For the latest development news on Ilkor: Dark Rising, jump over to our blog.

Remember we are still looking for playtesters. It is not too late to get your name onto the waiting list. If you are interested then go and signup on the website or drop me a message.

Become a rail baron in the 19th century! We're still looking for players in the next game of Continental Rails II.

English rules:

http://www.danard.net/en/rules/contrails2/CR.html

Registration form (first name / surname, player name, e-mail address):

http://www.pbem-spiele.de/index.php?id=81

I have signed on with the "free" option in Beyond the Stellar Empire, as seen at this web site:

http://www.kjcgames.com/phoenix/nexus/index.php

You can play indefinitely if all you ever run are ships and ground parties. As soon as you want to run a starbase or a "political" position, you need to subscribe with the moderators for a regular charge. But I am approaching this as a complete novice, so that's what I'll be writing about here.

BSE is an open-ended science fiction space-opera type game, with computer and human moderation. I have absolutely no experience with this genre, so I will be learning (and documenting) as I go.

My first impression is that KJC is very professional, and knows how to put up a good web site. There is abundant online documentation, and you can basically run your turns right out of the browser. There is also an active discussion forum, which I will look forward to joining at some point.

Upon setting up a new login, you can set up a starting position as a starship captain in a neutral (but centrally-located) part of space. You go through a series of questions on what race you want to be, which of 3 starter ship hulls you want, a name for your commanding officer, etc. I went for a human crew with a surveyor ship -- not the fastest, but has some serviceable cargo space. All of this was pretty straightforward.

Then there came a suggestion to begin the "starter mission". I am not too clear on how "missions" work. Apparently I was invited to take part in a survey mission of a nearby planet. To begin, I needed to get to the planet where the "customer" was. I wasn't sure which planet *I* was on yet. But at the bottom of the mission page there was a link that sent me to the "Orders" page, where I can "submit" my orders that the "mission" already prefilled for me to get me to the target.

I did that, but still saw in "Incomplete" flag on the status of that particular mission. I now believe that's because while I had submitted the orders, they hadn't been processed yet. The next day, I apparently arrived at my destination, and was presented with a series of options on executing the survey mission.

Do I want to land? Do I want to contact the locals or go in quiet? Do I want to ignore illegal salvagers or engage them? Simple mission options, and they seemed to follow a pre-planned model. By the end of that day, apparently I bounced those salvagers, took some jewelry as booty, took some casualties, and sent them fleeing. I don't know what kind of jewelry or how much, nor do I know how badly my crew was hurt. But apparently my survey work on the surface is complete and I am now en route back to my customer with their data in hand. I am supposed to be rewarded with an upgrade to my ship's sensor array. We shall see.

All of this is entertaining, if a little confusing. What REALLY has me going are these little glimpses to the larger universe I am getting.

First, I can see space-scan reports wherever my ship travels, and take note of interstellar commerce, which is quite abundant. Each ship name is prefixed by their affiliation code -- one of the large player-run teams that control some aspect of the game and that set the context for in-game role-playing.

Second, I see that every aspect of my ship and crew is being tracked in meticulous detail -- what my maintenance status is, crew skill levels, space combat profiles and stats, very fine-grained and deep. This is what computers are good at, and why I think many PBM games have failed to exploit the vast computational and tracking powers available to all of us today.

Third, I found that EVERY PLANET in this game has a visual ground map. With thousands of planets -- that is a LOT of data! Once I get my feet wet, I am going to savor the idea of snooping around all over known space to find what fate throws me among such rich detail!

Now about those affiliations. Everyone starts out in the "Trainee" group, which is somewhat protected from combat and exploitation for a while. I did get in-game emails from 3 different affiliations. Apparently people take notice when new players sign up. I looked through the affiliate descriptions and submitted a request to join one of them. I clicked the wrong one, however, and got a reply from a fourth affiliation gently suggesting that I finish going through the "training" missions before joining anyone.

