Re: rec.games.pbm Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

From: DaddyUnderstands@hotmail.com

Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 00:00:00 +0000

testing

On 7 Dec 1998 15:38:01 GMT, lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl) wrote:

>Archive-name: games/play-by-mail
>Last-modified: 1998/09/27
>Play by Mail Games Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
>
>
>Play by Mail Games Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
>
>Welcome to rec.games.pbm! This is a newsgroup for discussing play by
>mail games, both ordinary mail and electronic mail, and both wargames
>and non-wargames.
>
>There is a PBM WWW homepage at: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm.html
>
>1) What is Play By Mail?
>2) What games get talked about here?
>3) What other games are there?
>4) Are there any FTP sites for PBM games?
>5) Are there any mailing lists for PBM games?
>6) Are there any free e-magazines for PBM games?
>7) What if I can't FTP or WWW?
>8) I read German or Russian or Italian. Do I win a prize?
>9) Is commercial advertising allowed here?
>10) How do I ftp that list of all PBM games? Be precise.
>11) How can I generate trustable dice rolls?
>12) How do I find oponents for board games?
>13) Why do so few postings in this group identify
>what game they're for?
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1) What is play by mail?
>
>PBM stands for "play by mail". Since this IS the Internet, we use it
>to mean both ordinary postal mail and electronic mail. Games like
>Diplomacy have been played via postal mail since the 1960's, starting
>with John Boardman's 'zine. The US commercial PBM market was started
>by Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo in the early 1970's. Now there are
>commercial PBM companies all over the world. In addition, there is
>some activity in role-playing games via mail.
>
>Why play PBM games? Well, even though the commercial games are
>expensive, they offer some things that some people have a hard time
>finding face to face -- good opponents, convenient playing times, and
>games with lots of hidden information. Non-commercial games can offer
>the same benefit, as long as the people running it are dedicated.
>
>How do PBM games work? Generally you mail in orders to a moderator,
>human or computer, once a week, and they mail the results back to you.
>A PBM game can be as simple as a human running an ordinary Dungeons &
>Dragons game, or a 45,000 line program moderating a fantasy
>strategic/role-playing game with 50 pages of rules.
>
>PBEM games -- those conducted via email -- are generally played by
>mailing human-readable files back and forth. A few games require
>special software on your home computer; if so, it will be mentioned in
>the game desription, if there is one.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>2) What games get talked about here?
>
>Many postings on this group will have a game name mentioned in the
>subject line. If you post, please mention the game in the subject so
>that others who are interested in the same game will actually read
>your postings. Some frequently mentioned games are:
>
>Adventurer's Guild (AG): a commercial fantasy arena combat game.
>                         It has its own FAQ posting.
>
>Atlantis: a free or commercial strategic fantasy PBeM.
>
>Duelmasters (DM): a commercial fantasy arena combat game.
>
>Galaxy: a free PBeM written by Russell Wallace, with a space setting.
>
>Legends: a commercial D&D-type simulation in which 200 players
>         wander around a large map trying to become more powerful.
>
>Middle Earth (ME-PBM): a commercial strategic simulation of J. R. R.
>                       Tolkien's fantasy universe.
>
>Olympia: an open-ended commercial fantasy PBEM game. There's also a
>         beta-test of a new Olympia version going on.
>
>Quest: an open-ended commercial fantasy PBM game.
>
>Detailed information about all these games is in the PBM List, which
>is discussed in question (3).
>
>In addition, other PBM games are discussed in separate newsgroups:
>
>Core Wars and C++ Robots:  a game of battling programs. An email server is available
>            for an ongoing tournament. Discussion about Core Wars
>            generally takes place in rec.games.corewar.
>
>Diplomacy: a boardgame often played by email. Discussion for this
>           game generally takes place in the group rec.games.diplomacy.
>
>Board games: games such as Empires in Arms, Third Reich, and Axis and
>             Allies are discussed on rec.games.board, and are
>             sometimes played by mail.
>
>Chess: discussed in rec.games.chess.play-by-mail
>
>Fantasy Baseball and Football: discussed in rec.games.sport.baseball.fantasy
>                               and rec.games.sport.football.fantasy
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>3) What other games are there?
>
>The PBM List is a list of all PBM Games on the planet, pretty much. It
>has details about all the free games that I know of, plus a paragraph
