What is Holding You Back from Being a Game Master on Myth-Weavers?

[Narnialover]

21 hours ago, Papa Bear said:

and is usually willing to teach and guide new people to the system.

Wait a minute! You're allowed to do that? Ok, getting to a couple of the questions I was going to need to ask first if I ever stop ghosting and actually try playing/starting a game, especially starting a game. Um... Let me give an example. Assuming I ever badger my one unwilling relative into playing a TTRPG again (which seems unlikely), let's say DWAITAS -- that's the only one I ever managed to keep going for any length of time -- we're face-to-face. I need to have the rulebook. I need to have any sourcebooks I'm using and the sourcebooks that have the pre-gen character sheets for whatever members of the TARDIS crew she's using. She doesn't need to have anything. The impression I'd gotten from ghosting was that, if I start a game on the forum, I still need to have as much as I did before but now... If I have one player who wants to play Adric, one who wants to play the Second Doctor and one who wants to play Sarah Jane, all three of them need to have the rulebook and, assuming they all want to use pregen stats, Adric's player needs to have either the Fourth or Fifth Doctor sourebooks, The Doctor's player needs to have The Second Doctor sourcebook and Sarah Jane's player needs to have, for classic show Sarah Jane, either the Third or Fourth Doctor sourcebooks or, for new show Sarah, the 10th Doctor Sourcebook. Which is more of an investment to ask the player to make in order to try out a game and see if they like it. Am I wrong on that? Have I over-explained? Have I been unclear? Have I been unclear and over-explained at the same time? I'm sorry for any of the above. My social skills leave much to be desired. Which is another reason I've been ghosting instead of playing or GMing.

[shawnhcorey]

Perhaps the site needs a FAQ.

[Andrew Glyph]

1 hour ago, shawnhcorey said:

Perhaps the site needs a FAQ.

I think the OG wiki is scheduled to stay in read-only mode. That has help guides for running play by post games. https://og.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/Help:Contents

[shawnhcorey]

28 minutes ago, MrAndrewJ said:

I think the OG wiki is scheduled to stay in read-only mode. That has help guides for running play by post games. https://og.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/Help:Contents

 

I must be blind. I don't see a help link anywhere on this page.

[Suzuki Stumpy]

15 minutes ago, shawnhcorey said:

 

I must be blind. I don't see a help link anywhere on this page.

At the top ... where it says 'User Guides' in the menu?

 

... although they do need updating

[shawnhcorey]

You mean the "Site User Guide" buried 3 levels deep? How about a link next to the username labelled "Help"?

[Papa Bear]

Oof, @Narnialover, that's more than my tiny little brain can take. Me nert as smert as da others here.

But yes, and no. We can't share the books or post large portions of them. We can link back to official SRDs and we can discuss how rules function. For example, it looks like I'm going to be starting a Champions game here pretty soon and if you joined, but didn't know the Hero System, I could explain to you how the die rolls work (3d6 rolling less than a target number, with bell curve peaking around 10/11), for example. You'd probably feel pretty lost without the rulebook at times (but preferably its about ROLEplaying and not ROLLplaying... at least in my book) and could still enjoy the game (well, maybe not Champions... its a pretty complex system).

Edited March 30 by Papa Bear (see edit history)

[dbcowboy]

*wrong thread*

Edited March 31 by dbcowboy
wrong thread (see edit history)

[Narnialover]

4 hours ago, Papa Bear said:

Oof, @Narnialover, that's more than my tiny little brain can take. Me nert as smert as da others here.

But yes, and no. We can't share the books or post large portions of them. We can link back to official SRDs and we can discuss how rules function. For example, it looks like I'm going to be starting a Champions game here pretty soon and if you joined, but didn't know the Hero System, I could explain to you how the die rolls work (3d6 rolling less than a target number, with bell curve peaking around 10/11), for example. You'd probably feel pretty lost without the rulebook at times (but preferably its about ROLEplaying and not ROLLplaying... at least in my book) and could still enjoy the game (well, maybe not Champions... its a pretty complex system).

Thanks for the explanantion! That's more flexible than I thought it was, which is a relief. I was picturing it being a bit of a tough sell telling people they absolutely have to buy a rulebook and at least one sourcebook before they can even try a game and see if they like it and I'm not sure how many people who already have and are interested in DWAITAS are on here.

[Suzuki Stumpy]

8 hours ago, shawnhcorey said:

You mean the "Site User Guide" buried 3 levels deep? How about a link next to the username labelled "Help"?

Because on mobile, the username isn’t displayed?

[Drowbane]

New Option: I don't know New MW. I lost all motivation to work on my games when the New MW was announced (it's been awhile) and so far I just don't understand the new stuff. I'll probably get there eventually.

Other factors? Life. Time. BG3 (its a time sink)

[Yamazaki]

On 3/30/2024 at 11:20 AM, Narnialover said:

Wait a minute! You're allowed to do that? Ok, getting to a couple of the questions I was going to need to ask first if I ever stop ghosting and actually try playing/starting a game, especially starting a game. Um... Let me give an example. Assuming I ever badger my one unwilling relative into playing a TTRPG again (which seems unlikely), let's say DWAITAS -- that's the only one I ever managed to keep going for any length of time -- we're face-to-face. I need to have the rulebook. I need to have any sourcebooks I'm using and the sourcebooks that have the pre-gen character sheets for whatever members of the TARDIS crew she's using. She doesn't need to have anything. The impression I'd gotten from ghosting was that, if I start a game on the forum, I still need to have as much as I did before but now... If I have one player who wants to play Adric, one who wants to play the Second Doctor and one who wants to play Sarah Jane, all three of them need to have the rulebook and, assuming they all want to use pregen stats, Adric's player needs to have either the Fourth or Fifth Doctor sourebooks, The Doctor's player needs to have The Second Doctor sourcebook and Sarah Jane's player needs to have, for classic show Sarah Jane, either the Third or Fourth Doctor sourcebooks or, for new show Sarah, the 10th Doctor Sourcebook. Which is more of an investment to ask the player to make in order to try out a game and see if they like it. Am I wrong on that? Have I over-explained? Have I been unclear? Have I been unclear and over-explained at the same time? I'm sorry for any of the above. My social skills leave much to be desired. Which is another reason I've been ghosting instead of playing or GMing.

