Alot of these questions could probably be answered by playing a game, but I’d rather know things upfront so I don’t waste someone’s time.
Does the module know the rules of the game, or is it just a graphical interface that has all the pieces you’ll need to play the game? Or does it vary from module to module?
From messing around with Pax Romana, it appears it’s just all the pieces you’ll need to play to the game, since it will let me do all kinds of illegal things. Though I’ve only tried it in solo mode, so that might change things. If that is the case for all modules, is it possible to go back in time even during a PBM game, say if you’re opponenet just made an illegal move? Speaking of the undo button, what is to stop a person (other than the honor system) from just undoing a die roll until they get the result they want? Or will all actions be visible once I’ve opened the file?
The modules in general don’t know the rules and only provide the graphical interfaces. Although good modules are designed in a way that illegal things are impossible. In many occasions this is not easy to achieve as you might understand.
The honour system is a great thing when playing PbEM. You can scroll back and forth within the actions performed in a log file but nobody prevents players of starting a new logfile again and again until they are satisfied with the results.
Regarding die rolls, we use a not manipulable third-party die roller web site like WarfareProject.com or ACTS. They offer some kind of secret keeper function as well, which let you input secret information on the website and automatically reveals it to all players the moment all submitted their information. Great for Pax Romana Manpower Phase.
