Duets
Well, the answer is simple: prompt replies by the narrator and players.
If everyone wants to move the story along and jumps on their opportunity to post then your campaign is doing well. The reverse is also true, when people stop posting then something is wrong. Now certainly with play-by-post, the real world intrudes on posting rates, but fundamentally if people are posting you are doing well, if they aren't posting you are doing poorly. So that brings up to the obvious question for a narrator: how do I keep my players posting?
This article attempts to answer that question.
In the Beginning … there were a lot of posts!
First, let me dispel a common misconception -- just because interest drops from the beginning does not mean you have done something wrong. There is the most enthusiasm and energy at the beginning of a campaign. People love developing characters and starting out on an adventure, this is why character building is so important to RPGs this is where a lot of the fun is to be found. This is because you build your character and you have in your mind a perfect story for this character. However, often what happens is that you start the campaign and it is nothing like your perfect story, in fact, sometimes you really dislike where the narrator is going with the campaign.Now sometimes the enthusiasm drops and drops quickly during the beginning, this is probably because the narrator has done something horribly wrong. Perhaps his cool concept is horribly flawed and everyone has now realized this, perhaps he has offended his players, or maybe in the best case it's Spring Break and all your players are on vacation. Still when interest plummets during the beginning of a campaign the question before the narrator is simple: whether he can make adjustments and soldier on or whether it is just best to scrap the campaign. Personally, if things are falling apart badly in the beginning then it is probably best to apologize to your players and scrap things. Try to figure out what went wrong and correct it for your next campaign.
Failures aside, the beginning of a campaign sets the tenor for the campaign so there are some things that you can do that will maintain some of that enthusiasm from the beginning into the heart of the campaign:
1) Be Prepared: Do NOT start a campaign until you are ready to start a campaign. I have seen many times the results of the impatient narrator (myself included) who can't wait to get their idea into play and give insufficient thought to getting prepared. This is a recipe for disaster. Now I'm not saying you need to have everything laid out for the campaign at the beginning, but you need to have the big stuff set in your mind and ready to go. Trust me, I know you think you will have plenty of time to do this work while everyone is drawing up characters, but you won't as it just doesn't work that way.
2) Explain Things Clearly: If your players don't understand something it is your fault so explain it again. Be patient and respectful of your players. If they are confused it may be they are sloppy readers, but it is more likely that your wording of things was unclear. Also remember you know your campaign better than anyone, that is the job of narrators and if a player forgets something important then politely remind them.
3) Promote Respect and Cooperation: Yes, PCs can be rivals or enemies, but it falls to the narrator to make sure all the players respect one another and cooperate in roleplaying. Critical to this is making sure someone doesn't dominate the campaign as they post a lot more and also making sure the rules are clear and fairly applied. If problems emerge between players early on then it is up to the narrator to fix the problems. With play-by-post, bad feelings means someone will just walk away from the thread and likely never be seen again. Don't let this happen if you can avoid it.
4) Stay Active: You need to be posting steadily for the first two weeks of the campaign answering questions and getting things started. Never start a campaign right before you go on vacation and NEVER start a campaign unless you have the time to properly run it. The first two weeks is absolutely critical to a campaign and this is the foundation for the entire campaign.
5) Witty Banter: In tabletop half the game is about witty banter, both in-character and out-of-character, so you need to provide this in your play-by-post campaign. Use the out-of-character thread to chat with your players, this helps everyone get to know each other, and do your best in-character in providing the dialogue for NPCs.
In the Middle … you need gimmicks!
The enthusiasm of the beginning fades and a few players drop out due to play style conflicts, which is why you are best to recruit a little cushion for the campaign at the beginning. After the beginning you are now in the heart of the campaign. Exciting things are happening, but still you have a nagging suspicion that enthusiasm is lagging … well, you are probably right, welcome to play-by-post! With tabletop, the process of getting together somewhere at sometime adds to the excitement with play-by-post you don't have that. So the nature of play-by-post makes things difficult to maintain enthusiasm, but there are some tricks, some gimmicks, which help:
1) Announce Absences and Breaks: If you are going to be gone then tell your players. If you do this, then your players will announce their absences as well. If absences are factored into the campaign it will allow people to take breaks from the campaign for whatever reason and to return when they have more time. Absences lead to withdrawal from a campaign due to guilt or simply feeling left behind, as narrator you have keep things positive and welcome players back with enthusiasm.
