====================================================================== @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@``````````@@ @@``````````@@ @@`````````````` @@@@ @@@@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@``@@ @@ @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@ ``@@`` @@```````````` @@``````````@@ @@```````````` @@`` `` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@`` `` ```````````` `````````````` `` `` ====================================================================== A Fanzine for Free Computer-Moderated Play-By-Electronic-Mail Games ====================================================================== volume 94, number 7 october 31, 1994 ====================================================================== Greg Lindahl, Editor gl8f@virginia.edu ====================================================================== World Wide Web: http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/~gl8f/pbm.html ====================================================================== Table of Contents: Opening Stuff o The Editor's Corner o Short Summary of Available Games Announcements o Blind Galaxy positions available Articles o A First Look at C++Robots o An introduction to PBEM soccer Regular Features o Game Descriptions & Information o Archives and subscriptions by email o Hints regarding sending electronic mail to other networks o What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== The Editor's Corner ====================================================================== This issue begins our expansion into free non-wargames. These games fall into 2 catageories, abstract games and 'fantasy' sports simulations. I hope to keep a balance between the various categories. If you aren't seeing articles about what you're interested in, then you should write a few. Next issue, I hope to have another strategy article for the space game Galaxy, and a detailed strategy article for C++Robots. -- g ====================================================================== Short Summary of Available Games (full information down below) ====================================================================== Abstract games --- an automated email server has 4 different abstract games available: Abalone, Hex, Twixt, and Trax. These are detailed in the PBM List mentioned below, or you can send email to "pbmserv@netcom.com" with the word HELP in the subject of your email. Atlantis 1.1 --- open-ended strategic fantasy game, with 167 players. Currently accepting no new players. C++Robots --- program your robot to blow the other guy into tomorrow. Send mail to "pbmserv@netcom.com" with the word HELP in the subject for details. Celestial Empire --- a more complicated space-opera game. There are 2 games running. New games start occasionally. Dougal Scott is looking for a moderator to take over running these games. Diplomacy --- Play Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame by email. On October 15, there were 1000+ players involved in 252 games, with new games starting frequently on several fully automated email servers. Galactic Conqueror (German language) --- An economic/strategic space-opera game, with fancy interface programs available for PC's and Atari ST's. Galaxy / Galaxy/2 / Galactica / Blind Galaxy --- An economic/strategic space-opera game. There are 200+ players involved in a twenty or so games. New games start occasionally. Republic of Rome --- Play Avalon Hill's Republic of Rome boardgame by email, using an automated server. Star Empires --- A simple strategic/economic space-warfare game. Fly around the galaxy, maim your enemies, capture their planets, and produce more ships to maim the enemy with, etc. Sports Simulations --- a variety of different electronic leagues are available, with the most popular being a set of soccer leagues with compatible rules. Decentralized games --- a couple of games are available which are designed for a few players, and the moderation programs are available so you can run your own games. For more information on any of these games, please wade through the "Game Descriptions and Information" section below. It lists ftp sites and the addresses of the moderators. The sports simulations details and decentralized games descriptions are located in the "PBM List", which is a separate document available at the FTP sites. ====================================================================== Blind Galaxy Positions Available ====================================================================== Howard Bampton has 2 standby openings in his Blind galaxy game `Neptune'. Contact him for more details: bampton@cs.utk.edu. ====================================================================== A First Look at C++Robots Greg Lindahl ====================================================================== Richard Roglie's abstract games server has a new and definately non-abstract