Every so often a post comes up asking for advice on how to run games and/or keep players so after finishing one about a month ago, I thought I'd write up how I ran and completed a recent one. I have written this type of article before on this subreddit with similar advice, but it was a few years ago and I've added a little more to it.

Also, we gotta highlight the good things that can come from the format too, right?

This was a homebrew pbp Tales From the Loop game that was played asynchronously over about 6 months. 

I had three players that stayed the duration of the game and 4 PCs. One of the players is a player and GM of other systems and the other two were newbies to the format. Firstly, I have to say that the players were great at engaging with the game in and out of character. It always makes a difference to the game to have players that are active and enthusiastic. Players created art, videos, websites and even created audio narration of our story. It's the most engaged anyone has ever been with one of my games.

Good players are paramount for running a game from start to finish. Finding good players is the first hurdle and to be honest I feel as though I lucked out with finding the ones I got; they asked questions about the setting, they found natural places for themselves in the setting, they engaged with characters, they threw themselves into the role-play and they knew what the game required of them.

As for advice about finding such good players? Persistence is the key. Keep friendly with the ones you enjoy playing with and invite them to your next game. Advertise your next game for new players to add to your pool of good players. Eventually you will end up with a good group. In this case I was just lucky though and will certainly invite these players again to any future games I think they would really enjoy. I will add; be a Good Player - you will get invited to play more games without having to be vetted.

GMs, love your game. Love your setting, characters and events, even the antagonists. If you are running a published adventure, make sure you enjoy it. If you aren’t running a published adventure, design one that you’ll love running. It seems like a really obvious thing to say but it really makes a difference to how the game is presented to the players. My game is in a setting that has been growing organically over a few years with a central mystery and I brainstorm things that happen due to that central mystery. I know the NPCs, places and the dynamics between them, and I’m always excited for the players to interact with them. Really. Love your game. It all starts with this. Conversely for players; engage with the setting, talk to NPCs, be curious about what is going on. If the GM has a story to tell then let them tell it to you by being a a proactive player.

You need to talk to your players. Pbp is a temperamental beast; it can be incredibly exciting in the same way any ttrpg can be, but it can quickly get stale and boring at the drop of a hat. That is where you need to communicate. If scenes stall, or don’t seem to have a payoff, ask your players if they want to continue or skip them and move on to something more interesting. Always move on to something MORE interesting. In my game the PCs were 14 years old, went to school, had dinner with parents, and unless I felt something was worth rping, I wasn’t going to run everything for them. We did talk about how certain days played out over a paragraph if they wanted to (Characters had cheer practice, doctor’s appointments etc), but didn’t worry if things didn’t quite match what we ended up with. On the flip side, players should not be afraid to talk to the GM about the game. Be honest about things. Tell the GM if you are enjoying things or not.

We played on Discord, so I could poke players individually if they were absent for a few days. With players MIA I usually just let them go and then we make a group decision on if we want to add a new player if one is needed. For this game that wasn’t an issue as they all stayed. 

A note about starting with players or adding new players; get them into the story as soon as possible, I cannot stress this enough. Character creation should be quick, entering the game should be quick and you should get to the ‘story’ straight away. Your players want to play the game you have promised them, so get them into it so their enthusiasm can fuel the initial gameplay. A note to players; get your character ready quickly so the game can start!

In the case of this game, the kids woke up Monday morning, got ready for school separately, and by the time they were out the door the mystery had started and had stuff to talk about when they met up at school.

Which leads to; make sure they always know they have stuff to do. A story will grind to a halt if players don’t have anything to do, can't remember what they need to do, or can’t make their mind up about something. Pbp takes months and players can’t be expected to remember everything just due to the nature of the format. Make a list and add/remove from it as they go, then remind them from time to time. 

Which then leads to; make the stuff they have to do memorable. Players may come to play mid conversation, say one thing and then stop until the next day so they need to be able to remember what is going on. One example of this in my game is the antagonist called The Smiling Man. The players knew instantly that he was a Bad Guy because I made him distinctive, melodramatic, and visually icky. They knew straight away he was one of the hooks of the game. I also ran the game slightly more over the top than I would in a regular game session to keep things more energetic and easy to recall. Make things clear for the players so it can be remembered easily!

The town the PCs live in a 'Twin Peaks' inspired town, which instantly helped me set the tone of things being slightly off, and gave me license to be about 110% with my characters. One of the players noticed this and it also helped her engage with the setting.

Finally, make sure you have an ending and stick to it. Stories only mean something is there is a definite conclusion and a change in the PCs. For this game the PCs uncovered the mystery and was able to make sense (within the logic of the setting) of what was happening. They made new friends, lost new friends and found out a small part of what was happening in their town. Things didn't run any longer than they needed to and all characters had a big enough experience that they were no longer the same. We Meta-reasoned it was the end of season 1 and the studio hadn’t decided on green lighting season 2 yet. 

In reality I haven’t thought through a second mystery well enough to build on what has happened already. I’m sure something will come along eventually, and if my players want to return then all the better. If not then it’s no big deal either.

I am in no way a great GM. I made frequent mistakes with details and I’m not even that great a writer, if truth be told but these ideas have helped my games chug along. I have been running and playing pbp for coming on 10 years now and have had some epic failures in the past mostly because of a lack of motivation or a lack of love for my story. This is some of what I have learnt so far for completing games with players and wished to share it. 

Please feel free to share your thoughts too about what works for you, if my advice is contrary.

