Play By Post (Part 1)

Today I want to talk about a use case for Scribarchy that might be appealing: the Play-by-Post RPG campaign.

Yes, play-by-post. The noble pastime of collaborative storytelling at a glacial pace. If you’ve ever spent a week composing the perfect three-paragraph reply to someone’s in-character soliloquy about goblin taxation, this one’s for you.

Wait, What Is Scribarchy Again?

At its core, Scribarchy is a system for managing evolving worlds—Multiverses—full of fictional people (Persons), grouped into Teams, making narrative-altering Choices at various Places. These characters are defined by their Roles, which are paired into Things (think “Trained As A Prophet” or “Trained As A Librarian,” complete with fitting bonuses and narrative penalties). And you are the Player-Author.

Why Use Scribarchy for PbP Campaigns?

If you’ve tried to run a PbP game in a forum, Discord thread, or Google Doc titled “CAMPAIGN STUFF DO NOT EDIT,” then you already know the chaos that can ensue. Scribarchy might be able to help with that. Here's how.

✅ Pros

• Centralized World-Building: Instead of twenty contradictory wiki pages, one burnt-out GM, and a spreadsheet that only Dave understands, everything in Scribarchy is structured in-universe. Places, Roles, Persons—it's all modular and curated.

• Built-in Team System: Teams give you a narrative and mechanical reason to group characters.

• Choices as Story Hooks: At each Place, you define Choices. They’re invitations for players to drive the plot forward, collaboratively. And slowly. 

• Persistence: A Scribarchy Multiverse is persistent and permanent, ideal for running a long term PbP campaign.

🙃 Cons

• Still Under Construction: Scribarchy is a work-in-progress. If you’re expecting a polished, push-button campaign manager with full Discord integration...

• Rules-Light (Sometimes Rules-Averse): There are no initiative rolls, no hit points, and no inventory weight calculations. If you like crunchy systems where every goblin's footspeed matters, you may find Scribarchy's abstract nature unsettling.

• No Real-Time Play (on Purpose): If you crave live sessions or instant gratification, Scribarchy will not satisfy you. It’s designed for the slow burn.

• No support for specific RPGs: If you want to play D&D, Ironsworn, or Burning Wheel, you can't. Scribarchy is its own generic system.  

In Conclusion

Scribarchy doesn’t replace the joy of a messy, sprawling PbP campaign—it just tries to contain it in a structured multiverse.  If you enjoy world-building and collaborative storytelling,  you might find a home here.