In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 5):

You're correct, it was Thanksgiving here in the USA this past weekend.  And, yes, holidays either lag horrendously because everyone is busy doing holiday stuff...or else they're viciously fast because people don't have work and school to interrupt their gaming.

You'll also find that things tend to slow down at the end of semesters (a lot of players are in school...or work at schools...or work at jobs whose scheduling is heavily impacted by school schedules) and the start of summer break.

Call it an occupational hazard, I guess.  But, yes, as someone pointed out, it's the nature of the beast, play-by-post is rarely fast.

Not sure on the slow comment our group did over 150 post last week. Not all IC but lots of good IC and tons of PC and setting development.

And that's just one of two games that share the same setting and timeline.

I have noticed that if the adventure focuses on one theme or player it tends to drag because if the focuse player is not around the rest just sit and wait. I developed multi themes almost one for each player. And this kind of allows the freedom to chase their know goals regardless if a player is around or not.

And that's with about 20 players, with almost the same that have dropped out for one reason or another.

The game is kicking :) in my opinion.

Like I said, it's kind of an 'either/or' proposition.  I think I got 10 IC posts in two days over the weekend.  Normally, I manage one a day, maybe two every three days depending on how my character fits into events in the game.

It comes and goes but in general the GM sets the pace.

If things are going too slow or too flaky for you think about crossing over and running a game for a change, that'll give you plenty to occupy your time.

Have to say the traditional festive slowdown seems (anecdotally at least) to be the same in both fast paced and slower paced games.  But probably/presumably those of us who prefer slower paced games don't mind as much.  <grins>

Personally I find the lull gives me time to catch up on my GM housekeeping and planning for the next story arc. :>

My experience is that from Halloween till the end of January stuff slows down to a crawl. Games loose about a quarter of their players and then pick up pace again or die. And by the time you are back in the flow of things summer vacation comes around and you find another two+ months of slow posting when everyone has examps and gets wasted afterwards on vacations.

PbP is not the medium for really fast posting. Ever. Some times games go faster; but there will always be slow-downs.

In reply to willvr (msg # 16):

This. My Way of the Wicked game started off with a blistering 3,000 posts within the first month between 4 players and myself. It then proceeded to gradually slow down until a year later and we were having a hard time clearing 30 posts in the same time. It's all about fluctuation and finding the right balance that everyone's alright with. Finding a "core" group of people you like to play with on here can be hard, but once you do it certainly helps. Just gotta keep searching till you find them!

This has also been my general experience too, but it seems especially slow this year for some reason.

Heck, even the general chat forums are slow.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:04, Sat 06 Dec 2014.

Yep, this year we even have just a single thread about how slow everything is.  ;)

...and after a week, the single thread only has about twenty posts.

But that's because it's that slow here on RPOL right now.  ZING!

_{Thorin Oakenshield, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Ori, Nori, Balin, Dwalin, Kili, Fili, Patty, Maxine and Laverne.}

Heh heh. Every year we get threads about how things slow down around this time of year. Don't worry, once people come out of their food comas and get tired of their Christmas gadgets and New Years hangovers, they come back to the sweet embrace that is RPOL.

so what you are saying is that right now is a great time to start a game up and only get diehard players.

But I don't know if I had ever seen a thread about how fast things are around here

In reply to borderline_dnd (msg # 24):

>.>

I have had players drop because of a game moving to fast.

If there's one quality you need to genuinely enjoy play by post style gaming, it's patience. Sometimes life happens and things slow down or stop entirely, and that sucks. Still, I think flaking is probably just as common in real life as it is on forums--it's just that we're more sympathetic when it happens in person, since it's often our actual friends and buddies instead of internet strangers.

Best I can say is keep at it and don't get discouraged, because it's a busy time for a lot of us right now. School, work, and family comes before gaming, after all.

Yup had a few of my original cast drop in 1 game because it was going to fast for them "at this time in their lives". Seems a bit odd as most everyone else I've bumped into are looking for fast

Well, IRL, when I still played tabletop, we only used to meet once month. Therefore, people tended to make a huge effort to play that one game a month; or we organised stuff around everyone to increase chances of everyone playing.

Generally, I've found that having one extended session once a week/month/whatever works a lot better than frequent posting.

The fact that you feel guilty about flaking on your RL friends probably helps too though.

In reply to willvr (msg # 28):

Oh, I had one game I was in where within moments of anybody making a post, one woman would post without giving everybody else a chance to do anything.

Game was set at 2-3 posts a day, and not all of us were able to sit at the screen and pay attention to only this.  GM didn't seem to mind.

I left.

In reply to dybbuk67 (msg # 29):

I've had that kind of game - it depends what kind of post they did for me. If it was an action post; it annoys me no end, and I won't play. If it's just talking, well, who am I to take away from her wanting to get into their characters head?

And now all my 5e dnd games have died lol.

I don't understand why people ask to be removed from slow games, so long as the gm still is supporting them... just keep em on your sticky.

I can understand it. I don't do it; but I can understand. Some people find it hard to keep a character in their head if they're only posting once every 2-3 weeks. So for them it's better to clear out; put that character aside and look for a new game which could incorporate that character.

In reply to Merevel (msg # 32):

At some point it becomes more annoying at the perceived loss of "what could have been" compared to what it currently is.

And forgetfulness.