That's what they say, anyway.

I'm not dead - just sick. Trying to shake it off. I hope that everyone is having a good day.

Post or not, as your personal preference lies.

This thread is for discussion of Issue #17 of Suspense & Decision magazine.

The Submission Deadline for articles, news, events, etc. for Issue #17 is: 20 March, 2017

The scheduled Publication Deadline for Issue #17 is: 01 April, 2017

One of the aspects that Cohorts shares with many other games is the infamous Battle Report.  The key bit of information that tells you that tells you what happened to the playing pieces that were involved in a battle.

As far as I can surmise, there are 4 different types of reports:

1. Very high level - which describes the sides that took part in the battle and which side one.  It may or may not include some basic details about important pieces that were involved and/or how much damage each side took.  This may or may not be described in the form of prose.

2. Detailed outcome - which describes in detail which pieces took part in the battle, what their starting and ending status was, and who won.  None of the details as to how the battle unfolded are provided.

3. Detailed description - which describes each piece that took place in the battle and describes on a round by round basis who inflicted damage and who took damage.  This too may or may not be in the form of prose.

4. Graphical replay of the battle - showing the pieces moving about the battlefield in a graphical manner - either as pieces on a board (like moving playing pieces about) or something far more elaborate with animated figures and animated action.

In my mind, option 1 is useful as a bit of summary information that you might want to look back on to see what battles you might have engaged in.  Or, it might be used as a more "global history report" that all players would get access to, showing them who'd been fighting who (assuming a multiplayer game).

Option 2 is likely my personally preferred option.  Give me the facts, tell me the outcome and let me plan my next turn.  What this lacks however are the details as to how the outcome came about.  Did either player make a mistake and not load the right spells, equip the right weapons, put their units in the correct battle slots?  With just a bare-bones summary, the player will never know.  If the game designer likes a bit of mystery as to how their engine runs, this is a good method.

Option 3 is good, but if the battle has a lot of pieces in it can become lengthy.  If the blow-by-blow descriptions are presented in prose, a single battle can easily turn into a 30 page document.  Quite frankly, I don't think anybody wants that.

Option 4 is fun.  No doubt about it - watching a battle unfold is entertaining.  But my guess is, it is entertaining the first few times you watch it - and then you'll opt to skip the animation and go back to wanting to see the output from Option 2.

From a game designer point of view, trying to find the balance between too little and too much information is a tough call.  One could opt for "give them all the choices and let the user decide" but there is a development cost to that.  With an unlimited budget and unlimited time, giving the ultimate solution is always best - but when we're dealing with a niche market like PBM games, we have to be frugal and get the most bang for the buck.

Does anybody have any opinions on this?

Can someone provide us a current status update for Cluster Wars?

As I begin to immerse myself a bit further in several different games, simultaneously, I notice that a fear of drowning has begun to creep upon me.

How much is too much? How fast and how far can one swim the waters of learning the rules of PBM games and their ancestral descendants that now populate the map of play by mail gaming in the modern age?

Is it better to mater one game, before moving on to another? Or should one whet one's appetite for something with some PBM flavor, even at the risk of trying more than one game, simultaneously?

I can't imagine how David Webber, the editor of Paper Mayhem magazine, managed to find time to learn and to play a variety of play by mail games, back in the day, back when that magazine was a driving force on the PBM scene. How does one balance it all? How does one juggle not just playing games and publishing a PBM magazine, but negotiating the learning process for multiple games, as well, and all at the same time, at that?

Just now, as I was typing this posting, my computer notified me that my user account on the Takamo forum has been reactivated.

And Omega did stir in the quantum, once more!

Now, where was I, again?

Ah, yes - where does one find time for it all, for digesting rules and playing games and publishing a magazine, all three?

I don't have to chart this course through the rough seas of PBM gaming. I could simply choose another way. I could choose to limit myself more, and tackle one game at a time. For that matter, I could simply fore go playing games, at all, and just focus my attention and my efforts upon publishing the magazine, Suspense & Decision, instead.

I could - but I choose not to.

