PBM Chaos - Issue #42

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ISSUE 42

August 25th, 2025

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Editorial

Issue #42 greets you!

Sometimes when something is expected for a certain issue, but then doesn't appear, Item #154 from my PBM Reminder List - Things To Not Forget is well worth remembering.

"The PBM stars do not always align."

Item #154

PBM Reminder List - Things To Not Forget

And that is true in regard to so many different things about play by mail gaming, also. We forget to do our turn orders on time (or we tend to put them off too long, is more like it). Our turn orders actually do get lost in the labyrinth that is the postal service, at times. Or a PBM GM inputs something vital in our turn orders incorrectly. Possibly even worse, the route carrier for the Postal Service doesn't bring us our turn results until right before the next turn is due (or not at all). An in-game "friend" or "ally" backstabs us at the most inconvenient of times (is there ever a convenient time to be stabbed in the back?).

On and on and on it goes. In life, the stars do not always align for us, where our plans and our hopes and our dreams are concerned. As the old saying goes, "Shit happens!" Sometimes, more frequently than others, and other times, in torrents or tsunamis. And part of the challenge of life is dealing with what happens - or doesn't happen - when the stars do not align for us, whatever those particular "stars" might be.

To publish PBM magazines, newsletters, or mailings necessarily requires that one carry on, even when the stars do not align. Other things can fill the voids caused by unexpected or unplanned absences of particular PBM material. All in all, it invariably tends to work out, no matter what - at least up until whatever point a particular PBM publication ceases to publish, at all. And this is equally true, whether it's due to a PBM editor dying, or a particular publication just falling by the wayside for any of a number of other reasons. Not all former editors of former PBM magazines are dead, you know. Rick Buda of Nuts & Bolts of Gaming (NABOG) and Bob McLain of Gaming Universal immediately come to mind. Both are still with us, fortunately, even if neither seem to be active in play by mail gaming, these days.

Fortunately, I am often able to include stuff that is expected for issues of PBM Chaos. Sometimes, an expected thing might appear in a different issue from what was originally expected. Hey, you've gotta claim your wins where you can find them. That's the way that I see it, when I approach the task of putting together issues of PBM publications for others to read. No single article or review or whatever else might be expected is of ultimate paramount importance, over and above the PBM publication, itself, actually publishing.

Credit for the most memorable back stabbing of myself in a game of Hyborian War still goes to Alan Campbell. Alan was great, and he really was a very nice fellow. He lived out in Washington state, if memory serves me correctly. I enjoyed talking to him on the phone, those multiple different occasions when he and I would converse about the game of Hyborian War that we were in together (HW-85). Alan was the very first Zamoran that I ever knew. I miss Alan.

I've never played Zamora in a game of Hyborian War. I really should remedy that, one day.

What about you? Have you ever played Hyborian War, before? Some of you have. Others of you have not. Some have tried Hyborian War and didn't like it. Or maybe they liked the game, but not the player community. We just don't all like the exact, same things, and of the PBM things that we do like, some of us like particular PBM things more than the rest of us.

Not all of us are hardcore or Gung-Ho, even if others of us swear by or seem to obsess over particular play by mail game offerings.

Richard Lockwood, whom I have never met in person, but whom I often mention in issues of PBM Chaos (usually by way of giving him a hard time), is a role playing man. His favorite PBM games, if I had to venture a wild guess, are all in the past. He misses what certain PBM games used to regularly offer him. Somebody give him a Kleenex, in case he starts crying as he reads this.

Yet, in spite of his unwavering affinity for role playing in PBM games, Richard Lockwood has done went and signed up to play a PBM wargame - Galac-Tac. A wargame! Can you believe that? Talk about a PBM miracle. It's a shame I'll have to crush Richard's empire like a bug, but them's the breaks.

Yep! He's now on the sign-up list for that Sharing of All Information Game of Galac-Tac that I am putting together. The start of that game will be announced in a future issue of PBM Chaos - probably within the next issue or two, if I had to take a stab at guessing when.

I have begun the process of contacting people on the PlayByMail.Net subscriber list, yet who haven't seemed to open any of our e-mail mailings for some time, now. If they no longer want to be subscribed, we can remedy that, but if they've simply been experiencing problems receiving our e-mails, then hopefully, we will be able to get those problems sorted out. Just looking to clean the subscriber list up and get it to a more current state. The PlayByMail.Net mailing list goes back quite a few years, back to our Suspense & Decision magazine days (if not before).

I'm doing this subscriber list clean-up and update in small batches, so it will take a little while for me to complete the task. We'll get there, though. Many of you won't be impacted by this, nor even contacted via e-mail by me about it, as your subscriber account will show recent activity in reading/browsing our PBM Chaos mailings.

My best guess at the moment (Sunday - August 24th, 2025), is that the PBM magazine that will be forthcoming (In PDF format - there's not a cost-effective way to publish a PBM magazine in print format, currently, as far as I can tell) will likely publish on October 1st, rather than September 1st. I've got to get back in the swing of things using Canva to publish a PBM magazine with. I'm rusty, and while I previously didn't even know and realize that I could import an entire document directly into Canva, doing that with longer documents is proving to be a bit quirky. I can import all kinds of different document files directly, but not a simple text file. Go figure! By and large, though, Canva is great, and I highly recommend it, in spite of this particular shortcoming.

I'll probably just end up copying and pasting a lengthy document for this forthcoming issue manually. It will take longer, but I'll have more control over it, layout-wise. Even at this late hour, I still haven't decided whether to just resume PBM Unearthed with Issue #30, or start fresh from scratch with a new magazine title. Individual issues won't take any longer to create and publish, either way, but which of those two options I decide to go with will likely impact the look of the magazine. It may not matter to you, but it matters to me, and once I launch it, I'm kind of stuck with it. I just want to be comfortable with my decision,

When I first announced that I would begin publishing a PBM Magazine, in addition to PBM Chaos, I gave myself the luxury of this forthcoming initial issue of it it publishing on either September 1st of October 1st, so me waiting until October 1st to publish it isn't really news nor a surprise of any sort. Once this next issue publishes, my aim is to lock each issue after this next one in on publishing on the 1st of every month.

Will this prove to be both possible and feasible? Maybe. Maybe not. Will readers of it contribute content to it? Perhaps. Perhaps not. There's never 100% infallible certainty in any of it, but I'll give it a go, and we'll see what becomes of it.

