Question of the Day

Good morning GamersPlane! I am hoping that we can spark some good conversation in the GP Forum, so let's start a Question of the Day! Note, this doesn't have to be every day; lets just try to be engaged!

To start with, here is a question I asked in the GP Discord server:

What was the first game you played on GamersPlane?

For me, it was a B/X game of Temple of Elemental Evil with an amazing cast of players and characters! I played Eltrezar the Medium, a human magic-user far more interested in finding gems and cool clothing than doing actual good. And despite what @KCC says, he was a practical man who only left them to die at the hands of ghouls because his own death would have been needless!

My first game here was back in 2019 - a DnD 5e game run by Qralloq. I played Mavis, a dwarf rogue with a Yorkshire accent so thick she might have been speaking Orcish. I joined halfway through the game and the game went on to completion where we rescued a dragon.

I know, right? A dungeons and dragons game with an actual dragon!

My first game was a homebrew campaign for Pathfinder 1e, almost precisely 10(!) years ago.

Life changes had broken up my face-to-face group, and when I sought a new venue to TTRPG, I found my way to GP. It ended up being a series of duet games (me as GM) with a few players from my previous group and fizzled out after a while.

I stuck around, though, and haven't looked back.

My first game was also in 2019. A Smallville game of college-aged superheroes, run by @bowlofspinach once our original GM ghosted the game. There were four of us, and we had amazing drama in that game. It is still one of my favorite gaming experiences here or anywhere since I started this hobby back in the early 80's.

I played Olivia "Shockwave" McLellan - great superhero, bad girlfriend.

My first game was #8. Golden Sea Chronicles run by Azzorak, using Numenera. Keleth and I are likely the only two people left who were in that game.

As it happens sometimes, that game died on the second page.

That didn't stop me from getting the bug though, as evidenced by still being here. In fact, my love for Numenera started there in that short game. So much imagination was sparked.

My very first game was a short-lived Pathfinder 1e game of Mummy's Mask, but the first game that lasted was (same system) Curse of the Crimson Throne. It is a 6-book adventure path, and I had already GM'd the first book in a live setting by that point. Their game was just starting book 2 and needed a player so I jumped in with Brackit, a gnome bard.

That was in early 2021, and the game is still ongoing! We've lost some people, added some people, and I actually ended up taking over as GM last year to make sure it lives on. It's been a fun game and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes!

What was the first game you played on GamersPlane?
It was a Lasers and Feelings game by onceandfuture. It was a short run, run to completion, and I really appreciated playing a true L&F game since I had previously run an L&F hack on Discord.

I made a very weird android and gave her an even weirder ending. I wanna give @onceandfuture a shoutout because I love RP’ing stories that end, and this one ended well and overall had a campy vibe all the way through!

My first three games on GP were SWADE games (Sagas and Six-guns, Legion of Liberty, and some kind pranormal government agency game) that all ended before they began because the GM ghosted right after character creation. Maybe it was a serial ghoster?

Two of those games were salvaged by kind people who stepped in to give us a chance to play the characters, but neither of the replacement games lasted long. FlyingSucculent was the one that continued the paranormal agency game, and I was grateful that I got a chance to play the young troubled telepath Maia Brown for a short while.

Someone also ran a short one-shot adventure for Ragnhild Gudrunsdottir, an exiled Valkyrie that had settled down as a ranch hand until destiny called again :). For some reason, I cannot find a trace of that game any longer and I am ashamed to admit that I no longer remember who took over as GM.

My first was a 5e homebrew campaign which lasted for about a months in Summer 2024 and then the GM disappeared. I pulled out of that one; @Arrcher101, you were in that one. What was it called?

Mine was in 2019, a Savage Worlds horror one-shot ran by Windyridge.
It involved the passengers of a greyhound bus who got stranded in a sort of cursed village. Good fun!

I immediately saw the great potential of this medium and of this specific platform, and I have been a regular player / GM here ever since!

A friend invited me into a game he was running, using GP. The world was incredible.
It was a homebrewed D&D setting. It started off with a fight you can't win. But, I didn't know that. At the last moment before you die, you get sucked to another place and given a choice, serve by working for a powerful patron for a specified amount of time or go back and die. Then the world was full of twist, turns, action, mystery, rival guilds, it was just awesome.
It was also, unlimited posts per day. So, it was constantly moving.

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, which is still being run.

I ended up running two different characters, and had some fun, but left after a while. Though definitely unique, that system is a bit too cozy for me.