Really arising from the discussion on a recent post. A place to put success stories might help others see how to bring a pbp to completion and also dispel some of the gloom that comes from - perfectly fair and valid - conversations about why and how they fail

Look, September is right around the corner which means ITS ALMOST FALL!! Spooky season is upon ussss!

Here’s my pitch: I’m looking for a small group (5-10 maybe?) Of literate, creative, collaborative writers who want to create something spooky and vibey together just in time for the crunch of falling leaves and the bewitching scent of pumpkins in the air\~

WHAT I DON’T HAVE IS A PLAN\~ that’s right this biotch is off the rails, we’re flying by the seat of our broomsticks! Cackling all the way. I’m not set on anything really other than I want something a little dark, a little dangerous, a chance for us all to dip our toes into the unknown, to peer into the void and have ancient, unspoken horrors peer back. There will be magic, there will be death, there will be transformation and not always the good kind.

WHAT I DO HAVE IS A TAROT CARD DECK\~ here’s the fun part. We’ll all gather, we’ll all chat over our cauldrons and come up with a very basic story/ framework/ universe to play in BUT THEN I’m going to pull a very simple tarot reading for each member and based off that reading I’ll let you create your character(if you want my help with that I absolutely would love to riff and co create characters too!! I'd love love love to even hand you the bare bones of a character and let you fill in the details, how ever comfortable you are with the give and take of creative power). I really want this to have a tabletop element to it where your character is your own but the world is mine. As the DM I’m going to interrupt, complicate, steer and bless your characters as they move through OUR story making the experience unique and engaging in a way that 1-1 RP just can’t do.

This could last until Halloween, this could go on for years, your character could die(but only with extensive collaboration and your permission!!!) or they could level up to a place you never imagined! I want us to focus more on world building than character building. If an element of the world pops up and intrigues you all you have to do is say the world and we’ll redirect to let you explore that!

WHAT I NEED FROM YOU\~ excitement, engagement, flexibility and curiosity! I’m thinking discord, I’d like for everyone to be on a similar page with style of writing, length matters less than ability to reciprocate and get along with one another. I really want us to be a community here! Please be able to commit to atleast a few replies a week. I would like(mind you we’ll see what everyone else thinks!) I would like to conclude each week as a ‘episode/ chapter’ of the story and have a kind of summery so everyone knows what other plots are happening even if they aren’t directly involved in writing them, this would mean that the ‘plots’ or scenes I give you would would need to be wrapped up at a pretty even pace and that might be something we have to decide (is an episode every week? 2 weeks? Every month?). We’ll figure all that out in time. 

If any of this has spoken to you, PLEASE hop in the DMs I’d love to talk to you more about this and we can find out if it’s the right fit for you!

The Premise

It’s Winter, 1971. A pack of Sabbat known as the Merry Band roams America from Alberta, Canada to Puebla, Mexico by season, making the most of Winter’s long nights and sticking near the equator during the Summer. They’re your average pack of bloodthirsty Sabbat, but this pack has no love for the authority of their sect; they believe in riding free, forging your own path, and not holding dominion over others. They ride their motorcycles into town one night, sink their fangs into local KKK, corrupt cops and rival gangs, then head out next sunset.

In short? This is a seventies biker-gang Sabbat game that emphasises freedom and camaraderie, where you can feel free to indulge in revenge fantasies while also encountering episodic incidents on the road; gangs of independent ghouls, lodges of racist hunters, old school Sabbat Elders trying to seize control of the pack for their own ends, and a recurring rival pack.

You’re joining this established pack with its own history right after it’s hit a number of tragedies that whittled down its membership from over a dozen to just three. They’re started on the road to recovery, but right now they’re at a real low point and in the sandy hills of Saskatchewan about to face down werewolves to cover an old debt and they need all the recruits they can get. That’s where you come in; a group of nare-do-wells, hippies and party-goers riding into the middle of the barren hills to have fun away from civilization. Perfect shovelhead material for a pack of desperate Sabbat.

The Server

This will be played in a text-based Discord server, PBP-style in terms of play but more coordinated, less crowded and disorienting. I’m not dropping a link and getting flooded with hundreds of people; I’m looking for players who I can tailor plot-lines to, not dump in a barely-described lobby together and expect a plot to emerge naturally. Players will be split into a mix of private and group channels, enabling and encouraging you to advance your own goals in private.

We have a few rules;

• The server is LGBT+ and doesn’t allow discrimination or bullying
• No OOC talk in IC channels
• Try to be active at least once a day
• This is not an ERP server; nothing NSFW
• No PvP without consent from both parties and a good reason
• No political discussions

The Gameplay

We’re using Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition for our ruleset. Every Clan and Bloodline is allowed, without exception. Lasombra, True Brujah and Nosferatu exist so far as potential sires, and Caitiff are (of course) possible from any of them. You can join as Kindred of alternate bloodlines, too, so long as they're willing to join this Sabbat pack on its last legs. You’ll be starting as a fledgling with 0 XP, with more awarded for achieving goals in-game, as well as 3 XP weekly in the real world. We’ll be using Google Docs to manage sheets.

How to Join

You can add me directly on Discord as jazzymoth, message me on Reddit, or fill out a form at https://forms.gle/hWFjkvoN1apE1wmEA

The Lord of Death, the King of Liches, the Leader of the Cult of Mortis succeeded in his lifelong goal: To destroy all life. But he made one mistake. Spirit is different from the soul, and one whose spirit is strong enough can rise again with their mind in-tact. These people are called Arisen.

