> Whoa. Are there _that_ many Star Trek PBEMs that never get out of
> space dock? I thought that the fun of Star Trek was the "explore
> strange, new worlds, etc." stuff. In these "don't get out of space
> dock" games, what activities occur? I presume that there are many
> inter-personal discussions, and people figuring out how they'll work
> with this new crew, but it seems like that can only go for so long.
> Are there other plot elements introduced? I'm just curious - I've
> played in low-to-no plot movement games, so I'm interested to see
> how other people have done this.
The introduction phase can take quite a while, with characters typically
starting out at the end of their last assignment and finding out to where
they've been transferred. Following that comes a short story about their
trip to the new assignment, which often includes meeting up with family
members, etc. This typically takes around two posts, as most GMs let the
players go with this as they please. Then they start moving their stuff onto
the ship, introducing themselves to the crew and officers, etc. Assuming all
goes well, the ship should leave spacedock soon thereafter.
In my Exeter game, the first adventure was meant to take place before they
left space dock. To give you a bit of background, the story was set during
the movies (known affectionately as TMS or The Movie Series...back before TNG
made it to movies), soon after STIV. The Exeter was an experimental vessel
with a new warp drive type (using Trilithium instead of Dilithium...again,
this was before First Contact came out). As the crewmen were coming aboard
and getting settled, someone sabotaged the new engines, killing a couple of
engineers. This lead to an investigation that most everyone was involved in,
to some degree or another, and the crook was finally captured.
Unfortunately, PBEM games, particularly structured ones like Star Trek, can
take a _long_ time to get through a scene. If you figure your average
tactics argument in an FTF game takes around 15 to 30 minutes, a PBEM, by its
very nature, would take more like two weeks. If you can get players who can
post more than once or twice a day, and more or less at the same time, you
can really get things moving along faster than that, but that's about what a
PBEM GM should expect.
The key is to keep things moving along with other people while long
conversations are being had, and keep on top of players to post. That was
one of the central problems when I ran the game. Not enough for the other
guys to do and allowing too much lag time for those who were involved. Keep
it to a minimum, and things should roll along quite nicely.
It'll never be as fast as FTF gaming, though.
Lucifer >:}
p.s. that first adventure took around a year to complete, and I played in
another game for two years that didn't finish its first adventure by the time
I left...
Lucifer >:}
--
"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n" --Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. 1
Homepage: http://members.aol.com/noctifer/index.html
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http://members.aol.com/noctifer01/private/VampHome/index.html
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