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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:11 pm
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Lately I've been thinking about some of the issues with the nature of Play by Post style gaming and what of the big problems I've noticed in PbP games without set times for folks to be on and/or the use of voice chatting abilities to speed certain things up is party size. Too few and each member is all the more crucial. Too many and the group hits blocks of waiting on a single member for extended periods of time.
As far as you all go, what do you consider the ideal number of players, despite the fact 4e was balanced around party size of 5.
Personally speaking, I believe the magic number to be four PC's.
Two is rough on the PC's as is. Takes a bit more coordinating of builds, moreso if the game is to feature skill challenges on top of combat. Either/or tends to be perfectly acceptable. If either character has an absence the game is essentially unplayable without them. There's just no way around it, outside of someone else controlling the character.
On the flip side of things, 6 players and more gets to be rather unruly. Lots of coordination is required. Fights are slow. Actual role playing and character building is especially slow. The latter is fine, if the game is based around such things. Hell, slow fights are fine, if the game is role play heavy from the beginning. But, if not or if some of the members are not interested in such things their interests will fade and fast. Losing members is a mixed bag, depending on how vital they were but that's getting into a lot more than I'd like to get into.
Three and five member parties are workable. They're essential 2/6 member parties minus/plus a few calories.
But, with 4 players it's really easy to shore up any issues a party may have, regardless of what's lacking, just about. Some things are impossible to fix, such as natural one's, but that's a moot point.
A lot of this post got lost in my mind as it wandered faster than my fingers could keep up. Just cannot type like I used to. Age has not treated me kindly, that is for certain.
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:26 pm
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:46 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:05 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:40 am
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Dion Necurat If players are being left out, players are more than likely too busy to be playing the game anyway, in which case its up to the DM to discuss with them what's going on and if its worth having their player keep going or not.
Too busy to play, you say?
Let's look at a 24 hour time limit, shall we? Average person will have roughly seven hours of sleep, the majority of D&D players are adults so tack on 8 hour work days, usually with time devoted to getting ready every 'morning'(30mins to an hour), commute to and from work(on average an hour), meals, as well as social lives causing the player to not be around constantly. Taking this and factoring in differences in time schedules and waiting on others so they can take their actions, which has some merit in character building, but is even more necessary in combat 24 hours simply isn't that much time. Three days is more reasonable, for a completely active group of five and even then that could be pushing it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:51 am
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Virulent Lover Dion Necurat If players are being left out, players are more than likely too busy to be playing the game anyway, in which case its up to the DM to discuss with them what's going on and if its worth having their player keep going or not. Too busy to play, you say? Let's look at a 24 hour time limit, shall we? Average person will have roughly seven hours of sleep, the majority of D&D players are adults so tack on 8 hour work days, usually with time devoted to getting ready every 'morning'(30mins to an hour), commute to and from work(on average an hour), meals, as well as social lives causing the player to not be around constantly. Taking this and factoring in differences in time schedules and waiting on others so they can take their actions, which has some merit in character building, but is even more necessary in combat 24 hours simply isn't that much time. Three days is more reasonable, for a completely active group of five and even then that could be pushing it.
72-hour time between checks is simply too much time for a party of five. 24 hours is the minimum I use, and I don't go more than 48 hours. This gives players plenty of time to make their posts. Its a rule I employ for each game I use, and I haven't had too many problems with players missing in that time.
Like I said, it isn't about player size, since ANY number of players can be a hindrance if they aren't active.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:35 pm
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Dion Necurat 72-hour time between checks is simply too much time for a party of five. 24 hours is the minimum I use, and I don't go more than 48 hours. This gives players plenty of time to make their posts. Its a rule I employ for each game I use, and I haven't had too many problems with players missing in that time. Like I said, it isn't about player size, since ANY number of players can be a hindrance if they aren't active. It should be noted that you don't exactly follow it while playing, from what i've seen in Ending the War.
Personally, I don't have a problem, generally, with 3-5 players. If you have more PCs, when one inevitably falls off the face of the planet, you can make due easier.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:47 pm
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Anatarei Crimsonthrone Dion Necurat 72-hour time between checks is simply too much time for a party of five. 24 hours is the minimum I use, and I don't go more than 48 hours. This gives players plenty of time to make their posts. Its a rule I employ for each game I use, and I haven't had too many problems with players missing in that time. Like I said, it isn't about player size, since ANY number of players can be a hindrance if they aren't active. It should be noted that you don't exactly follow it while playing, from what i've seen in Ending the War.
From one check where 3 or 4 people, and also when I had declared that I was asleep (therefore inable to make such a check).
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:07 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:56 pm
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 5:30 am
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