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Issue #14 of Suspense & Decision magazine, a publication focusing on play-by-mail and turn-based gaming.

Active PBM Games

NOTE: This section is under active construction. More active PBM games are listed on the PBM Hivemind section on the front page of the PlayByMail.Net website. This section on the PBM Wiki site began construction on March 5th, 2014, and will take a while to flesh out with relevant information. When completed, it should be a useful resource for gamers looking for PBM games to play. In the mean time, don't make the mistake of thinking that all that is listed here is all that there is. Nothing could be further form the truth!

Play By Mail (PBM via Postal Service)	Ancestral Descendants (Electronic/Digital PBM)
Advanced Gaming Enterprises Crack of Doom II – (pay) Notes go here! Agema The Glory of Kings VII – (pay) Napoleonic Battles IV – (pay) Scramble for Empire – (pay) Swashbuckler – (pay) Notes go here! Flying Buffalo, Inc. Heroic Fantasy – (pay) Starweb – (pay) Notes go here! KJC Games Phoenix: BSE – both (pay) and (free with limitations) Notes go here! Harlequin Games [Legends PBM] – (pay) Notes go here! Middle-earth Games [Third Age, circa 1650] – (pay) [Third Age, circa 2950] – (pay) [Fourth Age, circa 1000] – (pay) [Kin Strife, circa 1450] – (pay) Notes go here! Reality Simulations, Inc. Duel2 – (pay) Forgotten Realms – (pay) Hyborian War – (pay) Notes go here!	Agema The Glory of Kings VII – (pay) Napoleonic Battles IV – (pay) Scramble for Empire – (pay) Swashbuckler – (pay) Notes go here! Clash of Legends Game of Thrones - Westeros (8-20 players) – (free) Greek Battles - players – (free) Greek Battles - 8 players – (free) Battle for Azhog - 2 players – (free) War of Dwarves and Orcs - 8-20 players – (free) Notes go here! Enlightened Age Entertainment Alamaze – (pay) Fall of Rome – (pay) Alamaze is on a monthly subscription available at different service levels, which determines how many games a player may be in, concurrently. New players generally start at Scout Level Service, which provides one game at a time, and is $19.95 for seven turns a month, so less than $3 per turn. Alamaze is PBEM, supported by a website, forum, and email support. Fall of Rome is a browser based game with full graphic-user interface (GUI). KJC Games It's A Crime! – (pay) New York in the 21st century is a city on the edge of collapse. The mobs are about to take control. To survive you have to become the leader of the meanest, toughest, gang ever. It's a Crime is ideal for newcomers to Play-by-Mail (PBM). Phoenix: BSE – both (pay) and (free with limitations) Notes go here! Harlequin Games [Legends PBM] – (pay) Notes go here! Middle-earth Games [Third Age, circa 1650] – (pay) [Third Age, circa 2950] – (pay) [Fourth Age, circa 1000] – (pay) [Kin Strife, circa 1450] – (pay) Talisman Games Galac-Tac – (pay) Notes go here!

Paper Mayhem issue 22.

PBM Hivemind - Where PBM Players Gather

NOTE: This section is under construction. Links will be transferred from the front page of the PlayByMail.Net website to this section, in due time.

PBM Forums	PBM on Yahoo! Discussion Groups	PBM on Google+ Discussion Groups	PBM on Facebook	PBM on Facebook Discussion Groups
Agema Publications Alamaze Briny en Garde! Cruenti Dei Duel2 Empires at War 1805 Fallen Empires Fall of Rome Fantasya Far Horizons Flying Buffalo Gamer KJC Games Lords of Conquest Madhouse UK Middle-earth PBM Midgard Midnight/MU PBeM-Spiele Phoenix: BSE Rimworlds The Road of Kings] Rolling Thunder Games, Inc. Summit PBM Takamo Universe	Middle-earth Play-By-Mail Adventure Play-By-Mail Abnormals Lizards Twilight Earth Daemonrift Broken Lands AtlantisDev Cluster Wars DungeonWorld Forgotten Realms London EnGarde Legends PBM Midgard Olympia The Tribes of Crane	Galac-Tac	Adventurers Guild Alamaze Clash of Legends Diplomacy on USAK Duel2 Empires at War 1805 Fallen Empires PBE Flying Buffalo, Inc. Forgotten Realms Galactic Prisoners It's A Crime Phoenix: Beyond the Stellar Empire Rimworlds Rolling Thunder Games Starweb Takamo Universe	Duel2 Fallen Empires Chat Room Fall of Rome Hyborian War Lands of Nevron Legends Middle-Earth PBM Phoenix: BSE Play by Mail Games Postal Diplomacy Zine Archive Science Fiction Writers and Artists Group for Takamo Universe Star Fleet Warlord

Definition of PBM

Galactic Prisoners was a computer-moderated, open-ended, futuristic game that featured an alien race, the Nibor, destroyed all humans, except for a very few who were placed on a planet to be studied by Nibor observers. The player played the role of a human captain of an All Terrain vehicle (ATV), who was given a crew of 100 human prisoners by the Nibor. As the captain, it was the responsibility of the player to provide his or her crew with survival.

