PLAY-BY-POST GAMING
Play-by-post gaming (PbP), or Message board role-playing, is a class of games, usually role-playing games, carried out on Internet forums and message boards. This is a niche area of the online roleplaying community which caters to both gamers and creative writers. PbP games are often based on other role-playing games, non-game fiction such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or original settings created and expanded upon by system administrators, moderators and players. This activity is closely related to both interactive fiction and collaborative writing.
Forums are the most common medium for Play-by-Post gaming. Many online forums provide benefits such as online dice rolling, character profiling and game history. Through the online forum players can easily keep track of all aspects of the game, can see what is happening elsewhere and can re-read anything they have previously written. Many online services provide free game hosting for gamemasters.
Format
Play-by-Post games are usually written in the third person perspective. This allows the players and gamemasters to write in the personas of their characters. This is the best way to separate the player character from the person playing the character (the typist). Sometimes online game terms such as OOC (Out of character) or OOG (Out of Game) are used to differentiate character vs. personal posting.
The first message posted onto a thread of that nature is usually one person laying down the scenario, starting a story about their character and inviting others. If successful, the thread then becomes an ongoing story in which players periodically advance the plot by reading the latest reply and then typing a short paragraph or two about what their character does and how the environment changes in response. These replies are often open-ended so that other players can continue.
Depending on the rules established on the forum, roleplaying and story can be pushed forward through moderation by a gamemaster, specific rules (often existing role-playing game systems), or by mutual agreement between players. Role-playing of the latter type does not rely on statistics or visible die, and this can sometimes render combat situations difficult for players used to such props. Any combat is usually written in entirety by one or two players; and in some systems will be allowed to include the actions of another player in their post. Commonly this practice is considered cheating in more established play-by-post games, where players are responsible for their own characters. Any form of this cheating (automatic hits and controlling another player's character) is commonly referred to as "god-modding".
In certain Play-by-post gaming circles larger-scale boards exist where the entire board is devoted to advancing a single storyline, rather than many different stories proceeding in separate threads. They vary in organization, but many include a full set of rules governing roleplaying and combat between players, threads detailing a set storyline (often contributed to by plot-advancing, staff-organized events, or player roleplays), character approval forums, and a full staff with admin(s) and moderators. These types of games then vary from that groundwork; some games go as far as to include a virtual "world" to roleplay in, by cutting up the entire game universe into separate forums, each based on locations within that universe. All games set in a particular setting are played in the corresponding forum.
Many message board based games establish a hierarchy of moderators to manage plot flow and continuity. To keep story threads organised the message board is often organised into forums based on geographical location within the game setting.
Role-playing blog
A variation on play-by-post gaming and message board role-playing, the role-playing blog (RPB) is a type of internet role-playing game in which a story is played out online using posts within a weblog.
Unlike play-by-post gaming or message board role-playing, a role-playing blog is generally restricted to one gaming group, and the blog contains static files such as maps, archives, and character sheets specific for that group.
See also
- PbP articles
- Related topics
External links
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