Hello, my name is Judious the Wise, and I am a professional dungeon master who specializes in running play-by-post D&D5e games on Discord.
What is Play-by-Post?
I have a Discord server entitled Bugbear BBQ Tavern, where a growing community has discovered the joy of playing D&D on their own schedule with an emphasis on roleplay. As long as there is an open seat, you can join my games at any time and play on your schedule. This allows campaigns to include players from around the world in different timezones.
I ask that players check in once per 24-hours and be open to being mentioned when they needed in an encounter. This setup offers busy people the opportunity to get their D&D fix. If you don’t have a Startplaying.games account, you can click on this link for a discount on your first game. Once you have signed up, you can visit my list of games in the link below and join one of multiple games I have running. I intend to address many aspects of play-by-post in articles like this one. This time, we will address assigning internal conflicts for your characters.
A Character’s Internal Conflict
In my play-by-post [PbP] games, I like for characters to choose an internal conflict which they work through during the campaign. Characters can work through this conflict through short narratives they insert into the game’s story at regular intervals. The purpose of this exercise is to have richer character backgrounds and more things to contribute to the narrative and move the story along.
If a player can’t think of anything else to contribute at a slow point in the story, they can contribute a short description of their character working through their internal conflict. This can be in the form of internal dialogue, short side-questing/exploration at moments when the party wouldn’t notice they are missing, a flashback, a description of a personal routine or ritual, or something else worked out with the DM.
If you have a list of 20 options, then your list can always be used as a random roll table. If players have trouble choosing their internal conflict, I have created a list of 20 internal conflicts for them to choose from, or where they can roll a 1d20 and use the result of their roll to find the corresponding internal conflict for their character. Here is an example of the first few options from my Internal Conflict Table:
1.) Moral Dilemma: Your character faces a situation where whey must choose between two equally important values (e.g., saving a loved one vs. saving a village). How does your character reconcile their actions with their sense of right and wrong?
2.) Conflict of Loyalties: Torn between loyalty to their party and loyalty to their homeland or original organization (e.g. a knight’s allegiance to their order vs. the party’s goals). What does your character prioritize, and how does this affect their relationships?
3.) Fear of Failure: Your character has a deep fear of failing in their mission, stemming from a past failure that haunts them. How does this fear influence their decisions and interactions with others?
As I mentioned, there is a list of 20 of these internal conflicts in a community thread on our Bugbear BBQ Tavern Discord server from which players can choose the one perfect for their character’s backstory. Or, they can roll a 1d20 and use whatever random internal conflict corresponds to their roll.
Join Bugbear BBQ Tavern’s Play-by-Post Adventures
If you are interested in joining one of my play-by-post campaigns, I try to keep an updated list of what’s playing at my tables on the Bugbear BBQ Tavern page at The Edge of Memory.