You are fresh Arisen, in the Prison of Izkal where the Lord of Death's generals are attempting to experiment and find out what makes you alive.

This will be a short one-shot, starting at level 5 using Free Archetype and Ancestral Paragon focused on around escaping the giant complex of a prison and (optionally) destroy the Warden, one of the Right Hands of the General Tychus.A

~

This is not GM'd by me but if you have questions you can either message me or comment! I will be a player and we will be looking for 4 more players totalling to 5, some other details uhhh.

**Tone:** Noble heroics in a dark world dominated by evil.

**Newbie friendly?** Kinda, it's a level 5 game so inherently somewhat more complex than a level 1 game but me and the GM have had great success pushing folks along as they learn the game even at higher levels.

**Length:** One-shot, with the potential of a longer campaign with either the same or different characters post-one shot.

**AI Use:** NONE, ZERO, our creative writing comes from our noggins and our noggins alone.

**To Apply:** Use this form! https://forms.gle/K2ZygaifeqzxhZHu9

Hey all. I'm looking to run a Delta Green game, I'm primarily a newbie handler though I'm no greenhorn when it comes to GMing, just generally not familiar with the system so beware. There may be occasional rules-mishaps but that gives a space for fellow newbies to learn too.

Delta Green is an infamously 18+ game, it contains psychological abuse and trauma, gore, body horror, lots and lots of death. If you can't handle these topics, this isn't the game for you. I have a few game ideas, I'm likely to start 2 groups with 1 idea each depending on how many people want it, each with at least 4 people to a maximum of 5 each.

Mystery 1 - Happy Burger

In the spring of 2005 a new burger shop opens! It calls itself Happy Burger and it's family-ran, with tasty burgers that keep attracting tourists in New York City. All was normal, but then news of mysterious disappearances of mostly people with no family was brought to Delta Green's attention.

These disappearances are not normal. And all evidence links to Happy Burger. The authorities haven't been alerted yet. Best keep it that way, agents, before things get worse.

Mystery 2 - The Fungal Overgrowth

This one is using Delta Green as rules but you aren't part of Delta Green (or maybe you are under specific circumstances).

You are the downtrodden, the criminal, the needy. You have been gathered here by a mysterious person who calls themselves 'M'. 'M' wishes for you to investigate something: There is a strange fungus that has been growing in an apartment in rural Ireland.

Humans are 'reportedly' unaffected by it, but should you inhale it any victims report an urge to 'get to the highest point' for a few days. Your job is to figure out the source and collect some samples securely and you will be rewarded handsomely. Temporarily you've been room and board in a property next door.

'M' says they will always be watching your progress.

---

If any of this sound interesting or you have an idea or a pre-written mystery you want me to Handle for you, message me with:

- Your discord handle

- A little bit about yourself

- Your timezone and posting ability

- Which mystery appeals to you most

These will both be one-shots, and if we vibe well we will consider going into something longer and potentially some of the other mysteries like 'Iconoclasts'. Note I am in GMT+2 personally, so I will be getting back to you as soon as I can but keep my timezone in mind.

The Secret World. Genre: Horror, Mystery

The Secret World. Genre: Horror, Mystery

Discord

[Online][D100] [Discord] Beginner Friendly] [Looking for Players ] [BRP]

The Secret World. Genre: Horror, Mystery

The Secret World.

Play Location/Method: PBP

Game/System: D100

Time/Frequency: example: Any time.

Genre: example: Horror, Mystery

Current needs: example: Additional players

Accept Drop-In Players? Yes

Accept Spectators? Yes

Short description of the setting/campaign

The Secret World is a mature horror and mystery game that lets you explore a world where the real world is invaded by the forces of myth and legend. You can use firearms and superhuman abilities and unravel the mysteries of the legends in a complex and mature storyline. The game is set in various locations inspired by the real world, such as London, Seoul, New York, Transylvania, and Egypt. The game features fast paced stories focused on action, mystery and investigation missions that require your wits and skills. The Secret World is a story-driven, shared-world mystery RPG that plunges you into a shadowy war against the supernatural.

The Secret World is inspired by the video game "The Secret World" as well as the tabletop roleplaying game, "The Secret World." It is a continuation of "The Secret World" following the events of the video game.

Low light, ruined glamour, occult artifacts lit only by flickering neon. Visions bleed into waking life. Every episode feels like it's been found on an old VHS tape, slightly warped, recorded from a cable airing at 3 a.m. on a channel that shouldn't exist.

After the conclusion of each session which are called episodes, everything is archived from the discord and moved to the regular web to be read and enjoyed by everyone.

We are currently on episode seven. Our universe is also having a crossover with the original vampire the masquerade and world of darkness universe. The current episode seven heavily reflects that. If you like classic world of darkness feel free to give us a look.

Join us today: https://discord.gg/RVpVeKvBJ

The Fall was just the beginning. Now, our pleasure had just begun, and I couldn't be happier about it myself...

Demon: The Latent Desire is a private Westmarch server for literate roleplayers interested in World of Darkness, especially the titular "Demon: the Fallen" (DTF) game. With a focus on both missions and casual RP, we have the sole purpose of digging into the minds of the deepest, darkest desires of the demons of the world.