So that's what I'm doing now. I will go through every "startup" mission I can and see how far that takes me. I'll see if I can learn what other types of actions I can take. I will read through the extensive documentation. And I may dip into the player forum.

All in all, a promising start, if somewhat confusing.

The Realm of Darkness is an Empire that has been built on the foundation of warfare and treachery. The Xythron are consummate warriors and are unparalleled in their skill at forming Alliances of convenience and then breaking that Alliance when doing so is the most damaging to their victim.

Baroque was a little-known PBM game run briefly in 1986 by Game Anvil.

For a mere $150, you can have a copy of the rules (replete with "staple rust"), thanks to a delusional seller on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Game-Anvil-Baroq...0559466587

This seller has a few other PBM items up for auction at equally inflated prices. Such as: the 1984 edition of the Illuminati rulebook (no staple rust, this time!) for $50. I'll sell you a photocopy of mine for $49.99.

But that ain't nothing compared to the $2000 he wants for Up the Garden Path, an "adventure module" from TSR published in 1986.

If you buy it, I think you'll have been led *down* the garden path...

-- Bob McLain

As a few of you may recall, I published a magazine in the early 1980s about play-by-mail games called PBM Universal. It soon morphed into Gaming Universal, then I sold it to Advent Games (US) and Flagship (UK).

Selling that magazine was a decision I regret.

I've published other magazines, and I still make my living as a writer and editor. But I suppose it's true that you never forget your first one.

So I've decided to relaunch PBM Universal.

Obviously, the audience for PBM games now is far, far smaller than it was three decades ago. I expect the new PBM Universal not to blaze a trail but rather to fill a niche - a growing niche, since my definition of "PBM" is broad enough to encompass turn-based gaming in all its many forms.

In a sense, it's a vanity project, because I truly do miss the "old days". But it's also a serious project, and one for which I've spent substantial time over the past few months accumulating material, locking in contributors, devising a unique delivery system, and thinking hard about what will work and what won't work.

I've set March 1, 2012, as the launch date.

I'll provide further details here, as interest warrants, and soon on pbmuniversal.com, as well. (Don't bother going there now: the site won't be available until January.)

If anyone is interested in sharing their ideas, providing content, or perhaps becoming a regular contributor, please get in touch.

-- Bob McLain

Pegasus Productions

On a sad note, I learned last night that Phil McDowell of Pegasus Productions passed away in August, after a lengthy seven year battle with cancer. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Phil McDowell in the aftermath of this loss, an individual who is no doubt well remembered in PBM circles.

I had inquired of Phil's brother, Rick McDowell, via e-mail as to whether Alamaze was no more, due to Pegasus Productions' website for the game still being down since at least April. That's when I learned the news of Phil's passing.

Phil McDowell passed away in August of this year.

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PBM Wiki

Over at the PBM Wiki site, I have added several dozen PBM companies from yesteryear to the list, bringing the total list compiled to date to 315.

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Galactic Prisoners

There's a new fan site dedicated to the old PBM classic, Galactic Prisoners. Site administrator Michael extends an invitation to all former Galactic Prisoners players to join him in sharing their memories about this play by mail game with one and all.

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London Engarde

The Yahoo! discussion group dedicated to the game, London Engarde, has only experienced one posting, since September of this year, so not much is happening on that site, at the moment.

The link on that site to http://www.londonengarde.com/ yields a dead end, also.

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PBM Gamer

Mark Wardell's PBM Gamer website is still a ghost town, of late, with no new PBM news emanating from the that site for at least six months, now. Mark's last posting on that site is dated June 14th, 2011. The site, itself, is still up and running, though, so perhaps Mark will resume his PBM reporting activities at some point in the not-too-distant future.

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Starfleet Warlord

Dropping by the Starfleet warlord website, in order to see what's happening in their neck of the PBM woods, reveals that no new news items have been posted there since the summer just past.

