Like the title says. Another new guy thinking about creating a game here. Was going through the FAQs, and wondering if there are any usual problems or concerns that aren't covered there.

I used to be my local grps "always-DM" but ppl just dont always have the time anymore and you know how that usual story goes.

Prefer to run known systems with something to keep them simple and not too rules laywer-y. (dnd3.5 with 5 rulebook limit, 3.5 with EL6 or EL8 rules, savage worlds, etc.) It always kept the cost down for new ppl and didnt make it so daunting for new ppl to learn or jump in, in addition to encouraging RP to fill gaps. Kinda RP oriented with a rules base to stand on - though i'm really thinking something savage worlds with more of an action tilt.

Was also curious what the most common posting schedules are. With particular concern about what schedules are less likely to fall apart - would really hate to sabotage my first game with a too strict or too casual schedule. I always liked 1-2 posts a week and 1 post weekend, but have seen all types of schedules work and fall apart... so i dunno.

Also, hi.

-Whisky
This message was last edited by the user at 10:35, Tue 15 Apr 2014.

Welcome to rpol, WhiskeyLogic!    Good to see you.  :)

This is my only real online game site, after having been only in live games, and it took a bit of getting used to.    Basically, you have people posting once or twice a day, on average, on a regular basis, rather than having blocks of four to six hours for constant posting.
A slight majority of the people seem to be in North America, and most of them in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, but there are substantial numbers of people are from all over the world.    Gamers from Europe, Asia and Australia are very common here, as well as other countries.   I'm in the CST zone, in Texas, and my games all seem to slow down in the wee hours of the morning (1am to 6am), but there can still be activity 24 hours a day, at least somewhere on rpol.

I'm no expert, but my advice would be to expect a game to have one or two posts a day, and not necessarily every day, especially on weekends.
Still, you can also poll your players to see if they want more or less posting, and it's not uncommon for a group of faster posters to get together for a game.

Still, games tend to die here very often, as online texting is a very fragile connection for gamers who've never met, and Real Life tends to be the 400 pound gorilla that does what it wants with us.

If you have any other questions, however, please feel free to ask.    :)

I've generally found in the games I run that players post around 3-5 times a week, with a lot of variation. I try to promote this by looking in at least once every day and responding to player posts as quickly as possible.

You have to be prepared for about 25% of the people you accept into a game to disappear within the first two weeks, sometimes before character creation is even finished. And there will likely be further attrition over the weeks and months it takes to get a story told in this medium. I generally start with 6-9 players and have finished with as few as two.

I also suggest that you let the players know that the GM will post for them when they fail to respond within 2-3 days. People will go silent without warning (although I always have an 'Absences' thread so we can all let people know ahead of time when we'll be gone more than a day or two). Sometimes they return, sometimes not.

My other advice as GM is to keep the story actually moving forward. That means having something interesting happen/said in every post. Let NPCs not just answer the single question asked, but go on to provide related information. This is a big shift from tabletop. Likewise in action scenes, find a way to compress combat rounds into a single post, despite the system rules.

Finally, encourage your players to be expansive in their narration. They can put all their questions for an NPC into a single post with descriptors to indicate the pace of the conversation. They can combine several actions into one post and let you sort things out by editing or in your response.

That's all of my ideas. Hope you have a great time here.

The post rate is up to you when you run a game. I suggest that in your introduction and your "looking for player" you are very up front in that. Tell them what you expect, otherwise you will have players that want to post 4 times a day and other that post twice a week, some that post at night, some one weekends and some rarely if at all. The best groups are the ones that are all of a similar mind in posting rates. For me I prefer a game where everyone posts once a day and then takes the weekend off.

thanks for the answers; pretty much exactly what i wanted to know.

Haven't done much online since back when pbem was a thing (5-7+ years ago now?, omg), so am sorta familiar with ppl just falling off the planet never to be heard from again. Did try a game or two on like a private message board, and it was like someone described - started with 6 finished with 2 (one running 1 pc and other running 3).

Still looking around at the mechanics of the site, faq, and trying to look at games in progress, etc. etc. But staying hopeful.

Just to give you hope - start games and give them a try.  If the game fizzles, try again.  I've found once you find the right group, the game can continue on pretty well, but often times it takes several tries to get the right fit together.  Also, if you are DM'ing, make note of the screen names of players that you enjoy playing with (as you will have access to their rpol name).  Eventually you can end up with a group of 3-6 players that play well together.

I've been in several games that have lasted two or more years, the longest being just under 4 (I think).  There are some groups that have been together for 10'ish years here on rpol!