Issue #41 is here!
Whoever woulda thunk it, huh? Welcome to what I call "The Latecomer Issue." It wasn't a planned thing to call it this, but the idea to call it that came to me around 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning, the Saturday before this issue publishes. In fact, I'm talking to you live on the spot from the location where the idea spontaneously manifested itself, right now. But because this issue hasn't been published, yet (heck, it hasn't even finished being written, yet), it will be a couple of days in the future before you get wind of it.
Don't blame me, though. Blame Joe Franklin. Joe came through for me (shame on all of you out there that doubted that he would), and sent me an article to include in this issue of PBM Chaos. What a swell guy!
And as I started to read it, under the pretext of "proofreading it," that date of 1989 stabbed me right in the eye, and I told myself, "This Joe fellow is a latercomer."
But what did I mean by that? Well, old Joe was a latercomer to play by mail gaming, if that's when the PBM bug first bit him. Then it dawned on me that I am a latercomer to PBM, also. I still have seniority on Joe, thank goodness (he would never let me live it down, otherwise), but I'm still a latercomer to the play by mail gaming scene, having arrived somewhere in the neighborhood of 1986-1987. I ought to just ask the folks at RSI, as their records likely hold the answer to that ongoing uncertainty of mine. It would be terrible, though, if they ended up telling me that it was something like 1994. I might ought to continue holding this particular PBM card close to my vest, for now.
Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo, Inc. fame published the play-by-mail game, Nuclear Destruction, in 1970. Thus, latesleeper Joe Franklin finally crawled out of bed almost two full decades later. Talk about one hell of a nap! Meet the Rumplestiltskin of play by mail, people.
I wasn't much better than him, the truth be told. Fast forward to the present day, though, and mighty Joe Franklin is like a modern day Babe Ruth of play by mail gaming, as he's on another of his KJC Games binges. I know for a fact that he's currently playing both Quest and Monster Island (if my brain and my memory haven't gotten jarred too much). He's like Speedy Gonzalez, posting here, posting there, posting everywhere in more than PBM-related Discord chat server. I can't keep up with the fellow, even though I'm probably a good bit younger than he is. Let's just keep that a secret between you and I, though.
The very next time that you hear anybody say that PBM is dead, be sure to ask them if they slept through PBM's best days, when it was still alive and thriving and jumping through hoops.
One of the great and new mysteries of PBM gaming is why Joe Franklin (how many times am I going to say his name?) was able to send me an article to publish in this issue of PBM Chaos, but you weren't? Or maybe Joe tried, where you didn't. Shame! Shame! Shame!
We need to keep it going, people. Life will be better for all of us - and PBM - if we do. Maybe we can recapture that spark of old, and do justice to play by mail gaming, here in the modern age. If this is the modern age, then why is human society still so backwards? Lick on that one like a lollipop, why don't ya?
If I'm gonna talk about PBMer Joe Franklin so much, maybe I should have just called this The Joe Franklin Issue. Nah. It just doesn't have the same ring to it as The Latercomer Issue does. Plus, it spares us from Joe developing a Napoleon complex.
All of those PBM games that poor Joe missed out on, and all because he took his time arriving on the PBM scene. But Joe, you see, had to learn the same lesson more than once. For some reason, he thought that there was more to life than just play by mail gaming. Boy, they just don't make 'em like they used to!
Joe apparently couldn't make his mind up, which is why, apparently, he made more than one foray into PBM. We are fortunate, you and I, to be witness to his foray into writing articles for PBM Chaos, now. The here and the now - that's where PBM of today is.
If you subscribe to PBM Chaos, if you read its issues, or even if you just browse them, then you're within earshot of play by mail gaming, whether you're currently playing in any PBM games or not.
And like you, I am sometimes a bit miffed about what actually and truly qualifies as a PBM game, in this day and age. Well, even in the golden era of play by mail gaming, correspondence gaming or postal gaming as some preferred to call it, PBM was always changing. Yeah, the postal part stayed the same, for a while, but the amount and the type of PBM games that came into existence, where before there were none or very few, exploded. Hundreds of PBM games, hundreds of PBM GMs, hundreds of PBM companies. How was all of that possible way back then, but not now? In a more backwards technological age, more PBM game were possible, then, than are possible, now? I don't think so.
It's not that it's not possible, now. It is. It's very achievable, in fact. But believe it or not, people don't want the same old shit. Or sometimes, they don't want the same thing the same, exact way. Some of the old stalwarts of play by mail gaming are still with us. Heck, Rick Loomis' Nuclear Destruction is still with us. But how many are playing it in the current era?
Not everyone wants to blow the world up, though - even if they can do so from the comfort and safety of their own home. I'm looking at you, Wayne Smith, with your fancy golf pants. Wayne has so many great stories. They're not all PBM-related, but they are good stories, and they do make for entertaining reading.