Why do it, you ask? More importantly, why not do it? I don't want to sacrifice PBM Chaos, just to publish a PBM magazine in PDF format. Personally, I think that both are possible, and that both can prove to be viable, simultaneously. What I may do, though (I haven't fully decided, yet), is to create a new and separate subscriber list for it. Perhaps I should just create a new subscriber list for PBM Chaos, also, and retire the old existing subscriber list? That would certainly get us current, for sure. No telling how many potential readers I might end up losing, that way, though.

Currently, growth of new subscribers for PlayByMail.Net e-mail mailings is slow, but there is growth. The same is true for growth of free members on the PBM Patreon site, as well. Feel free to encourage others to join us on our PBM journey. For the month of August 2025, there have been 7 new subscribers, so far, where the PlayByMail.Net mailings are concerned (aka PBM Chaos). The free memberships for the PBM Patreon site now stand at 37.

Long time PBM fan and follower of us, Richard Weatherhead, whom I have often mentioned in mailings that I send out, had been experiencing problems with the mailings for PBM Chaos not showing up in his in-box. So, when I recently posted a message on the new PBM Patreon site announcing there, also, that Issue #41 had published, Richard received that e-mail (and its included link to Issue #41). So, the PBM Patreon site clearly has use that may not have been previously thought of by me in my efforts to do PBM outreach.

Of course, it's possible, also, that Richard Weatherhead's problem all along was that he was just covered in too much PBM dust and PBM cobwebs.

On a separate note, I am no longer involved in the Alpha playtest for Nevaros, so the forthcoming article mentioned in last issue in the Coming In Next Issue section, A glimpse at the Alpha Test for Nevaros, I never got around to writing. Accordingly, you won't be able to find it in this issue. Nevaros has numerous other playtesters, though, and they are free to send in their own thoughts about that game (which is still in the early stages of its development), if they so choose.

I'm listening to some music on YouTube, on this Sunday night before this issue publishes, in a bid to help my mind relax. If you're curious what I'm listening to, just click that link, and you can hear it for yourself.

A small amount of PBM material for inclusion into Issue #43 has already been sent to me, but more would be better. One individual even sent me material for Issue #44, also. Go Team PBM!This issue actually included a good bit more material than I had expected to be able to include, and the reason why is because multiple different people came through for us. It's not just me that they came through for, but all of us, and Issue #42 is all the richer and more interesting for it. Their efforts be praised!

Enjoy this issue, the forty-second issues of PBM Chaps. Happy reading and pleasant browsing!

Charles Mosteller

Editor of PBM Chaos

All the Latest News about Middle-earth PBM Games

Middle-earth PBM Newsletter for August 20th, 2025

Click the image below to learn more!

Middle-earth, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and the characters, items, events, and places therein are trademarks of Middle-earth Enterprises, LLC used under license by Game Systems International. All rights reserved.

PBM Quote

"Articles are but a small part of what PBM Chaos and a PBM magazine are about. It's difficult to convince people to even tell you if they enjoy a given article or not. PBM Chaos and the PBM magazine are really more about community, about a sense of community. Galac-Tac has no (or very few) players because not just its player base [is gone], but its community and sense of community, as something that a group of regulars identify with (kind of like the group of regulars in that old Cheers television program. It wasn't
just a show about a bar. There was a bond, a sense of unity, and sense of familiarity."

PBM Chaos Editor Charles Mosteller

E-mail correspondence to Davin Church of Talisman Games

August 19th, 2025

COMING IN NEXT ISSUE

Forgotten Entertainment

More Galactic News For Takamo

Even More About Galac-Tac

Something About Hyborian War

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secret stash of The Monster Island Monitor PBM newsletters.

Don't let him hog them all for himself!

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I began playing Duelmasters (a Reality Simulations play-by-mail gladiator game) April 9, 1996, after filling out a free registration for a Team and Five Gladiators that arrived via a Flyer in a box of comic books that I had ordered from a comic book distributor company.

I named my first team Milchamah: a Hebrew word that according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible means: a battle, warfare, fighting or warrior.

It was not long before I bought several more Team Sheets ($5 each) and began playing in a few more arenas ($10.75 per turn) and sent warriors to the Fall and Spring Mail-In Tournaments ($7 per warrior) to help them improve in the Basic Arenas where I had placed them.

Reality Simulations has not increased their prices since I began playing!

In January of1998, I attended my first Face-2-Face Tournament, where I met several managers, including The Consortium aka Wayne Smith. Each Duelmasters player had the option of writing Team Spotlights and Personal Ads in the Basic Arenas, including a Managerial Alias. Mine was Maccabaeus.

I met a manager named Shadowgate early Saturday morning at the Face-2-Face Tournament and he asked me why I chose the alias Maccabaeus? I told him that Maccabaeus the Hammer was a rebel hero who led a Jewish Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, named Judas Maccabees or Maccabaeus, written about in the Books of First and Second Maccabees in the Roman Catholic Bible.

Shadowgate decided to shorten my Managerial Alias to Hammer, so I have been known as Hammer, ever since!

Before I ever began playing Duelmasters (renamed Duel2 several years ago) I began playing a play-by-mail Sci Fi war game where six or eight players fought on a fictitious planet to conquer the entire planet. I think it was called War World, but since the company folded after I played 2 or 3 turns, the name of that game has been long-forgotten.

As a Minister of the Gospel, that is when I first named my War World Realm Milchamah, after researching my Strong’s Concordance. Ironically, I will soon be playing a game of Galac-Tac, so I will name my Home Region, Milchamah, as a nostalgic-nod to that long-forgotten Sci Fi game!

My play-by-mail gaming goes back still further, including a couple of war games that I played in the middle-to-late 1980s, before that company folded, that a member of my congregation introduced me to, when I pastored a Church in Jasper, Indiana.

However, the real roots of my play-by-mail gaming began in the early 1980s when I was playing a table-top baseball game called Pursue the Pennant, which has evolved into Dynasty League Baseball Powered by Pursue the Pennant. You can purchase the season cards, or pay a monthly fee ($14.95 monthly or $79.95 for a 6-month subscription) to play online, either in a League, Tournaments or Solitaire, whatever your preference.

The 40th Anniversary Board Game costs $39.95 (no season cards included) and individual season playing cards for the Board Game cost $79.95 each for the 2001 to 2024 seasons. Ball Park Charts cost $14.95, but the2024 Edition of Ball Park Charts from 2023 to the present costs$44.95 at the present time.

There are plenty of other Player Card Seasons and Charts, which would cost a person a small fortune to collect and play all of them, which is why the online version is more affordable!

But, back in the early 1980s, those of us playing Pursue the Pennant would either form or join Play-By-Mail Leagues that were advertised in a PTP Newsletter. We would draft our players either by mail or phone calls, then once a schedule was formulated for six to eight teams, we would mail our strategies for our away games to the home team manager to play the games.

