PBEM (Play By EMail) Players

Welcome to the world of PBEM games

This website is dedicated to helping you increase your skills in writing posts for your PBEM (Play By EMail) game. We publish articles and guides that we hope can help you!

What is a PBEM (Play By Email) game?

A Play By EMail (PBEM) game is a form of creative writing where you continously continue to build on the other players stories. Together you form an ongoing story. Each participant's bit of the story is generally referred to as a post, named after the act of 'posting' a message to the e-mail list or message board where the stories are collected and distributed.

Start learning about PBEM games

If you are new to PBEM games or are just interested to read more about PBEM games a good start is to read the article "Play By Email (PBEM) in a larger perspective". It talks about different types of games that can be played by email as well as different types of email roleplaying games.

Once you have a good understanding of the concept, you should continue with the article "The anatomy of a post". It will tell you what a player's contribution to a PBEM roleplaying game can look like.

Article categories

With over ten years of experience with Play By EMail (PBEM) games, we have a lot of material to share with you. We have also gathered material written by other authors (with their permission, of course). Select from the categories below:

Getting Ideas

Manage your time, find ideas and use them.

Writing

Both how and what you write in your posts for your PBEM game is important, we show you how to do it!

Character Development

Giving your character life is complex, these articles will help you.

Running your own PBEM game

Learn how to run your own game.

In the spotlight

A closer look at PBEM players and games.

Other articles

Other articles related to PBEM games or the gaming industry and community.

Latest article

Spotlight Interview: Andy Jones

By David "Onion" Ball

This article was originally posted on the PBEM game Blue Dwarf's website, we thank our friends over there for allowing us to use it here.

Latest PBEM Blog posts

DragonCon and PBEM games

It's nearly time for DragonCon again, the huge convention in Atlanta with everything from SciFi to comics to gaming. This year the PBEM (and simming) community will be represented!

A group of people are hosting a panel discussion on Star Trek and online simming.

Changes are coming...

To prepare for coming changes to the website, I have updated the way the PBEM links are displayed. You will soon be able to create your own account here and submit links and articles to the website!