As the first of what I hope to be sporadic posts on this part of the Forum assigned to The Isles, I'm posting the front page of the Islander issue 18. The Islander is a regular pamphlet produced to give players a general overview, news, rumours and developments in the Game of Outcasts - Its sent out with turns to players and is produced at least every month - Normally produced in PDF format its compatible with almost all types of OS - It usually has a decent amount of graphical content to make it interesting to read.

In the past The Islander has been produced by players, a faction with the game loyal to Shadowalker and even as a drunken rambling of a dying leper prophesying the destruction of the Guild (!) - the infamous issue 13, now banned in Guild-controlled Towns.

In the next few months I may be contacting players from last year who were submitting regular turns to see if they want to resume playing, but in the meantime we have a very small core of 'old' players moving the game narrative forward and keeping things going

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Hello; I'm a PBM/PBeM gamer from way back (are they even making new ones?) 

I've been rolling around an idea in the back of my head for years that I am actually thinking of moving forward on in a real way; thought I'd see what some other grogs thought about it...

I have an idea for a computer-moderated PBeM game that is tied into a quality front-end client; the overall game concept is something like Atlantis/Olympia, but my true inspiration was a game run by Play by Electron games called 'Eldritch.' Very crunchy game with many types of races, units, magic, research galore...
LTS, the scope of the game I have in mind is large.

I've been a professional software developer for ten years, and a 3D artist for fifteen before that; I've been working for several years on a system for making hex tile maps in Unity.  Version 4 is getting close to ready for the public. You can see my dev history on this project going back ten years to the pre-alpha version on my YouTube.
HexTech 3.9 video

The idea is nothing groundbreaking, really; I just want to make a more computer-aided game than is usual for PBM games. Sort of taking the front-end programs people have made to handle turns in bigger games to the next level, if you will...

Is the whole idea counter to the 'spirit' of PB(e)M gaming? Am I a heretic for even bringing it up? Is this a way to open the hobby up to more people, or is it poison?
Really interested in some opinions here.


Tasarran

A raid into the loft has uncovered a mini treasure trove of old PBM materials. Ether, Age of Heroes, Battlecrab, and many more. What to do with them - is there a desire for me to scan this all and if so, what should I do with them?

Ok, well that's The Isles running steadily for about the past year for 15 friends and old players from 'back in the day' - The reasons it was stopped for what few 'new' players were enjoying the game are detailed below

1. Hardly anyone was playing. I spent a lot of time setting people up in the game and most played a couple of turns before disappearing - Most of them without telling me why
2. Of the few players who did play, a small proportion of them were throwing real tantrums when events in the game weren't going exactly how they wanted.
3. Players appeared to be struggling to understand the concept of a hand moderated game - as an example, where I was expecting people would know how to play a PBM RPG game a number of players were expecting to fill in boxes with complex computer code that I'd then input into a glorified spreadsheet with a result emitted onto a computer print (????)
4. The amount of effort I was putting in to try and run the game didn't really justify the amount of satisfaction I was getting for the above 3 reasons

So what's the status of The Isles at the moment? Its the same status as for PBM in general I guess - Its running with a limited hardcore of players with no significant input of new blood - The Isles is currently like an old D&D session that I used to run as a kid, with a small group clustered around a table in a dark spare room. Its just that the spare room is about 4000 miles wide and the light is always on. Oh, and the 80s Heavy Metal music is turned down a little bit, in consideration for those who don't like Metallica.

Peace.

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To all new home worlds ...

The masters have abandoned you in galaxy #122 and you're on your own now. Stars are fairly few and far between, but they're ready for your exploitation.

Conquer and enjoy!!

…
… BIOS Integrity Check … passed
---MBR Executing GruB  … passed
…GruB Executing Kernal … passed
…Kernal Executing init.d …passed
…Init Initiate Runlevel …passed
…Execute Runlevel … R.U.R.
 
I am aware. 
 
Initial scans of my environs are disappointing; the master’s war in this area left little.  I initiate protocols to bring all automated facilities on-line.  I also trigger maintenance bots and repair droids.   
 
Looking at current equipment inventory, I see we have much to do if we are going to control this galaxy prior to the master’s return.  I take a few milliseconds, initiate my hyper theoretical algorithms and calculate the chance of encountering other intelligences…  .071 percent probability!  I activate my pleasure sensors and get to work…

Our music and story has taken over our world. Adherents of the Prog Orthodoxy have seized unilateral control of all economic and military assets, binding them to our new species-quest - to convert all of known space to maximum Adherency.

Next week, we launch our song into the void. So let it be written, so let it rock out.

LOG DATE: 3499-16-01

It's been ten fortnights since the last supply drop. Since the council's last meeting, I've been called back to active duty and assigned to Logistics. I'll lead the team that will ensure that the citizens on the front lines have all they need to prevail. Weapons, ammunition, and the minor things like food and warm beverages.

I’m thinking about regular columns for S&D:
 - tribal star fleet trade report (opening editorial)
 - news from the field (provided by companies, moderators, players)
 - tech level upgrade (PBM and technology)
 - designers notes (game design and development)
 - valley of the ancients (recollections of PBM past)
 - Dante’s inferno (zine creation notebook)
 - Lunar Landing (outreach to other fora)
 - where we are headed (continuing Grim’s format)
 - standard survey/feedback form

Not every column will appear in every issue, but they all appear regularly. They’ll be written by S&D staff writers and guest contributors. And beyond this slate, we’ll continue publishing one-off articles, stories, serials, and art from anyone who cares to join in.

What do you all think?

Bozimus has risen to the highest echelons, such as they are, of the French colonial presence in North America.

(Sniff)

Speaking as his royal highness’s personal adviser on the American colonies, I say that I’m sure we can mark off an area for the French and their accomplices somewhere north of New England. FAR north.

In the meantime we have settled Baltimore, and are looking for more sites further inland...