Has anyone attempted an asynchronous game over Discord or some other chat app?

Has anyone attempted an asynchronous game over Discord or some other chat app?

Has anyone attempted an asynchronous game over Discord or some other chat app? For people who can’t commit to a set time, but who are in front of a computer all workday and capable of popping in and out of a chat. I’d think this would allow for the crosstalk the game needs while mitigating some of the slowness of traditional pbp. Thoughts?

10 thoughts on “Has anyone attempted an asynchronous game over Discord or some other chat app?”

  2. I think a lot of the BitD mechanics require a lot of discussion to work, so it might not be the best system for PbP.

    For example, player wants to attack the thug. MC says sure “desperate, standard.” Player now has to respond, “whoa, desperate… I knew you said he was big but I didn’t realize it would be desperate… can I get someone to help me or maybe a devils bargain…” Now MC needs to wait for a player to offer assistance. This means players will need to post all throughout the day, which works sometimes but not everyday.

    In a regular game, the dialogue makes the whole encounter more interactive and engaging, but in PBP it would be super tedious.

    What I am saying is that in my opinion BitD would need some serious hacking to be a pbp game.

    Has anyone had positive experiences with BitD pbp, or any PbtA pbp?

    I would think maybe a google doc/sheet where you could have multiple conversions going on in the form of chat & comments with responses might be good. So different players each post what action they want to take, then they comment in chat about what order to go in, then the MC tells each person the position and effect maybe also suggesting devil’s bargains, then players offer to help or suggest devils bargains. then mc rolls all the dice and begins the next game turn.

  3. I’m interested in the format and experimenting with it. Certainly there are challenges to PbP but I don’t think they’d be too hard to overcome. If you’re looking for a player or part time MC, I’d love to give it a shot. RedAnchorite#8230 on Discord.

  5. Max Vanderheyden Right on. I’ve been involved with two attempts to do Blades pbp and both have fizzled because of the problems you described. They’re only exacerbated by pbp’s biggest overall problem (post traumatic stress?) where people can sometimes agonize over posts to the point of causing further delays. At least that’s how it’s gone for me!

    For whatever reason, I tend to think posting to a chat is lower stress than a forum. Could be wrong…

    What I’m thinking about is a sort of hybrid between pbp and live play that’s based entirely around my own selfish scheduling needs. I can’t commit to a weekly live game, but I am parked in front of a computer every weekday looking for new ways to procrastinate.

    I think I’d run it in Discord where everyone pops by whenever they’re able to check-in and respond throughout the week. But, at least once per week, we’d have an agreed upon stretch where we’re ALL in chat and capable of responding at least once every… I dunno, hour or so? So you can still leave chat to go answer emails or whatever, but the game is somewhat coordinated so we can move full speed ahead during that session. In short, asynchronous… except for like Wednesdays 11-5 when we’re all checking chat as much as possible.

    If that sounds good to anyone else, hit me up!

  6. Jeff Hart I’d be willing to try it out, I use discord all the time at work. I’ve read through Blades but have yet to play, hopefully that’s not an issue

  7. I’d be happy to try. I really want to play more PbP but keep having them fizzle. I know BitD decently well as I’m running it on Roll20. I can use discord from my phone throughout the day, but not from my work pc.

Comments are closed.