Discussion of PBeM RPG systems and techniques

From: brooke@cco.caltech.edu (Brooke Paul Anderson)

Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 02:57:09 +0000

I'm interested in finding out which systems people like for
fantasy-RPGing over e-mail and in hearing recommendations on
how to run PBeM RPG's.

Since my gaming pals and I have graduated and have moved apart,
we tried e-mail RPGing.  We started with AD&D (which I don't like
a whole lot in general) and Fantasy Hero (the combat system of which
is not well suited to playing by e-mail).  I've been thinking about
making up a system, but first I want to get some idea of what other people
use and of how other people run their campaigns over e-mail.  Another
option, I suppose, is for me to modify the combat system of Fantasy Hero
(as I like the system more than any other RPG system I've seen).

Is it a good idea to have time deadlines?  How detailed should the
various aspects of the game (fighting, searching, negotiating, etc.) be?
Is there any way to structure the interaction so that the game doesn't
get dragged out to an unacceptable (game time)/(real time) ratio?

Basically, while I have a lot of experience in real-time gaming (I've
run a campaign that lasted several years), I don't have much experience
with e-mail gaming.