Help!

If we have questions about the rules, or about what action to take, we can discuss them here and get advice. You are always welcome to PM the GM, but other's can help too, the game is a collaboration.

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Don't Edit
Don't placeholder
Viewpoint and Tense
Formatting

Don't Edit

Due to technicalities on this site and the way the human brain processes information and changes, please don't edit the content of a post once people have read it (which means as soon as you have posted). We don't get notifications for edits.

Editing minor grammar or spelling is OK, but if this, in any way, changes the meaning of what was there, drop an OOC note explaining exactly what you changed. 'Not' and 'Now' are such common typos, but can completely change the meaning once fixed: "I thought you said you were not going home!". "No, I said 'I am now going home."

We are not trying to write a book. Play by post is not for those who may come later and read the game, it is for those who are playing right now. Don't stress about out-of-order posts (they are the only way this thing works) and please don't worry about looking foolish by correcting a mistake in a way all can see, if we can not clearly see your correction, then there is a problem.

If you forgot to say something, just create a new post below with what you left out. Some think this may look 'messy', but it actually makes sense to anyone reading it and there is no confusion. Avoiding confusion is much more important than looking good. :)

Thanks.

Don't placeholder

For similar reasons: please don't post a 'placeholder' or 'TBD' post with a roll and then go back and fill it in based on the result. This is a common practice in many games and it is possible that it works in DnD and it's mechanical ilk, but more fiction oriented games like this work better if you have the Fiction First.

Post what you are trying to do --up to the point it could fail-- along with the setup for any roll you are trying for.

Drop a post in the OOC thread saying what your intent is --in clear out-of-character language. Include the Action you want to use --and possibly also what you think the Position and Effect would be, that way the GM can more easily spot a mismatch. The GM will decide (and explain) the actual Position and Effect, which can then be discussed if needed. All players should feel free to weigh in on such things, the GM has 'final say' not the only say.

You can then go back, edit the post to add the roll. Based on the outcome you may be free to continue the action in a new post, or may need input from the GM.

Regularly you will have to go back and add a roll, the GM will point out that "It looks like you are trying to . Is that correct? If so then roll for it." This will become clear as we play.

By the rules Help should be done before roll. This can be impractical in PbP, so we can add that after the roll and only wait for it if will actually do something. It is still better to add your dice during the Position and Effect discussion if possible.

When you roll: Include a descriptor of what you are doing.

Viewpoint and Tense (TLDR: Third Person, Present Tense)

At the table I encourage players to speak in 'first person' ("I hit him.") as it can increase immersion. Some players embrace this, some find it uncomfortable, and some (myself included) swap between first and third (and of course as a GM I use second person a lot, but that is not for you:).

I don't recommend first person in play by post, as this has the opposite effect to what is intended. Instead of your words showing us what your character is doing, written first person results in your words showing us your character telling us what they are doing, thus adding an additional level of indirection.

This is in addition to the difficulty of the rest of us reading what each PC did with the pronoun 'I' obscuring who they are. This becomes a clamour of people shouting their own opinion at the reader. There is a reason most books are written in third person ('Bob hits them'), and that books in first person are only from the viewpoint of a single protagonist.

Most of the time what you describe is what is happening 'now', so present tense is almost always the best way to go.

Formatting

A common idiom on many play by post sites is to use "quoted" bold (ctrl-b) text for your character's spoken dialog italic (ctrl-i) for internal monologue or thoughts, in the form of:

"I am going to help!" Bob informs the group. Man, I hope they back me up. He thinks desperately.

Some players like to give their character's words and thoughts some color in addition to this. This can be handy for quickly finding what someone said. If you opt to use color, make sure it is one that everyone can read easily, on both the light and dark theme. Confirm with the group as some people's eyes don't see the way yours do.

It is handy to bold the names of other PCs and players in your posts so the player can know to look at it with higher level of urgency than normal. The GM has to look at everything, so don't bother with NPCs, this just dilutes the effect.

Going back later and adding bold and italic to a post is also fine, this does not change the content of the message, just makes it easier to digest.

So, this is a question regarding rolls: according to the rules, calling for an action roll is a step-by-step process between the DM and the player. This is fine at the table since it would take something like 1 minute at most to talk about it, but in PbP format I think it would kinda slow down the game. So, how should we do it ? I'm thinking about setting the position and effect level, more specifically.

Indeed. This is precisely the thing I am trying to make work in PbP.
First, we will not be short-circuiting the process, I have seen people try to skip these discussion steps and the game breaks. This is why I said in my interest check post that players needed to be able post (OOC) rather frequently.
In the beginning this can take a lot of back and forth, and takes a while --even at the table. As we learn the game (and our group's style) we will settle into a predictable set of defaults, we will know what sorts of things are Desperate, and what sorts of Actions will have little to no Effect, and will only need a quick confirmation before rolling. The more familiar with the game we all are the faster this process gets.

