Intergrating "play by e-mail" into a regular campaign

[Fathead]

I've recently started a monthly Hackmaster campaign in addition to my weekly 3.5 games. For the new game, I created my own homebrew world, made new maps, new cities, new histories, new NPCs...in other words, I put A LOT of effort into this new campaign. Now, I find myself wanting to continue to further the plot and keep the interest of the players through the month until the next game.

Does anyone know of websites that discuss how to accomplish this successfully? Do any of my fellow enworlders have any suggestions (helpful hints or pitfalls)?

 

[Sayburr]

I did that with a campaign set in Kalamar. I would try to time things so the game was in a role-playing stage between gaming sessions so we could do the role-playing between sit down games. It was great because the players would usually take over and do a lot of discussion between themselves about what to do next, how do divide up treasure, ect. It was a huge success.

The e-mail sessions would end if I had to DM an encounter.

 

[babomb]

I once tried to integrate some play-by-post into my table campaign, but the players didn't really take to it.

 

[Fathead]

With only a couple exceptions, the players are email junkies and check their mailbox regularly. It's a group of 8 players, so I'd like to be able to move things along at a good pace and still keep the interest.

Does anyone know of any websites where they discuss PBEM strategies? I've never done anything like this, so I'm mining for some ideas...

 

[Hjorimir]

I'm going to try this with an upcoming game of mine. Hopefully they can do a lot of their solo role-play via e-mail so there is more group time at the table. That is the goal, anyway.

 

[Old One]

No idea if this is helpful...

Fathead,

Not directly on topic...but this seems to be an interesting program. I am currently looking at it for some small, "in-between" sessions (1-2 hours) for my monthly game.

http://www.nbos.com/products/screenmonkey/screenmonkey.htm

~ Old One

 

[Cor Azer]

Sort of...

I done something some what similar to this.

I started a weekly game last spring with a group of players here, and another friend of ours was suppsoed to join when his contract finished in another province.

To keep him up-to-date with the campaign, I ran an PbeM solo campaign with his character while the rest of the group did their regular thing. He'd always give plenty of advance notice if he was coming home for a weekend or two, and during those times the PbeM storyline and the face-to-face storyline would meet up and all would play together (as an aside, we've now got a webcam/mic thing set up, so he's joining our weekly sessions via teleconferencing).

As well, I often have certain encounters I want to progress through during a session, but for one reason or another, we don't always get through them all. If the remaining encounters are just exposition or role-playing, I'll usually wrap them up in an email or two rather than spending the first bit of the next session rehashing stuff.

As for how to accomplish this on a regular basis, follow the general modus operandi of PbeM games (I think Sean Reynold's has a PbeM FAQ maintained on his website, and there's a site with an address akin to http://www.pbem.org with more info) for the email portion, and run the face-to-face sessions as normal. Since you won't have to worry about different pacing or groups like I did, it shouldn't be too difficult to switch gears as long as your players check email regularly. I suggest following Sayburr's advice of ending the email 'session' if a combat or near-combat encounter arises.

 

[PA]

Emails are also practical to take care of a PC's private agenda, without stealing from everyone else's time when you meet. For instance, one PC may also have a career as a comedian, or own a tavern, etc. It may have nothing to do with the adventure at hand but it can give depth to the PC.