>each on a bunch of commercial games, plus a list of all PBM Games on
>the planet courtesy of Flagship Magazine.
>
>In addition to being on the web in searchable for, the PBM List is
>available for anonymous ftp on ftp.pbm.com:/pub/pbm/PBM.list.gz. If
>you need detailed instructions on ftp, see question (11). The PBM List
>is also posted to rec.games.pbm once a month.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>4) Are there any FTP sites for PBM games?
>
>Two ftp sites are available with identical PBM information:
>
>ftp.pbm.com:/pub/pbm
>
>ftp.funet.fi:/pub/doc/games/play-by-mail
>
>The files on these sites are compressed using the "gzip" compression
>program.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>5) Are there any mailing lists for pbm games?
>
>There are several:
>
>PBM-AGORA is general PBM discussion focusing on moderator interests such as
>game design and marketing.
>Send email 'subscribe pbm-agora your_full_name' to listserv@play-by-mail.com
>
>The PBMDEV mailing list is intended to serve game developers by
>offering a forum to talk about game design, to share resources, and to
>offer help and support. You can subscribe to the mailing list by
>sending an email to mindshift@usa.net with the subject
>"PBMDEV-subscribe".
>
>These mailing lists concentrate on particular games:
>
>Adventurer's Guild -- write majordomo@teleport.com saying
>	   `subscribe guild-l' in the body of your letter.
>BSE (Beyond the Stellar Empire, RTG version) -- write majordomo@pbm.com saying
>           `subscribe bse-list' in the body of your letter.
>BSE (Beyond the Stellar Empire, KJC version) -- write
>           majordomo@pvv.ntnu.no saying
>           `subscribe uk-bse' in the body of your letter.
>DM (Duelmasters) -- write listserv@ambience.com.au saying `help'
>Dungeon -- write listserv@play-by-mail.com saying
> 'subscribe DUNGEON-L Firstname Lastname' in the body of your message.
>EiA (Empires in Arms) -- write majordomo@indiana.edu saying `help'
>Legends -- write majordomo@listbox.com saying
>           `subscribe legends' in the body of your message
>LOTE (Lords of the Earth) -- write listserv@play-by-mail.com saying
>           `subscribe LOTE-L' in the body of your message.
>ME-PBM (Middle Earth) --  (actually a newsletter) --
>            write kazandar@ix.netcom.com or mason@chara.gsu.edu
>MI (Monster Island) -- (another newsletter) write abb21@dial.pipex.com
>Midgard -- write majordomo@midgardusa.com saying
>           'subscribe midgard' in the body of your message.
>Mortis Maximus -- write listserv@play-by-mail.com saying
> 'subscribe MORTISMAXIMUS-L Firstname Lastname' in the body of your message.
>Necromancer -- write listserv@play-by-mail.com saying
> 'subscribe NECROMANCER-L Firstname Lastname' in the body of your message.
>Quest -- write Joshua_Gallagher@scada.ccmail.compuserve.com
>SDW (Stars of the Dark Well) -- write majordomo@data1.com saying
> 'subscribe sdw' in the body of your message.
>Third Reich -- write goldfarb@texas.net (Chris Goldfarb), he has a
>               list of people interested in PBM play.
>Victory! -- write listserv@play-by-mail.com saying
> 'subscribe VICTORY-L Firstname Lastname' in the body of your message.
>World War IV -- write listserv@play-by-mail.com saying
> 'subscribe WW4-LIST Firstname Lastname' in the body of your message.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>6) Are there any free e-magazines for PBM games?
>
>Yes, the PBEM Fanzine is available by email or other means, and has
>articles about all sorts of free PBEM games. If you only have email
>you can subscribe to a mailing list which distributes this
>fanzine by writing majordomo@pbm.com saying "subscribe pbem-fanzine".
>
>There has been at least one false start on an e-magazine covering all
>sorts of PBM games. The biggest problem is probably a dearth of
>articles. I certainly can never get enough for the PBEM Fanzine!
>
>There is a newsletter focusing on human-moderated role-playing PBeM
>games. Back issues are at the ftp sites. Email riba@magic.mb.ca
>with the subject "I subscribe" to receive new issues.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>7) What if I can't FTP?
>
>There is a way to use ftp via email. For details:
>
>     On the Web at http://www.netservs.com/mrcool/stats.htm
>     By FTP at ftp://ftp.cix.co.uk/pub/net-services/stats.txt
>     Mail to mailserv@netservs.com and say
>     get file stats.txt
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>8) I read German or Russian or Italian. Do I win a prize?
>
>Yes! There is a newsgroup de.alt.games.pbem with some interesting
>things going on, but it's all in German. Some German-language games
>are included in the PBM List mentioned in section (3) above.
>
>
>
>Likewise, there is a newsgroup relcom.games.pbem, which is mostly
>in Russian. They play a lot of "Galaxy" in Russia.
>
>
>
>Likewise, there is a newsgroup it.comp.giochi.pbem, which is mostly
>in Italian.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>9) Is commercial advertising allowed here?