game available: C++Robots. Some readers might be familiar with the game C Robots, which dates back quite a few years. I wrote a version of Pascal Robots in 1983 as a term project for a programming class, and it wasn't that novel at the time, so these sorts of programs have a long history. The basic premise of the game is that there are two robots in a square room. Each robot has a gun, a scanner which can detect the other robot, and some means of moving around the room. The robots are controlled by a computer program written by the players. [ Regular readers of this fanzine, or _Scientific American_, will note that this game is somewhat similar to `Core Wars', a game of battling computer programs. For more details about that game, see PBEM volume 94 number 2. ] As the name of the game implies, these programs are written in the C++ programming language. No features of C++ are actually required, so anyone who knows C will also be able to play. Here's an example program: #include "robots.h" main() { int angle, range; while (1) { angle = rand(360); range = scan(angle,5); if( range > 50 && range < 7000 ) cannon(angle, range); } } This program simply sits in place, and scans randomly in all directions. If an enemy is detected, and is in range but isn't so close that I'd be caught in the explosion, I fire at it. As you might imagine, this program doesn't do very well in the arena. A clever robot remembers where it last saw the enemy, and uses this information. I wrote such a robot, and here's some example output from the adjudication program: Program Name Age Score W / L / T Author ============ === ===== =========== ===================================== 1 sidetracker2 3 284 94/ 4/ 2 hansk@netcom.com (Hans Kellner) 2 xenophage 3 261 86/ 11/ 3 tdavis@garnet.acns.fsu.edu 3 assassin 3 250 83/ 16/ 1 tdavis@garnet.acns.fsu.edu 4 gargoyle 3 205 65/ 25/ 10 tdavis@garnet.acns.fsu.edu 5 strafe 3 199 66/ 33/ 1 wfp5p@tigger.itc.virginia.edu 6 slither 1 182 57/ 32/ 11 tdavis@garnet.acns.fsu.edu 7 strafe2 3 181 60/ 39/ 1 wfp5p@tigger.itc.virginia.edu 8 backscan 3 151 50/ 49/ 1 hanwen@stack.urc.tue.nl 9 predator 3 147 49/ 51/ 0 rrognlie (Richard Rognlie) 10 tracker 3 141 47/ 53/ 0 rrognlie (Richard Rognlie) 11 stalker 3 141 45/ 49/ 6 rrognlie (Richard Rognlie) 12 shadow 3 136 45/ 54/ 1 wfp5p@tigger.itc.virginia.edu 13 shadow2 3 115 38/ 61/ 1 wfp5p@tigger.itc.virginia.edu 14*new sitter8 0 112 31/ 50/ 19 gl8f@fermi.clas.virginia.edu 15 sitnspray_ba 3 99 29/ 59/ 12 s004tro@alpha.wright.edu 16 old sitter8 3 92 24/ 56/ 20 gl8f@fermi.clas.virginia.edu 17 circle 3 86 20/ 54/ 26 sgoehrin@copper.ucs.indiana.edu 18 laser 3 83 21/ 59/ 20 wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu 19 3laser 3 78 19/ 60/ 21 wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu 20 nisse9 3 76 13/ 50/ 37 Magnus.Lindberg@eua.ericsson.se My program was "new sitter8". When you submit a program to the adjudication program, you fight 5 battles against every other robot to see who is the "King of the Hill". Your individual results are also shown: vs. sitter8 W/L/T ================ ===== new sitter8 4/0/1 sidetracker2 1/3/1 xenophage 0/5/0 assassin 1/4/0 gargoyle 0/3/2 strafe 2/3/0 slither 1/3/1 strafe2 1/4/0 predator 5/0/0 backscan 1/4/0 tracker 1/4/0 stalker 1/4/0 shadow 1/4/0 shadow2 2/3/0 sitnspray_bad 2/0/3 old sitter8 2/2/1 circle 1/0/4 nisse9 3/0/2 3laser 2/1/2 laser 0/3/2 As you can see, my program did very poorly against some programs such as "xenophage", but beat "predator" 5 times out of 5. At this point, the C++Robots adjudication program is pretty young, and still has an occasional bug. The help files are a bit incomplete, and there is no simulator available to test programs against each other and see what went wrong. I have the source code to "tracker", which beats me 80% of the time, but short of just staring really hard at the source code, I have no idea of figuring out why I lose to it so frequently. If you're interested in learning more, send email to the address `pbmserv@netcom.com' with the word HELP in the subject. If you would like to talk to a human about the game, send mail to rrognlie@netcom.com. Good luck. ====================================================================== An Introduction to Play-By-eMail Soccer Doug Ingram ====================================================================== This article discusses a set of PBEM soccer leagues called "Electronic Football Leagues." The current running leagues, in order of oldest to youngest, are United EFL, Experimental EFL, Fast EFL, German UEFL, and Ladder EFL. We usually call these leagues by their four-letter abbreviations, such as UEFL or EEFL. All together, we refer to the leagues as *EFL. There are two basic "styles" of football leagues. The oldest style comes from the original UEFL league (we call it UEFL-style). The other, more complex style is found in the EEFL (EEFL-style makes sense here). From