BattleMaster Community
Toms Other Games => SpellMaster III => SM General Discussion => Topic started by: Nathan on August 06, 2011, 01:16:19 AM
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...I've never played a "play by email" game before. Can someone give me a quick run-down of how it all works?
Who do my emails go to?
How do I keep up-to-date with what everyone else is doing?
Won't I be getting tonnes of emails if there are a lot of players?
Will I get completely out of the loop if I go on holiday for X days?
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...I've never played a "play by email" game before. Can someone give me a quick run-down of how it all works?
Excellent questions. Thanks for asking them. While I've never played SM, I have played numerous email or forum-based roleplaying games. It's not as hard as one might think. :-)
Who do my emails go to?
Usually a mail list or forum. It depends on how we set it up. It could easily be done using a forum like this one. Or it can be a basic listserv where everyone just replies to the list. Regardless, the players all subscribe to the list/forum/whatever and post their roleplays and responses there.
How do I keep up-to-date with what everyone else is doing?
Everyone's posting to the same mail list or forum, so you just read what's been posted. It's really not all that different than logging into BM and reading the messages you get there. The biggest difference is there generally isn't a concept of "turns" where stuff automatically happens. Players post and/or reply whenever they log in. Actually, it's not all that different from playing a priest or adventurer in BM - they're not really tied to the turn changes like regular nobles are - they just do whatever whenever.
Won't I be getting tonnes of emails if there are a lot of players?
Possibly, but it's not normally overwhelming. Again, it depends on how it's set up. Generally it's a good idea to use mail rules or filters (or whatever your mail system supports) to route all the game messages to a folder (or label if you use something like GMail). Conversation threading helps a lot, too. If you see a thread that doesn't involve you or anyone your character knows, you can just skip it. Forums are similar - just subscribe to the threads/topics that are relevant.
Will I get completely out of the loop if I go on holiday for X days?
No more so than you are in BM or any other game. Generally if I know I'm going to be offline or unable to participate for a while, I post a roleplay about my character retreating to his tower for deep contemplation and meditation or something. Send him or her on a long journey or something. Characters need vacations, too you know. ;-)
That does prompt the question: how are we going to do the communication? E-mail? Forum?
Personally, I'd like to see it happen here on a forum. But I'm happy to defer to what the group decides.
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That does prompt the question: how are we going to do the communication? E-mail? Forum?
Personally, I'd like to see it happen here on a forum. But I'm happy to defer to what the group decides.
I think I'd like to see it here, too. But I was accustomed to the mailing list back when we used the RP list and such, and I can certainly appreciate some people now having mobile email access but not yet having good mobile web, so it's not gonna bother me much if we stick with email.
How I believe it worked in the past to keep unnecessary/unwanted emails from flooding people is to have a separate mail list for each of the councils, in addition to the main one for everyone. Council-related RP was conducted to the specific lists that pertained to the council the character was in. I think we could still have this here, with restricted forum access to council forums.
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The original incarnation was done via emails and email distribution lists, later on it moved to forum based, and I would expect the latest version to stick with the forum basis.
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Excellent questions. Thanks for asking them.
Thank you very much for those helpful answers :)
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Didn't we even toy with making it all wiki-based?
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We will be using the forum for communication, and probably the wiki to record things. But I'm looking for suggestions here, or rather: The details will be evolving as we play.
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Not having played the previous incarnations, could I get a rough idea of the involvement necessary?
If I decide to reduce my number of BM characters by one and get a SM character, keeping the same level of involvement, can I expect the same amount of time to be spent?
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The amount is whatever you want it to be.
There are some limitations in the game mechanics to make sure the 24/7 online crowd can't dominate the game (the limits on energy and concentration, for example). Aside from that, if you want to write just a little bit, you absolutely can do that.
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if you want to write just a little bit, you absolutely can do that.
I'm more worried about the amount of reading than the amount of writing. A character can be passive for a while and get involved only when I have time, but if I don't keep abreast of events, then it's harder.
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I'm more worried about the amount of reading than the amount of writing. A character can be passive for a while and get involved only when I have time, but if I don't keep abreast of events, then it's harder.
I'm thinking exactly the same. But I figured I may as well give it a go. If I get a little overwhelmed I can either cut down my involvement in things, stop reading about other people's story lines that don't relate to my own, or take a little break from the game.
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Well, I've just started up 2 major storylines in BM proper, so I probably won't be able to participate much to start out with.
I'd like to be able to lurk for a while, keep more or less abreast of what's going on, and bring in a character later on when things in BM cool down, though.
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I'm eager to see this start. Sounds very interesting.
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I am totally interested! Let's start playing and let the details evolve as it goes!
I am unfamiliar with the old school Spellmaster world so don't know how to go about it.
Would this all be entirely separate from the Battlemaster universe?
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Please hold off until we get some of the basic background up and other little tidbits. It's nearly done, but we're polishing it up a bit for you all. I'm chomping at the bit too, don't worry.
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My question is how do you tie the game mechanics to what is being posted on the forum?
They are 2 difrent accounts.How you tell these accounts belong to the same person.Would quite nasty if someone decided to play as your character.
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My question is how do you tie the game mechanics to what is being posted on the forum?
They are 2 difrent accounts.How you tell these accounts belong to the same person.Would quite nasty if someone decided to play as your character.
Beg pardon?
If you don't want someone to play as your character, don't give them your password.
All the play that matters happens here on the forum, with your forum account clearly visible. The only thing that happens outside of it is the verification that you can cast the spells you specify in your RPs.
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Let me rephrase.How can you tell someone is respecting the numbers on his character page and not just making stuff up?
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Let me rephrase.How can you tell someone is respecting the numbers on his character page and not just making stuff up?
You and I can't. The GMs can.
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Let me rephrase.How can you tell someone is respecting the numbers on his character page and not just making stuff up?
Right now you can't. But when the engine is done, it will add a hashsum to a parsed posting and other player can verify that hashsum.