But I'm still RPing with users from that initial game, so I guess we can't get rid of each other. 😎

Back when I started on Gamers Plane, I'd just come out of playing a Numenera one-shot with a friend of mine run by a random guy he met at work, and I'd left somewhat dissatisfied because, while I had fun, the GM was new to the system and kept doing things wrong (for example, he kept rolling dice), so I felt like I wasn't actually playing Numenera. Appropriately enough, then, the first game I played in here was a Numenera game that started back in May 2015 (the 53rd game on Gamers Plane). That was a lot of fun (a lot better than that one-shot). I'm tickled that @Qralloq also got started with Numenera.

As far as I recall (which may be wrong), a few months later (while I was still playing Numenera), I worked up the nerve to get into another game (game 109): a D&D 5e game that was reskinned to be sort of a Star Wars science fantasy adventure. That game had a bunch of players, and we were all excited to play...but the game was slow getting started, so I started running games myself with 111 (All Outta Bubblegum) and 114 (Skyrealms of Jorune). Somewhere in there the DM for 109 abandoned the site, before we'd done anything more than make characters, so I started another game, 136 (a D&D 5e conversion of module N1), which I'm still running to this day. Those were my early games, all from 2015.

My first ever game was one that @Nezzeraj recruited me to! He and I were in a live group at the time and he asked the group chat if anyone wanted to join this PBP site he knew!

I played Okri Merryhelm in a Dragonlance game. I didn’t fully understand what that was or that it was even on rails, as such! Had a good time, but the game did fizzle out, or at least my time with it did!

First game I created here was in late 2018, while I was surveying PbP sites and testing out new places to play. It was a Fate game I put together just to see how it all worked, and I don't think I understood what the hell I was doing at all.

I then disappeared for a couple of years and resurfaced in early 2021, when I ran The Spudfield Good Girl, an OSR two page dungeon using Knave. Actually running / playing on the site hooked me immediately -- the site features, the community vibe, the quality of the players... so good.

I'm not sure how I got looped into the gang of ne'er do wells I've ended up playing with a lot over the last few years, but I do know that KCC's Tales from the Loop game was a big part of it.

Three cheers for GP and the beings that infest it!

My first game was 6 years ago. It was a d&d5e game, where the GM had us starting in our own solo-tread and then would have us meet up for the "real" adventure. I don't remember who, what and why.
What I do remember is that I really enjoyed narrating the effects of a healing potion, what did it feel like to my barbarian character. This was something there was never time to do in a tabletop game.
I also remembered that the game never got far, as I think the GM ghosted, but then I found another game... and another... and another... then I ran some games and then 6 years have passed.

Technically, my first game here was Bowl's tutorial game in December 2021. Which was just a very short story to get to know how GP works. It was a Tales from the Loop game, which I had never played before. Since I could tell Bowl had been doing the same story so many times before for other new members, I tried to make my actions a bit more exciting :D

After that the first real game I joined was a World of Dungeons game called Fresh Faced Adventurers with vagueGM. That was supposed to be step up from the tutorial where people come and go as they find other games to play. But I ended up being in that game for about 3 years!

Both were great experiences, especially for someone new to PbP.

Ok it took some research but I found it! It was a Shadowrun: Anarchy game that started less than a month after I joined the site. Even though the game lasted 4 months, we only got to the second page of posts lol.

My first "real" game that lasted awhile was a Dragonlance game using 1e D&D! My first time playing 1e too. It was definitely interesting and memorable!

@runestone, hey, I'm just saying, but the offer to go back to it is still on the table! :D Well, maybe not *exactly* it, but I still regret the way that game went, so I'd be happy to try to do it again and better. Mayhaps as a one-shot of sorts? So if you ever want to return to playing a troubled telepath... I'll be happy to see Maia again! She is a great character.

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I joined a bunch of games when I first appeared on the site in 2019, probably because instead of making an introduction thread I just went to the Games Tavern looking for a game directly. XD I even found the thread for the fun of it, and isn't that an interesting read considering it's been nearly six years since then.

Most of the games I joined weren't very long-lived. The one which probably had the most long-lasting consequence was CESN's playtest for their 5+ homebrew system - not because of anything that happened in the game, but because it resulted in both me crossing paths with bowlofspinach (spinach-friend! :3) and, indirectly, in me writing a short story for Qralloq's anthology some time later.
I played a living stone gargoyle winemaker there, and I still like that character a lot. (Please, GP, give me a game where I can play him again.) I think the fact that I *could* do that was one of the reasons why I actually stayed on the site initially!

Is there any way to see old posts. I joined in 2015 and didn't last very long. I had a much more stressing job back then (technically same job, different owner). Returned in 2021 a bit older, a bit more mature and apparently more senile as I can't for the life of me remember what my first game was.

@Furmyr Could it be this one? Just searched for your name on the full forum :D

Wow. That was two editions of Shadowrun ago :P

Can remember that character. I don't think it ever saw play, so it could be that I actually never found a game until I returned in 2021.

