PBEM Brainstorm

[Buddha Nature]

Okay for the last day or two I have been trying to think up a good way of running a PBEM game - it would be system-lite/less and would make a good story.  Specifically I wanted to run it with a group of friends in George R R Martin's world of Westeros.

Players would take on the roles of different houses (either on their own or in pairs/threes, etc).  They would also take on roles of a few different characters within the house.

How things would "play out" would be through letters and journals.  They would be written from their character's POV's and would speak to the occurances of their lives.

Now my query was towards how could I get those who had writer's block (or just were unsure of their ideas) to come up with interesting occurances.  What I figured was through suggestions from the players - two or three each and then everyone would choose the ones they wanted (round robin style) and work them into their letters/journals.

The "ideas" would be fairly general - a knight is killed mysteriously before the battle, information is leaked to an enemy, a betrayal occurs, etc.  Basically "Bangs" created by the players and used by them.  They would also have to range from epic (a battle fails in a rout), to the personal (a wife is found to be unfaithful).

I am not sure if I will do this PBEM or forum-based, but I was wondering if anyone had other thoughts on this - specifically "system-wise" - the mechanisms and such.

Thanks in advance!

-Shane

[Jonathan Walton]

A Couple Suggestions:

Look at "De Profundis" (from Hogshead's New Style line) if you haven't already (you probably have, judging from the content of your game, but I'm just making sure...)

I came to the Forge because I was interested in designing specifically for a PBeM format, and started this thread: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=3570  It's got a pretty thorough discussion of some of the issues facing PBeM games, though it's definitely not exhaustive.

Also, could you be more specific about what kind of system you're thinking about constructing?  Your post sounds like you're saying, "Here's my idea, now tell me what I should do with it."  That's kinda hard to respond to.  If you can be more precise (is this going to be pretty freeform or are you looking for a system tailored for PBeM?  how detailed do you want the system to be?  what kind of play/writing do you want the system to encourage?  etc.), it'd be easier to know how to help you out.

[Buddha Nature]

I was afraid of sounding like that (here's my idea...) and apologize if I did.  I am planning on looking at De Profundis, but I wanted to know (since you have read it) does it give any good general ideas, or are they all Cthulhu specific?

I guess I am more working on a framework for this style of play.  Something I know the players are going to wonder about is "fairness" - they are coming from standard RPG fare.  I figured the round robin style will lead to everyone getting something they want and something they don't want.

In addition to this I am thinking about using the 36 plots and either assigning or allowing the players to choose one and point their week's letter/journal in that direction.

There is more to my thinking, I am just having a bit of trouble getting it out right now...

-Shane

[Jonathan Walton]

De Profundis has a ton of good stuff about letter-based games, of both the PBM and PBeM variety.  The game itself is intended for horror writing, but the format it describes could be adopted for anything.

So it sounds like you want some system to tie all of this together but aren't really sure what you want that to be.  Are you just organizing this game, or are you expecting to run it as some sort of quazi-GM?  Are you participating and writing letters/journal entries as well?  It makes something of a difference if you're responding to their actions or focusing more on your own character.

I still don't really get what the players are supposed to do.  Are they supposed to write bits of the same story using the same characters?  Do they have a character that's specifically "their own" that they are focusing on?  Are they taking turns writing these things?  What happens if people post at the same time with contradictory story bits?  Is the setting sword & sorcery or historical or what?  I suppose you're writing based on this Westeros setting, but I've never read the books.  What kinds of themes are important to telling these kinds of stories?  What kinds of structures do they have?

I think if you're trying to recreate the feel of specific literature, you're going to have to have some guidelines in place to support and encourage players to write in the same vein.  If you can help me understand just what vein that is, I might be able to suggest some places for you to start.

It also sounds like you might just want to take some time and think a bit.  It's cool that you're excited about making this work, but if you want it to work well, it might take some time to set up.  PBeM games are notorious for lasting one or two months and then bombing because of the GM/Players getting tired and unresponsive or just because the game has no internal support.  If you want yours to be a survivor, it'll take some thinking.  But if you're just interested in playing around a bit with some of your friends, just go for it.  It probably won't last that long, but having some cheap, simple fun is never a bad thing either.

[Bob McNamee]

The indie-netgamers are having a cool Shogun-style Soap game over e-mail. (edit-the messages should be in the group message area still)
Soap's Sentence format---
Where?
What?
Words?
make it work really well in Text formats like e-mail and chat.

produces neat little scene snippets

[Buddha Nature]

You might be right that it might work Bob (so I bought it), but I am also looking to put together something a bit bigger and more in depth.  As I said above I am working on an outline to setting up a system for (in the end) anyone to use.  I am looking for it to be game/collaborative storytelling system that uses a forum as its medium in order to create great big epic stories.  If I remember from the free copy of Soap I read a  long time back each player only played one player and it went in a round robin system - which could make things difficult if someone was out for a bit.

I am also kind of experimenting with using a forum system as a new RP medium and am trying to tailor it to fit the game (system does matter).

Also I plan to pick up De Profundis (if wizard attic's site will work correctly) to get some more ideas.

I want this to be something new so that I can help others in a similar situation as I am - fill a niche as it were.  I am making some serious headway on it currently and will post more when I can.

-Shane

[Buddha Nature]

Okay folks, here is a rough overview of my forum game system - specifically tuned toward Westeros and probably using this same forum engine - phpBB:

http://www.cryptio.net/~shane/Westeros-Game-Outline.html

Briefly for those who have not read the books (you should!) it is a fantasy world but the fantasy is very toned down and is mostly just the tale of feudal houses fighting others for the crown, with some monsters and such tossed in every now and then.

Anyway, the idea would be that players would have weekly and monthly posting obligations.  Early in the week everyone will toss out things that could/should happen in someone's post (pseudo-Bangs), then everyone will choose three (going around round robin) to include in their post (and yes they may include more).  Also in the first half of the week houses should put holds on characters in the stable of characters (central casting) that they plan on using that week.  In the later half everyone else is free to create new characters or use unheld ones (as long as it is logically/physically possible), but this is done anonymously so as not to tip anyone off as to what might be happening.

The post will be built out of these elements (possibly after taking input from other members of the house or even outside the house) and will be in letter or journal format and everyone will be able to read them.

The weekly posts should also point towards and end with the Monthly Plot - each month people will choose from a subset of the 36 classic plots.

What I am trying to do with this is give people enough freedom to do what they want to do, but enough structure so they don't feel scared.

-Shane

[Buddha Nature]

Here are some more instructions:

http://www.cryptio.net/~shane/Westeros-Forum.html

So here is a question - do you think that this is all assuming a lot by way of the maturity of the players - that there is so much freedom for them to do whatever they want?  Or do you think some kind of mechanic needs to be built into the system in order to create some kind of level playing field (like Universalis' Coin mechanic)?  Maybe some kind of voting mechanic might be needed?  Maybe downvotes would show that poorly acting players were not helping things?

-Shane

PS: Sorry about the funky stuff in the html, it is Word's export issues.

[Buddha Nature]

Anyone with Wiki experience think that this would work better with that kind of system?

-Shane