TheGenerator says:
... it might just work straight up. And that's always better than a chance to fail ...
The flip-side of that is that there are systems where you can 'get more for good successes', so sometimes players still want to roll and take the risk on a guaranteed success, for the chance of getting something better (a 'critical success', or something). But again, that only comes up after the RP and the group has decided success is almost inevitable.
In something like Blades in the Dark (a very refined ruleset) this process is made explicit, and players can choose to adjust that 'guaranteed success' to 'risky' by pushing the odds (or can adjust a risky roll to safe by giving up some effectiveness). But Blades is not as revolutionary as people tend to think, it is a really just a refinement and codification of the sorts of things people were already doing.
TheGenerator says:
... team members have a chance to join ...
Yeah... though this is a bane in PbP, it can really slow things down and we do have to find a way to shortcut this 'Help' process. In games that have an explicit Help mechanic (many PbtA) it used to be assumed that this needed to come before the roll, the helper puts themself at some risk and, on a very bad or very good roll, might not have any way to affect the roll. That risk to self is part of the rules, but also sometimes feels bad. In PbP (and also live, most times) I almost always rules that such Help rolls come after the main roll, and we only wait for them if they could make a difference. I still find that players throw themselves into the danger "I can't Help (under the rules), but my character
would have tried. I won't bother rolling, but assume I was also in there and suffer those same consequence you described :(."
Traveller's Task Chains are pretty structured, and should require us to wait, but we can also work out ways (depending on the fiction) to backfill them after a roll. However, they are not simple Help rolls, and really are their own RP and need to be played out. We will tweak things as we play.
TheGenerator says:
... Another player can look up their facebook profile and give you details ...
Yep, a Task Chain. A simple one, though, so it might not need to be played out. This is an advantage of an
NPC hacker, they are often 'the man in the chair' and don't get quite as much 'play' as other roles. Where needed we can assume Abby is helping you guys when you need it.
Pedrop says:
... waiting for
everyone to confirm if they want to interact ...
Yep. That becomes untenable. I do find that, after a while, a group settles into a status quo where we know who will jump in and add their rolls and who won't, so we don't end up waiting for
everyone. I often have a 'Waiting' thread for people to simply post that they are not going to be involved, but I almost never see that being used.
I believe Traveller's Task Chains will work better, they are fairly explicit and obvious. We might end up assuming they are happening and proceed in such a way that either outcome is still viable as far as possible.
Pedrop says:
... able to answer only every 24h... one roll could take almost a week ...
No. It should not take more than two days, at worst. It often does take longer, but that is because I am not very strict about the '1 per day' thing, but, if I were, 24 hours after the post
everyone would have answered and then we have, at most, another 24 hours for the OP to post the conclusion.
If things get too slow and someone does not respond, I do sometimes 'skip and move on' after a day or two. If it still makes sense when people get back I seldom find it breaks things when they fill in what they were doing during that process, though often when they post it tries to change history, so a careful read and some discussion is needed rather than a rush to catch up (flashbacks are not time-travel).
Pedrop says:
... GM is very active ...
That makes a big difference. The GM has much more power to slow down a game than any player does.
