[NEW PBM STYLES] PBMB -- Play By Message Board?

[Participant-Observer]

I don't think that there's much discussion of this here but I have seen a number of RPG boards successfully conduct games using their forum software.

The most notable ones (for our purposes, at least) are probably:

• RPG.net's "RPGnet Roleplaying Games" sub-forum.
  
• Vin's T&T TrollBridge (you'll have to scroll down to the "Online T&T Games!" section).
  
• The gone-but-not-forgotten-and-preserved-in-the-Wayback-Machine Paranoia Live (PBMB version of the old West End Games classic dystopian SF RPG, Paranoia).
  

So, there are three possible area for discussion:

1. Do playbymail.net members know of other successful implementations of PBMB?
   
2. What numbers would be necessary to do this kind of thing here? Not necessarily just RPGs--I can imagine people submitting their turns for other kinds of games by private message, getting personalized results by private message, and having visible results posted to the messageboard.
   
3. Errrmmmm ... anything else that occurs to you.
   

Anyone?

[ixnay]

I think we ought to test out this concept. I have been quietly monitoring an email group dedicated to this old game called Warp War (published by Metagaming as one of their microgame series). It's an elegant and simple design that would lend itself well to play-by-post, I think. And there is an active player community that has been writing variants, drafting new maps, and otherwise tweaking an excellent little game.

If there is one other person who wants to try this, let me know and I'll set up a 2-player game.

If there are more people interested, I'll run it as the "moderator" and we'll make a public game of it.

[Participant-Observer]

I think we ought to test out this concept.  I have been quietly monitoring an email group dedicated to this old game called Warp War (published by Metagaming as one of their microgame series).  It's an elegant and simple design that would lend itself well to play-by-post, I think.  And there is an active player community that has been writing variants, drafting new maps, and otherwise tweaking an excellent little game.

If there is one other person who wants to try this, let me know and I'll set up a 2-player game.

If there are more people interested, I'll run it as the "moderator" and we'll make a public game of it.

Any way to get a copy of the rules? And what kinda turn frequency would you suggest?

[ixnay]

Here's a link to someone who has posted the rules:

https://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~gc00...rpwar.html

And here's a link to a revised rulebook, expanded to include "campaign rules". These are not necessary to play the basic game -- they were written by fans who wanted to frame up the game in a longer-running context. Multiple variants are also offered. This doc is posted to the warp-war yahoo group. It might be that you need to be a member of the group in order to access it. But for the purpose of a play-by-post kind of demo game, I think we could play with the basic rules and one of the many basic maps that are floating out there.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Warp...0Dawn.docx

So if you're the only one interested, it's you and me. If we get another person, I'll be the moderator and provide impartial guidance on all game mechanics, flow of each turn, etc. And of course, in either case, I hope there'll be some role-playing hyjinx posted here on the thread, to ramp up the fun.

[ixnay]

Alternatively, we could try Diplomacy as a play-by-forum game, though we'd need 7 people.

[Participant-Observer]

Here's a link to someone who has posted the rules:

...

Thanks for posting those. I'll have a look and see how they feel--and will probably see if it's possible to get a copy on eBay.

Perhaps it would be worth doing a separate recruitment thread? Failing that, I'm a member of an "Old School" gaming FB group and I might try drumming up players there.

Do let me know what turn rate you're thinking of. I fear that more than every two weeks might be difficult and more than every week impossible.

As to Dippy. I'm now more interested in being stupidly hard core and playing postal Diplomacy. Yes, with snail mail. I've even managed to find a couple of articles online. But that's for another thread ...