BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Role Playing Games Four Essentials for Play-by-Internet RPGs

Hello everyone,

This week's article is about play-by-internet role-playing games – the pen-and-paper kind. You might notice that I didn't differentiate between play-by-email and play-by-post here. That's because all four of these rules would fit both instances.

Have you gamed online before (tabletop style)? What was your experience like? Did some systems work better for this than others?

Do you use the honor system for dice rolls online or does your GM make all the rolls instead? What about online tools – have you found any like the Dice Log or something else you wouldn't mind sharing?

My last venture into play-by-internet was kind of a bust. That's partially my fault as GM though, because so few players posted that I got discouraged. Now my preference is even stronger toward real-time gaming, like instant messengers or online chat clients.

One of my players preferred that I roll dice for her; In fact, she insisted that I roll dice and not use an online dice service. Otherwise I tried to keep everything at an online dice server.

Part of the convenience of play-by-internet for me is not having to have my dice with me. I use rpol.net pretty much exclusively these days. The features it provides are great for managing an online game.

But yeah, players dropping off happens. You can't expect to run a multi-scenario campaign online.

Some systems just don't work well online, too (unless you're real-time). You can't afford to make one player's post dependent on another player (or all the players) having a chance to change the action. That works great real-time, but not in a play-by-post setting.

Hello Jay,

Noted. I've come across that one before, I'll give it another look

We went from picking up the PCs to the front door of the Prince's mansion (Vampire: The Masquerade). By the time that happened, it was already time for me to get back to classes. Yeesh.

I thought a more narrative game would work better. There were still those really annoying bottle-necks though, where I needed input from each player to proceed anywhere.