Rules of Play for Takamo are attached to this posting.

Attached Files

  TakamoRulesOfPlay.pdf (Size: 268 KB / Downloads: 6)

And so, here we go. For Turn 1

After you've downloaded the central command, and are looking at the yellow screen immediately click on (upper right-hand), the help section > Website > Manual. This will open up to empyrean cluster wars manual, read the center column. After you've read that, look down a little farther, and click on Introduction ,then on Playing the Game ,read thru through these sections (lightly – you really no not need a deep understanding of anything yet). You can skip victory conditions for the moment, but it's basically to defeat everyone else.

After reading this, you should look at Turn Sequence and Orders. Reading this will show you the order in which things happen and you will get a good sense of what things you can do. Trying to make sense of all this at this juncture is pointless, just remember where it is so that when you want to look something up, to understand it more fully or precisely, you can do so.

Directly to the right and over a bit you will see the assembly chart, don't bother to open it yet. It just gives you more information about the items listed below it, such as what they are composed of and what they do. For the moment, just looking at the names of these items will give you an excellent idea of what they do. The details can be dealt with later. Below that you will see the population chart. This lists all of your minions. Let's take a moment to go over your population, because it is quite important and is the only irreplaceable item in the game. You will always want to try to grow your population, as it is the only limiting factor for production and development.

Constructors-- as you begin to view all the different items in your possession, you will see they come in basically 2 categories, Those Requiring Assembly and, those that do not. Every item has a mass or a weight -- described as mass units. You can work any of these out under Units Characteristics Chart's at a later date. The point is you need constructors to assemble them or to disassemble them or to scrap them. One construction worker can assemble (ASM), 500 mass units.

You will also see Police, and, Special Agents. These are used to keep your population in line. At the least, for the time being, it would be a good idea to keep the percentages/ratios the same you were started with. This goes for payment to any population also.

You also see Professionals. These are the heart of your game, all factories, mines, research facilities, hyper engines transporters use them, thus, the more of them that you have, the better off you are. They increase a number of different ways, 5% graduate each year (four turns) from soldiers, and 5% graduate from the amount of trainees each turn. Trainees are drafted from your pool of unskilled, ideally you would like to draft almost 100% of your unskilled into trainees (however you have to leave some to make construction workers, or Police, etc.)

Then you see Soldiers. These run some of your military equipment, but they can mostly be replaced by military robots, you will want the robots when you have a military presence, more on this later.

You also see Unemployables, they just kind of stand there, taking up food & space, but they are very important since your unskilled population will increase, from them at a rate of about 5% per turn, also you will notice at some point that you have a birth rate and a death rate. Yearly (a game year is four turns). Your population is birthed as unemployables and your death rate applies across all forms of population (POP). Remember in the future to grow your population at every opportunity you get. You will understand these opportunities later on. I would say we now know enough for us to get started, by looking at some of our possessions and having them, explained to you, The easiest way out (now that you are in the manual) is to close everything and then reopen central command.

The box in the upper left-hand corner should say CWT2, make sure that's the one that selected, then press the download turns button, and when the download box opens up click on download. The dialog box opens up, under:"files found find true " click okay.

Follow directions until you are able to click on the open Empire button. Then do so. You should see four entities to the right. The numbered open colony is also your home colony. It is, as its name suggests, an open colony or city, this 1st one is also your home world and can have up to 250,000,000 people (25 happens to be the number of Hab Points that you are sitting on) each Hab-point can have up to 10,000,000 people. (Note when the habitability is exceeded the planetary death rate goes up.)

Let's click on it and see what you have got inside. The colony display has a number of tabs.
The 1st section, you should click on is Stats.Glance through this section, you will see the total population its birth rate, it's death rate, various different pay rates for different types of population, and all the different stats for your home colony, as the game progresses each turn, you probably want to take a quick look at some of these stats, but for the moment, just get an idea of what they are and where they are.

