I've never played an online game before (well I tried a MUSH once, but that sucked) and I was wondering how they are.

I see that a lot of people play them here and I was wondering how they worked, what types of stories you can and can't do how all the player interaction is handeled, etc...

basically I just want to know about them and some examples of play (and if there are any openings in some of the games going on here.)

Thanks for any info provided.

Well the best thing you can do is just read the forums. Welcome to the Shadows is for games, the otehr forum have their own uses. Read a couple of games and get the feel. Look for a recruiting thread when you wanna play.

Pick a game and then read both the IC and OOC threads involved (preferably at the same time, switching back and forth, so as to follow along easier). This should give you a general idea of how things work. Keep in mind though, that just as in tabletop gaming, each game is different, and no two GMs run the game the same way.

Mallet, if you can throw together a nice 128 BP character before Monday, I'll get you into my game running (Read Earth's Dawn and Wyrm Food threads for the current update). It's a rare chance to step into my game, but there's a minimum posting of 5 days a week (only have to post once a day though...) to play.

Sphynx

Right.

To awnser your question, they are very much like tabletop games of Shadowrun. Except much slower. Alot. It's not out of the question (or even unusual) for a game to run a solid year and cover about the same ground as a long-ish evening in person would.

The advantage to this is that everything can be more complex. There's *alot* of time to put together convoluted bits of character development. Hell, there's even time for decking and rigging.

The disadvantage is that it's like watching a four hour movie. No matter how good it is, you *will* be bored at points. This is why PbBB is not recommended as your only source of roleplay.

Its biggest advantage however is the ability to really draw on your writing skills to paint some images. As LM said, charcter devolpment can also really shine (check Sphynxs game Wyrm Food for at least 1 steller example of that), but dont expect a very heavy combat game, as it bogs down in a hurry. Again, not unheard of for 1 round of combat to take a week.

But if your like me, PbBB is something to help get your fix.