you. And conversely it's easier to give energy to a game when others are putting their energy into it.

It's a group effort.

It's collaboration.

Takes everyone to build something good.

Be active. Talk to people as people. Be understanding. That's about all you can do.

@emsquared
That's a sound general guideline, but what would you do if someone in your party straight up tells you "I don't read your posts" without giving any explanation beyond "I think they are boring" and "I'm not interested"? Leave? But then there's the rest of the party. Should you put your individual satisfaction above that of the group? Especially considering that it is a group effort.

If the GM isn't curating the table and is allowing people to remain who admittedly refuse to read other posts, then you should leave.

---

To respond to the original question, most of the games I play in don't have individual character arcs. It's just not the style. I played in a game with Adam as the GM that did, however; he managed to keep everyone engaged and active despite the conversational focus being on one character.

In games where I've been bored, I've left. No gaming is better than bad gaming. That opens a slot for someone else who might be a better fit at that table.

IMO there's definitely a balance that you have to strike, when creating a PBP post.

It needs to be long enough to address any questions that were left open by previous posts ("What do you do?"), both narratively and mechanics-wise if applicable.

It needs to advance the narrative to a new place - you can't just post purely reaction, single sentence stuff that "leaves things in the same place" and doesn't inform the situation or that don't give the GM or other players anything to work with. But also it needs to be short enough to not be too much.

Gotta be respectful of ppl's time.

So: try not to overdo it, don't be too self-indulgent, don't write too long of posts.

But beyond that?

Unless I'm GM, I'm probably not reading individual character arcs that don't involve my character. And as GM, I don't expect players to read individual character arcs that don't involve their characters. Particularly if everyone still has a storyline/posts going on that they are involved in.

I'm not making ppl read two stories. They can if they want. But it's their choice.

"Don't split the group." is just as true for pbp as irl play. Albeit with slightly different implications.

For one, if my character isn't there they shouldn't know what's going on anyway. If something critical is happening for the greater, shared story, then either the whole group should be there and able/allowed to participate, or the character can inform the others what they need to after it's all done/once they rejoin the group.

But also, this whole PBP thing takes no small amount of energy. I always try to be mindful and respectful of that/the time of others. It's not appropriate imo to expect people to be invested in/take the time to read stories that don't involve them.

All that said, if someone is saying those kinds of things about a player/character's posts/narrative in a shared story thread/in which everyone is active and participating and needs to know and respond to what's going on?

That is a problem that the GM should respond to. And if they don't, try to talk about it respectfully and with understanding, and if it doesn't change, leave.

Huh, I didn't realize there are people that skip reading other posts. I try to keep up on any stories going on in a game. I was actually sad during my time in a sandbox game because I couldn't read the other storylines as they were happening.