Play by email pc game

It can be disheartening, though. Sometime I wonder if it'd just be easier to write a novel. But the fun of running a PBEM is the give and take between myself and the other players: the synthesis of something new which none of us could have created on our own. I can't imagine that writing a novel would be anywhere near as much fun.

Do you have a better answer? Then let the author know. There really isn't much you can do about it. The best you can hope to do is step in and push things ahead when it's obvious that the players are not saying anything new. For example, if they are discussing whether to head to the mountains now or spend the night at the inn, that conversation could go on forever, and some players will let it.

You have to take decisive action and say, "Okay, the group decides to spend the night: the night passes uneventfully.

Of course, you'll always get the one ambitious soul who wants to go off on a solo adventure while everyone else is asleep. Unfortunately, the reality of a PBEM game means that if you were to run them on their solo jaunt, the rest of the players would be sleeping for the next real-world month. No fun for them.

The best thing to do in such a situation is — that's right — fudge it. Ask the player straight up what they want their character to accomplish while everyone else is alseep: have them name a goal, simply and succinctly.

Then you roll dice, tell them what happened, and morning comes and you move on with the game. One consequence of the time-dilation effect in a PBEM is that it makes long-term "epic" plots more difficult to carry off. For example, in a long-running game I recently drew to a close, the smaller story arcs all contributed to a larger "epic" story arc that I had intended to provide the climax to the game.

I have run a number of PBEM games over the years, even some very long-lived ones, but this was the first time I went into the game with a single, grand, years-long story arc in mind. Two things happened which I should have been able to predict:. The lesson I learned from this is two-fold. First, what works in a novel does not always work in a game.

I know, I know Most of the errors novice GMs — and even experienced GMs — make when they run PBEM games can be traced back to a misguided desire to make the game mimic a novel. When you find yourself starting a sentence with, "In a novel Second, I learned that although planning ahead is a good idea, it's possible to plan too far ahead.

You simply can't predict what will happen to you, the game, and the players over the course of a successful PBEM game — the time frame is just too large. Keep the "big picture" in mind, but try to focus on story arcs that can be wrapped up neatly in a few months. If you can later use elements from these to build on later story arcs, creating a long-term epic in the process, that's terrific , but don't depend on being able to do this.

This is one of the most common errors that new PBEM players make. A role-playing game is fundamentally different from any form of narrative fiction, and in many ways their goals and methods are mutually incompatible. If you try to combine them, either the game or the narrative or both will inevitably suffer. The best you will be able to create is yet another atrocious piece of game-based pseudo-literature, which is little better than fanfic.

Do not sacrifice your game or your novel for such a misguided goal. But it may be that less mechanical game systems might be more appropriate to a PBEM game. I ran a fairly long-term game using S.

All things being equal, it is probably better to use a game system with which you and your hoped-for players are already familiar, and select one of the least-complex game systems from among that collection. Recently, the FATE system has become quite popular, and it offers rule sets for urban fantasy, superheroes, and so on.

And, much like noisy theatre patrons, the worst players fail to recognize it: more often than not, they resent it when it's pointed out. I always ask for a writing sample, preferably a few posts from a previous PBEM. I typically also ask for a half-dozen paragraphs of character background, or perhaps a one-shot post depicting how the PC would respond in a particular situation. Ultimately, it's a judgement call.

If you make the entry requirements too high, you will drive people away: no one likes to jump through inane hoops just to play what should be a form of entertainment.

However, if you don't have some kind of screening process in place, you'll inevitably get a few wankers. Lurkers are people who read the game posts but are not playing in your game, but who are not able to post or otherwise interact with your game in any way. As for whether you want them in your game, the answer is an unqualified yes.

There are several reasons for this. Most importantly, PBEM games have an infamously high rate of player turnover. Players come and players go. Having lurkers gives you a pool of people who are familiar with your game, the setting, and any ongoing plots, and who have already demonsrated that they are interested in it. The first place you should look for new players is among the lurkers. They are like an untapped oil reserve in a place without any cute animals or environmental busybodies: treasure them.

Another side benefit of lurkers is that they are impartial observers. Are you wondering whether Megadude is getting out of hand? Do you feel that you might be handling the arguments between Yarn Man and the Visible Girl poorly? Ask a couple of lurkers. They aren't personally involved, and they are as familiar with the situation as the players are.

