Reference The Game Group

While extremely new to the GM scene I think I can at least answer your questions @The Jedi in the Pumas

Oh boy... Well I have a bad habit of not liking or even hating what I write. I like to post stuff that is 'high quality' so I often either over think things or spend too much time obsessing over little details that don't matter...Lol! For those that are unfortunate enough to have me in one of their games may notice I ask loads of questions lol! So I guess being too cautious, honestly the advice that @DarkLordoftheFins passed down to me I found very useful in at least trying to avoid this was to be bold and go for the daring and maybe even the risky thing... So thank you sir for that tidbit that helped a lot!

Well with only .0001% of a game under my belt the answer to this may change over time but I would have to say @TheAdmiral both of our games are similar in that they are large expansive worlds with lots to explore (referring to Coldest War and Calm before the Strom) but they way we go about it is very different. Perhaps not the best comparison as his game is 100% original and my mine is an alternate earth. Regardless my point is that the way he runs his game, in terms of style, the OP and the way he handles updates it very different to my own and yet I love, love Calm Before the Storm....

Oh well that would be @greyjedi125 lol, unfortunately it has not happened yet, and as much as I want to join the Marvel game, I can just never bring myself to do so, not sure why....lol! But he knows I think it is awesome and everything grey makes and does is....ah....just awesome...I look forward to perhaps a future game that I can embark on with him!

Lol that was kind of a ramble hope it all made sense!

W00T!!!

 

Oh how I would have craved to see those two happening. I waited for The Truth About Animals to be revealed and did not know my own humble attempts ruined this in the first attempt.

The second would probably be a unique one for the RPF. Reading the book while playing the game would probably have been a unique experience, but as your proof reader I probably advise writing for what you get paid for.

I personally do not believe you are done. It might take another few years, but eventually you will return.

 

I noticed you teased it a little while back.

I'm a sucker for anything Cyberpunk and have a Cyberpunkesque game floating around in my noggin, although more as a backdrop than the focus. Hope ya come out of 'retirement' for that one lol!

 

Thank you @Shadowsun for the kind words! I wanted to add that at first I was going to make an alternative Earth kind of story set around WW1, but when I came to think about it, it would have required basically to rewrite the whole history of the world to incorporate the ideas that I have and it would have grown too big to handle and yeah. So the easier route was to create a world from scratch.

 

How to handle traditional RPG questing in a text based role play format...

Help. And Go!

 

Do you mean like D&D, Pathfinder, GURPS?

 

G_V, give it to me raw! I have no idea what the difference between those are!

EDIT: Wait... I mean in the vein of: presenting the player with optional quests, side quests, and playing through them without distracting too much from the main quests. Are there different ways of handling it?

 

Oh I’m definitely gonna choose to go mine 25 minerals for the town blacksmith before I go take down the big bad threatening to end the world at any moment.

I’m kind of a subscriber to the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” mindset. Present players with the option of undertaking a side quest that could affect part of the main quest in the future. “Help Wanted: Missing My Pet Dragon. Reward: 5,000 Gold.” Maybe the gold could help your characters pay off a guard to get into a castle down the line, but losing the time it takes to find the pet dragon could prove costly in the well-being of the missing princess. Obviously don’t let your players know what the potential consequences are, just have it in the back of your mind as you let them choose. I’ve already planned to incorporate a similar structure in WSMC.

You could also have a character who keeps a journal of all the optional objectives available to them, to tackle at a time they choose if they need a break from the action.

 

That last part!!!!

*adds to notes*

Now... that is absolutely genius.

 

I play a lot of video games, and when I go back to the old school RPGs that don’t have journals to track quests... oy vey.

 

How do y’all handle 1 vs. multiple fights? Like, for instance, five player characters against a big bad NPC? Is there a trick to it? Asking for a friend.

 

I am curious to people's thoughts on combos and how they relate to pacing. Some GMs *eyes @Sinrebirth and @darthbernael* quite like their combos and others *eyes @Darth_Elu* don't use them as much.

The differences in style interest me and I was curious if anyone wanted to comment on it

 

What specifically about pacing?

I mainly like to see combos used when it comes to scenes that require a lot of dialogue. When I first arrived Here, they weren’t nearly as possible as they are now, so conversations tended to drag. Now I feel they are... hmm... slightly overused. Like by 5%. It’s really not a lot. There are just sometimes I’ll read a combo and think “this definitely could have just been played out in the thread”

As far as pacing directly... When it comes to dialogue and action it really keeps things from dragging out.

 

Hmm, well I kind of meant what you said, to me the combo is a solution to a pacing problem, combat, and heavy dialogue would be the two main times I would use it. Otherwise, things can grog up and the game slows downs. I also have a sense that people respond faster to combos (once they get started at least) then they do to normal posts resulting he a faster-paced game as well. (Although this is only true I think if the GM responds quickly to combos, they set the tone of how fast the combo will be)

Hence why games like Dark Reach, Ep X, and Selenia operate at a faster pace imo, than others. I'm not saying one particular style is better or worse I think they each have their merits and flaws just an observation and I think would make for an interesting discussion. I guess my thing is there seems to be a link between the pace of a game and how many combos it employs. Not a hard and fast rule as such but something that definitely drives the game in that direction if that makes sense.

Sorry this turned into a mini-ramble lol, one no one asked for.

 

Bursts out laughing

I would have to agree with you Sinre. Yes, I know exactly what both of you mean. Seems you both raised the flaws I had exactly in mind. Agreed Bernael about how people sometimes respond faster with singles then combos, not a hard and fast rule. My ultimate conclusion on how fast people respond is mainly how excited they are from the update/general quality of the game. Again not hard and fast, people can't always respond right away, but a general trend I think.

Okay cool... thanks guys.

 

Actually I think the main factor was always for me the speed at which I update. I did two updates a week and many players did the same. For finales I go up to updating every two days and usually players played along.

That being said there are two ways to update games:

1. Your speed. Means you update when any players have posted and update who is ready for one.

Advantage: Game never dies down.
Disadvantage: Whiners.

2. Their Speed. Means you update when everybody has updated. Or 90%.
In that case so not concern yourself with pacing, think about your slowest player because the game will be at his speed.

Pro: Inclusivity.
Con: Slow speed

Of course there is the hybrid.

3. Hybrids. Meaning you will wait for everyone but not longer than x days/weeks. Meaning at some point you move on without them. The most common mode back in the days.
Pro: Take the edge of both the cons of 1. and 2.
Con: Still won’t be fast.

I wanna point out not too long ago a GM experimented with daily updates. Seemed to work quite well for people.

Now I vanish again into obscurity ...

 

Another question has floated to my mind.

Which is how do y'all take notes for your game/plan future events. How extensively do you plan things out, how many notes do you have? So on and so forth.

 

The most notes I have ever made for a character is for Soliloquy, bullet points as much as notes and all of them have been about past events. The second largest would be for Jo’Sua when I finally wrote the post for the dream in game. Before that and normally, all of it resides in my head beyond the odd note on my phone that consists of three to five words to trigger what I would like to do if things properly progress next week or merely the title of a song I really want to use for a specific character at some point. Once realized or seen to be impossible, I make a vague passing statement in a post and erase it from my phone.