Out of Character discussion:

Alright, noted.

I sent Shadowace a message last night that it was Kelric's turn, but haven't heard a reply. Posting has slowed down pretty significantly among some players this combat. I'm not calling out anyone, I understand most of it has been due to some difficulties IRL, and I think Shadowace said last week they were out of town, and maybe they still are, but I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are about what we do with situations like this where an inactive player is holding the game up because it's their turn. The three options that immediately come to mind are:

1. Skip the character's turn if there's no post after 1 or 2 days, roleplaying that the character has frozen up. This is what I normally do, and what I was doing in the first combat of the game against the gnolls regarding the elf Jonas, but some players didn't like that the elf's inactivity was punishing the group.

2. The DM takes over the PC if there's no post after 1 or 2 days, making the PC do some basic actions (eg. Move to a advantageous place on the map, make a basic attack, cast a spell, etc.). This is what we started doing during the 1st combat with the gnolls because the party was getting smeared because Jonas wasn't pulling his weight. If the player is still inactive after the combat is over we consider him gone and the PC is roleplayed out of the campaign.

3. Continue to wait an indefinite amount of time to see if the player comes back and posts.

Like I alluded to, I personally prefer Option 1. I think the party that's been in the game since the beginning prefers Option 2. I don't think anyone necessarily wants Option 3.

But it's something that I think we should get a consensus on. I'm not trying to browbeat people into playing this game, and I'm not trying to shame or cast a light on anyone. I get that personal life is throwing a wrench in the machinery for a lot of us. But I believe that one of the biggest one things that kills a PbP game faster than anything else, is a game that starts going stagnant because players aren't engaging. As soon as one player stops participating the game comes to a grinding halt, then another player stops checking in regularly, then two or three more players stop staying engaged, and then the whole thing just falls apart.

So I guess I should backtrack a bit and start by asking the players, do you feel like the pace of this game is too much? Do you feel like the 5-7 posts, or at least 5-7 check-ins per week pace we're operating on is too much for what you have going on in your personal lives, and do we need to slow things down?

If you don't feel like 5-7 check-ins a week to at least see if you need to post something is overwhelming, what do I need to do to keep the game moving forward before players begin to lose interest. Do we want to go with Option 1 or 2? Like I said, as a DM I prefer Option 1; the player isn't active, so the PC is inactive. Perhaps they've frozen in panic. Yes, the player's inactivity means their PC is screwing over the party. That's my personal philosophy: if you have a group project and one of the members of the team isn't contributing to the group's effort, the entire group winds up with a substandard final product. It sucks, but it's how it works.

The players during the gnoll encounter made it pretty clear that they do not like that philosophy. They don't feel it's fair for the party to be penalized because a player is inactive, and if we're going to go with doing what's "fair" I can understand where they're coming from. So we all agreed in the past to go with Option 2: I temporarily take over that PC and roleplay it as what I think would best aid the party, and then we figure out what to do with the PC afterwards.

A lot of players here have invested a lot of time and thought and energy into contributing to what I think is a fun roleplaying experience so far and whatever we have to do to make sure the game doesn't stagnate is on the table. So, what are we thinking here? What do you guys think? Do you have some input?

So first off I think it goes without saying that I am having a great time with this one and personally I could go way faster. I'd like at least a post-a-day to keep the momentum up, several a day if I'm honest but I realize that I'm a freak and am willing to tone it down.

As for ghosting during combat, BECMI is so brutal that one party member can actually make the difference between victory and a TPK. I always prefer the DM just NPC the missing player until combat is over and then recruit a new player if it's a full on ghosting. To that end I'm also a fan of dump posting for combat, I think waiting to post in order slows things down a bit.

I guess the issue I have with dump posting is that it would work great if we did the standard 1d6 roll for each side and then all attackers for that side goes at once, but that screws over the halfling's +1 init bonus. So in order to respect the +1 bonus Gilly gets we do individual initiative rolls, and if everyone dump posts using individual initiatives then things get screwy. For example a player could declare they're moving to a certain square and attacking a certain enemy, but they might have last turn in the init, and by the time their turn is up, that square could be occupied by another NPC or that target may have been killed already. Then we wind up back at square one where we're waiting for the player to clarify or edit their action.

And I'm nearly the opposite of Dom. Being old and tired keeps my posting level down a bit. If I'm having a particularly active day with other things, I may not get onto the Plane at all but those are few and far between. I try to check in daily and post only when I find it appropriate. I get overwhelmed when I post at 10PM the previous night and then check in at 2 PM the next day and find a dozen or more posts, especially when there are only 4 or 5 players. And some people tend to write very long posts. In the grand scheme of things that is not a bad thing but for me to read all of it demands that I give short shrift to other games.

As for the three options, I would prefer #2 in critical situations and #1 is acceptable in normal play. You could just assume that in a discussion in a tavern about the next day's activity, the absent player's character would just agree with the majority.

