Looking for Players for Pbem, 1927 Call of Cthulhu

[Peter@BattleScape]

Disseminate as needed old boy
The Colonel

[Etranger]

Hi all,

The first posts should be hitting your email boxes around now. Have a read of them and I'll sentthe next batch in a couple of days. Let me know if nothing has arrived and I'll resend.

Cheers, ET

[bc99]

Good stuff, I got the e-mails. Looking forward to this.

On a side note, as a birthday gift to myself, I bought the 30th anniversary edition of CoC...

woo hooo!

[isaanmini]

Excellent work so far.
I was uncomfortable with the old Parhoonian.Your handling of the dear old fart and his dreams is an excellent example of clever and sensitive keeping/keepering?
I look forward to the next emails dropping through the aether.
By the way,I was reading an old family diary the other day and came accross an entry about an uncle Randolph, who seems to have had some odd ideas about slipping these earthly bonds, whatever that means.
Barty

[Etranger]

That would be 'Dreamlands'...........

Slight holdup folks. I've had the manflu all weekend so stats won't be finished for 1-2 days. In the meantime I'll be posting some more reading for you. 

[Etranger]

Post 3 has gone out this evening. Let me know if you don't receive it.

[Etranger]

Updated character sheets should be in your email inboxes!

[Doug ex-em4]

I'm planning an email rpg/skirmish game for 2 or 3 players and I wonder if you'd care to give an insight into how you are handling the mechanics of this game...?

I've done a competitive game via email with players struggling against each other but the one I'm planning now is a cooperative one. Do you get your players to decide on their actions between themselves by email and then notifying you as a group or do they all tell you their intentions directly? Or a mixture?


Doug

[Etranger]

I'm planning an email rpg/skirmish game for 2 or 3 players and I wonder if you'd care to give an insight into how you are handling the mechanics of this game...?

I've done a competitive game via email with players struggling against each other but the one I'm planning now is a cooperative one. Do you get your players to decide on their actions between themselves by email and then notifying you as a group or do they all tell you their intentions directly? Or a mixture?


Doug

I'll try. For me, cooperative PBEM games are like writing a book with multiple authors, with everyone making a contribution. I act as the principal author and editor, with the others submitting their actions and dialogue appropriate to their character in response to the situation. I start by developing each players character, in conjunction with the player, so that they have 'ownership' of that character, their background and personality. Then I develop the Introduction, send it off and await responses.

Once there is an agreed action (or more likely a series of events) then I'll release the next 'Game Post', summarising what has actually happened since the last game post. If the players have split up into 2 or more groups, as is currently the case, then each group will follow a different plot line until they can meet up again in the game and compare experiences. Obviously this works best if the players only post via me so that I can limit the story arc to those characters in that arc & the others proceed along independently. That's not an issue if the players remain in 1 group though.

Otherwise I'm happy for the players to discuss thngs between themselves but the 'official' storyline stems from what they feed back to me. I prefer individual players to interact with me as well as with each other, as I can get a feel for what they're thinking. I can then write an 'agreed narrative' which is the final story. That also allows me to handle interactions with NPCs, outside events, add in clues and red herrings and either keep the player on track, or if necessary go right off the track!  Also if players miss a post or two then I can handle their character as a NPC.

Depending upon what is happening in the story the elapsed game time between Game Posts could be a few seconds (if there's a fight) or a week or more (research in a library). I try to put out GPs frequently, although that also depends both upon the real world and just how much work I need to put into each GP. Currently there are 4 story arcs so there's a lot for me to do!

Hope that helps. I make a lot of this up as I go along!


Chaps - post 6 belatedly went out today. Should be in your inboxes.

[Doug ex-em4]

Etranger

Thanks for that; I have a similar attitude to this to you and your summary is very interesting.

I make a lot of this up as I go along!

That sounds like excellent advice...


Doug