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 Up