Hi everyone,
After playing in several pbp games, I want to take the plunge and DM my own pbp game. I DMed a few times 25 years ago when I was 12 and 13, but that's the extent of my experience. Being a bit older and wiser, though, and having played with some great pbp DMs on this site--Blood Axe, I'm looking at you -- I know how a game is supposed to run, and want to give it a shot with a published module. I have a few questions, though, and I hope you can help me out.
2. I'm guessing most of the people on this site are about my age (37) or older, and are juggling careers, families and outside interests. How much time as a DM do you spend preparing the adventure beyond what the module already provides? (eg. creating your own maps, player aids, additional encounters, etc.) Do you do this all ahead of time, or as you go along?
3. Do you find the suggested character levels and party sizes on published modules to be accurate? Do you solicit more players than recommended to account for character deaths and player attrition?
4. Do you find that published modules written back in the day require a lot of modification to work in a pbp environment? Is there anything that consistently doesn't work and needs to be changed?
5. Are modules for higher level characters more difficult for a DM, especially an inexperienced DM, to run than low-level adventures? The module I would like to run is for character levels 6 through 9.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Tumblingdice, a.k.a. Steve