We had a group together for that game but wanted one more player and I remembered you from the Delta Green game we played in together, so I suggested you and nobody had any objections, so you found yourself with an invitation.

Ne'er do wells, eh? Hmph. 😬 Actually that Loop game is in my top five best games played so far at GP, and the Discord channel associated with it was as fun as the game itself!

As for my first game, I initially played in a few games that caved early on due to GM ghostings around about the time I took part in Qralloq's Numenera adventure that came to a natural end. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing having never played TTRPG's live or otherwise, and I was still pretty green on the site. I've posted every day here since then, bar maybe one missed day, since June 2019. I think it's fair to say that I love being here.

Ah yes! I remembered you reaching out, bowl, but not that we’d played in that short-lived but fun DG game first.
How times change, eh? =]

and more importantly if there was an answer!

And I come across this thread/question.

My first GP was a game of The One Ring from Cubicle 7 version of the game which (firestorm approaching, take cover) is overall a better, more Tolkienesque, game than the Free League version now in production. (My opinion, and its a minority one).Naturally, since theCubicle 7 materials are now not supplied at all, this will be a fading player base.

This was only last year, because Tavern Keeper was breaking apart then a little. And it was a great trial run for me. (THANKS GP)
Now I am involved with 5 games and observing another. All five of these games are carry-overs from Tavern Keeper. I am GM for four of them, and people are welcome to examine/join in those.

But names like C1inder and KCC are involved in the game I am observing.

@Dunheved, if you mean something like this,
then it's a "grid" quality for tables. Just do [table="grid] when adding a table. :D You can find more qualities in the BBcode guide.

(This thread feels like it's older than it actually is, huh.)

@ Flying Succulent.

Yep, thats the sort ofthing.

Many Thanks. I will try it out when childminding duties end this afternoon!

Is anyone else having trouble uploading images? Even ones that loaded in the past get 'Undefined' error

You mean to Imgur? Haven't been able to upload them for awhile, figured it was something on my end, as it usually is the case. It did work when i first joined semi-recently, pretty sure images for the game ad i'm running now were uploaded through GP.

I use the Imgur upload function all the time.



There, just used it now.

I just get a small pop-window with "unable to upload file" in one browser and "unidentified" in the other. Not that big of a deal, really. Either something on my end or something to with imgur itself, which would not be surprising given the abomination it turned into after selling out.

I haven't tried to run a game on GP yet. I'm still in set-up and learning mode. I'm a refugee GM from the former Tavern-keeper.com hosting site. So, I've had plenty of experience running my game on that site for over four years, but have yet to begin on GP.

However, I have had a brief adventure as a players in Psybermages TinyIntro game.

That happens to me when I try posting an image that is too large.

If it you are on a VPN

I guess the question of the day is: Why did this thread die? It's a fun thread!

It's hard to pin down the first game I played on GP because apparently I joined a whole bunch simultaneously shortly after I joined the site mid-2015.

I remember this Ravenloft game started by Biscuitfiend in which I played Grizel the Orphan, human paladin. I believe I'm the only one still around from that group.


There was also a Dungeonslayers game and a Starslayers game in which I played Hereixth "Hotwire" T'ayil, ship’s engineer. Of that group, only @kalajel is still around.

No, wait, it was this game! Run a couple of months earlier than those other two I mentioned. It's where I first played with @Qralloq. I was so impressed by his roleplay. Definitely influenced how I roleplayed from that point on.

I think this thread perished because the second question never came, and most people who wanted to participate already answered the first. :D
(I'm not necroposting, I'm answering the new question of the day!)

Ooh, I’m happy for the necrothread, since I missed this. My first game was a one-shot by @GreyWord from Mar 2023, and I was shocked that I actually got into a PbP game that finished. Had a blast with the other 2 players that were in there, and we ended up playing a few more games together.

I don't recall much about my first game, but what I do remember was that I had the time to explore and express the physical sensation when my barbarian drank a healing potion. That was the power of PBP

I also remember that the game didn't go fare, and I think the GM is no longer on the site

If we count being a DM. My first game was actually running a demo of Lost Mines of Phandelver for a handful of my irl friends. To me, this was supposed to just be a way to roleplay with friends that didn't require our schedules and availability to sync up for table sessions. I didn't really intend to start joining games with others until I realized how slow games are.

I think I then joined a very intimidating set of games. Everyone had these author level writing skills and I was just going with fake it till you make it.

To answer an earlier question, the thread died because we discussed having individual question threads. We bring GPers on the Discord.

