wandering back in from the wilderness

[ixnay]

Hi Grim, and everyone else!  Miss me?

I am happy to see Charles back in his editorial chair.  I would like to do whatever I can to help with S&D.  Charles, give me some tasks.  Write articles?  Do a second installment of my weird comic strip?  Build a back-catalog of art assets?  Seek ads from industry bigwigs?  Make some coffee?  I'll do it.

I have been absent from traditional PBM for these intervening years (has it been years?)  Life got complicated, time got short, and I scratched my PBM itch in various other ways.  More on that in some forthcoming articles.

I still want to write a PBM game (Event Horizon: Red is still the working title.)  I still want to craft a new 'zine with a somewhat wider scope -- covering all deep/complex/highly-absorbing gamery.  And Davin, I still want to play through a full game of Galac-tac.

Time to put aside my other distractions and get back to what's important.  What is dead may never die!!!

[GrimFinger]

I don't drink coffee, but you might want to make some for yourself.

You should definitely write articles - at least on per issue, more as the mood and time allow. You're one of the best writers that Suspense & Decision has had, so for you to not write articles is to shortchange the readership. Writing a PBM game will likely not be a brief undertaking. If you want to craft a new magazine/zine, all the more power to you. On the one hand, there used to be a spirited and healthy friendly rivalry, of sorts, between some of the PBM magazines, back in the days of old. It would not be an entirely bad thing, even if it might strike many as a robbing Peter to pay Paul type of situation, effectively splintering a limited sub-set of resources (writers and articles don't exactly fall from the sky on most days, you know). There's nothing that precludes you from writing about deep/complex/highly absorbing gamery for Suspense and Decision, though.

I'm dealing with a different computer with different software, in some instances, so I have to reestablish a routine, once more.

[Davin]

And Davin, I still want to play through a full game of Galac-tac.

Galac-Tac is still out here.  Galaxy #90 is getting into some competitive times at present with conflicts starting to heat up, but as I recall you wanted to play a solo game so you could publish a series of articles about your impressions of the game (which would help the S&D publishing needs, too).  And experienced Galac-Tac players might claim it to be deep and complex enough to qualify for your other magazine as well, at least when playing against other experienced players.  There can be a lot more to the diplomatic and competitive interactions between players/empires than just what's in the mechanics of the rules.