After you've done that, let's take a quick look at your inventory, which can be seen under the inventory tab. This lists the stuff your colony has. Among the things you will see, are hyper engines, space drives, light structure, life support units, etc. these are the items you need to build spaceships. You also see factories, and automation, and mines. These are the building blocks of your economy. We will get back to this section later, when we want to get going and to get a few things done.

The next section, you should take a look at is the manufacturing tab. Here you will see the amount of assembled factories you have, and what they are producing. What you see in the 3rd quarter now, these will come out next turn and become part of your inventory (these quantities of items, which are listed as finished have been added to this turns inventory).

Next ,take a quick look at (click on) the activity Tab. Among other things, this will show you how many professionals you've used each turn, and how they were used. I’ll have more on this later.

If you click on the system tab, also known as system data, you will see your colony number, any other colonies that happened to be at the same orbit. Such as, in this instance your orbiting colony, which is where you produce your light structural units, and any ships that happened to be in the same orbit as you, such as the 2 ships you have started with. This tab also shows what type of planet you are on and its habitability number if it has one.

Now we going to discuss how to get you through turn one.(While you are learning the game and its hardware) Your economic advisers have suggested to you that you build your economy as fast as possible, so let’s take a look at some of the ways this can be accomplished. You’ll notice, when looking at your home colonies inventory, that you have 8,000,000 factories - 1, so it should be fairly obvious that you should assemble them, (we will go over how to execute and write the orders later). In central command you will find under the Ruler’s tools, a current technology status tab, this tab shows you both the highest technology level that you have in all of the game items, and also the highest levels that have been obtained by any other player’s (this would be under the column in the far right named Max (for maximum level thus far obtained by any player). You will also discover here (or in the unit characteristics chart) that a factory 1 will produce 20 times its tl in mass units. So,a factory 1 will use some combination of metals and nonmetals, (depending upon the item produced) to equal 20, and 8,000,000 factory ones will use the total of 160,000,000 metals / nonmetals per turn. Now when you look back in your inventory, you will see that you have over 2,000,000,000 metals and nonmetals, not to mention what you can mine . So the point of this is that you should use up your resources via production as rapidly as you can and as fast as you can replace them. Since you seem to have so much of them to start with,(later in the game, you would be using an excess of 1,000,000,000 units per turn) the fastest way for you to use them is not simply to assemble the factory -1’s, but to expend your research (you have 12,000,000 in storage) to go to a higher TL level of factories, and build them at that level. (Look up the EXP order in the manual.). When you do the math, you’ll see that the highest factory level that you could go to is TL 5, (and these factories once they have been built will produce 100 mass units per turn) this would use 10,000,000 of your 12,000,000 research points-- another option might be only to go to TL -4 this would use only 6,000,000, and would leave you another 6,000,000 to use for other things like increasing your life support levels ,or structural unit levels. It is key that you use the vast bulk of the factory -1’s to produce a higher level factory.

The following is a typical concept of a very reasonable turn 1. This will be followed by Instructions on how to write orders using the central command order writer.

Turn 1 concept:

1) Expend your research to go to factory tl level fives.( or 4’s)

2) Assemble, all of your automation 3.( Aut replaces Usk , 1,aut-3 replaces 9 Usk)

3) Assemble approximately 8,000,000 factory-1’s making factory -5’s

4) Draft as many trainees as you can, from your Usk pool.( until you build up sufficient supplies of automation you will need some to run your fct’s ,mines,& lab’s)
{Fct’s & Mines both require 1 Pro & 3 Usk each to run them wile labs require 3 Pro’ & 1 Usk.}

5) Do a survey to see what type of mineral deposits you have on the ground.

6) Do an interior system probe to see what if anything is in the system with you and to see what type of planets are in your home system.

7) Do a distance system probe to see if any star systems are within the range that you can see (10 light years).

