Out Of Character

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:

Happy birthday, mgtremaine! [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

Yes, happy birthday! Have 100XP [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

[mgtremaine]

mgtremaine wrote:

Maybe take a screen shot and post that in thread to give the visual data. Then post a link to the real thing under if anyone should need the cut and paste of the text. (Let me restate that since I get all confusing....Keep it hosted as a full file somewhere else and reference an image of it in the thread.)

The problem is that the spreadsheet gets updated almost every day, so any snapshot image would quickly be out of date.

The "genius" (cough) of my original solution was;

a) Whenever I updated my spreadsheet, it was immediately visible to everyone, and
b) It was inline in the game board, so people didn't have to go off site to see it.

What if I wrote a script that took a webpage and generated a jpg of it automatically every hour. Then you just put the image url in the thread... (something like wkhtmltoimage should do it fine. I;ve used wkhtmltopdf for a big Invoice project and it works great.)

-Mike

[mgtremaine]

mgtremaine wrote:

Happy birthday, mgtremaine! [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

Yes, happy birthday! Have 100XP [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

Thanks Doctorx and Ways, it was a very nice day!

[waysoftheearth]

ehiker133 wrote:

Best play-by-post ever [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

Glad you like it /user/602flightcommander. That's a pretty big call, for sure. It get's you thinking thou...

I wonder what *really* cool PBP games there are out there on the internet? I'm sure there must be some epics hosted at Obsidian Portal, Enworld and places like that? What do we reckon are the real criteria for comparing completely different PBP games anyway [img]images/smiley/wink.png[/img]

Well... off the top of my head, I would say some of the main criteria should be:


[*]player interaction#
[*]DM attentiveness*
[*]forum usability$
[/list]

I can't believe you didn't mention The Unseen Servant as another forum, Ways. There are a few good games on there, in my completely biased opinion. [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]




#The DM can only do so much; I think the players must drive the game, to some degree. And it takes a majority of ACTIVE players to do so. If you end up with a group of people who mostly say things like, "I stand at the back, holding the torch for everyone to see," and, "I follow the others," then you're not going to have a very fun game, especially if you're that one player who is trying to get interaction from the rest of the group.

*This is a catch-all for: adjusts play style to suit the players in the game, without giving up his/her own gaming style; knows how to prod the occasional player into making a post or increasing their post count when necessary; maintains a proper game pace; provides interesting opportunities for the players (whether they take advantage of those opportunities is up to them, of course); provides the players with an environment they can explore (i.e. doesn't act like a story teller, where players are more just following along with the DM's story they want to tell).

$There are some PbP forums I've been on that weren't intuitive or the easiest to use, and it always detracted from the game. A comfortable environment is certainly part of the formula.

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:

I can't believe you didn't mention The Unseen Servant as another forum, Ways. There are a few good games on there, in my completely biased opinion. [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

That's true.

I guess I was thinking of "the big commercial sites" versus us "minnow freebies" (including odd74 and Unseen Servant).

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:

What if I wrote a script that took a webpage and generated a jpg of it automatically every hour. Then you just put the image url in the thread... (something like wkhtmltoimage should do it fine. I;ve used wkhtmltopdf for a big Invoice project and it works great.)

Thanks for the offer to help Mike, but let's just wait a bit and see if I can get the spread sheet embedded again. That would be the best solution all 'round.

[waysoftheearth]

aquebman wrote:
So my birthday is on the 19th can I get something special too [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

[waysoftheearth]

aquebman wrote:

Best play-by-post ever [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

Glad you like it /user/602flightcommander. That's a pretty big call, for sure. It get's you thinking thou...

I wonder what *really* cool PBP games there are out there on the internet? I'm sure there must be some epics hosted at Obsidian Portal, Enworld and places like that? What do we reckon are the real criteria for comparing completely different PBP games anyway [img]images/smiley/wink.png[/img]

As with most things it's all in the eye of the beholder. Because Beholders are great at making players say that your game is the greatest, trust me I have experience [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:

So my birthday is on the 19th can I get something special too [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

It'll depend on whether you've been good or bad [img]images/smiley/wink.png[/img]

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
Sorry for the slow weekend guys, I've had a terrible cold the last few weeks, and I've been trying to get the DDNext layout off the ground. Updates coming your way tonight!