I firmly believe that the magazine will be a better end product, if I am able to write articles first-hand about playing in this game or that one. Game moderators and game companies always seem to want lots of people playing their games, but I can tell you this - many are the obstacles and impediments that stand in the way of people just joining right in and playing. The more of a pain in the ass that it is, or the more time-consuming that it proves to be to the person who has zero degree of familiarity with the games in question, the less likely that people will be, I think, to become a permanent part of the respective player communities for the various games on offer. This, I think, is a fundamental lesson that game companies and game moderators would be well served to take to heart, for there remains VAST room for improvement in this area - and I think that it is one of the most important areas of all.

Of course, in the realm of play by mail and its ancestral descendants, of which there are many, there are many different hot coals on which to burn ones feet. If the PBM industry is not to be consumed by the sands of time, and if it is to push back against the forces that seem Hell-bent on consigning it to the dustbin of history, then walk upon the hot coals, we must, it seems.

Numerous re-works on PBM games are either underway or completed - some in more complete form than others, it seems. Aside from modernizing the interfaces and delivery systems of old PBM games, though, what entirely new play by mail games are either in planning or under construction, already? Since the vast bulk of the remaining PBM player base across the industry is collecting years as if there was a gold rush on aging, what new and creative PBM fare is being rolled out to attract younger players? What is the long term fate of the industry?

Or does the industry even have a long term fate, going forth?

In the old days, there was lots of buzz - always lots of buzz - in and about and across the PBM industry. These days, not so much. How best, then, to tackle the scenario that the PBM hobby and the PBM industry now finds itself facing?

To create buzz, there has to be word to spread. That much strikes me as being rather obvious on its face. Yet, how much time and energy and effort is CURRENTLY being expended by the PBM industry on advertising and on creating ads, which lie at the base of their advertising efforts? More hot coals to walk across, it seems, if you ask me.

In fairness though, I'm not usually the one being asked. They all have their theories. We all have our theories. I have my own theories on it all, as do many of you out there, I'm certain.

Whatever else may be said about the current state of affairs in the PBM industry, I do think that it is accurate to say that there still exists much potential energy to be harnessed in the ranks of PBM players scattered across the face of the play by mail hobby. A lot of that potential is simply never being harnessed and put to use, much less exploited to its maximum potential.

With Suspense & Decision magazine, I attempt to harness a relatively small fraction of that potential energy - that potential PBM energy. Not everything that I try works equally well, of course, and the magazine itself has faced its own set of challenges on multiple occasions, to include the challenge of just trying to stay alive. For now, though, the worst of that particular danger seems to have passed (Knock on wood!), as the magazine is clicking on all cylinders, once again.

A few people contribute articles to Suspense & Decision magazine on a recurring basis, but the hot coals of persuading even more people to become regular, recurring contributors is a path that must be walked.

Time stands in the way of it all. The passage of time causes us to age, and there just never quite seems to be enough time to get it all done. This is a common malady, this creature called time, that spreads its contagion across the face of the entire industry. Game companies, game moderators, and the players, themselves, are all in a constant, never-ending battle with time.

Hopefully, I won't end up drowning myself, as I trek down the path of trying more games, in my bid to make the magazine a better read. If I do, though, just toss my editorial corpse to the side, as you encounter it, and keep pushing forward, no matter what.

Ever forward!

Because every other direction is the wrong way.

I've been working on various storylines for the Veil of Entropy module for Cohorts.  One of the storylines involves a basic hatred between two NPC factions.  Players can choose to help one side or the other in order to gain benefits from either faction.  Players can even try to play a warmonger role and try to play off both sides against each other for other random benefits.  And yes, attempting to reconcile the two warring factions is also an option, but it's a long arduous journey to pull that off.

In Veil of Entropy, two of the warring factions are based on Vampires and Werewolves.  Yes, it's been done a million times before but would it have been any different had I called them the Hatfields and McCoys or the Oilkins and Waterfolk?  Personally, I find comfort in immediately understanding that these afflicted species hate one another but other people seem to think this is just another worn out trope.

