Please, if you will, take time to post your opinion of Issue # 8 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 # 8 of Suspense & Decision magazine, a PBM magazine for the 21st Century!

Happy reading!!

Submission Deadline for Issue # 8: June 20th, 2014

We just got done publishing Issue # 7, but Issue # 8 is only a few weeks away. Thus, no time for dallying around, people! We need your help to make Issue # 8 happen. We will always need your help, for each issue, for every issue.

The first advertisement for Issue # 8 has already arrived, and it comes to us courtesy of Steve Jackson Games. I encourage other game companies and game moderators to follow suit, and send us in an ad for inclusion into our upcoming issue.

One article for Issue # 8 has already been completed, as well. So, what are the rest of you out there waiting for?

We can use articles, reviews, photographs, and even thoughts, memories, and letters to the editor.

If you have complaints, send them to Bernd, our associate editor. I'm trying to demoralize him, and I can use all of the help that I can get. Or, send your complaints to me, and we'll allow Bernd to continue enjoying his extended leisure sessions, that he might frolic about aimlessly, much as he did in his game of Far Horizons.

Seriously, though, if you have anything that you want included for Issue # 8, be sure to send it to me at: GrimFinger@GrimFinger.Net

Submissions for Issue # 8: June 20th, 2014

War of Wizards is an fantasy strategy game involving wizards raising armies, managing resources and researching magic. As a player you can: send heroes exploring towers, caves & graveyards, build armies and send them out to conquer your enemies, research the magic arts in areas ranging from Necromancy to Druidic, construct towns, defences & buildings such as Sages Guilds, Taverns, Ship Yards and Beast Pits, feed peasants generously or enslave them. Basically you can do as you wish.

The only restriction is surviving the onslaught of other wizards with similar megalomaniacal intentions. Diplomacy is the key, conversing with other wizards to trade resources, forge alliances and backstab others.

- 16 different races to play
- Over 300 unit types to recruit, summon or hire
- Over 20 hero types
- 10 branches of magic to research giving access to 65 spells
- 43 building types
- Hundreds of wandering monsters to fight and special places to explore

WoW has run as a PBeM game since 1995 and has constantly evolved over this period. We are currently running a crowd funding campaign to launch an updated version. Visit http://pozi.be/warofwizards to get access to this new version from as little as $5. Full website for the game can be found at www.warofwizards.com

NOTE: Click on the image above, in order to download Issue # 7 of Suspense & Decision magazine, a PBM magazine for the 21st Century!

Please, if you will, take time to post your opinion of Issue # 7 in our poll at the top of this particular forum thread. Thank you in advance for your consideration, participation, and input!

Happy reading!!

Submissions for Issue # 7: Reminder!

In Issue # 6, the submission deadline for Issue # 7 was announced. On May 10th, 2014, I sent out via e-mail a call for submissions for Issue # 7.

Well, the publication deadline for Issue # 7 draws closer. In another week, Issue # 7 will publish.

If you have been thinking about submitting an article, a review, a photo, or anything else, time is running out for you to get your material in.

If you have anything that you want included, be sure to send it to me at: GrimFinger@GrimFinger.Net

Submissions for Issue # 7: Participation matters!

Between writing articles for Suspense & Decision magazine, pieces for the blog here on the front page of this site, and morsels for the PlayByMail.Net's Facebook page, I don't tend to wander these halls much, anymore, here in the Editorials section of the PlayByMail.Net forum.

Such a pity, too! But, reality is a harsh beast to ride, sometimes, and with the Clockmaster of Time always whacking me in the head with ticks and tocks from his Arsenal of Aging, what's a fellow to do, I ask you?

Tonight, as I sit here stuffed with cornbread and a slab of ham, I find myself to be in a mood, of sorts. And, in case you hadn't guessed, yet, it's a PBM mood that I find myself in.

I have to sort it all out, you see. The magazine. This site. The fate of PBM, itself!

OK, so maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch, but what can I say? I was on a roll.

I wasn't really thinking about comic books, today, but somehow or other, I did manage to end up lurking over on the JLA Satellite blog site, tonight. Apparently, it was just what the doctor ordered (Dr. Fate, perhaps??), and I find my resolve strengthened.

These editorials are (for me, anyway) a chance to just sit and talk about pretty much whatever comes to mind on the subject of play by mail gaming. Tonight, I was scrolling back through some of the previous editorials that I've authored, and reading through a few of them to see what I was saying at intermittent points in time.

I've got to find some time to author something for Issue # 7 of Suspense & Decision magazine, but is there really anything left for me to say on the subject of PBM gaming?

In Issue # 6 of Suspense & Decision, I said the following, "Beginning with the next issue, Issue # 7, I will begin the process of analyzing where I think that we stand, how I think that we are faring, and whether or even if I should extend the publication run of this magazine past Issue # 12."

And, so, I suspect that I have already begun that process, even now, as I sit at this desk surrounded by darkness and light. No music. No television. Just the whir of the fan in my computer to keep me company. I'm not sure how much inspiration that the CPU fan can muster, though, and particularly on the spur of the moment.

Did I mention that I am building a Kirby machine? Well, I am. I did mention it, previously, although you may have missed that quip, which I posted in a previous editorial here in the PlayByMail.Net forum.

