Re: PBEM Help!

From: mikew@mdcbbs.com (Mike 'the Bard' Whitaker)

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1993 13:54:20 +0000

In article <2602b5INNmi@uwm.edu> bifster@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
(Glenn Randall Buettner) writes:
>I am trying to start my own pbem and was wondering if anyone out there who
>has run one before can give me some good advice about how to handle it.  Any
>help would be appreciated.

It's not clear if you're talking something like Atlantis/Legends/Arena (more
the computer-moderated wargame) or more like an e-mail D&D session. Being
fairly well acquainted with playing in both, and running the latter,
here's my two pennyworth....

Computer-moderated wargame:

1) Set realistic turn deadlines. Most people won't want to spend more than 1
hour a week on a turn. One of the games I play in also sends turn *reminders*
to those players who *haven't* sent in a turn 36 and 12 hours before the
deadline.

2) Make your order checker available to the players, so they don't get
frustrated if they send badly formed orders in and their turn fails miserably.
If possible, some form of mail reflector that mails them when they send in a
turn, with a reply which covers what the game system understands by their turn.
At least then if they got something wrong they can send in a turn to supersede
the previous one.

3) Make order format comprehensible to humans. It's more work on your part to
parse the result, but, for example, "TRAIN 45 INFANTRY FROM POPULATION OF
ANDOR" can be stripped (by removing noise words and truncating commands) to
"TRA 45 INF POP ANDOR", which is still *miles* more comprehensible than
Legends' T31 45 I234 C767". [Guess why I gave up on Legends?]

4) Put some effort into making turn *output* useful and, where possible,
less "machine-like".

5) Playtest with some friends before you let the masses loose on the software -
or at the very least run a playtest and make sure it's advertised as such.
The rules *won't* work first time, I can guarantee you.

E-mail roleplaying:

1) Don't bite off more than you can chew. Keep the number of players down,
and, if you can. pick and choose your players - PBeM *has* to require trust
between player and GM.

2) Go for a campaign which requires more roleplay than combat.

3) The way *I* run combats is to stop a turn just as the fight starts, and
say "OK - general orders for the fight", then the next turn contains a
description of the combat - I make all the dice rolls. (This is where
player-GM trust comes in).

[Note the crosspost. If you only reply to ONE aspect of this, please make
an effort to edit the Newsgroups line.]
--
Mike Whitaker +44-223 | mikew@ug.eds.com (preferred) \ Me: Bards just
Shape Data/EDS 371565 | mwhitaker@cix.compulink.co.uk \ KNOW things...