Re: PBeM RPG's: Free or Pay?

From: silver@phoenyx.net (Karen J. Cravens)

Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000

In article <19970624143601.KAA05497@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
soliiigm@aol.com (Sol III GM) wrote:
>  hehehehehe...We run an 1897 setting in San Francisco with a lot of the
>same elements, but with a bit broader scope, and not the same level of
>'quirkiness'.  It ranks 4th in popularity out of the 6 Time Frames we have
>going, and the 4 that we are about to bring out of playtesting probably
>will not knock it down more than one place.  People like the Victorian
>Era, and when you do something strange with it, you can develop a cult
>following quickly (I still know people who play Space 1888, or what ever
>that number was).  Our Schtick has been the mix of Vernian and Wellsian
>Sci-Fi with the Gothic Horror and Victorian Mystery.

I've always been vaguely interested in the Victorian era, but
never felt like I knew enough about it to really *do* anything
with it, even play.  OTOH, I know a great deal about Kansas
during that time period, but Westerns have never gone over
particularly well, at least without some sort of twist.  Still,
someday I'll publish Wichita:1871.

>  1985?  Good Lord, that's 4 years before Sol III (In the form of
>America2020) first saw the light of day!  I started as a free game as
>well, but when I crossed the 100 player mark, figured it was time to start
>seeing if there was enough money in it to let me do it as a job.  There
>is, and there isn't.  If you do not have a superb product, you can't get
>the customers.

Well, the Phoenyx hasn't had a continuously running game for that
long.  Westwind, ST:Excalibur, and China:1934 have all run for a
couple of years so far.  Before that (circa 1991) CHROME ran for
a fairly extended period, but not continuously... it bounced back
and forth between PBeM and live play in the local group.  I think
there may have been a period or two when we didn't have any PBeMs
at all, when the roleplaying discussion got lively instead.

--  Karen Cravens      | Phoenyx PBeM RPG Listserver: majordomo@phoenyx.net
    silver@phoenyx.net | http://www2.southwind.net/~phoenyx/
                       | Home of the RPG Industry Discussion List
                  A penny saved is ridiculous.

References

Re: PBeM RPG's: Free or Pay?
silver@phoenyx.net (Karen J. Cravens)
Sun, 22 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: PBeM RPG's: Free or Pay?
soliiigm@aol.com (Sol III GM)
Tue, 24 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000