Re: pbm game recommendations

From: ry@cbnewsl.att.com (ryerson.schwark)

Date: Tue, 24 Jul 1990 20:52:49 +0000

I have played a couple of turns of Legends, and am reserving
judgement.  It looks like it has a fair amount of possibilities,
but I'll wait and see.  It certainly seems to be a good blend
of "roleplaying" and war gaming, a natural extension to their
EPIC game which I played for a while before it became tedious
(ok, so I take over one more town, so what?).

I played a standby in Hyborian Wars and didn't really like it.
I thought between the amount of diplomacy, and the power disparity
between the nations that it wasn't that much fun.

Alamaze is a great game, but a lot of diplomacy, and Pegasus
productions is the most unresponsive company I ever dealt with.
I finally dropped out in frustation at the spiralling affects
of a turn input error.  I never got a response to any of the
letters I sent.  I heard that the guys that do Hyborian Wars
were also running Alamaze.  If so, give it a look.

I also play Atlantrix, a free form fantasy roleplaying PBM.
not a war game! I've been a bit disillusioned by free form
fantasy PBM, progress is *slow*, and set backs can last for
months.

I also play Monster Island, a rather simplistic game by Adventures
by Mail.  You play a monster wandering around an island, hunting,
digging up old graveyards and the like.  Its a cute idea, but the
options available are too few for my tastes and while they do get
better, they don't seem to be getting better fast enough for me to
not get bored with.

My current Favorite PBM is Out Time Days.  You play a time traveller
on an alien world.  There are several factions that you are
highly encouraged to join, I joined the Black Guard, and find
the group on my team both fun and supportive.  I think the game
has the potential to let you both knock some heads, but still have
some you know you can trust.  This may not be true of other factions.
It is, however, open ended, so it can be slow going.

Ry Schwark

References

pbm game recommendations
jhthomas.US1.oramail@hqsun3.oracle.com ("jhthomas.US1")
Mon, 23 Jul 1990 23:20:06 +0000