Posting Rates as Expectations

Granted, we all have times that hitting that posting frequency in our games can be difficult. I think we all understand that. Life throws you for a loop sometimes and it happens to everyone.

Its the habitual player that agrees to a 1/day game and shows up to post anything at most 2/week, posts less than a line that reads something along the lines of 'Uh...I shoot it.', and then complains that all the other players and the GM's posts are too long and they're loosing interest in the game, that really bothers me. If you honestly can't make more of an effort, bow out.

Interesting. I feel the opposite. I always get the feeling that larger groups encourage everyone to just sit back and observe and not post themselves. Anything above 4 feels like a risk to me and I'll only as an acception accept a fifth player into a game

Different people are able to post at different rates. I can usually post fairly frequently but hold back to give other posters a chance to get a post in before I have another go at it to avoid dominating the conversation. It slows things down for me waiting another player but it's the fair thing to do given that not everyone can post at the same rates. Every player deserves a voice at the table without being overrun.

That said, players just checking in infrequently with little to no real contribution to the flow of the game is frustrating. Maybe the game isn't what they expected, maybe their character isn't preforming as designed, maybe the plot is in an area they don't have much interest in...but sticking to a posting minimum is part of the price of admission to the game. If that's an issue, communication can usually resolve it even if it's just to bow out of the game.

Yep, and this is how I've found myself playing in 7 games and running 3 others!

Not currently, but in the past...

My sweet spot is definitely 3-4. Sologames / duos with one GM and one player can be great too, provided the player is proactive. Have had nothing but bad experiences with big groups over the years, especially in single scenes where every PC is present.

Yeah bowl, I’ve heard others say that, too. Not sure why my experience has been so different. Most of my games with large groups have been quite good, unless it’s too many people. I could see a group of more than seven or eight players being chaotic. In the games I joined where there was less than four people, the game always ended within a month or two. Probably just bad luck on my part.

Might also be a difference in style. I prefer more character focused games, rather than plot focused. And those get more difficult with too many players

I haven't DMed here. I find that changing which initiative systems are being used can changed how the game feels. Normally, I'd want to stick to a typical initaitive roll, but I'm starting to come around to group initative (PCs then Monsters) or (Monsters first)

Curious - is there a preferred way to say.' yeah I'm here, but there's nothing for my character to do', or 'yeah I'm lurking, but don't know what to do'? I don't want to fill up the thread with ooc post

Just say that.
Sometimes is it appropriate to do that in the RP, sometimes it is better in the OOC. Sometimes it is 'until this scene resolves, assume I am standing in the corner looking awkward' sometimes it is only for a single reply.

Basically: Communicate. Don't hesitate to fill up the OOC.

I think there's always something for the character to do. It may not be something that the player feels contributes to the task at hand, but it could be a simple description of them awaiting the result. People are usually thinking about something, looking at something, or doing something small, even while waiting for something else to happen.

George fidgeted with the hem of his shirt while the others spoke to the bartender. He had no idea whether his friends would succeed in obtaining permission to put their fundraising jar on the counter, but he hoped it would become another source of revenue for Paul's younger cousin.

This is too true.

Me: Maybe if I refresh the page one more time someone will post!

^^THIS! Some of the most interesting RP I have ever seen happened in the background, away from the spotlight.
^^But also THIS! So much this!

It can also lead to problems, though. I was in a game a long time ago, in my early GP days back in the far off past of 2019 where another player and I were far more active than most of the rest of the group so we kept getting into small RP bubbles with each other that, as I realized later on, derailed the overall game

Moderation is important. A player should only be sitting their character out occasionally and only when it makes sense that they are not actively involved in the scene right now.

If this keeps happening then the GM needs to do something.

I heartily second (third) VagueGM's suggestion that players who aren't in the immediate action communicate and not sit idly by. I also get bowlofspinach's reservation, but it sounds like that was a situation where two players were heeding the social contract to communicate, while the others were not. Ideally, ALL of the players in that game should have been forming RP bubbles (or just RPing, or just posting OOC "I'm sitting back until my turn" kinds of messages.)

The bottom line for me is that PbP lives or dies by player activity. If the players stop posting, the game loses momentum, and the game dies. I would even call it the Golden Rule of Play-by-Post: When in doubt, post something.

I find that posting rates, sort of help me with a guideline on adding OOC, "still here guys" and the likes but it can also make me feel like I am excluding others if I go above and beyond that rate or excluded myself when I can't keep up with others.

Sure, occasionally I can post every day all day long but when the post rate is 3-4 times a week and I am gone for 1 day and I come back to 2 pages of thread to go over before I can post. It is intimidating to get anything up and takes more prep work to follow what is happening. So there is always some fluidness needed and I try and keep others in mind when exceeding posting rates just as much as I am at trying to just match them.

I just got my hands on a data dump, (thx adam), and thought I would share numbers of games started pr year showing these games posting frequencies. There are a lot of games that started in 2020 where the posting frequencies were set to 1 pr day.

Interesting!

How about a comparison of stated posting frequency vs. the game's survival. There are many other factors, obviously, but you can't deny there's some correlation there worth scrutinizing.

It’s a good idea, but that data isn’t available to us.