PBeM Help
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Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
Don't go combat-heavy - combat takes a long time in PbEM-land.
When you do hit combat, though, use detailed tactical maps so everyone can see where they are and what they can do. Maps that don't show enough information, or no maps at all, can be very frustrating for players.
I recommend using point buy for abilities, and some simple system for hit points - max, or average points-per-die, rather than rolled. Within the game, roll all dice yourself. Using Dice Rollers can slow combat down by a factor of at least three, and doesn't really add anything to the game.
Vivid! and Memorable! and Exciting! NPCs.
And accept and understand that there can be quite a time commitment involved in keeping a game going at a decent pace. My own PbEM game has slowed down to a crawl of late because I'm having trouble keeping up my end.
-Hyp.
When you do hit combat, though, use detailed tactical maps so everyone can see where they are and what they can do. Maps that don't show enough information, or no maps at all, can be very frustrating for players.
I recommend using point buy for abilities, and some simple system for hit points - max, or average points-per-die, rather than rolled. Within the game, roll all dice yourself. Using Dice Rollers can slow combat down by a factor of at least three, and doesn't really add anything to the game.
Vivid! and Memorable! and Exciting! NPCs.
And accept and understand that there can be quite a time commitment involved in keeping a game going at a decent pace. My own PbEM game has slowed down to a crawl of late because I'm having trouble keeping up my end.
-Hyp.
Voadam
Legend
The fewer people involved the easier.
We have done combats by e-mail without maps and they have worked out fine.
Have each player anounce his actions for the round, then the DM should do the rolls and describe the action.
Change the subject line of your posts often so it is easy to look up old ones.
Depending upon your pacing and group size you might want to have a PC response deadline (everybody responds within a day or the DM runs their character for that scene).
We have done combats by e-mail without maps and they have worked out fine.
Have each player anounce his actions for the round, then the DM should do the rolls and describe the action.
Change the subject line of your posts often so it is easy to look up old ones.
Depending upon your pacing and group size you might want to have a PC response deadline (everybody responds within a day or the DM runs their character for that scene).
rpgHQ
First Post
I have to agree on the maps for any type of combat tactical/strategy situation. For email or post/web games it cuts out on any misunderstandings of the description and you dont have to spend as much time either altering a players stated action to fit or playing email/post tag telling them they cant do such and such.
Dice rolls theres two ways to go about it, you can have the players roll sets of each die type and have them take it tot he end of each message they send, say 4 rolls each of d4,d6,d8,10,d20 or you can just do it all on your side.
Doing it yourself is the method I prefer as sometimes players forget to send rolls in with a message and you can fudge however you like and no one will know at all
Anyhow the maps dont have top be pretty, I used to do simple graph paper style mapping and used numbers for each player and Letters with numbers for the baddies/npc's. You can use say windows default ms paint and make yourself a graph paper template bmp and then when you map things out save it as a jpg to send along with email so its nice n small. Allows you to make them pretty fast and for each player with only whats in their line of site and so forth.
A handy thing to do after the first couple of situations the group gets into and they have gotten their pecking order figured out, scouts, flanksers, rear guard type stuff is make some type of image on a road in the woods showing where everybody is during normal marching, so when you do wandering encounters or they stumble into a set encounter you can set the encounter up around it and theres no question of whose where, the only thing that might change is the scouts coming or going or flanking and such not. As characters, group npc's/hirelings come and go or die and get replaced its easier to shift the marching positions around. Visuals like that help a lot in setting up encounters to, makes it easier on you when typing up the initial encounter text.
If everyone has web access and not just email access you should look at www.rondaksportal.com and set up your campaign there. Very nice play by post site, you can store lots of info right online there, postings can be broke down by players or groups(for those times the party is split up), private messages, as its own built in dice roller so oyu know the players arnt fudging, you get some web space for your campaign. You can insert images right into posts. Very friendly for play over the web. Build your own char sheets with a few prebuilt fields based on game rule type. Check it out, lurk in a few games, you might like it over trying to play by email.
Dice rolls theres two ways to go about it, you can have the players roll sets of each die type and have them take it tot he end of each message they send, say 4 rolls each of d4,d6,d8,10,d20 or you can just do it all on your side.
Doing it yourself is the method I prefer as sometimes players forget to send rolls in with a message and you can fudge however you like and no one will know at all
Anyhow the maps dont have top be pretty, I used to do simple graph paper style mapping and used numbers for each player and Letters with numbers for the baddies/npc's. You can use say windows default ms paint and make yourself a graph paper template bmp and then when you map things out save it as a jpg to send along with email so its nice n small. Allows you to make them pretty fast and for each player with only whats in their line of site and so forth.
A handy thing to do after the first couple of situations the group gets into and they have gotten their pecking order figured out, scouts, flanksers, rear guard type stuff is make some type of image on a road in the woods showing where everybody is during normal marching, so when you do wandering encounters or they stumble into a set encounter you can set the encounter up around it and theres no question of whose where, the only thing that might change is the scouts coming or going or flanking and such not. As characters, group npc's/hirelings come and go or die and get replaced its easier to shift the marching positions around. Visuals like that help a lot in setting up encounters to, makes it easier on you when typing up the initial encounter text.
If everyone has web access and not just email access you should look at www.rondaksportal.com and set up your campaign there. Very nice play by post site, you can store lots of info right online there, postings can be broke down by players or groups(for those times the party is split up), private messages, as its own built in dice roller so oyu know the players arnt fudging, you get some web space for your campaign. You can insert images right into posts. Very friendly for play over the web. Build your own char sheets with a few prebuilt fields based on game rule type. Check it out, lurk in a few games, you might like it over trying to play by email.
