A simple question, where have I been? No, that's not a question I choose to answer today. 

If I were to purchase a board game, and I do frequently, I have a certain level of experience that helps me to have a level of expectation about what I'll find when I first open the box and go to play the thing.

If I were to purchase a computer game today I would have a fairly good idea of what I'm going to get and roughly how the game will play. However, I'm old enough to remember when computer games were new. I'm not going to speak to arcade type games (both those played in an actual arcade, but also that style of game for home play) But in the realm of computer strategy games, I remember a period of time when the computer game tried to duplicate the board game experience on a computer. These efforts were often less successful and it wasn't until designers were able to take full advantage of the computer and free themselves from trying to model something it wasn't that we started to see the medium of the computer game come into its own.

So my question would be, do play by mail games have any basic expectations about them that a player starting a new game would recognize as uniquely play by mail? And if so, what are they? Yes, I know what I think. But I'm curious if anyone will reply and what you are thinking if you do.

Maybe it's a silly question. But something motivated me to come to pay a visit here tonight after many years away, and this thought crossed my mind as I was reading some of the posts.

Mark

Annihilation is a funny thing. Though the dust and the soil are well-settled, here, blades of interest have begun to take root, once again, in the realm of play by mail. This is not a clarion call. No heralds need apply. I am just stirring in my musings, and pondering what yet could be.

Files from a hard drive of a computer long believe dead have been resurrected. An archaeological team has been dispatched. I shall proceed with caution.

The magazine is dead - Long live PBM! It is probably best to leave it in stasis. I have, after all, other fish to fry.

Yet, deep within me rumbles an urge, ever so slight. The tectonic plates shift, once more. Something stirs within the deep that lies somewhere inside of me.

There is nothing to see, here. Please, move along!

Just keep moving.

I went to upgrade the forum software to the newest version, today, and I then realized that I didn't remember how to do it. Generally, I did, but specifically, I didn't - and how many times have I done this task over the years? Who knows?

Well, I did manage to get it done, but not until after I had uploaded a bunch of files and directories to my root directory on the web hosted server. Hopefully, I won't delete stuff that is needed, whether for this site or elsewhere, as I try to delete that ton of files here shortly. If I do, my apologies ahead of time, though any mistake along those lines might even spell the demise of this site, inadvertently.

The site is currently fairly dead. It currently serves as a repository of postings, which the occasional PBM wanderer may still derive some use from. I try to maintain this site, even when I don't use it actively.

Feel free to use the site, to read or to post, as you each, respectively, see fit.

Hi all,

I'm looking for UK players interested in playing for free in the old-fashioned 80s/90s way of postal turns printed on paper and sent in an envelope via the Royal Mail. The game will be an RPG in the vein of Saturnalia and was most recently run as The Isles in about 1990 - so very old school.

Startup will be slow as I'm waiting on materials being created by a few third-party artists - But if anyone wants to register their interest, do let me know - website will be up in the next ten days

Thanks,

Roy
theislespbm [at] gmail [dot] com

My game needs a devoted 'deep immersion' style player of formidable prowess for a long haul campaign. We are just starting off on Obsidian Portal and have a range of levels: Low Level: 1st to 9th, Mid from 10th to 19th and High from 20th to 30th. Characters are pregens from a stock file but can be modified with negotiation.

Each player in the 'Cadet' game is sand-boxed (in the code sense) and essentially operates solo, sends in game returns in own time and cannot effect other players. There's an open world, sandboxed (in the gaming sense) feel to things where with gold and power, players can build castles and armies/navies for use in defence or conquest. Numerous examples of play are provided in the game documentation. Six DM written novels support the game world and a large wiki forms the foundational knowledge. 

As a DM I'm a 'Worldbuilder' and 'Storyteller' ; I'm hoping to find a creative, keen and literate player who fits the 'Explorer' and 'Character Actor' profiles (as suggested in the Dungeon Master for Dummies book by Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker) at p. 125 to 131.

The game system in use is 2 / 2.5 Ad&d with a few house rule adjustments and a few custom classes, such as Tunnic Shieldmaiden, Man At Arms and Saeradic Witch.

The game world is my own bespoke creation, though it intersects with 'Official' worlds such as Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk through fixed portals and Spelljammer travel plus hopefully, Planescape.

There's an aged 18+ requirement for the game due to the potential nature of combat descriptions. Ideally, experience of 2nd edition and Grognard status fits the bill. I could most likely handle about four to six players. 

Many Thanks

Ozzy

Our game room URL is here: https://casshadarah.obsidianportal.com/

Talisman Games is going to start up Galac-Tac galaxy #90 later this month.  You are all welcome to join in this old-fashioned 4X space game.  If you'd like to play I'll credit you with a year of play-time to enjoy.

