Re: Fed up with PBeM (well nearly)

From: dconklin@netcom.com (douglas d)

Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000

Ok,

Here's my feed back. an RPG is a _Role_ playing game. That is, a
game wherein you play a role. RPG's in there highest form are much akin to
improvisational acting. You could suggest the PBeM RPG's would be more
like collaborative writing. The point is that it is easy to understand
how a group might not want an aspiring actor with no experience to join
thier improv, and it is easy to understand how a group might not want an
aspiring role player with no experience to join thier game.

Part of the problem is that you seem to think that MUD's are
RPG's. By and large they are not. All but the rarest MUD's are pure hack
and slash with some problem solving and socialization thrown in. Very few
people on muds really play a consistent, believable role. Even on the
ones that advertise themselves as role playing MUD's, the term is mostly
meaningless. I'll never forget the time I got a response of "man you are
freaking me out" to a simply stated formal english reply to a question
about why I didn't want to mindlessly slaughter the citizens of the main
town. No, Mud's are multi user dungeons (or domains if you prefer), they
are not RPG's (with a few exceptions which I have yet to find).

You have two options if you want to get the experience which will
make you a desireable addition to some one's PBeM RPG. The first is to go
down to your local hobby shop and see if you can get any leads there on
role playing groups locally, so you can do it face to face and in real
time (this is generaly far superior role playing any way). A good gaming
store which carries RPG's will probably have a bulletin board dedicated
to helping people put together groups to play with.

The second option is to move from MUD's to the role playing
offspring of MUD's. MUSE's, MUSH's, and what ever other M*'s out there
focus on taking on the role of a different character and exploring the
internaly logical actions of that character.

easy,
	douglas d
--
_______________________________________________________________
Douglas D. Conklin                | dconklin@netcom.com
"Tiger, tiger burning bright ..." | douglasd@sfsu.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------

References

Fed up with PBeM (well nearly)
John Yeung <j.yeung@dial.pipex.com>
Sat, 24 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Fed up with PBeM (well nearly)
John Yeung <j.yeung@dial.pipex.com>
Sat, 24 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000