If you are an inexperienced or new leader, following this scenario will provide you with at least an equal footing to any of the other players and will gradually familiarize you with the orders. (How to write or execute them follows next)



1) Click on the Cen Com2 icon.

2) In the upper right-hand corner you will see the select game name.
Select CWT2.

3) Click on open the Empire.

4) At the top you will see Rulers Tools, when you click on this, choose the order writer. (The display is sizable,so size it to your liking.)

5) The upper left-hand corner you will see a dialog box with a arrow, when you click on the arrow it will show you a list of all the possible orders. The 1st order you are going to write is the expend order. EXP

Scroll to and then click on the expend order. You will be asked if you are using prototypes, the answer is no.

You will see you Colony number in the yellow box to your left use the cursor to click on your home colony number, back at the top of the display, you will see “enter amount”, write in its place 10,000,000-- the best way to do this is using the shorthand 1E7. Otherwise enter 10000000 do not use commas in the numbers.

In the 3rd box at the top of the page, when you click on arrow, you will see select item and a list of items, select the item Factories.

Click on the add box, and you will see your order as it is written.
That should read C#,Expend,10,000,000,factories
The # sign should be your colony number.

Next turn, when the orders are processed you will have used 10,000,000 research points and you will see you now have factory 5 ability.

Now do your next order. You should use the assembly order. ASM
Again, pick your colony number in the box, then in the upper left (go to select order) and scroll down to assemble. Once assemble is in the box move over to amount ,enter 8e6, in the 3rd box labeled as select item, select Factories, when it asks if you are adding onto an existing group click no. The box with TL is highlighted, since the factors you are assembling are TL-1 level, type in 1. Next there is a dialog box under the item that you have picked –factories-this box is asking what the factories that you have assembled are going to build, pick factories, since that is indeed what we are about to build, next to it you will see aTL, replace it with the Tl of the factories that we are going to build, which is 5. Click on the add box to the center left, and then you will see the order as it is written. That should read C#, Assemble 8,000,000, factories – 1, factories – 5.

The next order, you should write, will be to assemble, all of your automation – 3.
As before, choose your home colony number, then you select the order assemble, under quantity mode, select ALL, this will enter the amount ALL in the enter amount dialog box. Then pick the item automation, then select it, once you’ve done this, the TL box will open, since you are assembling your automation – 3, enter the number 3.

The next 3 orders will give you an idea of where you are, and what’s in the ground. Then add the order to order file by using the add button to the middle left. As before you will see the order appear in the center of the screen.

This would be the point at which I should advise you that if you have miswritten or added an incorrect number somehow, you can highlight the order by clicking on it with your cursor, this will cause a series of buttons to become active in the top center of the screen, and you can click on the delete button, which will erase the highlighted order.

Next in the order writer, select your home colony, in the select order box, pick Survey\Sur. If you don’t want to scroll all the way down, just enter the letter S and the list of possible orders that start with the letter S will come Up.
Then hit the add button, and you will see the order C#,Survey, planet.
Next Turn, when you are looking at your home colony, you will see the results of the survey in the system data Tab.

The next 2 orders are the PRB, or probe orders.
In order writer, pick your home colony #, in the Select order dialog box select probe\Prb, and in the clear dialog box to your right, click on the arrow and you will see “system” and “orbit”. For the 1st of these 2 orders pick system, when you have done that, a small box will open, this is the distance box, the maximum distance that you can probe your assembled sensor ones, is a maximum distance of 10, so enter 10. Then hit the add button. You should see the order appear C#, probe, system 10. Next turn, Under “rulers Tools”. You can pick the space navigator, and you will see the coordinates for all the star systems, within 10 light years of you.

Now repeat this process, only this time instead of system you will select orbit.
This will open to boxes to your left. A and Orbit,--Select All ( as opposed to A,or B etc. and in the Orbit dialog box also pick All. Next turn, after the orders have been processed, and you are looking at your home colony, pick the system data tab and you will see what is in each of your home system’s orbits.