the introduction to the UEFL rules: "_United_ is a game of postal football (pilka nozna) invented by Alan Parr. Rather than focusing on the actual game as it unfolds on the field, the rules abstract various aspects of play, making the game essentially one of skillful management. Players (henceforth referred to as managers) guide their clubs through the various sessions which comprise a season. Each session is composed of several matches, which are played together as one postal turn. The rules for the league as a whole permit clubs to develop and increase their chances of capturing the league title which each successive season by skillfully coaching players and administering the club." The basic aspects of the game are two-fold: Short-term planning (which I'll call "tactics"), and long-term planning (which I'll call "strategy"). Every manager starts with a given amount of resources (cash, players, coaching and training resources) and a team. Team creation is fairly flexible, allowing distribution of a fixed number of skill levels over a fixed number of players. Each team plays out a 10-session long regular season that lasts anywhere from 6 weeks (Fast EFL, or FEFL) to 9 months (UEFL, LEFL). Each "session" consists of 3 matches for a total of about 30 regular season matches against other opponents. Playoffs are then tacked on to the end of the regular season for all leagues. Tactics come into play in match planning. The rules allow a manager to distribute their players over the various matches on a per-session basis, with restrictions on how often each player can play. In addition, a team can employ a variety of special tactics to attempt to maximize its performance. A common element of tactical planning is an exchange of "scouting reports", in which one or more managers agree to share information on common opponents in order to predict what they will do in a future match. Strategy comes into play in building a team. As the seasons progress, players gradually gain in skill (if their manager spends resources on them) and lose skill (due to "aging", which happens every half-season and is proportional to player age). It is up to the manager to decide which players to help out, given their limited resource budget. In addition, managers can make trades with other teams and participate in free agent auctions. In the UEFL, that's all there is to it. In the EEFL-style leagues, there is also a draft that adds to the fun. The draft is a month-long period between seasons that amounts to a whirlwind chaotic market of trades and more trades, somewhat like the drafting periods in most professional sports. The drawback is that managers often have to spend a lot of time at working on the draft in order to ensure success in the league as a whole. I'll include here a good article by one long-time manager Mike "Sarge" Sargent on good managing in order to help give the reader a feel for the game: ----- On the question on how to judge managerial skills, there are really quite a few aspects to look at. a) Can the manager build a great team? This is the attribute which will get the team achieving at the top of a division. There are many, many managers who fit into this category, and T&T helps in this regard by allowing mangers with experience to offer advice. This is often the quality which earns people manager of the year. (the success=greatness) [Ed Note: T&T is an on-again-off-again strategy periodical for EEFL-style leagues containing letters, rule change debates and articles.] b) Can the manager understand the timing of the situation? This is the quality which gets teams promoted. If you are a great team now but will suffer greatly due to aging, it might have been better to be not so great, and still be good enough to be promoted, and be not so bad the following season. Often trading is the way to achieve this. GUN and SAR have shown this well, coming off a roll to be immediately competitive in the top division. DED scraped into original one season earlier (which was my goal) but had to struggle to hold my spot. VF is a good example as well, and will be very tough next season. He had really bad luck, but used it wisely, and came back with young people who can dominate. [Ed Note: *EFL leagues are typically divided into various division levels, with the best teams in the top division and the rest of the teams always fighting for a chance at promotion to this level.] c) Can the manager get LP's when he doesn't deserve them? There are some truly great LP thieves around. These sorts of managers will dominate the top divisions because they are almost impossible to relegate. CP came back from the dead last season to retain his top division spot. [Ed Note: LP are League Points...you earn them with Wins and Draws.] d) Is the manager too predictable? (enough said; if you are too predictable, people will counter you.) DED beat AA (as prune said) because Doug was a great