As I'm pressured (and seriously considering) taking up the Star Wars RPG campaign that petered out several months ago, I find myself contemplating one of the more tricky and subtle aspects of running an RPG. How do you pace the bloody things? Stated simply, it's a factor in any game, but it's harder online. Whether in PBEM, PBP, IM, or MU*ing, just the fact that thoughts must be typed out makes everything take longer. In person, a simple yes/no question can be asked an answered in seconds. When everyone's at their keyboard, it can still take a minute online with typing, reading, and typing back. Add a little distraction of another window of something to fill the "dead" time between bits of text and that compounds. This is generally why I feel that organized/scheduled RP sessions online deserve top attention priority and I generally refuse to get into anything else which will affect anyone beyond me when I stop paying attention there (WoW dungeons, I'm lo...
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