Hello all,
So I am looking to start an experiment, and I wanted to see if anyone was interested in giving it a go.
After some discussion with Jeremy Downey, I am interested in a game of Masks run through Slack, as a play by post. I was hoping to find 3 or 4 more people who are interested in jumping in.
Caveats. I am new to Masks, though not the genre or PbtA. I can’t promise it won’t have a couple rough spots as we work out details and such. But I think the Slack environment would work great for PbP, especially since it has a dice rolling feature you can add to it.
If you might be interested, let me know, and I can invite you onto the slack channel for discussion.
Thanks!
Sounds interesting. What’s Slack?
Hi Theo Brinkman. Slack is a desktop computer/mobile app than was originally intended for small teams of people to use for discussion and collaboration, probably in a work setting. But it always better in my opinion to turn such things to gaming!
With slack, you have conversations at IM speed, with a whole team or just directed between individuals. You can upload and share files for the team to access (like character sheets). You can have several different discussion groups, called channels, where different topics can be discussed.
It is almost like a message board that can function in real time. It can be set so you receive notifications when new posts are made. And people can also directly message each other through the interface.
I think it would be pretty great for PbP.
I envision it working as thus. Each PC would get their own channel, where specific character stuff can be discussed. We will also have specific channels for locations. For example, the library that is important to the PCs would be a location. When a PC is at a location, they would simply join the relevant channel, and take part in the game happening there.
Direct messaging between characters can represent texting teammates in different places.
We would also keep a general OOC channel for discussion game stuff.
here is a link for slack to get an idea of what it is.
slack.com – Slack: Where work happens
So, I GMed a game of Masks using Google Docs and Hangouts (for chat), so the basics seem fair. That said, I’m not sure the idea of having specific locations be channels is all that great… It’d be an absolute pain to catch up on what’s happened, or even follow what’s going on if people are split up. It’d probably be better to just have a main game channel, then split-off channels for if/when the party splits.
But who knows. Maybe it’d work out.
I am willing to try. How can I join this game?
Hi Rafael Sant’Anna Meyer . i will need your email address so i can send you an invite to the slack group. If you can message it to me, I will add you in.
Thanks for giving it a go!
What your intended posts per week rythm. I know that it can vary, but what’s the required minimum?
David Walker my email is eavatar@gmail.com
thanks for the interest and comments so far, everyone. it is greatly appreciated.
Gustavo Campanelli – I think I would like to ask players to commit to 2 posts a week. I hope with that we will be able to keep a good narrative flow going. As MC, I intend to post more than that, trying to respond to player posts when possible. I anticipate trying to post once a day as MC, provided there is a player post to respond to.
Rafael Sant’Anna Meyer, I have sent you a slack invite this morning. Keep your eye open for it!
Greg Trent – Thanks for the feedback! Being kinda new to the PbP thing, it is good to hear from people who have done it before. A general channel where the main action happens, with interlude channels for split party action could be the best.
So here is another thought, mainly toward handling more or less active players. How do you think things like flashbacks work out in PbP. I am thinking it would be a way for players who want to post more to get more game in, while allowing players who can only post twice a week to not get left out. Any thoughts?
I’d being will to join up if you would have me.
Jack Reilly that is awesome. I’d be glad to have you aboard. I just need your email to invite you to slack.
I sent a private message with my email in it. Did you get it?
I sent a private message as well. Or private post or whatever you want to call it.
Gustavo Campanelli, Jack Reilly – Invites are sent. Glad to have you guys aboard! Now we are up to 4 players plus MC, i think we have a good number to get going. If anyone else is interested, please post up and let me know.
Alright, I’m in as weirdgamer.
Hey, is it too late to jump in?
Hey Jeremy Johnson. I think you are making it in under the wire! We are under way with preliminary character development. So if you don’t mind jumping on it kinda quick, welcome aboard. I will send a private post to you. respond with your email, and i will send you the slack invite.
And I’m is as gedece AKA Major Tom.
How has this experiment worked out? Any chance I can observe? (I figure I missed the ball on joining, but I’m familiar with Slack and am curious whether it’s a workable format.)
So far it’s working great. I find the subchannels work perfectly for the different purposes, but we are finishing character creation and relationships. It remains to be seen how it handles actual play.
Hi Joanne Tang! So far, I couldn’t be happier with the way it is working. As Gustavo Campanelli said, we are still doing character creation and background, but we have been working some RP into that, mainly through doing the backgrounds as sort of an interview process.
We are getting ready to kick off storytelling this week, and i couldn’t be happier. Some lessons learned so far.
1. The pace moves fast! Slack allows for some great communication. There are times where it is a real time conversation, where multiple people are riffing in real time. there are times where someone will post, and the conversation moves a little slower as people pop in when they can. Overall, I like the conversation tone.
2. I feel like the game will also move at a more conversational pace than most play by post. Most play by post I have seen have been driven by longer, more in depth posts, done less frequently. I feel as if this will be driven by shorter, more conversational posts. I like it, but I think it could be difficult for people who are used to a more traditional PbP.
3. Most problems have been due to my inexperience with running online games. I did not have a fillable playbook ready (mainly because I didn’t think of it). And I have been kind of learning how to MC the PbS game as we go. Fortunately, I have some of the most creative players I have seen in this game, so I am truly lucky.
4. The tool has really enabled the players to collaborate and come up with some interesting and interconnected backstories. I really love how the team has shaped up.
Overall, a great experience. I don’t think it will be an issue to invite you in to take a look at what we are doing. I asked the group to make sure it is cool with them, but either way, I will keep updating the G+ community with the results of the experiment. But so far, so good!
Joanne Tang I think a big part of what makes it workable is our dice rolling bot. It responds to commands to roll dice, giving us tried and true random numbers. Once you have the dice out of the way, everything else is entirely conversational.