manager. However, he underestimated my skill in sneakiness. I knew Doug would be one of the few people to catch all of my signals, and hence anticipate what I was going to do (or what it appeared like I was going to do). He chose to react accordingly, but unfortunately for him, it went wrong as the predictable pattern I had been following was changed suddenly. Pretending to be predictable is a managerial weapon! Hiding your strengths for key matches is quite valuable. e) Personal relations. Calling other managers a pack of drongos who couldn't manage themselves out of a corner if they had $1000K is not going to win you many friends. If you don't intimidate/offend people, then you won't have many grudges against you. There are a lot of managers in the lower divisions who impress me by what they do. By offending them, all that would happen is that they wouldn't talk to me, but that is one less team to trade with (both players and information) and generally you will be worse off. On the other hand, being an obnoxious sh*t can work for you as well, but you should do it selectively, and not generally, or else everyone will be after you. f) Does the manager trade well? Trading should benefit both teams. Several people have offered me trades which benefit them, but hurt me, and they were surprised when I did't accept. This is a major problem for people not in the U.S time zones, as to organize a trade for me takes a long long, long time with one or maybe 2 messages a day. Try to adopt a team strategy, and trade to that strategy. Should a trade come your way which seems to go against your strategy , think carefully about it, see if you want to work that player into your side, and then try to design a strategy you are happy with which includes that player. For instance, if you wanted to develop your defence but someone offered you a I/20 FW(F) for your 1/14 DF, you would have to seriously reconsider your general strategy. g) Does the manager achieve his goals? I guess this is probably the most important one on a personal perspective. If AA's goal this season was to do the double (league,cup) and fails, then Doug didn't plan so well, or luck was against him. Achieving goals is what makes games enjoyable. The goals you set yourself must be realistic, but if you achieve everything you set out to do, then give yourself a pat on the back, you are a good manager. DED has achieved all of its goals so far in its 3 1/2 season life. It doesn't necessarily make me a great manager, but it makes me a satisfied manager. h) Others. I make no claim at being an expert on what makes a good manager. There are probably heaps of other fields which I don't consider, but the above should give people an idea. Feel free to add to this list; then I will learn something. ----- [ End of included article ] ----- Now, some more specific information on each league: UEFL: The Commissioner is Jeremy Billones. This league is currently in its 6th season with three division levels and 30 teams (10 teams at each level). Seasons run from October through May with time off during the summer for good behavior. Turns are due about once every two weeks. A typical roster looks like this: Team: Beirut Blast Manager: Doug Ingram Cash: 108 CP: 5.0 [Coaching points, used to increase skill of older players.] TP: 3 [Training points, used to increase skill of young players.] OTF: 1 [One-Touch Football...a team skill that can be increased] Player Position Age SL Warren Christopher GK I 7 Yasir Arafat GK VI 3 Viktor Ostrovsky GK III 15 Boris Yeltsin SW II 20 Terry Anderson DF 0 8 [...] A typical order set look like this: Beirut Blast Doug Ingram Central Division Session A Transactions: Sign 0/3 MF Philippe Biamby from the minor leagues for $100K. Match lineups: vs Tuxedo Park vs Lemmings vs SFWA Hacks away away home Longball Wingplay Midfield Dominance GK Ostrovsky Ostrovsky Christopher SW Yeltsin Yeltsin DF Clancy Anderson Dubcek Anderson Dubcek Quayle Biamby [...] TP Clancy Powell Christopher CP Ostrovsky Anderson Yeltsin MVP Ostrovsky Press: [In the best cases, this is much too long to include a sample.] Comments to Commissioner: I think I'm toast in match 1, but maybe I'll luck out. ------------ UEFL takes around 2-3 hours to really learn well (this includes reading the various strategy articles in addition to the rules). Each session, depending upon how much scouting and manager interaction a manager does, can take from 30 minutes to 3 hours. There are two other UEFL-style leagues in existence right now: the German UEFL, which is virtually identical to UEFL except everything is done in German, and the Ladder EFL (LEFL), which is similar to UEFL, but has some significant differences: No divisions...just a ladder of 40 teams with regular shakeups depending upon performance. No "sessions"...just one match/week. Seasons are 28 matches long followed by 5-week playoffs. Currently, 40 teams are in this