Here be Vampires

A guest article by Leslie Holm
Senior Editor, RPG Gateway
http://www.RPGgateway.com/

If you’ve decided to run an online RPG, the main thing you
need in your arsenal is dedication. You will get bored. You
will get irritated with your players. You will get
frustrated by lack of response.

So why bother? Because when everything is going right, when
your players are excited and posting daily, when development
is at its peak, running an online game is thrilling.

Here are a few tips I’ve picked up over the years on how to
be dedicated and keep a game running.

1. Plan Your Campaign
==============================
Sounds simple, right? Every GM plans his campaign, at least
to some extent. You will find, however, you need a detailed
campaign when you are running an online game. My theory is
that the time between posts allows the players to be more
creative, curious, and inevitably, thwart the GM who isn’t
totally prepared.

In a tabletop game, players can, for the most part, be
guided and heavily influenced. Things move quickly, and you
can give them just what information you want them to have
and move them along.

Online, the players are going to come up with questions
about everything. Players in my PBeM want a description of
every shop they enter when they make a trip to town. They
want names of shopkeepers and folks they might meet on the
street. They want to know if the temple is on the west side
of town, and the docks on the south side.

Know your setting. Use generators if you need to - town,
NPC, whatever - but be prepared to answer lots of questions.
I recommend using a published setting that you are familiar
with to make your job easier. If you are using your own
world, make sure it’s complete before you begin; right down
to the garderobes in the castle.

You should also be planning your second adventure while
running your first. During current adventure, you should be
dropping clues to other exciting things they can do when
they complete their goals. That way you can have a week or
two break, and start right back up.

Offering a choice of adventures is always a good idea. For
example, they could have heard of a gang of thieves
operating in a town they visit, one of the orphaned
characters (there are always orphaned characters) could have
learned something about their family they want to follow up,
or they may have heard of mysterious and dangerous things
happening at a temple nearby. Then, let the players discuss
their options and decide what they want to do. They will
participate more eagerly if they think they are the masters
of their own fate.

2. Be Prepared For Drop-Outs
================================
If you lose your only cleric because his player just went
back to school, and doesn’t have enough time to play
anymore, it leaves the rest of the party in fairly dire
straights. I generally start my adventure with 8 to 10
players, knowing that one or two will drop out in the first
few weeks for any of a number of reasons, ranging from not
liking my game to illness. Since a PBeM usually runs at
least a year, you will lose more players along the way.

* Allow lurkers in your game. This almost guarantees you
have a person familiar with the story, and possibly eager to
jump in, who can take over the defunct character or create a
new one in the class you need.

* Always advertise. If your party drops down to just a
couple of players who want to continue, and you have no one
to fill in, advertise quickly. In your ad, emphasize you
have a long-standing game - players often prefer to join a
game they know will stick around as opposed to a brand new
game of unknown quality.

When you don’t need players, keep a list of interested people
can help when membership gets lean. Put and ad in your e-
mail and forums signatures, keep your open ads fresh and up
to date at various forums.

* Edit logs and post them regularly. Edit a version of your
logs for public consumption and reference. These logs give
interested players a taste, or help generate interest in
prospective players. Party members will find the abbreviated
version good for reference and catching up after missing
sessions as well.

* Maintain a contact list. Record names and e-mails in an
address book or file so you have a quick and easy way to
find contact info when you need it. Record recruitment site
addresses as well. Keep a separate section for players who
are potential invitees or replacements. When a current
player drops-out, send out invitation e-mails and post at
your flagged recruitment sites.

3. Know Your Players
==================================
Don’t accept the first submission you get. When you
advertise, it’s wise to explain you are starting a new game,
and that character creation will take several weeks. This
gives you time to get decent samples of writing - many DMs
require a background of 1,000 words or more. If your
applicant can’t be bothered to use spell check, or good
grammar, chances are he/she won’t be bothering to post
regularly either.

You also need to lay firm ground rules with regards to
posting - what you expect from each player. It is not too
much to expect they will post twice weekly, and that they
will give you a reasonably long post - not a sentence or
two. Their cooperation during the character creation process
should give you a good idea of how they will post.

