Re: PBM Games

From: bigmac@pong4.itstd.sri.com.uucp (Bryan McDonald)

Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1989 18:31:33 +0000

I have been playing pbm's (not pbem's) for 2 years now, and I have found
that many of them are just not worth it.  Most are $3-5 and have extremely
limited interactions available.  I started with It's a Crime, one which most
people into pbm's know and hate.  $3 for 10 orders, almost no interaction,
computer moderated, error prone with no good feedback from the company.
Definitly one I dropped after just a month or two.

I tried a few others and then found _Out Time Days_ by Twin Engine Gaming.
This one is $5 a turn, once a week, absolutely no limitations on what you
can do, extremely high GM and player interaction, laser printed turns that
run a minimum of 2 pages and are normally more like 5-7 pages long.  The
world is an extremely complex, open ended, time travel related game and
is worth every penny I put into it.

I know the owner and GM, and I know that he tries to break even every year
(Out Time Days has been running for 3-4 years now).  I also know that he
litterally spends 40-60 hours a week running turns, and then on top of that
spends time in world development, talking to players on the phone, developing
newsletters and the like.

Another game that I currently enjoy is _Kings and Things*_ by Andon Games,
based on the popular board game of the same name.  $4.25 a turn, I'm in a
1 turn/3 weeks game, about 8 pages in eache envelope, 2 of which are the
pre-printed turn sheets.  A lot of fun, in a silly sort of way.

In the end, there are some good games and some bad ones, and the good ones
are worth the money we spend.

The good pbem's are worth it too, and the ones I am in now I would pay real $$
for if they were running via Snail mail.  Fortunately for us all, the wonderous
email realm exists so we can play for free.

Bryan McDonald
bigmac@spam.istc.sri.com