Has anyone run a game using roll20 as a "Play by Post" game instead of "Live"? My players don't all have the same work/sleep schedule..

Has anyone run a game using roll20 as a "Play by Post" game instead of "Live" ?  My players don't all have the same work/sleep schedule.. Instead of voice and video chat, we'd use the chat box extensively.  Thanks for any feedback or suggestions! James / Nezeray

i am actually very interested in any experiences anyone has had with this play style.  my thinking is that you would need to come up with a simplified system that doesnt requires too much interaction between other players during their turn.

I've had really good games and really bad ones in the past.  The bad ones revolve around players who post once a week, where others are posting multiple times a day sometimes.  The main problem has always been not having a good shared map and tokens. I'd have to redraw the maps to move each token when they move, change colored rings manually etc. 

I think there is some great potential but it likely (like any play by post game) requires high-quality players. Essentially you'll need to have about the same level of player activity and a lot of player trust to have them only take the appropriate actions for their "turn"

Yep, that's true.  I'll of course screen players that I have played with before either in person, online or at conventions.  :)

I've played by post a few times before, always as a GM. The best games I've experienced had very involved players, that studied the rules, were very patient and it was obvious they were really into the game; their posts were always on the mark, both thematically and mechanically speaking, always on character and with full knowledge of the rules. The worst games I played had players that did not keep track of their progress, not in their character sheets or maps. They did not bother to read or understand the rules, even when they were given resources and access to the core books. They were not constant or thorough in their posts, always posting every four days or more, with no awareness of the current situation and posting entries in a very incomplete way as in "I attack", yes, but who, with what, how? I think roll 20 is a great place to play by post, and if there is any doubt about position, situation, etc., the players just need to check the map and log. The great advantage of playing by post is that you don't need to keep a tight schedule of when you play, just set a number of posts per week and stick to it. Usually, the best play by post players I ran into were ladies and gents in their mid 40s; the worst were younger players that thought play by post was some kind of video game (and I love video games, mind you).

I'm also really interested in this idea, and, like Abe Z., I've had varying levels of success with it outside of this medium. I was putting some thought into the ways to do this using Roll20-- posting schedule is a basic, but in this format, posting isn't very difficult or time consuming. I've been thinking about trying one out here and I'm thinking posting once a day or every two days shouldn't be too difficult in this medium-- any multiple days per week schedule should work nicely to provide regular enough movement to keep interest. I've also considered the beauty of the tabletop levels for keeping track of things-- using Fog of War to keep players from searching the screen when you're not there and using marks on the GM level to keep track of character positions should prevent most of the 'cheats' that seem available to players using this medium. Character data can be stored on an offsite location, as many campaigns already do. I'm definitely going to try this out-- perhaps this summer. Keep us posted if you start it up.