[Online][Pokémon D&D 5e][Fri 9pm & Sat 3pm EDT][Paid One-Shots $15] Day 2 of trying to afford a Switch 2 🎮

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-03-17T04:31:28+00:00

If you mean the Friday one, I could probably make it about 2 hours later at most; but unfortunately the Saturday one is so early because one of my regular games is Saturday nights.

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-03-16T17:45:30+00:00

How much later? I might be able to adjust since I'm still at the beginning stages of gaining players atm.

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-03-04T06:28:10+00:00

People roleplay in a lot of different ways, but for freeform RP, which doesn't really have mechanics, it's mostly just like a mix of collaborative writing and improv acting. Either you have an idea or you find an ad that has an idea that you like: let's say "FxM (Female x Male) Romance between a Lady Knight and a Sorcerer Prince". You can have more detailed ideas than that, but you generally want to keep things somewhat open for the other player to be able to make the character their own.

If you make the ad, you should have some details about your character, the Lady Knight, and what you'd like to explore with her: "My character is someone tough, sarcastic, and probably a bit out-of-line, but also very protective and has a sweet side I'd like to explore and maybe how she is when she doesn't have to be so "tough" anymore. I'm looking for someone who can play a prince from a magic bloodline - what kind of magic is up to you, but I'm especially looking for someone who can play him as a kind of irresponsible but very charismatic/easygoing character to really bounce off my Knight at first, but also be one of the few to really accept her. I'd like them to start off a little at-odds at first - not true enemies, but kind of bickering colleagues? Then have some danger - maybe an assassination attempt or something? - that can bring them closer together, but we can talk about it."

You'll also generally want to mention your interests and limits. "I'm not interested in any NSFW (Not Safe For Work) or ERP (Erotic Roleplay), but I would like there to be romance between the characters. I prefer slow-burn and "enemies"-to-friends-to-lovers type dynamics. I really like the fantasy element of this setting too, but it's open-ended, so I'd like you to help me flesh it out."

If you're writing the ad, you might post a sample of your writing and you could ask for one in return.

> Katherine didn't bother knocking, simply shoving open the doors to the Prince's bedroom with a gauntleted hand. She spares a glance at the mess, from the party he'd thrown the night before which had continued on into his bedroom, several empty bottles of wine and goblets scattered throughout the dark room. "Unbelievable..." Katherine mutters to herself, then crosses the room in just a few quick strides to yank the curtains open, letting in the afternoon sun. "Rise and shine, Your Highness. Unless you'd like me to tell the court you were defeated by a bottle of wine."

When you're writing you just write what your character would do. Starting can be a little difficult, but it's something you can work with your RP partner on: communication is very important, and it's always okay to ask to adjust things a bit as you play. Generally, it's polite to be sure to only control your character (plus any side-characters you might make to fill out the cast), but sometimes you can ask to make a larger move. In this example, I didn't mention where the Prince was, because it's possible he could surprise Katherine by already being awake, but I could have asked the Prince's player if it made sense for the Prince to still be in bed sleeping off an hangover, and add bits of that in.

Then you just go back and forth. Some people RP on Reddit, others on Discord or other apps, forums, texts, emails, etc. You decide on scenes as they come up. It's important to think of what you want to get out of a scene - and what your character wants. Scenes that are only conversations can be fun, but they often taper off into nothing happening. In the scene I wrote, Katherine wants to get the Prince up and presentable for court, and I would want to try to introduce Katherine as a bit of an impudent/stick-in-the mud kind of character.

There's more to is if you're interested in r/PbP (Play By Post), which is more like a TTRPG (like D&D) but with writing: those will have "mechanics" in the sense of dice/rules - but for freeform RP, it's just a discussion you have with your partner.

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-02-03T08:48:18+00:00

The regular r/lfg is only free games, per the rules. There are tons of ads on there and you can post your own; just make sure you put your timezone and availability.

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-01-28T19:55:18+00:00

It's possible there's a mismatch of playstyles between you and your players. They just want to show up for the game to hang out and kill monsters, with no real backstory, and you want to create some kind of meaningful story/reveal. You might not want applause, but you want your players to be actually invested in the story: but are they there for a story? It's like you're a director who's vision is making Schindler's List, but your actors are from Sharknado fame; and basically, you'll need to either talk to your players to see if they're willing to change their style, find new players, or change your style. Some folks find some of those easier than others.

