Cognisant
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- Yesterday 12:44 PM
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2009
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So I've been reading some D&D stories on Reddit (and laughing my ass off) and it seems a play-by-post RPG can work, now when it comes to being organized we all know I'm not very reliable so I'm not promising anything but I'm going to try to host a game and we'll see how it goes.
I think this might work for me because it lets me make shit up as I go along.
In the beginning every player is going to start off in a different town and until you meet each other it's going to be a fairly single player affair, although there will be NPC adventurers for you to party up with. The fun thing is I'm not going to tell you who is a player and who isn't, we're going to be doing all this via PM and I will relay inter-party chat between players. Also when a party is formed you'll have to elect a leader, this person or NPC (you don't know) decides where the party goes and the gist of what they get up to, although anyone may object or leave the party at any time.
I'm going to be reading and replying to PMs on a twice daily basis (4pm and 4am Australian Eastern Standard Time, AEST) and basically you're taking your turns in parallel. Think of it as two turns per day and if you don't take your turn before the next turn period starts your character doesn't do anything, or if it's a combat situation they'll fight defensively. When you're in a party you only get one turn per day (unless you're the leader) because the leader spends one of their turns per day leading, which is to say they decide the figurative direction the party takes for the next day period with one turn (in which they can take no actions) and then take a regular turn with everyone else in parallel.
So being in a party means time flows slower for you relative to players who aren't in a party but as a party I can throw greater quests at you which will come with greater rewards so it'll be more than worth it and when single players interact with parties (that may or may not have other players in them) I'll slow their time rate to match, which sucks because you're not gaining anything for it.
TL;DR get in a party ASAP!
Now you can gather a party of NPCs but I'll be playing them as realistically as I can, they're all going to have their own goals, motivations, personalities, etc, so in other words being a successful leader means keeping everyone happy, and you never know who is a PC...
Speaking of player characters when you create your character just give me the species/build/name and I'll fit you into the world, then you decide what your character's personality is and how this relates to the circumstances they find themselves in.
Okay I think that's everything (about how a text RPG works) so we're going to be playing Pathfinder rules, you can have any race/class/equipment you like (and can afford) although keep in mind that if you play something like a drider or a vampire the world will be trying to kill you and you're partying options will be limited, in other words I'll make you the monster the other PCs are contracted to kill.
Also I think getting one PC to kill another's family is fucking hilarious
Needless to say killing other PCs isn't just allowed, it's encouraged.
Well the town guards might have something to say...
When it comes to rolling dice I'll be doing all of that, you just tell me what you want your character to do and I'll work out what skills are relevant and what happens based upon the results you get. I'll try to run this as reasonably as possible, for example if my Drake doge incident happened I'd explain the failure with a high modifier as your character being perfectly capable of dodging the attack but the victim of simple bad luck. For example if your character is fighting in a tavern you would have easily dodged the fireball if the crowd hadn't closed in behind you for a better view of the fight.
Acting on your turn outside of combat is a matter of writing what you want to do and describing what you want to do, what you describe doesn't actually happen until I roll the appropriate skills for it. You might describe leaping upon a table, rushing to the far end and impaling the corrupt noble with your sword but if you failed your acrobatics check you'll just make a fool of yourself and that's all you'll have done that turn. So when possible do what's easy/important first then follow up with your riskier and less important actions, in the situation above whether you drew your sword and cried "death to the tyrant" before or after jumping on the table will make a big difference to how everyone reacts to your failure.
There is a reasonable limit to how much you can do in a single turn, outside of combat it's approximately one minute and in combat approximately five seconds, if what you describe to me takes too long I'll simply tell you how much you got done and you can choose whether on not to continue with your next turn.
Questions?
Who's interested? NO CHARACTER SHEETS HERE!!!
Btw a formal character sheet isn't necessary, you can just tell me the details.
edit:
I think this might work for me because it lets me make shit up as I go along.
In the beginning every player is going to start off in a different town and until you meet each other it's going to be a fairly single player affair, although there will be NPC adventurers for you to party up with. The fun thing is I'm not going to tell you who is a player and who isn't, we're going to be doing all this via PM and I will relay inter-party chat between players. Also when a party is formed you'll have to elect a leader, this person or NPC (you don't know) decides where the party goes and the gist of what they get up to, although anyone may object or leave the party at any time.
I'm going to be reading and replying to PMs on a twice daily basis (4pm and 4am Australian Eastern Standard Time, AEST) and basically you're taking your turns in parallel. Think of it as two turns per day and if you don't take your turn before the next turn period starts your character doesn't do anything, or if it's a combat situation they'll fight defensively. When you're in a party you only get one turn per day (unless you're the leader) because the leader spends one of their turns per day leading, which is to say they decide the figurative direction the party takes for the next day period with one turn (in which they can take no actions) and then take a regular turn with everyone else in parallel.
So being in a party means time flows slower for you relative to players who aren't in a party but as a party I can throw greater quests at you which will come with greater rewards so it'll be more than worth it and when single players interact with parties (that may or may not have other players in them) I'll slow their time rate to match, which sucks because you're not gaining anything for it.
TL;DR get in a party ASAP!
Now you can gather a party of NPCs but I'll be playing them as realistically as I can, they're all going to have their own goals, motivations, personalities, etc, so in other words being a successful leader means keeping everyone happy, and you never know who is a PC...
Speaking of player characters when you create your character just give me the species/build/name and I'll fit you into the world, then you decide what your character's personality is and how this relates to the circumstances they find themselves in.
Okay I think that's everything (about how a text RPG works) so we're going to be playing Pathfinder rules, you can have any race/class/equipment you like (and can afford) although keep in mind that if you play something like a drider or a vampire the world will be trying to kill you and you're partying options will be limited, in other words I'll make you the monster the other PCs are contracted to kill.
Also I think getting one PC to kill another's family is fucking hilarious
Needless to say killing other PCs isn't just allowed, it's encouraged.
Well the town guards might have something to say...
When it comes to rolling dice I'll be doing all of that, you just tell me what you want your character to do and I'll work out what skills are relevant and what happens based upon the results you get. I'll try to run this as reasonably as possible, for example if my Drake doge incident happened I'd explain the failure with a high modifier as your character being perfectly capable of dodging the attack but the victim of simple bad luck. For example if your character is fighting in a tavern you would have easily dodged the fireball if the crowd hadn't closed in behind you for a better view of the fight.
Acting on your turn outside of combat is a matter of writing what you want to do and describing what you want to do, what you describe doesn't actually happen until I roll the appropriate skills for it. You might describe leaping upon a table, rushing to the far end and impaling the corrupt noble with your sword but if you failed your acrobatics check you'll just make a fool of yourself and that's all you'll have done that turn. So when possible do what's easy/important first then follow up with your riskier and less important actions, in the situation above whether you drew your sword and cried "death to the tyrant" before or after jumping on the table will make a big difference to how everyone reacts to your failure.
There is a reasonable limit to how much you can do in a single turn, outside of combat it's approximately one minute and in combat approximately five seconds, if what you describe to me takes too long I'll simply tell you how much you got done and you can choose whether on not to continue with your next turn.
Questions?
Who's interested? NO CHARACTER SHEETS HERE!!!
Btw a formal character sheet isn't necessary, you can just tell me the details.
edit:
Chronological story merge:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dw5Em31lUy1KQKd3dfJSjcNXJQ_tILcxmGFYGnaICVQ/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dw5Em31lUy1KQKd3dfJSjcNXJQ_tILcxmGFYGnaICVQ/edit