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[PBM SUBCULTURES] Diplomacy, En Garde, and ... Anything Else?
#1
[EDIT: That subject line should end with a question mark!]

Obviously, here at PlayByMail.net, we're all fans of the professional PB(e)M companies. They're efficient, their games are awesome--look, just take my money! ( Wink )

But the more that I poke around online, the more evidence that I find for the continuing presence (in very rude health) of unofficial networks of players of two of the grandfathers of postal games: Diplomacy and En Garde.

Here are a couple of useful links to links: As I always like to include discussion points in my opening posts:
  • Does anyone know of any other games that invite PBM and have active dedicated communities?
  • Is anyone here playing either of these games by mail?
  • Would it be worth reaching out to the various communities to stir up some interest in Suspense & Decision?
  • MOST IMPORTANTLY: Is there anything fans of S&D and PlayByMail.Net can do to actually help these communities?
Thoughts? Objections? Anyone?
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#2
And I realize that I should probably have consulted the PlayByMail.Net Hivemind, before I posted this.

Blush

I think my questions are still valid fof jumping off points for discussion, however. Lemme know what you think!

Cool Big Grin
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#3
Diplomacy has been a big blind-spot for me. I should play it -- I have the game, and I've played it face-to-face a number of times. I love it, but it's hard to find people to play it with me. (Anyone want to crank up a public game here on the forum?)

I know of a few sites that enable boardgaming online. Some of them are fantastic. It's not quite PBM, but it's pretty close.

And for the wargamer community there's VASSAL -- a tool that lets you play any of a thousand published wargames remotely with other players, either live or by email. I have an article brewing about the parallels between board wargames and PBM.
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#4
(08-09-2017, 04:08 PM)ixnay Wrote: Diplomacy has been a big blind-spot for me.  I should play it -- I have the game, and I've played it face-to-face a number of times.  I love it, but it's hard to find people to play it with me.  (Anyone want to crank up a public game here on the forum?)

I know of a few sites that enable boardgaming online.  Some of them are fantastic.  It's not quite PBM, but it's pretty close.

And for the wargamer community there's VASSAL -- a tool that lets you play any of a thousand published wargames remotely with other players, either live or by email.  I have an article brewing about the parallels between board wargames and PBM.

I didn't know about VASSAL. Thanks for the lead.

On one Dippy (sp?) site, I saw someone say that they wanted to conduct all Diplomacy through letter writing. I can imagine REALLY GETTING INTO character, writing letters as as the ambassador of one of the Great Powers. Ya know? Just go nuts: Handwritten letters with fake letterheads, period photographs, etc.

FWIW, esteemed PlayByMail fans, a certain famous online bookseller has copies of the most recent edition of Diplomacy for $20-ish.
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#5
There's gotta be at least half a dozen online implementations of Diplomacy that would support a game for free. We could then do our sabre-rattling here on this forum. I'll take a look around and report back.
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#6
(08-09-2017, 05:25 PM)ixnay Wrote: There's gotta be at least half a dozen online implementations of Diplomacy that would support a game for free.  We could then do our sabre-rattling here on this forum.  I'll take a look around and report back.

Cool!
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