PBM - Still a Beginner's Revelations

                       by James Judge

Well, how did you enjoy last issue's effort? Hope you did, 'cos it
took me long enough.

Anyway, straight on with the diary. This should be a rather long
one as I'm starting it the day I sent the last one to Sue, that
means it should cover about two months of PBMing!

Monday 18th March, 1994

Well, this morning I received my starting turn from Age Of Heroes
- hoorah! It was rather a thick envelope that was weighing down
our postie - thirty two pages of stuff (but that does include a
newsletter which accounted for about 12 of those...).

So, what was the quality like, first of all. Well, the main turn
reports, turn sheet and league tables (as well as the newsletter)
were produced on an Amiga 500. Nothing spectacular is what you may
be thinking, well you are wrong! Everything is done in glorious
colour, but best of all - on a colour laser printer! The graphics
are very good, and character portraits are just starting up. In
the newsletter there are some black and white handsketches, but
they are good too.

There was five pages of turn info (what I had been doing), a page
long league table (there I was, at the bottom in joint last place
with another new character, Robert The Smith, with 5530 points
(don't ask how I gained those!)), 5 pages of general info on the
world, the city that I had entered and the game system, 7 pages of
spell information and 12 pages of newsletter (my, I made a good
guess).

If you look at it that way, in list form, it seems not a lot, but
what you have got to remember is that the font is small, but
legible, and it is all free - and in glorious colour. Oh, and I
received a two page character sheet.

So, what had my character been doing? Well, old Jeg (well, he is
23) has sailed into this port city of Basram after the weather had
got the better of his ship (well, it wasn't his ship, he was just
a passenger). Looking for a place to stay he came across this
hotel place that was opposite the council offices. After a small
encounter with a group of local law-givers (mainly female, very
unsettling) I entered the hotel (called the Palace) and met a
giant of a man - at nearly 7' high I came to below his chest! I
followed him to the receptionist where he was instantly admitted
to the restaurant where he had a date lined up.

After a few quips with the receptionist she said that she may be
able to help me and called someone to take over her position. She
led me to her quarters (she must be pretty wealthy, to afford
something like this) and asked me a few questions and finally
asked if I was any good at security, I said yes, it was one of my
specialties (what a liar!). Then a man came in and gave her a
cryptic message and she asked whether I wanted a bath - I said yes
and she prepared me one, putting some 'bubbly' stuff in it.

While I was enjoying myself just relaxing in the hot bath, Neena
(the receptionist) walked in completely naked and asked what dress
she should wear and, after my advice, she rushed out and prepared
for girls' night out.

Then my turn ended - me in the bath and Neena hightailing it to
meet Chela (her friend). I had a lot to think about - this
seemingly young girl acted a lot older than she was, she had no
qualms about her body - not something a 20 year old person would
not have! - and she kept on hinting that she was older than she
seemed, but there was nothing conclusive. Then there was this job
- what was it, how much did I get paid and what were my perks? And
there was that strange man.  .. Oh, and there was the large man
who I opened the door for. Looking at the league table he is a
fellow player, a rather good one at that, having 41890 points and
being third on the table.

Sounds good, has already got me interested and I can see myself
going far - very far, especially if my suspicions about Neena
prove to be correct and if I can get friendly with that tall guy
(Yulesese), I may be able to build up a few strong contacts (the
guy did scare a dragon off a couple of days ago, so he can't be
that bad).

The only problems with the game is that I haven't got the foggiest
as to what to do next. I have written out what I want to do and it
is sitting beside me waiting to be posted tomorrow, but I'm sure
that it is wrong. You see, with this game there are no rules - you
can do just about anything as long as it conforms (as best as
possible) with Newton's law of relativity and any rules that you
do want to find out must come from the other players - unless it
is to do with game mechanics, and then the GMs (there are three of
them: Colin (husband), Christine (wife) and Gavin (son)) will be
only too glad to help.

Apart from this feeling of not knowing what to do, I feel that
this is a system that I will get on very well with - it seems
detailed, enthralling and the prose of the turns is very good,
the newsletter is fun to read and the other info is informative,
yet not boring and dry. With 40 players (about 10 newcomers over
the past year, going by the points. There is one character who has
been going for seven years, doubtless to say he is at the top of
the leaderboard!) there will be a good chance of interaction, but
not too much (as it is sometimes with some of these games from
what I've heard).

There is a bit of swearing - mainly in the newsletter, but it is
all done tongue in cheek. Actually, there was only one bit of
swearing in the turn info and the rest was in Quagmire. Although
it isn't necessary, it seems to be the way that the GMs speak
(even to one another, from what I heard over the 'phone!) and
maybe that isn't a bad thing - at least it shows that they are
giving it all they have got.

Nothing else has happened, apart from I've written to Jean Childs
to see if she wants to join in this game - I hope she does, then I
won't get lonely!

                                --

Tuesday 19th March, 1994: 20:03:24

Well, today brought another package via the post.

This time it was from a company that wrote off to late last week -
IB Postal Games. IB stands for Ian Bolton and he runs a game that
is simple, cheap and looks good fun.

The game is called Seek, Locate, Destroy and is based around the
idea that you and five other players are playing on a 51 by 51
grid. You each control four ships and the idea is to wipe out the
other players. Diplomacy is needed, as groups tend to fair better
than individuals. At the end of the game the winner wins six free
turns in any IB games and if there are two winners, they each get
three free turns.  With six players I can see a good sense of
competition building up, so I'm looking forward to playing the
game.

At the moment the game that I am going to join (seven) isn't full
yet, so we have got to wait for a couple more players.

The turnaround is meant to be every two weeks, but, as Ian said,
at least one person will be late in sending their turns in so it
is more likely to be 16 or 17 days per turn. At fifty pence a go,
you can't lose much and it isn't as if the games are on for an
indefinite amount of time. If I do get completely bored with the
game there is always the option of making a few mistakes that gets
me wiped off the board.

The control system does seem overly complicated, but I feel that
is something to live with. The turn reports will only be a couple
of pages long - the rules were only 10 pages long, and that
included background, a spare order form and all the tables that
you would need.  Also I hope that I have got James Jillians
interested in Age Of Heroes - he has asked for the address after
seeing my turn sheets and plans to write to Colin tomorrow -
hopefully that will give me another player to converse with.

Oh well, another entry done. Good bye.
                              - o -