SNIFL Football kicked off it's 20th season this week. For this season the league has contracted to three 10 team divisions. The reserve league is will not run this season, but managers will be able to get experience for their youth players via the youth league. Scouting will also return this season, with the first bids for Scout services due this week. SNIFL is currently taking applications for new managers at The SNIFL website

Dave, SNIFL Transfers and Scouting

My name is Jared.
I have been a member on grimfinger.net and warbaron for a little over a year now so some of you may know me from there. I live in southern colorado in a town called Alamosa at about 7500' in elevation so the air gets a little thin here so you might notice its effects on my posts at times, IDK.
Anyway might as well push my business here too, I operate a coal burning forge and blacksmith shop in my spare(hah!) time and am looking to sell the weapons I am creating there. If anyone cares to see what I currently have to offer check out the weaponsmithing post on either grims site grimfinger.net or on warbaron. Or if there is some interest I will post my pics and descritions prices etc here too.
So anyway greetings to all

I found a really interesting website:
http://www.shannon-muir.com/fiction.htm

"As an offshoot of that, I wrote a set of stories about the creation of the team and later some smaller stories about some of the other members. The series on the creation of the team, featuring team leader Femme Fatale, appeared in the PBM magazine Paper Mayhem from 1992 to 1996. Paper Mayhem folded following its editor, David Webber, passing away following a battle with cancer. After a long break, I took up the reins in the e-zine Sabledrake Magazine (now on hiatus) from 2002 to 2004 in order to give the story characters – that grew beyond the game characters – the attention they deserved. I now have the rights to the Paper Mayhem material and hope to make it available again in the future".

Well, that would be something wouldn't it?

Have a good saturday!

We've just blogged about our new Scroll Popup that we're using on our website to display additional information in the Features section on the homepage.



Read our blog here: Ilkor Blog

Check out Ilkor here and signup.

ilkor.com is getting updated on a fairly regular basis. If you are interested in learning more about this new online Fantasy RPG Turn-based game then it is worthwhile visiting it from time to time.

Currently we are generating new content at least every two weeks and pushing it live.

New content will mostly come in the way of scroll popups.

We've just released an update that gives more information on Lord Vega and Orco. You can get to this information from the homepage. Click on the Core Features of Ilkor and then click on the images of Lord Vega and Orco.

Eventually this entire 'Features' section will be riddled with additional content which will help provide a richer backdrop to the game setting and mechanics.

Once everything is in-place various pieces of the puzzle will give you a complete picture of what Ilkor: Dark Rising is about.

Cheers,

Sean.

While flipping through a back issue of Paper Mayhem magazine (Issue # 52 - Jan/Fed 1992), I came across an old ad from Cyborg Games for its PBM game called The Next Empire. In big bold letters in the upper left corner of that ad, it boldly declares: WE ARE THE FUTURE OF PBM GAMING!

If that was truly the case, then why isn't that game still up and running? Quite clearly, The Next Empire was not truly the future of PBM gaming. Either that, or it actually was - along with every other play by mail game that has gone belly up over the years. Translation? That would mean that PBM is dead, after all.

When I write on the subject of PBM gaming, I tend to cover some of the same ground, over and over and over, ad nauseum. Why? Because my thoughts on the subject tend to change and grow and reformulate themselves, with the passage of time.

I cannot help but to wonder how many hours of sleep that David Webber, the former editor of Paper Mayhem magazine, lost during his extended run as editor of that publication. His goal was basically to publish one issue every other month, a grand total of six times per year. That magazine had an editorial titled, "Where we're heading" that would appear in each issue. That article was invariably a look by David into the future of PBM gaming.

Having a PBM related website is similar to running a PBM magazine, in some ways, I suppose. They both require PBM related content. They both share a common need for content to be continually generated with a degree of freshness. They both cater to a very similar audience.

Then, too, there are notable differences between having a PBM related website and running a PBM magazine. David Webber always seemed to think that he had it hard, getting people to send him written material to print. As it turned out, David actually had it pretty easy, compared to how infrequently that site visitors, site users, and site subscribers post PBM related news or information, these days.