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Rolling Thunder Games

The Rolling Thunder forums are sporting a new look.

I was browsing the Internet, tonight, and happened upon a few select quotes pertaining to Jim Landes' game design philosophy. Specifically, the ones that I want to single out for discussion are:

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"The strength of a game is not how you play, not how long you play, but rather how often you think of the game when you are not playing."
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"It is always about that unanswered question that makes a game "strong". Whether it be what is around that next corner, or the myriad of "What if" questions that come to the player and sow the seeds of inquiry. The mistake I think most designers make at this moment in time, is that they equate "content" with "Strength". I believe this to be an error of perception."
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"Strength is fluidity of play, unique and changing situations, new information, and what amounts to be non static interaction with both the players and the game environment. This type of strength is not generated by eye-candy, but by the underlying game simulation that runs the game system and what has been all but ignored for the last 20 years."
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Jim Landes' remark about content being equated with strength, and that this is an error of perception by game designers, has much truth in it, I think. Lots of games with lots of content falls by the wayside. Content is king on the World Wide Web, or so it has been said, but is content king, where PBM game design is concerned?

After I arrived home, tonight, I logged online and visited the PlayByMail.Net website, only to notice that several more PBM gamers had registered, including a couple of Phoenix players and a fellow by the name of Bob McLain.

It's good to see a few of KJC Games' players of the game Phoenix signing up on the site here, and discussing that game.

It's also good to see Bob McLain drop by, and take a few moments out to register. Bob's visit got my old brain wheels to turning, and now as I sit here drinking my Pepsi and pondering on all things PBM, I cannot help but to wonder who the real King Midas of PBM really was?

Those old fading memories and rusty recollections of play by mail gaming during its heyday are the equivalent of gold to those of us who still cling to the hobby of PBM gaming as a valid form of entertainment, one with value and substance. Now, I don't know that Bob McLain is the true King Midas of the postal gaming genre, but I suspect that he's certainly in the running, what with his vast stash and secret caches of PBM materials stuck away in various nooks and crannies. Open that PBM vault, Bob, and let us all take a good, long peek inside. It would do our souls good!

Site user Walter is probably turning cartwheels, right about now, what with Jim Landes and Bob McLain both arriving onsite within a couple of days or so of one another, replete with those Phoenix players that I mentioned, above.

Jim Landes would be a contender for the crown of PBM King Midas, as would Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo fame. There' a lot of contenders, if you pause and dwell on some of those old PBM icons of fame who are still around, all these many years later.

You know as well as I do that, somewhere out there, there are still some copies of rulebooks and turn results floating around. They're stored in old boxes, and gathering dust, doing nobody any good. Maybe they're hoarding all of that PBM gold in the hope that, someday, it will all be worth a fortune. Or, maybe they've just plain forgotten all about it. In the case of the latter, then that PBM stuff is as good as non-existent, at this point.

Maybe what we need is a PBM Museum, of sorts, an archive to preserve the DNA of PBM gaming. That's pretty much an exercise in wishful thinking, though. It would probably receive less visitors per year than the largest ball of twine. Perhaps the Internet shall have to suffice to serve as curator for the museum that never was.

There are a number of things that I would be willing to scan and to post online, that are PBM related, but I have no innate desire to step on anyone's copyright or trademark toes, if you know what I mean. But, the sum totality of all things PBM related that I possess in physical form would be smaller than a garden gnome.

King Midas acquired the golden touch - everything that he touched would turn to gold. Here's hoping that the close of this year (2011) and the dawn of the new year (2012) will herald a stronger, more vibrant PBM scene.

Hello All,

I am Jim Landes. I just discovered this forum and decided to drop in and lend what help I can to shed light on the lifecycle of PBM and my own small contributions to the PBM and computer gaming hobby. Feel free to ask questions and I will answer as I have time.

Kindest regards,

Jim