best systems for pbp newbie?

[Spooky_Wiz]

Hi all! I know any system can work as long as the gm knows how to run it efficiently, with minimal rolls, and with player buy-in, but...

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what systems work best for the pbp format without having to modify much or without having to ignore most of it?

I've been thinking maybe a Lasers and Feelings hack would work well.

 

*edit* After posting I realized I may have posted this in the wrong section (here instead of Gaming Discussions). Forgive me mods🙏

Edited September 13 by Spooky_Wiz (see edit history)

[Vladim]

I'm a big fan of Ironsworn. Free, not too rules-heavy (though not super light either), player-facing rolls, fiction-first approach and ability to be run in solo, co-op and GM-led modes. Decent-sized (and growing) fan base, dedicated community that releases lots of quality mods. It ticks many boxes, for me at least.

[Eric]

Everyone has their own preference, but probably more important than less rules is less back-and-forth resolution. The speed of a play-by-post game is measured by the number of posts it takes to accomplish a given action, and waiting for someone else to resolve or modify your result is one of the most common sources of slow play. Any system that avoids interrupts, contingent/opportunity actions, or the like tends to fare better. Better still is if you can manage to not need the GM to interpret roll results, though that can take away from the meta-thrill of the unknown.

I personally like Warrior, Rogue & Mage for PbP dungeon crawling, The Window for roll-supported narrative play, and Risus for just about everything else. (And yet I'm still running two D&D 3.5e games, so...)

[cailano]

Eric has some great points. I tend to like OSR systems for PbP. That said, I did manage to run a Pathfinder campaign that lasted multiple years, and we all had a great time until about level 10 or 11.

Lately, my favorite system for PbP is Dungeon Crawl Classics. It's really easy to get a group going, and, if you're starting with a funnel, no one has to make characters to apply. It's familiar enough that most gamers don't need anything explained to them, yet different enough to feel novel.

But the best part is the adventures, which are creative, challenging, and short enough to be run in PbP. That last part is really important as many games around here fade and die without the PCs having accomplished their goals. Short adventures lessen this problem. My group tore through the first DCC module I ran for them in just a couple of months of IRL time. We're currently about halfway through a second module.

[TheFred]

On 9/13/2023 at 3:44 AM, Eric said:

Any system that avoids interrupts, contingent/opportunity actions, or the like tends to fare better.

This I think is the key point. You can have quite complicated mechanics and it not really impact things at all... in fact in a lot of ways, PbP is good for that, since you have time, so if your turn takes 1 minute or 30 minutes it doesn't really matter. It's only when you need interaction with other people (players or DM) that things get bogged down.