The Promise and Problems of PBeM

[Speedball]

Over the years I've been involved in several PBeM games, for lack of a stable gaming community for FtF Champions. Several of these games have been among the best role-playing experiences of 20+ years of gaming, while others have been like a disfunctional relationship, filled with long periods of silence and other problems.

 

So I'm tossing this out to the community here: what does it take to run a successful PBeM? What are the common pitfalls? Wouldn't it be great in Hero 6ed to see a special section on PBeM? (well, ok, *great* may be the caffeine talking, but you get what I mean) Anyway, I'm curious to hear stories from others' experience--there's got to be a way to make PBeMs work without driving everyone crazy with workload, right?

[Filkerman]

Re: The Promise and Problems of PBeM

 

The Remarkable Shelley Mactyre wrote some tips about running PBeM here:

 

http://www.mactyre.net/shelley/pbem.html

 

I've read the turns of her previous games, and was greatly entertained.

They were a part of the inspiration for me to get into Worldmaker's Global Guardians universe. (The other part being Jack's excellent website and background material.)

 

I've not been in a regular FtF Champions game in a long time. I tried for far too many years to get my superhero RP from MUSHes/MUXes, but the lack of everything that makes a campaign a _campaign_ put me off them. Having seen some posts from the GGU Golden Age game, it looks like the PBeM will give me the next best thing to being there.

[John T]

Re: The Promise and Problems of PBeM

 

Personally, I've never been involved in a PBeM, but it seems to me the biggest hindrance would be the limitations on direct PC interaction. I like to know the folks I game with, and often spend other-than-RPG time with them. Naturally, this hardly holds true for everyone, but it's possible most of the "bad" PBeMs you've been in are made up of players like me, but perhaps don't realize it 'til they've tried it.

 

John T

[BcAugust]

Re: The Promise and Problems of PBeM

 

Being in one (on hiatus) PBEM and a couple of failed ones... you need to make sure people have their schedules set for such. A once weekly "GM update" should be aimed for, if possible.

 

Really, you have to screen people even more carefully then in a ftf game. And be willing to cut out people who don't meet your rules.

[nexus]

Re: The Promise and Problems of PBeM

 

Time conflicts can be a problem. Real Life can really cramp the time you have to reply to a PBEM. You have to get players that are generally comfortable with whatever speed you can maintain. Players (and GM) who are all on the same page about posting content, length, style etc helps immensely.

 

The gm should have a pretty firm idea of where things are going and how he wants to pace matter. PBEMs that drift or focus too much on trivial matters rarely get very far since the pace is so slow.