PBM Chaos - Issue #48

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ISSUE 48

October 6th, 2025

COMING IN NEXT ISSUE

Galaxy #223

Grave Decisions

And other PBM stuff!

Editorial

Need a little PBM power boost? Issue #48 has arrived just in time, then!

Not directly PBM-related, but something that indirectly impacts my ability to publish PBM Chaos and PBM Zombies, here at home, we switched Internet service providers (again!), this time on Saturday, October 4th, 2025. We've only been using Upcountry Fiber as our Internet provider for a year or so, but now we have switched over to T-Mobile. None of this matters to any of you, I'm sure, but we ended up with Internet speeds that are twice as fast as before (2 Gbs instead of 1 Gbs), but at $17.95 a month cheaper ($70 per month instead of $80.00 + $7.95 WIFIX charge). Certain taxes and fees apply, of course, no matter what Internet provider we go with. Upcounty Fiber wasn't bad, but this is simply a much better deal, both price-wise and value-wise.

Nothing that I do that's PBM-related requires that kind of speed, but it should prove to be a discernible benefit for my son, who does online gaming where Internet speed matters substantially. Now, if I would only update my computer's Wi-Fi network adapter - but even without a less ancient one, I can still discern a noticeable speed difference with this new T-Fiber Fiber Founders Club 2 Gig package that we signed up for.

If you're out there and stuck with few, if any, real choices for an Internet provider, know that in my heart of PBM hearts, I genuinely feel for you. I still have distinct memories of connecting online at a speed of 16.5K with a 56K modem (I had the slowest online connection of anyone that I knew who was online at that time - I started out with a 2400 baud modem, talk about a real godsend when I got my first 56K modem, which went on a few months later to be struck dead by lightning, while I was using the computer).

Enough of that, though. Welcome to Issue #48 of PBM Chaos!

My previously oft-mentioned PBM Reminder List - Things To Not Forget has not been growing, lately. My mind has been elsewhere, I guess. Yesterday, though, several more items were added to that list, which brings the current total to 185. These most recent additions should provide me with food for thought for several more PBM articles, minimum.

Perhaps because I have begun waging information warfare in Galaxy #223 of Galac-Tac, my mind has begun focusing more upon one of the core challenges that PBM companies and PBM GMs face (and have always faced) - namely, the presentation of information.

Both historically and currently, the presentation of information across the PBM spectrum of gaming has been very text-dense. Thus is quite the quandary. This is an omnipresent problem. It is an equation that is seemingly exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, to solve. But I believe that there are ways to mitigate the text-density issue - and yes, I'm sure that strikes many as the epitome of irony coming from me, an individual who routinely resorts to text-density in my articles and postings online.

I'll elaborate on that more - and in more detail - in a future issue of either PBM Zombies or PBM Chaos, or possibly even both, though to varying degrees.

The fundamental concept of Rapid Integration of Newcomers to PBM necessarily requires changes in the PBM industry's approach to - and overreliance upon - text density. As an example, just because a PBM company or PBM GM decides to rewrite the rulebook for one or more of the PBM games that they run does not mean that they have necessarily solved the underlying problem. Trading one text-dense PBM rulebook for another text-dense PBM rulebook tends to leave the text-density problem intact. Why do you suppose that is?

Rest assured, the PBM industry has its orthodoxies that are well-entrenched. Big, thick, lengthy PBM rulebooks are certainly no panacea to cure what ails the PBM sector of gaming.

I know, first-hand, that reading an almost 300 page rulebook for Alamaze is wholly unnecessary for one to begin to learn to play Alamaze and start having fun. Text-density is a crutch that the PBM industry has over-relied upon for decades on end. This bad habit, unfortunately, helps to ensure that PBM player numbers remain lower than they should be. If it's what you know, though, then it's what you tend to "teach" and to "preach" and to "practice." It is not PBM heresy, however, to challenge the status quo way of doing things in and across PBM gaming.

The more, and the more effectively, that you lower entry barriers and remove obstacles (including obstacles in information or form), the better able that you become to facilitate a more rapid integration of newcomers into PBM gaming. These aren't simply empty words that I am typing. Orthodoxy always has it's preferred way of doing things - which often takes the form of continuing to do the same old thing the same old way, no matter what.

