D&D Play-by-post?

[Kurth]

As it’s becoming tougher and tougher to get my kids to play D&D with me, and as I’ve been exploring the content and tools at D&D Beyond, I’ve started to follow some of the campaigns being run on their forum by play-by-post. I was skeptical at first, but now I’m actively following one that is pretty compelling and seems to be moving along nicely.

Anyone have any experience playing this way? Any interest?

[gbasden]

I've played a few games by play by post and it works fairly well. The games I played in were with my college friends that I still see in person, so I wasn't dealing with randos, but if you are ok that a battle might take a week or two to resolve it's a pretty good experience.

I'd certainly be interested in participating in a PBP game if one springs up.

[NickAragua]

I haven't done any play-by-post, but yeah, seems like it'd be ok as long as you don't mind a slower pace. I'd be in.

[Zenn7]

Never played D&D PBP, but we had a Dungeon World PBP game going a few years ago.

I'd definitely be up for a D&D or whatever system PBP game.

[Blackhawk]

Never played D&D PBP, but we had a Dungeon World PBP game going a few years ago.

I'd definitely be up for a D&D or whatever system PBP game.

Dungeon World would work great with PbP. Much less reliance on elaborate mechanics that work well at the table but drag things out on this format.

[Zenn7]

Never played D&D PBP, but we had a Dungeon World PBP game going a few years ago.

I'd definitely be up for a D&D or whatever system PBP game.

Dungeon World would work great with PbP. Much less reliance on elaborate mechanics that work well at the table but drag things out on this format.

True, D&D I think would require some interpretation of player intent during combats by the DM. Thinking it might be something like NickAragua's PBP Battletech games when he has the players do the combat through the forum.

[Kurth]

Not sure what Dungeon World is (although it sounds good), but the D&D P-b-P games running over at D&D Beyond seem to be moving along pretty well. Definitely a slow pace, but the mechanics seem to be working pretty well.

I'd be up for whatever. Probably not a great idea to try to GM a game for the first time over P-b-P, but I'd be up to play if someone else wants to get something going.

[Zenn7]

Not sure what Dungeon World is (although it sounds good), but the D&D P-b-P games running over at D&D Beyond seem to be moving along pretty well. Definitely a slow pace, but the mechanics seem to be working pretty well.

I'd be up for whatever. Probably not a great idea to try to GM a game for the first time over P-b-P, but I'd be up to play if someone else wants to get something going.

Dungeon World was a much simpler (mechanically) role-playing game that gets the players to help set up the world and define it as it goes along. Combat is usually the players saying what they are going to do, rolling for success and then they might succeed (great), partially succeed (don't do it great or do what they want but at a cost), or fail (bad things happen). The bad guys don't really take turns per say, they get react to the players - could be a cost or a bad thing that happens (you missed the goblin, leaving yourself wide open for his attack, you take X damage). Others could describe it better, but hopefully that gives a little idea of the simplicity compared to D&D.

DM - think that's the problem here in OO land. Finding players would be easy enough, but no one is up for DM-ing.

[Kurth]

I get that. It's a lot of work (as Blackhawk can obviously attest)!

That said, I did get my kids to play tonight, and we had a pretty good time getting through the Redbrand Hideout in Lost Mines of Phandelver. The highlight was when:

Spoiler:

They surprised 3 Bugbears who had a sad little goblin named Droop as their slave/mascot. The Bugbears were in the middle of tormenting Droop with orders to "Lick my boot" or "Smell my but" (I improvised that one knowing my audience). When the party got the drop on the Bugbears and attacked, they surprised them and did some decent damage early on. My older son positioned his mage to cast burning hands and angle the cone to hit all 3 Bugbears . . . but he was horrified when he also burnt Droop to a crisp. He was insistent that I let him have a do-over so he wouldn't kill Droop, but I wasn't having it. Instead, we rolled saves for Droop vs. death. The party managed to take out the Bugbears pretty quickly, and poor old Droop made his death saves, so after the fight, their cleric reluctantly healed Droop. My son, who had earlier toasted Droop, tried to make amends by giving him a fancy eye patch the party took off the Bugbear leader, and now, Droop swears he's his best friend and most loyal companion. As long as no one makes him smell anyone's but. We'll see how long that lasts.

Good times.