How much do you outline?

As I'm preparing to host my first game soon, I was writing my notes for it and I wondered what's the method of other GM's here? I usually start by writing up a full summary of the plot and then finding a good point where the players can interject themselves. While large backstories aren't always necessary, I personally feel they make the game world feel so much more alive when events are happening regardless of player action, or sometime inaction in the case of certain plots.

PBP is an entirely different beast compared to playing in person or through a VTT, so GM's, how much do you plan or write notes for a PBP? do you do full write ups that are so big they're comparable to published modules? Or due to the slower paced nature of PBP do you scribble down some quick bullet points about the start, middle, and climax, and then improvise the rest? Or do you even write notes/outline at all?

I do less. Saves time and GM sanity.

I'm not keen on crafting a detailed 30 room dungeon if the players are going to turn around and leave after room 3, for whatever reason. Paint in broad strokes, then fill in the details once the players get to the point those details are needed.

This also prevents railroading. A GM who's written out a pages-long pre-planned adventure may get frustrated if the players do X, Y, Z instead of A, B, C. They may try to subtly (or not so subtly) redirect the players, instead of rolling with it.

I tend to have "stepping stones" made up. Places, characters or events that the Players are likely to come across.

I make these as generic as possible, so if they are not used, I can rewrite them, or take them into a different game, with trivial alterations.

Typical examples might be the vocal members of a vigilante group; they can also be the servants in a mansion or part of a caravan; otherwise rebadged into the minions of a gang of petty criminals. Its not a lot of work to make them into some hostages or prisoners to be released.
Of course each time I change the group, I can change the matching environment too; or its motivations and fears.

It all depends on what kind of game you’re running, and that you and the players enjoy. I generally employ the "prep situations, not plots," mentality, but there are some games where it’s better to have a timeline, a known cast of characters, a whole thing for the PCs to get wound up in. (See: Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Blade Runner, etc.)

What kind of game are you prepping? The pacing of PbP does mean you can generally prep less and improvise more in the moment since that moment might be 24hrs!

I'm prepping for more of a slow burn character focused game, with the format of PBP I really want to try out both players and NPCs having characters arcs that progress throughout the story, as unfortunately I've been unable to get that experience with IRL games or with VTTs. I'm a much better writer than I am a actor, so there are always certain types of characters I never quite feel I can't play right.

Recently in a Shadowrun game I was running that ended, a player ran into a NPC who was a mentor type figure, and while the scene went fine, I couldn't help but feel I didn't really portray the character in the way I wanted to, someone that can potentially guide the PC. It's hard to come up with sage advice or useful wisdom on the spot when you yourself aren't really that wise or full of sage advice.

The campaign I'm going to run for here is going to be set in Arkham (original, I know) and thankfully with the Arkham Sourcebook a lot of the heavy lifting is already done for me in terms of locations and NPCs that'd be there, so it allows me to focus on the situations and conflicts themselves. As for how long it'll last? I don't really know, I do have an ending planned, meaning a point where the central conflict gets resolved conclusively, but if the PCs want to keep going, it'd be like a author writing the first book in a series and then not writing the rest.

Then again, with the one shot I'll be running soon it'll also be to see if I enjoy the PBP format or not, which I think I will, but still, it'd be better to test the waters first instead of jumping in head first.

There are some players that do seem to enjoy breaking GM plans but players that join character development games tend to be less interested in doing that and are usually interested in world impact of characters. So as long as you state that is the intent of the game you will likely be able to use most of your content and plans.
At least that's is my experience

Some groups enjoy the world building and will contribute is allowed. Others enjoy overcoming challenges. Some industry on coloring outside the lines.

I tend to create a lake generalized use of the world, a cage sense of the plot and a detailed starting point with an initial direction of progression for players/chargers to still with. Then I try to stay flexible.

I’ve never planned out a game in my life, and it shows!

My ‘plotting’ these days is generally rough timelines, mindmaps, collections of ideas for locations, characters and scenes that I think might be cool… most of which is placed into a blender once the PCs get involved. :)

I mostly focus on NPCs and Locations, I would actually argue knowing where the BBEG is based is one of the most important aspects, because then you can sprinkle clues about where they are, and if the players get off track, which they always do and is part of the fun, you can give more clues through either interacting with NPCs or any other way a player manages to get their hands on pieces of information.

In my experience, players love it when the world feels "concrete" if you get what I mean. No matter where they are, there are always certain truths in certain area's just like in our world. Like that fellow being the mayor of a town, or having a collection of clues that make sense when put together, or discovering a NPC's motives or true motives and them subconsciously being able to tell it makes sense.