The final order, for this turn would be the draft order DRF.
You should look up the draft order later, but here is how you write the proper order for this turn.
From the “select order” dialog box pick draft, use your home colony #. As for the amount, you should be drafting FROM all of your free unskilled (or I should say unused). If you do the calculations, this will come up to a number somewhat over 48,000,000, Or for simplicity sake, you can just pick 48e6. In the 3rd dialog box on top when you click on the arrow, you will see a list of population, which you can draft, select trainees. In the “Race” box, pick whatever your race number is.
Your race number is the number that follows your population type.
Such as professionals – 1, or professionals – 21 - your number will fall within this range.
Your final set of orders will be to have your home colony pick up (PUP) all your light structural units – 2, from your orbiting colony, and then to transfer (TRF) from your home world, the amount of metals and nonmetals that you have used in your orbiter, to your orbiter.
You should be able, by now to figure out how to write these orders on your own, but if you fail for some reason, it is of no great importance.

Next turn we will double the size of your orbiting colony, build ships and begin exploration.

Takamo
A little scrounging around in the Wayback Machine, this morning, yielded an old website for the PBM game, Takamo. The bigger news find for this game, though, was Chad Baldwin's Tumbler site, where I learned that Takamo is being developed as a MMORTS (Massive Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) game.

Communiqué Interception
Exploring Tumblr led me to Stochastic Gamer's posting about an idea that he had for a Communiqué Interception PBM game. It wasn't long, though, before he was rethinking the use of a postal-based approach for the game, as he mentions here.

Undying Kings Games
Earlier this week, back on July 134th, 2013, I sent an e-mail to Undying Kings Games, to inquire about whether or not they are still involved with PBM, anymore? Mo Holkar kindly responded, "No, we're not involved in PBM any more." Some info pertaining to the old PBM games that Undying Kings Games used to run can still be found on their website, by clicking here.

PBM Gamer
The guy that I like to refer to as the Mad Scientist of PBM, Mark Wardell, is still stuck in an apparent time warp or suspended animation, apparently - at least, as it relates to all things play by mail. The PBM Gamer website is in the dreaded Maintenance Mode, which basically means that Mark has taken his PBM-related site offline. On a more positive note, the PBM Gamer forums are still up and running, but there hasn't been an actual posting made to those forums by anyone since August 21st, 2012 - almost one full year ago!

Flying Buffalo Gamer Forums
Dropping in on the Flying Buffalo Gamer Forums to check for new activity there revealed no new forum postings on that PBM-related site since January of this year (2013).

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls
If you're a fan of Rick Loomis, Flying Buffalo, Inc., or the old Tunnels & Trolls game, you might just want to take a peek at what's up with the new Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls game over on the Kickstarter site for the game. Over one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars has been pledged by fans and believers to help turn this gaming project into reality.

Doug Malewicki
If the name rings a bell, but you can't quite put your finger on it, then be sure to check out Doug Malewicki's website. The PBM connection is not Doug's link to Evel Knievel's X-1 rocket Skycycle. Rather, it will "loom" large, if you scroll down the page far enough. If, however, what you are really after is a photo of Flying Buffalo's Skyczar drinking a can of Mountain Dew, then you'll probably want to go here, instead.

New Standard Game (G88) starting on July 29th. If you are interested
in joining, please send an Email to warlord@play-by-e-mail.com
by July 29th with initial build or login to your account
and submit it through the website or fax me the initial build at
484-334-7634.

In addition to the standard rules, the game will be using:

1) Random Corporations (i.e. the Corporation numbers will be be based on the sector)
2) Victory is considered 90+ Sites.
3) No Events
4) Starting year is Y165
5) Only people who have not been in the top 3 places in Die Hard 27-30 or Standard Game G84-G87

Prizes:
-------
$50 - First Place
$25 - Second Place
$10 - Third Place

Paul Franz
warlord@play-by-e-mail.com

Back when David Webber was the editor, his magazine, Paper Mayhem, featured a section titled, "Where We're Heading..." So, in tribute to David, I thought that I would use that as the subject heading for this editorial.

