PBeM's, do they work for you?

[lensman]

Although it may a bit early to tell, I may have found as near a perfect PBeM, as is possible to play in.

The Good: It's a HERO system mechanic based fantasy game, the other players seem to have a sense of character development that does not jump ahead or lag events as they post and good variety of chaaracters. No pressure for experience, just pure role playing.

The Bad: Spoty post cycles.

The Ugly: I now know I am an impatient B^$@%. Must learn to breath deep and meditate.

I have played in a board play by post, which crateed because I think the GM had no literary style or story writing sense and almost no organizational skills.
Also my first attempt at a PBeM started well. I wrote a great character, a gypsy youth with the power of emerging seer-like sight with great fit into the supplied background, but I think thre GM just recycled a run which he had completed with a first set of characters and just was not excited after the first couple of posts and not kotivated to anything else. Which is to bad because it started well.
I later realized that these are the fates that end 90% of all post like games.

I still game face to face but I do like PBeM's, except the pace makes me want to claw my .. well you get the idea.
I have been told that 60 % of all communication is non-verbal, which if true, means that play by post eliminates all but the intended written meaning.

What are your PBeM experiences?

[Peregrine]

Mixed.

Right now, PBeM is my only gaming experience. I've had PBeM games go belly up, and I've had them run for a year or two. Like tabletop gaming, you have good games and bad games.

The glacial pace of most PBeM means that you have to change your expectations, both as GM and as player. You won't tell as much story in the same space of real time. The flip side of this is that you can be more thoughtful in what you do, because you don't have the immediacy of 'the game is now'. PBeM gaming is its own creature, and has to be taken as such.

[ShadowRaptor]

I have never played in one but I want to because that would be my best chance at gaming for the time being. Does anybody want to start one, I'd like to play and it doesn't matter what kind of setting but hopefully a good one?????

.............anybody.............................. .........

[Old Man]

PbEM games can be good or bad depending on the gm and the other players. I've played in games where there was more or less a requirement to post a reply daily, and where the gm kept things moving along quite nicely. The GM played combat out one turn at a time, so rather than going phase-by-phase we had to submit more generalized combat plans and otherwise trust the guy. But he was pretty fair. That one worked out pretty well.

OTOH I've had PbEM games where even the GM would only post one or two lines every ten days or so, and where there was absolutely nothing either pulling or pushing the party, as well as a great deal of 'note passing' where the gm was basically just playing with one player while the rest of us waited. In four months of real time we had one fight, the rest of it was spent waiting for 'note passing' or trying to pick an inn to stay at.

[MoonHunter]

I personally have found that play by email games are more trouble than they are worth, UNLESS you have a highly dedicated group and a GM/ Moderator that is on top of it. A few Trek games I know have worked well because they group worked very hard toPlay Together and they were all on the same page when it came to their world.

I have found that play by post, on sites such as www.rpol.net work much better, especially if the GM has some editing controls. It allows you a bit more control and more of a table top, rather than freeform gaming feel. I have been GMing this way for about a year now and it is vastly superior to PBeM.

MoonHunter
Sage, Gamer, Mystic, Wit
"The road less traveled is less traveled for a reason."
Now posting 1100+ RPG Tips @ www.openroleplaying.org

[ShelleyCM]

PBEM games are great if you're in a good one and have enough free time to dedicate to them. You will get out of a PBEM game what you put into it, too. When I ran -- and mind you, this was when I was in college and had free time to burn -- my hardcore players were sending 20-30 emails a day each. And I was responding to them. (I so can't imagine that now!)

Personally, I reached a point where it was just too much work when I had other things to be doing, and I realized that what I wanted to be doing with free time was writing, anyway -- so I quit cold turkey. :)

-Shelley

[MarkusDark]

Never played in one, not sure how it would operate and I am just tooooo lazy to go search one out to try. :P

[Karimarle]

PBEM is my only gaming experience at the moment as well. I have a character in a game that posts once every few weeks and I GM two others.

The first started as a face to face game that I wanted to continue upon moving to Brazil and being out of a gaming fix. It went very slow but steady for a few years, but was starting to get dragged down with too many NPCs vs PCs. That balance has recently gone the other way and I’m hoping that will breathe new life into the game. We post weekly, but sometimes as much as 2 weeks goes by before my group post goes out.

The other game was formed when I posted a message on the old boards. I got a good number of interesting character concepts and dove into it with the experience I got with the first game. It really is a happening game. I’ve got a great bunch of players who give interesting posts. We have had excellent role playing and exciting fights. I get 1-2 posts per week out for this game and there often an extra post from someone or commentary all the time.

I think Peregrine hit the nail on the head when he said it needs to be taken as ‘its own creature’. It works differently and has its own good and bad points.

PS: Just lost players from this game and I’m willing to take on 2 more. If anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll give you more details. The characters are 50/50.

Karimarle (not my real name)