It's a real shame that Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo, Inc. fame died when he did, because his name is becoming in-vogue, again, in PBM circles. In PBM Personality Column #3, which is titled Reverse Grave Digging, The Prospector paid verbal tribute to Rick Loomis. Specifically, he highlighted what he described as Rick Loomis' relentless drive and work ethic.

To that, I would now pay verbal tribute to Rick Loomis' innovative spirit. It's not that he was innovative in everything that he said or did, but rather, Rick Loomis seemed to have a real knack for particular innovations in the PBM realm that were disproportional in their impact upon the PBM industry. I'm talking about more than his Johnny-on-the-spot moment of "inventing" the commercial PBM industry. His critical innovations in and for PBM weren't limited to just that singular genesis moment.

Podcaster Wayne Davis, whose Episode 62: Play-By-Mail Games podcast appeared in transcript form in PBM Zombies Issue #1, said, "Loomis suggested that Harvey should start up a game in the UK, and Flying Buffalo would provide the computer moderation for it. So in creating ICBM, Harvey basically created a secondary market for play by mail games as he not only published Flying Buffalo's games, but also those from KJC and Mitre Games."

This spoke to Rick Loomis' innovative spirit when it came to both licensing and idea generation, as well as his ability to innovate successfully when it came to networking.

And Rick Loomis' innovative spirit did not stop at play by mail gaming's border. His great and many successes on the crowdfunding front to support multiple different non-PBM gaming initiatives is, even now, unsurpassed among all PBM personalities, bar none!

If the PBM Personality Columns had not been introduced in PBM Zombies magazine, then in all likelihood, none of this about Rick Loomis that I write in this PBM Chaos editorial would likely have come to be written (and not in this particular issue, certainly). This is a sterling example, I think, of how when different PBMers (aka different PBM personalities) articulate their PBM thoughts, particularly in written form, it has a way of sparking new or additional thoughts on the same PBM subject by other PBMers (and even of sparking new lines or branches of PBM thought). The less that PBMers talk about PBM stuff, the less PBM park moments that occur.

Rick Loomis' relentless drive and work effort was also reflected in his embrace of crowdfunding, by virtue of the fact that he did not allow his initial failed foray into crowdfunding to deter him from achieving success with crowdfunding as a tool to expand his line of gaming-related successes. 8 out of 9 crowdfunding attempts proved to be successful for Rick Loomis, by the time that all was said and done.

In a nutshell, Rick Loomis was many times willing to try something new. He had a pioneer spirit that grew - as he aged and reached for new and brighter stars in the horizon of his thoughts about gaming.

That strikes me as a good note to end this editorial on. I didn't begin writing this issue's editorial with any thought about Rick Loomis. It just goes to show you how quickly things can - and do - change.

Enjoy this issue - if you can, if you will, if you're so inclined!

Charles Mosteller

Editor of PBM Chaos

Image deImage ad for Galac-Tac for Talisman Gamesscription

Image ad for Galac-Tac for Talisman Games

Alzreborn

Alz is reborn, and has returned to Alamaze to resume playing after many years!

[October 4th, 2025]

Carllinq

Carllinq is new to Monster Island.

[October 5th, 2025]

PBM image ad for Monster Island Monitor Issue #14

Read the October 2025 Soccer Supremos Newsletter

Charles Mosteller

With regard to issues of PBM Chaos, there are but four basic choices.

1. To continue publishing issues that are pretty much the same size as they have been.

2. To publish issues that are even longer than what they have been.

3. To publish issues that are shorter than they have been.

4. To not publish issues of PBM Chaos, at all.

Number Four doesn't really factor into the equation, because if there are those who would prefer that I not publish issues of PBM Chaos, at all, then they always have the option readily available to them of not reading it. After all, reading requires an affirmative act (the free choice to exercise one's right to read or not), and there is no PBM Chaos mafia sent out to force or pressure anyone to read it. Furthermore, there's an unsubscribe option included at the end of every issue, so it's little more than a mere click away to choose to no longer receive these mailings from PlayByMail.Net in your e-mail in-box, if you're tired of them or for any other reason.

Number One is certainly possible, and it may well turn out to be the case that it is the default option, no matter what. After all, habits can be hard to break, sometimes, and by now, publishing issues of PBM Chaos since my return to this little PBM-esque adventure has already become entrenched as a habit with a weekly publication schedule. Now, life being what life invariably always is, something could transpire that effectuates an abrupt change in my habit of publishing PBM Chaos, as is. But those are bridges that we cross, when and if they happen. Otherwise, they remain relegated to the realm of theory and speculation.

