<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif">Hi, this isn't Scott but I am one of his players. Just wanted you to know that for some reason your email is posting as sent on 8/25/2007 so it might not show up where Scott would notice it if he has a lot of emails. Just caught this because I was on at the time.<BR><BR>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif">----- Original Message ----<BR>From: "logicmage@comcast.net" <logicmage@comcast.net><BR>To: The Powers and Perils Mailing List <pnp@abroere.xs4all.nl><BR>Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 7:09:35 PM<BR>Subject: Re: [PnP] New Players Wanted<BR><BR>
<DIV>Scott,</DIV>
<DIV>I think I would like to try to join you this time. I missed out on the last one because i had other things going on. Do you have another method of contacting you for this do idont clog up this, and what do you need from me to start?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Wes</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message -------------- <BR>From: Scott Adams <longshot@darktech.org> <BR><BR>> At 12:29 PM 8/24/07, you wrote: <BR>> >For those of us who don't know, could you explain what your PBEM Adventure is <BR>> and how you run it? i.e. How do you run it? Do you use direct voice <BR>> communication over ICQ or some other program or do you meet in a chatroom or <BR>> something? <BR>> <BR>> A PBEM is Play By Email. In old days it was Play by Echomail. <BR>> I've run PBEM games since the '80s on my BBS. Its done by email or rather a <BR>> mailing list just like this one. It would be highly difficult to do via direct <BR>> voice or chat room. Due to time zones. We have one player in Alaska and the <BR>> other in Europe. We are taking what? 12 hours. Hard to arrange such a game. I <BR>> do chat live almost nightly
with 2 players via IC! Q and t hat's fine for questions <BR>> and actions. <BR>> <BR>> Thanks to Wout I use a mailing list which is just like this one goes out to <BR>> everyone in the game and I get and post actions from it or private email. I do <BR>> 2 Updates a week due to my and other schedules. I work on game updates Monday <BR>> and Thursday night for Monday (technically Monday though Tuesday) and Friday <BR>> releases. I could arrange a chat session I'm sure but again arranging such <BR>> schedules would be difficult. This is why PBEMs are nice in that regard. You <BR>> can read and reply to the posts at your leisure. Some folks tend to be more <BR>> active than others so theres plenty of things going on to keep it active most <BR>> times. <BR>> I tend to run it Free Form in between adventures allowing you to do things you <BR>> want and these periods could be 3 months between adventures (game time). Most
<BR>> use it to get expertise in skills and spells ! or buil d ranches or such :) Then <BR>> for the actual adventures I tend to move the game as a GM from part to part. <BR>> This has to be done as if I allow folks to do what they want they could spend an <BR>> afternoon in a tavern carousing and brawling in a table game that could take <BR>> 5-10 min but in a pbem that could take 5-10 weeks. So I move the party usually <BR>> with npc help from part to part and it seems to work fine. <BR>> <BR>> There are good and bad parts to PBEMS. Table games allow for fast play a month <BR>> of game tme might last a afternoon session. But in a table ame a month could be <BR>> 3-4 months of real time. Table games allow for good voices and the role playing <BR>> aspect but in a PBEM your telling a story and introspection, dialogue, scene <BR>> description and other aspects can be 10-20x more detailed than in a table game. <BR>>
So in the end its almost like reading a story book rather than some emails. I'm <BR>&g! t; no w riter but I have fun doing it. <BR>> <BR>> As a player you only do actions for your character. Who do you fight? What do <BR>> you say? What spells to cast? What dialogue to say. <BR>> <BR>> As GM I do all the rolls and then give the results in a Update for all to see. <BR>> Aside from maybe some secret emals on secret actions. <BR>> <BR>> I have a game website that shows all the updates and some refernece material. <BR>> Like right now i have 2 images of the bad guys recently encountered. Maps, <BR>> reference materials like treasure or people. Etc. <BR>> <BR>> We are more or less based in Marentia. <BR>> Adventure #1 was in Clima and lasted 6-7 years. The reason for the length is <BR>> one player didn't understand the rules and argued alot and finally separated <BR>> from the party only to die later