>
>Usenet is traditionally a non-commercial place, because many people
>who read the Net are actually paying to receive articles. Posting an
>advertisement is somewhat like sending them junk fax. However, there
>are three exceptions to this rule:
>
>A) There is an entire hierarchy of commercial groups, called "biz.*".
>These groups allow advertising. But this group isn't in that
>hierarchy, and biz.* isn't well propagated because no one wants it.
>
>B) Traditionally, a single, short, tasteful, fact-filled (not
>hype-filled) advertisement for a product will be favorably
>received.
>
>C) Most groups, like this one, have some informational postings which
>will list, in one place and in a consistent format, commercial
>information. In this case, the list is the "PBM List", mentioned in
>section 4 above, which is posted twice a month and is available via
>WWW and ftp.
>
>So if you are a commercial company and wish to make information about
>your game available on Usenet, (C) is your best bet. Send email to
>lindahl@pbm.com and I'll tell you what information I need to put you
>on the list.
>
>[ For more information about this Usenet tradition, please
>see http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/usenet/advertising/how-to/part1.html. ]
>
>Other than posting basic information about your game, supporting your
>game on the group is encouraged -- if folks have questions, post and
>answer them. It's only repetitive hype-filled postings, or perhaps
>repetitive answers of the same question, that will tick off
>Usenetters.
>
>If you did post an advertisement, it might pay to use the [AD] keyword
>for it, but you might not want to use that for a single, fact-filled
>advertisement ((B) above) because people might ignore it, thinking
>it's a repeated ad. I haven't seen much use of this keyword yet, so
>I don't have much practical advice to give regarding it.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>10) How do I ftp that list of all PBM games? Be precise.
>
>
>% ftp ftp.pbm.com
>Connected to ftp.pbm.com.
>220 ftp.pbm.com FTP server (Version 6.16 Thu Nov 5 10:24:57 PST 1992) ready.
>Name (ftp.pbm.com:lindahl): anonymous
>331 Guest login ok, send e-mail address as password.
>Password:                                     (here I typed "guest")
>230-Welcome, archive user! [...]
>230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
>ftp> cd pub/pbm
>250 CWD command successful.
>ftp> ls
>200 PORT command successful.
>150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list.
>PBM.list.gz
>..
>226 Transfer complete.
>91 bytes received in 0.0098 seconds (9 Kbytes/s)
>ftp> binary
>200 Type set to I.
>ftp> get PBM.list.gz
>200 PORT command successful.
>150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for PBM.list.gz (14925 bytes).
>226 Transfer complete.
>local: PBM.list.gz remote: PBM.list.gz
>14925 bytes received in 2.6 seconds (5.6 Kbytes/s)
>ftp> quit
>221 Goodbye.
>hydra ~ % gzcat PBM.list.gz | more
>
>
>Note that the file PBM.list.gz is in compressed format. If you don't
>know how to read that format, just get PBM.list instead, and the ftp
>server will uncompress the file for you.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>11) How can I generate trustable dice rolls?
>
>Many boardgames and other self-moderated PBEM games need lots of dice
>rolled. One good way to do this is to use an email server: you tell it
>the address of your opponent, and it rolls dice and sends a mail
>message to both of you. This way, both sides can trust the answer.
>
>One such email server is:
>
>dice@pbm.com
>
>Send mail with "help" in the body of the message, and it will send
>instructions.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>12) How do I find oponents for board games?
>
>Eric Pass maintains a directory of gamers who want to play various
>board games by mail. You can contact him at epass@nyx.net or you can
>check out his WWW pages at:
>
>http://www.nyx.net/~epass/pbemlist.html
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>13) Why do so few postings in this group
>identify what game they're for?
>
>They actually do label their topics -- but your newsreader may be the
>guilty party. You see, several frequent postings on this newsgroup are
>digests of mailing lists, and some newsreaders split digests into
>individual messages, many of which won't have the appropriate words in
>the subject line.
>
>If your newsreader is "nn", you can tell it to stop doing this by
>editing your ~/.nn/init file and adding the line "set split off".  If
>you DO want a digest split, you can split it by typing "G" when you're
>looking at it.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>If you think of other useful topics for this FAQ, please send me mail
>at lindahl@pbm.com. If you're tired of seeing this posting, add the
>subject line to your kill file.
>
>
>Greg
>Lindahl
>(lindahl@pbm.com)
>
>
>

References

rec.games.pbm Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Mon, 07 Dec 1998 00:00:00 +0000