Domain renewal time is fast approaching for the PlayByMail.Net URL address for this site. I will be renewing the domain, probably later this week. I don't want it to expire. The actual web hosting is not due for renewal until a few months down the road, if memory serves me correctly.

Though the obituary for play by mail gaming has been written by many down through the years, nonetheless, reality being what it is, several decent sized chunks of the PBM landscape from yesteryear are still with us, today. Granted, while these chunks - PBM games, PBM companies, PBM moderators, and the PBM player base - may not be as large as some of us might otherwise prefer, they are still intact, with varying degrees of vibrancy evident in several different ones of them.

The relevance of it to this particular article is that they translate into links for me to post, and occasionally update, on this site.

In a nutshell, it ends up being quite a few links, several dozen at the very least. So, one challenge becomes, how to present them to site visitors who happen across our little island of PBM interest that floats here in the vastness of the Internet.

I want to make the site a little more presentable, a little more aesthetically pleasing, for site visitors. I just need to decide what I want it to look like, before contacting someone to help me to create that look.

As time passes, more and more PBM related material will likely become lost to one and all who find the play by mail genre of gaming to be of interest. As PBM players and PBM moderators pass away, one by one, their experiences and their views about PBM gaming become voids, never to be filled.

On a purely personal level, I have no desire to violate anyone's copyright on anything that is PBM related, nor any desire to violate anyone's trademark on anything that is PBM related. In many instances, I have no idea, whatsoever, whom holds what claim to various PBM related material. So, archiving various things of PBM interest is always problematic, at best.

Thus, instead of a central repository, of sorts, of all things PBM related, I strive, instead, to facilitate and nurture an interest in PBM gaming in a rather limited way.

It would be really nice, if there were the equivalent of a PBM Museum, even if it were only an online one. However, trying to look at things in a manner that is realistic, I suspect that none of us will ever be quite so lucky as to have a PBM Museum at our convenience.

Of course, there's no grand conspiracy to keep such a thing from ever happening. Rather, those individuals best suited to making it happen are either dead or disinterested or have simply never given such a thing a thought.

I really wish that Paper Mayhem and the other PBM magazines from years gone by could be preserved in electronic format, for the future benefit of those that come after us, as well as those of us who still retain an interest in such, currently.

We have the PlayByMail.Net forums, here, and we have the PBM Wiki. The forums are dreadfully underpopulated and sparingly used, and the wiki is little more than a hollow shell and bare list of a portion of the PBM games and PBM companies that have existed down through the years.

Yet, it is what it is, as the saying goes.

For the real meat, for the true substance full of details about various PBM games, one must venture elsewhere on the Internet, to the various locations that collectively comprise what I call, the Hivemind of PBM Gaming.

Here, at PlayByMail.Net, we basically serve as a hub, of sorts - a portal that is limited in what we offer, based on the reality of the PBM scene as it is, today.

Numerous PBM related forums litter the Internet, like virtual equivalents of ghost towns. Fortunately, there are several forums or discussion groups out there where PBM players gather in more concentrated numbers.

The PBM games that continue to thrive, those with sizable numbers of active players, they don't really need nurturing - for the very simple reason that they are not on the verge of dying, anytime soon.

The PBM magazines of old, those were driving forces in play by mail gaming. They were tangible, meaningful, and possessing of great substance to growing and to perpetuating the genre of gaming that is play-by-mail.

And PlayByMail.Net? PlayByMail.Net plays a role. It serves a purpose. But, it is more of an observer than a catalyst for energizing the PBM community. Where the PBM magazines sought to be active catalysts for PBM gaming, PlayByMail.Net tends to be far more passive in nature.

