Beyond the Stellar Empire

So any BSE folks still out there? I used to be in the AFT back in the very early 90's when Adventures By Mail was still running the game. I wish I still had all of my old turn reports to put online somewhere.

My best memory of the game was helping the RIP Lord setup small throwaway colonies on Utopia MCXVI so he could start shooting wars between the big colonies there.

Hatch

What does AFT stand for?

What is a RIP Lord?

[quote='GrimFinger' pid='427' dateline='1301000560']
What does AFT stand for?

What is a RIP Lord?
[/quote]

AFT = Association of Free Traders
RIP = Raiders of the Interstellar Periphery

They are affiliation acronyms, and preceded the names of ships and colonies, so I had a ship named AFT Crimson Libertine.

The leader of the RIP called himself the RIP Lord.

There was quite a good bit of roleplaying going on in BSE, despite being heavily computer moderated.

Hatch

What was so great about Beyond the Stellar Empire, anyway? What distinguished it from other space conquest types of PBM games?

[quote='GrimFinger' pid='434' dateline='1301005873']
What was so great about Beyond the Stellar Empire, anyway? What distinguished it from other space conquest types of PBM games?
[/quote]

I don't really know. I never really played any others. I played It's a Crime for a bit before I did BSE, and I did a few turns of a closed-end game where all the players were in a large ring shaped asteroid field, but I can't remember the name of it or really what it was about.

Hatch

From what I understand BSE wasn't an empire building game. It was more of a multi-character focused game like Atlantis and Olympia.

I just signed up for a non-paying position, having looked over that "Phoenix" site. You get one ship and can play that indefinitely for free, to get a sense of the game. For more positions, you can set up an account. I will post some updates on this as I enter into actual gameplay...

[quote='Hatch' pid='426' dateline='1300990555']
So any BSE folks still out there? I used to be in the AFT back in the very early 90's when Adventures By Mail was still running the game. I wish I still had all of my old turn reports to put online somewhere.

My best memory of the game was helping the RIP Lord setup small throwaway colonies on Utopia MCXVI so he could start shooting wars between the big colonies there.

Hatch
[/quote]

It's been a while since I played BSE and Phoenix but I've put some 8 years into the game in total... I've been the Periphery Director of both the Queens Guardians (QNG) which I created myself and the Children of Hexos (COH). I remember when I used the COH to take over and destroy two medium sized Flagritz starbases in the Yank system... That was great fun. Unfortunately it cost a lot of £ if you want to be someone in Phoenix and I had to quit a couple of years ago.

Cheers!

[quote='ixnay' pid='1375' dateline='1321636166']
I just signed up for a non-paying position, having looked over that "Phoenix" site. You get one ship and can play that indefinitely for free, to get a sense of the game. For more positions, you can set up an account. I will post some updates on this as I enter into actual gameplay...
[/quote]

I have to say that that sounds like a perfect window into a game.

Been playing the game for 18 years now and i't going from strength to strength,

[quote='Hatch' pid='426' dateline='1300990555']
So any BSE folks still out there? I used to be in the AFT back in the very early 90's when Adventures By Mail was still running the game. I wish I still had all of my old turn reports to put online somewhere.

My best memory of the game was helping the RIP Lord setup small throwaway colonies on Utopia MCXVI so he could start shooting wars between the big colonies there.

Hatch
[/quote]

I be an old one, and still as madd as back then. I spent a handful of years playing as a Kazeraki [KZK] with Todd, Ed and George in the early 90s. For a short period of time, Ed and I played the formally npc affiliation that 'held the keys' the KAS, I believe.

The KZK (George, Todd and myself) traveled to the mecca of the GenCon in Milwaukee to meet other BSE players and work with the affiliations and GMs on design in those early nineties. For the life of me, I can't remember which affiliation it was, but we could always find them because they all wore Hawaiin shirts at the Con. (me thinks they were the Free Traders). All in all, we went to our designer meetings, went to Butch's Steak House for a killer meal, and then, of course, Art's Performing Center. I remember Peter the most, physically challenged, but mentally superior to all of us combined.

It cost waaaay too much monies to run my account, but I had a blast with BSE.

I started playing BSE when it started back in the early 80's. Played in the IAN (Imperial Auxiliary Navy) an arm of the Imperial navy. What made BSE special? It was a space opera. Open ended power game, started with multiple corporations, well flushed out universe, heavy on player interaction between the factions, involved diplomacy and politics, special actions allowed which lent itself to great roleplaying, well designed economic system, stock ships with the ability to modify ship design. More than I can list, really a super game. My claim to fame was I was the first to run into the Plestrons as captain of, yes, The Nazareth. Some of the brightest and sharpest players I met played BSE. Gerald Austin, Chip Charnley, Glenn Harrold played this one too just to name a few. Gregory Moore who ran Games without Frontiers, whose sole offering was The Heroic Age also played.

[quote='Peter' pid='1376' dateline='1321704428']
[quote='Hatch' pid='426' dateline='1300990555']
So any BSE folks still out there?  I used to be in the AFT back in the very early 90's when Adventures By Mail was still running the game.  I wish I still had all of my old turn reports to put online somewhere.  

My best memory of the game was helping the RIP Lord setup small throwaway colonies on Utopia MCXVI so he could start shooting wars between the big colonies there.  

Hatch
[/quote]

It's been a while since I played BSE and Phoenix but I've put some 8 years into the game in total... I've been the Periphery Director of both the Queens Guardians (QNG) which I created myself and the Children of Hexos (COH). I remember when I used the COH to take over and destroy two medium sized Flagritz starbases in the Yank system... That was great fun. Unfortunately it cost a lot of £ if you want to be someone in Phoenix and I had to quit a couple of years ago.

Cheers!

[/quote]

I played for years. I was in the QFP, SSL, FET, and finally leader of the PFM. Hated when Adventues By Mail gave up the game.

[quote="Dan Menefee" pid='6124' dateline='1437539336']
Hated when Adventues By Mail gave up the game.
[/quote]

Unfortunately, Adventures by Mail was a victim of the rise of Magic: The Gathering. They got so deep into reselling Magic cards they pretty much let all of their games slip away.

Hatch

I always thought BSE had one of the coolest Training Manuals / Introductory Flyers around. It had everything you needed to start playing the game printed on two sides of a piece of paper. This is from the Slow Motion Games version, but it's practically identical to the one that Adventures By Mail used to hand out at conventions which got me started in the game.

See the attached PDF file.

Edit: Hmmm, I guess I can't attach files, but here is a link to the PDF in Google Docs:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1orW3v6kEDLOFkbr20WhKbBN7072asWVO