General Interest - Online D&D (PbP)

[.: sora]

So, with the success of Play-by-Post (PbP) games going on at Ars, and the interest so far from this community, I decided to open this thread to gauge interest for a forum-based D&D Campaign. No promises or commitments here from anyone, I'm just trying to get a feel for what I'd be getting myself into. :3

First, a few things about me as a DM...

* I run homebrew settings, almost exclusively. :] That said, if it's been published in a WotC book, it's fair game
* PC start at L1, game goes to L20-L30 time and interest permitting.
* Once the group is together, before anything serious starts, we decide the basic kind of game we want to play: fantasy/modern/futuristic/horror/whatever, how "adult" the campaign will be, house rules, things like that.
* After everyone is used to the setting and the rules, the kid gloves come off. I'm never out to kill the party, but the bad guys certainly are...
* The PCs drive the action. I hate railroading players, and the game is always more interesting when the players are doing what they want to do.
* Roleplay and combat are about 50/50. I do what I can to keep stats relevant outside of combat, and I'm fond of interjecting RP and plot into battles where appropriate.
* I prefer to stick to Rules As Written (RAW), unless the game is being broken as a result.
* Decent writing skills a must. By decent, I mean, you're able to string complete sentences together while acting in-character and being at least a little descriptive - you don't need to be a professional writer or anything. :] Ping me for links, and I'll show you what I mean.

Again, this is not a sign-up thread. I'm just trying to gauge interest. If you are interested, post with the following (and whatever else you think is important):

How experienced you are with D&D (novices welcome!)
How experienced you are RPing (again, no experience necessary)
Whether you prefer 3.5 or 4e rules
How often you can post (multiple times daily, every few days, weekly, etc)
Types of settings you would/wouldn't be interested in
Classes you would consider playing

[FadedOasis]

Very interested.

I've played a 3.5 campaign before, and in Eagle's "Diceless" campaign (don't know if you remember that, Sora), but didn't really know the rules back then. I think I have the 4e combat rules down from listening to the PennyArcade/PvP/WilWheaton D&D Podcasts, even through I've never played it. Everything seems simpler in 4e, so I'd like to play something similar to that. I do own the three core books for both 3.5 and 4e, as well as the "Keep on the Shadowfell" adventure from 4e.

I can (and do) post up to (and more than) forty times a day, as I have no life. I'd be interested in anything generally not set in a sci-fi future. I don't know what class I'd play, as I've never built a character (I could use a lot of help on this, actually).

[scrambles]

Not me,
Sometimes I even have trouble computer RPG's holding my attention, In fact that always happens. Also fuck me I'm busy with school right now.

[atenthirtyone]

I'm also pretty interested.

• I have about four years of D&D (well, pen and paper) experience. I'm not the biggest fan of D&D itself so I only have played one actual campaign that uses that system.
  
• 3.5th. If it's 4th, I'm going to pass on the campaign.
  
• I will be able to post almost every day at least once. For the most part, I'll procrastinate enough irl to post two to three times a day.
  
• I'm up for any setting really.
  
• I almost always play an utility or caster based class.
  

[carbad]

can i play guard dog in you campaign :3?

[pneuma08]

Never tried PBP, but sure, I'll give it a whirl.

I've had extensive experience with all sorts of tabletop, both playing and GMing. I *usually* play some sort of martial class, but I've done much of everything. That said, I haven't played 4e DnD at all, although I've got a handle on the rules and whatnot.

I prefer not-DnD 3+ but whatever, it's good enough. My <3 system is Hackmaster 4th Ed, although that's a bit...heavy for most folks.

I can probably post every day at least once (usually multiple times a day), although some days it's harder for me to get to a computer.

Edit: I also sometimes have online forays into the world of tabletop gaming via Maptool and Skype.

Edit2: Electric Boogaloo: links are a good way to spread information.

[Whatsit]

Oct 19, 2009 15:40:02 GMT -5 pneuma08 said:

I *usually* play some sort of martial class

Pneuma08 -- Level 12 chaotic-good Officiant.

Oh, wait.


In any case, I'm interested enough to give it a try, though I've never even seen a PbP setup before.