I wish community stuff wasn't so focused on Discord. :( I understand it, but I still wish it wasn't. Did this discussion ever result in anything though? :D

Believe it or not, this thread and the other Question threads were an attempt to move more community discussion here! There were a couple questions, and then the community as a whole didn't keep asking them. We have a couple good ones right now, though!

Was community supposed to? I don't think the first post indicates it anywhere. If I knew it was expected/allowed that someone else continue it, I would've asked the next one! :O

Edit: I guess I can see it with hindsight knowledge, but back then it really didn't read as "anyone can ask a question" to me. D:

Be the question you want to see in the world!

I have a question question for y'all. What's your go to icebreaker question? (Not a pickup line or a would you rather . . .) Something that actually gets an interesting conversation started?

Oh, good question! I like to ask "If your friends had to describe you with three words, which words do you think they'd choose?"

Or, around birthdays or other milestones... "Who were you this last year, and who do you hope to be in the following year?"

Edit: ignore all that, was writing when the previous question got posted. :)

I just throw in a bunch of questions about all of my hobbies, see if they get interested in any of them, and go from there. And if they aren't interested, I get cognitive dissonance and a flight response. XD (Interesting plant facts are surprisingly helpful. It's also good to ask about something the person has, like pins or prints on clothing.)

That was such a brilliant game, one I wish had continued longer. I, too, was amazed by the RP and imaginative stories that came out of the players.

I remember this bag of endless food. The main character was a barbarian (AD&D, early 1990s) and everytime he raged he would get super hungry and would have to eat enough food to fill like six people. The food bag became this amazing solution to that problem, and a prized possession.

I'll answer both questions.

I try to find a common connection. Normally it'll be a shirt with a band I like or something like that. Maybe asking if they've ever played Dungeons and Dragons before. I don't have a clear approach. It's always catered to the person.

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I don't normally care about magic items, but I won't lie. Getting Zariel's sword in D&D was cool. More so because She gave it to me. I'm not very loot motivated. Stuff can be cool/useful, but it rarely drives me. Getting the sword itself was nice, but it was more a symbolic gesture. At their first meeting. My character was admonished by his idol. The sword represented the full circle of that relationship. He was seen as the person he always wished to be.

Guess you could say I value relationships far more than objects of power.

My opening line is: "Hey, little [gender], do you want to play a game?"

No, not really! Cheese and rice, do I come off as that kind of person?

I look for a prompt like a fantasy/sci-fi t-shirt or book in their possession first. If so, I usually just ask, "Have you ever tried D&D?"

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Regarding magic items, oddly enough, my wife's character (also a barbarian) had a similar magical item to the one Qralloq described. It was called the bag of the cornucopia, a magical item that I created. You placed a food item into the bag, and the food was consumed, but thereafter, the bag could produce any food it had ever been "loaded" with on demand. Delta was always snacking, so I created this item so that she would have an in-game explanation for always having food handy. It was funny when, in one adventure, they traveled to (then) modern-day London ("City Beyond the Gate", Dragon magazine #100) and loaded the bag with the McDonald's menu. She still has the character and the bag.

I also created bath stones, a set of three magical stones; red, blue, and black. If placed in a non-living container up to the size of a bathtub, and the command word given, red would fill the tub with hot water, blue with cold water, and both with temperate water. If placed in the vessel, black would empty the water, leaving the vessel clean and dry (to prevent abuse, it only worked on water created by the other stones).

WARNING : incoming dad joke

Q: how much does a polar bear weigh?sorry, I couldn't stop myself

As someone who does not (and probably never will) use discord, i've tried making a couple discussion threads myself for that same reason - to have some stuff to chat about in between games to decompress. Just gotta find topics that interest people enough.. I'm a bit surprised that the "Romance in PbP" didn't hit as hard AI stuff. I was prepared for elongated tales of swooning and spooning..
Don't have one. I don't really approach people. When they initiate conversation, i'm the "stare silently and occasionally mumble" type. Though if they keep pocking and chatting to (at) me, in couple of months, when i being feeling comfortable around them, they will be treated to the occasional leaks from my stream of consciousness, which usually confuse, weird and (probably) terrify. Oh, the fun of human interaction!

I, like most people, appreciate good food. I find that asking about nice restaurants someone's recently been to or what their favourite recipes are to always lead to a good conversation for at least a little while.

And, of course, I will jump at the chance of talking about TTRPGs with any fellow nerd that indulges me. On a side note, if you ever find yourself in a country/city where people speak little english (And you don't share any other language), locate the nearest game shop for anything you might need. They will for sure speak english fluently there 😂
I'm having fun in my D&D campaign with a recently acquired sentient armor. Sentient items are always fun to deal with, but I had never gotten one of my own until now.
It's an ancient elven armor inhabited by the soul of an equally ancient elf, who now sees the "modern" fantasy world through my character's eyes. He has lots of opinions, as you might imagine. Same goes for opinions about my character's personal life and thoughts that wander through her head. The banter it originates is always fun.

