Tricks of the Trade for IRC + Forum Games

[Dracos]

Okay, so, currently I'm in a game where most of the folks are pretty inexperienced at running games on IRC, much less running games at IRC with forum additions.  Because of this, they are missing most of the benefits and leaving it little better than running the game in an Aim chatroom.  I was going to ramble to them about this directly, but I realized that this kind of stuff would be of benefit to, possibly, be written down for others to add to and for newbies to read when they want to get started.

First off, I'm a pretty firm believer that IRC + forum is a pretty awesome online game configuration.  The forums provide a static place for messages to be passed between players, rules to be kept, information of a mostly permanent nature recorded, and of general benefit to all: Logs.  It is a way for all the pertinent information you want to be kept in one convenient spot, that everyone has access to and non-time pertinent messages can easily be  placed for folks to read at their leisure.  It is like a bulletin board, you can let others know you'll miss a session, make plans on things, etc.  Moreso, by keeping logs on it, you have a way to interest other players in your game or show them what to expect if they join, as well as provide a way to keep a history of the game without writing extensive journals or other crap.  "Well, I met this guy or that guy, what was his name?"  Go search for it.  Admittingly, it doesn't have to be a forum that fulfills this role.  Traditionally, BBS used to be it, and wikis also serve quite servicably in this role.  The point of this part of it is that it is a static shared space that  everyone involved on the game can reach and read and add to as need be.  It does not depend on everyone being there at the same time and can easily be shown to others.  It is something also that online can hold a lot more information a lot easier about the game than can ever be handled offline.

What do you need to know though to take advantage of this part?  You need to know what it is for, for one: any relatively static bit of information that you want the entire team to see easily and be recorded.  This can include maps, scheduling information, house rules, setting history, journals, player notes, friendly game quotes, statistics, spell lists, inventory lists, lists in general, game discussion, and logs for a short list of things I've generally seen it used for.  Anything you generally want the entire group to know, this is usually a much better tool to use then to contact people individually.  It is also much better for rules discussions because its nature helps promote deliberation and is inherently self recording for easier referencing of the discussion.  Sorting things by post or topic is also a good way to start and especially helpful with logs.  Keeping it limited to per session or per adventure can help a lot and leave something easy to scan if you need to in the future (A lot of this I'll cover in the IRC section of it).  Keep to trying to make general categories rather than one shot stuff.  It'll make it easier to keep trends in mind and keep the information all in one referencable spot.  And remember, you can edit it!  A good habit for rules is that the first post contains all the game rules in a single post, where the other posts are discussion, proposed new rules or changes, or whatnot that doesn't need to be read.  That way you don't swim through lots of stuff to access the important information.  This single edited post model applies well for any bit of information that is updated often.  Rather than get an expanding list of posts, just keep changing the same one with the added information, and the rest can be discussions or suggested additions or whatnot.  For logs, give the overall topic good names and save the first post for information on the sessions/adventure.   That way a player doesn't have  to hunt through logs, but instead can look at the top and see "I got this much experience, or we found these things" easily.  Less important for more narrative games, but still useful.

Anyhow, enough blabber on that.   That's really the simple end.  Well, I think both are simple, but that's because I've done it for a very long time.  The next part is the IRC.  This doesn't have to be irc.  It could be a messenger client or openRPG (Boo) or anything really that provides:  A method of saving logs, A method of creating a room that everyone can join, the ability to create more than one at a time and be in more than one at a time, and the ability to pass messages privately.  Anything that fulfills these needs can basically be the IRC part of the setup.  How to use it to get the most of it?

First off, start with an OOC room.  This is your Table, as it would be in a face to face game.  This is where everyone should congregate and meet first before the game begins.  If you do not have this, you're already at a huge disadvantage and if folks don't meet here first, you might as well not be having it.  This serves as a brain center, a place the GM can use to organize everyone at the same time easily without worrying about how many game rooms may be running at a moment.  It is a place most questions and answers can be made, where the rest of the party can hear (Most question and answers should be handled this way unless RP necessiates otherwise.  If one person is asking, 3 people really want to know).  I can't emphasize this enough.  If players ignore this, go elsewhere first, or other things, everything else about running an irc game becomes a lot more difficult, both for GMs and players.  To help maximize the use of this, players should go to it first, they should stay in it during the game, and they should use it for asking any question that they don't need/want to be secret.  Similarly, GMs should start there, focus any non secret instructions or messages there, and use it to coordinate players.  Used correctly, it is both the social side of the game which lets players laugh, joke, and share things during, before, and after the game, establishing camraderie, while at the same time isolating OOC player silliness away from the actual RP and providing a venue where everyone is standing before they're told 'Go here, go there'.  In general, you should almost never 'need' to ask a question in room to get it fielded quickly.  If players are asking a lot in room, the game is rolling out of control and subject to stalling.  It also is a lot harder to clean up~

Second, in order to keep things easy, don't rush on room creation.  Consider each thing a scene, with a beginning and an end.  By doing so, you know when folks should leave camera in a room and when they should enter it, rather than with a setting, which can often suffer from folks leaving or walking around in a single scene.  In that interest, Proceed and end your scenes with something.  My favorite of late is "--------------" which lets me find the start and stop points of a scene very easily.  Most things can be done in a single room.  Only make others if the party wants to separate and before you do, ASK who wants to participate in the other scene going on.  Get yes and nos and foreshadowing from players of their intent.  It helps a lot in knowing what would be the best way to do it and to be able to say "If you want to take part in Scene X, you can't take part in Scene Y.  That's a GOOD thing btw.  Role playing characters aren't on chains, and generally most games where they exist on one doesn't work poorly.  Most players will work together to try and find a way to stay together, and some games are about staying together, but being able to state early 'this is how it will roll' will help prevent both player and GM flailing.  Yes, when splits happen, all scenes won't always match up.  That's also part of it and you have to decide your tolerance for such (and for how many rooms).  Run no more scenes at a time than you can comfortably handle.  Yeah, most of this sounds like common sense, but again, isn't for most.

I'll yammer more later, but gametime =p