I will create a resource document about exactly how we will handle rolling here, but wanted to first get players onboard and deal with rules questions before going into detail about PbP and mechanics.
How these things are handled depends a fair bit on the group's preferences, there is some leeway in the rules, but we will be doing what the rules say as much as possible.
Depending on how the group chooses to handle things, there are several steps that can be combined and preempted.

Always, first the player says what their character is doing in the fiction, up to the point things could go wrong (a lot can be done without needing a roll).
Based on the fiction it should be fairly clear what Action they are trying to do. If their Action does not fit the fiction (maybe they described something completely different ("Quickly climb the tower using Finesse", Finesse is not 'quick', Finesse is not 'gross motor', go back and reread the Actions' definitions), or maybe is as silly as trying to "seduce the door" and could not work at all) then we need to have a conversation about the fiction and the GM will decide if they can continue with Zero Effect (still offering the opportunity for them to try and to use the other mechanics to improve their Effect) or if that Action is out-Scaled to the point of impossibility ("the door is immune to your charms, no matter how much you try", "the mob is too large, you will need to first find a way separate them or reduce their Scale") and the player needs to go back and rethink what is happening, possibly editing their post or adding a new post with the adjustment. This can really slow things down, but should not come up very often once everyone gets on the same page about the fiction.
If the Character's Action fits the fiction (it should most of the time... with practice), the player can post OOC saying what they are trying to achieve (don't assume it is clear from the fiction, your motives may be more subtle than your actions) and what they think the Position and Effect are. This statement by the player is very useful, it shows us what they think is happening. If the player says it should be Controlled with Great Effect and we don't see it that way, then, clearly, something about the scene has not been communicated well enough and we need to discuss it. Maybe the GM has a surprise that changes things, maybe the player forgot about some outside influence (mentioned days ago), whatever it is, because the player stated how they though things were, we can easily see that there is a disconnect and address it.
If the player's assumption of the situation (and Position and Effect) is 'correct' then that shows us that we are all on the same page, that things are flowing well. This is the desired state, we should be able to assume the default most times and only need to change things in the exceptional cases.

Hopefully (with practice) the entirety of this conversation is the player stating their desire and suggesting P&E; the GM saying "sounds good roll it"; optionally: the player saying "I push myself/accept Bargain/Trade Position for Effect"; and we are done.

There is also the question of Help. This is always a bugbear in PbP. By the rules Help (from other players) needs to be declared before the roll, but we may ease up on that rule where it makes sense. We don't always want to have to wait for everyone to say "I won't be helping". If, after the roll, you think your character can help, speak up and we can address it, possibly allowing it.

The whole time, while that conversation is happening, all players should suggest Devil's Bargains so the player can decide if they want to take one of them.
To save time we can also discuss potential Devi's Bargains related to the scene we are in, build up a list we can draw from before a roll is called for. That way we don't have to have that whole discussion after the roll comes up.

This was more than I intended to write, but I hope it was helpful. Keep the question coming.

Alright, thanks for the explanations ! It's good to see you really thought this through, despite the difficulties of this format.

I shouldn't have any more questions right now, however ? I still have a bit of trouble seeing how the crew rules work as a whole, but I think that will be easier when we start going and figure things out.

Yeah, I don't get to play in person much anymore, and Blades was one of the games that was stuck only being for 'in person' games. When the request came up (elsewhere, unfulfilled) I found myself thinking on it for a week, then came here looking for players.

What parts of the Crew rules are you struggling with. We can cover them when they come up (in the beginning: play will be a bit slow as we learn each new aspect when it comes up; I can try to only introduce new aspects when we are ready for them; we can define certain things when we first see them), but if you have specific things that are puzzling you, or things that you DO understand, then mentioning them here can help us know where to focus our explanations.
Are you struggling with the rules for Creating a Crew, or how to use them in play? Are you including Cohorts as part of this discussion?

Oh no, it's more how it will be integrated throughout the game. I do not have a problem understanding them by themselves, just picturing them used together. But as you said, I think it'll solve itself as we play, and I can always go back to check the rules anytime (one of the advantages of PbP !).

At first, the Crew is not a 'them' it is only the PCs.

Some Crew type choices give you a Cohort at the start, but most don't so you won't need to worry about any extra, NPC use, mechanics till they come up. Using Cohorts (if that is what you are talking about) is a bit nebulous, on purpose, the players can get clever about how they use them and how they work, so we will work out the detail (possibly on a case-by-case basis) when it comes up.

If by 'them' you mean 'the rules', then we only need to worry about the bits involved in Character Creation for now, and those are a step-by-step process that I will lead you though. Very few of these affect which Crew type you choose, so they are just a thing that needs to be done when the step comes up (mainly saying who (of the other Factions) like you more or less because of the choice).

If you have any specific questions I can address them. Else they should become clear when they are used. The first few uses of any rule will be slow as we work through how it works and how we are going to implement it in our game, but things will speed up once we have done a thing enough to know the details.

Yep, I meant the rules, so I'm reassured about that. I should be good for now, but I won't hesitate to ask questions if I need to do so, don't worry !