Want to Run PBEM...

[cubist]

But how does it work?
How do you decide results of rolls? How do you run turns? Waht are good house rules to use or not use? How thoroughly must characters be sctrutinized? Anything that I missed?

I have a neat ideaa for a game but no players currently and I think the idea would likley work better in PBEM due to the nature of the idea. So if anyone can give me some advice and ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

[EvilGM]

I wrote a series of articles, published at RPG Times (www.rpgtimes.net) that talk about this exact thing. Do a search for the column "Ignore the GM Behind the Curtain", or for "Lisa Hartjes" and you should be able to find them.

[TechnoViking]

A PBeM is a hard animal to run than you think. The hard part is find a group of people who are decent storytellers. I have played in a couple PBeM that run for over 2+ years (a long time for a PBeM ), and here are the hints I have ween from it.

Small Group: I suggest when starting a PBeM have a small group, no more than four people. It is hard keeping track of all that e-mail.

Reserves: People get burned out on PBeM fast. A good idea is too have one or two people who get all the turns, but are not active in the camapign. When someone drops out (and someone will) one of the reservist can move up to the active campaign.

Don't sweat the rolls: A PBeM is all about storytelling and dice rolls should be secondary. The easiest way to do rolls is to have the player submit what they roll, but players will be tempted to fudge the rolls. A couple other other ways to do rolls are.

• GM makes rolls: The GM makes all rolls. Some players don't like this, since they do not get to make the rolls for their character.
• Random Chart: With random chart, a player submits a roll and it get converted to a different number on the GM chart. Make for more paperwork, but keeps things random.
• Dice roller Program or Server: Some programs and web server can make random dices rolls and then e-mail the results to both the GM and player. Ivory Games server use to do this but is no longer on the web.

Character Hints
No Loners: The brooding loner hero (Wolverine, Punisher, Batman, heck even Nighthawk of the Champions) do not work as well in a PBeM. The also includes all character with major anti-social tendenices. If the player really plays up the loner part, then it really slows down a campaign.

No Weird Character: Any character who is weird just for the sake of being weird (Creeper and Ambush Bug from DC comics) will be twice as distracting in a PBeM.

Just my suggestions. When can I submit a character

Mike

[EvilGM]

Originally posted by Mike Basinger [*]Dice roller Program or Server: Some programs and web server can make random dices rolls and then e-mail the results to both the GM and player. Ivory Games server use to do this but is no longer on the web.

I was just at the Irony Games games web site (www.irony.com) and both the web based dice roller and the PGP-signed dice roller where it emails you the dice rolls are working.

Now that they are, I'll definitely be looking to use these when I'm doing my pbem stuff now.

[Supreme]

Originally posted by Mike Basinger
...Character Hints
No Loners: The brooding loner hero (Wolverine, Punisher, Batman, heck even Nighthawk of the Champions) do not work as well in a PBeM. The also includes all character with major anti-social tendenices. If the player really plays up the loner part, then it really slows down a campaign.
...

I find this to be true of any RPG. I keep a strict "no loners" policy in all my campaigns. So, Cubist, can I join?

[Hermit]

Ever notice a new Game starting up is sort of like dangling a steak before starving people around here?

[TechnoViking]

Originally posted by Hermit
Ever notice a new Game starting up is sort of like dangling a steak before starving people around here?

hmmmm... new game
hmmmm... steak

Homer

[cubist]

Well this might sound weird, but part of the idea is that I want the characters able to work together, alone or against each other in this one. The4 basic premise is that the players will play bounty hunters who go after superhuman 'skips' and they will have to decide whether they want to share their bounties or not. I will set it up so that sooner or later they will have to work together to bring down some ofther skips, but at first it will be dependent on their own choices.

[cubist]

Sorry, meant to ask, does this sound like it could(or maybe should) work?

[Boll Weevil]

I've run a couple PBEM's with some success. PBEM's are great for those players who are a bit daunted by the Hero System. Not every player or GM would enjoy the way I ran mine, but here are some of my experiences:

I rolled all the dice. I know part of the excitement of combat is rolling the dice but I had to draw the line somewhere and none of my players complained...much. This afforded me the luxury of playing in the style that suits me best, PBEM or Face-to-face. I could describe everything that happened in real-world terms ; no game terms. Skill rolls, perception rolls, to-hit rolls, Presence rolls etc came and went without my players knowledge.

PBEM also helped me play on my strengths (or helped me avoid my weaknesses: tomato/tomahto) as a GM. I articulate much better in writing than speak.

The PBEM dynamic better accomodates the situation of players being split-up. I can relay information to the players without other tabletop players hearing and having to ignore. Information like unique senses, eidetic memory, past experience with a villain, perception rolls that their colleagues failed. If you are a map-user, especially in combat, you can give small pieces of information without showing them the whole map.

Keeping time when your party separates is a challenge. Combat is sloooow in PBEM. Conversations are slow in PBEM. I do not have my past PBEM game transcripts here at work. If anyone who has run a successful PBEM has some sample posts he/she would like to share I think it would be helpful. A good post representative of both role-playing and combat would be nice.

The GM posts will likely be longer and more detailed than player posts. Sometimes a player will write nothing more than "Raise force-field" in response to your 2-page post. That's OK. When you post next to his partner you can add color and sound, smell and feel to it. When the adventure is over, you have a complete and detailed story, written by five people and documented for posterity.

Good luck!

[ShelleyCM]

Originally posted by Boll Weevil
I've run a couple PBEM's with some success. PBEM's are great for those players who are a bit daunted by the Hero System. Not every player or GM would enjoy the way I ran mine, but here are some of my experiences:

BollWeevil's advice is excellent! Also bear in mind that PBEM is a lot of work. It's fun and rewarding, and can lead to some of the best RPing you've ever done -- but it's a lot of work. Be very selective in your players and bear in mind that even good players may vanish off the face of the earth -- and leave you with an additional burden.

I ran a few PBEMs and have stuff posted online at http://www.mactyre.net/shelley/pbem.html - that includes even more advice.

Have fun!

-Shelley