I never knew David on a personal level, and if he were still alive, today, then this site probably wouldn't even exist. I would just visit his website, since I have no doubt that he would have transitioned to the online environment, were he still with us, today.

He would be on Facebook. He would probably be on Twitter, too. He would likely be using some type of content management software. I think that he would be generating more content, more frequently, than he ever did in the past.

But, with David passing from the PBM scene several years back, the established PBM order seems to have passed away with him. There are still commercial play by mail companies in business, even today - but how many of them are advertising, in a traditional sense?

Elaine Webber, David's widow, is silent on things PBM related, these days. I'll bet that she has tons of quips and tales that she could tell us about David and about Paper Mayhem and about PBM gaming and its attendant industry, if she were inclined to do so. But, Elaine probably just went on with life, after David passed away. I don't know that, of course. It's just what I suspect, in the same way that many PBM company game moderators just went on with their respective lives, also.

For those who wonder what David Webber looked like, there's a photo of him on page # 1 of the 50th issue of Paper Mayhem magazine.

Paper Mayhem had a lot of interesting articles in it, over the years of its duration in the publishing industry. My personal favorite articles, however, were the "Where were heading" editorials penned by David, himself. They still make for good reading, all these years later.

If David Webber was here, today, and if he wondered where PlayByMail.Net was heading, I would probably be at a loss to tell him. David covered PBM from the perspective of going forward with the PBM industry. How is it possible, I wonder, to maintain that kind of perspective, when the PBM industry, itself, has mostly taken itself out of the loop?

Over time, David probably came to know - and to befriend - many in the PBM industry. He was, in essence, one of the very few de facto voices for the industry as whole. He wasn't the only one, of course, since other PBM publications did exist at various points over the years. But, I dare say that David Webber was arguably the most influential people within the industry, during his time spent covering the industry through Paper Mayhem.

As far as I am concerned, I will be the very first to concede that I'm no David Webber - nor do I want to be. I have no interest, per se, in befriending the captains of the modern day PBM industry. On a purely personal level, it matters little to me if a given PBM game thrives or dies. As history more than amply attests, death is a natural part of things PBM. Both games and companies come and go, in the universe of play by mail existence. I have no control over such things, and at most, I can but render an opinion. But, that's no different than anyone else, really.

The fate of most PBM companies and most PBM games was already carved in proverbial stone, long before anyone ever heard of me and this website. There's little point, I think, in investing much of oneself in an industry that doesn't even bother to invest in itself.

Of late, I think more and more of trying my hand at a PBM magazine. Much like David Webber, though, I suspect, I have no idea where the additional time will come from, in order to pull off such a feat.

I don't have copies of the earliest issues of Paper Mayhem magazine, so I'm not really in a position to look to David Webber's earliest writings on play by mail for inspiration and guidance.

What is there to write about, where a PBM industry that suffers largely from a self-induced comatose state is concerned?

What, indeed! Then again, maybe that's where we're heading, after all, David Webber.

I think that it's a pretty safe bet to say, that out of the several billion human beings that populate the face of our planet, Earth, very few - if any - are apparently doing active searches of the Internet on a recent and recurring basis to find out if StarMaster or Galaxy: Alpha are on the verge of making a comeback.

The fact that fellow PlayByMail.Net site user Barzimeron managed to make his way to this site, after all of the years since Galaxy: Alpha last's turn was run for that play by mail game's player base of old, is pretty much tantamount to the equivalent of a PBM miracle, in my book.

As I sit here sifting through the meager few items from Intergalactic Games' Galaxy: Alpha still in my possession, I find myself wondering what it was about this particular game that caught my eye, back in the old days - enough for me to still look fondly upon it, after all these many years later.

It certainly wasn't the Fleet Module system that the game used.