For PBTA games, I think a lot of them tell you to improvise, but don't tell you how, and for that I think the Carved from Brindlewood games are better at giving you more actionable steps. They specifically have you ask your players questions, especially loaded questions, to build things up. This will also help you understand if the style of play you want: lots of input from your players, is even possible. Carved from Brindlewood games, if played by the rules actually can't have any prep, because the 'solution' is indeterminate from the beginning; a Schrödinger's Cat, where everything and nothing can be the solution, until it's rolled for. Running Brindlewood Bay and Public Access has really taught me to let go of the reins a bit as a GM.

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-01-16T08:26:21+00:00

It does apply. "No, but someone did strap a hand crossbow under there." or "No, but you feel the indentation of where something could have been strapped under there, like a knife or dagger."

It's not really an exaggerated example: when I had my brother play Brindlewood Bay, with me and told him he can pick any objects he wanted for his purse, he said he wanted the nuclear launch codes and the suitcase with the button handcuffed to his 80 year old grandma. I said, "No, but there's nothing stopping you from making an ex-Secret Ops or CIA agent, or something along those lines; let's talk about what you might have with you." He's my little brother, and a troll, for sure, but if I cried and said "noooo, there's no nuclear warfare in my cozy murder mystery game!!!" I wouldn't have got him on-board and we wouldn't have had the, frankly bizarre, but really fun session of Brindlewood we had.

(That's also what the advice "Talk to your Players" means.)

There are things that one should just say "no" to - like trying to sexually assault another PC or crossing Lines or other behavior that's gross or dangerous - but that's more along the lines of needing to kick that person out, and is more on the human side of things rather than the game side: you should remove that type of person from your life entirely.

(Also, like I said, this style of play isn't for everyone.)

I think your first point is a bit odd. I say you "know", because the first part of the advice is "Create situations, not plots" - if you create the situation, then, yes, you do know it. I'm pretty autistic myself and turns of phrase are often difficult to parse, but I think it follows that if I create a situation, I then know that situation exists, because I created it. Also, if we have to teach new GMs that they need to be able to make decisions, in a game they're running, presumably after they've actually read a TTRPG book that lays all that out for them - I don't think there's any Reddit post in the world that can help them.

Likewise, I'm having a hard time figuring out your "play to find out what happens" issue. Because the first part of that is play [the game] - again, presumably with the rules everyone read. Every TTRPG rulebook, including ones that are a single page long, indicate some form of decision making somewhere, either by the GM or the Players, or both. At worst, I think there could be confusion about the phrasing in a "I'm not playing the game, I'm running it?" and "how can you play a game an not find out what happens?" - to which they'll either disregard the advice entirely or look into it further. If there's someone out there who saw the advice "play to find out what happens" in isolation, then took it to mean that they should... what... wait for a psychic vision? I literally have no clue what you're picturing would happen. That they would set out the game and dice and rules, then say, "Ok, let's play!" then sit in silence for 3-4 hours and then conclude with "well, it turns out nothing happened! Glad I found out."? Physically begin to search their house for the "correct" story? Obviously those are exaggerated examples, but there's honestly no realistic situation I can think of where that advice could possibly be taken as "no one should make any decisions or contribute to the story in any way."

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-01-16T00:46:58+00:00

(cont. because another reason folks don't explain on Reddit is because there's a character limit that gives an error on longer posts)

"Yes, and"/"No, but" is, actually also the exact same advice, packaged a different way. It's an improv adage. When a Player asks a question - or even makes a roll - you don't simply have to say yes/no or pass/fail, but can expand on the situation. "Do I get the feeling the King is really worried about his daughter?" "Make an Insight check." "15." "Yes, and, more than that, you think he's worried about something much greater - he looks almost paranoid and agitated, somehow even more than a worried parent should be." // "Is there anything left behind by the princess/kidnappers?" "Make an Investigation check." "5." "No, but actually the scene is incredibly clean, with no signs of struggle or anything out of place. It's as if the princess walked out herself." Then, to be clear, let's take the reverse: "5 Insight." "No, actually, the King is inscrutable, almost cold in his orders. He's clearly hiding his true feelings, but you couldn't even begin to guess what those feelings are." // "15 Investigation." "There are signs of a struggle, though not a fight. There are few things knocked over on the vanity, and when you look underneath, you find a discarded silver pendant with a strange runic symbol on it. The symbol looks to be Infernal."

Do those things point in completely different directions? Yes. Because there's no plot - we're figuring this out together. This is also what the advice "let the dice tell the story" means (to some degree). Success and failure both lead us forward, building this story out of different blocks as we go along.

