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Liber Fanatica - Volume III : The Game Master’s Guideto commit an entire evening every week or monthto do so.There are also a lot of people who are intriguedby roleplaying but are too shy, old, young ornervous to plunge cold turkey into a roundtablegame with a bunch of people they have nevermet. A PBEM can provide a perfect opportunity toplay or just try out a game without a majorcommitment or time or courage.PitfallsIt’s slowNobody can claim that PBEM games are fastpaced. The actual pace is determined partly bythe GM, and partly by the players. But a PBEM isnever going to be able to match that of a group ofplayers and a GM sitting together round a table.It’s also worth noting that just as the speed of aconvoy is determined by that of the slowest shipso the speed of a PBEM is determined by that ofits slowest player.It’s not very sociableIf one of the reasons you play a game is to makenew friends or meet with your mates then aPBEM can be disappointing. Drinking a beerwhilst typing in a player response is just not thesame as sitting round a table with six friends.There is nothing to stop players fromcommunicating directly by email or even phonebut I find most social interaction between playersactually takes place ‘in game’ via theircharacters. Most players refer to other players bytheir character names and very often don’t evenknow what their real names are.It lacks diceIt is said that when Austrian Army Officers firstheard of the new Kriegspiel being played by theirPrussian counterparts they were veryenthusiastic and put a lot of pressure on theAustrian government to introduce the game attheir military academies.However, they quickly tired of it when theyrealised that the rules did not allow them to usedice to determine the outcomes. Players joining aPBEM may be equally disappointed as there islittle one can do in practical terms to allowplayers to roll their own dice and for some thismay take away a major part of the fun of playing.Accurate location detailOne of the biggest challenges for a GM running aPBEM is making sure the players know exactlywhere their characters are standing and whereeverything else is in relation to them.In a round table game a GM can resort to quicksketch maps, the use of miniature figurines andeven use the salt and pepper pot, if all else fails.But unless the PBEM game being played comeswith a purpose built electronic mapping system,the GM of a PBEM is left with nothing but wordsto describe where everything and everyone islocated, and sometimes words are just notenough.Finding PlayersIf you were planning to play a roundtable game itis likely you would already have a group ofplayers in mind. In most cases a group of friendsexist before the game itself. This is much lesslikely with PBEM game and the chances are youhave already decided to run a game and are nowlooking for players to join it.Players are the most important part of any gameand to be a success the game needs to match theexpectations of its players. Unfortunately, whatmakes a good tabletop game player does notnecessarily make a good PBEM player, andplayers who enjoy a tabletop game don’t alwaysenjoy its PBEM equivalent.A bored or frustrated player can be a majorheadache both for you as the GM and for the76