SDW-Stars of the Dark Well From: ogden@kern.com (David Ogden) Date: Thu, 09 May 1996 00:00:00 +0000 Stars of the Dark Well is a space opera PBM. SDW began play-testing in 1984 and became a full game in 1985. Since that time the game universe has changed in many ways. When players started, there were only a few star systems known. There were no "Sector" maps at the time. (one hex in a sector map represents 5 light years with each sector map measuring approx. 22 hexes x 15 hexes in size). Over the course of SDW, space has "grown" because the GMs do not put a limit on the size of space. Space is now measured using the same basic 5 light year hex, but there are now ArcSectors (which contain 9 sectors) and now MegaSectors (which contain 9 ArcSectors). There are three known MegaSectors which contain approximately 80,190 hexes (thats over 400,000 light years in area). All of this space contains approximately 4,500 to 5,000 different star systems, which in turn contain up to 15 planets, moons, asteroid belts, and/or alien artifacts. This all works out to be approximately 67,500 planetary bodies to map and explore. And what's best is that it is always changing. Explorers are continuing to push the envelope and explore further out into the unknown. Of course there is much more to SDW other than exploration. Combat/Trade/Politics/Research/Exploration are all aspects of SDW. Whatever suits your interest, there is something to do. I have been plaing SDW since 1985 and have been through all of the differnt aspects of the game. If you like space opera themes and PBMs then you should give SDW a try. There are several websites that describe in more detail what SDW is like. The main web site for Mindgate (the company running Stars of the Dark Well) is: http://bbs.macnexus.org/~david_peterson/darkwell/darkwell.html My web site that I run for a corporation in SDW is: http://www.kern.com/~ogden/sdw_nexus_hq.html If you want more information about SDW my email address is: ogden@kern.com Up