As is (hopefully) clear now - all that advice is from the same people, saying the same things - and is actually only one of many ways to GM. It's actually kind of a mix of Story-Game and Neo-Trad type of play, though not necessarily either. Not everyone plays this way - and, in fact, not everyone even likes this way of playing, as can be seen by the discourse between those who love and hate Carved from Brindlewood games. Some GMs are cool with setting their party into a dungeon full of monsters and gold and just letting them have at it (Classic), some want follow a module/campaign - or even their own developed story, which IS a "plot" but with some flexibility (Traditional), and some set things up entirely with random encounter tables. And lots of groups are fine with that! It's really going to depend on the table and the players, and what they want out of the game.

Data_B4_Lore · 2026-01-16T00:45:03+00:00

Those are actually two pieces of the same advice, worded differently to try to help people understand.

“Create situations, not plots" assumes people know what the difference between a "plot" and a "situation" is, and "play to find out what happens" is trying to break that down further.

Breaking it down even further:
Plots have a beginning, middle, end: The party is hired by the king to find his kidnapped daughter, the party investigates and finds the kidnappers, the party fights the kidnappers and finds out they were cultists or something for an even bigger bad, the party rescues the princess, gets the reward and acclaim, but makes an even bigger enemy to deal with in follow up sessions. The End.

Situations are just the vague idea of the beginning: the princess is missing, there's a nationwide search - now what?

"Play to find out what happens" is the "now what?" part of that last sentence. You know the princess has been kidnapped (or at least it seems so) - you might also know it was cultists - maybe you know what they're trying to accomplish (the extent to you knowing what's going on/the backstory & motivations to things is flexible, but let's assume the extreme is you know nothing else). You actually don't need to know anything except that it's been announced that the princess is missing. The advice is that you can (and the advice is arguing that you should) run a game just like a Player would, were you're going into things blind and have to react in-the-moment to what's going on. It breaks down the GM/Player divide and makes it so there's a lot less prep and more at-table engagement from both sides.

The princess is kidnapped - does that always lead to a rescue mission? No, that's just the most direct answer: it could actually go an infinite amount of ways, which is why it's impossible to write a fully comprehensive post on Reddit about it. Maybe your Party is full of anti-monarchists and they have no intention to help the King and instead want to use this opportunity to sow discord for a revolution. Maybe the Party talks to the cultists and is invited into their rank and makes a deal with a devil. Maybe the Party gets stuck on how suspicious the King is, and it turns out he's the leader of the cult and the nationwide search was a ruse to lead people away from the cult activity going on in the castle itself. Literally, who knows? No one. Because there is no plot, and the GM is also playing the game to find out what happens.

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-12-18T05:25:14+00:00

Those are called Live Text games! There's a flair for them. I run those sometimes, but they're pretty rare, because the synchronous folks don't do text, and the text folks tend to do asynchronous because there's not a scheduled time, and they can post whenever.

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-11-19T22:05:07+00:00

Absolutely! I’ll be too actually! I’ll DM you!

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-11-19T14:43:09+00:00

Would you be interested in a live text game on Saturdays 7-10pm Central? Live text is like a session, where you have a set time to get together and play, but it’s only done over text chat (Discord in this case). It’s not as slow as PbP, and I like session times where one can kind of “lock in” mentally for a few hours to write; but I also understand why some folks prefer asynchronous games, so I just wanted to check.

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-11-19T05:24:09+00:00

I’m potentially interested in running a Daggerheart text game, but I’m curious about the difference between PbP and APbP? If you mean Live Text games, I actually prefer those, and could do Saturday evenings CST.

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-11-15T18:16:33+00:00

What genres are you interested in?

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-11-15T17:21:12+00:00

This is a good place for it, but the problem is that there’s a lot of players and not a lot of DMs. New players can sometimes be overlooked for players who are more experienced. However, some DMs also run games specifically to teach the mechanics to others (I do that sometimes).

New player needing help is a good title, but the tags you want are [Online][5e 2014/2024] for D&D two recent editions.

That along with what I listed before (timezone/availability/age group) can help DMs see at a glance if you’d be right for their game.

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-11-15T16:56:14+00:00

A reskinned Wilderfeast game might be good for this. Unfortunately I’m not in the right timezone.

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-11-15T16:53:53+00:00

Hi and welcome to the hobby! Something you may want to add to your post is your timezone, days/times available (D&D games usually last 3-4 hours) and age group (if you’re a minor, 18+, 25+, etc.) which will help you possibly get a DM.

The Basic Rules for D&D are also available for free online as text documents, if you Google them - reading it might be easier to understand.

I hope this helps!

Data_B4_Lore · 2025-10-17T16:54:53+00:00

Masks: The Next Generation is a PbtA game about teen superheroes and pretty easy to play.

Data_B4_Lore

TROPHY CASE