Re: What would you want in a play by email?

From: rwallace@cs.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace)

Date: Sun, 24 Apr 1994 00:26:09 +0000

stomljen@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (You Better Work!!) writes:

>  I am thinking about making a play by email game and I was just curious
>  what you folks out there would like in a game.
>    I am planning to make a "middle earth" style game(of course making it
>    as original as possible).  I really like the medivial style of warfare
>    with keeps and castles and archers and calvery, and mages always
>    add an interesting twist.

>   1. How should turns be sent in?

By email :) <shrug> Apart from that it doesn't matter, as long as the
format is not gratuitously perverse.

>   2. how should turn reports be made?

Again, it's the content that matters, not the form, as long as they're
in some reasonably sensible layout.

>   3. what kind of things do you wish middle earth had, and what do you
>      not like about the game?

My advice on this: Read a lot of good fantasy books, and forget totally
about all the junk you see in fantasy games.  Most game designers have
IQ smaller than their shoe size, in my opinion.  A noteworthy exception
in the area of PBEM fantasy is Olympia, by Rich Skrenta; check that out,
there's a lot of good stuff in it.  (Another noteworthy exception is my
own Atlantis PBEM, but then I would say that wouldn't I? :))

>
>   4. is it feasible to do everything by email? (ie uploading/downloading turns)

Yep.

>
>
>
--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@cs.tcd.ie

References

What would you want in a play by email?
stomljen@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (You Better Work!!)
Sat, 23 Apr 1994 05:32:43 +0000