Words on a Screen

As we've noted in previous issues of this Column, it's crucial to keep the players both wanting to post and actually posting. If posting means joking about events in the game, discussing rules issues, or even chatting about their days, that's great. If off-topic discussions keep players coming back to the gaming space, that's a win even if they aren't strictly making game-related posts.

Unlike at a live table game, players having off-topic discussions does not necessarily swamp out the communication channels that are used for playing. Most PbP games already use separate in-character (IC) and out-of-character (OOC) threads; off-topic chatter in the OOC thread does not prevent players from making IC posts. This means that PbPs don't share the same concern of off-topic discussions filling the air and stifling gaming like they would at a live table. So, encourage your fellow players to discuss whatever they care to in the OOC thread.

(Things are tougher in this respect if you've decided not to use a separate OOC thread. In that case, the bandwidth concerns of a live table game reappear. So, consider this implicit advice to divide OOC and IC discussions. Well, I guess it's explicit advice now.)

Off-topic discussions are not the best use of the OOC thread, of course. The typical use of the OOC thread is for the everyday business of mechanical discussions, player planning, and similar issues, and these are all important and necessary functions. Do not neglect the opportunity to further use the OOC thread as a vehicle to promote player engagement, however:

• Ask players questions about their characters.
• Hash out details of the setting and situations.
• Promote meta-discussions about the game: what's working, what isn't, what the players want to see in the future, etc.

Don't just pontificate, of course: direct questions to the other players (specific other players, by preference) to give them a reason to post. If they're posting in the OOC thread, chances are they'll be keeping up IC, as well.

Ironically for a column extolling the virtues of discussion, we're a little shorter than normal this month. We'll be back next month with a discussion of PbP game length: one-shots, short campaigns, and long/indefinite campaigns