DEFENSE FLEET COMMAND MODULE CLASS: 1

EMPIRE NUMBER: 894
MODULE TOTAL PC COST: 28800
MODULE TOTAL INTRON CRYSTAL REQUIREMENT: 400
TOTAL NULL CRYSTAL REQUIREMENT:
MODULE SYSTEM DRIVE WARCRAFT
COR - SDY - CRU -
BCU - SX 100 - BAT -
DRE - SDR - BX -
DEV - DES - WX -
DEM - SCR - NEM -
MX 0 OX - BAS -
ANN - DOM - OMG -


Nor was it the similar module-type approach to Ground Force Legions, such as is illustrated below:

GROUND FORCE LEGION CLASS: 1
EMPIRE NUMBER: 894
LEGION PC COST: 110000.
LEGION GROUND UNIT CLASS NAME: BRAIN WARRIOR (BW)
LEGION COMPOSITION: 1000BW(INF) 1000BW(SMR) 1000BW(ARM) 1000BW(AIR) 1000BW(AET) 10SYM2


LEGION OFFENSIVE POWER: 11,400,000
LEGION DEFENSIVE POWER: 5,604,000
LEGION TACTICAL FACTOR: 23
ASSAULT TRANSPORTS (AST) REQUIRED TO TRANSPORT LEGION: 51


No, for me, it was something more than these dry exercises in numerical manipulation and textual barrenness in modular form. Opening the ugly brown colored Galaxy: Alpha rulebook, the one with those three starships flying past a planet, to the inside front cover, reminds me of what it was. For on that particular page, there is an image of a alien hand holding what appears to be some kind of swirling galaxy within it's grip. On each side of this hand are obelisks, of some type, etched with unknown alien runes. Why this image wasn't placed on the front cover of the rulebook is beyond me, for it entices my imagination far more than the image of those starships and planet did.

This alien hand reminded me of an old issue of a Justice League of America comic book that I read many, many years ago.

Most of the game's rulebook did little, if anything, to persuade me to give the game a go. The Introduction probably did, with its reference to an eternal war between Chaos and Order, an endless tale of battles between the forces of Light and Darkness. What was going on here, in this particular PBM game, was a galactic struggle for power. Galactic struggle for power - that has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

I think that the rulebook's section on Racial Types available to new players of Galaxy: Alpha generated interest in me, way back then, all those many years ago. Builders, Death Globes, Thinkers, and Warriors. I think that the Death Globes intrigued me the most of all, even though I opted to play an empire of Thinkers. The Death Globes reminded me of a cross between the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica and Terminators, aka the Arnold Schwarzenegger type.

The mapping system used in the game made the game seem huge - a playing area of 117,000 star sectors. How much would it cost, in terms of real dollars, for a player to actually explore all of that? Many, many turns of turn fees, that's how much!

Yet, the size of the game's playing area, while it made it easier for a new empire to be hidden amongst the stars, it also made conflict - and consequently, interaction - between players less frequent. To fight them, you first had to find them - or they had to first find you.

The concepts of Civilization Level and Mental Alignment denote technology and degrees of evil or good, respectively, to me. Industrial Index and Military Index were of secondary importance in stimulating my imagination.

The rulebook for Galaxy: Alpha encompasses and covers many different sections within its almost 60 pages. However, it was a mass of text and confusion, for the most part, to the uninitiated like I, myself, back in the day. It is on page # 25 that the rulebook really begins to grab my eye, in this retro-visit back to yesteryear. For it is there, under the section titled GALAXY: ALPHA ALLIANCES that the reader is poked with a sharp stick of imagination. Flipping the page, the narrative of back histories of several different Elder races commences. This epic assault upon my imagination finally concludes on page # 38, as the rulebook reverts back to its former stale penchant for textual dryness and over-infatuation with numbers.

From the Xythrons of the Realm of Darkness to the Malbane of the Shadowflame Imperium to the Genar of the Warriors of the Light Eternal to Omega, the Life Destroyer, it is here that the rulebook for Galaxy: Alpha succeeds - both then and now, for this is the ilk that draws me into the setting, and ignites the fires of imagination that reside somewhere within my soul.

Here, within the confines of these few pages, the reader is immersed into the history of the galaxy - a history full of ancient conflicts and unending wars.

