How to Run a Play-by-Email Game

The following dialogue between the co-authors of this web site is included here as a guide to running successful PBEM games. Of course, nothing written here is meant as gospel truth...but rather is merely advice born out of personal experience.

What is the best way to design the plot line for a PBEM game?

SCOTT: In many ways, you design a play-by-email campaign in just the same way you design one for table-top. You start
by selecting a setting, deciding what kind of story you want to tell, tailoring plot twist for the types of characters your players
will use, and creating background information (history, maps, political networks). The big difference actually comes when you
sit down to create the individual scenes.

CHAD: Sometimes you do not have knowledge of the characters or their history before you design the plot line, however.
PBEM games are ideal for this case, because you have a significant amount of time to adjust or add to your adventure and
incorporate these things into it. However, do not feel that you have to tie in every single element into your campaign. You
might want to save something for future adventures with this group!

What makes running scenes in PBEM different from table-top?

SCOTT: Remember, the pacing of a PBEM game is very different: your whole group deals with only a few 'moves' per week
(3 or more is considered 'fast'), and there is never any real-time interaction between characters or between the players and
GM. As a result, the scenes you create for your players must be both specific (to give them full background information about
what they see and what they can possibly do) and very general and flexible (you'll never be able to predict everything your players will want to try, so stay loose and adapt to their characters' actions).

CHAD: A large part of what makes a successful scene in an online game revolves around the players, not just the
Gamemaster. As a GM, you must make this clear. Make certain that your players give contingencies ("what if's"). For
example, if the characters are trying to open a ceiling door 15 meters up, Horin the mindwalker might say, "if Kass fails his
climb attempt to reach and force the door, he will try using his psychokinesis." As a GM, if Kass does succeed, then you
move on--if not, you don't have to wait for more actions. Waiting kills the majority of PBEM games.

SCOTT: I definitely agree with the comment about waiting. It is essential to give your PBEM game a sense of proper pacing.
The problem isn't so much taking time between resolving 'game moves' as taking more time than players expect. If sometimes
you wait only 36 hours between posting 'game moves' but other times six days, your players might get turned off by the uneven
timing. An agreed pacing between GM and players is best--for example, 'one game move every 48 hours' or 'game moves will be resolved on Tuesdays and Thursdays'.

How detailed should individual scenes be?

SCOTT: It is okay to design scenes that investigate buildings or dungeons or whatever, just don't try to force the characters to
follow a detailed grid-map like you would in a table-top game. If you do, the game flow will drag to a halt since each 'move'
takes a couple of days real-life time. Instead, create a loose 'virtual environment' for the characters:

    "You're in a vast city. The northern district appears to
    be residential, with tall apartment towers. The eastern section
    contains the local government building, seat of the Magistrate Duras.
    The western district contains just about any kind of shop you could want
    to visit, including a gigantic underground shopping mall. The southern
    section is dominated by the city spacesport and transportation hub.
    What part of the city do you want to check out first?"

Granted, this is a very simplistic summary and you might want to give your players more details about the sections. Still, it
gives the players a tremendous flexibility in terms of options (four different sections, each with different features) while not
bogging down in micro-movement ("Okay, your slowest party member can only walk 4 kilometers in an hour. This move is
only one hour, so your party is half-way to the magistrate's office.").

CHAD: I agree, it is fine to have a very detailed map, and in many cases you might prefer it. Dungeon crawls are very
difficult to run in a PBEM format because of the pace the game takes on. A better option might be to send the characters a
map of Jabba's Dungeon that they got from a local trader on Tatooine, and have them plan how they are going to rescue their
friend. You don't want to have a case where you're posting, "Room 2b: you face 4 more of Jabba's guards. Actions?"

How should I get players for my PBEM game?

SCOTT: It is best to recruit from players you know, especially friends whom you can count on to contribute to your game
frequently and reliably. Additionally, if you recruit from friends you already have a good idea of the kinds of characters they
will play. It is possible to drum up new players from online bulletin boards or list services, but you take a big risk. Sometimes
new players sound very interested and able, but once they join your game they turn out to be flakey or just plain weird.

CHAD: Friends are easily the best resource, because if they are not playing to the quality you need then you can always
harass them (which may or may not help). I would also mention that friends of friends are probably better than simple bulletin
boards (which should be your last resort). If you're short a couple PCs, ask the players you already have if they know anyone
else who would be interested.

SCOTT: On the other hand, if you don't have any personal friends who are gamers then you will have to look elsewhere for
players. One possible idea is to get involved yourself playing in a PBEM game, and then recruit those players when that game
ends. There are several active bulletin boards for finding games and players. Again, we don't vouch for the quality of the
people you will find on them, but they are a potential resource for you to use at your own risk:

Irony Game's PBEM List
Wizards of the Coast (TSR) Message Boards

How can I tell who is a good player and who is a bad player?