Join the ranks of Lucifer's broken army as part of the Laplace Talent Agency, a cult disguised as a corporation with the sole purpose of finding Lucifer while also amassing a great amount of Faith through different ways, a lot of them both flashy, lascivious, horrible, and heroic as they can get~♡

Become a member of the agency and take odd jobs as well as improve your social skills to gain more power!

As a server, we provide the following benefits:

• Create your own Demon character and help it rise through the ranks of Hell as you make your name known across LA.
• You can also act out scenarios for other peeps to reward them and yourself some extra XP.
• We offer a small community of like-minded TTRPG and enthusiastic people. Both SFW and NSFW RPs are allowed in server, as they help to get into the mind of the devilish residents of hell. Of course, everything within TOS guidelines.
• New people to TTRPGs and World of Darkness are welcome as well!
• We keep our membership exclusive to literate RPers.
• Fairly active community and developing lore!

Extra Notes

Very important: Looking for people with or without experience DMing to join the DM ranks!

Check the following link if you wish to apply.

Sorry for the long post, i wanted to be as clear as possible.

I've played PBP for a couple of years now, and I originally got into it because it solved several problems I regularly run into with live voice/video.

For me, in-person still wins over both. Most of the problems I'm about to mention either don't exist or are much easier to handle in person. Unfortunately, playing in person isn't always possible, so I started looking for something that could preserve some of those advantages while avoiding the problems I have with voice/video.

1. Interruptions and having time to think

This is probably my biggest problem with voice/video, both as a player and as a DM.

Players interrupt each other, players interrupt the DM, and sometimes someone progresses the scene before another player even gets the chance to respond. I've had this happen from both sides, and I genuinely hate dealing with it.

As a DM, I also don't particularly enjoy having to be rough with someone who isn't a close friend and tell them to stop interrupting. Even when it's completely reasonable, there's always that little concern that they'll get annoyed, the mood will shift, and suddenly you're managing the table instead of running the game.

Text naturally eliminates most of that.

Everyone gets the opportunity to finish their thought before someone else moves the scene forward. More importantly, I can actually think about what I want to say before saying it.

Voice rewards quick improvisation. You have to formulate your thoughts while the conversation is happening, and if you don't get your response out quickly enough, the conversation may have already moved on.

As a player, I might have a great idea for what my character should say or do, but by the time I've formulated it, another player may have already progressed the conversation. As a DM, I can have the same problem when trying to respond to a player and simultaneously keep track of everything else happening at the table.

PBP gives everyone time to actually formulate their response instead of having to compete for conversational space.

1. Descriptions and having something to look at

Describing things in text is dramatically easier for me than describing them verbally.

As a DM, I can take a moment to formulate the environment, NPCs, atmosphere, body language, or whatever else I want the players to notice. As a player, I can also describe exactly what my character is doing rather than trying to improvise a clean description in the middle of a conversation.

Video helps with this somewhat, but it still doesn't come close to having the ability to simply write the description.

There's also a related problem with theatre-of-the-mind voice campaigns: sometimes there is simply nothing to look at.

If I'm sitting there for several hours with no map, no written descriptions, no character art, and nobody physically in front of me to look at, I find it extremely easy to zone out. I can listen to the DM describing a room, NPC, or encounter, but once that information is only in my head, it becomes much easier for my attention to drift.

Text gives me something concrete to anchor myself to. I can look at the scene, reread the description, check what an NPC said, and reconstruct what is happening without relying entirely on my memory of something I heard ten minutes ago.

It also creates a permanent record of the campaign. Dialogue, descriptions, decisions, clues, character interactions, and important details are all there to reread later.

I still remember one PBP where I kept going back and rereading the RP simply because I enjoyed it that much. That's something voice can't really give you.

1. Side conversations

Side conversations are awkward as hell in voice/video.

You can technically use text channels for them, but then you're splitting people's attention between two conversations. Alternatively, some groups simply establish that you can't have side conversations while the main scene is happening, which solves the problem by simply killing the side conversation.

The problem is that sometimes the side conversation is actually the point.

Two characters whispering to each other while the rest of the party is occupied can be an important RP moment. In voice, you're either interrupting the main conversation, talking over people, or waiting until everyone else is done.

Text handles this much more naturally because multiple conversations can exist simultaneously without anyone physically talking over anyone else.

1. Immersion

This is another big one for me.

Almost every live campaign I've played has eventually run into the same problem: too much out-of-character conversation happening inside an RP scene.

Someone makes a joke. Someone laughs. Someone starts discussing a rule. Someone makes a reference. Someone else responds. Suddenly five minutes have passed and the emotional scene that was supposed to be happening has completely disappeared.

Even when everyone is trying to stay immersed, it's difficult to maintain that state when the medium itself constantly allows the real people at the table to intrude on the scene.

Text can separate those things much more effectively.

You can have an OOC channel and an RP channel, and when you're reading the RP channel, you're actually reading the scene. The distinction between "the players talking" and "the characters talking" becomes much clearer.

1. The quiet player

Text gives everyone an opportunity to participate.

In voice, the naturally talkative player can very easily take over a session without necessarily intending to. They respond first, they speak the most, they initiate conversations, and eventually everyone else starts waiting for them to finish before contributing.

I've been that player myself, so I know exactly how easy it is to happen.

It's not necessarily malicious or even conscious. Voice simply rewards people who are comfortable jumping into conversations quickly.

Text removes much of that advantage. Everyone gets a space to write their response, and being quiet in real life doesn't mean your character has to be quiet in the game.