Apparently, for me, my ice-breaker is breaking someone else’s car. I made a very good impression on a teenage girl and her dad yesterday after the girl sideswiped my SUV. Last month, an old man thought I was "a man of honor" for admitting I backed into his parked car.

But today, when I pushed a woman’s car (uphill) because it broke down and was blocking a highway on-ramp, I almost broke the spoiler while pushing the car, but adjusted my hand so I didn’t break her car. She didn’t even roll down her window a crack to thank me. (🎻)

I use my imagination and subvert preconceptions. More often than not, though, I don't even try to break the ice. I think people built their barriers for a reason and it's on them to choose if they want to open the gates or not.

Question: How did you find your current roleplaying group?

I found my group at a FLGS and we eventually moved the game to my house.

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.

This has happened to me over the years.

In general, I try and stay engaged, hoping that the bit I'm not engaging with is a road bump on the way to an interesting game, but it's not always the case. Sometimes, I've joined games that wasn't a good fit for me.

I don't want to take up space in a game that I'm not contributing to, and not having fun in. If I think this is the case, I'll make an excuse and leave the game. I feel like this is the best solution and avoids hurting anyone's feeling as much as possible. After all, it may just be me.

I don't want to leave a game by accusing everyone of "doing it wrong". So, I'll usually make a simple excuse and exit.

If pressed, I'll give an honest answer, but I try to phrase it as "creative differences". I don't want to exit throwing about shade and blaming others for me not enjoying the game.

Being boring is not the worst thing I've encountered in a Pbp game, and we're probably all guilty of it at some stage. Being engaging 100% of the time as GM or player is really hard.

Nastiness, bigotry, gratuitous stuff occasionally happens, and when that does, I'll head for the exist ASAP.

Oh, that's absolutely a thing. Most often it happens when the party is split, of course, but sometimes it even happens in the same thread. I'm not talking about GamersPlane specifically, but about PbP in general. The reasons can vary too: sometimes the ignored player writes in green font over yellow background. Sometimes the ignoring player simply doesn't like to read. And, obviously, everything in-between can be a reason too.

@emsquared and @cowleyc
I appreciate your take on this, but while It may seem like GM should fix those issues, if GM has to deal with problem players 24/7, that doesn't really advance the game. And if the game stalls for whatever reason, then everyone loses. In fact, GMing a game is already a service to the community — you don't have to also ruin your karma as a GM by being tyrannical to people whose harm you haven't personally experienced. Should the ignored player leave? Probably, but it shouldn't be framed like GM has failed at GMing. If anything, it demands a group reaction to such attitudes: "not reading is not cool, making text unreadable isn't cool either, and here's how you can improve your text". Think of it as a built-up immunity that the entire group develops instead of relying on GM's intervention.

I disagree with a lot of what you said. I think GMing can be a service to the community, but I don't think it should be. I GM because I absolutely love it, not because of any community needs. I view it as the GMs onus to allow or kick players from the table; what you see as tyrannical is to me, instead, intentionality. If there is something you dislike at the table, you need to communicate this with your GM! I've kicked plenty of people to keep a happy table, and my karma is just fine thank you very much.

As far as the bad color schemes, that's absolutely a problem to be addressed.

The GM is a leader. It's a leadership role. The GM generally sets expectations such as participation and activity in a recruitment thread. This is related to that.

So agree to disagree.

It's not being tyrannical to ask ppl to respect everyone else's time and effort, by also giving time and effort.

And it's not being neglectful to not read posts that your character has been excluded from. That is the flip side of being respectful of people's time - allowing them space.

Again, it's a balance.

Also agree with cowley it's not a service. I do it cuz I like to. Not because "someone's gotta do it".

All in all, sounds like your particular view and feelings toward GMing informs your view on how issues should be addressed.

Just like it certainly does mine.

🤷

I feel the same @Gearspark. I prefer to see/read everything that's going on in a game. If threads are hidden because "you wouldn't know what's going on" that's not really a game that's going to interest me.

I like a Ppb to be more like a social game at a table. For solo stuff I'd rather play a computer game.

For sure. If I was only interested in my story. I'd go play a single player video game, or read a book. This is a social game and it's everyone at the table that makes it special.

Two elements called out above really depend on the game for me.

First, regarding being able to read every post and keep up with various storylines... that's definitely my preference over hidden threads and generally being in the dark about the other group when the party splits up. But there's a big exception: games where mystery, suspicion, paranoia and/or compartmentalization are part of the point. Many horror, spy, crime and other games can be characterized this way, and in many cases the separation is purposeful and meaningful. It drives a certain style of play and a mood.

