The GMs Of The Unseen Servant

[Alethan]

Name: Charybdis Richelle

Systems I'm willing to run: Shadowrun 2e or 3e (3 preferred), In Nomine, Fate Core, Over the Edge

Settings I prefer: That depends on the game. If I run Shadowrun, I will use the SR setting, stopping right before the Night of the Comet. My FAQ for any SR game will list the game year and how world history differs from the original game setting. If I run In Nomine, the setting would probably be modern, though I might be convinced to try it in a historical setting. Fate Core or Over the Edge could be anywhere and anywhen; they would definitely be homebrew. My last Fate Core game was an evil campaign set in a vile, modern fantasy world which has to be the darkest game I have ever run. (Sometimes I scare myself with how dark it became.) I wouldn’t mind reprising the setting, but I probably couldn’t run it here – as I said, it is very dark.

Games that I've run before: I don’t have links to any PbP campaigns. I used to run PBeM on BBS servers back in the day (Yes, I’m that old.) At one point, I was running 23 PBeM games and playing in 17 more. Or it might be the other way around. I can’t remember and neither can any of my friends who were gaming with me at that time. Anyway, I was participating in 40 PBeM games at the time.

As the BBS melded into the internet, my ex and I migrated to PbP on our website. I was running my dark Fate Core game on Discord for about 2 and a half years, but it dissolved due to player politics, and that channel has been deleted.

I do have the logs for a couple of one-on-one PbP games that I am running.

*1. At Any Price – This Fate Core game is set in the world of the novel series I am writing, but it is similar enough to the SR universe to give a feel for how I would run that system. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rjd ... sp=sharing)

*2. Just for Fun – This is a completely freeform game with no set universe. My friend and I are making it up as we go along. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hKE ... sp=sharing)

*3. Tea for Two – This is a short Shadowrun one-on-one scene between a PC from one of the many PBeM games I ran twenty years ago and an NPC from the same game. The PC’s original player and I wrapped up some unfinished business. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Hk ... sp=sharing)

If anyone is interested in the evil campaign I mentioned, message me privately, and I can get you the links for some of those Logs. We were over 1000 pages, not counting private player scenes.

The Crunchy Bits: I guess I should start with this:

By joining any of my campaigns, you agree to accept the following conditions:

I am the GM. I am not a god, but I DO tell the gods what to do. Therefore:

*I. Trust me. I may well be acting on information you don't have.
*II. I can and will handle certain events for game flow and flavor over rules. Deal with it.
***A. The rules are there, but they won’t come into play much.
***B. Save all rules-lawyering for private channels.
*****1. Always. Without exception.
*****2. Do not clutter the game channel with that junk.
*****3. It’s not going to help much anyway. (See bullet point II.)
*III. Arguing ticks me off and is likely to end badly.
*IV. You have been warned.

The number of house rules I use depends on the specific campaign. You will know what they are. I will put them in the campaign FAQ.

When posting, please remember the player controls their own PC, Other players control other PCs. I control everything else. Do not tell me, “I throw the glass against the brick wall, and it shatters.” Tell me, “Bob throws the glass against the brick wall.” or “Bob throws the glass against the brick wall, expecting it to shatter… or hoping it will shatter.” Yes, most likely it will, but there may be other considerations. I may well tell you, “The glass bounces harmlessly off the wall.” Should Bob think that’s odd, maybe. React to that, but don’t tell me glasses don’t work that way. That goes for character interactions as well. Don’t tell me that “Betty sashays across the room and smiles at the bartender. He smiles back and asks for her number.” Just tell me what Betty does. I will tell the players what the bartender does. The same holds for other PCs. Do not assume to know how another PC will act. A player should only post for their PC. Allow the other PC’s player to respond with how their character reacts.

The Fluffy Bits: My campaigns weigh heavily on the side of role-playing; I’m not saying that they will never involve combat. Whether or not it does depends largely on the RP. We can use the Unseen Server die roller if I can figure out how to make it do correct die rolling. If not, we can discuss as a group how we want to roll dice. I am flexible.

I taught English and reading for twenty-six years before long-COVID forced my retirement. I would like player posts to make sense and be in (more or less) complete sentences. I prefer posts to be at least a good, solid paragraph (3-5 sentences), but sometimes the scene doesn’t need it. No player can write a post too long for me to read. Be warned, though, I tend to respond to everything a player posts.

I want dialogue in “quotation marks” and thoughts in italics. If there is telepathy, it should be in ~tildes.~ That said, I realize not everyone is a career ELAR teacher. I know the difference between grammar and usage and that language is just a set of conventions. If a player’s writing makes sense, it's all good. I will probably ask that everyone write in third person and label their character name before their posts, but I will detail that in the FAQ. Writing in first person is negotiable if the whole group prefers that, but I would like it to be unified.