I played a couple of play-by-mail seasons, including one with my young daughters running their own team, which was fun and interesting!

It was at this time that I was reading a copy of The Sporting News and decided that I wanted to buy an MLB Rule Book for consulting, while playing Pursue the Pennant games.

I sent either $2 or $5 to a company called L&L Activities for a rule book, which actually turned out to be a rule book for a Play-By-Mail Baseball League run by L&L Activities!

I ended up playing for about 4 MLB Seasons!

We had a draft sheet with several columns of player-positions and names that we listed our order of draft preference from 1 thru 16 and mailed the draft sheets back to L&L Activities. Our player draft lists were entered into a computer and we were mailed back our starting rosters.

We were able to make trades (a little bit difficult, but usually done by long-distance phone calls) and we were also able to drop players and add players from a Players Pool using our Waiver Listing Number, as long as another manager did not select a player before we did.

Weekly Rosters were mailed back to L&L Activities and his computer did the number crunching from actual daily and weekly MLB Player Stats. We could leave our roster without any changes, or make weekly changes, as long as the mail delivery cooperated and our accounts were up-to-date.

I do not remember the weekly costs, but it may have been $5 per week, or maybe we paid a one-time fee, but I no longer remember what the exact costs were to play!

He ran Baseball, Football and Basketball Leagues back then. My Baseball Team won my Second Baseball Season and I took over a Football Team that was abandoned after two weeks and won that league!

When I started, L&L Activities was the only Play-By-Mail Baseball Game advertised in The Sporting News, but soon other companies sprang up and drove L&L Activities out of business!

I currently play all three Reality Simulations Play-By-Mail Games (Duel2, Hyborian War and Forgotten Realms), Alamaze (an online game) and Yahoo Fantasy Baseball.

Ahoy, ye rogues, rascals an’ rum-guzzlers! Raise yer mugs an’ lend me yer ears – fer tonight the seas roar louder, the decks tremble harder an’ the very stars bear witness to somethin’ the world has ne’er seen before… the dawn o’ the first season o’ the Sea of Nyx League!

Look ‘round ye, mates – the stands be packed from crow’s nest to bilge, the drums o’ war be poundin’ an’ the smell o’ salt, sweat an’ gunpowder hangs thick as fog. Ye came fer blood, ye came fer chaos, ye came fer the kind o’ spectacle only these cursed waters can give – an’ by the

powers, ye’ll have it!

Tonight we cast off, with ten crews bold enough to stake their lives, their pride an’ their skulls upon the pitch. So clap, cheer, howl an’ curse as we welcome the challengers who dare set sail on this mad voyage:

- The Skavern Scallywags, led by the one an’ only Cap’n Whiskerfang!
- The Rum Looters, sailin’ under GlueBeard!
- The Wolfsblood Reavers, commanded by Asar!
- The Dreadwake Leviathans, driven by Bosun Krag ‘Ironjaw’ Vex!
- Jah Pastafari, chanted into glory by Earl Tupper!
- The Drowned Revenants, risen again under Captain Gravebeard!
- The Ship of Fools, jestin’ their way with Jet Joker!
- The Buccaneers of the Infernal Depths, cursed alongside Wadham ‘No Knees’ Lynx!
- The mystic powers o’ Regeneration Hex, conjured by Avast-Ye Scurvee!
- An’ last but ne’er least, the Keelhaul Kickoff Club, draggin’ their foes under the command of Cpn. Fuzzymouth!

There they stand, mates – ten names carved in salt an’ fury, ten banners raised high above the foam! An’ what awaits us in this season? Broken bones, flyin’ bodies, cannon smoke an’ cheers so loud they’ll wake Davy Jones hisself!

So fasten yer belts, stow yer fear an’ ready yer lungs. Fer this be no gentle game, nay – this be the Sea of Nyx League! An’ by thunder, once the whistle blows, there’ll be no mercy, no safe

harbors an’ no turnin’ back.

Raise the sails, fire the cannons, let the games begin!

A detailed Intro you can find on https://seaofnyx.com/

MEPBM Discord

* Play as either the Free Peoples or the Dark Servants in Middle-earth PBM, and work together with your team-mates to take control of the lands of Middle-earth. Earn your victory through a combination of martial strength, magical prowess, and economic power. Middle-earth PBM is run by GSI, and offers numerous different modules available for play. The MEPBM Discord can be found here.

PBM Chaos recently [08/24/2025] dispatched an Away Team to the surface of the MEPBM Discord server. Signs of recent activity there were massive!

Lifeform Scanner Results By Channel
It was deemed unnecessary to list the more than 30 channels on the MEPBM Discord server, individually, for signs of recent PBM life on this chat server are plentiful and obvious.

The Middle-earth PBM player community is really active on this Discord server. It may well be the busiest PBM player community to be found in all of play by mail gaming. Postings are frequent, recent, and many.

* Have you visited the MEPBM Discord chat server recently?

Quest PBeM Facebook Group

Small milestone since I joined the game a month or so back - 300 turns! I’ve learnt pretty quick not to get too attached to my characters, they can vanish in a heart beat.

I don’t think any of my characters are original turn 1 recruits! Taming Mules are my best source of income, though I’m too scared to venture outside a city

I’ve got another 40 turns up my sleeve, we’ll see where we’re at in a week or so.

Richard Neale

Whereabouts on the island is your group based at in G20? My group is also new to the group, but we have a passion for above ground combat and would happily drop off some spare combat loot of +magic items for you to enhance your game experience.

We are on turn 447 and just killed our first pair of red dragons.

Rob Bradley

Clickfest

Step up your click game!

This issue's Clickfest shows Iran making its first appearance in these statistics from last issue. Welcome Iranian PBMer, whomever you are!

1st Place - We have a tie between the Americans and the Canadians. O Canada!

2nd Place - The Irish came forth with a strong performance. Feck it, sure, it's grand!

3rd Place - The United Kingdom managed the bronze. Keep Calm and Carry On!

4th Place - A 3-way tie between the Greeks, the Dutch, and the Slovaks. It's good to see you all represented on the click chart!

5th Place - Someone from - or who was visiting - Iran, who along with a Belgian, yielded a 2-way tie for 5th Place. May PBM lift your spirits!

And the most clicked link in Issue #41?
http://www.talisman-games.com/galactac/about

TAKAMO

GNN — Galactic News Network

Issue Number 3 • August 24, 2025

* GNN compiles this issue from planetary dispatches and archival operational logs reviewed by our editors.