If you don't like what they say, you can always ignore it, but at least you have an impartial springboard off of which to bounce ideas. A benefit you may not ever need, but that you will be grateful for if you do, is that lurkers are sort of like an off-site backup.

Most of them will probably just delete the game posts after they read them, but if you have a lot of lurkers, there is a good chance that a couple of them will save the game posts, at least for a while.

This means that if your computer crashes, you have a better chance of recovering lost game informaton if you have lurkers. It may never come up, but if it does you'll be glad you have them around. Sadly, some GMs just don't realize how beneficial lurkers are.

From time to time you'll see advertisements for PBEM games which include a warning like this:. Crush your enemies, conquer land and rise to the ruler of a mighty empire! Also play Daily Hidden Object which is an addicting hidden object game in which you need to find all 16 hidden items in each scene. So this is the perfect game for you. Round Games. Search for: Go. New Games. Poppy Playtime Survival. Word Wonders. Shape Switch. Winter Adventure.

Home Pipe Water Puzzle. Pet Pop. Car ZigZag 3D. Move The Pin. Sky Roller. Freddy Run 3. Crossing The Ice. Zombie Last Castle 3. Sand Sort Puzzle. Jump Ball Adventures. Super Drive Ahead. Boat Drift. Block Breaker. You can choose your opponent instead of picking from a list in a room. Besides gaming, you can send messages through the game and keep in touch a little more often.

Do I or my opponents need to sign up first? No, a new 'profile' is automatically created when a new email address is used. The address is sent information about the profile, how to change passwords and such.

What is a profile? A 'profile' is the collection of information we have about a player. Initially it is blank except an email address and an assigned password. No other information is required to play. We encourage you to read our privacy statement. Can I play from more than one email address? Yes, simply edit your profile by signing in to your My Profile page and then add addresses.

What I have found from my experiences in both playing and running PBEMs is that there are three general "styles" of PBEM that dictate how rules, resolution and interaction are handled between players and the game environment. One important, immediate thing to realise is that in PBEMs, personal small unit tactical combat using dice resolution for every action is generally very, very rare.

A tactical PBEM consists of a game where players submit a series of orders usually on a simultaneous deadline, but they can be on a round-robin basis as well. These games tend towards more tactical and management styles of games. Email replies for this style of game are usually personal and contain information that would be "of use to the enemy. Players submit a series of orders.

Such as "Move unit 6 north six miles, engage any enemies" or "Week one attempt to join the East Anglian Regiment, Week two if I am in a regiment train, if not carouse.

How should players describe their action, in a way that does not mess with the story? Story in these games tends to happen in part by resolution from the GM, but also between turns via public forum, email, etc.

The golden rule for this style of game is "don't interact in a way that will contract any possible actions. The GM will resolve all orders for this style of game, sometimes using a program to manage the orders automatically and spit out the results sheets.

This is a reasonably easy type of PBEM to manage mechanically as all orders are well defined and interactions have black and white results as long as the rules set holds up! As mentioned there are even programs to do this, to the point where the GM can just collect the orders and stuff them into a program to resolve it all for them.

Manual mechanical systems however can take a lot of time for a GM to resolve. Stars is an example of a program-run PBEM. These sorts of PBEM usually have no mechanics rules at all and typically focus on a single character per player. The game rules generally boil down to three crucial laws for the game world.

These games are story based games and entirely fluff driven; players in the game write stories about their characters in the setting provided and managed by the GM. The players typically have control only of their own character. Where two characters interact, players either communicate directly via email to determine resolution and agree on something or try to predict the responses from the other player and leave placeholders in their stories so that the other players can respond from their character, subject to law 2.

Email replies in this game are usually to an open forum or mailing list so everyone can follow what is going on. Character sheets for this style of game may have no mechanics or statistics at all on them and indeed usually don't , just description and background.

Players write stories and describe what their characters are doing. Enjoyment comes from crafting a well written saga rather than slaying billion orcs. Usual focus is on character development. An example slice might be:. Trendar looked out over the shattered remains of the town and shook his head sadly, they had been too late, the enemy had destroyed their home and everyone they knew. He looked to his friend and companion, Eric the Grey. The stories and replies are usually somewhat more expanded than this!

Note that the GM may not even interact with players once they get going and this can be ideal; two or more characters follow off on a thread together on an epic quest and create a story together.