I don’t mind cussing (the “f” word is practically punctuation in my house), but this site does. Therefore, I would like the keep cussing to a minimum. Save it for when it is really important. If the game setting has its own original obscenities (like Shadowrun does), players can feel free to have their characters use that as much as they like. That said, I am GMing for adults. I will not permit racist, sexist, ableist, etc. comments to or about Th. However, I am not going to pretend these issues do not exist, and they will come up in my game. Depending on the game and setting, many violent, abhorrent actions and events might happen. (Shadowrun had the Great Ghost Dance and the Night of Rage. Millions of people died. Yes, there are still humans first extremists. Yes, they may lynch metahumans, that sort of thing). These things happen in real life; therefore, they should happen in RPGs too. Don’t join if that is a problem.

I will be keeping a Google Doc set of game logs. In it, I will revise and edit posts – everyone’s, including my own. I may or may not keep logs on private posts. That depends on how often players post in-character privately. So, no worries if autocorrect is not enough to fix a player’s spelling or they forget a comma or things like that. If it makes the meaning unclear, I will ask the player about it and edit the text in the official log.

I have played and run many, many more game systems than the ones listed above. I still have most of them. Right now, however, I am in the mood for modern, modern fantasy, cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, and the like. I am already playing in two high fantasy games and a Star Wars game, so I want to do something different. That might change in the future.

I do not mind a little inter-party strife. I have had PBeM games where all I had to do as GM was adjudicate the arguments, conflict, and out-and-out revenge of PCs against PCs. It gave me months of a very easy GMing job. If inter-party conflict derails the plot, it derails the plot. I am fine with that. Just remember in such cases that the characters have issues with each other – not the players. Roleplaying these sorts of arguments is fun; handling players who don’t know the difference between a player and a character is not.

I do not see my role as GM as adversarial. I am not trying to win against my players. I don’t expect my players to try to beat me - their characters to beat mine, maybe, but this is a collaboration, not a contest. I do not actively go out of my way to kill the PCs in my games. That said, I am not afraid to do that, either. Life doesn’t have starter levels. Bad things happen to innocent people. Do not assume that just because I put an enemy into the scene the PCs can defeat them or if I put an obstacle in the PCs’ path they can overcome it. At least not immediately. Remember most of the time, the PCs will have the option to run. “PCs that fight and run away live to fight another day.” I don’t try to do party wipes, but it has happened two and a half times in my forty-plus years of gaming.

Player Expectations: I like to run fast-paced games, but I realize players have lives. I have one, too. I expect players to post at least every 2-3 days. That said, I will not wait for every player to post before I reply. If one player makes a PC post, I will probably respond within 24 hours, usually in less time than that. If the moment passes, a slower poster may have a lot to read through before responding. That might mean their character doesn’t get to act even if that character would have wanted to do so.

This will not happen in combat. In combat, I will keep everyone in initiative order and not move forward until the person who is up gets to post. If the player passes the 3-day mark and that missing post is holding up the game, I may force a move. In combat, I definitely will.

If a player needs to be away from the game and can’t post within 3 days, I do ask that they drop a note in the OOC channel that I will set up. That way everyone knows and understands what’s happening. I also understand that emergencies happen and sometimes it is not possible to submit an absence post. In that case, just drop me a message as soon as possible. If it is not a constant habit, that’s fine.

I ask that my players read all of the new responses before posting. I don’t want to roll back time or revise the universe because someone posted to an incident that is already resolved – at least not unless absolutely necessary.

Selling Myself: How do I sell myself? I have been gaming for over forty years. I have raised two gamers to adulthood. I love text-based RP because it gives players a chance to use all those little quirks that they write on their character sheet and then never get to use because they forget in the heat of a live game. With text games, players can take the time to think things through and post their character’s words in their correct voice, remember their catchphrases, and bring in all those little things that bring a character to life. All of my game ideas start with a character – usually one that won’t quit talking to me in my head. Then I build a campaign around that character. I love when my characters meet the players'. So, playing with me, players will get to meet a cast of characters that I have been developing for decades.

[Alethan]

Name: Manintights

Systems I'm willing to run: D&D5e, M&M3e, Vaesen, PTU, Kids on bikes. WFRP

Settings I prefer: Humblewood, warhammer old world, Homebrew

Games that I've run before:
None yet for PBP

The Crunchy Bits: I mostly run games with rules as written, but I'm open for input. I use some house rules, especially for critical hits. My rule is original roll is max, you roll for the additional damage. I dislike flanking rules as they are written. Rule of cool very much applies, but clear things with me in advance.


The Fluffy Bits: Roleplay and player immersion are my main interests. I like a good, intelligent, challenging combat. Skill challenges are something I really like to do with my characters. I love, love, love a good chase scene.

Player Expectations: High interaction. I expect on weekdays a daily post to keep the game moving. In weekends I am a bit more lenient as I will be available less myself. Hit me up if you like a good mix of combat, roleplay and a bit of exploration.

Selling Myself:

I will have you meet NPC's you will never forget.
I love working with my players to incorporate their backstory in the game as fluently as possible.
I'm dutch, that has to count for something right?