For a genre of gaming that supposedly passed its heyday long ago, there sure are one heck of a lot of PBM-related links for me to try and group and organize on the front page of this site. And that doesn't even count all of the links that are contained on the PBM Wiki extension of this site.

How best to organize them all, and how best to present them to the public at large for the consumption and usage of individuals who possess an interest in the subject matter that this site caters to?

Currently, if I had to characterize how well that we are doing in working towards that end, I would likely characterize our efforts as having achieved a rather Neanderthal degree of success.

This is no Sistine Chapel of PBM that one enters here. No, sir! Rather, it is an ugly brute of a site. It clubs the site visitor over the head with link after link after link.

Granted, it serves its purpose - sort of. Or, at least, I like to think so.

But, come on! You know as well as I do that there is so much more that could be done to get this place in order and squared away.

We proceed at a snail's pace, plodding along. We content ourselves with the equivalent of picking berries, grubbing around, just scrounging for morsels to stuff our gut with. A die-hard fan of play by mail could easily starve to death, here on this God-forsaken excuse for a website dedicated to the postal genre of gaming.

Did I mention that I love PBM gaming?

Not nearly as much as I love my son, of course, but some things go without saying.

In a world that is being accelerated along by the Internet, a world awash in social networking and information delivery systems of every sort, this site is a mere hodgepodge - a crude attempt to do something, though at times, it's hard to tell what. The site is a clunker, run by a guy who lacks the technical expertise to do what needs to be done.

Ideally, this site would be sporting a dedicated forum, blog, photo gallery, and wiki all rolled up into one, and geared towards using the most currently popular social media to simultaneously disseminate information that we specialize in, even as we grow a following.

But, sheesh guys! Now, that's a lot of work. Who's going to manage to pull that one off? Not me, certainly.

We take a more Steampunk type approach to the modern Internet world. In case you hadn't noticed, we're not exactly sporting the cutting edge, here.

If we had real traffic flow here, with PBM gamers coming and going like a PBM equivalent of Grand Central Station, the site would likely collapse from the sheer weight of its techno-hybrid shortcomings.

Did I mention that I am working on a MyBB/Media Wiki bridge?

I am - to try and make it quicker and easier for me to allow registered forum users to become wiki workers for the PBM Wiki, so that it might begin to grow a bit faster. Assimilation, anyone? The last thing that we need is a spam bot with access to the PBM Wiki, though. I have no time to play Rollback Tag with a robot.

Eventually, the PBM Wiki will begin to take on a life all its own. Assuming, of course, that I don't die anytime soon, AND that I manage to succeed in keeping the site online. In due time, it will likely dwarf any existing PBM-related site on the entirety of the Internet. That's the view from this end of the Seer Spectrum, anyway.

One of this site's biggest failures to date has been with its ongoing failure to persuade Old Guard PBM companies and their moderators that it is relevant. PBM"s Old Guard may be guilty of many things, but fault for this systemic failure lies solely and only with myself.

Other priorities intervene.

How to build a better mousetrap remains a valid consideration. Apparently, lack of effort on my part does not qualify as proper bait.

Thus far, our site here has risen, at most, to the level of being a mere PBM curiosity. That is not to say that the site has enjoyed no success, whatsoever, in attracting the attention of PBM companies and PBM game moderators. There have been several, in fact, that have registered on the site.

They each have their own set of priorities, though. They pursue what they pursue, and we pursue what we pursue. Our interests, at times, overlap. Indeed, this is the natural order of things.

Interaction and interactivity with established PBM companies and PBM game moderators has been - and remains - a true weak spot of iceberg size. All things, each in their own time, however.

Thus far, there have been few skirmishes in this Great PBM War to Come.

Harlequin Games was definitely not the first of the Old Guard to find their way here. Yet, they may well yet prove to be the very first of PBM's Old Guard to rouse themselves from slumber.

To quote Patrick Henry, it is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace, but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?

Irony is a harsh master. It exacts its toll, whether war screams or peace grants men the indulgence of a snore.

And irony will have its toll.

As we proceed forward with the launch of a new PBM magazine, it is reassuring to receive word that Harlequin Games will endeavor to support us mightily in this task.

The irony lies in quoting Patrick Henry, even as an Old Guard PBM company with such stout and deep British roots becomes the first to pledge staunch support for this new PBM-related undertaking.

A new Fellowship forms, perhaps?

Perhaps I can persuade Ixnay to be the ring bearer in this undertaking.