2) Get Feedback: Feedback is tricky to get but very important. When possible try talking to your players about what they like and dislike, but you have to be prepared for the bad. The truth is that players know better what they dislike as opposed to what they like. Also players don't always understand what they dislike and you have to read between the lines. Remember this point -- criticism can be tough, but it is how you will grow as a narrator. No narrator is perfect, but the good ones strive for perfection.
3) Tailor: If you can, then tailor the campaign to your players. This is tricky unless you have gamed a lot with them or are getting good feedback from them, but if you can tune things a little to be more inline with the preferences of your players then they will be more engaged with the campaign. This can be tricky in play-by-post as time is such a premium, but if you are lucky, a few players might prefer similar things and that will help with prioritization of time and energy.
4) Make a Change: If a campaign is faltering remember this: to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity. If things aren't going well -- then make a change, kill off villains, end plot lines and start new ones, or maybe change the medium to chat or add some new technology to the campaign. Making a change is a good way of jumpstarting a lagging campaign, but too much of a change can lose your players as well -- it is a balancing act but when a campaign is astray then change is good.
5) Pacing: Successful play-by-post campaigns are all about the pacing. Don't let things drag, if a battle is lasting months then end it and move forward. Skip over the boring stuff and keep things moving, but on the same token if your players are excited about something that is happening then take your time with it. The secret is watching two things: the posting rate of your players and the quality of the posts. The higher the rate and higher the quality, the more engaged your players are and then you should stick with your current pacing, but if either rate or quality drop then the simplest solution may be to pick up the pace.
6) Rewards: One thing that bolsters morale is treasure and XP; if you have six months of play and no character growth then it is pretty demoralizing. Yes, play-by-post is slow, sometimes excruciatingly slow, but you still need rewards from time to time. Rewards are positive reinforcement for players and this is why all RPGs have rules for character development -- advancement keeps people coming back for more.
7) Schedule: A schedule provides predictability and structure which helps both GMs and players arrange their time around the campaign, this can make posting more regular and can help the flow of the campaign. However, a schedule of posting will fix the pace of the campaign, so keep this in mind when you set the schedule.
8) Sweeps Week: One trick which works is to designate an upcoming time period (week or two) as a sweeps week, which is just like with television shows -- you pull out all the stops. Super excitement, betrayals, weddings, births, deaths, cataclysm, guest star appearances, and anything else you can think of to make sure that everyone is tuned in and posting up a fervor. Seriously, this works. The players know a big week is coming and they will be watching the thread more closely and if you pull off some cool stuff and keep things moving then it is going to be a hit. Don't do sweeps weeks all the time just every now and then to jumpstart things.
9) Tailor: If you can, then tailor the campaign to your players. This is tricky unless you have gamed a lot with them or are getting good feedback from them, but if you can tune things a little to be more inline with the preferences of your players then they will be more engaged with the campaign. This can be tricky in play-by-post as time is such a premium, but if you are lucky, a few players might prefer similar things and that will help with prioritization of time and energy.
In the End … you end!
Few play-by-post campaigns are infinitely sustainable and the ones that do are usually unique beasts worthy of praise and adoration, but for the rest of us, all things much come to an end. Announce the end beforehand with a warning of several weeks. Then try to wrap up the campaign as best to your ability, but stick to the deadline as much as possible. Then end the campaign with some concluding remarks and look to your next campaign. Praise your players for all they have done and tell everyone how much fun you add with the campaign. You all have put a lot of work and thought into the campaign and a little praise and self-congratulations is perfectly in order.
However, sometimes an end is merely a hiatus as you retool the campaign for a jump to the future - months or years into the future. This is one way to have a sustainable campaign as you keep reinventing and tweaking it with each new campaign. In this case take what happened in the ending campaign and incorporate some of it into the new campaign, but it is a new campaign so go back to the beginning.