Lesse, answers;

• Played D&D on and off since AD&D (god, anyone else remember the horrible THAC0 system?) through 3 and 3.5, but haven't played since before 4 came out.
  
• No preference for rule set. I hear 4e is simpler, but it seems to rely heavily on the miniatures for combat. How's that work in PbP?
  
• Can probably do a decent sized post every few days, or shorter ones daily.
  
• Only thing I'd prefer for setting is if there was some non-realistic element. The thought of playing Bob the double agent in Washington freaks me out for some reason. Bob the paranormal expert, not so much. I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be the other way around...
  
• No preference for class.
  

I use Quickened Vow Prompt!

[rhench]

I'm interested, at least enough to get involved at the start.

How experienced you are with D&D (novices welcome!)
I've played in three or four campaigns with radically different GM's.

How experienced you are RPing (again, no experience necessary)
I play regularly in a Live Action Role Play game, have been a Storyteller for said, have played in and run various other systems as well (homebrew M&M variant in the style of really terrible Kung-Fu Action movies is my favorite)

Whether you prefer 3.5 or 4e rules
I've never played 4e, but would prefer 3.5 because I already own a PHB, Spell Compendium, DMG and maybe some other book.

How often you can post (multiple times daily, every few days, weekly, etc)
Probably about daily if they aren't super complex actions. I tend to go out of town for weekends around every other weekend, but for something small I could borrow a friend's computer for a couple minutes, I'm sure.

Types of settings you would/wouldn't be interested in
I've never really done anything horror-related, so I'd at least suggest that, but I'm up for whatever, so long as it's interesting. Post apocalyptic seems vaguely boring to me, but that's because of Fallout and some other things, and I'm sure I'd get over that if we decided to go that route.

Classes you would consider playing
I've done everything from Barbarian to Wizard, at least in short spurts. I vowed to never play a Sorcerer again, but would probably do basically anything else that was needed. I play a Wizard in my real-life game that meets irregularly, so I'd probably want to play something more combat-centric, be it ranger, fighter or something more interesting.

[pneuma08]

Oct 19, 2009 16:30:52 GMT -5 Whatsit said:

Pneuma08 -- Level 12 chaotic-good Officiant.

In Hackmaster there's a first level Cleric spell Ceremony that's used to officiate things like coming of age, marriage, ordinations, and the like. At 9th level it can be used to anathematize heretics.

[brianblack]

I would be terribly interested, but I'm horrible at keeping up with forums.

Experience:
Actually started with a 1st edition kit, then played a number of campaigns in AD&D (THAC0 is the dumbest creation of man.), I've done one of d20 Modern, which ended badly, and have a number of both 3.0 edition books which i've done a couple rounds and my new 4th edition books which I'd love to be able to use.

Roleplay:
A bit, although most of the games I've played were relaxed in roleplay.

Posting:
See initial hesitation. My typical upkeep with forums is every other week or so I look in and post on things that are interesting. This might require me to be a little more focused.
EDIT: also an indicator: I just realized the last post was half a month ago.

Setting:
I prefer fantasy to stay fantasy. Aliens you can pass off, (4th edition Far Realm, or whatever), but once you throw in robots or lasers I start to lose interest.

Class Preference:
I'm the peacemaker usually, so I tend to play the classes we're missing, aka the bitch classes no one else wants to play. Really I'll play anything needed and make something interesting out of it.

I've actually been tooling around with some virtual tabletop software that seems promising, but haven't been able to do anything with it yet: www.fantasygrounds.com/ This would alleviate the combat aspect of things, but would also require everyone to be present. I'm playing with the demo, but if this route is intriguing for people we could work something out.

[pneuma08]

Addendum: I've played games across the internet using maptool before, and it's worked pretty well. Voice requires a separate application, however, and the chat isn't the best.

[.: sora]

So, based on the overwhelming interest here, I'm seriously considering starting something up! Good thing I was non-committal about it to start, because I'm getting my ass handed to me by school/work/job-hunting, and that'll probably be the case until I start with that whole Real World thing in January. But, once things settle down, I think it'll be great. :3