PBEM - Hamster World - Call for players.

From: The Hamster <godfrey2@cov.ac.uk>

Date: Tue, 07 Mar 1995 15:01:54 +0000

HAMSTER WORLD
                            The game of furry folk.

Hamster World is a PBM game played over Internet e-mail. It is free of charge
and hand moderated (by me.)

It is set in a crossover world between the modern world of today and the
classic fantasy world. You play the part of a hamster.

Scenario:
  Inside a pet shop "Bill's pets", you are one of a cage full of hamsters for
  sale at 40 gold pieces each. One day, you over hear a woman talking to her
  son; "No, James. You can't have another hamster! You *deliberately* put
  your last one into the liquidiser!"

The hamsters in the cage start getting worried. There is no heavenly
  afterlife in "Hamsterplayball", the mythical place where good hamsters go
  when they die. The only afterlife is "Liquidiser" a hellish place where
  hamsters are doomed! You decide to try and escape.

You start the game inside the Hamster cage with 3 other hamsters.

Character attributes:
  Each hamster has the following attributes;
  Name, Health, Skill in each class (Mage, Fighter, Thief and Priest),
  Toughness, Charisma, Intelligence, Alignment, Retreat factor, Gender and
  Gold.

You may choose Name, Retreat factor and Gender. Health starts at 100%.
  Alignment starts at neutral.
  You have 200 points with which to distribute between the other seven
  (including 4 class skills) attributes. There is a minimum of 12 points and a
  maximum of 48 points in any given attribute at the start of the game. One of
  your class skills must have at least 40 points, and the other three may have
  no more than 20.
  You can add to your attributes by training at any time in the game.

Name:
    Choose any name for your hamster. This will be unique in the game. If
    another hamster has the same name, you should choose another.

Health:
    Starts at 100%, full health. Should it reach 0%, the hamster will die.
    To convert to the concept of health points, multiply by your toughness.
    Eg. at 75% health and 20 toughness. Health points = 15.

Skill:
    The skill of the hamster in any given class.
    Mage: The magical ability of the Mage. Affects level of spells.
    Fighter: The fighting ability and strength.
    Thief: The thieving ability of the Thief.
    Priest: The prayer quality of the Priest. Affects level of spells.

Toughness: (Aka Total health points)
    The stamina and ability to withstand injury.

Charisma:
    Amount of charm. Affects negotiations and fights.

Intelligence:
    The hamsters IQ. Affects ability to learn skills and advance statistics.
    If you have a high IQ, you may get flashes of inspiration.

Alignment:
    Degree of thought in three separate aspects; Good/Evil, Peace/War,
    Order/Chaos.

This affects spell/miracle casting in terms of the spells you can cast
    and the results.
    Ranges from -9 to +9. Zero is neutral.
    -9 = Evil, War and Chaos.
    +9 = Good, Peace and Order.

Retreat factor:
    This is the health level at which you will retire from a battle. For
    example; 50%, you will retire should your helath fall below 50%.
    100%, you will run from all fights.
    0%, fight to the death.

You can change your retreat factor at any time.

Gold:
    The amount of money you have. Gold has a weight, so you may wish to
    consider changing them for promisory bank notes. All hamsters start the
    game with no money.

Gender:
    Male or Female. This has no bearing on the actual gameplay. Your hamster
    does not have to have the same gender as your real-life self.

At the bottom of this document is a form to make up your character. E-mail
  this make up to me and I will send you your first turn.

Gameplay:
  Send your turns to me with the HWTURN: tag in the subject line. I will
  process your turn and send you back the results. The minimum turn around is
  one turn per day. This may change acording to my workload. Use plain english
  to do your turns and split them up into sections, one activity per section.
  As you may have guessed, this game is not to be taken seriously. Please have
  fun and enjoy yourselves.

Note: I am on a degree course and my time is limited. Don't expect an
  instant reply.

Magic:
  All hamsters may perform magic. You cast spells by mixing powders together.
  If you start the game with 40 points in Mage skill, you start off knowing
  three spells, the components and the effects. Other hamsters know of no
  spells at the start of the game.
  To find out more spells, you may either find out from someone else, or
  experiment. To experiment, tell me what powders you wish to experiment with.
  The effect of any spell is also dependant on your Order/Chaos alignment.
  Chaos aligned mages will have thier spells be large and explosive, with
  little control. Order aligned mage spells will be controlled, direct, but
  with little drama.

