Play by Post Support

Hello Roll20, I've been a big fan of Roll20 since I joined six months ago, as it has really helped me get back into tabletop RPGs for the first time in years, letting me find people who can play from the comfort of my own home anywhere in the world. However, once I caught the tabletop bug, I got into another form of playing tabletops - play by posts (PBP). While Roll20 makes it convenient to set up a game time and adhere to it, PBP gives the freedom to continuously play a game at any time, meaning I can perform a move, give a roll or write up an RP moment on my phone during my work break. However, most PBP venues are surprisingly lacking in tools and infrastructure, and also are very hard to find games for (especially for people to stay consistent). Given that all the tools for administering a game as well as finding groups are in place, would it make sense for Roll20 to try and develop a tool to work with PBP games?  I'd like to know people's thoughts on this (if it hasn't been discussed ad nauseam before).

If rules are enforced that nothing happens on the gametable but dice rolls, that in conjunction with the campaign forum seems to cover the bases.  But I'm not a frequent PbP person, so I'm curious what other tools you feel are needed.

You've also got timestamps that you can enable in the VTT's chat now, which would help in verifying it's the correct roll.

I agree you could definitely use Roll20 as your game roller, but I was thinking more along the lines of something that could be integrated into the forum/posting experience. For instance, the best and most supportive forums I've come across offer is the ability to roll a die using bbcode function (such as posting [roll]1d20+2[/roll] in order to make a skill check) but this relies on knowing all of the numbers involved, getting them right and typing them out correctly.  Basically, I think it would be ideal to have some along the lines of various character sheets and their assorted macros somehow integrated into be forum experience, so you'd just need to press a "Sneak" macro check and it would be incorporated in. Something like that would make Roll20 the premiere PBP destination on the entire internet.  Of course, even the baby step of offering a PBP forum section would be a start, as well as the ability to use the Looking for Group section for PBP type of games. Starting out, it would be nice to be able to use Roll20 for that and record dice rolling so everyone can work in the same area, rather than setting up a campaign here to roll and then have forum posts elsewhere... it would keep things much cleaner. 

I GMed a PbP game with roll 20 with great success and one of the best game experience we had. I think the game become more a hybrid between live chat and PBP. I had to keep a strict structure to make the game work. Some suggestion to make PbP better in Roll20: possible to permanent deleted forum posts, tables is broken when copy and past them between posts, font color option, countdown timer in VTT, dice roll in the forum, possible for the players to move between two or more maps by themselves, show player's movement path, fix the broken API server (I get error between login and need to restart all the time), value (HP etc.) change announcement in the chat, two or more chat rooms in the VTT one for OOC and one for rolls, custom name (character name) and avatar in the game forum, LFP without the need to input next game date, PbP option in LFG. I will add more suggestions later :)

Reminder: you can add to the Suggestion Forum . For more information on your vote(s) see our Forum Voting wiki.  This thread can continue with discussion of how to use the existing tools for a PbP game, but Sun and Fast Jimmy might want to collaborate on a Suggestion forum post :)

GenKitty said: Reminder: you can add to the Suggestion Forum . For more information on your vote(s) see our Forum Voting wiki.  This thread can continue with discussion of how to use the existing tools for a PbP game, but Sun and Fast Jimmy might want to collaborate on a Suggestion forum post :) Hello GenKitty - going to that forum, I don't seem to be able to have any votes to make a post. Does that mean I am unable to give any suggestions or feedback at all?

Fast Jimmy said: GenKitty said: Reminder: you can add to the Suggestion Forum . For more information on your vote(s) see our Forum Voting wiki.  This thread can continue with discussion of how to use the existing tools for a PbP game, but Sun and Fast Jimmy might want to collaborate on a Suggestion forum post :) Hello GenKitty - going to that forum, I don't seem to be able to have any votes to make a post. Does that mean I am unable to give any suggestions or feedback at all? Free accounts accrue 1 vote each year (Plus and Pro accounts get 1 vote/year plus a handful of extra votes for subscribing). Votes are required to create a thread in the Suggestions forum or to vote on an existing suggestion. However, you can comment on suggestion threads without having any votes available.

As I said, for more information how voting works see our Forum Voting wiki page.  The number of votes you receive is based on your subscription level and how long you've been with the site. Pro accounts receive 10 votes.  Plus accounts receive 5 votes.  In addition, you receive 1 vote for each year you've been registered as a user with Roll20.   For example, a Plus account holder who has been using Roll20 for two years would receive 7 votes. A Base (Free) user who has been on the site for a year will get one vote. A Base (Free) user who has just joined will not receive any votes. As Brian said, it doesn't cost votes to comment on existing suggestions.   Hence my recommendation to get together with Sun who, as a Pro subscriber, possibly has spare votes to lend to a suggestion. [Edited to add: I was wrong about not needing votes to comment.  You don't need votes REMAINING, but you need to have EARNED at least one vote to be able to comment.  I'm sorry for the wrong information I had]]

I am not sure if I have any votes left, if I have I will write a suggestions for improving PbP on roll20.  GenKitty, is it possible to suggest multiple change on one post or can we just request one feature per post?

I would say one 'theme' per suggestion.  'Expand support for Play by Post via these tools, A, B, and C' could be one post.

I posted our suggestion here&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2262582/support-for-play-by-post" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2262582/support-for-play-by-post</a> , &nbsp;please comment if you have more ideas to add.

Thanks Sun! EDIT: Well, it states I can't make comments because I am unable to vote, so I'll just monitor the thread and see what conversation occurs. Your post covered many of the basics, Sun, so we'll see what feedback people have.&nbsp;