Hello all!
I’m new to Worlds in Peril, and I’m about to run a game completely in chat (Hangouts, text only). I have some experience with Dungeon World (I’ve edited the Hebrew, at vanor.co.il), but never actually ran a game; this is also my first Worlds in Peril game, and my first chat game!
So I’d love to hear any advice you guys might have, especially on how to keep the conversation going in a text-based medium. I’m concerned about slow-typers missing their chance to engage during a quickly developing scene.
Hmm, I’ve never ran a purely chat-based game before, but I can give some suggestions that apply broadly, I think.
1) As the EIC, you are the moderator of the conversation and lead it. You’ll be the one giving the situations out, and asking people what they do, so if you see someone maybe not engaging as much then make sure to put the spotlight on them, and to direct it to everyone and equally. Let them know what the situation is and address that player’s character asking them “what do you do?” Jump around between players, if someone needs some time you can always jump to another player and come back to another when they’re ready (though I’d only do that if they say they need time, it would kind of suck to be cut off if I was desperately trying to put my piece together only to have it ruined by something another player did.)
2) Maybe assign each player’s character a color, so people can see whether they’re being referenced easily if that’s not too much trouble for you as the EIC.
3) Have their sheets up on the screen for all to see or, at the very least, for you to check out and reference whenever you need to so you can work in their Bonds, powers, etc.
4) If you’re really concerned you might even have multiple things typed up beforehand if you know there is going to be a couple challenges or scenes (particularly to start things off). You can put multiple paragraphs from the viewpoint of each player perhaps, color coded. Not sure how much prep time you have though.
That’s all I can think of right now!
Oh! Maybe try having two chat windows open with everyone if you can, I could see that being helpful if you’ve got a bunch of players. One for only in-character stuff, one for out-of-character stuff.