Not all of them, Wayne. Just some of them. Don't go getting the big head, if you read this. In fairness to my friend, Wayne Smith, he's probably way too busy to read PBM Chaos, these days. He's never gonna get good at golf if he doesn't practice, practice, practice. I believe in you, Wayne. Go team!
Anybody seen David Spencer, lately? He wrote that book about play by mail gaming, a book called Paper Dreams, and he may have retired after that, for all that I know. If you see David, or if his eyeballs happen to drag themselves across these words that I'm writing in this editorial, let him know that I would like for him to send me a list of all PBM games ever known to have existed, along with the year that they each, respectively, launched. And not that partial list on Wikipedia, either.
Poor David! He's a kind soul, but even he probably isn't that connected on the PBM scene. I doubt that anybody is. Even Bob McLain probably doesn't have that list. The reason that I mention it is that Wikipedia's list of play by mail games records some PBM games' years that they were released, but there's a whole bunch of PBM games for which that particular tidbit of information may be lost forever.
And whipping around and going in an entirely different direction, Tony magically appeared in my mind, just now. He's the guy who hand-delivered a bunch of old PBM magazines to me, previously. I wonder how he's doing, these days. I think that I will sit down and fire an e-mail off to him a little later, this morning, just to check in with him (UPDATE: I messed around and forgot to do that - I'll try to get that done, tonight, aka Monday night). I will be forever grateful for that gold mine of PBM magazines that he bequeathed to me with his generosity. I have several issues from that batch of PBM magazines lying on my desk in front of me, right now.
Tony was playing Tribes of Crane in 1977. Where were you, Joe Franklin? Where were all of us, back then? Some of you young PBM whippersnappers weren't even born. Yeah, I'm looking straight at you, square in the eye, Bryan Ciesielski. There's no way that this kid was born by the time that the PBM year of 1977 rolled around.
But lo and behold, he might just be Santa Claus. Well, not Santa Claus, because that's quite a stretch, but perhaps a PBM Santa. He's programming Dutchman - and he's designed it to be a play by postal mail game from scratch. What about you? Are you in the process of creating an old fashioned PBM game, too? Probably not.
Fair enough. But tell me, what are you doing, PBM-wise, these days? Anything? Just reading and listening to me yammer on here within the digital confines of issues of PBM Chaos? Surely to goodness, there's more to PBM life than that, somewhere out there.
You're getting older, but you don't have to grow old. At least, the PBMer in you doesn't have to outgrow play by mail gaming. Pull your PBM bloomers up and get to playing. You don't have to say, "Mother may I?"
For those of you out there that have been clamoring to know if long-time PBMer Richard Lockwood is getting married, again, I'm currently not at liberty to say. Besides, I didn't get invited to his last wedding, so I would probably be the last to learn about any new nuptials with Richard Lockwood's name on them. Hey, Richard, if you're out there reading this, I'm still waiting on your turn orders for Return to the PBM Maze. You're gonna miss the turn, dammit!
[UPDATE: Richard did finally manage to get his turn orders in for Return to the PBM Maze on time, over the weekend.]
Honestly, I hope that he does miss the turn, for I would love nothing more than to put something in that maze to wake his ass up. His luck being what it is, Fate will catch up to him in that PBM Maze soon enough, anyway.
I'm gonna go ahead and hand out a PBM good citizenship award to Stefan, who was the very first maze runner in Return to the PBM Maze to get his turn orders in for the relaunch of the PBM Maze. Be more like Stefan, Richard. Again, this is being written on a Saturday morning, two days before this issue with results for the Turn #1 for Return to the PBM Maze become known to one and all.
I started players out with less maze vision, this time around, than was the case during the running of the original PBM Maze. But as I began processing turn results for this new version of the PBM Maze, I decided that it was a little too restrictive, so I bumped maze vision up for all players from 150 to 200 (unless you're just entering the PBM Maze, like Player 5). In case you're wondering what that means, exactly, it's the size in pixels that players' turn results map segments are (200 pixels x 200 pixels).
Of course, there are already "other forces" unleashed and in play in Return to the PBM Maze which can impact players' turn results - and not all of these "other forces" favor the maze runners.
I'm looking at you, Rob, aka Player 2. I processed your turn results as soon as you sent them in. I hope that they're not stale, by the time that you receive them.
Man, there's so much that I could include in the editorial for this issue, but I'm gonna take more of a grab bag approach, and scatter a bunch of it across multiple different issues of PBM Chaos.
Thank you for joining us for this issue of PBM Chaos. May the PBM Force be with you!
Charles Mosteller
Editor of PBM Chaos