Number Two is certainly possible, but that's only one consideration. Another relevant consideration is whether it's feasible to increase the length of issues of PBM Chaos from beyond where they're at, currently. Yet another consideration is whether there is a sufficient amount of material readily available on a per-weekly basis, to flesh out longer issues of PBM Chaos - which goes to the question of would longer issues of PBM Chaos be sustainable? Plus, too, longer issues of PBM Chaos also require more effort and more time to put together (more time than effort).

My resort to the word "effort" rather than "work" was a conscious and deliberate choice on my part, because this sort of thing isn't really like work to me. Certainly, there's a degree of labor that goes into it, but as a labor of love, my enjoyment of it more than mitigates the ability of the labor that goes into it rising in me, such that I begin to equate it with actual work.

Number Three is the direction that I have actually been leaning towards moving PBM Chaos in, going forward. A recent review of several recent issues of PBM Chaos made me wonder whether these issues are maybe getting a little out of hand, length-wise. I do know that at least one subscriber isn't receiving at least some of the issues of PBM Chaos, because Sender, which I use to send these issues out, informs me of an error. Specifically, the error in question is:

smtp; 552 Error: message exceeds fixed maximum message size 524288

This resulted in their e-mail address "soft bouncing." Out of 192 e-mail addresses that Issue #47 went out to, just a single soft bounce of an e-mail address isn't terrible odds. Even still, I can't help but to sympathize, somewhat, with both the problem and the subscriber. Subscribing as a Free Level member of the PBM Patreon site provides an alternative method whereby one can receive notice that a new issue of PBM Chaos or any of other PlayByMail.Net's mailings go out, since I post an announcement of such there, and I include a link to such issues and mailings, as well.

Ultimately, all PBM publications of any kind, be they in print format or in digital format, require content, in order to be produced. Some weeks, a good bit of content is sent to me for inclusion into issues of PBM Chaos, but on other weeks, hardly any is submitted by others. From my vantage point, I have long watched the rise and fall of the waves of the Sea of Submissions by readers of whatever PBM publication that I am publishing at any given moment.

I watch and I witness increases in motivation on the part of PBMers, and I also witness and watch decreases in motivation. Sometimes, declines in motivation have a way of auto-correcting themselves, as was the case recently with Joe Franklin and his Monster Island Monitor newsletter. He had had enough. That was it. The frustration that inheres in others not stepping up and rising to the occasion of contributing to labor of PBM love just has a way of getting to you, at times.

So, Joe pulls the plug on the Monster Island Monitor, but then what happens? Hardly missing a beat, he resumes publishing it. The duration of this PBM newsletter's absence proved to be so short that I can't help but to ask myself whether it ever actually ceased publication, at all? It did, but it didn't. Someone stepped up - namely, old Joe Franklin, himself.

Raven Zachary is a sort of PBM bellweather for me. I didn't bestow the title of The Most Important Man in PBM on him for no reason, at all, you know. When he appeared on the PBM scene a few years back, it was what I would term a "Paladin moment." Here was the real deal. A potential game changer, such was the fire that this PBM dragon breathed. Really smart. Great writer. Very personable. Gung-ho!

He dove in head-first. As I later learned, he wasn't new to PBM. Rather, he was returning to PBM after a rather extended absence, if memory serves me correctly, as I sit here writing this off the top of my head. I just don't tend to encounter PBM lions like Raven all that often. It's more common on just the PBM player end of things, but on the full monty of PBM stats, Raven was a real rarity.

But it isn't by pure chance or coincidence that you don't see PBM articles from Raven Zachary coming out of the forge of his mind, these days. In my own words, I would characterize it as a combination of frustration and disillusionment with various things on the PBM scene. I, myself, in fact, have contributed to his sense of frustration and disillusionment with PBM. I couldn't even keep the original Suspense & Decision magazine publishing on a reliable schedule (even if it did get off to a fairly good start, in my opinion).

If hardcore PBMers like Joe Franklin and Raven Zachary aren't immune to the frustration and disillusionment associated with trying to promote PBM gaming and undertaking all manner of different initiatives on their own to try and convert their raw energy and industrious effort into direct and immediate and unmistakable positive impact and results, then none of us are.