league and the league may expand a lot next season. The major EEFL-style league is, of course, EEFL. EEFL is a 120-team league (at least a factor of three larger than any other league), with teams split up into four tiers of divisions. The EEFL is now in its 11th season and is going strong. Seasons last about 6 months, and orders are due about every 10 days. The commissioner is Bill 'Prune' Wickart. In this league, rosters look like this: OTF: 7 OST: 0 CK: 0 WDL: 5 2 1 0.0 Rating: 0.74 Bonus: 0.00 2 Draft: AA1 AA2 AA3 Goals: 8 1 CP: 4.0 4.0 TP: 6.0 3.0 Cash: 1128 Team: Adirondack Automata Manager: Doug Ingram Stadium: WorleyWorld Age SL EL Pos Su SD DP Gl Sh As Sa Ga Co Id 1 17 8 GK 0 0 0 -5 0 0 9 19 -1 3004 Tom Servo (E 690) 3 31 8 GK 0 0 4 -15 0 0 52 21 -1 1 Andrew Grove (E 1650) 2 13 6 SW 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 20 0 3 TRS 80 (Q) 5 3 7 DF 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 20 0 1499 Andy Gray (I) 3 11 8 DF 0 0 16 0 3 1 4 19 0 1662 Pekka Pakki 3 14 6 DF 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 24 0 5 Zoltan Kodaly [...] It would probably take too long to explain everything in this file, but it's all in the rules. Most of the numbers are just bookkeeping that the manager need not follow. Only Age, SL and EL (Skill level and Endurance Level, respectively) are really important. ------ A typical order set look like this: orders: Adirondack Automata : AA session A Doug Ingram vs OML vs SAR vs OUL (S) (S) (P) case: T>=30 G<0 N case: T>=30 G<0 N case: F<0 N case: G>0 S case: G>0 S case: T>=45 G<0 P case: G<-2 S case: G<-2 S case: T>=18 G>0 S none none case: G<-2 S GK T. Servo A. Grove A. Grove case: T>=30 @@ S1 none none SW T. 80 T. Servo T. 80 DF Z. Kodaly Z. Kodaly : C. Crawford Z. Kodaly > none case: T>=30 ^ case: F<0 : P. Merson none none case: T>=18 G>=0 : P. Merson none none case: T>=18 G<0 ^ none none case: T>=18 G<-2 ^ none none case: T>=18 G>1 ^ DF A. Guider A. Guider : C. Crawford A. Guider none case: T>=30 G<0 ^ case: F<0 : P. Merson none case: T>=30 G>=0 : C. Crawford case: T>=30 @@ S1 none case: T>=30 G>1 ^ none none case: T>=30 G<-2 ^ none DF B. Serker - G. Ypsy ^ none case: T>=30 G<=0 C MF > case: T>=30 @@ S1 none case: T>=30 G>0 C DF | none none case: T>=72 G>0 ## none none case: T>=72 G<-2 ## none none [...] S1 A. Grove H. 9000 * L. Writer case: T>0 X GK case: T>=30 G<0 C FW | case: T>0 C MF | none case: T>=30 G=0 C FW < case: G<0 | none case: T>=48 G>0 C MF ^ case: G>=0 < none case: T>=48 G>1 C MF < 0 none none case: G<-2 C MF < 0 none TP T. Servo G. Ypsy C. Ambot CP A. Grove H. 9000 T. 80 end ------------ Again, you get the idea. One of the distinctive features of EEFL-style leagues is the ability to use the "conditional order". This allows a manger to alter the lineups on the field based on game parameters such as current score, number of shots, match time, etc. The conditional language may seem a little daunting, but it is not. The example I've shown here is rather complex to give you a feel for what you CAN do. Most managers only use a few conditionals. EEFL takes anywhere from 1 hour to 6 hours per session, I would guess, though it tends toward the low side of that range. Again, a lot depends upon how much time a manager spends interacting with the other managers, scouting, how complex the conditions are, etc. Then there is the draft, trading, the playoffs, etc. All in all, the time investment is 50% greater than with UEFL-style leagues, but this is only an average. Another EEFL-style league is FEFL, which is the Fast EFL. It is fairly close to EEFL in all aspects, but deadlines are run on the order of 2-3 days at most. This league is really for EEFL veterans only because of the necessity to really know the rules well in order to meet the turnaround times. Entry into the EEFL-style leagues also gets you a ticket to a talk server (similar to a MUD or chat-domain) that managers often log into in order to chat, trade, watch match reports presented live by some special software, etc. This can turn the league into an infinite time sink for anyone... and this from one who knows. Information on all the leagues can be found in Greg's excellent PBEM List or PBM Homepage on the Web, described elsewhere in this magazine. These documents explain how potential players can contact various commissioners and/or learn more about the leagues and how to join. One thing all the current leagues have in common right now (unfortunately) are long waiting lists. You can expect around a six-month wait to get into any league at this point, and even then, there's no guarantee. The reason for this sad situation is that there are too many players and not enough commissioners. We commissioners (I run LEFL so I can speak as "we") basically do this for the fun of it... there is no money involved and I'm certain that none of us would ever be involved in a *EFL if there were a