It's funny, in a way, what one remembers from years gone by. There's a lot of things that I can recall about play by mail gaming. Most of it is in bits and pieces - fragments and shards of scattered recollections.

I remember how I got started in PBM. It was an an ad for Hyborian War, on the back of one of those black and white Conan magazines. I used to enjoy reading those. Somewhere along the way, I got out of the habit of reading them.

That ad, it still stands out in my mind. That, and the paragraph of text that tempted me into giving both the game and the hobby of PBM gaming a try. Man, it was interesting, that initial packet of info. I didn't know what to make of it. It was still an unknown commodity to me, at that particular moment in time.

I remember spending several hours reading those brief kingdom descriptions of the player kingdoms of Hyborian War, over the course of a few days, before deciding to take the plunge. Here's the one that, after much consideration, that I decided to try my hand at.

Blonde reavers of the icy north, the mailed warriors of the Aesir are held in check only by their equally ferocious kin the Vanir to the west, the grim Cimmerians southward, and by arcane Hyperborea to the east. Loosely organized, the clans await their forging to a cause, or a great captain of men, to spur them over the ice towards bright and bloody conquest!


I think that it was maybe reading Thor comic books that gave the kingdom of Asgard an edge, in persuading me to choose that kingdom over thirty-five other possibilities.

I quickly became enamored of the game, growing more addicted to it, as I played each turn. I didn't know what the Hell that I was doing. I made many mistakes. It took forty-seven turns for that first game of Hyborian War to end. Damn! That's a long time, in real time.

That game was HW-85. Here I am, approximately twenty-five years later, playing the kingdom of Nemedia in HW-854. I'm a lot more comfortable with the basics of the game, now. There's a lot that I know about the game, and there's a lot that I still don't know about the game. I don't know of anyone who truly knows everything about the game, and I have encountered quite a few fellow Hyborian War players over the span of time since I first dipped my toe into the refreshing waters of play by mail gaming.

I played in several other PBM games over the years, but in spite of that small feat of no real importance, the vast majority of PBM games that I was aware of, I never even gave them a try. Oh, the tragedy! Oh, the loss! Oh, me, oh, my!

But, that's just the way that it is. I have more copies of play by mail magazines in my possession now, than I ever had during the heyday of my enthrallment with the PBM hobby. What's up with that? Is there more to it than mere nostalgia?

PBM was a growing, thriving hobby, before I ever even encountered it. Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo had been swimming in PBM waters for a decade and a half or more, before I ever even knew that the hobby existed. I missed a lot - an awful lot, I tell you. There's no way to measure what all that I missed.

And how much money went down the drain, due to all of those long distance phone calls that somehow became a part of the PBM picture? Oh, damn! Can I have all of that money back? There were some good friends that were made, from those phone calls, though. How many of them do I still talk with on the telephone occasionally, these days, though? None. Not a single, solitary one. Now, that's sad.

People go on with their lives, of course. They can get burned out on PBM gaming as easily as they can get burned out on any of a number of other pursuits in entertainment. I don't think that there's any real way around that.

Maybe that's for the better, though. PBM games could surely become a time sinkhole, if one wasn't careful. But, damn, it sure was a lot of fun!

And there are worse things in life than having fun.

These days, I can communicate much more quickly than I ever could, back in the olden days of PBM, back in the days when I was in the prime of my interest in the game and the hobby. But, communications back then was a much more intense experience, for me. Plotting and scheming via the Internet has nothing on the old timey approach by U.S. Mail and by AT&T long distance telephone service.

For my HW-854 game of Hyborian War, I recently set-up a forum site dedicated solely for the use of myself and a handful of allies. I am trying something new, in the area of communication and coordination. I am, in essence, bringing technology to bear, hopefully to the detriment of my enemies in the game. I don't give the URL of the site out, as that would defeat the purpose of having a secret lair to plot and scheme in. I'll try to keep you abreast of how the whole concept works out, going forward.

It's really late, here, as I post this, and my eyes and my body are tired. I think that I will hit the hay. Until next time, keep the PBM fires burning brightly.

Someone out there may notice.

Hi Folks,

I just thought I'd post a quick update on Cruenti Dei. Turn 18 just came out last friday. The public results write-up for the continent of Oratoa was 26 pages and the public results for the continent of Sahul was 35 pages.

The two continents seem on the verge of a world war and a third continent has just been discovered.

There are 2 open positions in Oratoa, both currently involved in a large war, but are so far doing pretty well. (Hopefully this will change next turn as I am against them) There are 4 open positions in Sahul that are fairly small, but at least 2 of them have interesting roleplaying possibilities. And there are probably positions on the third continent that are opening up, but there is a shroud of secrecy surrounding it and it's positions that you'd need to contact the game master in order to learn more about for certain.

