How to run a RPG PBEM? (Looking for players!)
 

So, the Marvel Super Heros thread has brought up the discussion of possibly having a PBEM game for either the Marvel Game, Heroes Unlimited, or TMNT... I actually would strongly considering being the one to run TMNT if people were interested...

However, it has been about.. oh... 10 or so years since I did a PBEM game. In fact, the last time I did PBEM was when I was on Prodigy before the WWW existed/was in large use.

So, I was curious for those who play PBEM now. Is there a standard format/rules for doing it? Are there tools out there to help you run the game?

Wow funny thing is me and a group of friends from high school just started up a Marvel campaign. It is not PBEM but it was just kind of ironic. I have no experience in PBEM but here is a link to all of the Marvel stuff via download. http://www.heroplay.com/features/rules/marvel.php

I'm not sure if there are sites specific to heroes type games, but I've always found www.rondaksportal.com to be an excellent site to set up any kind of play-by-post game, plus it has built in dice rolling, etc.

I'll have to look at this some more when I have time, but I signed up real quick and they have a "Character Builder" for Marvel, Heroes, and TMNT...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBEM

Man.. tons of external links there.. looks like i have some investigating to do...

I'd really be interested to know how to do this kind of thing as well. Slowly my circle of friends are spreading out and I think it might be fun to keep in touch by way of something like a PBeM.

It's a nice site, basically everyone signs up and creates characters, which is very free-form, and joins a game that the GM starts. After that it's all done by post through the game's messaging system, if you want to roll dice you do it through a command, they can be sent to the GM secretly if needed, you can PM each other, and best of all, no lost emails since all the messages are saved. Others can subscribe to your game and watch if you allow this also, plus there's a great community of gamers there.

I like Myth Weavers myself:

hxxp://www.myth-weavers.com/index.php

This looks like it COULD be much slicker than the other site...

Problem is, it doesn't have the games we're looking for.. and looking at the character sheet, it's not generic enough even to work...

What is the time investment like? Does everyone agree to sign on at a specific time and post for a set amount of time? Or do you send posts once per day, etc?

It's an X times per day deal... Most definately not a set time of day that you have to do it, that's the whole appeal to the PBEM format...

Bump.

I finally got my books from an old box at my mother's house. I want to setup a game. I've looked at both Myth-Weavers and Rondak's Portal. They both have their pluses. Even though it's not as "clean", there are some things that seem to be nice about the Rondak's Portal site..

Anyway...

Anyone interested in a TMNT game, I want to run one on one. I'll do it on one of these two sites or if there is one that hasn't been suggested to me, I'll take a look at that.

So if you're interested, let me know. If you don't have the books (likely, I know) I'll help you through character generation, etc. and explain the basic rules (basically it's the same/similar to any palladium system). I'm hoping to get enough interest to run a small game.

Plus, i just did a quick check and it looks like you can get the books dirt-cheap on ebay if you're interested.

Note: I haven't RPG'd in about a decade. GM'ing wasn't my strongest suit, but I'm willing to give it a go because I really want to play this game.

could be fun

Here's a pretty good summary of what the game is:

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_3873.html

It looks like Palladium still has a new "After the Bomb" RPG that has some of the mutant animal stuff in it...

Depending on how many people end up interested, another possibility is there is a guy on the myth-weavers site willing to run a game if i get some people.. so maybe i'll play if only a couple of people speak up with interest to add another body to the party.

i'd be into a tmnt game for sure :)

I'd play if it's not TMN f'n T. Guh.

The thing is, the original TMNT system was a really good game, I felt, much better than you would expect given the childish theme.

Is that from knowing the TMNT rules, or an assumption about it because of it being named TMNT?

The Palladium system isn't so good. Really easy to powergame, and not balanced at all.

Yeesh, I was just looking for something that's a little fun and different..

*shurg*

I'd be interested in something like this, but not TMNT.

Put me in this group. I've played TMNT.. just more of a casual beer and pretzels type of RPG (at least for me)

I have a crapload of RPG games that I wouldn't mind playing again even via PBEM (Twilight 2000, Morrow Project, Aftermath, Gamma World, Rolemaster, Middle Earth, D&D, Star Frontiers, Space Opera... probably forgetting several)

depends on how its run but i am definatly interested in this.

That's cool, I'm just saying it as someone who's played several games with that system (Robotech, TMNT, Heroes Unlimited and Rifts), that it's really easy to get a game that's not balanced. Just wanted to relay some info to you from someone who has played that game before.

Well... if you guys would rather another RPG, I might play - but I'm not running it cause i'm clueless.. part of why I'd run TMNT is because it's easy and I'm not the best GM in the world.. and it's been a decade...

If there is interest i could run a AD&D game using version 1 2 or 3. Although my time to play would have to be like friday or saturday. (not sure how pbem works but we could play using internet chat things or mics)