Second, the concept that every post should move things forward, even if only a little... I think this is good practice in many, many cases, but I do think there are times when games and scenes need to be allowed to breathe. To let PCs have real conversations with one another and NPCs. To build relationships, to explore concepts more deeply, to allow deep inner looks at things without needing to always move the ball. Like the first example, this depends on the kind of game that's being run, but I tend to find having these slower, more purposeful moments can be a ton of fun -- even when you're not in the scene if the players are skilled. Even the short, one and two-line posts of dialog can work if the people involved are responding quickly and smartly.

Anyhoo!

Thanks to all the GMs out there running games. It's a thankless job sometimes!

I'm pretty new here, but one of the things that attracted me most to this format is the ability to tell one, or some player(s), something without telling everyone. As a DM it's always a struggle to get players to interact with each other, instead of just the DM.

If the party enters a dark room, I only tell those with night vision what they can see for example. It's up to them to tell the others. Or, it's up to the others to ask. It can be hard to get the ball rolling, but when you do I think this is more immersive and fun. I want all the players to know everything that's going on in the story too. This is just a question of how they get that information. Do they get different bits in different ways? Or does 100% just get told to them by the DM?

This is definitely one of the biggest differences between playing by post vs. at the table. So I try to make the most of it.

DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY! Is the first cardinal rule of roleplaying I ever learnt and I have always followed it. But here, that rule isn't needed. Any device that can lead to drama or intrigue is worth trying in my book. It brings fresh, new, story telling options to a game I've been playing for almost 50 years! Thats amazing.

See, those things, to me, ARE advancing the story or informing the situation (which advances the story), which is what I said was important.

I don't like to do it, but sometimes I have to do it. I've run games with people who insist on coming to the aid of someone even when their PC doesn't know that said person is in trouble or they act on information that hasn't been relayed to them. The only reason they know is that I've shared it with everyone. One nice thing about GP is that I can then go back and un-hide it once everyone knows. I know that it doesn't work for everyone, and I've lost at least one player because of it, but what do I do? Not play with those people anymore?

In sci-fi games, communicators are typically available to PCs, so it makes it less necessary to hide things from the group when one/some are isolated (sometimes splitting up the group is necessary). But that option isn't available in fantasy games.

In a fantasy game a character with 18 Int can certainly deduce what is happening to another character. What they should do is role-play their reasoning convincingly before acting on it.

I don't think 18 Int equals clairvoyance, no matter how fantasy the game is.

I don't remember ever saying it did.

Players using information their characters don't have gets a lot of controversy, but I don't really buy into it. Maybe it's because I play more narrative games these days.

I want everyone GM and players to be participants and the audience to the game, and I don't mind using audience knowledge as long as it makes for a better story.

Everyone has their own view on what makes a fun game. I'd rather find my tribe and go into the sorts of games I'll enjoy and that probably means avoiding games where players or GM are going to use a lot of secret text.

Nothing wrong with using the tools, but not for me.

Question(s): it seems that retired games do not appear in search. Is that correct? I wanted to check out some past Vampire/WoD games to get some references on running combat. Are there any finished games on GP (yours or not) that are worth checking out?

Search doesn't seem to work for me at all.

Works fine for me, but only shows active games. I click the "Games" on the top of the page, then choose "My Games" from the drop-down menu. Then I click on the red "Browse Games" button.

You can also search for them through google!

Question:
What was the longest time that a PbP game you played in remained without any posts but then resumed and stayed fun or even got better after the pause?

I've had games pause for *years* before successfully resuming them. Perhaps even 5-10 years...

Wow. How did it go? What resurrection spells did you use to revive it?

The longest pause I had a game survive was about 45 days. I had to stop GMing it due to health reasons and when I got better I asked if the players wanted to continue. So we took from where we left off and the game went for three more years with everyone resolving their characters' arcs. But in my experience it was more of an exception than a rule. Most games that stalled were clinically dead after two weeks of inactivity and were pronounced dead in about a month. I played in a few games where GM would vanish for about 20 days and come back only to find out that half of the players left due to inactivity. Then those games were either cancelled altogether by GM, or turned into one or two solo-branches.

It's a multi-series / part game that's about 30 years old, and has run off and on over mulitple (very talented, and sometimes very dedicated) groups. We traversed multiple formats and systems, going from Champions to Silver Age Sentinels to M&M to Supers!, and from PBeM to groovygamers.com, phphouse.com, rpol.net, and finally Tavern Keeper. Haven't fired up the finish to a years-old arc yet here on GP, but I will. Oh, I will!

