Forgive any unintentional rudeness...

[Slave Xaccheus]

This is just the impression I'm getting; this may be due to my anxiety disorder, my utter loathing for myself, my depression, or any combination thereof, but it is still the vibe I'm picking up:

You're all a load of hypocrites who refuse to let a grudge go. Before you begin yelling at me, let me explain my reasoning.

Several have complained that I don't see my campaigns through to the end, that they don't trust me enough to play in one of my campaigns again, and that many of them are poorly run even when they do play.

At the time of their complaint, I had a history of not seeing anything through at all, and yes, my story progression royally sucked. They were perfectly sound in their complaints, and I knew that I'd need to get my act together if I ever wanted to run another campaign at all (because I don't know how to play anything aside from 3.5, and campaign-setting specific games are beyond me).

I'm unsure if my story progression has improved at all, as I'm more adjusted to writing short stories than extensive novels. Given that the more enjoyable campaigns are the former, I should have seen the poor progression coming the instant I decided to draw out the story. I apologize if my writing skills are not yet satisfactory.

What I did improve on is something that you have apparently failed to notice, thus meriting my accusation. I attempted to "turn over a new leaf" as the saying goes, and continue the campaign I was running. I attempted to enjoy the campaign just as much as my players (granted, I may have been enjoying it more; refer to previous paragraph). When the campaign became inactive, I attempted to start another campaign (albeit a stupid one; I'm not mad about that) that was likewise "dead" later.

My third has received no replies, no prying eyes, and most likely no notice at all, despite my best efforts to run something. I'd be okay if I had any confidence in myself, but the history of complaints against me, coupled with my own accursed psychoses, leads me to ask "What the hell, guys?" when I'm essentially rendered a third wheel to the entire guild.

I am at a loss and a pique of curiosity; I tried to meet your demands (which failed to deliver on account of the players, not the DM) but it proved fruitless despite my best efforts. You still apparently do not trust me, and despite my official-sounding vocabulary, it is unlikely you'll even look at this as any more than "attention-whore" behavior from an incompetent adolescent suffering from karmic punishment.

It most assuredly is, but I'd prefer the sentence to be repealed. I'm asking for forgiveness, though I most likely won't get it due to your inability to let something go.

In pseudo-layman's terms: "I stuck with a campaign until it died, and tried to set up two more. Nobody showed up. It looks like you don't trust me no matter how hard I try. It looks like I just can't make you people happy, and this probably won't either. Still, I'm sorry, and I'd like to actually run a game that takes off."  

[Mongooseh]

I'm mostly distrustful because the first game of yours I joined died very quickly because of people recognising it as "Lol we're evil hurrr durr" then when I tried to join another game putting this aside I was replaced by another person even though I applied first and I think even made a character for it.

Otherwise right now I'm not interested in joining most d&d games anyway. They have to appeal to me in some way which alot fail to do.  

[Disciple of Sakura]

To be honest, I looked at the thread, but the overall set-up didn't appeal to me, so I didn't look into joining. Sorry your other game petered out - it does tend to happen in this forum an unfortunate amount of times.  

[Laertes Ursus]

I'm in too many games as it stands, including one you made and abandoned(And I still believe was a complete ploy to recruit players to another different game).

 

[Slave Xaccheus]

All of your points are well-seen; as a player, what draws you guys into a campaign? I'll do my best to make it fun for real this time.

Coincidentally, does anyone know where I could download a digital map creator? It'd be a lot easier to deal with squares, spaces, and direction that way.  

[Anatarei Crimsonthrone]

You could try finding a download of GIMP, which is like a freeware version of Photoshop. Alternatively, you could use Google Docs to create shared spreadsheets so that people can see the combat more readily and it's easier to edit without requiring image hosting. I'm not sure if it'd work - I just thought of that, myself.  

[Arc Vembris]

Anatarei Crimsonthrone

You could try finding a download of GIMP, which is like a freeware version of Photoshop. Alternatively, you could use Google Docs to create shared spreadsheets so that people can see the combat more readily and it's easier to edit without requiring image hosting. I'm not sure if it'd work - I just thought of that, myself.

Of course Google also does image hosting  

[Anatarei Crimsonthrone]

Arc Vembris

Anatarei Crimsonthrone

You could try finding a download of GIMP, which is like a freeware version of Photoshop. Alternatively, you could use Google Docs to create shared spreadsheets so that people can see the combat more readily and it's easier to edit without requiring image hosting. I'm not sure if it'd work - I just thought of that, myself.

Of course Google also does image hosting

I actually did not know that, though I'm not at all surprised.  

[Laertes Ursus]

Google, it only does everythi--waaaaaaaaiiiiitaminnit...

 

[Slave Xaccheus]

I downloaded GIMP; that's taken care of.

What sort of campaign would you enjoy?  

[Arc Vembris]

I like 4e, but I don't expect you to go there  

[Emerald the Crow]

I like stories that have the PCs as heroes, and that sound like they'll be fun. In particular, I think the more successful pbp games are ones that have a structure to them, with a small bit of railroad - completely open, free form games lead the PCs to just wander off or stall due to the amount of options present. When the characters have a strongly defined reason to be together in the first place, with guidance as to what kind of PCs to play (for example, soldiers in an army, students at a military academy, agents for the crown, members of the Pathfinder Society, etc), they tend to create characters that will mesh. I've found that many of the games in this guild give the characters tons of leeway to the point where no characters have a single iota in common, and you get lots of unnecessary conflict or weird other issues. Some input from the DM, with a clear set of objectives and goals the PCs will be acting towards (not necessarily with spoilers) will help. A good campaign helps the players build characters that will work with that campaign, and continue to provide a framework.

That said, if I come up with a killer character idea, I may create a character for a game that doesn't even sound that appealing. I enjoy creating characters just because.  

[Slave Xaccheus]

So even a cliché Damsel in Distress would be preferred to an open world/diversity to the extreme sort of game. I understand.  

[Mongooseh]

Basically you have to understand the nature of playing by post. The pace of it means if you throw choices at your players they will spend the little time they have which they'd usually use posting their roleplaying actions to reply to someone else in the rp to decide upon something. It gets even worse when people suddenly disappear when they're being waited upon.

"You can do x, y, z, a, b and c. What do you want to do?"

IC:
"I'd like to do x, z, and c" Player 1.
"But I'd like to do y, a and b" Player 2.
"I agree with player 1 since it seems more fun but player 2 has chosen the more practical options. Lets let player 4 decide!" Player 3.
Player 4 is missing for a week before, "I'd rather not make a decision decide it amongst yourselves because I do not care."

OOC: Week wasted, players are now probably disinterested and game ends unless gm tasers it back into submission.  

[Lord of the Vine]

Eternality_Cannon

So even a cliché Damsel in Distress would be preferred to an open world/diversity to the extreme sort of game. I understand.

In a PbP setting, the more open it gets, the more difficult it becomes. It isn't impossible; rather, it makes it harder on players to determine what to do.

Usually, the best format, if you're going with an open world game, is to incorporate some form of intentional railroading to, at the very least, move things along. If anyone goes inactive, cut them loose and find a new active player.