Gods/Miracles:
  In Hamster World, there is a wide pantheon of gods. Each with a name. Any
  hamster may pray to a god, as long as they use the right name. Praying to
  "Any god out there" will not work. You must use names. Hamsters starting
  out with a priest skill of 40 will have the names of three gods and their
  alignments. To find out the names of more gods, ask someone who knows or
  research.
  If you pray to a god for help, you will not get a direct reply. If you get
  the desired effects, you can be sure that your god is listening.
  Beware of false gods. If someone tells you the name of a god that they made
  up, you will not know immediately if this god is real. You will have to
  find corroboration or hope that they exist should you need help.

Whether or not a god is friendly will depend on your alignments. If you are
  Good aligned, an Evil god will ignore you. Gods may require worship and
  sacrifices before they help you. A high charisma may also help.

Fighting:
  All hamsters can fight with other hamsters or monsters. Just state that you
  wish to engage some other character in combat. The retreat factors will be
  taken into account for when the fight stops.
  If you started the game with a fighter skill of 40, you will start with a
  short sword, ready to fight with.

Theiving:
  This skill doesn't only cover your theiving ability. It also covers your
  devterity and awareness. A good thief skill will be uselful for operating
  complex objects. If you start with 40 points, you will start with a
  lockpick.

Interacting with other hamsters:
  When you meet any other hamster, you will get their e-mail address and a
  short description of their looks. You can use this address to talk with them
  in private. Please talk as if you were in the game.
  You may also come across NPH (Non-player hamsters). These are
  hamsters operated by me to flesh out the game a bit. To talk to them, give
  the action of talking to them inside your turn.

As well as conversation be e-mail. There is also the Hamster Express
  newsletter. Send mail to me for any contributions. This will be sent to
  all hamsters. You should get the current issue as you join the game.

E-mail:
  All e-mail intended for me should go to <godfrey2@cov.ac.uk>. Please use
  the tags below in the subject line, so that I may sort out the Hamster World
  mail with other personal mail.

HWTURN: <Hamster name>
    Submit a turn for your hamster. I will reply with the results of your
    turn.

HWADMIN:
    Any administrative matters regarding Hamster World.

HWJOIN:
    To join Hamster World. Use the form at the end of this document.

HWEXPRESS: <Hamster name>
    To submit anything for the Hamster Express.

Signup form:
  Use this form to join the game.
----- CUT HERE -----
To: Hamster World GM <godfrey2@cov.ac.uk>
Subject: HWJOIN:

Please start me up in the Hamster World game.

Name: []
Email: []
Hamster name: []
Second choices: []
Gender: []

You have 200 points to allocate in these seven attributes. No one attribute
may have more than 48 points or have less than 12 points.

Fighter skill: []
Mage skill: []
Thief skill: []
Priest skill: []
  Make sure that only ONE of these four above has a skill of 40 or more, and
  the other three has a skill of 20 or less.
Intelligence: []
Toughness: []
Charisma: []
  Make sure that all seven of these attributes adds up to 200.

Retreat factor: []

Please give a brief (one line) description of your apprearance:
[]

Please give a brief (three-ish lines) synopsis of your character:
[
]

Please send me my first turn soon. Thanks in advance.
----- CUT HERE -----

For example;

To: Hamster World GM <godfrey2@cov.ac.uk>
Subject: HWJOIN:

Please start me up in the Hamster World game.

Name: [Bill Godfrey]
Email: [godfrey2@cov.ac.uk]
Hamster name: [Fluffy]
Second choices: [Hammy/Cheeky/Chubby]
Gender: [M]

You have 200 points to allocate in these seven attributes. No one attribute
may have more than 48 points or have less than 12 points.

Fighter skill: [16]
Mage skill: [20]
Thief skill: [15]
Priest skill: [42]
  Make sure that only ONE of these four above has a skill of 40 or more, and
  the other three has a skill of 20 or less.
Intelligence: [40]
Toughness: [34]
Charisma: [33]
  Make sure that all seven of these attributes adds up to 200.

Retreat factor: [90%]

Please give a brief (one line) description of your apprearance:
[He is big furry hamster, and really rather cute and loveable.]

Please give a brief (three-ish lines) synopsis of your hamster's
  personality:
[Fluffy is a psyhcopath with a problem about other hamsters who don't like
eating cheese. A priest by trade, who hopes to discover a god dedicated to the
cheese eating. A cheese obsesive basically.]

Please send me my first turn soon. Thanks in advance.

--
Enjoy yourself.                       http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~xuuau/hamster
  godfrey2@cov.ac.uk, aka Bill the Hamster. The Internet's resident rodent.

"The CSA has not worked as well as we wished." -- Peter Lilley.