There is currently a Takamo fiction contest.

You can view the stories here:

http://www.takamouniverse.com/phpbbbb/vi...a0644c7f7b

You can then vote on your favorite ones here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JWK67R9

Poll closes this Thursday 25 Sep

Hi All,

Game Details can be found here: http://www.harlequingames.com/legbtr01.html


There are spaces left in BTR1 in specific factions.

Mad God 1 space
Parthians 2 spaces
Merchants 1 space
The Masters up to 7 spaces


You, or someone you know, wants to play but have been holding off, now
is the time to get going and be in at game start, setups due in by 9am
Monday 22nd Sept (2 weeks from now).


Harlequin

Having read about Cluster Wars in S&D I went to take a look at the website a couple of weeks ago. I created an account, but get "access denied" every time I try to log in with it. I used the "Contact Us" link on the site to enquire, but haven't heard back, so I'm wondering if the game is still active?

Thanks,

Martin

It occurred to me the other day that once upon a time, before the public Internet, we actually ran some of our games over a BBS! You remember those, don't you? The original Bulletin Board Systems, back before web BB software took over the term?

Back then, with a few personal computers scattered around but no Internet to connect them, some of us would run our own (often purchased) software to let the computers talk directly to one another. The user's computer would call the BBS computer on the phone, using a modem (remember those, with all the funny beeps and whistles?). The BBS computer would answer the phone, ask for a login, and present the dial-in user with a text menu of his choices of things to do.

Back then we had private discussion forums and customized software for running various turn-based games, including old PBM games, wargames, role-playing games, and other fanciful stuff. It was the first step away from the original postal delivery of such games.

Anyhow, the whole concept of private BBS systems seems to have been missed throughout the descriptions hereabouts of the history of PBM gaming, and it deserves to be remembered.

Just Googled today both "PBM" and "Episodic Strategy Games".

Seems like we have discussed this before, to the point of what term would help grow the hobby. Readers are encouraged to Google both terms and see if you then believe Episodic Strategy Games may be better than PBM.

Please, if you will, take time to post your opinion of Issue # 9 in our poll at the top of this particular forum thread. Thank you in advance for your consideration, participation, and input!




NOTE: Click on the image above, in order to download Issue # 9 of Suspense & Decision magazine, a PBM magazine for the 21st Century!

I hope that you enjoy Issue # 9!

Well, it appears that, while trying to upgrade the PBM Wiki, I may have inadvertently deleted it or overwrote it.

This really sucks.

Submission Deadline for Issue # 9: July 20th, 2014

Issue # 8 is behind us, now, and on the horizon looms Issue # 9. We hope that you will be a part of it, by submitting something for us to include, be it an article, a review of a game, a photograph of you in all your gaming glory, or just some feedback - a letter to the editor, or perhaps a response to our Reader Survey included in the previous issue.

Articles tend to trickle in, even after the submission deadline for any given issue, and that's OK. Better late than never, although if you wait too late to send it in, then it won't make Issue # 9, but a future issue, instead.

Join those that helped us out by submitting stuff for previous issues. It's how the magazine takes form, every single issue.

If you get a chance, submit. If you were wondering whether to submit or not, just submit. In other words, submit, submit, submit! We'll be glad that you did - and so will our magazine's readers.

Send all submissions for Issue # 9 to: GrimFinger@GrimFinger.Net

Submissions for Issue # 9: July 20th, 2014

I am a old hand a PBM. Played in several PBM's in the 80's. I'm looking for games that are country building/war types. From 1800's on. Please help me. it seems most games are out of business.

The Cybernetics were resilient, if they were anything. Redundancy was a core feature of Cybernetic command and control. Information sharing was instantaneous across and amongst the autonomous intelligences that posed the core of the threat to bio-lifeform existence across the Five Galaxies.

How long that Omega lay dormant was an unknown quantifier. Dormancy in Cybernetic terms was relative, however. No corresponding equivalent existed amongst any of the bio-lifeform civilizations known to exist anywhere in the Five Galaxies. Quantum encryption all but ensured that the evolving Cybernetic intelligences would never be fully understood by the lower lifeforms that the bios personified.

Entire worlds had been obliterated. It was a small price to pay for the process of Cybernetic awareness becoming manifest. The dormancy period was at an end. Omega stirred in the quantum, while on the physical plane that the bio-lifeforms made their home, horrific destruction on an unimaginable scale was a routine and ordinary occurrence. Validation of programming ensured maximization of efficiency. The birth of a star was nothing in comparison to the universal importance of Cybernetic validation.

Unlike a star, however, Cybernetic intelligence couldn't die.