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The PBM Wagon Train
#1
I've been browsing an old ad for the now-defunct play by mail game called Stand and Deliver, which was run by either an individual or a company apparently using the same name (if I read this ad, right), operating out of New York, New York.

Stand and Deliver, a play by mail adventure as the ad touts the game, was a game whose setting was the Old West. That's right - cowboys, Indians, ranchers, outlaws, and more. You get the idea.

There's a lot of back issues of various PBM magazines that I don't have a copy of. So, thinking back on it, I don't think that I have ever actually read a review of any Old West type of PBM game, whether this one or any other, in any of the back issues that I do have. And that makes me all the more curious about this particular brand of PBM game.

It would seem to me that an Old West setting would be conducive to players getting in a little role playing, irrespective of what the actual character system was like.

I can also envision an Old West setting as being a slow exploration type of game. After all, you're modes of travel are all fairly limited, none of which are particularly fast, by modern transportation standards.

Where the game's economics system is concerned, I can see a lot of diversity. Running a ranch of some type might be a relatively stable way of earning income, compared to say, panning for gold in a creek as a gold miner, or living the life of a bounty hunter.

What would keep a bounty hunter from just killing another player's rancher character, and then assuming control of operations of their ranch? Probably nothing, but perhaps some positive and negative bonuses/modifiers might persuade folks to stay to the same path, or to seek a new life.

Perhaps Indians would be good scouts, but would they necessarily make good spies? Indians would stand out in settlements populated primarily by white settlers, wouldn't they? It's hard to be a good spy, if everyone is suspicious of you. Now, I don't know if these previous incarnations of Old West play by mail games actually allowed one to play an Indian position, but I can't really see any reason why it shouldn't be possible or feasible, provided that one incorporates some activities for Indian characters or villages to do on any given turn. They could hunt buffalo, raid ranches and settlements, protect their sacred tribal lands from further intrusions by the white man, or collect scalps of other players' characters, to name but a few.

Maybe Indian players would start the game with a map that is partially explored, giving them the advantage of knowing the land of their fathers. They might only know the terrain, but not necessarily or automatically know who has encroached upon their lands, on any given turn. In order to determine that, the Indian player would need to be vigilant.

And for the white man, one whose knowledge of the land is extremely limited, it's a whole new world to explore. You might want to avoid the natives, particularly at first, when you're conceivably in a more vulnerable position. But, you wouldn't necessarily know where the Indians are. Would you even know the general location of their lands, in the days before government-fabricated Indian reservations? Probably not, except in the vaguest sense, unless the area that you are in has already been settled for a while.

Running a saloon might be a profitable venture, but it might also entail regular (as in, virtually every turn) run ins with riff raff of various sorts, more than a few of which would think nothing of damaging your establishment with their needless and reckless barroom brawls.

What if there are twenty or thirty other players in the game, and you're the only law man in town? That's a lot of territory to cover. It might just keep an honest sheriff busy.

It would seem to me that a PBM game of this type would be more interesting, the more players that you have in it. Would there be an upper limit to how many players could play in it? How big is the Old West, anyway? Wasn't it vast, in those days?

Would there be a town, though, or would it take a while for towns to actually form? Would that happen due to direct player actions? Or would towns form and grow (or die off as ghost towns) as indirect or game moderator actions? Maybe the number of players in the game, or the total wealth in play in the game, determines the growth rate of population centers.

And what about major events? Do you still recall the winter of '89? Or what about the Great Buffalo Hunt? Didn't the railroad come through later in the game? Some random events or moderator induced events, perhaps historical or not, could keep the game spiced up and more interesting as players lead the simple life in the Old West.

Combat could be either individual scale (a gunfight), or larger scale (bank robbery or Indian raid). I can picture some degree of variety there.

I can also see some players not making it, but couldn't they just start over? Isn't that why they headed west to begin with, for a fresh start out west?

I never played Stand and Deliver, back in the day. It's got me thinking, now, though.

Circle your play by mail wagons, and give me some feedback on what you think, pardner.
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The PBM Wagon Train - by GrimFinger - 08-29-2011, 01:15 PM

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