Me? I hate jewelry.

Nonetheless, my appreciation goes out to Harlequin Games and their minion, Dean Johnson, for perceiving potential merit in this new PBM magazine project.

Who will be the next to join this Fellowship of the modern PBM era?

What else?

Oh, a logo. I've got to get a PBM one designed and drawn. It's for decorative purposes, more than anything else. I've got a couple of artists in mind for the task. I just don't know exactly what I want.

If I get it done in time, then maybe I can slap it on the front cover of the first issue of the new PBM magazine that's coming, and which should begin to take form in the coming weeks. The earliest that I will publish issue # 1 will be October 31st, 2013, to coincide with Halloween. If that proves to be pushing things a bit much, then I am pondering a publishing date of November 23rd, to coincide with my daddy's birthday.

My daddy and I

The Kingdom is strong. The seven Duchies are each led by a Duke, supported by 3 Barons. Yet beyond the borders the Chaos races prowl, ever searching for signs of weakness.

The King is dying and the Dukes/Barons all look to the Throne for themselves. To achieve such an end, some would even consort with Chaos.

Play a Duke, Play a Baron, play a Citizen, play an Agitator, even play a Chaos Minion or Lord!

Want to know more?

http://www.harlequingames.com/legcoc26.html

Harlequin

Hi folks,

I hope noone minds me posting a link to my play-by-web game which is partly driven by emails (there are daily emails etc.):

http://thronestars.com/

The game is dark ages in space, where you control noble houses of characters, armies, estates and spaceships amongst the Twelve Worlds.

Characters are given orders which are processed every half hour, production updates occur every hour and other updates each day.

Hope you check it out

Sid

I have a weekly game-night with some of my fellow neighborhood dads. Some of our number are quite rabid about collecting games like Catan, Twilight Imperium, Dominion, Puerto Rico, Race for the Galaxy, etc. They spend hundreds of dollars a year on this hobby. They post actively on BoardGameGeek. They watch instructional videos on youtube of how to play a new game, or to learn strategies. They install app versions of games they already own the boxes for, to hone their strategy in between game nights.

So I've been trying to interest them in some PBM stuff. Some of them are mildly curious. But I don't have a concise definition of all the goodness of PBM. So let's draft up a PBM flyer to hand out to our friends -- something that explains the concept, highlights the many benefits, and gives them a few ways to try it out or perhaps a landing page here on this forum. Anyone want to help?

For the benefits, particularly for these game-lovers who might cross over into our branch of the hobby, I have this:

- permanent record/archive of gameplay
- possibility for LARGE number of players in a given game
- social aspect
- encourages strategic thinking over twitch-play or throwaway gambits
- computer support can be a stat-lovers dream

We'd also need a few paragraphs describing PBM and PBM-likes. And perhaps some FREE games they can try, or some introductory offers by established commercial moderators...

I stand at the cliff's edge, staring into the abyss that is the future of play by mail gaming. It's hard as Hell to see anything. Of course, maybe that's simply due to the fact that there's nothing to see.

Does a PBM version of Camelot lie just beyond my field of view? Or is the future of play by mail just a never-ending desolation of barrenness?

I recently received an e-mail from Vern Holford of Cluster Wars fame, inquiring of me whether I intended to keep playing Cluster Wars, or if I was planning on dropping out.

I used to wonder why David Webber, editor of Paper Mayhem magazine, didn't post a lot about the PBM games that he was playing in. If he did, then those articles must lie buried in past issues of Paper Mayhem that I have never read.

It's all about time. How does one allocate whatever amount of time that they choose to allot to play by mail gaming? What should I do?

Play PBM games more? Play more PBM games? Update the PlayByMail.Net website more frequently? Grow the PBM Wiki? Create a new PBM game? Launch a new PBM Magazine? Or, do nothing?

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

None of it is Vern Holford's fault, of course. I have to make a decision, not just regarding Cluster Wars, but regarding my interest in - and degree of interaction with - PBM gaming in general.

There are twenty-four hours in every day. Contrary to popular assertions, time passes at the same rate for all of us on this big blue globe of ours. So, what's a fellow like me supposed to do?

Accomplishing nothing doesn't seem to accomplish much. Alas, alack - the cupboard is bare. That cupboard that I keep all of my extra time in is empty. Dagnabitall!!