Other similar hatred can be found between the Auctioneers (slavers) and the Fair Trader's Union (merchants with morals) as well as Warmongers and Freedom Fighters.  Are these inter-factional wars any more interesting because they don't play up to the stereotypical hatreds that we are fed regularly in books and movies?  Personally, I don't think so.  They're based on motivations that we can understand and get behind, one way or another.  It's what you do with them and how they affect the overall story that makes them interesting (to me).

Why am I writing this?  Well, one of the people that have access to the game's backstory went off on me for being too predictable.  This seemed like as good a place as any to vent.

A quiet little abode. That's what this place has become.

The quiet can be misleading, though. As editor of Suspense & Decision magazine, there is always noise to surround myself with, as I go about my business of trying to pan PBM gold from the sands of time.

A bit here. A piece there. So much has been lost to the passage of time, and to the sands of the past. Nonetheless, in spite of it all - or perhaps even because of it all - I continue to trudge right along, seemingly making little headway, even as I nudge continuously forward, despite it all.

I've already begun work on issue #16. That might be a bit of an overstatement, though, since not a whole lot has been sent to me, thus far. The clam before the storm. Some storms never arrive, though, choosing to pass me by, entirely.

There's still nuggets that turn up, even after all of this time - nuggets that I have never encountered,  before, It all washes down the River of Time.

Colin Danks, God bless him, has sent me something, this morning. It's got me excited. PBM gold, people! Something to adorn the pages of Issue #16 of Suspense & decision magazine with, no doubt.

If you're out there, but you stick your head in the door, here, how about joining Colin and sending me something to include in a future issue of S&D.

Our readers will be glad that you did.

Play by mail gaming reminds me of the Shire. For all of the chaos and conflict associated with it, PBM gaming plays a serene note through the pipe organ that is my memory. Just hidden away, this hobby has been, for more years than I care to remember. Even the lidless eyes forget that we are here, focusing upon more important things, focusing upon games not fit for elf nor dwarf.

I'll be gone, one day. I'll leave this all behind. Make no mistake about it, though. No one will notice. No one will miss this site when the beasts that roam the Internet, day and night, devour this site and nary a trace of it remains, anymore.

I'll just be a dash on a tombstone. Maybe not even that, if my wife listens to me.

Carol Mulholland just died. Not too long ago. Not too far back. A few weeks, at most. Honest, I don't even know the exact day.

And it doesn't even matter. What mattered was Carol.

What matters is this hobby of ours.

This hobby of mine. This hobby of yours.

This hobby that I call...The Shire.

To others, PBM gamers may see like odd wee folk. They just don't understand us, though.

You don't have to understand, in order to join us, though. The Shire is a small place, but it's always big enough for just one more.

Or a hundred more.

Or a thousand more.

Play-By-Mail - Return to the games of your fathers!

I just got the following e-mail in from Steven Coombs, and he's looking for some people to give Dark Age II a try. I just got done, recently, watching those eight episodes of The Last Kingdom, so the English fighting Danes is very much at the forefront of my mind, currently. I've signed up for the game, so maybe I'll see you there!

Steven in his e-mail wrote: Wrote:On 2/2/2017 5:59:39 PM, Steven P. Coombs <info@pyrahosting.net> wrote:
All,
Just a heads up that the next Dark Age 2 game is about to start - I’ve just updated the waiting list page on the website; as usual it’s first come first served for a position (so always remember to have a couple of alternates in the wings).
And if you know of anybody that you think would like a game please do forward this email on to them.
Waiting List Page: http://darkage2.co.uk/WaitingList.htm
Hope to see you in a game soon.
Regards,
Steven P. Coombs
Turn based games
darkage2.co.uk
Software Development
pyrasoftware.com
info@pyrahosting.net

This thread is for discussion of Issue #16 of Suspense & Decision magazine.

The Submission Deadline for articles, news, events, etc. for Issue #16 is: 20 February, 2017

The scheduled Publication Deadline for Issue #16 is: 28 February, 2017

This thread is for discussion of Issue #15 of Suspense & Decision magazine.

The Submission Deadline for articles, news, events, etc. for Issue #15 is: 20 January, 2017

The scheduled Publication Deadline for Issue #15 is: 31 January, 2017