Explore the world of play-by-post (PbP) tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) in this in-depth guide! Learn about the best RPG systems for PbP, common challenges like pacing and combat, and how to overcome them. Discover top platforms like Gamers Playing and Tavern Keeper, plus tips for newcomers to immerse yourself in rich, narrative-driven online gaming. Whether you’re new to PbP or looking to refine your skills, this video has everything you need to level up your asynchronous gaming experience!
Thanks Harrigan for the insight!!
Places to find Harrigan:
Gamersplane – https://gamersplane.com/user/4069/
Gaming and BS Discord – http://gamingandbs.com/discord
00:01:31 What is play by post
00:04:56 Benefits
00:07:48 Things to note when playing via play by post
00:09:20 Shortcomings
00:14:19 Best games to run/play
00:19:39 PbP websites
00:24:59 Outro
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Useful Play by Post Links
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Gamersplane – https://gamersplane.com/
Tavern Keeper – https://www.tavern-keeper.com
Roleplay Online – https://rpol.net
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TOMES OF GAME MASTERY
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Play Dirty – https://bit.ly/2Vf6YYJ
The Monsters Know What They’re Doing – https://amzn.to/3jODuul
Play Unsafe – https://amzn.to/3nfUP1p
Return of the Lazy DM – https://amzn.to/3BFPEM1
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http://patreon.com/how2rpg
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LET’S CONNECT!
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Credits
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#rpg #playbypost #ttrpg
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Tell us, are you going to give play by post a try? What game would you run?
Like Harrigan, I’ve been running play by post games for decades. I also spend my entire life on GamersPlane 🙂
I hadn't really considered play by post before. Now I'm seriously considering it.
Great video – Previously I had tried to play and run a play by forum game and I hated it. However, recently I played in an En Garde game for over a year; it was great but the GM had to close it down, turns were monthly, I also played a micro wargame for a week, daily orders; didn't enjoy that as much. I also played in a week long Journaling game – that worked ok. Finally I took the plunge and hack some ideas together to run Gangbusters as a monthly turn game; its still running a year later, with 15 to 30 players coming and going. All the aforementioned games have been run for free via Discord. So for me the sweet spot sees to be monthly post with 4 orders, with Discord for daily nattering in game or out of it
This was great. Thanks, lads!
Very interesting video, and informative! Never done much pbp, just a scene or two as an intro. Might give it a shot when live gaming slows down!
This was great and sparked some good ideas for the play by post games I'm in right now.
Things to remember:
1) post length (2 to 5 lines)
2) post frequency (1 or 2 per day)
3) game length
4) systems (and combat systems)*
*not so much rolls, or gms make all rolls.
Sign in the back told me “be a POS” so I took that personally starting DMing for TPKs
1000% establish a posting order and tag whoever is next up when you've posted. If you're running 5e, what we've done is make the posting order from everyone's passive initiative, and we liked it so much that we didn't even roll initiative for combat. NPC passive initiatives were just 5/10/15/20 + Dex mod, higher for more important or named creatures. If combat started because of a PC action (like triggering a mimic, a surprise attack, etc.), we just started the combat at that character (or NPC's) turn as if it were the top.
For something like discord or sites with notifications, I would recommend tagging any character yours interacts with (just once per post) because it can be easy to miss things involving your character when three or four other people post before you. And at the end of the post, tag the GM and the next player in the turn order, or have the GM tag them if the GM needs to respond between all posts (5e does often require this).
I'm getting back into p2p after over a decade.
What app was he playing on in 2014? What platform works these days? Thanks for some great content
Back in the early 2000's I used to be at RPG forums, mostly Harry Potter and X-Men based. I didn't know about TTRPGs then. I just absolutely adored roleplaying and it fueled my passion for writing. Fast forward to 2020's, I was finally introduced to D&D and started playing.
It had never crossed my mind that these two things could overlap and this makes so much sense! I'm super excited to give this a try, especially since it's been extremely challenging to maintain campaigns up to this point. I'll try it both as a player and a DM. Let's see how this goes. Wish me luck!
Super helpful! Thanks.
Maybe I missed it on the video, but in PBP, one of my biggest concerning cons is: do we go on some kinda "trust system" where players and DM's/GM's trust each other's dice rolls since no one can ever see anyone else's actual dice results ?
My introduction to tabletop RPGs was text-based, and it allowed me to get into and fall in love with this hobby despite my social anxiety. Now, two years later, I’m running a text-based campaign with a system and world of my creation. I’m so grateful this option exists, I probably wouldn’t have joined this community if it didn’t.
Great video!
Thank you for putting this together. Not enough info about this topic given it’s niche within a niche nature.
As an older gamer with no real world friends interested in rpg stuff, and as someone new to the genre, it’s hard to find people to play with especially when I’m GMT +10 and the rest of the playing world is on the other side of the clock. PBP seems the perfect answer to my situation, although the game speed with anything less than a hard core group, and the fail rate mentioned seem to be the biggest downfall. I’m also trying to learn gurps as my system of choice, and it’s combat focus and roll-heavy nature may mean I need to look at simpler systems for PBP, which isn’t the end of the world though.
After 40 year absence from gaming (table top version), I've been looking at how to get back into it. This is by the far the most informative, clear and honest guide to PBP that I've come across, and many thanks to Harrigan and yourself for putting this together. Time to put my toes back into the water.
I've done one on one rp this way but never with a DM and multiple players
Would love more in-depth content about PbP RPGs! It's the only form of RPGing that I do, and I've been doing it for about a decade now – mostly as a GM but sometimes as a player. This seems like such a niche, rarely discussed topic and it's hard to find good resources on the specifics of it, even though it's actually quite common and there's tons of popularity for it all over the internet (or am I just looking in the wrong places for info?)
I love the interview. I'm trying out play by post and it's good to know what works and what doesn't.
Very informative video! I've been doing PbP for about five years now, usually have two to three games going on at one point.
This video would have saved so much pain back when I started out
Was this an interview, or did he publish this video somewhere else and it was cut to look like an interview?
Learned a lot from this video, thanks. Got a group that can only play by PBP and I want to try to make it as smoothly for them.
I learn a lot, thanks
Great video and very educational. Being in another time zone from the US, this seems like a great way to play with other BSers. Cheers for all your hard work!
A fantastic video. I wish I'd seen this before starting PbP.
Excited to watch this video, I'm running 3 PBP games now.
Great breakdown