Maybe that needs to change. Maybe it doesn't. For the foreseeable future, at least, it is what it is, I suppose.

PBM's Old Guard, as I like to call them, remain very influential to PBM gaming as it has evolved to be. There's fewer of them, now, still active in this genre of gaming. Yet, they remain relevant - not just to PBM in its current state, but to the future of PBM gaming, at large.

Whether one agreed or not with what Paper Mayhem editor, David Webber, said, in those "Where We're Heading..." columns that he wrote, time after time after time, one things is certain - Where PBM gaming was concerned, David Webber was always heading somewhere.

The same could be said for Carol Mulholland, editor of Flagship magazine.

Across the vast cosmos that is PBM gaming, Carol's voice has fallen silent. Yet, time and time and time, again, Carol put forth her voice. Her investment of time, energy, effort, and interest into the hobby of PBM gaming bore much fruit, over the years. Carol, too, was always heading somewhere, where PBM gaming was concerned.

In the old days, PBM companies contended with one another for paying customers. The spirit of competition was alive and well across the entire length and width and breadth of play by mail gaming. That fire burned. It burned brightly, and it inspired countless legions of PBM fans, and it attracted a long procession of newcomers to a realm where ideas and paper met gaming.

These days, that spirit of competition has died. A vastly different atmosphere reigns. The flame flickers weakly. The genre attracts little attention, little interest from a world that has more people than ever before.

With each envelope that arrived in one's mailbox, the heat from that flame could be felt. The air of mystery was great, and anticipation built to a staggering crescendo, as each mailbox yielded forth to PBM players across the world a healthy serving of tension and excitement. The world of the PBM gamer was alive with meaning. The future of PBM gaming was bright. The world of PBM gaming would never end.

Then, reality set in.

Not content with annihilating the hobby of PBM gaming, by taking a massive toll on both PBM games and PBM companies, the PBM Plague has proven to be relentless in its pursuit of saddling play by mail gaming with a slow death and a torturous existence.

A mere shell of its once inspiring greatness, the PBM genre of gaming has lost its innovation. It has lost its way. It has lost its competitive spirit. It languishes in an abyss of its own making.

PBM gaming was about more than just turn orders and due dates and turn results. It was about more than just gaming. It was a people enterprise. People brought the genre into existence, and people have kept the genre alive, in spite of all odds being stacked against its continued survival.

I can't speak to the entirety of the PBM community, nor even for a majority of it, as far as what they intend for the future of their participation in the hobby that is play by mail gaming.

For myself, though, I can speak. It is my hope that the coming year will be a better and more productive one for me, as far as how my own interest in PBM gaming - the hobby, the genre, the experience - plays out. Granted, time may ultimately bear me out to be wrong, but as I stand upon this Rock of PBM Memories that I enjoy, this day, I feel the flicker of that flame, once more.

I see it. I sense it. I feel it in the marrow of my PBM bones.

Now, if I can only stir myself to action.

Just a head's up - if you enter standing orders you have to transmit them separately from or in addition to your normal turn orders.

that threw a little wrench into my turn 3

Here is my nutshell take on initial game strategy.

There are four basic areas in which TL must be developed continuously. All other efforts are ultimately subordinate, though temporarily may be of higher priority at times.

1. Laboratories and Research:

Laboratories are consumers of Fuel/Power and most importantly require MANY Professionals to run them. The first higher TL Labs should be added to the OBC where Solar Power can be used to power them. They consume no other resources so will NOT be a drain on transport once established. Of course you will need a bigger OBC and LFS to accomodate the staffing.

2. Mines and Resources:

Mining TL is a VERY high priority since the home world UNLIMITED deposits will inevitably be the bulwark of the home system economy. Elevating Mine TL will increase maximum limits on resource supplies while remaining stable as far as staffing requirements. The 1,000,000 Mines per Deposit limit sets the pace.

