Cruenti Dei is a game of magic, diplomacy, and conquest in the epic fantasy tradition.

Each player begins the game in control of a Realm on the continent of Sahûl, preparing for conquest. By force of arms, sorcery and intrigue, the player’s Realm expands, always under the watchful eye of its patron god. Vast armies clash on the field of battle, and steel rings upon steel as eldritch power crackles through the air above.

http://www.sardarthion.com/?page_id=42

This game is on the boneyard list.... But it is still alive and kicking!

This is the entry for Quest of the Great Jewels, a play by mail game from Flying Dutchman Games.

Of late, the PlayByMail.Net website has experienced a noticeable increase in use on a daily basis by multiple site users. My most recent check of the Who Was Online Today feature revealed a total of 15 site visitors to the site, today, myself included - and none of them were automated spambot accounts, either. It's not a huge number, to be sure, but it does demonstrate, I think, there is at least some interest left in play by mail gaming, and that far from killing PBM gaming, the Internet can be utilized to bring the various elements of the PBM diaspora (which are scattered to the furthermost ends of the Internet) together in a way that is meaningful to PBM.

At least, I think so.

The site could still die, of course, and usage and visits to the site by PBM-interested parties could fall off. But, at present, things are looking up, it seems, and I, for one, would like to keep it that way, if at all possible. The best way to accomplish this, I think, is through continuously generating PBM-relevant content, and through encouraging site visitors to both join in the existing PBM discussions, as to start new PBM discussions, if the PBM topics that they want to discuss are not being discussed, already.

Within the last 24 hours, I have received turn results for my respective positions in games of Far Horizons and Hyborian War, and I have published a new PBM News Blurb. The PBM News Blurb has no set publication date. Rather, it is just a feature that I am trying to utilize to gather and to maintain interest in the play by mail genre of gaming, one that is not too intrusive, but one which might be of some use and have some innate value, particularly in light of PBM Gamer's similar Around the Web feature foundering a while back.

Being on a hyper-slow dial-up Internet connection (16.8K to 19.2K), at present, it can sometimes be a rather time consuming process just trying to do something as relatively simple and straight forward as browsing the World Wide Web. So, my inclination at the moment is to perhaps try and limit PBM News blurbs to only five entries, each time. Each blurb may not contain as much PBM news, as might be ideal, but this may be off-set by an increase in the rate of frequency at which PBM News Blurbs get published. I intend to play it by ear, and see how it goes, and revise things as I deem necessary or beneficial.

I have no real control over how often that site users post, or whether they ever bother to post, at all. I would, however, encourage all site visitors to the PlayByMail.Net website - particularly repeat visitors - to remain cognizant of the fact that, if instead of just visiting the site and catching up on the latest postings and logging off, if you will take a moment or three out to post something new of your own, then I think that such would be the surest way to continually grow fresh content of value on the site - plus it would act as a force multiplier in attracting other like-minded PBM parties to the site, as well as help us to retain the interest of existing site users. Don't do it for me, though. Do it for yourself. If you really like PBM gaming, then I think that you will find that this approach will be like fertilizer to this hobby of ours.

And lest I be remiss, if any of you reading this ever have any questions or suggestions pertaining to the site or to PBM gaming in general, feel free to contact me at your convenience at leisure, via either PM or e-mail.

Happy PBM gaming!

- Charles -

Gad Games
Sean Cleworth over at Gad Games has begun posting to his company's blog, again, firing off a couple of interesting blog postings over the last week or so. Metadata, Map Making, & a Logo features Sean expounding upon some of Ilkorark Rising's world features and new logo motif. Turn-based or Real-time? delves into some of the Gad Games' mastermind's thoughts on how to Ilkor: Dark Rising should approach the issue of text-based browser games.

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Adventures By Mail
Dropping by the Adventures By Mail website, I came across an announcement, of sorts, pertaining to something called Project Libertine, an upcoming 4x Space Exploration Browser being created in the tradition of the Play by Mail games that so many have loved over the years. With numerous blog postings dating back to mid-2010 that chronicle the progress of the game's development, it's evident on the blog's face that this project is making progress towards fruition, and is not a dead project, at all. The first posting in the Project Libertine blog is a good place to start, if you want to catch up on the project from its beginning, last year.

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Spellbinder Games
A recent excursion over to the Spellbinder Games website led me to fire off an e-mail to that company, to see if they are still actively running play by mail games such as A Bledian Diary, Horses For Courses, LT Wars, Kickabout, and Galactic Empire. As of press time, no response has been received from Chris at Spellbinder Games to the e-mail that I sent to him. In fairness, though, I only sent the e-mail, yesterday, so a response may yet be forthcoming.

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Orbo's CTF 2187 Website
My explorations across the vast expanse of the Internet have led me to Orbo's CTF 2187 fan site, a place which features both Frames and Frames-free choices for navigating through the information featured on his site. CTF 2187 was a closed-ended commercial PBM game formerly produced and run by Advanced Gaming Enterprises. If you visit Orbo's site, be sure to drop by his CTF 2187 Players Gallery and his Command Post archives.

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Stupidly Named Internet Football League
Dave, the manager of team New Wave Punks, is looking for managers for other teams to play in the SNIFL, a free to play PBEM based football (soccer) game. The game used ESMS/ESMS+ software originally created by Eli Bendersky and later modified by Darren McKee. Attempts to check out the International Rosters page on that site yielded PHP errors. To apply to be a SNIFL manager, click here.

If you are interested in reading our latest design thoughts and considerations for Ilkor then come over to our blog: http://gadgames.com/blog/2011/03/21/turn...real-time/

SNIFL (Stupidly Named Internet Football League) is a free to play PBEM based football (soccer) game using ESMS plus. SNIFL consists of 40 teams in 4-10 team divisions with transfer market, reserve league, scouting, and sideskills camp features. We're currently in Season 19. You can check out the league mailing list in the groug SNIFL at Yahoo groups. To see which clubs are available, visit the SNIFL website We hope to see you soon!