Could it be that none of us, either individually or collectively, have any real clue what we are getting ourselves into, nor have a firm grasp of what it will take to physically pull PBM gaming out of the swamp that it sank in a long, long time ago? Just curious, but what, exactly and specifically, hasn't been tried?

In the midst of this cacophony of different efforts, our collective efforts sometimes overlap and coincide, and at other times, they clash and various PBM efforts crash. Me? I'm an advocate of PBM noise. Hell, call in a thick and endless battery of PBM artillery fire. Fire!

Raven Zachary, by comparison, is a far more refined and civilized PBM personality than I am. He's diligently constructed numerous new PBM websites and wikis, and has led the charged for various PBM Discords, in his countless (and oft-unrecognized) efforts to bring PBM gaming into the modern age. Me? I'm more caveman in my approach. I'm blunt, whereas he has finesse.

Joe Franklin, if I may use him for a verbal punching bag for a second (it's OK - he's a monster on Monster Island - several, actually, and everyone knows that monsters are tough and can take a punch), Joe has a more narrow field of focus, like a laser beam. He's a Monster Island man, through and through. My field of focus (at the moment, anyway), is more broad beam, if that makes any sense to the discerning PBM taste buds out there in PBM Readership Land.

There's a certain irony that inheres in the fact that the whole of PBM gaming generates a VAST amount of content every single week, yet PBM publications, whether it be PBM Chaos, PBM Zombies, PBM Unearthed, Suspense & Decision (either or both versions - mine and Jon Capps'), Flagship, Paper Mayhem, and at least some other PBM publication produced down through the years always seem to be hounding their readers for articles and other contributions. That's quite the ever-continuing conundrum, huh?

This irony and this conundrum doesn't escape my attention - and never has, in fact.

The fact of the matter is that there is plenty - nay, more than plenty - of PBM stuff happening and going on out there all across the PBM realm to simultaneously fill a dozen or more full-scale PBM magazines, all publishing simultaneously. Yet, like that old woman in those Wendy's television commercials used to ask, "Where's the beef?"

In other words, if there's so much PBM content generated on a weekly basis, or even on a, dare I say it, daily basis, then why do PBM publication publishers moan, groan, whine, bitch, and complain about needing submissions? Well, because all of that "fruit of our PBM labors" is lying out in the field, just rotting away.

It's a transportation issue. It's a permission issue. It's a lack of motivation issue. It's a lack of awareness issue. It's a lack of willingness issue. It's a lack of cooperation issue. It's a lack of time issue. It's an efficiency issue. It's a lack of focus issue. It's a lack of coordination issue. It's an organizational dysfunction issue. It's a lack of get up and go issue. It's a lack of initiative issue. It's a lack of inspiration issue. It's a "don't care" issue. It is all of these things, and a few other things, as well, simultaneously.

There's a literal shit ton of PBM material that gets routinely generated in the current PBM era. Can I prove it? Oh, absolutely!

For instance, take Hyborian War. How many games of that are currently running? Hyborian War is a PBM game that has 36 player positions available in each game of it that starts. Now, as these games of Hyborian War run and process, from turn to turn to turn, some players will invariably drop out along the way. But how many pages of PBM material do each game of Hyborian War contain, both for a single turn and for an entire game, on average? For a single turn, hundreds or thousands, depending upon the turn, and for an entire game of Hyborian War, tens of thousands of pages, bare minimum. And this without even counting any of the many Hyborian War postings that get posted over on The Road of Kings forum site, not to many any of a number of different Discord channels (including private ones), nor the countless PMs and e-mails about the game that get routinely generated by players of Hyborian War.

Now, how many games of Middle-earth PBM have run in recent years? How many pages of PBM material does that game generate - or just its MEPBM Discord chat server, for that matter?

How many PBM Discord servers, Discord channels, online discussion groups, online forums, and whatever all else I am leaving out are there alive and active, today? More than you can shake a stick at. And all of this PBM activity by hundreds of people, if not more, is what passes for PBM supposedly being "dead," these days?

What can I publish? What can I not not publish? Who can I quote? Who doesn't want to be quoted? It is simultaneously a never-ending parade of PBM horribles through a veritable PBM Garden of Eden. It is both feast and famine, simultaneously.

Pick anybody in all of PBM, and task them with covering it all, or even with covering just a relatively tiny portion of it. Even a "bite sized" approach to covering PBM can end up proving to be way too big of a chunk to bite off.

