re:Freeflow Games & paying 2 play From: Williams <mlwilliams@taz.dra.hmg.gb> Date: Mon, 08 Jul 1996 00:00:00 +0000 As Steve Pritchard pointed out, there are lots of PBM roleplaying games and they work very well. What I would like to question is the assertion by the original poster that 99% of such games are free. In the absence of any representative sample of available games such figures are meaningless and my gut feeling is that he is way off the mark. There are several good reasons why paying to play is often a good choice. The trouble with roleplaying PBM is that it is very labour intensive, it uses up a lot of the GM's time and unless they are prepared to spend a large part of every day writing turns then they will be unable to support a very large player population. To me one of the reasons for playing PBM as opposed to 'over the table' RPG is the interest provided by being part of a large community of characters, most of whom are not personally known to you, it provides depth and unpredictability to the game. Another plus that commerical RPG PBM's have is durability. When you're playing a free game you invest a fair bit of time and imagination into your character but in my experience these games tend to fold fairly rapidly when the GM's lifestyle changes (ie the GM gets a job or whatever). I've being running a character in a commercial PBM for a decade now and you'd have to look hard to find a free game that runs that long. Now I'm sure people will be more than able to supply the names of long running large-sized free RPG PBM's to refute what I have said here. I'm not talking about particulars though, I'm talking about trends, about how to improve your chances of having a good experience when you reach into the huge 'lucky dip' barrel of PBM. So the bottom line from me is: RPG PBM's work and there are some good reasons to pay to play. Mark http://www.demon.co.uk/pracctice/markw.html Referenced By Up