This would be a decent time to sign up so I thought I'd mention it.

Oh, but the next turn is due in about a month and it often takes a couple of weeks to get the books once ordered, so the window is pretty small.

-Cort

Read this article; quite interesting :-)

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/08/...pt=hp_bn11

Lord Vega needs brave souls to join Ilkor: Dark Rising and become playtester adventurers.

Ilkor: Dark Rising is our brand new online turn-based RPG.

We are still busy developing the game but we are making great progress.

Do yourself a favour and pop over to the website (http://ilkor.com) and sign-up now before the doors close.

The game is totally free to play and will be unlike any text-based browser game out on the market today.

Our development blog is a great place to get the latest game news, or you can join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, email Lord Vega or post your comments and questions to this forum.

Come on! Get involved.

Hello,

My name is Tori. I've been doing PBEMs for about 15+ years now and used to use playbymail.com to advertise before it went belly up 5+ years ago. I just discovered this site the other day (not sure if there is any connection to previous one).

Anyway, I am mostly a D&D player and run several games that are in progress online (sorry not looking for anyone else at the moment) and have a weekly live group that I play in.

I am considering joining or starting a modern playbyweb type game again using original characters. I did one about a band that fell apart around 2005 or so. I was thinking about doing a spin-off using one of the characters from that game. Right now I'm just brain storming and not 100% committed to the idea yet but just testing the water to see if anyone else might be interested in something like that. I was thinking about high school characters or college age characters.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself more than pitch a game idea and get a feel for how active (or not) this site was.

Tori

This review of Fate of a Nation was intended for the next issue of the Flagship Magazine. Due to the uncertain status of the Flagship Magazine we have not been able to publish it earlier. It was written by Martin Helsdon during the beta stage of Fate of a Nation. Please follow the link to open the review:

Review link!

Enjoy!

I went ahead and renewed the domain name for this website for another year, last night. So, whatever the site's future may ultimately turn out to be, at least that small detail is already taken care of.

The last few months, I have posted very little here. I have my reasons for that, but it has not been due to a loss of interest in the play by mail genre of gaming. Suffice it to say that I have conducted an experiment, to see how the site fares, if I leave it to others to keep the PBM dialogue flowing. So, how is that working out for each of you?

For myself, the results are mixed.

On the one hand, not posting tends to allow me more time to pursue other interests - PBM related and otherwise.

On the other hand, I find myself debating the wisdom in allowing the site to drift casually along, largely bereft of my presence. Is the site better off in my absence than with my presence? Or does it even make a notable difference, at all?

My conclusion is that, in some ways, it makes no difference, at all. In other ways, it seems to make at least some noticeable difference. But, that much could be said equally for just about everyone, I reckon.

Once upon a time ago, I sought to post on this site with recurring regularity, in an attempt to give others something to read that was PBM-related, if they just happened across the site, or if they were deliberate in being a repeat visitor.

Once upon a time ago, I visited other PBM-related websites, in order to provide a mini-roundup of PBM-related news and occurrences, something that was designed and intended to spark interest on the part of others in a PBM realm that was, perhaps, broader than their immediate area of focus.

Once upon a time ago, I sought to nurture a core audience of true believers in play by mail gaming. To me, it seemed to begin to bear at least some positive fruit for the hobby of play by mail.

Welcome to the past.

For myself, at least, as I head into the future, I will probably resume at least some of my prior focus, even as I will likely focus more attention on other aspects of potential development.

I am well aware, as I ever am, that not everyone always shares my opinion on subjects that I discuss, be it on things PBM-related or otherwise. As always, the easiest and best solution for those who can't stomach what I post is to simply bypass my own extrapolations of opinion, and either post opinions of your own, or focus, instead, upon the opinions of others. I have no expectation that others will necessarily agree with what I have to say on a given subject, nor do I really desire that others necessarily agree with any - or even all - of what I say on matters play by mail related. In any event, as long as the site remains open, diversity of thought and opinion will hopefully populate the site.

In coming months, I will try to post more, even as I will likely interact less. At worst, it will fail. At best, it will succeed. Maybe we will enjoy a little of both.

And that's fine by me.

I'm interested to learn what the 12 specialist classes are.

I'm usually drawn to mismatched race/class combos like Halfling Fighers or Dwarf Wizards. What path I decide to follow will almost surely be determined by the flavor of the specialist classes. I wonder if they will stay true to most traditional fantasy games (such as Paladin/Ranger/Warrior for Fighter) or whether they will be more unique and specific to the world of Arcadia.