Re: PBeM

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

Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 00:00:00 +0000

In article <KmtGuFAx88PzEwOG@phildee.demon.co.uk>,
Phil Shulkind <phil@phildee.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>No development with a true RPG? So what tree do source materials for all
>these games you buy in the hobby shops fall off of? Work has had to go

There's development there, but, to be honest, only a real nimnul
runs a game from a published scenario.  Guaranteed somebody who's
playing will have read it, and will either (a) recognize it
partway through and drop out unhappy or (b) recognize it partway
through and decide to cheat.

>into the design, which is what you end up buying. When I talk about rules
>I mean source books etc, I'm not really into RPG's so I get my terminology
>mixed up sometimes. Also of course people like TSR have to pay people
>like artists, so do we.

Source books are optional, though.  Of the Phoenyx games, I think
only the Justice, Inc. and the CTraveller games actually use a
pre-created world (and JI is kind of questionable; there really
wasn't much source in the book).

>What you are suggesting is that in RPG's the GM just makes everything
>up as they go along. That's the way it reads anyway. We don't do things

The important stuff, yes.  The actual responses and whatnot.  The
gamemaster usually (depends on the flavor, really) has an idea of
what's going to happen up front, but hasn't scripted every scene.
Up-front development may include "One or more of the characters
will encounter the Fox woman in the fishmarket, and she'll advise
them of the rumors about the Rat gangs."  The actual encounter
can cover several turns and be a couple-three thousand words long.

>that way. We've just started running a game set in the world of the Aztecs.
>It's not just been thrown together, a lot of time and effort (18 months of
>research) has gone into the background of the game. Players have to be
>given sufficient information to be able to role play in a way that fits in
>with the Aztec civilization, otherwise there's no point in playing the game.
>I presume there are no games of such depth running on your server?

There's a lot of variance.  There are a couple of superhero
games, which of course don't really need much in the way of
explanation beyond "Real world, plus guys in tights."  But on the
other hand you've got Westwind, which is my pet project, which is
a pretty thoroughly detailed world.  But, and here I think is
where you're running into the confusion, the development is done
by the people running the game, not the person who wrote the
basic rule system (FUDGE).

See, in a roleplaying game you basically have three parts.
You've got the underlying rules system, which controls your basic
stuff like how combat works and whatnot.  That's your AD&D, or
your FUDGE, or whatever, and it's actually pretty optional.  Most
PBeM's are freeform (in the rec.games.frp.* sense rather than the
rec.games.pbm sense, where "freeform" seems to denote
"human-moderated" to most people), and at best kind of nod at the
rules as they go by.

Then you've got your world.  That's your Forgotten Realms, or
your Westwind, or your Aztec world, and that's what your players
need familiarization with.  Sometimes the world and the rules
system are fairly closely tied together (especially in things
like Shadowrun's magic system, where the mechanics essentially
define the effects), but most of the Phoenyx games use one of the
various "generic" rules systems.

Then you've got your actual scenario (campaign, module,
adventure, etc.), which is usually laid out in advance to a
greater or lesser degree.  (There is an entire newsgroup,
rec.games.frp.advocacy, which is virtually devoted to arguments
about whether you should script your games in advance or not.)
Some games are purely picaresque, some games are straight
whodunits with a Right Answer.  Most fall in between... the
gamemaster sets up a situation, and what happens next depends on
the player-characters.

So it really depends on how much the gameworld needs to be
defined up front, but I'd say in a really interactive game of any
length the work entailed in writing the turns and reacting to the
players and their characters ends up far outweighing the design
work.  Otherwise we'd all be *designing* PBeM's and selling them
for other people to run, just like the strategic/sports games.

--  Karen Cravens      | Phoenyx PBeM RPG Listserver: majordomo@phoenyx.net
    silver@phoenyx.net | http://www2.southwind.net/~phoenyx/
                       | Home of the RPG Industry Discussion List
               Sir, the goombas are dancing again.

References

PBeM
mike79@ix.netcom.com
Sat, 15 Mar 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Re: PBeM
Shawn Williamson <swilliam@geocities.com>
Tue, 25 Mar 1997 00:00:00 +0000