8.1 KiB
Title: Play By Email Games Description: bss's thoughts, guidelines, and etc. on playing "tabletop" roleplaying games over email.
Play By Email Games
I'm providing some notes (still in draft form) for plans and procedures on playing RPGs over email. This is meant, for the moment at least, to be an organization of what I'm thinking will work, to see if others will think it'll work too. ~bss
Timing
PBEM is a great format because it allows a variety of players in different timezones and of different availabilities to play a game together, but PBEM is tougher because it can take weeks to accomplish something that might otherwise take an hour. I think the most effective way to keep the game moving is regular posting to keep the action moving. A good posting cadence might be every few days, hopefully no more than once a week?
Updates
Of course, half of the fun is having the space to write to a desireble length in one post and let the game play out between what you present and the others' reaction to that post. We just need to make sure the focus is on action. These are some guidelines (not rules) that I think make sense.
First: describe your character in terms of the actions they take.
You should frame your updates in terms of what your character does. Internal monologues and scene setting are welcome (encouraged, in fact), but in the end, the update for the rest of the players is what is happening, not merely what your character sees or thinks. This gives the group something to riff off of and respond to or use to consider their next action. Worry less about the game terms for doing a thing, and just do the thing. Or...
Second: ask questions if the details matter, but don't let them stop the action.
If you need more information, or a ruling to be made, ask, but see if you can provide contingent actions based on the expected results, where appropriate. This is just to save time of back and forth. Feel free to update with a modest set of options, e.g. "if the dragon rears to attack, I quickly jump behind the pile of treasure next to me, but if it chooses to negotiate, I would like to take a diplomatic tone." "If that awning looks like it'd be possible for me to reach, I'll jump up there, spending effort if I need to, but if it seems impossible I'll run around the corner." Or whatever.
Third: if the details don't matter yet, embellish, but also embrace "yes, but".
If a minor NPC is a valuable (or maybe even trivial) addition to your post, add them and write how they respond. I don't need to get in the way of that, and I consider world-building to be a collaborative thing. Describe something noteworthy in the marketplace, elaborate on the manner or demeanor of the people in the street, or have a merchant agree to common terms on the cost of normal items. This too keeps the game moving, and gives more in the world to react to (or have react to you). Just don't go overboard.
Fourth: I reserve the right to make a basic, but reasonable, action for idle characters in combat.
For most out-of-combat situations, it's easy to assume that any players not taking an action are happy to go along with the flow, so if players are quiet for a bit, the action still progresses. In combat, however, charaters doing nothing can disturb the narrative and the gameplay, so if it's been days (or a week?) since a post and we're in combat, I may take a reasonable action for your character to keep the game moving.
Post Format
I don't want to make posting updates arduous; getting the post out there is the important part. I think some guidelines will help, however.
First: out-of-character questions, updates, etc. in brackets ([]).
Describing action should be done in paragraphs with no specific formatting. Dialogue should be in quotation marks. Out
of character information, questions, mechanical stuff, however, should be in paragraphs enclosed in [ and ].
Example:
Having dodged the dragon's terrible acid breath, Croma is undeterred by the
assault and charges forward, broadsword primed over his shoulder, yelling
a challenge. When he reaches the dragon, he swings down, focused, perhaps
overconfidently, on decapitating it in one blow.
"I swore that I would return with your head as a trophy!"
[This is a pretty tough dragon, right? I think I'm going to use two
levels of Effort on this just to make sure, and as a reminder I am skilled
in "making reckless attacks", which I think this qualifies as? Either way,
a Might-based attack, and I don't know the difficulty so I'll let you roll
it.]
Second: if you are quoting a post, post your reply below the quote; everything should read in order from the top of the post.
AKA "bottom-posting", put your reply or continuaton of thought below the text you are responding to, so that it reads logically without scrolling to the bottom to find the context. Try to chop the post to its specific context as well, when possible, to reduce the amount of quoted text people have to reread. Example:
> When he reaches the dragon, he swings down, focused, perhaps
> overconfidently, on decapitating it in one blow.
[Attacking the dragon is Difficulty 5, but with your Effort and skill, the
7 I rolled for you is just enough.]
Crome's broadsword strikes the dragon's neck soundly, but, surprisingly to
Crome --- and perhaps no one else --- the dragon's head is *not* severed,
and it reflexively lashes back in pain, knocking Crome back on his feet
next to the dragon. A bit of acid drips from the dragon's open wound, but
it looks angered and committed to continuing the fight.
Third: reply to the existing thread whenever possible.
Mail clients that do threading of posts make it easy to collect emails by subject, and can result in a nice tree view of the proceedings. Generally, a new scene warrants a new top post with a new subject, but otherwise updates within that scene should usually be replies to the most recent or relevant post in the thread.
Fourth: if you have an out of character update or question or so on, start a new thread starting with "OOC:"
If you have a question or update for the group --- you have a question about a rule or character option, or maybe you're letting the group know you'll be on vacation for a week --- rather than complicating the gameplay with a tangent, make a new thread and start the subject with "OOC: ". In OOC threads, the rest of the formatting guidelines don't really matter --- they're just emails.
Rolling Dice
Personally, I think I'm good with the honor system. If you know the parameters of the roll and are ready to roll, make the roll yourself with whatever tool you prefer and tell us the result, both in game terms and in narrative terms. (In a Cypher System game, this usually means you know the difficulty of the task you are attempting, are conscious of any Effort you are spending, and are at least fairly confident in the assets, hindrances, and skills in play. Just be okay with being corrected if you are meaningfully off in your calculations.)
You can also just roll if you don't know the target or want to leave the math to me --- again, honor system in both directions. Cypher System rolls are simple d20 rolls, so you could just say (OOC) that you rolled an 8 and leave success/failure to me.
And, as in the example above, if you'd prefer to just leave the whole business to me, that's fine too.
The Mailing List
The mailing list created for a campaign will provide a common point for managing member email addresses, providing some list-specific settings, and automatically archiving our emails. This list, and notably the archive, will be publically viewable. This is advantageous to allow those casually interested to check out the game and potentially become the next player in the game. However, the list will be moderated and only allow the game's players to post to it without review. This is, of course, a spam reduction tactic, but will also help keep the game from drifting off-topic.
My MTA should have a pretty good reputation with providers, but the state of email in 2025 is always on a knife's edge, so mail delivery may have issues from time to time; it's recommended to whitelist/accept/filter-on/etc. the list email address.