Hi, I was directed to RPOL after posting on the D&D Facebook page looking for a way to play online and "on the road" as I am a tour bus driver.

I have at my disposal an iPad and an HTC phone, will I be able to join and play games with either of these devices? I noticed the chat system was looking for Java :(

Typically, how long does a game last? And does it work similarly to live play, or does it more likely resemble play by mail? The reason that I ask, is that I might have a couple of hours here and there where I could log in, but generally not all day :(

Rapid fire answers:

I never use the chat here.  Most users don't.

How long they last is a thing of some contention, there's a high attrition rate but generally if it doesn't die in the first 2 or 3 months they can go for a while, and there's some on site that are years old.

It's definitely way closer to PBEM than playing it live.  There's some games that can go pretty fast on site, but most don't, but then again I look for things that match my personal pace, I have a highly variable work schedule so some days I can check several times and some days I can check once or twice if I'm lucky.  I try to key all my games to the slowest pace so I can always keep up.

The catch will be finding games with the right pace.  There are plenty on site that only update 1/day or 2-3 times per week.  I don't know how good you are at typing on your Ipad or if you have a plug in keyboard for it, but you might want to avoid the writing intensive games some people do.

There's all kinds though, I'm in some that update every day or even twice a day sometimes, and I'm in some that only update 1/week.  It's all about the participants just keeping a slow and steady pace that's sustainable for them even when life gets busy.

In reply to drewalt (msg # 2):

Perfect, thank you, yes I have a Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad so typing isn't really an issue for me. The game speed sounds perfect though, Sometimes (like this Wednesday for example) I have basically all day in a hotel with nothing to do so live pace would be great but then other times I can only log on in the evening so the once per day type games will work great for that.

I already have a character ready to go (unless the DM's need to tweak it of course) is there somewhere on the site that I can input my character details?

I also have two backup characters in the back of my mind ;)

Each GM and/or game may have their own rules for characters. Not just setting, but game system as well. There are no site-wide characters here. Might I suggest practicing with the search function at the bottom of the main page, and seeing the wide range of games being run here?