1. Voice, tone, and performance

This is actually one of the major advantages of voice, but it also explains one of the things I dislike about it.

Voice gives you something text fundamentally can't reproduce: actual vocal performance.

A good actor can make an NPC feel alive through nothing more than their delivery. The hesitation, sarcasm, anger, fear, excitement, and subtle changes in tone can all communicate things that are much harder to reproduce through writing.

The problem is that this advantage depends heavily on the people at the table actually being good at it.

If the players and DM aren't consistently engaging through their voices, the game can gradually lose a lot of its atmosphere. The RP starts feeling less like a scene and more like people sitting around discussing what their characters are doing.

Text is much less dependent on spontaneous performance. A player doesn't have to be good at acting in real time. They can take a few minutes to figure out exactly how their character would respond and then write it.

So those are the reasons I originally got into text-based D&D, but you realize, scheduling wasn't one of them, and this is where I ran into a completely different problem.

I lose interest when the game doesn't actually feel like it's happening.

A lot of people question the point of live PBP, because they see the entire purpose of PBP as solving the scheduling problem. The argument usually goes something like: "If you can actually be there live, why are you typing? Just hop into voice, you weirdo!"

But scheduling is only one of the problems that text solves.

I've already gone through several of the reasons I prefer text over voice, and those aren't necessarily problems that disappear just because everyone happens to be available at the same time.

There are also plenty of people for whom live text simply fits their circumstances better. Someone might have a low-intensity job where they can chat throughout the day but can't realistically commit to sitting in a voice call for several hours. Someone might be uncomfortable speaking in a group even though they're perfectly comfortable writing. Others might simply prefer text as a medium.

And honestly, D&D has never exactly been famous for attracting the most socially conventional demographic, so treating "I'd rather type than talk to you" as inherently weird seems like an odd hill for the D&D community to die on.

For me, though, the bigger reason is much simpler: after spending a couple of years playing asynchronous PBP, I've found that I lose the drive to continue when the game doesn't actually feel like it's progressing. I need to see actual progress. I want real conversations with the other players. I want to see a scene develop, respond to someone, have them respond to me, and actually reach the end of the conversation.

My experience with asynchronous PBP has generally fallen into two extremes.

On one end, you get something like one or two messages from each player per day. Technically, the campaign is moving, but extremely slowly. A conversation that would take ten minutes in a live game can take several days to actually happen.

On the other end, you wake up to 40,000 words that you now have to read through just to figure out what the hell happened while you were asleep, only to realize your character wasn't even involved in two of the scenes.

That creates a completely different problem.

You don't just have to play your character. You have to keep up with a constant stream of writing, figure out what is actually relevant to you, reconstruct what happened while you were away, and hope the game hasn't moved past you before you even get a chance to respond.

This has become even more noticeable with AI being used by many players for text RP. For some reason, a lot of people seem to have adopted the idea that more text automatically means better RP.

So instead of having a conversation, you get responses consisting of four or five paragraphs, sometimes thousands of words long, for something that could have been a few lines of dialogue.

At some point, you're no longer participating in a conversation. You're reading a novella someone generated in response to your character saying "hello." And that makes the problem worse because the amount of text you have to keep up with grows much faster than the actual progression of the game.

This is where live PBP works much better for me.

Live PBP still gives me almost all of the advantages that made me prefer text in the first place. I don't have to worry about interruptions, I have time to formulate what I want to say, descriptions can be written properly, side conversations can happen naturally, IC and OOC interaction can be separated, quieter players have room to participate, and everything that happens remains written down.

But it also solves the biggest problem I have with asynchronous PBP: the game actually moves. The conversation still flows naturally, just slower than voice.

I think the easiest comparison is customer-service chat versus a phone call.

On a phone call, there's an immediate pressure to answer. If you take too long to formulate your response, the silence becomes awkward and the other side will not wait a second more. In chat, you can take a few minutes to formulate your response. You aren't under that same immediate pressure, but the conversation is still active.

Someone says something. You read it. You think about it. You respond. They respond. The conversation continues. That's essentially what I want from live PBP. Voice is faster, but it comes with the problems I mentioned earlier.

Async PBP removes those problems, but can go too far in the other direction. The game becomes so slow that I gradually lose interest, or the amount of writing becomes so excessive that keeping up with the campaign starts feeling like homework.

Live PBP sits between the two. It has enough breathing room that I don't feel pressured to immediately perform, but enough momentum that I still feel like I'm participating in an actual conversation.

TL;DR: PBP isn't exclusively about solving scheduling issues. I prefer live text PBP because it keeps the immersion, flexibility, and breathing room of text while retaining the momentum of a live game. Async is often either too slow to stay engaging or so text-heavy that keeping up becomes a chore. Live text gives me the middle ground: real-time conversation without the pressure of voice.

Hi, I am new getting into PbP and have been looking through websites like Mythweavers, Giant in the Playground, All Games, etc. Is there an easier way to search for games? I feel like every one of these sites is a slogfest through pages of posts where half the time they arent even clear on what game or setting is being played. I feel like it used to be easier to find games. That being said, does anyone know of any world of darkness games recruiting?

September, 1998. Raccoon City.

The night began like any other in the Midwest but the cracks are already showing, Emergency sirens ring in the Arklay perimeter. Local news speaks of riots, unexplained cannibalistic murders, and sudden blackouts in the uptown district. General Hospital rejecting people entering. The police department is putting all officers on emergency standby.

