Forums » RP Discussion » Thoughts on PBP TTRPGS in RPR?

Hello,

I'm wondering if there would be any success on this site for finding players for various play-by-post (PBP) tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs)? I have been trying to find a new way to locate players since leaving discord over their newer policy changes. I like that the forums I've skimmed through seem to offer separate areas for IC and OOC while attached to the same thread, and gives RPR a step up from RPGGeek, which seems to require a separate thread for each.

I'm mostly curious because there's the option to add a dice roll to a post on this site. Is that because there's a solid playerbase that would require the dice? Or is it more of a courtesy feature, and rarely has its uses in the current userbase?

I don't know the exact landscape of 'successful campaigns via RPR', but there are a lot of features that assist with TTRPGs, and can be modified for more than just D&D/Pathfinder style systems.

I can say that, as far as I'm aware, RPR started out as an extension of the Furcadia community, and the dice rolling feature is likely due to the fact that Furcadia also has a dice roll feature. It's not often used, but TTRPGs are a common media-in-common in Furc spaces.

I do think a PBP game could run fairly well here. Character profiles can be set up to show statistics, there are options to make groups both public and private, and other features that are currently slipping my mind... but I think there could be a market here, and I've seen RP search ads on the topic, I just don't know personally how successful they are.

Thank you for the context of the site! That explains quite a bit. With no prior knowledge of furcadia, I thought the dice was an odd quirk.

The more I've been digging around, the more things I'm seeing that would make this a very viable place for TTRPG games. The Groups were a little tucked away and I probably wouldn't have noticed it if you hadn't said something, but they're perfect for what I was looking for.

If I remember right, the dice were added some years back by popular request, so there are people who want to use dice to at least some degree, as well as the Dice Primer in the Help Docs to aid in that even if someone's nit ready for a full TTRPG system. We also have plenty of users who participate in online and in-person TTRPGs (including folks who are exploring alternatives to D&D). There's also a custom map system being worked on, though no prediction yet when it'll actually be released.

I've personally struggled with TTRPGs in the past as it's really hard for me to follow what's happening in more traditional experiences, but I did join in on a TTRPG here on RPR awhile back. It was a little scattered - we had a group here that we'd write out our actual posts for, we chatted via Skype, and ambience and maps were handled through Roll20. The visuals and the ability to take my time reading through things or reading back was immensely helpful for me, so I think something like this can be really good for someone trying out TTRPGs for the first time, too.

It's exciting to hear that TTRPGs have been played on the site before, even briefly! And I'm very interested in hearing about the map system, I'll keep an eye out for those.

I understand that TTRPGs are kind of hard to parse out in writing compared to at a table. It sounds like it would've been a rough experience to bounce between three programs for a game though, I usually do my best to keep everything to one or two areas at most. I'm definitely aiming for simpler systems that use the dice more as suggestions or to prevent meta-gaming, but I'll be sure to provide as many resources as possible if I ever pitch a game concept here. Thank you for the feedback!

It can definitely be used! Here's a couple older ones I've been part of:

https://www.rprepository.com/community/forums/topic/69966
https://www.rprepository.com/community/forums/topic/60190

(The hard part, like you said, is finding players for this style game. There's a few of us around, but ttrpg players seem to be a small niche of the community)

These were a delight to read through, and very inspiring! It's good to know that there might be a handful of people with an interest. Worst case, I hope people will at least humor the idea a little, or be willing to use a TTRPG purely for set dressing on a more standard RP experience. Sometimes solid lore and some handwaving, "what feels best for the scene" sort of calls is enough.

I've been musing porting a version of Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol in a PBP format using a hexgride map, it's been a bit of an ongoing project but we certainly do have the mechanics there, I suppose the difficulty arises in campaign mapping and designing environments where its difficult to find something where you can do that with the other player per se on the same board without having to go back and redesign the whole thing for every move.

In the last PBP campaign I tried here as a player, which sadly didn't get too far off of the ground, maps weren't used but posts were descriptive, and the Storyteller moved us on from scene to scene. Dice rolls were implemented for certain things, and character sheets were used. I'd definitely be interested, setting/lore depending, as I enjoy a few TTRPGs and am a campaign down from my usual two at a time.

It's just a matter of finding the right crew. Find people that are interested and won't ghost you and you're pretty much set! Ofc, easier said than done- but I reckon it's completely doable if you get lucky and find the right people.

Me, I've not had much luck with a group but 1x1s are easier provided you agree beforehand who's the DM and who's the player and what not.

And hey, if you're at all interested in running a game of Pathfinder definitely hit me up, I'm always up for that. Just don't ask me to DM, I'm already a forever DM IRL and I'm trying to be a player for once!

@Tyranoth That sounds like quite the endeavor, it would be a huge boon to the site if you figure out how to do this. Ideally it would be nice to find a way to get to play some of these TTRPGs or tabletop war games without having to bounce between this site and somewhere like Roll20. Crossing fingers for you, I'm sure you'll get there eventually!

@FadedTapestry The way you're describing your past experience is very similar to how I've run games in the past, so I'm glad to hear that's been attempted on the site before. I'll probably throw my pitch out there sometime over the weekend, we'll see how many takers there are for it! I'm hoping for at least a few interested folks on the site that would be willing to entertain the idea.

@Squire Ghosting is unfortunately an inescapable part of roleplay in general, even in person. I'm lucky enough to have learned to write all my games in such a way that they can be played for one person if everyone else drops out. I think I'd be aiming for something closer to a 1x1+ anyway, which should make the search easier. From one forever-DM to another, I'll definitely let you know if I ever run a Pathfinder game.

Side note: I have no idea if using @ will actually notify anyone, haha. Hoping for the best here-

As far as I know it doesn't but I heard your message loud and clear.

Even if you just wanna do a 1x1 Pathfinder campaign at some point I'd also be on board with that. Poke me any time!

I need to push back on this gently. The dice rolling features were added because I did/do a LOT of TTRPGs and wanted to enable them on the RPR. They've been expanded/amended several times to make additional rule systems more viable to use on this site, given the feedback of people actually running them here.

It presently does not, but I think a system for notifying people of mentions is being considered...? Don't remember for sure.

But when people do look, it is still an understood shortcut for indicating who you mean to address.

I have to throw in my 2¢ here. I have found the dice feature here on RPR a lovely feature! I often use the 1D2 (coin-flip) to make decisions of direction within an RP post when I have two ideas on how things could go. Sometimes I use 1d4 or 1d6 for multiple direction possibilities. I've also used it privately on my test group forum to help me make decisions when writing replies. And there is the most fun thing of all .... raffles!

Having been a fan of TTRPGs in the past, I can see their many uses here!

Ahh, my mistake. It wasn't my intent to spread misinformation ; I just made a leap in logic considering how close the association between here an Furcadia is to me. Good to have clarification!

For what it's worth, I could immediately tell the TTRPG usage potential from the dice roller! You did an excellent job. It's honestly the biggest reason I made an account, I saw huge potential in the combination of Groups for information and roleplay, alongside a simple but effective dice roller that can be directly attached to posts. Even if PBP games aren't as common on the site as I was expecting, the groundwork is clearly here and it's just a matter of finding interested players. Hopefully I'll get to put it to proper use in no time!

Is there any possibility of getting a stats block HTML code added? I've seen them on other sites where it does a small box under your name, where you can add info for TTRPG game posts.

If you mean for character profiles (like, in the pages of them), you want either the "Flexible Stats" or "Classic D&D Stats" widget.

If you mean something that appears along with the name and pfp on every post made by a given character, there's a forum for Suggestions and Development you can post your idea in.