Me? Not to make an excuse, but I'm older than I used to be. At least part of my "get up and go" has gotten up and gone somewhere else. At least, it sure does sometimes seem that way. All these many cats of PBM, I'm supposed to go out on my own and herd them all? I'm supposed to herd them through thick or thin, through good PBM weather or bad? Ever try to catch a feral cat, before?

Taming the PBM scene is a comical thought that is absurd on its face. Contemplate for a second trying to domesticate it, so that you can gather and harvest what it produces with greater regularity and reliability. Now, imagine what it would be like to try and herd tigers, rather than house cats. You've got to first find tracks of the PBM tigers. Then you've got to hunt them down, individually. You might catch up to them, or they might just elude you. And if you do manage to corner one of them, what then? Do you fight them for the PBM information that they have? Ever fight a tiger, before?

In the old days, back in the golden era of PBM, things worked somewhat the same as they do now, but also, somewhat differently from what they did back then.

PBM Zombies is the freshest PBM publication on the scene. But is everyone happy with it or about it? Nope!

Remember what they say about trying to please everyone? There's a reason why it's literally impossible to go that route. Nothing whatsoever would ever get done, if that was the pole star by which I (or anyone else) steer one's PBM ship by.

And speaking of PBM ships, if I were to characterize myself in that context, I'm kind of like derelict old ship that still chooses to fly the PBM colors. Older than when I first launched upon the high seas of play by mail gaming in the mid-80s, or thereabouts. Rusted over like crazy. I'm certainly not one of the biggest PBM gamers to have ever lived. The amount of actual play by mail games (be they played through the postal service, online, through e-mail, or by way of some client software program) that I have played down through the decades since I first encountered my very first PBM advertisement (one for Hyborian War on the back of a Savage Sword of Conan or on the back of a Conan Saga magazine - the black and white ones with full color front covers) has been rather meager. No hundreds of PBM games for me, and I can't legitimately lay claim to having played dozens of different games of the same PBM game.

While my place in PBM gaming is overshadowed by thousands - if not tens of thousands - of others, nonetheless, the PBM bug bit me the same as it did all the rest of you, regardless of how you reacted after you got bit by it (whether you played lots of different PBM games, or whether you only played just one or two specific PBM games over and over and over, or whether you only piddled at it, playing it only now and again or with instances where you would go weeks, months, years, or even decades between games of play by mail something or other).

What you end up with now, with me as the editor of PBM Chaos and PBM Zombies, is the current version of my PBM self, and not any of the prior iterations of myself in whatever PBM mode that I was in during any of my past episodes playing or moderating or reading about or writing about one PBM thing or game or another. Imperfections have always existed in all iterations of my PBM self, the same as they do, today, even if the particular impeerfections may vary, at times.

Over the years, my mind and my opinions about all kinds of things in or pertaining to PBM have changed. Even today, in what is indisputably the twilight years of my PBM life, opinions about different sorts of PBM stuff continue to form and to change. And like some volcanoes, the lava of my thoughts and feelings on some subjects relating to play by mail gaming never fully cool and grow hard and no longer show any signs of life. Indeed, quite to the contrary, there are things about PBM which still cause me to erupt in thought, be it new thoughts or old thoughts. In many instances, I continue to cycle through and to recycle older PBM lava that courses through the volcano of my mind.

No doubt, whatsoever, there are times when I probably ramble on too much about PBM,
even as there are other times when I probably don't say quite enough about certain particular things that readers of PBM Chaos might prefer that I be more verbose about. Yet, you get what you get, where I and my PBM rumblings and ramblings are concerned, for better or for worse.

As you can see, me going on and on and letting the faucet of my mind drip, drip, drip doesn't help me to achieve shorter issues of PBM Chaos. Well, that's just another of many PBM conundrums which I face, time and time again.

It's no harder for me to publish long issues of PBM Chaos than short issues of PBM Chaos It just takes a little more time to put long issues together, compared to short issues. A dearth of content submitted by others, however, is its own force on the PBM scene. It will naturally assert itself, and its impact will be felt - continuously. There's just no way around it.

In the grand scheme of things, PBM Chaos will ultimately prove to be little more than a blip in the history of play by mail gaming - the same as many different PBM publications, the same as many different PBM games and PBM publications, whether we wish to admit such or not.