Question: Do you have friends? How do you know they are really your friends?

Yes. Several. I know because we prioritize spending quality time together, on both sides. We enjoy each other's company and find value in time spent together. We share hobbies that we can do together or independently. Plus, we share GIFs.

Those with whom I share a virtual friendship are similar. We share values and discuss these, we value spending time together in games or when chatting. We make efforts to reach out to one another. We also share GIFs, but also other things we know the other would appreciate or that we hope they appreciate.

In writing this, I realize that intentionality is a big part of how I know.

I have friends, and I have trusted friends. I have plenty of friends, but trusted friends —people who, if I told them I was journeying into hell, would grab a backpack and come with me —are few and far between. I know that my friends are my friends because I meet with them weekly for our games, where we also share meals, news, and socialization. I trust these people enough to take off the mask and be myself around them. I would lend (and have lent) them money. But would they follow me on a suicide mission? Most of them would not. I know who would.

I'm very lucky to have some very close friends. I'd say they fall into the "found family" category. We do things for each other that wouldn't do for other people and most importantly, we don't keep tabs.

I was invited to play by a fella that dm’ed my gal since I work offshore and can’t make regular games. A pity since I enjoy playing and I am a forever dm since the early 80’s yes Ad&d and Dnd red box set. I rarely if ever get to be a player so it was nice. The game quickly died out due to the scheduling monster.
So I gathered a few of my friends that only get together a couple of times a year to play magic and dnd. I proposed this site to help us all stay more in touch. They were hesitant at first and agreed to try it. I used a world that I had working my regular in person gaming. And made it a living breathing thing. If my other players did something in the world, it stuck and the other games that took place in said world were affected by it. They lost resources or were inadvertently affected by shipping lanes being embargoed due to choices that were made elsewhere were. The master villian is still causing the world trouble for the "greater good". Long story short. We have been playing on this format for 3 years now. The same Champaign. And it has allowed us to keep in better contact with each other. So thanks GP. Even though your roller hates me…

I've heard it told that a good friend will help you move. A great friend will help you move a body. I have at least a few of the first kind. Luckily I've never been in a position to find out just how great they are. Though I'm not at good at socializing as when I was younger.

My local gaming group is all close friends I have gamed with since the 90s and when I got married it was natural to find both best man and toastmaster among them. When we are able to meet 1-2 times a month we spend as much time gossiping and catching up on whatever new diagnosis we've received as we do gaming. I have a few good friends outside of the gaming group but don't have as many chances to socialize with them (in fact I'm helping one of them move next weekend).

And really great friends don’t ask you to help them move!

Yup. You offer, without them needing to ask.

What are some of the most memorable moments from your games? The ones that stick in your memory, and you bring them up over a round of drinks and good company.

For me, one of the most memorable was when I was running House of Strahd in 2e. The party encountered Strahd for the first time and, predictably, the cleric tried to turn him. He failed, but instead of just telling him that the attempt failed, I had Strahd grab his silver holy symbol over the priest's hand. It began to melt and, with molten silver streaming down their arms, Strahd said, "Your god has no power here! Here, I am god!" They had a lot more respect for Strahd after that. He was no longer "just another vampire."

In 2014, when fifth edition came out, I decided to "get the band back together." I reached out to my friends from high school and college that I played RPGs with in the late 80s and 90s and offered to run some D&D for them. We were scattered across the country, but we all figured out roll20 and started with lost mines of phandelver.

From there, I spun it out into a custom campaign based around the choices they had made and their back stories. Over about five years, we went from level one all the way up to level 20. As the adventure progressed, the big bad emerged, and they eventually learned that it was one of the character’s long lost father. The father tried to turn the son to betray the rest of the party.

And in the final battle, at level 20, with appearances from all their favorite NPC’s, they faced off with him and his minions. As the fight went on, the father again entreated the son to join him. He finally asked so, what do you say? And the character, a bard, said one word. Die. And cast power word kill. The big bad had 99 hit points left. And if you know that spell, 100 hit points or less means death with no save. It was a truly epic conclusion to a great campaign. Here’s a screen shot of that moment from Roll20:



Afterwards, I commissioned a piece representing the party and their favorite NPC’s. Here it is:

It's not the best game I played, but certainly top three. I was playing a Twi-lek Jedi in a Star Wars: Force and Destiny game with some people I met over google hangouts. One of the PCs that I enjoyed both in game and out disappeared and we decided to find out why. After some investigation, we found his body in a dumpster carved up and long dead. For the first time since I started the hobby. I felt a strong emotional reaction to the situation. Anger towards the people that did this to my brother, and sadness at the loss. We gathered his remains and went about spending the rest of the session performing a proper funeral. I'm fairly certain everyone, including the GM, had a few manly tears to shed that night. That was the point where I knew roleplaying wasn't going to be a passing hobby for me. I pretty much pursue moments like that whenever I play now. I wish I could say it's common, but I've only had a few games get there. Everyone plays for different reasons. I play to find those moments where I get that spark of emotion that draws me into the game like nothing else.

