Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting CLOSED

For all of your Play-By-Post games.
RainOnTheSun
Posts: 1152
Joined: Wed May 03, 2017 7:20 am

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by RainOnTheSun »

TBH, even 10 PCs seems like an astronomical number to me, but I've never GMed a PbP in my life. It might might be best to just rip the band-aid off quickly and pick your team. We'll understand if we don't make the cut. Even when characters don't get into one game, they've been fully made for the next one.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Jabroniville »

RainOnTheSun wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:39 am TBH, even 10 PCs seems like an astronomical number to me, but I've never GMed a PbP in my life. It might might be best to just rip the band-aid off quickly and pick your team. We'll understand if we don't make the cut. Even when characters don't get into one game, they've been fully made for the next one.
This is part of why I was about to end recruiting early- I was panicking because people were roleplaying, submitting tons of characters, and sending me tons of PMs, and I wanted to "rip the band-aid off", as you said, so people wouldn't get ahead of themselves.
Nunya B
Posts: 237
Joined: Thu May 10, 2018 8:51 pm

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Nunya B »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:29 am So a couple people PM'd me and suggested "running two games" is too much even for some seasoned GMs- anyone else have suggestions? It might be for the best just to take only 10 guys for the "Victory League", tough as it'll be to say "no".

It might be better to wait a few weeks, then make a decision on it.
I'd suggest picking your 4-6 absolute favorite submissions for just one game and giving everybody else a polite "thank you but we're full now".

A very large game results in heroes having difficulty expressing themselves uniquely or getting spotlight time, makes the game very slow even by PBP standards, and bumps up the amount of prose you'll be having to churn out and planning you'll have to do. I fully understand the desire to fit in everyone who expressed interest, but you're not Superman and shouldn't overextend yourself. Being too ambitious will cause your game(s) to fail, either because you can't carry the burden you place on yourself or you burn yourself out succeeding. Start small and work your way up once you're sure you're comfortable.

This is especially true if you're feeling overwhelmed by the volume of submissions you've gotten. Running a game is a lot more work than recruiting for one, so if you feel stress now you're going to be worse off once the game starts unless you trim the number of people you have to deal with dramatically.

Edit: Skimmed your post history. It looks like you've only been in one PBP (on this forum and Ronin, anyways) which suggests to me that you're not familiar with the workload of handling multiple characters and games at once. I'd glue that onto the list of reasons not reach for the stars.
Last edited by Nunya B on Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
catsi563
Posts: 4126
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:29 pm
Location: Dark Side of the Moon
Contact:

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by catsi563 »

As some one whose running 2 games planning on a third and in 3 games as a player it is a lot of work I agree. 4-7 players is a good medium number. you can always do guest shots if you want. ive had fun doing that.
Dr. Silverback has wryly observed that this is like trying to teach lolcats about Shakespeare

Showdown at the Litterbox

Catsi stories
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Jabroniville »

Woodclaw told me the typical limit of a PBP game is about eight players, which makes sense. I was aiming for 8-10, as that would actually fit the story a bit (a guy trying to make a new, successful super-team). Real-world comics typically have 7 as the "Sweet Spot" (Teen Titans, X-Men in their prime, etc.).
RainOnTheSun
Posts: 1152
Joined: Wed May 03, 2017 7:20 am

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by RainOnTheSun »

There's another option. There's a lot of enthusiasm for this game, so you could start with a fairly small group and add more players bit by bit until you hit your limit. You could even try that second game, if the first one seems easy enough to run.
MacynSnow
Posts: 5631
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 2:56 pm

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by MacynSnow »

Here's an idea Jab:
Select 6-7 members for the "Active Victory League" and add the other's onto a "Reseves" list.
Kindof like what they did during the Black Widow-lead Avengers run(Shortly before "The Bomber Jacket" Era).
Last edited by MacynSnow on Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Jabroniville »

RainOnTheSun wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:58 am There's another option. There's a lot of enthusiasm for this game, so you could start with a fairly small group and add more players bit by bit until you hit your limit. You could even try that second game, if the first one seems easy enough to run.
Yeah, that's kind of what I suggested above- waiting a few weeks to see how things were going.
RainOnTheSun
Posts: 1152
Joined: Wed May 03, 2017 7:20 am

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by RainOnTheSun »

Oh, I thought you meant wait a few weeks before picking anybody at all. That might be for the best, then.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Jabroniville »

RainOnTheSun wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:05 am Oh, I thought you meant wait a few weeks before picking anybody at all. That might be for the best, then.
Yeah, I meant "run the first game, then see if I wanted/was able to run a second one".
EpicEclipse
Posts: 2473
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:06 pm

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by EpicEclipse »

Running one game for a few weeks to get into the swing of things before considering running a second seems like a prudent course of action. It would also give you a chance to see what any starting player fall off you end up having for the first game.

I kind of like the idea of two associated teams, not so much in the sense of a crossover, but the potential of communication between the teams by way of short cameos is interesting to me.

Like say Galactica is on one team, but the other team is having a run-in with some villains from the IWL, they could give her a call to see if she could give them any information on the foe they are fighting. She can't necessarily get to them to help directly, but she could tip off a weakness or bit of info the team might find helpful.

It's an interesting dynamic that concurrent groups can utilize without being burdensome to the narrative of the game as a whole in the way a full crossover could be.
User avatar
Ken
Posts: 3460
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:40 pm
Location: Sycalb, Madiganistan

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Ken »

RainOnTheSun wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:39 am Even when characters don't get into one game, they've been fully made for the next one.
Unless you're the kind of player who tries to build for the setting, rather than expecting the setting to adapt to you.

I say, start the game with 20 PCs, that way after a month or two you should be down to about 7 or 8.
My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
User avatar
Loki
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu May 24, 2018 7:12 pm
Location: Behind You!

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Loki »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:56 am Woodclaw told me the typical limit of a PBP game is about eight players, which makes sense. I was aiming for 8-10, as that would actually fit the story a bit (a guy trying to make a new, successful super-team). Real-world comics typically have 7 as the "Sweet Spot" (Teen Titans, X-Men in their prime, etc.).
8 players is nice, since it builds in enough of a player base to stave off attrition, and gives a team large enough to cover for people that have RL issues that crop up, but also leaves you able to split into smaller teams.

Getting bigger than that tends to become unwieldy, as is splitting one's efforts to get two games off the ground at the same time. Should you find yourself easily navigating the running of the first game, then it would be simple to open a new recruitment thread and add another.
CaptainChaos
Posts: 601
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 3:36 am
Location: Massachusetts

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by CaptainChaos »

Pick as many characters as you feel comfortable running a game for. I've been in games with only 4 players and others with 10 or so. You can always have a reserve list for when people drop out.
User avatar
Supernaturalist
Posts: 2275
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2018 2:48 am

Re: Recruitment Thread (The Jabverse)- Recruiting Till July 23rd

Post by Supernaturalist »

I've GMed face-to-face, but never via PbP. Personally, I'd never take more than 6 players for a PbP, but that's only because it would be my first time. Every GM is different in terms of their creativity, preparedness, and commitment. Take a deep breath, meditate on it, and if you think you can run two games, then declare "Extra Effort" and go for it...you can always spend a hero point to remove the fatigue/exhausted condition, if necessary. :)
Post Reply