myseriously. Also had a lot of other problems <BR>> in life at the time. <BR>> <BR>> Adventure #2 was in the Zen'da plains! (Ga'fe l) with the home tribe of one of the <BR>> old players investigating some possible war invasion plans by L'p'nth and Bova <BR>> and a vampire and his minions. This one only lasted 20 months. <BR>> <BR>> Adventure #3 currently takes place in the Pavassa forest another homeland of a <BR>> player character and some visions from #2 about the forest dying leading to <BR>> various Campaign aspects. This one is 98% over and started last December so <BR>> only 9-10 months. <BR>> <BR>> As you can see I've shortened the length. It does require some time for players <BR>> to get used to the length. In game terms the entire 3 adventures took about 2 <BR>> years in game time. (1.5 I think). But the nice thing about PBEMs is you can <BR>> come and go when you need to. If your on vacation others
can do stuff while you <BR>> are in npc mode or plan your future actions. Or you might bow out of some <BR>> adventure and join later. That's all fine by m! e. <BR>> <BR>> Adventure #4 and 5 will continue the Campaign aspects intially started in #2 and <BR>> will be in other lands. :) <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> Currently we have 10 Characters playing. Since I've had 17 before (all active <BR>> posting daily back in the day in my Gamma World PBEM - which I'm still known for <BR>> in some circles :)) 10 is no big deal. <BR>> 1 Druid/Elf, 1 Bard, 3 warriors, 1 shaman, 1 Faerry, 5 are magic-users. <BR>> But likely Faerry and 1 MU will not be in #4 as they bow out for side things in <BR>> their characters. <BR>> <BR>> I accept anything but as you can see 50% are MUs and the Bard and Druid are the <BR>> first v2 I've used this adventure. I am using v2 rules and each time I look at <BR>> the rules seem to learn
something new as I've not read it cover to cover yet. <BR>> <BR>> I don't mind the race mix as where the party tends to travel its not a problem. <BR>> Now in #5 it could be a issue ;) That'! ll be f un. :) <BR>> <BR>> How I run it? Well I allow folks to role play something even table games have <BR>> gotten away from. It comes down to fun rather than worrying about tedious rules <BR>> and such. Some players only need to read the update (5-10 min max - 20 min a <BR>> week!). Course I do bulk of the work since some combat can take 3-4 hours I <BR>> spend some 4-8 hours a week on the game. I'm in ICQ nightly so can take <BR>> questions. <BR>> But int he end I am a Balance guy. I don't go out of my way to kill characters <BR>> unless you do something stupid. "So you really want to run REALLY REALLY FAST <BR>> over that lava so you can get to the gold chest right?" Stuff like that. As <BR>> characters get better and
better and this group certainly has I have to balance <BR>> it with making it more tougher and tougher missions. Some like toys with tons <BR>> of magical toys and protections so they don't fail in actions or spells. But I > balance it in various aspects by making it possible to fail even with toys. <BR>> Nothing is a sure thing. But those who may only have a dagger and loin cloth <BR>> may be lucky compared to the person with plate and magical armor. The loin <BR>> cloth dude is balanced by bravery and luck compared to toys. I don't go out of <BR>> my way to target the plate mail guy but I don't make it easy either :) If you <BR>> understand. This last combat we almost lost 2 characters but one lived by luck <BR>> and the other by a npc's magic. Close but b! <BR>> alanced. <BR>> Think of it this way if a person with 30 magical items, armor and wepaons is <BR>> standing by a guy with no magical items the prson with
magic is a bulls-eye for <BR>> magic sensing/mana sensing creatures and thus the more "powerful" and thus a <BR>> target. With great power comes great responsibility (oh dear will I get sued by <BR>> Stan lee for that?). Balance. <BR>> But in th! e end I try to have fun. <BR>> <BR>> In the end check out my game site. Proof is in the pudding. <BR>> Check out the work. The first 10 or so links at the top detail what a pbem is, <BR>> faq, how to join and other things like campaign summary. detailed player/npc <BR>> descriptions among other stuff. <BR>> <BR>> Then check out some typical actions from players then my updates. Pick 1 or 2 <BR>> regular updates and then see how a combat update is done. That's how its done. <BR>> Then if further questions ask them. <BR>> <BR>> Maybe my players will chime in here and complain..err I mean glorify me! (right <BR>> players?). <BR>> <BR>> <A
href="http://www.funport.com/longshot/pbem" target=_blank>www.funport.com/longshot/pbem</A> <BR>> <BR>> It has adv#2's site there. #1 is archived and is over 1 meg of text which would <BR>> be about a 800 page novel :) <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> _______________________________________________ <BR>> pnp mailing list > pnp@abroere.xs4all.nl <BR>> <A href="http://abroere.xs4all.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pnp" target=_blank>http://abroere.xs4all.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pnp</A> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></div><br>
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