When you tell an engaging story, some players may not be able to explain why it's engaging. But when a story feels a bit rough, they can probably list of fifteen different reasons as to why, as human minds are inherently logical (sometimes), and it likes when the world follows a logic, even if the logic is hidden from them. When things become illogical, that's when the mind's alarm bells start going off.

1. You should develop your own style of GMing, especially since you have the benefit of starting fresh. Many GMs made a mistake of relying too much on GMing guides and forgoing human connection that could have formed between clueless participants. So my first suggestion would be to find a party of newbs and GM something simple (system-wise) for them, while observing who needs what. The main job of a good GM, especially in PbP, is to find an approach to creative players that will help them open up and not get traumatized for it, not to force them into your plot. Typical GMing guides would instead tell you about 10 types of players you should never allow in your party and similar things. Few will educate on how to manage a team in a PbP format. Important note that many modern GMs forget: censorship is a trauma. So while you might want to shield one player from explicit content, you might accidentally harm another player to whom that content was a life line. As a GM for PbP, where writing is the point, you must learn to balance ALL participants. It's not about compromises, it's about what absolutes you can make happen simultaneously in the same party — they won't teach you that in corporate approved guides.

2. Don't do that. Instead, write characters. You have a king, who has this and that circumstances. You have a countess that likes this and that. You have a merchant to whom this and that are thorns in his side. And so on. When your players are doing nothing or stalling, don't think of how the plot will move forward, but think of what those characters are doing right now and how it affects the world. In PbP you have a unique opportunity to give those characters individual agency, because you have time to simulate all of them.

3. You shouldn't write backstories. You should instead know what you could write those backstories about. Make a schematic map of knowledge. A setting bible, as they call it. Then simply familiarize yourself sufficiently with the parts to be able to answer which part does what and comes from where to explain any question a player will ask. And when they do ask (a good player will), you can then answer and give all the backstory you want with it.

4. PbP is like writing a book, but you have readers who are very involved in it and write their own books in parallel with you. You collaborate and help each other so that 1+1+1+1+1=20. That is why you should prepare what you want to write about (the same way players will prepare characters they want to write about), but then you should leave enough open spaces and enough hooks for each book to connect to the other and neither limit, nor poison the creativity of its comrades. Which is why the less you write down, and the more you understand without writing down, the better prepared you are to GM a PbP game.

Obligatory note that content warnings as well as lines and veils can absolutely be beneficial to your game, and telling someone that you don't want explicit material in a game is not censorship.

Exactly! Lines and Veils I personally don't particularly like, I much prefer the X-card. But X-card is NOT a censorship tool, it is an AGENCY tool that your players have. The core of the distinction is that a player who is already in your game actively chooses to use the tool in a specific moment that is specifically important to them right now. This isn't WotC cutting content, it's a person being hurt in real time and asking you to stop it. This distinction is crucial and it in fact AMPLIFIES the point of why censorship is bad: it makes that person sound like a bad actor instead of someone you, as the facilitator, have a duty to protect. So as I've said, you absolutely should observe who needs what in your group. If they need a safe space keep a mental account of that. If you don't want the game to be in the space they want, then tell them so and find someone who will be okay with your GMing style.

When I choose to use notes (and I enjoy running off the cuff), they are usually bullet points about the three acts.

I think you can approach it from 2 sides.

1.Play to find out what happens
Here you can start with a setup as with any game and a basic idea of what could happen. But nothing set in stone.
You can let the characters take the story where they want it to go and you insert situations and NPCs as you see fit.
2. Running a story
Sometimes you want to run a module or a story where things are more outlined. You kinda know what will happen in the story though you don't know exactly how the players will deal with it.
This is also totally viable in my eyes.

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I've done both, and I think the most important part is to make sure the players know which of those is going on. If you want to run a specific story, just let the players know that they are presumed to go where the story is asking them to go.

In one of my games here I just straight up said in the recruitment thread "This game will be quite railroady." Or something like that.
Personally, I don't enjoy reading a bunch of info about the setting before the game starts. I like to get information when it's relevant to my PC. If I have a question about the world, I will ask the GM during the game. Of course, it helps if the GM has a general idea of characters that could be present.
I also love it when the GM leaves room for me to create things in the world.

Especially in PbP, where you don't need to have all the information at your immediate disposal as a GM like at the table, you can allow for things to be more improvised. If there needs to be a mayor in town, you have the option of creating that NPC when needed instead of beforehand. All you needed before that is a basic idea of what/who can be found in that town. And even then, for me it would be subject to change if that were to make for a better story.

I think the best advice is