ZONE 2000: Gang Warfare PBEM

From: db0s+@andrew.cmu.edu (David M. Bartlett)

Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 14:14:34 +0000

Having looked over the listings of various PBM and PBEM listings, a
friend and I were inspired by a street-gang warfare game, and are
beginning to convert the map of the "combat zone/Free-Enterprise Area"
in the fictional city of Megapolis (pronounced "may-GAP-oh-less") that
we have used for a wide variety of role-playing games for the purpose of
representing turf battles between rival gangs in the area.

Though details are relatively sketchy at this point, the grid pattern
game scale is one city block per square, with slightly larger scales for
"Free Enterprise Area" Industrial parks, a University area, and some
Exec high-rise zones.  Players are considered leaders of small gangs or
"posses", which are made up of one or more "crews" of 5-10 members.
Through alliance, intimidation, terror, and rumbles, each player
increases the number of crews and posses, and with it territory or
"turf" controlled can expand, too, bringing revenue and more recruits
into the gang.   Police, traditional organized crime, community groups,
and unaffiliated gangs will all be potential obstacles and frequent
opponents, and will be controlled by the GMs.  Anything that is
mechanical, such as combat between gangs or calculation of "posse
potential" and revenue from turf controlled will be handled by computer,
but humans will moderate information flow and deal with the "fuzzy" side
of things.

As planned, the game will be a "war-game" controlled by specific orders
as to how crews will be used (rumble, revenue, recruiting, recon, etc.;
one action per crew per turn), with "politics" and information on
outside gangs and NPC groups handled by email.  We plan to build a
sectional map that can be "snail-mailed" to participants for the cost of
copying and postage, possible with clear plastic grid-pattern overlays
to let you grease-pencil turfs and such on the map without ruining it.
From there, everything would be handled by Email.

As vague as this all is, if anyone is interested, send email.

Dave B.
AKA Kimba the White Lion