Is playing RPGs by email a viable way to enjoy these games? I have just returned to freedom and after 23 years I find the face of gaming drastically changed. I have once had the joy of playing Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, and Black Crusade and Loved them all. But after 9 months of rehab and release programs I find myself without any games and no players to congregate with. So I seek any alternative ways to enjoy games. I can't see how the nuances of roleplaying can be captured in an email game. Any help in this would be greatly appreciated.

The trickiest thing about a play-by-email campaign is keeping the group's interest. If the players don't know each other particularly well and can only communicate by text, people tend to drop out or get distracted by other life concerns. If you can overcome these challenges it is a perfectly fine way to play -- you can give your characters' responses more thought because you have lots of time to compose them.

The trickiest thing about a play-by-email campaign is keeping the group's interest. If the players don't know each other particularly well and can only communicate by text, people tend to drop out or get distracted by other life concerns. If you can overcome these challenges it is a perfectly fine way to play -- you can give your characters' responses more thought because you have lots of time to compose them.

To expand on this, if you're planning on running a game (rather than just playing in one) it's important to keep in mind that you may need to move the group along before everyone has weighed in on whatever's happening (NPCing PCs) in the interest of keeping people... interested. If nothing happens for a while people will drop out.

I play by forum post on another forum. I've heard others use roll20 and skype to run games.

Play by email seems like it'd be incredibly slow, especially when you get into combat. Playing by text can work fine, but without direct talkback via instant messaging, I can't see things flowing fast enough to hold people's attention. More power to you if you can manage it though, I guess.

Honestly, I don´t think that this could work out at all. Just imagine any social Scene, the exchanges and actual Dialog that normaly happens in an actual game. If you try to break this down to eMail, you would end up with the game freezinging up.

Even if you (as a GM) would break it down to "the NPC is like this and that, just give me your Approach to the conversation" every Twist and turn in the conversation would mean another Exchange of mails since the characters/Players Need a Chance to react.

To anybody who thinks that this can actually fly... GOOD LUCK!

Have you considered alternatives to email? Such as Whatsapp ?