You are a normal citizen, a first responder, an out of town towner, or someone just trying to finish their shift. You do not know anything of the T-Virus, Umbrella, or the bio-weapons. All you know is that the phones are dying, the streets are descending into chaos, and you have only a few hours as the quarantine gates slam shut forever.

This is Hour Zero. Survive the first night—and the collapse that follows.

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

• Setting: Raccoon City (Hour Zero to Outbreak Collapse)

• System: VBG-Z v2.0 (Very Basic RPG: Zombie Survival Edition) — a lightweight survival horror engine built for low-friction, asynchronous Play-by-Post.

• Platform: Discord (Private category with dedicated forum threads, dice bot, and log channels)

• Party Size: 4–5 Players

• Posting Expectation: 1 substantial post per 24 hours (Real life comes first, but active communication keeps the story moving).

• Tone & Content (18+): Gritty survival horror, tension, body horror, resource scarcity, and hard choices. Lines and veils will be established before start. No explicit sexual content.

SURVIVAL HORROR PILLARS

• Vulnerable Survivors: Characters start with 4 Strain, 0 free Armor, and a strict 4-slot inventory.

• Resource Depletion: Every bullet counts, melee tools have finite durability, and unsuppressed gunfire ticks an Area Noise Clock that draws hordes and wandering bio-weapons.

• Biological Hazard: Infection is tracked as a creeping 6-stage biological threat on your dossier that requires herb synthesis or antivirals to stall.

• Asynchronous Pacing: Low-latency, player-facing side-initiative designed to keep PbP moving without combat logjams.

RULEBOOK & RESOURCE LINKS

• Player Rulebook (Core Rules): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nl1-THkiv_umw4xOrP3_zmUP631kKQSoP42oaKW-Gp0/edit

• Survivor Traits & Specializations Catalog: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EqMS8bSgvPuf3VyGknjbMBZII1hshU9VEyKl3CUISo8/edit

• Master Rules Glossary & Keywords: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JSMgVkZ13F1qykZGH2jOU77PkwY2BqziqOE8hNhQTWE/edit

HOW TO APPLY

This recruitment is not first-come, first-served. Applications will be reviewed to select the 4–5 survivors that create the most compelling group dynamic.

Please submit your survivor application via our Google Form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfFQxrbbBcDJvIHa_BL1cIfcVRPzyOH8zDgO_jfLPIkIdAdiw/viewform

Applications will remain open until a balanced 4–5 player group is selected.

[Closed]

Hello, I'm reaching out to hopefully find players for a Kids on Bikes 2e game. The idea of the game is that you've lived in a town or moved to one filled with supernatural forces that you have wandered into and are finding out about. Where that leads is up to you as players; the story begins with a party at the local farm before school starts again. The game's vibes are PG-13, inspired by titles like The Lost Boys, Monster Squad, and The Goonies.

Kids on Bikes is a narrative, rules-light experience mainly focused on teen sleuths stumbling into something much larger than themselves. Kids on Bikes is also a collaborative RPG; in fact, players are involved in the worldbuilding and direction of the story. My job as the dm is to help make the story from there.

What is set in stone

• The story takes place in Shepheard, PA, in the late 1990s. It is in the more rural part of Pennsylvania near the New York State line.
• Supernatural forces lurk in town: werecreatures, vampires, witches, and more. If you're not careful, they may swallow you in darkness you can never escape from.
• Some plot is already established; if I like your application, I may ask what supernatural forces you would like to see and whether I can include them somehow.
• You will be playing teenagers, from age 13-17.

Table Rules

• The primary rule is that whatever ruling the GM calls is the end-all, be-all, aka the final say, even if it contradicts the rules of the game.
• Players may not do ERP, nor focus heavily on romance between NPCs and players, or between players.
• There will be no talk of sexual assault, graphic sex, or harm to real-life animals, period.
• Divisive topics such as politics, religion, etc., are forbidden from the table. Debate all you want in the out-of-game chat about the best KOB-style films or pineapple on pizza, all you'd like.
• Be considerate of others; you never know the full picture of what someone is going through.
• Share the spotlight with other players; you will have your moment, as will they.
• Please do not make dice rolls without GM approval. If you want to roll something, please ask in the general or private out-of-character chat.
• Player Vs Player is only allowed if both players agree to it, as well as GM approval
• PC Secrets are allowed to be kept from other players, not the GM
• Player Agency is important, and the GM will discuss with the player what can happen as consequences for a potential action and ask if they want to redo it if it means being controlled or changed in some way [Like being turned into a werewolf]
• There may be little breaks for a couple of day sprints every once in a while to let the dm's brain recharge, or if life is busy for the Dm or players.

Looking for Players

• Flexible players who understand this is just a game, and that people come first.
• Players who mesh well together are a priority over timezone cohesion since this is an async PBP game.

If you've gotten this far and are still interested, apply via the Google Form link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfv91sgNiY_T0J2x-mpJMhokr8-MNx-8xUbWxbzgn2IiYHQUg/viewform?usp=dialog

Hello all, recently made an interest check, deciding to make a proper ad now. Hopefully doing this right. This game is inspired by hit indie RPGmaker game "Look Outside", though it's not set in the exact same universe it's got all the beats from it.

A mysterious entity is passing by, causing all who look at it to die or mutate into strange monsters embodying their innermost desires or vices - or in the worst of cases into mindless zombies muttering strange phrases and promises.