I'd say don't use tactical maps and don't attempt to run a tactical/wargame fantasy RPG like default 3e by email. Email is great for characterisation, description, atmosphere. For running a skirmish wargame it is _really bad_ - if you want that, probably Neverwinter Nights would be a better bet. You should treat it more like a movie, emphasising description & atmosphere. Instead of having a meticulously mapped-out dungeon, have a set of scenes - 'entrance', 'tunnels', and 'climactic encounter', say.
I ran PBEMs for about 5 years, when I started out I tried to run AD&D like a tabletop game - it didn't work well and the PCs kept dying. The best PBEMs take account of the nature of the medium.
I ran PBEMs for about 5 years, when I started out I tried to run AD&D like a tabletop game - it didn't work well and the PCs kept dying. The best PBEMs take account of the nature of the medium.
rpgHQ
First Post
I guess its a matter of preferance and play style of the GM and players, I always had too many issues when it was too loose. There was only so much of letting a player get away with stuff I or other players could take from some of the others.
Use of images is good but I dont mean constant use of it, some situations its easy to use descriptive text and everyone can picture the story and scene but some combat situations can get really complex depending on the environement around the characters or if its large numbers of combatants. And we're talking simple paper rpah style images just using numbers or letters or colored dots to show where everyone is.
Most times I will do up a quick image if its a significant encounter just so everone has a better pitcure in their head along with the text of the scene then every 4 or 5 rounds I do up another image along with a recap posting to make sure everybody is still on the same page so to speak. But some situations are real complex and maybe the groups split apart far enough that they dont all see the same thing so I do round by round or every 2 round images and the go to the specific people that need them.
It made it easier on the players to u nderstand the scenes, and instead of getting lots of messages asking this or that players were able to give multiple actions in case of different occurances over the next several rounds which helped keep the combat going fast.
Also with or without images for a combat encounter I always did a recap type story posting at the end of each round if it was complex or every couple rounds when it wasnt so 'hot n heavy' combat. Combined everybodies actions and the baddies and hirlings and wrote it up in a story fashion. Then after any lengthy situation combat or otherwise I do a summarized story post, this way any backtracking or other wierdness that might confuse what had happened is cleaared up and theres 1 post as the official occurance for that set of rounds or over all encounter that people can look back on and keep and get rid of all the back and forth posts.
Anyhow I dont know how much that helps the original poster since he is getting opposite advice on combat but maybe with two different viewpoints he will be able to figure out something that will work for his playgroup, the more he knows about how others do it the better for him to find something that works for him
Good luck on the pbem and happy gaming and hopefully we've helped you some even with differing views on the subject
Use of images is good but I dont mean constant use of it, some situations its easy to use descriptive text and everyone can picture the story and scene but some combat situations can get really complex depending on the environement around the characters or if its large numbers of combatants. And we're talking simple paper rpah style images just using numbers or letters or colored dots to show where everyone is.
Most times I will do up a quick image if its a significant encounter just so everone has a better pitcure in their head along with the text of the scene then every 4 or 5 rounds I do up another image along with a recap posting to make sure everybody is still on the same page so to speak. But some situations are real complex and maybe the groups split apart far enough that they dont all see the same thing so I do round by round or every 2 round images and the go to the specific people that need them.
It made it easier on the players to u nderstand the scenes, and instead of getting lots of messages asking this or that players were able to give multiple actions in case of different occurances over the next several rounds which helped keep the combat going fast.
Also with or without images for a combat encounter I always did a recap type story posting at the end of each round if it was complex or every couple rounds when it wasnt so 'hot n heavy' combat. Combined everybodies actions and the baddies and hirlings and wrote it up in a story fashion. Then after any lengthy situation combat or otherwise I do a summarized story post, this way any backtracking or other wierdness that might confuse what had happened is cleaared up and theres 1 post as the official occurance for that set of rounds or over all encounter that people can look back on and keep and get rid of all the back and forth posts.
Anyhow I dont know how much that helps the original poster since he is getting opposite advice on combat but maybe with two different viewpoints he will be able to figure out something that will work for his playgroup, the more he knows about how others do it the better for him to find something that works for him
Good luck on the pbem and happy gaming and hopefully we've helped you some even with differing views on the subject
seankreynolds
Adventurer
I rec'mend the PBEM FAQ, archived at my site here:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/pbem_faq.html
(though I did not author it).
Also, as an example of a PBEM, you might want to check out Chapter 1 of my college PBEM's log:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/pbem/
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/pbem_faq.html
(though I did not author it).
Also, as an example of a PBEM, you might want to check out Chapter 1 of my college PBEM's log:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/pbem/
Toj
First Post
Thanks for the help guys. I have started the PBeM and it's going good. What I decided to do about combat is go by what the encounter is.
In basic combat (with creatures you are very much more skilled) it is simpler to lead up to the encounter, and then have me go from there. I will then roll the combat and describe what takes place. I will stop when one of the following occurr:
1. The creature(s) are dead.
2. Something unexpected happens, such as the PC's start losing, more creatures arrive, etc.
Against creatures who are near or greater than your skill, combat is done round by round.
I think against the challenging creatures, I will do a map, unless it's very few opponents. I only have two players (may do more later if I feel I can handle it) so combat should be relatively easy.
In basic combat (with creatures you are very much more skilled) it is simpler to lead up to the encounter, and then have me go from there. I will then roll the combat and describe what takes place. I will stop when one of the following occurr:
1. The creature(s) are dead.
2. Something unexpected happens, such as the PC's start losing, more creatures arrive, etc.
Against creatures who are near or greater than your skill, combat is done round by round.
I think against the challenging creatures, I will do a map, unless it's very few opponents. I only have two players (may do more later if I feel I can handle it) so combat should be relatively easy.
