We've spoken at some length in this column about the importance of momentum - that quality of a game that makes its players want to make their next post. We've also discussed some techniques for maintaining that momentum: cajoling players to post, minimizing and streamlining meta-game mechanics, establishing default actions, and many others.

This month, we're going to build on that discussion by exploring another technique - using the pacing of the in-game fiction to create momentum. Generally speaking, it's easier to maintain momentum in a fast-paced game than a slow-paced game. What do we mean here by the pace of the game? As a rough approximation, we'll define it as the amount of narrative movement per post. One clarifying example and then we'll be on to the technique: imagine that a player is burgling a bank vault. A slow pace of play would have one post wherein the character surveils the vault (and presumably some mechanics and GM resolution), another where they crack the lock, another where they check for traps, another where they open the door and look inside, and another where they collect the loot. A fast pace of play would condense all of that into one post and one mechanical resolution step.

Zoom out on mechanical resolution.

We've said this before, but I'll reiterate it here: most RPG rules systems were not developed with PbP in mind, and may require some adjustment in order to work well in that format. Running a successful PbP means being flexible, particularly when it comes to detailed sub-systems and mechanics that require lots of player/GM interaction.

With that in mind, one of the more powerful tools in the GM's arsensal in controlling pacing is the ability to control the fictional movement that comes along with a mechanical check. In other words, does that Burglary check mean that the the PC picked a lock, or that they cased, cracked, and got away with the loot? Does the successful Attack roll mean that the PC connected his fist with some mook's face, or that the PC cleared out the whole bar full of angry drunks?

There are circumstances where a high-level of granularity in skill resolution is appropriate, and we'll talk about them in next month's column. If you want to speed up your game, though, zoom out on mechanical resolution. Let the players have a bigger effect on the fiction with each check. The game will move faster and the players will feel like they're better at whatever it is that they're doing.

Let the PCs win.

There's a scene from Captain America: Winter Soldier that encapsulates this technique perfectly. Here it is at about the 3:20 mark.

Let's translate this into PbP RPG terms: if the players need a minor victory in order to propel them into a more significant conflict, let them have the minor victory. If your players are super-agents, don't make them play out busting into that military facility to steal some gear. If one of your players is a world-class hacker, don't make them roll out the process of coming up with a digital vaccine against the world-ending computer virus - let them do it, and move forward to the part of the game where the group needs to break into the space station to distribute it via satellite.

This has the obvious effect of moving the game along faster, but it also carries a secondary benefit: it makes your players feel like their PCs are good at their jobs. Particularly for a player that hasn't had a chance to show off their PC's skills (either because of the ebb-and-flow of fictional opportunity or just because of bad dice rolls), this can be critical in keeping them invested.

Obviously, this technique requires some consideration and discretion: you probably don't want to remove all challenge and conflict from the game, because that would be boring. But, if the PCs have the notional skills to complete a task, and completing that task is a (necessary or subjectively-felt) requirement to get to the game's primary conflict, just tell the players that they succeed.

Time skips.

Don't feel like you need to play everything out. In some games, (Delta Green, say) addressing the minutia of tradecraft might be part of the core experience, but for the most part playing out mundane logistics is just surplusage. Assume the PCs get it right (see above) and just skip it.

Along the same lines, if what the players really care about in your dungeon-delving game is the cut-and-thrust of exploring a dungeon, don't make them play out the scenes that take place between delves in detail. Ask them for a single post about what their characters do during downtime, and then get back below ground. This does require, of course, that the players discuss their desires and expectations for the game, but as we've said repeatedly, that should be occurring anyway.

In other words, ask the players what they want to play out, and then do that. Skip the things they don't care about.

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None of this is to say that a faster-paced game is necessarily better (whatever that means) than a slower-paced game. The point here is that the pace of the game's fiction is another tool for managing a game's momentum. In fact, next month we'll be back with a discussion of the counter technique: how to slow things down