Ralleb Storms Dukara 5 as Defenses Collapse in Opening Assault

By Tessa Marik, GNN Languan Bureau

Dukara 5, Languan Worlds —Planetary sensors confirmed the arrival of a Ralleb battle

group before dawn. Within hours, Defense Control reported orbital scans followed by a ground assault estimated at 100 divisions. Localofficials say 2,000 Ralleb troops were killed in the first wave, while Languan casualties reached 10,000 as defenders were pushed back from outer redoubts. Authorities now concede planetary defenses have been overrun, with ad hoc formations falling back to urban strongpoints. Communications ministries warn of intermittent sensor blackouts as the occupying force consolidates landing corridors. Regional analysts say the rapid collapse suggests prior mapping of defensive networks, likely from earlier probe

passes. Civil shelters remain at capacity; GNN cannot independently verify population displacement figures at this time.

Rapjia 2 Torpedo Wall Bloodies ORREY INC; Insurgency Sparks on Surface

By Harkan Vey, GNN Quezal Desk

Rapjia 2, Quezal — After sensors flagged an ORREY INC fleet entering orbit and conducting scans, Rapjia 2’s coastal batteries launched a 40‑torpedo defensive salvo. Battle reports show three RSCL‑class ships destroyed—one by catastrophic critical hits—with 18,133 total damage tallied against Marauder 7 warships and 5,192 against Rift‑class light cruisers. The attacking flotilla subsequently withdrew to deep space, according to Defense Control.

Planetary leadership confirms a guerrilla offensive is now underway on Rapjia 2, aimed at disrupting any follow‑on landings and targeting collaborator infrastructure. Security services

simultaneously detected unauthorized off‑world transmissions attributed to CEREBUS, pointing to an information‑warfare component layered onto the raid. Neighboring worlds Okver 2 and Lunja 2 also report hostile scan activity, suggesting a broader reconnaissance screen across the Quezal corridor.

Probes and Pressure: Nido 1, Lihara 2 and Sequah 1 on Edge

By Oren Thali, GNN Frontier Watch

Mamore & Onega Systems —A FRAMIS flotilla entered Nido 1 orbit, executed a full-spectrum scan, then departed without firing—an apparent data‑gathering run. In the Onega belt, Lihara 2 recorded scans by a SUNGRACO task group, while Sequah 1 logged a separate unflagged fleet sweep. Defense officials across these worlds have elevated alert postures and are hardening comms relays. Analysts read the pattern as multi‑empire competitive mapping of approach

vectors ahead of the next campaign turn.

Markets & Mobilization: Factories Surge, Militias Swell, Smugglers Caught

By Lysa Darmon, GNN Business & Security

Tristak Colonies report a manufacturing boom with 69 new production centers brought online on Xonphren 1, a move expected to rewire local logistics and shipyard queues.

On Qualman 5 in the Seven Moon Worlds, CEREBUS offloaded 229 cargo units, with the Trade Center booking 801 RUs in fees—evidence of brisk commerce despite regional instability.
Within the Kvizier Empire, recruitment on Frommana 1 yielded 77 new guerrilla units (now 417 total) at a cost of 580 RUs, signaling a long‑war posture by planetary authorities. The

cybernetic faction Gorkhan 7 reports Fleet 20 in orbit at Xaopia 1, where exports remain capped at 20% due toa worker shortfall; 230 cargo units were loaded for immediate lift to stabilize revenue.

In the Nicaean sphere, a crackdown netted Mutos of Rhatsibahn smugglers on Gikola 2,with contraband seized valued at 1,600 RUs—a rare bright spot for customs amid rising interstellar traffic.

Additional Alerts

By Desk Staff

Japrad 2 (Tristak Colonies) and multiple Quezal‑adjacent systems report continued orbital scan activity. Authorities urge civilians to maintain shelter protocols and conserve bandwidth for priority traffic.

End of Issue Number 3

TAKAMO

www.takamo.com

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Reading PBM Chaos

A quick glance at how subscribers read PBM Chaos

August 20th, 2025

When people read issues of PBM Chaos, what web browsers are they using? I have no idea what web browser that you're using to read PBM Chaos with, but it's probably one of these web browsers.

As for myself, I usually use Mozilla Firefox, more times than not, but I also open issues of PBM Chaos via the link that I send out, every time a new issue publishes (to check links and to browse or to proofread, from time to time) after opening the links in Thunderbird e-mail client software, which is what I use, these days, for my e-mail client program of choice. Is Thunderbird a web browser, also? Maybe it has one built in. Or maybe it's an add-on component that's installed separately. I'm really not sure.

PBMers prefer to use different web browsers, just as they prefer to play different PBM Games, from the looks of it. Some prefer to stick to the same old web browser, whereas others prefer to explore newer options over "old reliables."

From time to time, I download and try different web browsers, but not as often as I used to. These days, I primarily rely upon Mozilla Firefox for my web browsing needs. By pure coincidence, I recently downloaded and installed a web browser called LibreWolf, a custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom. I've barely used it, thus far, so I can't really render an opinion on it, yet.

The Isles is a hand-moderated Play By Mail (PBM) game set in a fantasy world where trade and commerce are more important than lords and kings. The game is run by a Games Moderator (GM), who processes players’ actions and determines the outcome of their choices.

Nice one mate! I'm playing two games - The Isles and The Land - waiting for turns from both GM's. They are old school hand mod, single character sword and sorcery games and I love them both. Great turns, well written and very interesting with tons of lore. Perfect for me.

Indie Spin

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Science City Creator Tom Stockel Speaks!

PBM Chaos corners Tom Stockel for an interview

What, exactly and specifically, is Science City?

Science City is a super heroic role playing game taking place in an original universe, and by “original,” I mean is not part of an established universe (i.e. The Marvel/DC cinematic/comic universes).

Tell PBM Chaos' readers a little bit about how you got involved with Science City, and was it your creation?

I stumbled across online role playing back in 1999 with Star Trek play by e-mails/sims. After starting up a Star Trek pbem myself (The Lionheart), I decided to try running a super heroic pbem.

Why does Science City matter to you, and why should it matter to other gamers who have not played it before, or who have never even heard of it before?

It matters for a couple of reasons. The first is, it is my principle creative outlet. If you looked at the Discord server, you would see a great deal of background information. All of that has accrued over more than two decades of play. The second is, over those years, I have made some long-lasting friendships with some people online.

Is Science City a PBM game? Not in the "Is it played via the postal service?" sense, but rather, does it play as a traditional PBM game plays, aside from how players send turn orders and receive turn results?

While I have been tempted to run games using other formats (i.e. forums), I have always felt most comfortable running my games using e-mails via a mailing list.