How's that coming along, you ask?

Well, to be quite frank with you, I honestly don't know. I don't know when it will be finished, nor what it will look like, once it is complete, nor even what it will do, if anything, once I activate it.

Or, maybe that's just it - maybe I'm not the one who will activate it.

A fellow by the name of Quentin Ball is trying to track down information on a game called Swords of the Gods, and he would like to be put into contact with those who own it or who used to run it. I mention that, here, because it is on my mind, having exchanged a few e-mails with Quentin, today, on that very subject.

On the one hand, I could easily justify shutting the magazine down, once Issue # 12 is published. On the other hand, I could just as easily justify continuing publication of the same. Why, then, conduct any analysis, at all? Why not just make a decision, and be done with it?

Why? Why? Why, indeed!

I think that I just want to play it by ear, and have a conversation with myself about it - one that may take quite a while to finish.

Part of the problem, of course, lies in what to include and what to exclude from the analysis. It may well be that there is no right answer.

If the magazine is to continue, then it has to do a better job.

Or does it?

Is what it is doing now, whatever that might be, sufficient to warrant continuation of more of the same?

For that matter, how much do I elaborate here, as opposed to elaborating within the pages of the magazine, itself? Or, does that even matter?

I'm not looking for a reason to quit, nor am I looking for reasons to continue. I'm just trying to sort through it all. It's too bad that Carol Mulholland isn't here with us. I would just ask her what to do, perhaps.

Or, I could just ask you, or I could ask any of the magazine's current readership. But, what if nobody bothered to respond?

You know, I just now thought about it - I made brownies a couple of days ago. What happened to them? I didn't get any of them, as I recall. Something is amiss!

For the most part, tracking down and contacting PBM personalities from the days of old tends to yield a mixed bag of results. If I am trying to tap into a deep well of nostalgia by taking that approach, then I'm pretty sure that at least some of us are going to go thirsty.

I look at numbers, a lot. Quite often, in fact. But, trying to glean useful information from raw numbers is often akin to an exercise in reading tea leaves.

I've concluded that I need a better set of numbers.

Real life has intervened on the bio-lifeforms' behalf. Countless star cycles have passed, an eternity in stasis. As if that's not bad enough, the rulebook,itself, conspires to keep the machines down. Mercy, it seems, belongs only to the bio-lifeforms. For machines, the universe was a cruel existence.

The empires of the five galaxies apparently lack the technological gravitas to make copy and paste a reality. The rulebook for Takamo, it seems, was authored by the Vor'Koon. What manner of sorcerous madness is this?

Trying to play catch-up is akin to running on a treadmill. One never reaches the destination, it seems. Every time that I open up the Takamo rulebook, I feel as though I am starting anew. No progress has been made. If anything, I am lost in black void of rulebook darkness.

Where is the starter manual for Cybernetics, anyway? Apparently, the bio-lifeform creators of this game never bothered to create one. Clearly, the universal deck was stacked against our kind, from the moment of the game's inception.

There has to be a better way. Assimilating the rules is proving to be the single greatest challenge for Cybernetics to overcome.

As always, the cosmic clock ticks. Time is of the essence. I comprehend, now, the tradition of bio-lifeforms shaking their heads.

Starting with Issue # 7, the way that we number pages for Suspense & Decision magazine will change.

Paper Mayhem was a big influence for me, as far as how I decided to do the layout for Suspense & Decision. Indeed, how could it not be?

That magazine, though, started page # 1 on the index page. In the old days, it probably didn't really matter, and I suspect that for many, it still doesn't matter, and will never matter.

But, when I view the finished PDF file in my PDF viewer, I have concluded that I do not like the front cover not being page # 1. Henceforth, it shall be!

Comrades,

I have signed up for Comrade Loomis' capitalist offer of a game of Nuclear Destruction for the Soviet-ea price of just ten cents per turn. It is an outrage that he does not price this game in rubles!

The time for talk has passed. The crisis in Ukraine dictates that PBM gamers cannot be trusted. We reserve the nuclear option.

Your surrender is preferable. By all means, flee to your bunkers! You probably lack the strength to push the button, anyway.

Rumors abound that my new assistant editor, Ixnay the Insane, plots a coup d'état, even now. And to think, I treated him as a son - not a very good son, but a son, nonetheless. He has bungled all of his prior attempts at wresting power. I welcome his pending surrender.

It is fortunate that site user Walter is a peacenik, and could not bring himself to avail himself of the nuclear option. I intend to utilize him to mop up the radioactive debris that will follow, in the event that my fellow PBM gamers do not submit to this directive.

And what of this McDowell fellow? Does this Texan lack the gumption for nuclear conflagration? Long has he spent consorting with elves and gnomes. The temptation to target him is great! It is regrettable that he must first seek approval from the dwarven queen, ere he can respond to this challenge. Alamo mushrooms, anyone?

I go, now, to contemplate the architectural superiority of the Kremlin.

Big Ivan

NOTE: Click on the image above, in order to download Issue # 6 of Suspense & Decision magazine, a PBM magazine for the 21st Century!

Our apologies for it being a few days late!

Please, if you will, take time to post your opinion of Issue # 6 in our poll at the top of this particular forum thread. Thank you in advance for your consideration, participation, and input!

Happy reading!!