A Play-By-Post Primer
Hey all, I realize this is probably the first play by post forum game for most of you. I have done this a few times, with mixed levels of success. With that in mind, I wanted to lay out a couple things that I think help the game run smoothly:
1. It helps if you format your posts so that speech is bold, and everything else is normal text. Also I've found it tends to make the game more readable and help separate the characters if everyone picks a color for their character's speech test. There's a 'styled text' drop-down menu in the post window showing what options you have. All the NPC's will use standard black (again, bolded) for their speech. Also, please don't pick orange for your speech. Why? Because...
2. Any OOC text relevant to the post (dice roll results, etc.) should be in orange text
3. It helps a surprisingly large amount if you pick a character portrait. It makes things easier to follow if every character has their own portrait, and once I get maps figured out I'll use those portraits for your character's token on the map.
4. There will be a couple OOC threads; one for general social conversation, and one for game/rules/tactics discussion. It helps to keep the actual game-play threads focused on the actual game-play.
5. When we get to sections with more roleplay, everyone's first instinct is to handle dialogue in a 'natural' fashion - post, response, post, response. Due to the inherent delay of forum-based games, it's better to try and conduct as much business as possible (asking/responding to multiple questions, etc.) in a single post. It can look a little odd at first, but it should soon feel pretty natural.
6. When it comes to Action-related posts (combat, exploration, etc.), do not worry about posting in Initiative order. This can slow the game to a crawl if schedules don't line up. Combat will run in two phases, Player phase and Enemy phase, and once the group has their tactics ironed out, just post whenever you have a minute and I'll sort it out.
7. You can assume that I roll any Knowledge, Search, or Perception checks that come up in the normal course of business. If you specifically want to take a closer look at something, take 20 on a Search check, or something similar, by all means let me know and make the check. The goal is to avoid a whole bunch of waiting for six different people people to make Search checks and post the results every time a room is cleared or a door is opened, or eight different Knowledge checks every time you come across something.