Thus, if PBM Chaos is to have any real relevance, it must be in the here and the now. Once it enters PBM's rearview mirror, it will quickly fade from view. To most in PBM gaming, it's not even visible, at all, right now. Most PBM readers don't tread it. Most PBM gamers don't even know it exists. That, I think, is an objective assessment.

We are fast approaching the juncture where I cease to concern myself, at all, about whether anyone else out there bothers with submitting PBM content, at all. If they submit it, fine. If they don't, equally fine. If letting the PBM harvest rot in the fields is to be the order of the day, the preferred way of doing things, then so be it.

I'm not here to beg people to participate. If people in and across PBM gaming do not want to be cajoled into participating, then it's simply a waste of my time and effort to try and cajole them. PBMers have enough mental wherewithal to decide for themselves whether they want to participate and submit PBM stuff or not.

Rest assured, I'll continue to include submissions, when and as and if I receive them. And as far as I can see into the foreseeable future, PBM Chaos will continue to publish. It's a simple enough matter for me to focus upon whatever in PBM gaming attracts my eye or motivates me sufficiently enough to write about it. The only one that I have any real control over in PBM is me. Not you. Not Wayne "Smitty" Smith. Not even Old Man Weatherhead.

Who knows? Maybe smaller issues of PBM Chaos will be just what the PBM doctor ordered.

Harlequin Games is taking a poll!

Harlequin Games is conducting a new poll in their legends.groups.io discussion group. These are the options listed for it, currently:

What would you like the next module to be?

1. Adventures in Avalon

2. Avalon Revisited

3. Blood Tides Rising

4. Crown of Chaos

5. Immortal's Realm

6. North Island Campaign

7. Swords of Pelarn

8. The One Ring

9. Throne of Chaos

10. Twlight Crusade

11. Jade Eye

12. Other - drop me an email

Unofficial PBM Meet Planned

Date of the Unofficial PBM Meet = November the 29^th 2025

Spurred on by your publication and an idea from Roy Pollard (GM The Isles), Rich Lockwood and I have decided to run an "unofficial PBM meet" which will piggy back off the Dragonmeet RPG convention in November 2025.

Dragonmeet is the UK's largest RPG convention and will take place at the Excel Centre, Docklands, East London on November the 29^th 2025. More details re tickets and games being run and traders can be found at Home - Dragonmeet.

This is the first non-game specific PBM meet to be run for quite a while and we just want to see what happens. We hope to attract some old players as well as attract new players who may express an interest. The idea is just to have fun and see what happens.

Rich is getting some signage made up and the idea will be to set up in the bar at about 12 noon.

So far confirmed PBM'ers attending are Rich Lockwood (GM: Xanoth and top player in numerous PBM games), Roy Pollard (The Isles GM), Martin Webb (top Saturnalia and Midgard player) and myself Wayne. We've invited various people including Danny Munford (GM: The Land) and his players, plus numerous PBM old guard.

If you fancy finding out about PBM or meeting up with some like-minded people, come along. There's no charge when you are in the con, and it should be a very good laugh.

I hope to see all you there.

Wayne

The following Battle Samples are taken from the Campaign Report for Hammer Tribe (Realm 19) in FR 257, during the course of Turn Eleven:

Events Concerning Troops on the March: The 6th Human Light Cavalry (U7430) set forth from the camp at 24:66 with orders to advance to 25:49. As it happened, while encamped, a hostile force entered the area charted as 24:66. Upon sighting the banners of the realm, this foe swiftly cut off any reasonable options to withdraw without a test of blades and began to make preparations for an assault. No words would suffice to resolve the situation, only steel would serve! With a loud shout, battle was engaged!

The Battle at 24:66…

The enemy’s banner, pair of red eyes, on a black field, heralded the forces of Kingmans Tragic Horde (R48): the 1st Human Cavalry Archers (U4084) and the 2nd Human Cavalry Archers (U3438). Our banner, silver hammer, on a red field, heralded our forces: the 6th Human Light Cavalry (U7430). It was a stand of the few, Hammer Tribe, against the many, Kingmans Tragic Horde. Like eagles of war, they took up their positions upon the heights of the killing ground. In the gathering warmth of the morning, each warrior in arms faced into a day which promised at once blood and the prospect of glory. Although both sides hoped to strike with missiles, both sides were off mark and ineffective.