So, what - exactly - is PBM?

PBM is an acronym, one that stands for Play By Mail. It is a reference to a genre of gaming that was - and still is - played through the postal system, which, in the United States of America, is the United States Postal Service.

Whether one says PBM, PBM games, PBM gaming, play by mail, play-by-mail, postal games, postal gaming, play by post, correspondence games, or correspondence gaming, they are all variations on the exact, same thing.

Later (as in newer or more recent) variations on the core genre that is postal gaming have manifested themselves as PBeM (play by e-mail), PBM (play by web - as in the World Wide Web), PBI (play by Internet), TBG (turn based gaming), and even BBG (browser based games).

During its course of existence, play by mail gaming has been covered by a wide variety of sources, and this genre of gaming (which many view to be classic gaming at its very finest, providing a form of quality gaming entertainment still unrivaled in terms of the overall gaming experience that the player has), is still alive and popular with many gaming enthusiasts and gaming adherents, whose interests in gaming entertainment run the gamut from RPGs (role playing games) to wargaming.

Included within this broad range of coverage of the PBM hobby and of the commercial PBM industry were numerous magazines dedicated specifically or largely to coverage of play by mail gaming. Published titles such Nuts & Bolts, Paper Mayhem, PBM Universal, Gaming Universal, Flagship, American Flagship, Campaigner's Newsletter, American Gamer, The PBM Report, Simulacrum, PBM Worm, and 1st Class covered every aspect of PBM gaming, delivering a cornucopia of PBM news to a gaming public thirsting for details of an ever-changing PBM scene.

Within the genre, postal games covered an exceptionally broad portion of the entire gaming spectrum. Space conquest games, fantasy role playing games, and hardcore wargames that would make any grognard proud are but a few of the many popular categories of games that fell under - and to this day are still encompassed by - PBM gaming.

Play by mail gaming shares many similarities with board gaming, as well, the turn based aspect a signature feature of many PBM games. Unlike many modern-day massively multiplayer online games of various types, postal games tended - and still tend - to deliver a more personalized gaming experience, one that did not leave the player lost in a tsunami of player pools that number in the millions, for some of the more heavily populated massively multiplayer online games, particularly where MMORPGs of note are concerned.

Hyborian War wall map showing land provinces, coastal provinces, and sea zones.

Combining a beer & pretzels sort of appeal with a community of both commercial and non-commercial game moderators, PBM left an indelible mark upon the history of gaming. Rich gaming experiences that were unique to postal gaming helped elevate the hobby and the industry to such a place in the public eye that good old correspondence gaming soon carved out a place for itself in the pantheon of gaming genres.

As with many different sectors of the gaming industry at large, PBM has endured its share of periods where the industry would consolidate. Rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, though, play by mail gaming continues to thrive heading into the second decade of the Twenty-First Century. Numerous groups of hardcore PBM gamers can be easily located on the Internet, today, with new industry champions joining PBM's venerated Old Guard in celebrating play by mail gaming in the modern era.

Both nostalgia and a desire to return to the roots of what a true, honest-to-God multi-player gaming experience should be like, are helping to create a Renaissance of the core postal gaming experience for new generations of gaming enthusiasts, even as more and more PBM old timers find themselves returning to the play by mail fold. The resulting diversity can only benefit PBM gaming, as the PBM hobby and the PBM industry chart a new path into the future.

Whether a player's turn results are delivered to him or to her in a paper envelope, or in one of a variety of different electronic equivalents, the PBM experience continues to act as a catalyst for positive change within the gaming industry at large. In this way, PBM continues to push the gaming envelope, after all these many years.

Other definitions of PBM

PBM Magazines

Flagship issue 1.

PBM Associations

Gaming Universal Issue 4.

PBM companies

This is a list of Play-By-Mail companies and individuals that have run PBM games, over the years. Some of these companies and their games are still up and running, today. Many of them, unfortunately, have fallen defunct with the passage of time.