Always_a_DM said:
Now, my gaming experience is based on doing things at a table (or couch, coffee table etc). What I would like to know is how does this play-by-mail thing work ? Is there any web-stuff I can read ? I’d love to hear from someone who has done this before.
My experience with PBeM games is mostly as a player. I've tried four or five, and each has died after a couple of months.
They are slow, and combat can be a real drag.
However...
It can be great to see descriptions well written, to see conversations extended and so on. People have a source of reference and can think about and formulate a reply.
In my expereience conversations have the difficulty that they often seem like a Dragonlance Gnome is doing the talking. What I mean by this is that since one person is writing one side of the conversation at one time, the conversation tends to be like a letter/email. PBeM seem to work better in a political style game, where the characters aren't together all the time.
Now, there is also another choice. If you can get all the players online at the same time (or a majority of them), you can try Play By Chat. ie, you all log on to the same irc server and chat to each other real time. This can be stilted, since one persons statement may elicit a number of replies, but can work better than PBeM.
The disadvantage of this is that the DM must be a fast typist. If you are going to have long descriptions of people, locations, events, type them up beforehand, and then cut and paste them.
If I were you, I would consider trying a mix of all three.
The game starts with a Real Life session, where you have lots of combat, and wind up that adventure beofre the players go home.
Then it shifts into PBeM mode for a while, where the players recooperate from their adventure, arrange to buy new equipment, gain levels (including training), talk to advisers, and maybe get a few hints towards new adventures. This time is often done independantly, where the characters are not with the others, so that most of the emails are direct to the DM. Minor gatherings, adult relationships between PCs and so on can also be done here, but it is important to realise that this is very slow.
Then you have your online game, where the characters gather a as group, discuss what they have learnt recently, hunt up some more clues for their next adventures, and let you know which hook they are going to follow.
After this it would move back into PBeM again for a while, as the characters do what was decided in the online game, following up individual hints, etc., until finally...
It's time for the Real Life session again! You gather, present the clues, and follow up with the real adventure. Dice are rolled, hit points bled and curatives applied. By the end of the time another foe is vanquished (or is he?), and you move back into email mode.
What is important with this is that the main part of the adventure is wrapped up by the end of the Real Life game, so that it can move easily into the email phase.
Of course, that's just a suggestion
Good Luck!
Duncan
