Podcaster interested in pbm

[capheind]

Howdy, I'm Troy, I am the host of Tea, Tea, RPG! a podcast focused on indie and small press tabletop roleplaying games. I'm really interested in PBM as a format for playing my traditional rpgs. Any tips?

[Lugh]

Welcome!
Tip number 1...wrap your head around the concept that everyone (usually) plans and executes SIMULTANEOUSLY in PBM. Tabletop rpgs are reactive in nature. GM acts, players respond, GM reacts, lather, rinse, repeat. In PBM, players must plan for multiple actions in advance, without knowing the results until the whole turn is processed and the results are made available.

Tip number 2...learn about differences/advantages/disadvantages of closed versus open-ended games. Human-moderated versus computer-moderated games (and mixtures of the two types).

Tip number 3....join a PBM game! Nothing we can say will truly help you to understand PBM like actually experiencing a real game.

[rredmond]

Play first is a great suggestion. It's good to get a sense of the pacing. PbP/PBM is a different creature than FtF; I dig both ways of playing, but they are definitely different styles of the same game. Enjoy!

[Davin]

Also keep in mind that RPG-style play requires a lot of GM time, and if you've got a PBM company providing that much interactivity then they may have difficulty financing that much GM time.  The games I run (and will be running) try to reduce the amount of interactive GM time needed so I can keep my costs way down for the players.