What's the first movie you remember seeing where you thought "I am definitely too young for this"?
I was definitely still single digits when our uncle decided my little sister and I should see . .

I remember being about ten or eleven and my parents were going out with some friends so they let us rent some movies. They did not supervise my selections. I was the oldest by about five years.

Purple Rain, Ninja 3: The Domination, and don't remember the third but I think it was more age appropriate.

my friend's father rented Conan the Barbarian for his birthday. I think we were 10.
I remember him jumping up and fast forwarding through the nudie bits, but the bloodletting was all good

I was 11 or 12 when my aunt took my cousin and me to a double feature at the Drive-in. It was one of those drive-ins with two screens at opposite ends and the concession stand in the middle. The first movie up? David Cronenberg's The Fly! The beginning is a bit slow, and my aunt fell asleep, and my cousin and I watched the whole thing. So that was a bit traumatizing. The second movie was Maximum Overdrive, which was so bad, that my cousin and I turned around and watched the movie on the other screen through the back window (with no sound of course, because our speaker was playing Maximum Overdrive). And on the other screen? Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

When I was young my aunt used to run a video rental store that went belly up. Since my parents had a pretty big house we ended up with a box full of old vhs tapes. They were all without boxes so very little indication what each movie contained. My parents worked odd hours (they ran a night club/restaurant) so I was often on my own after school. I had a tendancy to just pick a video tape at random and watch and one day I put on Rambo First Blood. I was 7 at the time. I also watched the old IT mini series around the same time.

There have been films I have considered probably* too scary to watch for me (the one I can remember is Hellraiser, glmipses of which I have seen in some TV programme that showed pieces of films, their ratings in charts, and brief summaries/reviews), but I don't recall ever thinking it's due to age - in fact I concluded that tying such things to age was fundamentally unjust/discriminatory pretty early on (though not sure if before or after seeing that programme).

* == I did not get the opportunity watch Hellraiser until . . . maybe my 20s, not sure.

Heavy Metal. Saw it on HBO when I was about 15. My parents were very lenient when it came to nudity (I'd been reading my father's girlie mags since about age 12), but I remember feeling very naughty watching it for the first time. The scene in the airplane graveyard frightened me, but the most traumatic moment I ever had from a movie came when I was watching Alien on home video. It was near Christmas, and my brother and I were sequestered in our room while my parents wrapped gifts. I was watching the movie with a big bowl of popcorn on my lap. At the exact moment that the facehugger jumps out of the egg, the power transformer across the street blew with a huge bang. The lights went out, and popcorn went everywhere! We were months getting all the popcorn out of that room! In fact, I think when we moved about eight months later, we were still finding pieces.

That reminds me of babysitting when I was 12 or 13 (mid-80s). A couple hired me every Saturday night to watch their son while they managed their restaurant/bar until closing. So after he went to bed, I'd be watching whatever was on cable TV.

One night I watched When a Stranger Calls and Halloween back to back. That was a bit intense especially in a stranger's house.
Eep

I watched all kinds of things I shouldn't have in the 70s and early 80s, but three of the most memorable things were...

1) Some kind of cheesy-but-scary-to-a-kid-aliens-attack-a-village movie I saw when I was *very* small (I've never known the name of it, though some research points me to Island of Terror from 1966)

2) The third short in the 1975 made-for-TV 'thriller' movie Trilogy of Terror -- I just watched it for the first time since 1975 and it is STILL terrifying.

3) Alien -- the face-hugger and the chest-bursting of course, but I remember being really affected when Ash has his head beaten off and he continues to dance around. Yikes...

Oh yah that reminds me of one more I saw WAY too young: The Thing. Holy hell that scene when the guy is about to use the paddles on the other guy …

One of my very favorite movies. :)

(Along with Alien!)

I watched the Thing for the first time maybe five years ago, and literally jumped out of my chair at that scene. Phenomenal. This is why practical effects work, people!

I saw the Shining when I was about 7, and when it finished I went down to the basement where my father was working to talk about it. He jumped out at me from behind a door with an axe. Ahhh, parenting.

Honourable mention to one of the Robocop sequels I saw around the same age: there's a scene where the psychopathic drug dealer villain is torturing some corporate stooge by strapping him to a medical gurney and cutting his chest open with a scalpel. I can still hear the sound of the blade cutting through canvas and flesh when I close my eyes.