...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.
