As most of my RP experience has been online in various text-based forms, I hope I can be of help in clarifying the differences between them. From what I've seen, there's a continuum of text-based RP forms, ranging from the chat-room-based game to the wide range of forms practiced on MU*s through message board-based RPGs and finally to PBEM games... and from there out of RPGs entirely and into shared-world writing groups.

Chat-based RPGs are typically characterized by frequent and very brief posts (typically one sentence or action) and minimal organization as far as who is allowed to post when. The brevity of posts stems from the fact that the medium itself typically limits the length of individual messages to a mere few hundred characters in length. Spontaneous improvisation is a necessity in this form, and players need to be able to post at roughly the same pace for good results. Chat-based RPGs also feature easy access to the GM. It's probably the closest form to what you characterise as "verbal" RPGs.

MU*s are strange in three respects. First, unlike all the other forms, in MU*s the world is either preset or takes deliberate effort to expand. Second, rather than having GMs in the usual sense, they have a council of "wizards" who not only don't deal with the players in a hands-on manner like a normal GM does, but also typically aren't very accessable at all. Finally, they typically allow very long posts, but are also a real-time medium. Because of this last point, RP styles vary wildly from MU* to MU*. Some communities prefer shorter posts at a quicker pace, others long ones at a slower pace. Some have more patience for stopping to think about phrasing, how in-character one is being, and other such considerations, some less. Also, there's usually a distinct "posing order" that's agreed upon by the participants, though the shorter the typical pose gets the less you see such a thing. MU*ing may well be diverse enough to be worth studying in and of itself. Still, part of their unusual nature makes them a bridge between the other forms.

Message board-based RPGs I have no direct experience with, though I do have friends who've played on them. From what I understand, while these aren't real-time, generally the expectation is for posting to be frequent -- often around once a day. Furthermore, in order to compensate for the delay, in this form it's necessary to make long posts. Natural-sounding conversation generally is nowhere to be found in this form because of this limitation. The typical GM reappears and is again accessable, but asking questions of him can cause an appreciable delay. PBEMs, which I've had limited experience with, are much the same but with longer delays, so they and message board RPGs could probably safely be lumped together.

Now, back to lurking... -- Pteryx

Hello,

The above post was split from The four main forms of roleplaying games.

Pteryx, welcome - do take a minute to review the site guidelines posted at the top of the Site Discussion forum, especially those about posting to older threads. No big deal at this point.

All further discussion on this topic is welcome.

Best,
Ron