Play On! Dave, Manager, New Wave Punks

Greetings fellow gamers. I play a lot of ESMS PBEM football. I don't see much of that around here. Are sports PBEMS a valid topic at this site?

Dave

ENTRY ONE

Oh, woe is me!

Here I sit, with approximately a day remaining until my first set of turn orders for Far Horizons: The Awakening (Galaxy Alpha) are due. In all honesty, I haven't a clue as to what I am doing. I haven't read the manual. I have only skimmed over the Strategy Guide and Getting Started guide. Surely, I am damned in this game!

A quick glance at the Far Horizons website reveals many things and much detail, including a sample turn report. But, this is not what I need. None of it is what I need! Dammit all to Hell, the universe, itself, conspires against me! Where are the sample turn orders that a newbie to the game, like myself, needs??? Doesn't the game's moderator realize that we aren't all experienced Far Horizons players from the days of PBM olde, and that we haven't all absorbed the game manual by osmosis - yet?

I know that I've already downloaded the game manual. Yet, where is it when I need it? Looks like it's time to download it, once again - at a raging Internet dial-up connect speed of 16.8K. This will apparently take something on the order of thirty-seven years to download. Things are not looking so good for my empire, heading into turn # 1. I'll bet that one of those alien races out there with me in this game have swooped in and made off with the copy of the game manual that I downloaded previously. I did download it, didn't I? I know I did. I'm certain. I'm absolutely positive.

Yet, doubt lingers.

Oh, great! Just great. My download encountered a problem, so the game manual download is an aborted mission. I am beset by woe. This is no way to run a galactic empire. Far Horizons hates me. It's the game moderator's fault, no doubt. Is it merely coincidence that all of these problems are happening only to me? Can you say C-O-N-S-P-I-R-A-C-Y?

Well, I can't do anything, until I manage to successfully download that manual.

Time to go to Plan B.

The game moderator has the game manual up on his website in HTML format. So, no problem. Right?

Wrong-a-mundo!! The entire manual for the game in HTML format is not yet finished. Whatever is that game moderator up to? Is this any way to run a game? My God, man! Snap out of it!!

And they wonder why people miss getting their turn orders in on time.

NOTE: FAR HORIZONS is a strategic role-playing play-by-email (PBEM) game of galactic exploration, trade, diplomacy, and conquest. The first and second editions were designed for play by postal mail. Later editions were designed for play by electronic mail. The seventh edition rules and source code were released in 1999 by Rick Morneau.

PlayByMail.Net
Rich Van Ollefen, the former owner and moderator of Flying Dutchman Games, a PBM company from the days of old, made a surprise visit and dropped by the PlayByMail.Net website, offering to do a follow-up to his recent interview with PlayByMail.Net. Flying Dutchman Games used to run the play by mail game called Quest of the Great Jewels.

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Olympia G3
The Olympia G3 game has broken the 200 player mark, according to a news announcement from that game's website. Also, the Olympia G3 Admin and Game Master, Cappinator, started a forum thread asking if everyone was still having fun, six months after the start of that game. The player-contributed press portion of the latest issue of The Olympia Times for this game is still relatively light on player contributions, though.

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Fate of a Nation
Peter and Johan of Norberg Games announced that their company needed to re-evaluate the future of Fate of a Nation, as a commercial enterprise.

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Far Horizons
A strategic role-playing play-by-email (PBEM) game of galactic exploration, trade, diplomacy, and conquest, Far Horizons is resurrected, and running seventh edition rules. The first official game of Far Horizons to take place since The Awakening, Galaxy Alpha's reports generated during the course of the game will be used to develop the Game Client for use in later games of Far Horizons. Galaxy Alpha started with 11 players active in the game.

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Alamaze
A visit to Pegasus Productions website, home of Alamaze, a strategic fantasy play-by-email game running since 1987, reveals no news updates on the site since December 22nd, 2008. A PDF flyer for Alamaze is available for free download.

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Lands of Nevron
Dropping by the forums for Lands of Nevron, we learn that a re-launch of Lands of Nevron is being considered. Forum activity there seems light, at the current moment, but recent posting activity demonstrates that there is life in the project. A good place to start, if you're interested in Lands of Nevron, is their site map page.

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Madhouse Interactive Entertainment
The status of Destiny 2: Tide of Darkness remains in question, as Madhouse forum user RunawayRich's recent posting of March 4th, 2011 on that site's forums seems to indicate.

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PlayByMail.Net
The original programmer for Victory! The Battle for Europe, Terry, happened across the PlayByMail.Net website, and joined the forums there, bringing with him a wealth of memories from his PBM days. Victory! The Battle for Europe is a game still run, today, by Rolling Thunder Games.

Currently FH supports player communication via the 'MES' order; however no one seriously uses this order beyond the initial: "Hey nice to meet you here at star x,y,z, my email is blahblah@foo.com. Lets chat about that giant warfleet you have buzzing near my homesystem."

This is because the MES order is just another order, and orders are processed every X days, and in the usual course of strategic negotiation you want a response before the next turn. Since turns are 5-years of IG time, yet in FH communication is near-instantaneous (see the game manual), it makes sense that there should be some way of communicating outside the turn cycle.

E-mail is a fine way for players to communicate, however I think it is unideal for two reasons:

1. Privacy - Requires a player to give out their email address
   
2. History - The diplomatic parley and alliance machinations are forever secret

• White: messages sent to other players which indicates who it is from (this is the normal and default)
  
• Grey: allows for anonymous messages
  
• Black: allows for forged messages