[Dolston]

One thing I have come across semi-regularly as a Storyteller over the past number of years is players who want to be part of a game but can not actually make it to session so want to interact with the game through email, forums or something else. If you are like me it is a situation that you probably fon't think a lot about and only briefly thought about it before saying yes. Reall, at first glance, it seems like a good thing. You have someone who actively wants to be involved in your game and, if things change in their life, they will probably start showing up. Sounds too good almost Problem is LARP, like in everything, if it sounds too it probably is. Having a play by email characteris a bad thing. And I am here to tell you why.

The first and most obvious reason why it is a bad idea is that this is a Live Action Role Playing game. A player who does not show up to game is a player that adds nothing to the game. One of the most important aspects in Mind's Eye Theatre is that the game is a shared work. This means that everyone must contribute to everyone else's enjoyment in the game. A play by mail player is unable to provide the needed effort and work when it is most needed at the regular game session. This also leads into the second issue with a play by mail character, net loss in effort vs results on the part of the Storytellers.

When a character is run solely through email and intention sheets it is the Storytellers that bear a lot of work with little to no benefits for anyone but the player who is running through email. No one gets to see the results but the Storytellers and the individual player. That is a waste of time and effort when you have a significantly larger group of players who are willing to share the workload with you and provide entertainment for people other than themselves.

A third issue, related to the first, is that a play by mail character is an abuse of the conceits of the game. When you tell people that you are running a Live Action game your players have a more than reasonable expectation that they will be able to interact with the characters at the game session. Having someone who is completely unreachable during a session, which is when the game is designed to run is unfair to the people who are putting the most work into your game. At best you will have a character that takes a lot of time and effort for you as the Storyteller to manage that provides no benefit to the players at the session. At worse you will have a near bullet proof, unassailable character that your regular players can never, ever get at. To quote Carlito, "That's not cool!"

Given all these drawbacks it is very unlikely that having a play by email character would ever add to the game at large. That is not always the case. Exceptions exist to prove the rule. But if you are going to allow a play by mail character in your game you need to minimize the very sizable negatives while bringing in some serious positives. If you can not, at the very least, hit a sum zero with positives and negatives make sure you tell the player interesting in the play by email character that they can not. It is a shitty thing to have to tell someone but as the Storyteller it is your responsibility and duty to make the hard decisions.

[Loremaster]

One of the players in my Awakening chronicle play an information junkie (always on her computer with dual screens, with many TVs behind it, always on Multitasking (the Mind spell), and the player is always available on phone on game days.

So, while she IS a play-by-email character, she can be reached anytime during game and brings something to the game: mundane information (news, license plates identification, house ownership...).