cost. ====================================================================== Game Descriptions and Information ====================================================================== Note: This information grows old. If you are looking at this issue from an archive, consult the file "PBM.list.gz" in the ftp archives for more up-to-date information. ====================================================================== All of these ftp sites are mirror copies of each other. Please use the closest one. FTP Site: ftp.erg.sri.com username: anonymous Directory: pub/pbm FTP Site: ftp.funet.fi username: anonymous Directory: pub/doc/games/play-by-mail World Wide Web: http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/~gl8f/pbm.html ====================================================================== Game: Atlantis 1.1 Type: strategic economic/military, fantasy setting Duration: open-ended Turns: one per week GM: jjc@mpa15c.mv-oc.unisys.com Status: up and running, ** accepting no more players ** Description: Atlantis 1.1 is an upgrade of Russell Wallace's original Atlantis 1.0 system. Atlantis features multiple faction types, a mostly player-run economy, simple economics, and a simple combat system. The major changes are increased movement for ships and mounted forces, and reduced taxation income. About 167 players are participating as of October, 1994. The rules are available from the ftp sites, as are back-issues of the player newsletter. Russell has written about half the code for 2.0. If you are interested in completing it, write him at rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Celestial Empire Type: strategic economic/military space-opera Duration: close-ended, 30+ turns Turns: one per week GM: Dougal.Scott@fcit.monash.edu.au Status: occasionally starting new games Description: Players compete to capture worlds which produce many different types of resources, of which different amounts are needed to manufacture various items. The author, Dougal Scott, is running several games, and he periodically starts new ones. The rules can be ftped from yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au in the directory /pub/celemp. After you have read them, if you still want to join a game, send your name to Dougal at the address above. He is also looking for a new moderator to take over running his games, because he is graduating. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Diplomacy Type: email version of Avalon Hill's pure strategy game Turns: frequency varies from one per day to one per 2 weeks for different games. Email Server: judge@morrolan.eff.org HELP in body of message; the subject is ignored. Description: The Diplomacy Adjudicator is a fully computer-moderated gamemaster for Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame. To get more information from the moderator, send email with the word "HELP" in the body of the message (the subject is ignored) to judge@morrolan.eff.org. There are also other judges available, but most games are run on the EFF judge. The diplomacy Hall of Fame is available via ftp from ftp.nda.com, directory /pub/diplomacy/HallOfFame. Diplomacy is probably the biggest PBEM game out there, with 252 games going as of October 15, 1994. I'd estimate at least 1,000 players are active in one or more games. Most discussion related to Diplomacy takes place on the newsgroup rec.games.diplomacy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Galactic Conqueror (German language) Type: strategic, economic/military, space opera setting Duration: typically 25-30 turns Turns: typically 1 per week GM: hz@zardoz.ruhr.de (Harry Zimmermann) Description: Galactic Conqueror is strategic SF-PBeM-Game for up to 50 players. Each player starts the game with a small fleet of starships and is the owner of one of several hundred planets. The winner is determined by an point system which gives points for specific actions each turn. The first player who reaches a pre-set winning score will be the winner of the game. Since there are almost no trade options in the game, player interaction mostly concerns negotiations about borders and coordination of attacks or defense. Players can: o invest in science o build industrial facilities and strongholds on planets o build ships (26 different classes) o attack enemy or neutral planets o engage in espionage or corruption o and much more... At the start of the game, each player can see only 4-10 planets, whose coordinates are given relative to his own starting-planet. Every time a new planet is conquered, all planets up to a given distance from this new one are revealed. The rules and an Atari ST and PC Clone client can be ftped from ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl, in the directory /pub/pbm/Galactic_Conqueror. The clients are graphical point-and-click interfaces to the game. You could play without a client, but this is not recommended. An X11 client is in the works, as is an eventual translation of the rules into English. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Galaxy Type: strategic, economic/military, space opera setting Duration: typically 50-80 turns Turns: typically 1 or 2 per week Email Server: galaxy@acca.nmsu.edu, Subject: HELP [ but it's dead ] GM: bampton@cs.utk.edu (Howard Bampton) [ blind galaxy only ] GM: roger@bimcore.emory.edu (Roger Dingeldine) [ blind galaxy ] GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) Description: The game typically takes place on a 100x100 2D map, with a few hundred planets and 20 to 50 players. Players compete to capture planets, which can be used for economic expansion. You can purchase technology in several different areas, allowing your ships to fight harder and move faster. Galaxy turns range in size from 10kbytes early in the game to 100-200kbytes late in the game. The rules and source code are available for ftp. You can write to humans who run games; they start games occasionally and also have standby positions. They are: bampton@cs.utk.edu [ blind galaxy only ] roger@bimcore.emory.edu [ blind galaxy only ] rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie Howard Bampton has a variant called "blind" galaxy. It features a wraparound map, a double-blind mail-forwarding system, and you received only limited information about other players other than what you can observe at systems where you have ships. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Judgment Day Type: strategic economic/military, present day setting Turns: one per week GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) Status: beta-test finished, looking for a moderator Description: Judgment Day is a game for up to 25 players. Each player controls an empire which can build weapons and attack each other. When the nukes start flying, remember to duck and cover. The source code is available at the ftp sites or from Russell. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Republic of Rome Type: Historical (Roman Empire) Turns: player-paced Email Server: ror@hpeswlw.fc.hp.com HELP in body of message, the subject is ignored Description: RoR is an email adjudicator for Avalon Hill's game Republic of Rome, a cutthroat game of politics set in ancient Rome. All aspects of play are fully automated; there is no human GM. Players control factions of Senators; each turn they must elect officers and vote to raise and deploy forces to fight the many wars that arise; they work to increase the influence and popularity of their own Senators but must also work together to prevent destruction by war or by popular revolt. If Rome falls everyone loses. To get started, buy a copy of the board game, read the rules, then send email to the address above with the word "help" in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Star Empires Type: strategic empire-building, space setting Turns: one per week, 60+ turns per game GM: rhl@jambo.mitre.org (Roger Lincoln) Status: occasionally starting games; watch rec.games.pbm Description: Star Empires is a very simple game which is very addictive. Players compete to control planets, which produce resources which can be used to build various types of ships. There is generally a large amount of diplomacy, and the GM encourages humorous player press releases. The rules are available for ftp. ====================================================================== A large number of sports leagues exist. Here's a list of types and addresses of the moderators -- more details can be found in the PBM List. To preview the rules, look on the ftp site. Game: Experimental Electronic Baseball League (EEBL) Type: sports simulation, american baseball GM: peiper@phoenix.cs.uga.edu Game: Experimental Electronic Football League (EEFL) Type: sports simulation, soccer GM: wickart@ichips.intel.com (Bill 'Prune' Wickart) Game: Fast Electronic Football League (FEFL) Type: sports simulation, soccer GM: mange@lysator.liu.se (Magnus Nilsson) Game: Ladder Electronic Football League (LEFL) Type: sports simulation, soccer GM: ingram@u.washington.edu (Doug Ingram) Game: Formula 1 Pick 6 Type: Auto racing prediction contest GM: vallee@essi.essi.fr (Thierry Vallee) Game: Strategic Postal Australian Rules Football (SPARF) GM: mel@csua.berkeley.edu Game: Sugar Ray (German language & English language) GM: gerstnet@informatik.tu-muenchen.de (Thomas Gerstner) (german language) (email) Game: United 3 (Soccer) (German language) GM: allard@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de Game: United Electronic Football League (UEFL) GM: billones@digex.com (Jeremy Billones) Game: World eMail Hockey Association (WeHA) GM: inb@creare.com (Ian Brown) ====================================================================== Archives and subscriptions by email ====================================================================== PBEM is archived at the ftp and WWW sites