Tips for email games

[craigbear]

Any tips for conducting an email campaign would be appreciated.

My friend and I have started face-to-face play but intend to continue by email. I have some questions...

1. How useful would an app that shares the screen combined with voice (by phone or PC app) actually be. I have experimented with zoom on my own, but it is difficult given MWiF screens.

2. How can we best minimize emails back and forth. I have considered using the wif ability to set die rolls so that players can copy the rolls as play moves along and can therefore copy eachothers results to allow various parts of the phases to align without needing emails back and forth. We trust each other not to abuse this.

3. Has anyone created a template or schedule of phases after which emails of the game file should be sent for best efficiency?

Any other tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[paulderynck]

You can use AnyDesk (free for one to one) or Teamviewer (used to be free for one to one, may have changed) to share the screen and mouse with one of you hosting the game. There are numerous apps like Skype or Discord for communicating while playing.

For PBEM you could move as far as you can and for things like CAP, send instructions like: "Prior to ground strikes the aircraft from Hex A will CAP Hex B."

But admittedly, PBEM is tough because of the amount of potential interactions. You could use screen sharing up to the point where one side has a lot to do, like German land moves in Russia in mid 43 for example, and then send the game file (if the German player is not the host) and do those moves at leisure offline.

Not sure if there's any template, likely you just have to experiment to find what works best.

[rkr1958]

Personally I've found that "WhatsApp" works well for "PBEM" play. Within the app you can exchange game files, screen caps as well as the text of a conversation. For me this app has the advantage of being on both my phone and computer. So, as the non-phasing player you can be away about your business away from your computer (e.g., grocery shopping, watching a movie) and respond to reaction requests from your opponent.