On 28.04.2011 23:13, Rob Thornton wrote:
> I have participated in two PBEMs in toto: One aborted Heroquest PBEM (Play
> By E-Mail) and started to participate in another that is on hiatus.
Yes, Alda Chur is on hiatus. This was one of the VERY good examples as far as it went :-( I was with it from the beginning. This campaign was one of the extremely positive examples I was talking about in my last post. Where else do you have players thinking and actually GMing side-plots? We all play chars of the same village, knowing each other, having personal AND common backgrounds. That was great. We all hope Chris will overcome the hurdles responsible for the hiatus, and continue the game. Rob, too sad you just joined the game when it stalled.
> Unfortunately, I don't know what makes a PBEM work, but I do know that PBEMs
> can be tough to execute and play for at least two reasons:
>
> 1. It is hard for all concerned to develop and maintain a level of trust
> when all the participants live far away from each other and don't have much
> of an initial rapport. Without that trust, miscommunication is more likely
> to occur and it can endanger the whole endeavor. A gaming session is
> face-to-face and communication tends to be smoother--tends, right? :)
Smoother, right, but we had no miscommunication, and trust was immense, especially in our ChildQuest part, Chris' great invention, this "dual campaign". It went very well as long as it went (about a year). The reason for being on hold has nothing to do with lack of players or GM dedication. Even reading the transcript is a lot of fun!
> 2. It is difficult to maintain momentum when Real Life is always encroaching
> on your time and it is easy to put off that email, unlike a gaming session
> where your buddies won't allow you to Durulz out. (hey, using "welsh" isn't
> allowed anymore, right?)
In Alda Chur we are a BIG group and a player missing for a foreseeable time (personal reasons, work, health problems...) did not hinder the game much. On a missing post from a player, his character was carried through by the others. Holidays common to more or less all players were skipped. No problem. Though I DO have active gaming groups at the table (Glorantha and Shadowrun), I still hope the Alda Chur PBEM to continue!!
Pomeroi
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