Originally posted by Keklas Rekobah:
A few questions have come up. If you are or have been involved in a PBEM Traveller campaign:
1) What was the average time per turn?
I've participated in Michel Vallaincourt's second Traveller Near Earth Campaign (TNEC) for six months or so (CT, ATU); Roger Barr's TNEC follow-up campaign for about four months or something like that (MT, ATU); and am now involved in Ron's Bray Keavan game for these last sixteen months (T20, OTU) as well as Greg's Over The Edge pbem for the last three months or so (CT, OTU).
Average turn-around time on most of these seems to be 2-3 days. Sometimes, action ups the turnaround time, and holidays decrease it, but in general, you get about two turns or so a week.
The OTE campaign, however, has a higher turnaround time, though about 1 day seems to be a good estimate. Also, the turn structure is somewhat less formal, but it works for that group.
I've seen a few fantasy pbems, but they just didn't work like Traveller does.
2) How long did you stay with it?
In the two TNEC campaigns, as long as they lasted. They were a lot of fun, and set my standards high. So far, I haven't been disappointed with my two current ones, which I am still actively involved in, nor do I think I will be.
3) What was your biggest gripe?
In general, it's a matter of Real Life (TM) versus game. When any of us, player or referee, have some RL issues come up, game play deteriorates because of the decrease in communications. However, I'm as much at fault as the next guy, so it's all good in the grand scheme of things. I often tell the Ref that if I don't answer in time, they are free to make assumptions as to my character's actions. It seems to remove some of that sting.
4) On a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 being "None" and 4 being "Complete", how much freedom did your characters have in their chioce of action?
In general, I'd say 3-4. We have near-complete freedom of choice, although some choices have consequences. Fortunately, I've almost always gamed with mature players that work with the universe rather than against it, and so we don't often end up being hunted by everyone under the suns. (But some cargo, on the other hand...

)
5) On a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 being "None" and 4 being "Realistic", how much detail did the referee provide for you each turn?
I don't think that's the best way to describe detail here. Do I get enough? Yes. Do I wish I had more detail? No more than I'd want in a FTF game. Can I picture the action as it occurs? Yes. Yeah, my Refs all deserve 4's, if that's a good thing in this particular evaluation. They do great jobs.