Play by Social Network RPGs

My wife asked why I started a social network specifically for diceless gaming, since diceless games are not the standard in terms of Role Playing Games in general, so I thought I'd tell you guys too.

At least if I write it out, I'll have an answer prepared for the next time I'm asked.

I've been involved in other RPGs that took place entirely on forums, traditional RPGs that involve dice rolling and that always lead to two problems.

1. Players like being involved in their own randomization, so if a dice rolling program can be included in the on-line gaming experience, extra effort is taken to include it.
2. The amount of interaction involved in a single round of combat is often so large that it is prohibitive to run it according to the rules in a forum or email situation. Initiative rolls, attack rolls, defense rolls, damage or effect rolls, soak or saving rolls, etc. The most feasible of these systems involve manipulating dice results after they are rolled (i.e. Dogs in the Vineyard), and those are less satisfactory because of the first problem.

Restricting the type of games to play in a social network to diceless games solves those two problems.

1. There are no dice to roll. Diceless systems often work by controlling resources, so the idea of play and the random element come from being careful or careless with resources that a character might need later.

   If you are playing Mortal Coil, when you run out of passion tokens is whithin your control, but if the GM or another player spends a power token to change a scene you might suddenly find that you will run out of passion tokens just before you will wish you still had them.

2. Diceless systems are notorious for having short combat systems. If there are no dice to roll, suspense in the game comes from a different source (the dwindling of resources over time), not whether you roll high enough to hit in a fight.

   The crunchiest diceless system that I can think of off the top of my head is Active Exploits. It's normal in Active Exploits for a character to have 8 different resource pools to keep track of, and being skilled can significantly lessen the resources one needs to spend to succeed at a task. Even in Active Exploits, a fight can resolve in one round. It is normal for a fight to resolve in two rounds. Boss fights can last longer if the fight is playing out in a really dramatic sequence, but the GM can cut the fight short (by not spending the villain's resources to avoid injury) if it seems less interesting.

   That means that in a really exciting fight scene taking place in a forum or email exchange, an Active Exploits GM might draw it out to 3 or 4 days worth of back and forth. That same fight scene with a system like Hero System would take an entire 5 hour gaming session and you would do nothing else that week.

This means that with diceless games, you can play the game in a forum, email exchange, or social network, as it is written, with no fudging and no special software. And you gain some very special benefits from running a game on-line that you never get to enjoy in face to face gaming.

1. On line, a party can split up without a noticeable lag in game response and without adding a whole lot of extra work for the GM. This is not true of face to face games. Face to face, if a party splits up, the GM becomes a bottle neck with players waiting in a queue for their chance to interact with NPCs or the game world. A good group of players will use that time to discuss in character plans. A less skilled group of players will just get bored waiting for their turn to talk to the GM.
2. On line, game play can be easily archived. This is especially useful with diceless games, because game play tends to be focused on story elements rather than finely detailed conflict sequences. A properly archived game session can read just as smoothly and fascinatingly as a well written novel.

So this is why I decided to try out ning for RPGs and why I specifically decided to stick to diceless RPGs. Any other thoughts on the matter or your participation would be appreciated.