Talisman Games is going to start up Galac-Tac galaxy #48 on April 16th, whether we have enough players signed up for a full game by then or not. I'd like to encourage anyone with an interest in 4X-style space games to try it out. As usual, for the time being, all new sign-ups are given 12 free months of play after their first paid month ($5). You may involve yourself in multiple galaxies simultaneously if you wish, and this is particularly useful for playing "solo" (practice) games to get the hang of the rules and develop your own personal strategies.

Any questions may be left here, on the Talisman Games web site, or sent via email to any of the contact addresses found on the web site.

Hi Davin

Great game, playing solo now. Working out my Economic chain.

I have a question with the Unload (and load) order, 

UNLOAD [Ship ID] [Quantity] [Item] [Quantity] [Item]

What happens if [Ship ID] is a flagship for the fleet, can it load/unload all the cargo bays in the fleet?

So I have 3 freighters

FX  1001, 1002, 1003 consist /;;10/20-1

1002, 1003 joined to 1001

Can put it as one order -

UNLOAD 1001 27 PV

or do I have to put it as 3 separate orders

UNLOAD 1001 10 PV
UNLOAD 1002 10 PV
UNLOAD 1003 7 PV

I need to put this unload order to change it from a SHUTTLE order to a DEVELOP and its currently in a Production system.

Thanks

vape

Currently dealing with some family issues - namely, an aunt and an assisted care facility type issues, so I am even more out of the loop than usual. Just having to sort some things out, and trying to find her a different place to stay. Just issues from real life taking precedence over everything hobby-related, at the moment. 

That said, I should begin compiling Issue #18 of Suspense & Decision, soon. Just as a reminder, the next several issues of the magazine will likely be a bit on the thin  side, just to facilitate faster publication of issues. We'll try it, and see how it goes, but real life issues have a way of taking precedence, regardless of how well or how poorly that we're doing with publishing the magazine. I just wanted to drop in long enough to give a heads up to everyone, so that you won't think that I've fallen off the Earth, again.

- Charles -

Okay, so I've been commenting here about Cohorts and my progress in developing the game for a while now.

Last night, I met with a potential new developer and while I was describing the game's mechanics, he started posing a number of questions.  Most of them, I had easy answers to.  Some of them caused me to think about how Cohorts and PBM games in general operate.

The general premise of PBM is that you plan your turn, submit it for processing, and then you get back your results.  There is no discovery while planning your turn.  For me, this is both the best and worst part of a PBM.

I love the idea that I am going to move my characters into position to attack some monster or monsters or players (who might also be monsters!).  I have everyone set up and I issue the attack order.  Then, I move on to some other planning aspect of the game, having no idea what the outcome of that attack is until I submit my turn for processing.  Then, I impatiently wait for the turn results to arrive to find out if I lost or if I won and what kewl loot I got for my efforts.  This hopeful anticipation is FUN!

The not so fun part is when I want to do something and then do something else.  Without a sense of what might happen first, it makes planning part 2 very difficult.  Here is what I mean: On Turn 12, I have sent my characters to go attack a monster.  The monster won the battle, but just barely.  On Turn 13, I am going to finish off the monster and then move off to find some other target to hit.  Trouble is, I have no idea what the outcome of the fight will be while I am planning my next move.  It's not necessarily a concern of "Will I win", but more of a concern of "What will I get?".  Most importantly with that is, will I get goodies that will end up overburdening my party of characters, causing their movement to fail, causing all sorts of other cascading failures in my turn? 

In Cohorts, you are able to get immediate "discovery" results as your turn runs, in real time.  This dramatically improves the game's playability (in my opinion). The caveat to that was, your plans are immutable.  You can't roll them back and try something else to hope for a different/better outcome.

I really liked that idea up until the question was asked "What if somebody else kills the monster before you?  Or what if you are attacked by another player and you want to send your characters to attack them back?  Are you not allowed to change your orders then?"  

Ugh.  My fast answer was "no" but then I saw how that was a very poor answer.  It basically created a scenario where you know you have to submit a turn that is doomed to fail.  Not knowing your turn will fail means you have hope.  That hope makes waiting for your turn exciting.  Submitting a turn that you know will fails is ... less fun.

Then we started bouncing around the idea of "real time" results.  This would change the game from PBM to a sort of Turn Based RTS.   Truth is, I think it would work spectacularly - but it's not the game I was building.  Technically, it's a minor change but the game-concept is completely different.

So, that Turn Based RTS game is going to happen, but first I need to solve my PBM design dilemma.  It comes down to these two questions:

Should you be allowed to receive "discovery information" while planning your turn?  If you can, should you be allowed to change your orders before submitting your turn (and possibly end up gaming the game)?

I would love to hear your opinions!