Solo gaming for me was where I started in the early 1970s. In old age I find I am increasingly returning to that genre. PBM often has complex orders to use and short-period "turns", like weekly. Or if not then slower players like me still get easily left behind in developing my position. It has not helped that I am a mac devotee. I love its simplicity and elegance.

A game I have been returning to is The Battle for Wesnoth. This free, can be played on a mac, and is mostly solo, though there are teams of players who use a private server. Presumably they can organise their game in whatever way they choose, either as opposing teams or as one team against others or against the game system.

There are several scenarios to choose between and it is possible to build up a veteran army, as units that survive gain experience in a system of levels.

Has anyone else tried Wesnoth?

Submission Deadline for Issue # 3: January 20th, 2014

Issue # 2 is behind us, now. The time has come to issue the call for submissions for issue # 3.

With issue # 2, the page count went up noticeably from issue # 1. To make that happen - and to continue to happen - requires content, in the form of articles, reviews, advertisements, interviews, etc.. So, sound the Gjallarhorn, and may many respond to its call!

As the magazine continues to grow and evolve, be sure to provide feedback on what you like or dislike. We will likely try different things, as we search out a path to success.

If you're content to just read each issue, then by all means, do that. But, if you care to ante up on your participation, then by all means, feel free to join us, to join this effort to make Suspense & Decision a turn-based gaming magazine that others will be attracted to.

Submissions may be sent to:

GrimFinger@GrimFinger.Net
Mark@wyeastgames.com

Submission Deadline for Issue # 3: January 20th, 2014

If you are PBM or turn-based game company or game moderator of the same, you are invited to send us advertisements for inclusion within the pages of Suspense & Decision magazine.

For your ads to be included, you must send us ads for each issue that you want them to appear in. If you lapse in sending ads to us, then no ad for your game or company will appear in issues that you do not send us ads for.

We do not guarantee the inclusion of any particular ad. If we miss an ad (or an article), then we will try to include it in the next issue, or in a future issue.

At present, there is no charge for advertisements published in Suspense & Decision magazine. This is subject to change or revision in the future, with no advance notice.

If you are an individual, one trying to run PBM or turn-based games by yourself, then this applies equally to you, as it does to any large game company.

Thank you for your interest and participation!

NOTE: Click on the image to download Issue # 2 of Suspense & Decision magazine.

Hi,

I'm the guy who runs the Eressea strategy games, and my current sleeper project is a return to the original Atlantis 1.0 code, for which I have a major redesign in the desk drawer. I ran a trial game earlier this year, and I'm trying to get through a list of planned changes for another milestone build and a second game sometime next year.

The Internet yielded some details about Fenris Games' foray into PBM gaming.

If interested in learning about it, then click here.

The inside front cover page is the page that one encounters in Suspense & Decision magazine, as soon as they flip the page, after looking at the front cover, itself.

My intention for the inside front cover page is to alternate what gets displayed there. It is not space that one can buy. Rather, I extend invitations to different PBM game companies (or to ancestral descendants of PBM gaming) to send me an ad to put in that space.

For issue # 1, I extended an invitation to Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo. An advertisement for Starweb appeared in that space in our first issue.

For issue # 2, I extended an invitation to Steve Tierney of Madhouse to send me an ad for that particular space. I am awaiting a response from Steve.

I felt that rotating what goes in that space would allow for numerous different games by different companies or moderators to enjoy one of the highest visibility spaces that the magazine offers.

My view is that rotating the space in the early issues of the magazine, in particular, would be a good way to highlight PBM and turn-based gaming on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

If the magazine survives, then it's possible that I might eventually change my mind about how to utilize this space of the magazine. With advertising being free, anyway, there's ample opportunity, I feel, for each company and each moderator running games to find a space within the pages of each issue to get their respective game products advertised.

Not all PBM companies have seen fit to advertise in Suspense & Decision magazine, as of yet. But, the magazine is brand spanking new, and everyone may not want to utilize it as a vehicle to advertise their games or their game companies.

Barring myself and Mark both dying or becoming incapacitated, the magazine will likely see a minimum of several issues published. Initially, I set a goal of twelve issues, a monthly rate of publication for a period of one year. It all depends upon there being content to actually publish, of course. That much is common sense.

So far, so good, or so it seems to me, at least. To fill any gaps created by a lack of submissions, I will likely try to ramp up my own writing contributions, so that the magazine maintains more of a magazine feel than the feel of a flyer. Whether Mark will do likewise or not, I don't know. That decision I will leave to him to decide for himself, and for his own reasons.

For any PBM company, turn-based game company, or moderator of the same who wants to make sure that they are not left out of consideration, for when I extend invitations for the space on the inside front cover of future issues of Suspense & Decision magazine, just post in this thread, and I'll review it prior to issuing invitations for future issues.

In the event that any invitation is declined or goes unresponded to, I will either extend an invitation to someone else, or I will simply pick an ad sent to me for a given issue, and place it in that spot.

The magazine, still being new, has to evolve on its own, figuring out along the way what its look and feel should be like. What to do with the inside front cover space is a part of that process.

Thank you for your interest.

Continuing to scour the Internet has led to the discovery of the first issue of something called PBM Update.

Click here to check it out for yourself.

Trekking across the Internet, I encountered some articles pertaining to PBM gaming that were part of CRash, the ZX Spectrum magazine.

Try these links on for size:

http://www.crashonline.org.uk/27/pbm.htm

http://www.crashonline.org.uk/29/pbm.htm

http://www.crashonline.org.uk/30/pbm.htm

Internet exploration turned up a paper authored by Ian Miles titled, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" This paper, from 2003, explores the field of Play by Mail gaming.

That paper can be found here.