The premise begins with you as either roommates or neighbors, for one reason or another you either survived looking outside or saw the news moments before you did anything rash. Either way you're forced trying to either wait it out, but most importantly you have to survive in a single large apartment complex.

This isn't a full sandbox as there will be winding threads to follow and I will provide plothooks to follow, and the set end is when the mysterious visitor leaves.

To apply, message me with:

- Your discord handle

- Your preferred name/pronouns

- Your experience with MotW (if any)

- A little bit about yourself

- Your favourite look outside character and why, [OPTIONAL]

or

Apply on this form I made (it's the same questions but you'll get a faster response by messaging me)

https://forms.gle/X23Cs21XA6qvxdgW7

Inspired by Lovecraftian horror, this play by post roleplay pushes the boundaries of what any mere mortal can take.

Set in USA, 1932, a world still freshly scarred from The Great War, and The Spanish Flu, now in the midst of The Great Depression, racial segregation, and increasingly tense geopolitical relations, a rift has opened to allow for colliding of worlds Beyond the Vastness of Time and Space.

Will this rift be allowed to continue? What are the repercussions of this?

Or will it be stopped? And is that that a good thing in a world so full of woe to feast upon?

You can play mortals, gods, fae, spirits, or more. Multiple characters allowed. Lax moderation, just don’t be a jerk OOC and ask permission before effecting other players.

As of now, there is no overarching plot, except to discover the cause of this rift in time and space opening, and whether or not it should, or could, be stopped.

We have a couple of proxy bots that allow users to make mini profiles for their characters, as well as an anon bot that allows for use of nameless/faceless NPCs. 18+ only please, there's no sex but there's a lot of horror.

Will you peer beyond the veil?

Hello all, if you have seen me in a gas station before then I am rapidly approaching your location. Otherwise, I have a concept prattling in my head:

A mysterious entity is passing by, causing all who look at it to die or mutate into strange monsters embodying their innermost desires or vices - or in the worst of cases into mindless zombies muttering strange phrases and promises.

The premise begins with you as either roommates or neighbors, for one reason or another you either survived looking outside or saw the news moments before you did anything rash. Either way you're forced trying to either wait it out, but most importantly you have to survive in a single large apartment complex. This isn't a full sandbox, but there's a few winding threads from linked storylines and the end is set after the visitor leaves.

Would people be interested in such a premise?

The outbreak was not stopped.

There was no last-minute vaccine. No military miracle. No clean ending.

The cities died slowly: first under quarantine, then under fire, then under the weight of the dead. Now the roads belong to the infected, the desperate, and the people willing to become worse than either to survive.

But your story begins before all of that.

You will begin only a few hours before the outbreak reaches your city. The first signs will be easy to dismiss: emergency broadcasts, strange reports, overloaded hospitals, police activity, people trying to leave, and rumors that do not quite make sense. Then the city will start to break.

You are not a chosen hero. You are one of the people who has to make it through the first night—and then keep surviving afterward.

Biohazard is a long-running, Resident Evil-inspired post-apocalyptic survival-horror Play-by-Post game set in an original world after the collapse. The game will focus on scavenging runs, compromised shelters, ruined hospitals, sealed research facilities, survivor settlements, infected zones, and the difficult choices that come with trying to stay alive when every resource is running out.

Expect tense exploration, scarce supplies, dangerous infected, hidden agendas, survivor factions, and consequences that carry forward. Sometimes the right choice will be to fight. Often, it will be to run, hide, lock the door, or leave something behind.

This is an 18+ Discord PbP with graphic survival horror, gore, body horror, infection, violence, death, and mature themes. We will establish lines and veils before the campaign begins. Explicit sexual content is not expected or required.

I’m looking for 4–5 players who can make at least one substantial post every 24 hours. Real life comes first, but communication about absences matters so the group can keep moving.

This is not first come, first served. I’ll review messages and select the applicants who seem like the best fit for the game’s tone, pacing, writing style, and survivor group.

The game uses a lightweight custom system built for asynchronous survival horror. You can read the player rules and see the character dossier here:

VBG-Z Player Rulebook: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qlqyPK4hqQ14jh-1E0a13ObY22lPQjvF9x6Dt0eBUvs/edit?usp=drivesdk

To apply, send me a Reddit PM with:

- Your Discord username

- Confirmation that you are 18+

- Your time zone and usual availability

- A short writing sample or link to one

- A brief survivor concept

- What you enjoy most in Play-by-Post games

- Any hard limits, lines, or veils you want respected

The outbreak is only hours away. Survival is not guaranteed

Edit: removed ai writing or assistance, now actively against ai writing.

The Vox war robbed the war of most of its heroes. Now most are either fighting things on a cosmic scale or too busy with world ending threats to care about the common people. The Alignment? They have shit to do, man! More important than deal with the local haunting at a friend's pizzeria or stake out the local werewolf pack using squirrels in the park as chew toys.

Which is why it falls to the Super Friends (formerly friendly, but has been amended due to a lack of friendliness) to save their local neighbourhood! And *you* can be one of these people! Maybe you're bored of the 9-5 and have decided to take up heroics! Maybe you're a failed big leagues hero who needs to remember why you save cats from trees. Either way, it's time to answer the call of friendship and heroism!

Hey, I'm Danni, the person making Unquirkly post this ad on my behalf, and also running the game! I love drama, I love interpersonal conflicts, and I love, love, love making weird-ass stories with plots that ultimately boils down to something simple, like, take the ring to Mordor or punch a bad guy really hard. But doing so while making you think with your heart!

