Re: [MZ] Looking for players for a Mekton Zeta PBeM...

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

Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000

In article <psWZGFAgk1czEwDL@briareos.demon.co.uk>,
Justin Palmer <justin@briareos.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <5krnjv$e2o5@news1.alltel.net>, Rimmel
><rimm@alltel.cheeze.com> writes
>>Looks like I caught the tail end of this one, is someone posting for a
>>Mekton Z PBeM?
>        Dumb question time - how does a PBM work on the Internet? I'm
>familar with the postal ones, but would appreciate it if someone could
>explain the differences - yes, aside from the fact one uses stamps, the
>others uses electrons :). I'd be interested if you could tell how to
>sign up.

Pretty much the same, only faster and slightly more direct.

The game in question is using a mailing list; you can get
somewhat the same effect with "CC:" if it's not large.  (One
game at the Phoenyx has around 85 people, of which 2 are
gamemasters, 19 are players, and the rest are lurkers.  You just
*don't* wanna do that by hand.)

Anyway, the way a mailing list works (excuse me if I'm getting
too basic... if you know how mailing lists work you can skip to
the end) is that the host has a special address - in this case,
galactic-invasion-L@phoenyx.net - to which everyone sends mail.
The Phoenyx takes anything that comes to that address and remails
it to everyone on its list of subscribers.

To subscribe, you send mail to another special address -
majordomo@phoenyx.net - with commands in the message body.
Basically, if you send it
  help
  lists
  subscribe galactic-invasion-L
it will first give you the help file with all the commands
(which, in the Phoenyx' case, include funky ones to set the way
your name will appear in your From:  line so you can put a
character name there without having to dink with your mail
software all the time), then send you a list of all of the lists
served by that 'domo (which, in the Phoenyx' case, includes about
a dozen games right now plus a generic roleplaying discussion
list, a PBeM announcement list (something like Greg's only strictly
for roleplaying games), a world design list, and a couple others
that escape me), and then will add you to the recipient list for
any messages sent to the list address.

The net result is something more reliable than Usenet, with no
spam or spamharvesters, but is a little harder to find since
unlike Usenet, there's no mechanism to distribute a list of
lists.  There are a few services like www.liszt.com trying to
archive all of them, but I suspect they're not even close to
having them all.

Anyway, aside from the technical bits of mailing list operation,
play-by-email is somewhat different from standard PBM in that the
turnaround is much faster, and so there's much more interaction.
It's well-nigh impossible to run a roleplaying game PBM without
sacrificing interaction for speed or vice-versa, but it's
possible PBeM. It ends up being much more "literary" in most
cases... you can write out your character's thoughts without
sounding like a Magnum PI voiceover, describe your character's
actions and tone of voice without having to be an actor, etc.

Combat tends to be more descriptive than mechanical, and most
gamemasters tend to use the game rules for character generation
and then let them fall by the wayside during play.  This works
out much better in PBeM games than live games, in my
experience... I don't much care for "storytelling" games in
face-to-face games, but I'm perfectly comfortable with them in
PBeM. It may have to do with the fact that I can write much
better than I can act, and can sit and compose a message much
more naturally than I can soliloquize off the top of my head.

(CC'd to roleplaying-L since I hate to waste a good message on
just one group...)

--  Karen Cravens      | Phoenyx PBeM RPG Listserver: majordomo@phoenyx.net
    silver@phoenyx.net | http://www2.southwind.net/~phoenyx/
                       | Home of the RPG Industry Discussion List
              I've had fun before.  This isn't it.

References

Re: [MZ] Looking for players for a Mekton Zeta PBeM...
sw@eyrie.org (sw)
Fri, 02 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: [MZ] Looking for players for a Mekton Zeta PBeM...
silver@phoenyx.net (Karen J. Cravens)
Sun, 04 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: [MZ] Looking for players for a Mekton Zeta PBeM...
rimm@alltel.cheeze.com (Rimmel)
Thu, 08 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: [MZ] Looking for players for a Mekton Zeta PBeM...
Justin Palmer <justin@briareos.demon.co.uk>
Fri, 09 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000
[MZ] Looking for players for a Mekton Zeta PBeM...
sw@eyrie.org (sw)
Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000