D&D 4e
Running your game outside of the session
Gabe from the webcomic Penny Arcade blogged the other day about how his D&D 4e game runs outside of the weekly gaming session. The basic idea is that they continue small situations outside of the game, including skill challenges through a custom online dice roller.
Here’s the example of their emails. It’s pretty GM led, but there’s no reason why it has to be, and seems like a good way to keep the interest in the game high.
I’ve tried to do a few things simialr to this in the past and it’s dependent on player engagement (and, to be fair, player spare time). In my experience there are players who rock at this and people who won’t even bother to respond. Gabe’s lucky he’s got a good group who want to keep going. And of course, the GM is hugely responsible for the level of engagement they players have with the game. But I think it’s a dream of every GM to get players who just want to keep the game going, even between sessions.