mentioned earlier. I have a mailing list that distributes the magazine, but I prefer that you obtain it via Usenet or other means instead of asking to go on the mailing list. ====================================================================== The remainder of this magazine does not change, and is not of interest to most readers anyway. Skip it. ====================================================================== Hints regarding sending Electronic Mail to other networks ====================================================================== OK, so now you're wondering, "I'm using FidoNet or CompuServe or FoobieBlech and those email addresses he keeps on talking about sure look funny to me!". Welcome to the modern world of networking. See, there's this big amorphous network called the Internet that lots of other networks and services, like FidoNet, CompuServe, DELPHI, America Online, GEnie and Prodigy are hooked up to. And you can send email between all of them, if you know the right incantations. Sometimes size or cost limitations will keep you from being able to play games on another network, but at least you can send me letters to the editor or articles. If your Compuserve ID is [76515,1122] then your canonical Internet address will be "76515.1122@compuserve.com" -- notice that the comma has become a period. To send mail from CompuServe to the Internet, you use this sort of address: >INTERNET:gl8f@virginia.edu Compuserve users have to pay extra for mail to or from the Internet. If you're a flat-fee user, the cost is 5 cents per 2500 characters, minimum 15 cents, but the first $9 per month is free. This can add up to a bit of money if you send frequent messages, or get into a Galaxy end-game where your turns are large. In addition, the maximum size for a given message is 50kbytes, and most Internet games do not split their game turns into pieces if they are too large. Diplomacy and Arena, for example, generally don't have large turns. Diplomacy games with no press don't send that many messages. America Online does not charge any extra fee for Internet email, and has recently removed their limit on message size, so they are perfectly adequate for playing Internet games. Their addresses look like "username@aol.com" Delphi addresses look like "username@delphi.com". Internet access costs $3/month extra, but that gets you access to email, ftp, irc, gopher, etc. at their normal hourly charge. Prodigy has finished their gateway. I don't know how much they charge for sending messages to the Internet. They do have a charge for sending large numbers of messages inside of Prodigy. Their addresses look like "username@prodigy.com" GEnie's addresses look like this: username@genie.geis.com. The maximum incoming message size is 900kbytes, but the biggest outgoing message is 50k or 2500 lines, as limited by the GEnie message editor. These sizes are big enough to play all games. GEnie doesn't charge extra for Internet email. FidoNet addresses, such as "Dale Webber at 1:105/55.0", look like dale.weber@p0.f55.n105.z1.fidonet.org in Internet form. To send email to the Internet from FidoNet, send normal netmail to the user UUCP, and then on the first line of the message, put the line: To: gl8f@virginia.edu Unfortunately, unless your FidoNet BBS is hooked directly to the Internet, they ask that you keep email under 10kbytes and only occasional. Ask your sysop for more information. ====================================================================== What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== ftp is an acronym for "file transfer protocol", and it is only directly available to the privileged few who are directly hooked to the Internet using heavy-duty hardware. There is a way to use ftp via email, and if you can get email to me, I will send you a document explaining how to use it, or you can get this information by yourself by sending email to any of the following addresses; if they don't recognize any commands, they'll send back instructions: bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu (USA/New Jersey) ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu (USA/North Carolina) ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com (USA/West Coast) ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk (Europe/United Kingdom) bitftp@vm.gmd.de (Europe/Germany) ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au (Pacific Rim/Australia) ====================================================================== PBEM is published monthly. Please redistribute it far and wide, but do not modify or delete any articles. Write me if you want to redistribute it in other forms; such permission is easy to obtain. For example, some old articles are being translated into German. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Our focus is primarily on free wargames, but we're interested in articles about anything relevant to play-by-email.