Back in January of 2011, over two and one-half years ago, I authored an editorial titled, "Gloom, Despair, & Agony." In it, I said, "I'm not here to save the play by mail industry from a final death, nor am I here as a harbinger of a revival of the hobby of postal gaming. From time to time, I will post, when I take a notion, and hopefully, a few others will join in, whenever the mood strikes them."

That's all fine and dandy, and maybe I am just still stuck in "notion mode." How does one move past notion mode, as it relates to PBM gaming as a whole?

Or, am I wrong to look at PBM as a whole? Maybe that's where the error lies, in thinking that there's more to it - that there perhaps should be more to PBM than what reality has treated us all to.

Perhaps I owe Vern Holford an apology - for not being very good at issuing turn orders for my position in that game. However, in all fairness, I wanted to see what the game looked like. I wanted to see how far along they had progressed, Vern and crew, with bringing Cluster Wars back into the modern day era for the PBM player community that exists today.

How do I report on PBM, if I don't know what is going on? I'll bet that David Webber could have appreciated that perspective. Hell, he appreciated it a long time before I ever did. That's a fact.

The remaining vestiges of commercial play by mail gaming are worlds of players that largely exist independent of one another, separated by the vast expanse of space that is the PBM universe as it has evolved to be.

And PlayByMail.Net?

The PlayByMail.Net website is more akin to a far flung asteroid, or to a small space station, one that lies so far off the beaten track that few are they who venture here. Of those that do visit, fewer still are the hardy souls that choose to stay.

And of those that choose to stay, you can judge for yourselves how often that each of them post in the forum here.

And the point of it all is what?

Well, I'm not sure that there is a point, to be honest. Rather, I'm just in the mood to share a few thoughts about play by mail that come to me off the top of my head, as I sit here and ponder what I should or should not devote time to, as far as things PBM-related. In the process of doing this, I tend to ramble on about first this and then that.

Since the play by mail industry is largely a barren desolation, in its current form, this just might be an ideal time to start a war. Imagine that! Launching an all-out attack upon the remaining vestiges of all that we know to be PBM.

Not to destroy it, mind you - but to try and stir the dust up a little. In case you haven't looked, lately, there's one heck of a lot of dust that has settled on the postal genre of gaming over the last number of years.

No magazine dedicated to PBM gaming remains. They've all gone kaput.

Unlike Congress, I can't pass a budget to fund such a war. A war of words, alone, would be tantamount to a propaganda war. That, it seems to me, would largely miss the point of starting such a war to begin with.

So, what do I have? I have a few ideas. I think that the hour approaches when I shall set a few of them into motion.

If I fail, I fail. I wouldn't be the first, and I likely won't be the last.

OK, sounds good, so far. So, what am I waiting for?

This is the point where I leave you, the reader, in suspense.

Can we add a new thread on the main discussion board where GMs/Companies and announce the launch of new games for players to join is they wish?

Just a thought.

Dean

Anyone who wants to suggest additions or changes to the PBM Wiki may post your material or submissions here.

The software for the PBM Wiki part of the site has been updated. All seems to have gone smoothly with the update.

Hi, I am a player now turned GM.

I am working for Harlequin Games which Runs Legends, a Magic and Fantasy computer moderated game with lots of depth and play to explore (Jim Landes further down this group helped create it).

http://www.harlequingames.com/

And I work of Middle Earth Games that runs Fourth Age, War of the Ring, Battle of the Five Armies (Hobbit) and Kinstrife scenarios, again computer moderated, Character/Army based 'team-orientated' games to determine the fate of Middle Earth!

http://middleearthgames.com/

Check us out or ask me questions!

Dean

In case you haven't been watching the CW Manual site, there has been a change in the Missile to hit formula. In addition the process for executing the firing of multiple TL missiles in one "volley" is explained.

I have created a spreadsheet tool to examine and help plan for firepower needs in various scenarios. Find it attached here. There are several worksheets included for missiles showing the results of several formulas that have been in use or discussed over the last three years or so.

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions for improving this tool. I spent quite a bit of time on it today after reviewing the new missile to hit formula.

Also, see the attached spreadsheet on CEP (circular error probability) and my concept of how it applies in Cluster Wars. Others may disagree with my opinion and that's fine. This method is used by the US Military for calculating probability to hit a target. There is a randomizing formula and polar graph illustrating 100 shots plotted around the target position CEP.

Attached Files

  Weapons Calculations 090113dp.xls (Size: 162.5 KB / Downloads: 5)
  CEP2.xls (Size: 150.5 KB / Downloads: 5)