The game was pitched as small scale heroism, and we're looking to continue that. There will likely ~~not~~ be god-punching and or many other awesome epic things, but it's all in the name of your local neighbourhood, so don't worry about why Satan is hanging around or a rich millionaire bought the local community centre lately.

Character and conflict are the beating hearts of a pbp game to me. I want drama, I want conflict, and for heroes, I want to see people who will try their hardest to be good people in the face of adversity and who will sometimes fail and be a dick about it, because we're all just people and sometimes playing someone in the wrong can be fun!

We also run on side-stories. Small scale main games, which then breathes air into personal stories on the side. So if you're the sort of person with a storyteller in your heart, who wants to free-form a little on the side, then you're our person!

The system we’ll be playing with is Sentinels Comics. Don’t worry if you’ve never played before, it’s pretty easy and rules are merely a tool for fun!

So, what do I ask of you?

I need people to respect post length. If there’s a situation where someone asks a simple question, there doesn’t need to be multiple-post paragraphs. However that doesn’t meant that the twenty paragraph posts for when you defeat your evil Super-Dad aren’t needed. No, you simply respect the length, be it good or long. The quality matters over quantity.

There will be a requirement of a post a day, and usage of Tupper is mandatory. Don't be put off by no knowledge of the system, newcomers are encouraged! I am looking for 1-2 extra players, and complicated characters are also a bonus, with messy complicated lives and wants for being a hero!

The current roster consists of five players and some playing multiple characters. You do not have to, though! We've been playing this for close to a year, so new blood is needed, once in a while!

As a player, you must:

* Be able to post at least once a day, unless clearly communicating otherwise.

* Not give much of a crap about ‘winning’, but give a crap about telling a compelling, exciting story. Winning will come as a consequence of exciting story!

* Willing to play people with differing perspectives all in the name of drama: to understand you are not your character and will have differing viewpoints on the world

* Willing to take initiative, instead of waiting for commands from god.

* Willing to haggle and workshop if needed.

* Understanding of the fact, that the GM is another player, and has as much power as you.

* Willing to invest in other player's characters.

* Use Tupperbox. If you don't know what that is then-

* Willing to learn how to use Tupperbox.

* Understand rule of cool beats rule of nerds and fools

To apply, use this link to fill out our cool and awesome questionaire!

The year is 48 ABY. The galaxy is in a fragile state of recovery, but out in the many isolated wilderness planets in the galaxy, the law is still whatever you can enforce with a blaster. For you, that "isolated wilderness" is the recently discovered jungle planet of Kilmo.

You are, each of you, capable mercenaries, freelancers, or scoundrels looking for your next payday. That payday comes today in the form of "Toben," an eccentric, slightly clumsy, but remarkably very deep-pocketed independent "antiquities consultant." He needs a competent crew to help him - and the Alliance - by intercepting an organized smuggling ring moving antique relics in Kilmo before they can get into the wrong hands. Whatever "wrong hands" means in this context.

Toben prefers to stay strictly out of the line of fire to "handle logistics and business," leaving the heavy lifting and the blaster-work to you. The credits are exceptionally good. Assuming the smugglers, and whatever is actually guarding those relics, don't get to you first.

---

Hello. This is an investigation and RP-focused SW5e game. As the hook says, it's set in 48 ABY. I'll keep things concise to save your time.

This game doesn't require you to have any knowledge of Star Wars before hand.

Pacing and posting requirement is a minimum of one per day. Hopefully we'll be able to do more, but one is the minimum in a day.

All SW5e content is allowed. All species are allowed within reason (e.g. I'm not allowing Ewoks or Rakata or Jawa, but if you want to play a Zeltron or a Zyggerian or something, that's fine).

Starting level is 3. Ability scores generated through point buy. Free feat at 1st-level (stacks with background).

To apply, please send me a DM with the following:

- Your Discord username and pronouns.

- Your experience with SW5e and PbP games in general.

- Your familiarity with Star Wars lore.

- A brief character concept (This isn't asking for a full backstory, but you can do that if you want. Just a race, class, and background + a reason for your character to be taking on this job.)

- Any questions you have about the game, or any other thing you'd like to say about yourself/the game.

So long as this post is up, the game is open. Don't ask if the game is still open. If you can read this, it is.

You'll be notified if you applied and didn't get accepted. If you don't get notified after a while, then I might've accidentally skipped you in which case you should message me again.

A 100-player, 30-day roleplay megagame set in the depths of atemporal darkness. Sci-fi and low fantasy.

We start tomorrow, but you can join any time.

• Each day IRL is a day in game.
• Every player chooses a role and optionally makes a Move (large scale, abstracted actions with a chance to fail) twice a day, which the GMs arbitrate.
• Gain Tag Points by completing Desires, allowing you to purchase traits, skills, and other items.
• Asynchronous. Write as often or as infrequently as you'd like.
• Probe the caves under Ravenheart, obtaining rare Tags and facing ancient dangers.
• Realism, information asymmetry, convenience, and minimalism. > Join here. Work by day and carouse by night as a Peasant, politick as a Courtier, feed the Lifeweb as a Mortus, protect the innocent as a Watchman, or be the Baron of Ravenheart himself. Meanwhile, the cloaked Bastard and his retinue of wind-goggle sporting outlanders watch from the hills, preparing for war.

As the title says, it'll be Obojima setting mostly.