How long has Science City existed as a game, and how popular has it proved to be with players of it?

We are approaching the two year anniversary of the current iteration of Science City. Before, there was a run of about two and a half years. And before that, there were a couple of iterations with varying degrees of success. By far, the longest successful run I had was the original Vindicators game, which ran for about eleven years. Science City takes place in the same universe.

In the span of time that Science City has been running as a game, what major changes have been implemented since it first began?

I was originally using Yahoo Groups way, way back in the day. Sadly, I wish I had saved all that information - if anything, for nostalgia’s sake. I later migrated over to Google Groups. These days, I am using groups.io, and it’s worked well for me, so far. Why I switched over from Google Groups…I have no idea.

In terms of game management, I used to use html editors and crafted crude web sites. I’m not kidding, they were very bare bones. Then one of my players turned me on to Obsidian Portal, which was useful, but if you wanted to take advantage of better features, they charged a modest fee. When another player told me about Discord, I immediately switched over, and used it for OOC chat and a place to share background information. So, I’ve attempted to find ways to make it easier for me to facilitate communication with players and provide information regarding the game.

What is the most number of active players that Science City has ever had at any point in time, and how many active players does it have, today?

Back in the Vindicators days, I had, I think, ten active players at one time, which was quite a handful. Right now, I have six active players. I am communicating with two potential new players.

From your perspective as GM of Science City, what do you think that its chances are for continuing on indefinitely into the future?

Honestly, at this point, I don’t see myself ending the game anytime soon. I have had setbacks in the past that have caused me to go on hiatus between games, sometimes lasting months. But I always come back.

Are you the original creator of Science City, and if so, how did you come up with the name for it?

I am the creator, although I have never denied that I pull inspiration from many sources, from comics, to anime, from motion pictures like Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon or Remo Williams, Big Hero Six, Megaforce, The Warriors, Xanadu and others, to the City of Heroes MMORPG (which is still around). As for the name “Science City,” it came to me before I discovered that was what the Soviets called purpose-built metropolises where scientific and technological research took place. At that time, after The Vindicators game folded, I began focusing more on giving the city more “personality,” expanding more on the various neighborhoods. Before, Motor City was just a hi-tech Detroit. As Science City, it became even more unique.

If you were to break it all down into component pieces, what would you describe the very heart of Science City is, in game design terms, that thing which more than anything else makes it what it is?

Hmmm, hard to say. I’ve been involved in other pbems over the years, and I don’t think there are any substantial differences in regards to game mechanics. I’ve spoken to other GMs from rpol.net, and their games run on systems (i.e. Champions), but a vast majority of Star Trek pbems/sims (at least all the ones I’ve dealt with) never used a system.

I think what largely sets it apart from most pbems I have seen advertised over the years is that it takes place in a non-canon universe, so there are no X-Men, for example. I think this is a strength and, I suppose, a bit of a weakness. As a strength, I don’t have to deal with the issues of canon or questions about what era of X-Men I am focusing on, or if it is comic based, X-Men ‘97 based, or motion picture inspired. And that can be a weakness, as well, because potential players come in, look at the now ridiculously large amount of background information for Science City, which has accrued over a period of twenty five years(!), and it might potentially scare them off. There is a comfort in a familiar fictional universe they are familiar with.

What is the best sales pitch that you can think of for Science City?

Two things. The first is, it is a non-canon universe, so I think that can provide players with a unique role playing experience. But the principle reason I think people should join are the players. Barring a few examples over the years, I have been blessed with a core group of wonderful players. I have known some of these people for twenty five years, who have popped in and out of the various games. They are wonderful people, and I consider myself blessed that some have put up with me over the years.

How much, if any, do you routinely advertise Science City, and what outlets do you advertise it on?

If I have a core group of about six players, I don’t advertise at all. When I do advertise, I do so on various dedicated game advertising Discord servers, Facebook groups, and a groups.io mailing list called RPG Player Sanctuary. There are some web sites like rpg.net where I advertise, as well.

Have you written articles about Science City, before, and if so, do you have download links for them, so that any interested parties could read them?

I used to write a blog called GM’s Revenge, where I used to talk about being a GM, among other things. I submitted posts over a period of about four years, but after a bit, I simply ran out of things to say. I think I had given about as much advice as I could think of regarding how to run a game (And if it sounds arrogant for me to presume I have things to say about how to be a GM-or “moderator,” as some people call themselves, I have been involved in role playing games going back to first edition Dungeons & Dragons, playing table top with pencils, paper, and dice. Yeah, I’m that old.), and I grew tired of GMing. I checked that last article from 2013, and I remember that was when The Vindicators had ended and I felt burnt out. Thirteen years was a helluva run.

Anyway, you can find the old blog here, and you can see in the end it was just me posting a song of the week.

Can you provide some brief examples of how to play Science City as you envisioned it should be played, versus how not to play it?

Hmmm. Well, it’s a cooperative game, meaning players should be working together to solve problems and they should be interacting with one another. Also, players should be running their own characters, describing their own actions. Players should post at least once a week, but if they want to post more often, I sure as heck never objected to that. :) Players should never describe the outcome of their actons; that’s for me to decide. They shouldn’t be describing the actions of NPCs or GMPCs; again, that’s what I’m there for. I’m sorry if all of that is vague or doesn’t properly answer the question.

On a personal level, what are some of your favorite non-Science City games of any genre or medium that have brought you the most enjoyment over the course of your life as a gamer?

Okay, there’s a bit of a back story here, so sorry if it’s wordy. In 2014, I was very depressed. I wasn’t running any online pbems, and I hadn’t been involved in any table top role playing in a long, long time. And then I attended a game convention at Oakland University, where I met a friend of my brother, Cal. I hadn’t seen Cal in years, and it was great talking to him, again. When I confessed my depression, he suggested I run a table top game again, that he and his teenage daughter Marlena would be down for that. Soon, my friend Chuck was on board, and he brought in his friend Brian, and I ran them through a Champions Pulp adventure game every other Friday for almost eighteen months. Then, I put that game on hiatus, and I ran a superhero game for a while, but it didn’t work out. Sadly, before I could revisit the Pulp game, my work schedule changed, and we couldn’t meet any more. In retrospect, I wish I could have finished that Pulp game. But for that year and a half or so, I was very happy, and I think all my players were, as well; it was a wonderful time. Calvin died four and a half years ago of a heart attack. I still sometimes think about him. I’ll never forget that he helped to get me back into role playing games, again.

PlayByMail

PlayByMail is a platform for designing, managing, and running play-by-mail games—games played entirely through physical mail, not online.