You could give the halfling's +1 initiative bonus to the whole party like a scout bonus, when I run dump posting I usually take the player with the highest initiative (dex) bonus and use it for the whole party, same with monster side, barring of course surprise on either side. It's not a big deal for me I just think since the topic is maintaining the posting flow during combat it's worth mentioning.

I agree with Aldrusian about #1 being acceptable outside of combat, not everyone has to chime in on roleplaying every convo.

I can sacrifice Gilly’s initive bonus. I think it’s +2. One for Dex, one for Halfling (but this is an optional rule anyway, I believe)

Another way I’ve seen it done is that players roll init, and enemies roll.

Enemy rolls are set, but PC rolls open up a PC init slot that any player can take.

PC slot
PC slot
Frog
PC
Frog
Frog
Gnoll
PC

Kind of thing.

What’s dump posting? Please forgive my ignorance. I’m still pretty new

I’m assuming it means we all dump our combat actions when we see the thread, and then they can be calculated in when our turn arrives.

Dump Post -
Alice
Coulson
Gilly
Etc

Initiative -
Gilly
Frog
Coulson
Bandit
Alice
Kelric

And then the DM can scroll up to find. It has its ups and downs, as I’m sure you can see.

Ahhh yeah I ca. Imagine that would be a pain, especially for the DM. I’m happy to play as we have been (sorry for holding up the combat right at the start - had a scary old week but it’s over and the fear inducing thing has gone and is no longer)

Well B/X (Basic, BECMI) uses dump posting pretty well since the default initiative scheme is for an entire group to act at once (either the players or the monsters). Doesn't work as well with individual initiative, or rather takes more on the part of the DM, but with group initiative it keeps pbp combat pretty fast.

Again, no real preference here just chatting about the options. I picked the method up from a DM over on Mythweavers named Paro long ago.

I've been coaching youth wrestling for almost a decade and our pre-season practices just started last month IF we have a season this year (and that's a pretty big "if", with the pandemic throwing a lot of wrenches in the gears), there will definitely be some days when I'm on the road, traveling to and from my daughter's tournaments, and spending my weekends matside in gymnasiums all day, and my post activity will be pretty sparse on those days.
So I don't want anyone to feel like they need to apologize for anything or feel like they need to explain an absence. I always run with the assumption that players have something more pressing going on in their lives than playing D&D whenever a player seems inactive.

I'd like to point out for a minute while that combat might have seemed disappointingly easy, there was some serious potential for a PC kill there. Specifically Coulson.

If you look at his gear, he’s hauling 700coin in just for armor. He’s got plate armor at 600coin encumbrance, which puts him at AC3. He carries a shield for 100coin encumbrance, which brings him to AC 2. And his Dexterity Bonus brings him to AC1.
Those smaller frogs were 1HD monsters, and the larger one was a 2HD.
A 1HD monster has a THAC0 of 19. A 2HD monster has a THAC0 of 17. So in that first round of combat, he got attacked by three frogs, simply because he put himself in the front line. Had Coulson not carried a shield, he would have had an AC of 2. The first frog attack, which was #2, would not have hit him at all, shield or not. But if he was AC2, the next two attacks would have been a hit by #3 for 4HP, and then at the same time in the turn order, another hit by the big frog for another 4HP, and just like that, Coulson would have lost 8HP and would have been making another Death Saving Throw.
Granted Dwarves have really good Saving Throw scores by nature, but you can only press your luck so far, and that shield really might have saved his bacon this fight.

Also, I always roll HD for the monsters. Meaning if you have a 2HD monster the book gives you the option of just giving it the average, or you can roll. I always roll, and two of those 1HD Giant Frogs rolled 2HP out of a potential 8HP.

I'm sort of in the middle, where I could post several times a day, but I've also seen people burn out with that schedule. I'm happy with one post a day, with some leeway. I do a lot of backpacking over the weekends, so it won't be unusual to see me check in at six in the morning (GMT -8) on a Friday or Saturday and then have no activity until late Sunday. With the winter clearly upon us, though, longer trips won't be happening for a while. I've enjoyed this pace, and can clearly see other players hankering for more posting.

As for how to resolve inactivity, I like option no.2 because it keeps the game moving, and shouldn't make the players feel like they're losing agency or in danger due to the "basic actions" clause.

I'm 100% on board with some leeway. Your backpacking trips are my wrestling tournaments. And also the player that plays a Halfling gets double-extra leeway, because we represent...

Halflings-4-lyfe

Gandalf loved them for a reason, can't have a proper quest without a halfling ;)

It was made very clear he only liked them around for their pipe-weed.

The guy who brings the stash is always the coolest guy at the party!

As soon as I moved Coulson into position I knew it was a dumb move. But in all my other games I play ranged or rogue, never played a front line fighter. So I just moved him into the front line. Didn’t look at the initiative order to see who and what support I would get and when