For example, in a game I am joining now, my GM has written
me 6 times in 3 days, and I’ve answered promptly each time.
Hopefully this indicates to him that I am cooperative,
responsive and prompt, and that’s what you need to look for
in a player.

4. Be Organized
===================================
For some reason, in online games, we don’t always take the
same care to stay organized as we would in a tabletop game.
In a tabletop game, we have everything written down, and we
have notes, charts, and maps to refer to. In an online game,
you often make an off the cuff post, and if you don’t keep
notes on it, you could be in trouble later. Sure, you can go
back and search messages for whatever you’ve forgotten, but
that could be time-consuming. I have a friend whose game has
been running since April of 2004, and currently has 5,610
messages. In a well-run PBeM, plan on between 200 and 500
messages a month.

There are programs to help you stay organized, such as DM
Buddy and DM Genie. Some are free; others are downloadable
for a small fee. If you would prefer to do it yourself, I
recommend using Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc.

I use one file with many worksheets:

* One sheet lists every NPC I mention, with description,
place met, and any notes that might come up later.

* Each town they visit gets its own worksheet. In it, I
record each place they visit, who they met there, what they
did, and any notes needed.

* One sheet is a game time calendar - day one, they visited
a town, bought equipment, slept at an inn. Day two was spent
on the road, and so on.

* Each player has a sheet where I have pertinent information
recorded. This includes stats, bonuses, spells, skills,
feats and anything else I think I might need at my
fingertips.

Now I have one file to open whenever I am posting, and I can
find whatever information I need quickly.

5. Be Flexible
===============================
Okay, you’ve done everything right. You’ve planned your
campaign down to the color of the hair on the barmaid in the
first tavern they visited. You’ve got great players who can
spell and write short stories for their posts. You’re
organized and you’ve kept copious notes. Still, for some
reason, your game has stalled. Players aren’t posting
promptly anymore and it feels like lethargy has descended on
everyone. This is where most games fall by the wayside.

First, decide if you still have enthusiasm for the game. The
GM falling prey to boredom is the foremost reason players
lose interest. If you are still gung-ho, and you think your
players can be salvaged, then it’s time to be flexible and
shake things up.

One thing you might do is announce a hiatus. During
this time, review your game. What has caused it
to bog down?

* Think about each player. Sometimes you’ll find it’s just
one player, and speaking to him about it, or removing him,
will solve the problem.

* Analyze your own posts. Have they become lackadaisical and
unexciting? If so, stop thinking about your game. Read
books, watch movies, play other games, such as computer or
board games. After a week or three look at your game again -
hopefully your enthusiasm will have returned.

* Shake things up. Unless you are in the middle of a dungeon
or a huge combat scene, (and rarely does a stall happen in
these circumstances) take a different direction. If your
creativity is in a lull, pick up a module or download one of
the millions of free adventures on the web and fit it into
your campaign. I think you’ll find a whole new set of
circumstances will boost everyone’s morale.

* New blood. Bring in a new player or two. The excitement a
new player brings to the game might be infectious!

If nothing has worked, and you want to continue, then just
plug away at it. Increase posting frequency, do more to get
your players involved, develop the adventure or world out a
bit more, craft some NPCs and fun encounters, and hope it
all gets exciting again.

[Comment from Johnn: one thing I’ve done to stir up a
stalled game is present a new side-adventure out of the
blue. Sometimes a GM gets bogged down from the slow pace,
emerging complexity of the plot (causing planning
paralysis), or lack of planning time.

Find an adventure that’s short, different, and captures your
interest and imagination. The adventure should be self-
contained so you can drop it in and wrap it up without
sabotaging your campaign.

I keep the old D&D module Castle Amber always on hand for
just such a bail out move. :) Other ideas are published
adventure and encounter compilations, Dungeon magazine
adventures, the intro adventure you might have in the back
of the rule book, and freebies posted at the publisher’s
site.

Next time the campaign stalls and gets boring, shrink the
PCs down and drop them into a rabbit hole, or have them get
lost in mist and find a strange mansion….

taken from - roleplayingtips.com