3. Factories and Manufacturing:

Factory TL is next as you must have the resources to use in the manufacturing processes or you will outstrip them. Factories are not limited as to how many can be assembled in each Factory Group. Thus ultimately 23 Factory Groups should suffice for the manufacturing complex in any one colony. Doing Build Change orders to higher TL of 200 will ensure that they always attempt to produce the highest TL Items possible.

4. Propulsion Systems:

Space Drive TL determines how many you need to go how fast during Maneuver Orders which occur in tactical distance units within one orbit. Hyper Engine TL on the other hand determine the lift capacity AND the absolute range of interstellar Jumps that can be executed. The range being formulated for this game is 3 + SQRT(TL). Starting at TL-2 we are limited to distances of 4.414 Light Years per Jump. You must achieve a TL of 49 in order to Jump 10 Light Years (the distance achieved by a maximum system probe for exploration). It will be a long haul achieving TL-49.

_________________________________________________________

Transports (and now Beamers) will be important to Research too. Basically all Items need to be advanced with their own unique advantages and limitations. Thus the priority of LABS!!!

One of the best PBM related sites that I have stumbled across in a while, the DungeonWorld - PBM blog site is worth a visit.

DungeonWorld is a game run by Madhouse Interactive Entertainment, known affectionately as Madhouse, for short.

I will share some files that I use to help me with game planning and design of S/C's. Please let me know if you have questions or suggestions about the content. there may be errors as I have been working on them from time to time for three years and the changes are a moving target.

Sifting through the Internet for scattered remnants and artifacts of play-by-mail gaming from days gone by leaves me wondering, at times, what's the point?

The stuff that I want to find the most is long since gone - assuming that it was ever on the Internet to begin with, and the people that I most want to communicate with, aren't exactly the most accessible.

Finding the Old Guard of PBM, or at least, what remains of its dwindling numbers, is vastly easier than communicating with them. I've found a few of them, over time, and it's probably accurate to say that at least a few of them have no real interest in being "found." By that, I mean, being bothered - bothered with a genre of gaming that, to them, "died" many years ago.

Dusty tomes of PBM rulebooks, from games of all sorts, lie undisturbed in boxes the world over, hidden away from those who would seek them out, that their long-dormant secrets might be known by mortal men, once more. It might be best if I tread not at all in the Corridors of the Past, which lead to all things play by mail.

Oh, but how the mighty have been vanquished, retreating to this Mausoleum of Silence that has become sanctuary to them. Here, in the present of what is the future of PBM's past, we have become invisible to them. Though they remain very real, indeed, to us, it is we who have ceased to exist - ceased to exist in the Eyes of PBM's forefathers.

Thus, the Elder race of PBM moderators, like so many games from PBM's past, have become lost to the stars. They continued to advance in technology, and we, their descendents - the rightful heirs to PBM's golden legacy - wallow in the squallor of a genre of gaming that seems Hell-bent on passing us by. They mined it for all that it was worth, and then they abandoned us for the greener pastures of tomorrow.

Now, we co-exist with them, separated from them by the dimensions of our respective lives.

This is the reality from which I speak, as I sit here at my desk, pouring over Phil Chenevert's star map for Blood, Gore & Guts Across the Galaxy that is depicted on page number five of Paper Mayhem issue #69. As I sit here in the semi-dark, my eyes squinting to make out what the text of Phil's article says, Deltax Gaming looms before me like runes from a long-forgotten empire whose PBM star has long-since burned out. Surely, this bodes ill for Phil Chenevert's Armadillos of Love.

In the space between PBM's Old Guard and those poor, unfortunate stragglers who seek to till ancient ground, no one can hear you scream.

In due time, this facility that is the PlayByMail.Net website will be lost to time, as well. But, that moment in time has not yet arrived, for us. As such, we continue to stand guard against the encroaching seconds that click off the clock. Their assault is an ongoing one, one that never ceases, and against which there ultimately is no defense.