[NOTE: Click the link in orange letters to access and visit the site!]

Of Maps & Men

Of maps & men is a map making game played using the postal service.

[NOTE: Click the link in orange letters to access and visit the site!]

ForeverDex

ForeverDex is a game played through the post where you discover, draw, and document mysterious and magical creatures!
[NOTE: Click the link in orange letters to access and visit the site!]

Phoenix: Beyond the Stellar Empire

Phoenix: Beyond the Stellar Empire is a game set 200 years in the future, and is the direct digital lineal descendant of the original Beyond the Stellar Empire play by mail game.

[NOTE: Click the link in orange letters to access and visit the site!]

Starweb

Previously run by Flying Buffalo, Inc. and now run by Rick Loomis PBM, Starweb is a multi-player, hidden movement, play by mail strategic space game, one that starts with 255 star systems in the game.

[NOTE: Click the link in orange letters to access and visit the site!]

While you snooze, The Great Eye of PBM scours the Internet, seeking out PBM-related goodness so that you don't have to.

A-tisket, A-tasket, put PBM in your basket!
You'd better play now, you can't play from your casket.

Just imagine if you had a list of every game ever made, as well as every game that never made it to completion. Tell me, what would you do with it? Could you even read it all? How big, how long, do you think that such a list would be?

If play by mail gaming ever desires to recover its lost crown at the Table of Gaming, then PBMers will need to begin elbowing their way back to a better seat at that table.

And you can't do that by doing nothing.

For a little bit there, I thought that we were going to have a PBM Tent Revival. Well, if it can't be a game, maybe there will still arise a column about play by mail gaming by that very name.

And whatever became of the Mad Scientist of PBM, Mark Wardell, and that Galactic Empires PBM game of his? Don't think for a second that I am not looking - nay, scouring - the Internet in my bid to hunt down some new tidbit, some recent morsel, about this game. Where are you at, Wardell? Come hither, and out of that damned secret PBM lair of yours!

It's not as if he hasn't read an issue of PBM Chaos, recently.

Oh, he's out there, all right. Just tinkering away. Such PBM madness!

And Dutchman, don't think for even a second that I've forgotten about you.

There's more than enough in this issue of PBM Chaos for the whole lot of you to read. Thus, I'll bother with you no more!

"General PBM efforts are, at times, viewed as being akin to pollution or spam, in some single-game-focused PBM player communities."

Item #120
PBM Reminder List - Things To Not Forget

Image ad for Galac-Tac by Talisman Games

The Return of a PBM Player

Joe Franklin

It’s 2022, decades after my last attempt at PBM gaming. Over that time, Monster Island has sometimes invaded my thoughts. How’s that big old island getting along? Did Adventures By Mail (ABM) expand their Magic: The Gathering (MTG) empire? If you didn’t know, in the early days of MTG, ABM sold card packs which they would include right along with your Monster Island turn results. I suspect they would include the min other game results, too, but I was singularly focused on the tales of my Ruks: Johnny Triangle and Grendel (the first iteration). I’m surprised I remember their names! I bought a few packs of MTG: The Dark, but they, along with all my 20^th-century Monster Island turns, are lost to the trash bins of history. Or literal trash bins.

One weekend during late September of 2022, I decided to check in on my old pals on Monster Island and ABM. As you likely know, ABM is history. By that time, it’d been history for close to 20 years, from what I could discover on the World Wide Web. I’d missed all the forays into AOL and Yahoo message boards. There were many island religious wars.Towers and Forts were erected while Temples were rebuilt and dedicated to the Gods. What’s this about demigods? We will leave that be – spoilers are no fun.

I found the PBM Discord. I connected with players whose Wayback Machines covered PBM gaming decades before my discovery! I also stumbled upon a little company in the UK that continued to process Monster Island start-ups and turns – KJC. I submitted a new version of Grendel – a Furrcat with aspirations of Fuvite glory. A few weeks later, turn 0 landed in my newly minted Yahoo mail account. KJC’s email servers don’t play kindly with Gmail.

I played for about a month. I hung out on the PBM Discord server. I met players deeply invested in Quest, another KJC game. That, too, was set aside after a month. I tried Ilkor, but it died. I tried another similar game, but I didn’t care for the GM. Nothing stuck. Lightning did not strike in 2022/2023. Back to Marvel: Contest of Champions, I went!

But wait –there’s more. 2025, the Rise of a PBM Player, is coming soon!

Image ad for Adventures By Mail Wikipedia entry

PBM company, Adventures By Mail, is long gone, now, but it's not forgotten - especially not
by Joe Franklin, one of many who still have fond memories of playing PBM games with ABM.

Understanding the PBM Maze

One of the changes to the PBM Maze from the original version that was run previously is the use of "maze vision modifiers." Your maze runner's maze vision will usually remain a constant (other than all new maze runners who enter the maze start off with a maze vision of 150 (150 pixels by 150 pixels). Once your first turn runs, regardless of what turn that you enter the maze on, your maze vision will increase to 200 (200 pixels by 200 pixels). Maze vision modifiers are checked (dice rolled) each turn for each and every maze runner, individually.

What this means is that on any given turn that is processed, when you receive your turn results back in the next issue of PBM Chaos that publishes, your maze vision may increase, decrease, or stay the same, regardless of what happens to any or all other maze runners' maze vision. This is why Maze Runner #1 obtained a maze vision of 210, last turn, while Maze Runner #2 experienced a decrease in his maze vision to 190.

How much a maze runner's maze vision can change on any given turn depends upon which modifiers come into play, and how many modifiers come into play on any given turn.

Having designed the maze vision system for the PBM Maze, I am well aware of the impact that changes in maze vision have upon players' ability to see and move in the maze. Can it be unfair or seem unfair? Oh, sure. But if fairness was the chief design criteria for the PBM Maze, Fate wouldn't ever roll dice, at all. Chance. Luck. Destiny. Fate. These play a role in the PBM Maze, also. I experimented with different rates of maze vision change, and extrapolated out what it might look like for maze runners whom Fate's dice did not favor, turn after turn after turn. It wasn't pretty, so I modified the modifiers (some of them, anyway).

Always be sure to pay attention to what your maze vision is, each time a turn is processed. If it changes up or down, there are in-game reasons for that.

Maze vision modifiers are not always permanent. Since maze vision can increase or decrease as maze runners wind their way through the maze's passageways, and since there are almost always one or more maze vision modifiers checked for in any given turn, it's best to not think of it in the context of "permanence." Whatever your maze vision is at any given turn of the game, it is subject to change. Multiple positive modifiers can increase your maze runner's maze vision considerably, and multiple negative modifiers can noticeably restrict your field of vision (i.e.: the extent to how far that you can see inside of the maze).

