Heya all, here's a vent:

So, I wanna use this site to both play and GM, but as I have no previous PbP experience, I wanted to try being a player first, to avoid the eternal GM curse.

But I'm realising, it may not be so easy. I've seen the rampant ghosting issues mentioned in this forum, the non-committal attitudes, and the burnout-fueled caution from (who I perceive to be) good and experienced DMs.

I have applied to a couple games that interest me, but I got to wondering:
Just how hard is it to GM on PbP, and particularly, on RPoL? What exactly would be expected of me? How often should I expect the average non-ghosting player that happens to not get a case of RL syndrome to post? Could I run a blitz game over a single weekend?

ARGH. My mind burns as the leaves of the forest around the house with no walls.

-vent over ;)

If you're new, I'd suggest being upfront with your expected posting rate.   Some people have no problem posting every day while other people typically do once a week.

In reply to Hunter (msg # 2):

Thanks! That gives me a starting data point haha

GMing a play by post is both easy and hard.

It's difficult because getting players to do things as a group is often akin to herding cats, or building aircraft while in the air.  There's also all the planning to be done, unless you are going to wing it the whole way, which is a different sort of stress.  All GMs will face this at one point or another.

It's easy because it's slower paced.  It's more difficult to forget things because the medium invites you to write stuff down all the time.  There is more player engagement here, than in face to face gaming, I feel.  People have more time to work stuff out, more time to plan their fights, heists, and other team-based things.

If you are GMing, put out the details early.  How often you will be posting, how often you wish the players to post.  Discuss everyone's expectations.  This is something you can do in the "Game Proposals, Input, and Advice" forum.

"Hi everyone.  I am planning on running a game of <insert game name here>, with <insert limitations, expectations, posting rates, etc.>  Is there any interest in a game along these lines?"

If you get 3-4 people interested, you will probably have enough players in the end.  The worst that can happen is people not replying, you can adjust your limitations, expectations and other things, to see if people will be interested, or maybe people may explain what's keeping them from being interested.

Not sure what you mean by blitz game.  Like, do you expect to do a one-shot RPG session?
This message was last edited by the user at 18:39, Wed 08 Feb 2023.

In reply to pdboddy (msg # 4):

Thanks for the guidelines pdboddy! I might try my luck starting a game in a while then.

Ah, sorry about the blitz thing, I was writing stream-of-consciousness.

One-shot isn't it exactly, a former group I played with used to do weekend events over Discord, and we would have a roleplaying marathon over that weekend. People dropped like flies, and whoever volunteered as DM had to be prepared to DM 8 hours straight each day with two pauses.

Yeah, I was the masochist that DM'd like that(with some exceptions), no, now that I think about it, it doesn't sound sensible to have asked xD. Sorry and thanks again