Madboards Pathfinder: A Postmortem

This evening marks the official end of the Madboards Pathfinder game I have been running. Technically, the game has ended for 4/6 of the players (and really, if I were to be pedantic about it, it ended for one player a couple of weeks ago when he stopped posting altogether), and the final two have their last chance today. As a result, I figured I would devote a post to my thoughts on the entire game, and share what I have learned.

Lesson #1: Pathfinder on a Forum is a Terrible Idea

This was the first mistake. Pathfinder (or any other RP system that relies heavily on the use of maps) is way too complex for a forum based RPG. When playing in person with a physical map set it is trivial to move pieces, I found myself dreading the inevitable combat sequences in the game (which are, to me, some of the most fun I can have as a GM when I'm on a mean streak since there is a chance for me to kill off PCs in hilarious manner) due to the drudgery of opening my iPhone app for mapping, moving the pieces, doing all the die rolls, uploading a screenshot of the map, writing a description of said map for the people who can't read the pieces (and to make up for the shortcomings of the app - mainly a lack of required art assets), as well as writing the actual mod itself - a lot of work for 6 seconds of game world time!

Add to this the fact that the game is heavily based on number crunching, as well as player cooperation and discussion and you get a game that is a pain in the arse to run well on a forum. I found that the players, outside of a select few, rarely cooperated. The party didn't really form as a party, causing massive plotholes to form, which leads me to...

Lesson #2: On a Forum RP, Write Your Own Damn Plot!

I was using a pre-written module for the story. This worked perfectly well in my long-running face-to-face PF campaign, which hasn't yet ended (and really needs a session to get us going again). This worked in the online one for approximately 12 seconds, when the players immediately made moves that were breaking anything the future plot had in store for them.

For example, the party reached the inn, where the real adventure was to begin, by having a mercenary character claim that the dagger they had found during a combat sequence immediately before arriving at the inn actually belonged to him. This was to trigger a pub brawl which escalates to encompass all of the people in the pub, and destroy some valuable property, thereby giving the Sheriff (who was in the pub at the time) a reason to confiscate the blade, and to send them on a quest to pay off their debt.
This didn't go quite according to plan, since the party immediately split up upon entering the bar, and the character with the dagger tried to leave the pub. This forced the Sheriff to only see a few characters as being involved in the argument over the dagger, immediately splitting the party into those who were in trouble with the Sheriff (and therefore on track for the story), and everyone else. Considering that the majority of the game hinged on this, this was quite a problem!

If I had written the story myself, I would have been better equipped to add extra characters, items and events to force the party to stick with the plot (or even better - not force them into a single party, allow them to split, and by "coincidence" bring them back together). Time constraints lead me to only be able to read a little bit of the book ahead of playing, which made me much more hesitant to add these kinds of things, due to the very real possibility that I ruin what the book had in store.

Not to mention that when players irritated me I could throw in a random encounter with something, and alter the plot to accomodate it. I try not to railroad players, but this seems to only work for me with a group that works together to a degree, or with a plot I write myself.

On the other hand, I'm a fairly terrible plot writer, as anyone who played in my shambles of a first RP on that forum can attest to!

Lesson #3: Make Everyone Feel Part of the Game

Due to issues mentioned in the previous point, I believe that some players felt a bit left out of the game. Again, the source material is part of the problem here (a fairly specific set of knowledge checks were needed, and while we had the skills required in the party, since they were so specific, others were kind of left out). Add to this that I didn't really add any material to give these players interesting and useful things to do, and they kind of just stood around a lot.

This was compounded by a large percentage of the group creating "Lone Wolf" characters, which rarely work in a group RP game, since they simply want to do everything themselves, and segregate themselves. I have seen this happen in other RPs, and the players in question wondered why their character was being ignored and left out!

All in all, I think it will be quite a while before I try to run another RP on a forum anywhere (if I indeed ever try it again) since it seems to me that my GM skills aren't up to scratch. Players lost interest quickly, and frankly, so did I.