Subj : RE: City]
To   : ANDREW_S._TOTH@WLM.TORONTO.ON.CA
From : HAROLD GROOT
Date : Fri Jul 14 2000 12:41 pm

-> First, there's the obvious issue: it takes way too long to develop a 
character 
-> to 7th Level sentiment in a PBEM.  
 
My previous post talked about developing the characters to your desired 
levels during over-the-table play.  I agree that it would take much 
longer to reach these levels in PBEM only, but that was not what I was 
asking for. 
 
 
-> I have no problems if people 
-> who wish to play take an established character and use that, as long as it's 

-> toned down to meet the standards that I laid out. 
 
That's right, you mentioned in a previous post that you were used to 
power-gamers, weren't you? 
 
I just checked my own characters.  Pulling out 20 at random, there 
wasn't a single character that exceeded your guidelines for the amount 
of magic that they should have.  So if you expect "normal" characters to 
need to be "toned down" to meet those guidelines, you have again been 
playing in universes with different expectations than those I play in. 
 
And these characters of mine only have the items that the DMs have 
chosen to make available through hard work.  One of my characters has a 
"magic grey skipping rock" as part of his total.  This is hardly 
something that greatly affects play, but I counted it as part of his 
total.  He would dearly love to be able to quadruple his movement by 
getting his hands on those BOOTS OF SPEED you just handed out.  A 6" 
movement rate is a serious handicap, moving slower than most monsters. 
Changing that to moving =faster= than most monsters is a huge help.  But 
he wasn't allowed to "catalog shop" for his items.  He had to take it by 
force, only to find it was essentially useless.  It whiles away time 
about as well as a yo-yo because it comes back to him when he throws it 
with intent to skip (i.e. not thrown as a weapon).  It makes a good 
conversation piece.  He's won a few small bets and so on.  But if my 
characters got to have "level-2 misc. magic items, all useful" as well 
as magic armor/weapons (again - all useful, none cursed) they would be 
significantly moving UP in magical power. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-> Secondly, a PBEM game allows a significantly larger amount of time to think 
-> about what you're going to do. Role-playing can be developed instead of 
being 
-> rushed; that is one of the reasons why I prefer PBEM to table-top; not only 
to 
-> I get a more in-depth reaction to my scenarios than I would with table-top, 
but 
-> I can also be fairly sure that the players will take more note of the 
-> surroundings I place them in. Basically, it makes me feel better because I 
know 
-> I'm not putting a lot of work into something for nothing. 
 
 
Well, yes and no to this.  Yes, a person has plenty of time to think 
about the situation.  If they missed something they can go back and 
reread things.  It tends to do away with "you never said that" - "yes I 
did" that can happen over the table.  The witty rejoinder that you only 
think of 10 minutes after the insult - you have plenty of time to think 
of it before you write.  There are advantages to PBEM, no doubt. 
 
But no, the amount of character development is not greater in PBEM games 
in my experience.  That's because of the limitations of typing.  Compare 
the number of lines players are willing to type during a move compared 
to the number of lines they are going speak in an over-the-table game. 
They might possibly develop a single encounter/concept further in PBEM 
if it struck their fancy - but in OTT games there will be a LOT more 
encounters, problems, ideas and so on.  Yes, they have to fit it in to 
the time constraints of the OTT game - but there will be so many more of 
them that the overall character development will definitely NOT lag 
behind the PBEM game. 
 
All IMHO, of course. YMMV. 
 
 
 
 
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 # Origin: Solar Quest Online (1:285/85)
 * Origin: ConchGate (1:106/357.0)

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