Just because there are maze vision modifiers checked for, from turn to turn, does not mean that your maze vision will actually change - either from turn to turn, or at all. Maze vision modifiers predicated upon Fate's dice rolls, as one example, can occur, but simultaneously, just because Fate rolls his dice doesn't automatically mean that there will be any change to your maze runner's maze vision.

And just for the record and for clarification's sake, Fate is not the only force within the game's design and mechanics that can potentially impact your maze runner's maze vision, for good or for bad.

Maze Runners

Stefan

Life Force

Maze Vision = 200

Maze Runner 1

Maze Runner 1 - Turn 2 Orders

Maze Runner 1 - Turn 2 Results

Rob

Life Force

Maze Vision = 200

Gold Pieces = 10

Soul Meter

Maze Runner 2

Corpse Robber

Maze Runner 2 - Turn 2 Orders

Maze Runner 2 - Turn 2 Results

Arriving at a dead end in the maze, Maze Runner #2 comes across a body, one that is little more than skeletal remains, but which is dressed exactly as he is.

Another maze runner!

Dead and its body fully decomposed. His eyes soon shifted to not one, but two small pouches. Maze Runner #2 reached for them and shook them. The pouches yielded the sound of coins clinking together.

Hurriedly, he opened one, and then the other. Gold! Four in one pouch, six in the other. And now, they belonged to him. Gold would be of no use to a long dead maze runner like the one lying on the floor in front of him.

Maze Runner #2 had no way of knowing that he was the first to recover treasure in the PBM Maze. Now, he had to decide on a different route through this maze. But which way was the right way to go? He definitely didn't want to end up like the dead maze runner whose corpse he had just robbed.

Steve

Life Force

Maze Vision = 200

Gold Pieces = 17

Maze Runner 3

Maze Runner 3 - Turn 2 Orders

Maze Runner 3 - Turn 2 Results

The maze passage that you were taking has led to a dead end. Before you lie scattered a number of gold coins. Nothing else, just the gold - as bright and shiny as it ever was.

Fortune shines on you!

You hurriedly begin picking the coins up, counting them as you do. There are a total of 17 of them.

Now, if you could only find your way out of this maze and back home.

Richard

Life Force

Maze Vision = 200

Maze Runner 4

Maze Runner 4 - Turn 2 Orders

Maze Runner 4 - Turn 2 Results

Brendan

Life Force

Maze Vision = 200

Maze Runner 5

Maze Runner 5 - Turn #2 Orders

Maze Runner 5 - Turn 2 Results

Turn #2 results are in!

Maze Runner #1 - You have trekked a short way through the maze, seeing nothing but walls. Yours is a bored existence, and you really should pick up the pace.

Maze Runner #2 - Your new career as a Corpse Robber has now commenced. How very proud your parents would be, if only they could see you, now. Yet, gold is gold, but gold does a dead man no good. Perhaps your luck has finally taken a turn for the best. But was it sacrilege to rifle through the belongings of a dead man?

Maze Runner #3 - What a fortuitous stroke of good luck! Gold! This is your lucky day.

Maze Runner #4 - You seem to be making decent progress through this accursed maze. But how do you truly know if you are or you're not? You don't.

Maze Runner #5 - You walked a good distance in this maze, finally deciding to stop for a rest. One day, it's life as normal for you, and the next day, you awakened to find yourself in this winding maze. What did you do to end up here, and how do you find your way out?

She pined for a PBM man!

Send your turn orders for Return to the PBM Maze to:

[email protected]

* Any graphics editor, even free ones, will enable you to issue movement orders.

PBM QUOTE

Phoenix Publications
Company News: Jon Capps of Phoenix Publications announced that that company would resume processing turns this month for its popular play-by-mail game, Galac-Tac. Phoenix shut down the game December 28 to rewrite the game program so that turns could be processed faster. Despite the delay, Dee Capps said that only two players out of over 250 have dropped out. "It's remarkable," she said. "I've never had so many supporters in my life."

- Quote from Keeping Posted: PBM Update

Space Gamer - Issue #68 - March/April 1984 Issue

A Galac-Tac Experiment

Sharing of Information Game

Number Of Players Signed Up Already: 6
Number Of Player Slots Still Available: Up To 9 More

NOTE: This is a very limited time offer. This particular game of Galac-Tac will start within a week or so. First come, first served.

So, what's special about this particular game of Galac-Tac? Well, glad you asked. In this game, all players are required to share any information about their empire, when asked by any other player in the game. It's really aimed at changing the dynamic, for game learning purposes, away from the pervasive secrecy that usually attends players guarding every morsel of information about their empire and towards the teaching and learning aspects associated with new players trying to learn how to play Galac-Tac, when they first encounter it.

But why do this? Again, very glad that you asked.

I want to try and begin the process of regrowing a core base of players for Galac-Tac, so that a greater sense of community will also come about. Yeah, Galac-Tac is an old PBM game, one that's been around longer than some of you have been alive (no, not you, Daryl), but for those who have never played Galac-Tac before, if you've never played it, then it is still new to you. As the PBM Quote above makes clear, Galac-Tac once had hundreds of players. We want to try and begin taking a few steps back in that direction.

And back during play by mail gaming's golden era, PBM players really knew how to have fun, back then - and without all of the digital excess that saturate gaming, today. It's not that the new stuff isn't good, for a lot of it is awful good. Rather, it's that the old stuff isn't all bad. There is, I believe, still much opportunity for gamers of today to mine old PBM games for endless amounts of fun and adventure.

But in this day and age, what PBM games of old need, as much as anything, is for gamers of the modern era to be willing to give them a chance. I said "a chance," not just a "mere glance."

And some may think that's crazy. Some may think it's much too late, that PBM's day in the gaming sun is over and done with. Pardon me for not being naturally inclined to just up and surrender. There is no immutable law of the gaming cosmos that says that today or tomorrow or next year or five years from now can't be the dawn of a new day for play by mail gaming, again - and in all its assorted and colorful and unique ways.

Perhaps some of you out there feel that I am like that guy always holding a sign that says "The End of the World is Nigh," except the sign that I hold is a message of hope, not a message of despair or doom.

False hope, you say? If you want to talk about false anything, then what about the prophets of doom whose chant became "PBM is Dead" for all those long and many years? To me, PBM is like a kid who is always told that it will never amount to nothing. Harping all the time about PBM being dead or dying, how exactly is that message supposed to rally the troops to action? Back in the 1990s, why were those very same prophets of PBM doom not telling us, instead, that decades later, there would still be PBM games in our midst?

