Re: Shoot Me Through The Back...

From: inb@creare.UUCP (Ian Brown)

Date: Mon, 20 May 1991 18:02:15 +0000

In article <9840003@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM> cth@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (CT Hart) writes:
>   I've participated in a couple PBeM FRP-style "games" now,
>   and haven't found any of them to be very satisfactory...

I run a pair of PBeM FRP-style games - not computer-moderated, by GM'd by
yours-truely.  Since the first one has lasted almost 3 years, with only two
permanent dropouts (one player disappeared right after he created his
character, but before the game started, one player lost net access, the only
other person to drop out has since rejoined), I'd have to guess that the game
has been fairly satisfactory.

>   I guess my principle gripe is that of how player interaction
>   is handled - or rather isn't handled.  Hopefully, what I've
>   experienced is the exception rather than the norm...
>
>   What I'm looking for here, is feedback from others on good and
>   bad experiences with interaction like combat and how that was
>   handled - what you liked or didn't like.  I haven't seen anything
>   yet that remotely resembles real player interaction...
>
>   (Last game I played, I specifically attempted to shoot a creature
>    through another player - and succeeded without harm to my comrade!)
>
>   Has anybody played a PBeM FRP with some sort of logical approach to
>   this sort of thing?

Based on your comments, I'd say that the games you were playing were moderated
by a computer program, possibly with a human to check things on occasion.  I
can't really comment on how good such games are.

For the games that I run, I allow direct interaction between players via e-Mail
messages (I expect to receive a copy of all such communications, but for the
most part, leave it to the players to actually handle them.)  Much of the time,
I provide a small amount of input and then let the players take things from
there, occasionally inserting things like NPC comments where necessary.  I
think this has worked quite well, except on a few occasions where, due to
e-Mail latencies, things have gotten out of sync.

References

Shoot Me Through The Back...
cth@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (CT Hart)
Thu, 16 May 1991 23:33:45 +0000