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More social interaction. Good excuse to get together with friends. Tabletop RPGs are generally more "open-ended" than MMOs; meaning there's more freedom of action for your character, and you're (hopefully) not stuck fighting the very same encounters over and over again. More reliance on your own imagination, which leads to a more satisfying gaming ...

In a tabletop RPG, you really are the only one who can save the town. In a tabletop RPG, that dragon isn't being killed every ten minutes by different heroes. In a tabletop RPG, you're not limited to a choice of six bland faces and ten idiotic hairstyles. In a tabletop RPG, female characters can wear armor that covers their midriff. In a tabletop RPG, ...

This shouldn't be too hard to cobble together. Here's an attempt: You as the GM privately make the die choice for all of your NPCs. Do not reveal the outcomes. Each player then privately messages you their choice. I'd recommend numbering your combat rounds and having that be part of the message for clarity. Everyone's now made their choices without being ...

One thing that's really helpful for asynchronous online gaming is a system that allows players to (tentatively) take ownership of the entire world, not just their own character. If there's going to be a lag between player post and GM response, a system with a focus on collaborative storytelling that allows the player to write a paragraph detailing an entire ...

admin side The singlemost important rule of any forum is consistent moderation. Don't let someone get away with behavior X because they're your buddy. It's also useful to identify the status of copyright on the board: do you as board owner assert text contributed is: copyright the poster copyright the board (which may not be legal in some places) all ...

Flexibility: On the table top, the game is entirely in your head. There are no graphics to look at or fixed conditions imposed by the limitations of the software. The adventure is wide open to morph into anything you want it to be. Creativity: Same arguments as above. Not having a pre-rendered graphic to look at demands (and produces) far more creativity ...

Oddysey. I've run several successful PBPs and several unsuccessful ones. (It's been a very long time since I did PBEM.) These are based on my own experiences only. My advice may be incoherent as I'm going off the cuff and have taken a lot of allergy meds today. I usually set up a phpBB-based forum solely for use with the PBP, rather than using an area ...

I'm pretty sure you're describing power2ool.com. Great little tool for making my unusual DM whims look official. Sometimes it'll get stuck on a "Connecting Socket" load screen. This means your adblocking or scriptblocking features are stopping it from connecting (easy to fix) or your modem/ISP settings are blocking power2ool's particular socket (harder to ...

Code of Unaris was specifically designed to be played in chat across the internet. The rules even incorporate the ability of one player to "hack" the GM's typed messages by replacing single words under certain conditions. I don't think it's easy to get anymore, but you might find it around.

It sounds like Obsidian Portal might suit your needs. If you take a look at the features list on the signup page: Free to use GM can have secret pages The wiki can be public or private No mention of page or user limits Site hosted by Obsidian Portal and is out-of-the-box Maps and images can be uploaded Special map-handling tools included NPC and PC ...

Rob, I was trying to stay clear of this question, but many of the major advantages have not been mentioned. SOme of these have been touched on in broad strokes, but deserve more attention. I will mention a few that have been mentioned for the sake of completeness. 1) Actual Roleplaying Potential. The term roleplay existed before it was coopted by the ...

4e works quite well over Google Wave. The RPG-Bones applet has a very acceptable interface for a battlemap. Trust your players. Don't worry about cheating. Just agree on what level of die roll honesty the group wants at the start of the game. My preference is: "You may always choose to fail any roll" but some groups may choose to play "just call them as ...

I've been testing PMWiki with IPMWikiSkin. So far it seems to be doing exactly what I need, even if it is kind of weird seeing an iOS interface on a Droid. Pros: Flexible handling of multiple users Handles mobile browsers Completely customizable Can reskin, create custom markup, even change the code if needed Has a repository of add-ons Self-hosted Can ...

As someone who's been slowly working up into distribution, I question the premise here. The collapse of Wizard's Attic was absolutely a disruptive, destructive event, but that was more because it hurt the individual publishers who got caught in the blast than because of its impact on distribution in general. From where I stand, distro is doing ok, or at ...

Kazekami Kyoko Kills Kublai Khan is specifically designed for asynchronous online play. S/lay w/Me may also work. Personally, the lack of nonverbal communication in online play kills most "story" games for me. Conversely, D&D 4E, using appropriate tools, keeps the same feel online it's got offline (a very boardgamey feel, that is). Some friends of mine ...