Hyborian War isn't dead. You never see Conan surrender. Middle-earth PBM isn't dead. You never saw everybody in Middle-earth surrender, even when Sauron was at the very apex of his power. Duelmasters may have changed its name to Duel2, but it's still around, also. Steve Tierney of Madhouse is still running DungeonWorld. Rolling Thunder Games still offers SuperNova for play.

Yes, all of the old PBM magazines are gone, now. But Carol Mulholland never said for us to give up the PBM ship. She sailed on that ship right up until the day that she died. David Webber couldn't continue to publish Paper Mayhem after his life here in the PBM realm came to an end, but he didn't keep Paper Mayhem publishing all those many years by saying, "To hell with it!"

In recent months, in recent years, there are those that have either moved on, or who plan to move on - to move away from PBM gaming and on towards other things. But the unvarnished truth is that PBM gaming has always experienced and witnessed the coming and going of players.

It just so happens that I received an e-mail, today, and the portion from it that I want to share with you is this.

"As I've told you before, you do good work for the PBM community. Thank you."

Do you know who it was that told me that? It was none other than Glenn Harrold, an old hand at play by mail gaming. It struck me like a sledge hammer of motivation. You don't see him waving the white flag of surrender. Even now, right smack dab in the middle of the modern era, you'll find him reading PBM Chaos. His love and his deep-rooted affinity for PBM gaming persist to this very day. It's good to have people like Glenn Harrold standing by my side in this, the good fight - the fight for PBM!

At one point in time, the people of Rohan were in a pretty bad shape. Théoden, king, was weak. His kingdom was grumbling. A strong - nay, a compelling - case could have been made that Rohan was dead, that Rohan was dying.

But when the right moment came in the midst of the darkness that befell Middle-earth, who answered the call? The Rohirrim, that's who!

You see, that's our role. We of the modern age, we of the current era in time, our role is never to give up the ship, but to bring the fight. Every medium of gaming has its champions. Why should PBM be any different?

'Tis true, perhaps, that PBM has less champions to press its case and defend its glorious cause, than it once did. But as the sum totality of human history can - and does - attest, it is fully possible for new champions to rise to their feet and to bear aid to the cause.

Winston Churchill once said, "This was their finest hour." It wasn't during the height of Britain's history that he uttered those words. Instead, he uttered them during a very dark time in British history. He, you see, became the light. He sought more than to just rally the troops. Rather, he lifted the verbal lamp to light people's hearts, when they most needed it. He left it to others to write Britain's history, but he never wrote his beloved realm off, himself. As they say, timing is everything.

Being neither pessimist nor optimist, but a realistic, I do not strive to cling to the past for the past's sake. To the contrary, in fact, I live in the present day, with all of its attendant pluses and minuses, with all of its great and many wonders and dire and insane problems. But through it all, I remain a man who embraces the concept of choice. Free will is my mantra. To choose what one will play, to pick for one's own self what games the pursuit of fun and entertainment will be sought through.

Call me old fashioned, if you will. Berate me as being a step out of time, if you must. That others choose to think - to believe - that PBM is dead, is of no real consequence to my own life. I am free to believe as I want to believe, and I am equally free to champion causes that I believe in. Am I really any different from you, in that regard?

I dedicate this issue to Glenn Harrold. He may be retired, now, but he remains as committed to the cause, as ever. If only everyone was as committed as he.

If PBM were truly dead, then you wouldn't be reading this. Nobody would.

I think, therefore I am. PBM exists, therefore PBM is not dead.

When your loved ones are still alive, they are not dead. To me, PBM is a loved one. Hopefully, you will pardon me for thinking it is still alive. Go on about your own life, howsoever you choose. Me? I think that I will stay and spend a little more time with my dear old friend, play by mail gaming.

Even after all these many years, it still holds a special place in my heart. Even now, it causes my affections to stir. It brings back memories. It kindles hope.

Where you see but the flame of a candle, I remember roaring fires, entire wildfires of entertainment.

Even the dead were once sit up with. Life yet stirs in PBM.

Won't you join me for this Sharing of Information Game of Galac-Tac?

E-mail me at: [email protected]

Charles Mosteller

Editor of PBM Chaos

Cogito, ergo sum.

René Descartes

PART I. OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.

VII. That we cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt, and that this is the first knowledge we acquire when we philosophize in order.

While we thus reject all of which we can entertain the smallest doubt, and even imagine that it is false, we easily indeed suppose that there is neither God, nor sky, nor bodies, and that we ourselves even have neither hands nor feet, nor, finally, a body; but we cannot in the same way suppose that we are not while we doubt of the truth of these things; for there is a repugnance in conceiving that what thinks does not exist at the very time when it thinks. Accordingly, the knowledge, I THINK, THEREFORE I AM, is the first and most certain that occurs to one who philosophizes orderly.

Image ad for Paper Dreams book authored by David K. Spencer

PBM Quote

"I've loved getting back into Quest after a long absence from the game maybe over 20 years since I last played when it was a true pbm game."

Rob Bradley

A comment posted in the Quest PBeM Facebook Group

August 19th, 2025

How did this happen?

By "this," I mean this issue. Yeah, there's the usual dose of my thoughts about PBM included in this issue, but the real news is all of the many contributions by others who really stepped up to the plate to inject this issue of PBM Chaos with a greater variety of PBM flavor.

It's a good example, I think, of what is possible, when people participate. And participating is always ultimately a matter of pure choice. I can't make you participate, after all? It's something that you have to want to do, in order for it to happen. Could you imagine what a modern day PBM publication could be like, if everybody participated in some way, shape, or form?

The very thought of it staggers the mind!

Will Issue #43 rise to the occasion, as this issue has? Or will everyone withdraw to their own little corner, and wait for the other guy or the other gal to be the one who contributes something for inclusion and publication?

I don't like beating a dead horse any more than the rest of you. But far better to beat a dead horse than for PBM to die and be dead. To cross the Rubicon of Progress in PBM, someone has to actually cross it, you know. To get things done, someone must be the doer doing. Else, nothing will get done.

And as I write this about a half-hour past midnight and headed into the early morning hours of Monday, August 25th, 2025, The Great Eye of PBM has not yet had anything to say for this issue. So, when the light of day shines on us, anew, if you search in vain for The Great Eye of PBM, but nothing is anywhere to be found, then it won't be due to an oversight, but to lack of words spoken. If no one is listening, then why should it speak?

But for now, for me, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.

I'll see you next issue. It's only a week away.

Write to PBM Chaos at
[email protected]

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