IRC sucks!

[Bjorn]

When I started this game, I decided it was going to be IRC-based for a few reasons.  It is eventually going to be pretty conversation heavy (believe it or not); I didn't plan for the PCs to split up; there's going to be a fair amount of combat -- not a huge amount, but the hope was that the battles that did happen would be challenging affairs.  Combined with the fact that there wasn't going to be a lot of overlap in people's schedules, I thought going forum-based would result in a sort of one-post-per-person-per-day situation, which would be insufferably slow.

However, success to date with the IRC option has been... unconvincing.  It's hard to schedule games; three of us have variable enough schedules that we can't just settle on a fixed time.  And games have been crawling in the IRC sessions.  Some of that is flat-out poor GMing on my part (it has been a while!).  On top of that, with absolutely no recrimination (because I'm as guilty as anyone else here, too), it seems that we always end up with one person late, one person sleep-deprived, and one person distracted.

I'm not sure what to do.  If the IRC sessions keep going this way, then I'm worried lack of momentum will do the game in.  On the other hand, all my original worries about a forum-based game still apply, and I'd have to hack the HERO rules to come up with a forum-friendly version of combat rules.

Luckily, I don't have to make a decision, since I have players. :D

What do you guys think?  Would you prefer forum, or are you willing to try IRC a couple times more?  

And just to be really clear on this point -- I'm not trying to blame anyone (other than myself) for the pace in the IRC games.  Sleep deprivation, lateness, etc. is coming about because it's so hard to get us all online at the same time, which isn't anyone's fault.

[Brian]

Forumizing would change the game.  Probably not too badly, and possibly for the better.  But let's try IRC another time or two.  Maybe it has been poor luck so far, or we just haven't managed to really get warmed up.  I agree that there's been things keeping everything from working out neatly....

But my major issue is that our combats are running very slowly.  It's HERO, so that can happen, but, I'd like if we could try and speed things up just a bit.  I'm not sure what to do to encourage that, though, since I know Hal and Rez aren't as up on the rules, so don't always know what the best maneuver for a situation is.  And sometimes I have to look up things as well, so....

I'd like, ideally, if we could still fall back to IRC for some situations, even if we do go to the forum.  That way, if we have an intense fight, we can have it in channel on one of our rare schedule-overlappings, and then take it to the forum.

That's just my thought. :/

[Bjorn]

I'd like, ideally, if we could still fall back to IRC for some situations, even if we do go to the forum.  That way, if we have an intense fight, we can have it in channel on one of our rare schedule-overlappings, and then take it to the forum.

If we do go to forums, I think this is the way we'll have to go.  I'd like to have a stripped-down version of combat rules as well, so that simple battles don't have to get hauled into IRC (and so you guys don't start avoiding fighting just to avoid that hassle).

[Rezantis]

I'm happy enough to play on forums for a fair part of it.

I think the way TDAT did it was near perfect in that regard actually; most things done on the forums, with the complex things done in IRC.

[Rezantis]

Hm, but if forums will be too slow . . .

We could play forum-based between sessions to keep some momentum going, and just try to schedule regular IRC sessions anyway, whether the situation is calling for 'em or not; IRC sessions naturally get through more than an equivalent amount of forum time.  That's another possible suggestion.

[Halbarad]

Forum focus works for me, as it does allow us to play by our schedules rather than trying to get everyone together all the time for one thing. IRC as necessary for heavy conversation or fighting is good, however.

[Bjorn]

Hm, but if forums will be too slow . . .

We could play forum-based between sessions to keep some momentum going, and just try to schedule regular IRC sessions anyway, whether the situation is calling for 'em or not; IRC sessions naturally get through more than an equivalent amount of forum time.  That's another possible suggestion.

I actually really like this suggestion.  It keeps momentum, and when we can't schedule an IRC session (which is going to happen; I'm not always around on weekends), it's not a big deal.  It also means that since we're trying to set a regular IRC session, when tricky situations come up, we've got a pre-established schedule to resolve them in.  There's only one down-side to it, and that's the situation we're in right now; the last IRC session ended at a place where the forums are unsuitable to continue.  I don't think there's any way around this, though, other than to do our best to avoid that.

Tentatively, I'd like to propose we use Rez' suggestions: forums posts between regular-but-not-pushing-ourselves IRC sessions, with IRC sessions to handle tricky situations as needed/desired.  Does this sound acceptable to everyone?

[Brian]

What?  TDaT style, you say?  I can work with that.

Assuming we don't need to do the dreadrush thing.  If we do, I'm totally using the extra lives cheat.
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[Halbarad]

Works for me.