We tried this type of game over a BBS, way long ago, and it was challenging, to say the least. Now, you may not mean the slow-turn-around time that is BBS playing, but here are the problems that stick to memory anyways: The biggest challenge is the system's dependence on dice rolls for determining action results. Your best bet is to minimize the use of ...

Any game that has a heavy role playing element instead of a heavy rule/tactical element would be suitable. General musings I would go for plots that involve investigation, interactions, politics, and mystery rather than combat and tactics. Combat needs to become more descriptive rather than visual (no map or figurines) but that makes it more realistic. ...

If your online tool is real-time and you know lag isn't a problem, you can use a clause in the game itself to resolve the problem. A player who fails to reveal their die on command after having the chance to choose it automatically loses initiative (p. 74). In chat, you can do like so: Seneschal: A fight! Okay, moving to combat rounds. Ready? Player ...

I ran a PBeM game for several years, and have done a number of successful and "failed" with others. I've only done free-form this way, though. (I call it "Collaborative Fiction" when talking to non-nerds.) One of the keys to keep things going is to be continually recruiting. New blood keeps things alive. For a free-form PBeM, I'd suggest at least 6 players ...

De Profundis 2nd edition is designed to be played online, making the text interface part of the actual game and character interactions. From the sales copy for the De Profundis PDF at RPGNow (emphasis mine): Blending the imagination of H. P. Lovecraft and other contemporary horror and conspiracy writers and themes, De Profundis is a correspondence-based ...

I still don't really see what google wave can do that a wiki or a dedicated forum cannot, if not in real time. Both allow big chunks of text, easy responce and a way of managing content. If I really wanted I might consider some of those game websites (such as obsidian portal) that combine forums and wiki's into one smooth package.

4e in Minecraft People have modeled 4e dungeons in minecraft, and its highly pixelated structure can make it quite fun for playing in, as in a multi-player server, various PCs can either represent themselves as minis or places blocks in representation. The custom dungeon aspect can give a remarkably different sense of place and scale.

I'm not sure which system(s) are being used but there are many different active role-playing areas of Second Life - see http://secondlife.com/destinations/roleplay I know at least some of the Vampire areas are active enough that someone (perhaps Linden Labs?) is paying for Facebook ads promoting the vampire area(s) of Second Life. From the names of some ...

A few examples go a long way with Microscope. "Clear on the rules" is actually a little less important, as Microscope rules work well if introduced as you go. (Microscope is a very easy game to demo at conventions.) There's some advice at the back of the book (p59-62) on running beginner's games, and I strongly recommend you follow it online. What will ...

As much as I would like to say they have almost nothing in common, there are some common elements between MMORPGs and tabletop RPGs; however those elements, such as pre-generated images, background soundtracks and movable visual elements are entirely peripheral to the tabletop experience. With tabletop RPGs, not only is the world (via the GM) entirely ...

I think the "answer" lies in the middle ground, with efforts like Bits and Mortar, which incentivizes retailers to deal directly with publishers and adds value for physical retail customers. If you are asking whether there is a place for traditional distributors in the future, I am thinking not. Aggregators, fulfillment houses, yes. People who warehouse ...

Microscope I have played some quite epic games of microscope over wave and have found that it translates quite well online. While there are a few difficulties with scenes, the format of the game is such that it plays asynchronously quite quite well.

The Pool is good and simple. You can use a "describe what happens if you succeed/fail" etiquette to keep each turn fairly meaty. This game relies on a good common understanding of the setting from all players and GM.

I'd recommend three games, the last two of which I edited, so caveat emptor. The first is Fiasco, which can be easily twisted for fantasy (you'd have to find or create a fantasy playset). It's a game about ordinary people with powerful ambition making bad decisions. This game is quick, very story-focused, and doesn't require anyone to roll dice except at ...

I've actually had a great deal of success using Primetime Adventures (PTA) online. PTA uses cards and a form of chips, but no dice. Depending on how you handle it, you can have the GM use a webcam and show the dealt cards for conflict resolution, and each player can keep track of how many chips they have on hand. It really depends on your setup, but I've ...