The Chkmulin, the Vor'Koon, the Zholgons - what mighty empires these must have been. Between references to the Dark One, the Hell Gate, and the mysterious Penta-Ring, I am cast backwards into time. The game becomes more real to me, as a result. It's setting comes alive. I want to know more about That Which Walks the Star Winds. I yearn to learn more about the Transdimensional War. I crave to know more about the dark history of the Houses of the Krulang Krang.

The essence of Galaxy: Alpha's allure lay somewhere in the midst of the game's textual adventurism, whether it was in the game setting's back story or exploration-mapping of a huge galactic playing area, one star sector at a time.

The most common Preliminary System Report was one that said: SCAN REPORTS NO ALIEN ARTIFACTS OR RUINS

This report meant another ho-hum turn for each respective fleet that turned up nothing. It was repeated many times over, as the game progressed. It was a stark tribute to the fact that the galaxy has a lot of emptiness encompassed within its reach.

But, when the Preliminary System Report said something other than that, the eyebrow would raise - and the human players of the game would pause and linger. Interest was renewed. More of the galaxy's rich history would unfold, adding new chapters to players' imaginations.

My early experiments with playing the game didn't last. I turned my back on it, and it faded into the mists of time behind me. Like the race in the game's setting known as the Mushin, the game eventually vanished mysteriously from the galaxy what seems eons ago.

To find what scattered few remnants of this game still exist, today, would require either Null Gate technology or a miracle.

Even the Masters of Shadow likely never penetrated all of the galaxy's dark secrets and hidden mysteries. Across the vastness of space, alien runes still blaze about the surface of tetrahedrons, leading the eye off into weird unknown and unknowable dimensions.

I wish that there was a book - a whole series of books, that described in depth the fate of all of the infamous races and events and locations that Galaxy: Alpha planted into the play by mail game's meme that continues to infect me, all these many years later.

Now, throughout the scattered diaspora of the PBM Hivemind, few are they which remain to recount the tales and the legends of Galaxy: Alpha. Barzimeron is one of the last of a dying race - a player of Intergalactic Games' finest - and perhaps only - creation.

Both he and I ruled empires of Chaos. Could it be that Chaos prevailed, after all? Or do we both drift along on cosmic specks of existence - specks that just happened to collide and bring us together here on the PlayByMail.Net website?

Somewhere, the Elder empires are laughing at us, as we stroll down memory lane.

Titanic memories of vast conflicts played out on interstellar and trans-dimensional scales of pure text. Text, you see, was the weapon of choice for game moderators of play by mail games, back in the olden days of yore.

A single picture is worth a thousand words, but a thousand words can tell a tale that no picture ever could. Great and extremely ancient power was the player's to be had - if they could only solve the mysterious puzzles comprised solely of text.

The Internet may well have unraveled Galaxy: Alpha's masterful use of text. Perhaps the game, itself, was sealed off from the Internet crowd of the then-impending future. Sealed within some strange and alien dimension with security advanced enough to make the even vaunted Hell Gate, itself, pale in comparison, perhaps the game continues on. Or, perhaps it is lost to mankind, for all time.

I've only been playing PBM games the past few years.

My brief experience started with Lords of the Earth where at one time I was in three games.

Now I am currently in one running two positions. I believe this is the only currently active LOTE game going.

I am also in the current Cruenti Dei game and find it suits my tastes even better than LOTE. The fantasy aspect plus the great story writing and topnotch people make this a very enjoyable campaign. There are several positions open and I highly recommend this game.

-Jester

I was browsing the Gad Games' blog site, this morning, and I have a couple of questions.

One, out of curiosity, why do your blog entries not have dates that accompany them, to denote when you post a new blog entry?

Two, in your most recent blog entry, you state:

The only exception might be our messaging and forum system. We've been exploring the idea of integrating phpBB into the game system. This uses php and either mySQL or MS-SQL. Our investigation has concluded it could be the best choice for Ilkor and although the integration won't be that straightforward it is possible. With some luck we should have this in place and ready for exclusive use by our playtesters by the end of the year.


Do you have any concerns that integrating phpBB into your game system might make the game more vulnerable to being hacked?