Re: The Future of PBEM & USENET RPGs

From: Frontiersman@pagani.demon.co.uk (Ste Kemp - GM)

Date: Thu, 08 Dec 1994 19:36:55 +0000

I have not had time to read through this whole article - my tea is about to
start burning - but as a PBM and PBEM GM and player I wanted to throw a little
more oil on the fire with my own method - I call it roleplaying your
character.

As yourself a question. Would your character know who was a player character
and who wasn't? The answer, obviously, is NO! Therefore, if you are
roleplaying why should you?

Confused as to where I'm going? Well, in the games I and other PBM GM friends
run, the players never interact with each other. Their characters interact
with both NPC and PC alike and I write individual turns for each player. Some
PCs will spend a lot of time with other PCs, but if I find one player takes
longer than the other to send turns in, I will quickly find a rational plot
line to split their characters up. This allows me to run a game at a fairly
quick turnaround for players who write turns quickly and a much more sedate
pace for slower players. I do provide a method of characters sending messages
to each other (note CHARACTERS not PLAYERS) - they come via me. The player
will not know whether they are sending to a player character or to a non-
player character, and nor should they. Either the PC or the NPC may reply, or
may choose not to. So even there there is no indication.

I know this is very much an overview of what I do, and might be confusing, but
if I don't dash through to the kitchen NOW this place is gonna be ashes!

A quick final point in favour of this method:- it characters to do things
which are only known to their own players and not others. If your character,
Superspam, is off flying round Quakaros V fighting the Mad Klingoffs of Death;
and another PC, Robinette Hoode, is currently wandering around Brimingham
looking for the Last Ork's Riders; there is no way they would know about each
other. So why should the players???

References

The Future of PBEM & USENET RPGs
afabbro@umich.edu (Andrew Philip Fabbro)
Mon, 28 Nov 1994 21:00:55 +0000

Referenced By

The Future of PBEM & USENET RPGs
afabbro@umich.edu (Andrew Philip Fabbro)
Mon, 28 Nov 1994 21:00:55 +0000