SCOTT: This is another advantage of choosing people you know as players--hopefully you'll already know if they are smart,
creative, and reliable. Whenever you recruit blind (from chat rooms, bulletin boards, or whatever), you take a risk. I once
recruited a new player blind for a STAR WARS campaign which I clearly described as "based entirely and solely on the
movies." The new player corresponded with me for days, started learning the game system, and even e-mailed me her
character--and after all that, she insisted that this character had to be a space vampire. Yes, in one of the myriad STAR
WARS novels a passing character shown in Episode IV is revealed as a space vampire, but that required far more information
than what was available in the movie. This showed that she couldn't follow even my simplest instructions and would probably
be quarrelsome. Obviously, I declined to include her in my game.

CHAD: Often it is difficult to tell. Generally if people don't respond to you as often as you plan on posting moves in the
game, then they will not work out well. Also, people who don't listen to your directions are usually very bad news. If you
post on a message board "No mindwalkers" and someone sends you a diplomat/mindwalker, they probably are not that
great a player. One method I have not yet tried, but probably will the next time I run a game is to have a test. Make a
series of questions for people to answer and take the best ones. Maybe have them make a few test postings as well to see
if they understand how to post using contingencies, which will be crutial to the flow of your game.

SCOTT: Writing ability is also another good indication of the worth of a player. Granted, you can't expect every player you
recruit for your PBEM games to be a master of the English language (especially since so many Gamemasters running the games
out there are hardly William Shakespeare themselves). However, if a person e-mails you a request to join your game filled
with many spelling and grammar errors or incomprehensible sentences, just imagine how painful their game messages would be
for the other players to read. Chad has a great example of this from one of his AD&D PBEM games set in Andar. He recruited a number of new players from a bulletin board, hoping for the best. One of the new recruits played a mage who
consistently chose the most idiotic spells to use at the most idiotic times (like picking a fight with a red dragon). This kind of
foolishness could be endearing in a well-played character, but the player wrote painfully lengthy run-on sentences with badly
misused words in poorly structured e-mails. As a fellow player in that game, I usually just skimmed his messages rather than
try to read them, responding as best as I could based on the few discernable actions in his cloudy text. As GM, do yourself
and your players a favor--make sure everyone possesses at least basic writing ability.

How much work goes into managing a PBEM game?

SCOTT: This is perhaps the most important question. The pace you set for your game is crucial. It has been my experience
that if you let the pacing drag, the game usually fails. You need to check your e-mail almost every day in order to respond
to player questions and provide additional information through your NPC characters. Even in-between the big 'moves' which
you write out for your players a certain number of times each week, you will need to interact with them more (and sometimes
privately, if the characters are being sneaky) on a day-to-day basis. If you take many days to get back to your players, they
will likely stop asking questions or doing anything inventive with their characters and the game will quickly become a series of
short, flat, boring moves.

There is no set number of major 'moves' that you should run each week. I've played in some good games that did only one per
week. However, I have found that the best games do one 'move' every two or three days (provided your players are active
enough). Basically, you write a 'move' for your players explaining the result of their previous actions, detailing new information,
and presenting new locations and options. You then need to give the players at least a day or two to write each other,
role-play their characters, and suggest new actions. Ideally, the players correspond multiple times, negotiate with each other,
and decide their final actions accordingly. PBEM games that try to do more than 3 'moves' per week seem rushed and
role-playing suffers; games that do 'moves' less frequently than once a week drag and usually end up losing players.

What is the best way to handle problems with players?

SCOTT: Whatever you do, don't power-trip on your players. That is the surest way to get them to quit on you and ruin your
hard-planned campaign. Remember, just because this is e-mail and you can't see the players doesn't mean they get any less
angry. Even if you disagree with their viewpoints, you have to grant your players the right to be upset. Let them air their
complaints, try to sympathize with their feelings even if you have no intention of changing anything. I have often found that
letting a player vent is the best way to get him to see that he is being foolish. By and large, you should do as much of this as
possible through private e-mails. No sense on forcing all players to deal with the problem unless it affects all of them.

When should a PBEM game come to a close?

SCOTT: Ideally, you decide the game's closing point in advance when you design the campaign. You write out a story line,
create a series of plot points, run the sequence of scenes, and build up to a climactic ending. Generally, your climax scene
should be the high-point of the game, the most important and exciting. It may also be the longest, or you could make it quick
and dirty. Whatever you do, don't try to drag a game out longer than player interest will support. Be flexible on this. Yeah,
maybe you have 14 plot points and you wanted to do 7 major scenes, but if after the fifth scene your players are going AWOL
or aren't writing interesting in-character game messages then you might want to consider wrapping it up early. Jump a scene.
Combine a few plot-points together into one. End while there is still active player interest.

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