An Abominable Fancy

I’ve played a lot of PbP games: all your favorite flavors of OD&D, AD&D, and their retroclones, Call of Cthulhu, Marvel Superheroes, Traveller, Dungeon World, etc. ad nauseam. In almost every instance, I forgot what ruleset we were using at some point. Which is a good thing. Once chargen is over, you spend a lot more time describing your characters actions and poring over the GM’s descriptions than you spend interacting with rules. When you do roll, it’s usually a combat to-hit roll, which you’ve probably programmed into the online dice-roller as a macro. Pretty much any game will work for PbP. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t points of possible optimization. Point 1: Resolution. Anything that can keep the action moving is a boon to PbP. A game that requires a back-and-forth exchange of information to resolve an action is going to progress very slowly. A good rule of thumb is that it’ll take 2 or 3 days to get a response from any given player. At that pace, an exch...

I love play-by-post. It accounts for the vast majority of my actual game-playing. The glacial pace is not for everyone, but it’s easy to fit into a busy schedule. And what you lose in the spontaneity and flow of spoken conversation, you gain in the richness of written language. Given the depth and granularity of rpg creativity, I’m surprised how little is written to address PbP specifically. Shouldn’t we have rule-hacks that are optimized for PbP? Guides for how to GM effectively in this environment? Well, I can at least offer some thoughts on how to play well in a PbP game. The Faerie Queene, Volume I by  Edmund Spenser . Pictured and decorated by L. Fairfax-Muckley. Present yourself simply. Don’t bother with elaborate backstories or text descriptions of your character. They won’t get read, and are very unlikely to contribute meaningfully to the game—even less so than in-person. Go for evocative fragments: A moist and simpering scrap of humanity. A pissy young saty...

In my previous post , I reviewed a bunch of my favorite rulesets for optimization for Play-by-Post. It occurred to me almost immediately that I hadn't really thought about Maze Rats enough. In fact, I'd mis-remembered and mischaracterized it. Upon reflection, one of the mechanics I took issue with is actually a big strength. Re-reading the rules, it seems like just a few very simple hacks could make it a highly-optimized PbP game. As follows: Danger Rolls are rolled by the GM. Danger rolls usually fail, so it is in the player’s interest to describe their actions plausibly and mitigate as many risks as they can, in the hopes that they don’t trigger a danger roll. 2d6 + ability bonus ≥ 10 If you have taken enough precautions to have a distinct advantage in an action, but not enough to have eliminated the distinct possibility of danger, the GM will give you a roll with advantage. 3d6 keep 2 + ability bonus ≥ 10 Because each character only has 3 ability scores (S...

Here is the ruleset I've cobbled together to run the Anomalous Subsurface Environment, Patrick Wetmore 's gonzo megadungeon: Anomalous Subsurface Microlite The chassis is Microlite20,  although I slowed down skill progressions a lot . There's a DCC -style meat-grinder attached, and the weapons list and combat stances are highly influenced/ripped off from Beyond the Wall. Some favorite house-rules from here and there (but mostly from Goblin Punch ) got chunked in, too. The setting and the Scientist and Robot classes are, of course, from the ASE modules . A powerful impetus behind this is to play a game where I can use The Dungeon Dozen as a straight resource. This is intended as the Players' document, and doesn't contain things like advancement. And it only goes up to about level 6, because I'm intending this for PbP and holy geez, we'll all be long dead before anyone gets to level 6 via PbP.

I've been using attribute checks a lot, lately. My PbP game is  Beyond the Wall, which uses attributes and additive skill bonuses. At home, I've been playing Holmes with the kid, with straight attribute checks bolted on. Now, there is a powerful spartan appeal to the default 1d6 skill check of OD&D and B/X. And there's a curvy elegance to the 2d6 check of Traveller and *World. You can use OD&D-style attribute bonuses with 1d6, and B/X-style bonuses with 2d6 without breaking anything. But I've been using using the standard d20 vs. Attribute Score.  Largely, this is because I hate to not use the attribute scores. They are such a prominent part of the character sheet, we expend such hope and energy on rolling them up, and they are so central to how we envision our character—how could we not use them? With the kid's games, I've found this especially gratifying. The kid grasped the significance of the attributes, and how to apply them to a singl...

When learning a new system, I often reduce the rules down to a simple reference document. I do this even for the most minimal games, taking perverse pleasure in reducing an elegant 2-page system into an unhelpfully dense 1/2-page system. I recently joined a PbP game using the stripped-down, free version of Tunnels & Trolls, fifth edition . We're all new to the system. In the spirit of learning together, here's the document. I hope it's useful. Tunnels & Trolls Cheater I also hope it's accurate. Being new to the game, I may have misinterpreted  what I was reading. Please be gentle in your corrections—I'm a sensitive flower.

So much of the RPG world is shaped by so many of us being middle-aged parents who can barely scrape a few hours together to play: mini-dungeons, low-prep campaigns, PbP, hangouts, etc. Plenty of games and supplements have been written to support this style of play. How the game will be shaped in 20-30 years when we all start retiring and have nothing to do but play? The Patron Saint of Mean Old Bastards , by me, 2007. Nerd retirement homes where grognards hunch over card tables and well-worn battle-mats while our long-suffering partners enjoy the extensive non-nerd amenities.  Games that encourage hundreds of levels to be earned through constant play.  My gawd, the intricately detailed campaign worlds. Game design that emphasizes simple record-keeping as our memories fade; reference sheets in increasingly large type. BECMI-style quests-for-immortality return as part of our moribund fantasies. Doctors trained to describe our failing bodies to our doddering minds ...

This summer, I'm going to run a BtW campaign over on the Unseen Servant forums . Let me recruit you! Prince Valiant panel by Hal Foster If you'd like to join, register at the Unseen Servant , and go through all the standard forum rigamarole: post in the Introductions and Welcomes thread go to the Looking for Players or Games thread and find my recruitment post, helpfully titled " Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures " private message me (Pulpatoon) to get included in the game I'm looking for 5-6 players who can post more-or-less once every weekday, through the summer. It might take awhile to get all the players lined up, so don't worry if it looks like a slow start. PbP is a great way to fit role playing into your schedule, but it does mean adapting yourself to a very different pace.

I'm thinking of starting up a PbP game, running Jason Sholtis'  Operation Unfathomable using Ben Milton's Knave. Here's my interpretation of the setting's additional character options. They're all at least a smidge better than a standardly-generated Knave, but I plan on only offering these as options for replacements characters, once the party is deep in the weirdness. Cave Otter You are a black-furred, humanoid otter, adapted to subterranean waterways. You are carnivorous, and untroubled by eating decomposed carrion or creatures warped by Chaos. Oily Coat: You have natural armor worth 3/13. Against oozes, slimes, jellies, and puddings it is worth 9/19. Dexterous: When rolling your DEX score, you may choose from the two lowest dice, instead of just the lowest. However, if your WIS is over 3/13, you must swap it out with your lowest ability. Natural Weapons: Claws (1d3) or Bite (1d6). Playful: A WIS save may be required to resist the impulse to eat, ...