A little late to this, but a few things:

1) You may wanna break up walls of text like this into more paragraphs to make it easier to read. Readability in posts go a very long way in this medium of play.

2) More importantly, it will be somewhat system dependent, and GM dependent. With the example you have here, you'd likely be able to get away with sharing the pregen character sheets and helping out with specific rules that are related to those sheets if they're not in the core rules. Obviously you'll want to check the fine print of the books to see what is and isn't allowed to be shared online (although if you can find them online thru official sources, you're usually safe).

That said, a lot of systems these days offer a quick start guide or player-facing PDF or SRDs or whatever to help folks cut their teeth on the system and make it accessible to try out. Some games are not going to be easy to introduce to folks on MW without them obtaining the books, though, but there's nothing wrong with seeing if people are game to try and willing to take a small risk in buying a PDF in those cases.

3) Unless you've been joining games and then ditching them, you've not been ghosting. You're lurking. There is a difference. Ghosting is the act of starting something (like joining or starting a game or even a relationship) and then ditching without a word. Lurking is the ancient internet art of just putzing around a site/forum/etc and not saying anything 90% of the time. Lurking is socially acceptable (and in fact a very smart thing to do when joining a new online community to get the vibe and culture), ghosting is not.

4) Social skills are a skill - the more you do it, the better you'll be at it. You'll pick up on the various tips and tricks as you go along. Mistakes can and will happen, but that's just part of learning how to get better at any skill, including socializing.

[Narnialover]

22 hours ago, Yamazaki said:

A little late to this, but a few things:

1) You may wanna break up walls of text like this into more paragraphs to make it easier to read. Readability in posts go a very long way in this medium of play.

2) More importantly, it will be somewhat system dependent, and GM dependent. With the example you have here, you'd likely be able to get away with sharing the pregen character sheets and helping out with specific rules that are related to those sheets if they're not in the core rules. Obviously you'll want to check the fine print of the books to see what is and isn't allowed to be shared online (although if you can find them online thru official sources, you're usually safe).

That said, a lot of systems these days offer a quick start guide or player-facing PDF or SRDs or whatever to help folks cut their teeth on the system and make it accessible to try out. Some games are not going to be easy to introduce to folks on MW without them obtaining the books, though, but there's nothing wrong with seeing if people are game to try and willing to take a small risk in buying a PDF in those cases.

3) Unless you've been joining games and then ditching them, you've not been ghosting. You're lurking. There is a difference. Ghosting is the act of starting something (like joining or starting a game or even a relationship) and then ditching without a word. Lurking is the ancient internet art of just putzing around a site/forum/etc and not saying anything 90% of the time. Lurking is socially acceptable (and in fact a very smart thing to do when joining a new online community to get the vibe and culture), ghosting is not.

4) Social skills are a skill - the more you do it, the better you'll be at it. You'll pick up on the various tips and tricks as you go along. Mistakes can and will happen, but that's just part of learning how to get better at any skill, including socializing.

1) I'm bad at paragraphs but I'll try.

2) Thanks! I was still wondering about the character sheets. The company sells PDFs of the books.

3) Lurking, not ghosting. Ok, I need to remember that.

4) Thanks!

5) Well, I'm feeling better than I was about maybe trying to jump in on here. Life is still going to limit stuff and mean that whatever I do is not GMing for a while. I've got too much on my plate to make that commitment of time and effort.

[Yamazaki]

13 minutes ago, Narnialover said:

1) I'm bad at paragraphs but I'll try.

2) Thanks! I was still wondering about the character sheets. The company sells PDFs of the books.

3) Lurking, not ghosting. Ok, I need to remember that.

4) Thanks!

5) Well, I'm feeling better than I was about maybe trying to jump in on here. Life is still going to limit stuff and mean that whatever I do is not GMing for a while. I've got too much on my plate to make that commitment of time and effort.

1) Again, like all skills - you improve by practicing and doing. Also, general rule of thumb is 3-5 sentences a paragraph.

5) There's no rush, and jump in when you're feeling ready. Many people try out as a player first before they GM, but do whatever feels most natural to you. Even if it means lurking for a while longer.

[cailano]

@Narnialover

I agree that PDFs are the way to go for PbP RPGs. If I dedicate 30 minutes or so to updating my games, I have three workspaces (aka virtual desktops) open:

1. Of course, a browser is open to Myth-Weavers. Sometimes, I have multiple Myth-Weavers tabs open so I can quickly reference character sheets or earlier posts.

2. A PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader with a copy of the rules and whatever adventure I'm running on deck

3. GIMP or another image editor in case I need to edit a map or get an image ready to post on the site.

Regarding paragraphs, I agree that a 3 - 5 sentence length is a good goal to shoot for. Another trick I've picked up is to boldface the critical parts of a paragraph, and a couple of my players have already thanked me for doing so.