As the battle then drew too close for either spell or dart, Tragic’s 1st Human Cavalry Archers smashed into Tribe’s 6th Human Light Cavalry, striking hard felt blows that found little defense. Tragic’s 2nd Human Cavalry Archers entered the sea of turmoil seeking any foe, and upon finding Tribe’s 6th Human Light Cavalry, devastated them beyond hope of recall. Battle had turned to panic, even the commanders began to flee after the routed forces of Hammer Tribe, lest they be swept up by the onrushing foes. Hammer Tribe had no forces surviving the conflict. Unable to stay the course, battered, bloodied and at the last ebb of strength, our forces were slain to the last.

Dragon XI (U9019), together with those assigned to follow, set forth from the camp at 03:89 with orders to advance as far as 03:87. Forces of Under-Clean (R36) flying under the banner, Black rat, on a purple field, were sighted in 03:87 guarding the village of Thorburn (C577), ending the journey and prompting an immediate call to arms. Within the space of a few moments, battle had been joined!

The Battle at 03:87…

To the advantage of Under-Clean, they defend from Thorburn. The enemy’s banner, Black rat, on a purple field, heralded the forces of Under-Clean (R36): the 15th Giant Garrison(U9048). Our banner, silver hammer, on a red field, heralded our forces: 3 Witch Doctors, Hammer (U4988), the 1st Giant Heavy Infantry (U4363), 2 Human Skirmishers, 5 Human Archers, the 1st Human Heavy Infantry (U4888), 2 Orc Archers, the 4th Dire Wolves (U8698), Dragon XI (U9019), Cloaks of Protection (I1363), Javelins of Lightning (I1368) and Holy Avenger (I1108).

It was a stand of the few, Under-Clean, against the many, Hammer Tribe. They chose a compact battle formation upon tested ground; their hope to remove the uncertainties of loose snow and ice from the fortunes of war. The first light of day now illuminating the landscape, they began to issue fierce war cries designed to strike terror into the hearts of their foes while at the same time emboldening their fellows.

Arcane powers were first brought to bear, in an attempt to weaken the enemy before they were fully prepared for battle. Lost to the ranks was the 15th Giant Garrison (U9048). This proved to sap the last of the foe’s already faltering courage. Cries of victory rang out as those of Under-Clean not already dead began to flee the field. Under-Clean had no forces surviving the conflict. All of Hammer Tribe’s forces survived the conflict. No intact forces of Under-Clean survived to make good a withdrawal into adjacent lands.

The village of Thorburn was brought under the realm’s banner. It was formerly loyal to Under-Clean. In keeping with our policy, the 4th Dire Wolves (U8698) was ordered to occupy the village of Thorburn and now resides there.

It came to pass that, due to an unforeseen series of events, the village of Bearfield (C238), which had been stripped of all defenses in 19:95, was captured by forces loyal to Under-Clean (R36) without recourse to battle.

The 2nd Human Skirmishers joined up with Dragon XI in 03:87. The 3rd and 4th Orc Archers also joined up with Dragon XI in 03:87.

Ogre Witch Doctor II (U6640) broke camp at 12:92 and joined the 1st Human Cavalry Archers in 11:77.

Having victoriously overcome the forces in 03:87, Dragon XI (U9019) and followers continued on the path set out for them at the beginning of the month.

Forces of Under-Clean (R36) flying under the banner, Black rat, on a purple field, were sighted in 02:82, ending the journey and prompting an immediate call to arms. Within the space of a few moments, battle had been joined!

The Battle at 02:89…

The enemy’s banner, Black rat, on a purple field, heralded the forces of Under-Clean (R36): the 7th Human Light Cavalry (U8114). Our banner, silver hammer, on a red field, heralded our forces: 3 Witch Doctors, Hammer (U4988), the 1st Giant Heavy Infantry (U4363), 3 Human Skirmishers, 5 Human Archers, the 1st Human Heavy Infantry (U4888), 4 Orc Archers, Dragon XI (U9019), Cloaks of Protection (I1363), Javelins of Lightning (I1368) and Holy Avenger (I1108).

It was a stand of the few, Under-Clean, against the many, Hammer Tribe. They arrayed themselves for surest footing amongst the treacherous floes and icy fangs of rock which jutted from the surrounding terrain.

As the sun rose to stand at its zenith, they faced into the foe with visages both grim and terrible with the prospect of the butchers’ work now at hand. Hoping to strike a telling blow before both sides were fully engaged, spells carefully prepared for their advantage in battle were loosed. The 7th Human Light Cavalry (U8114) was slain. The battle then turned into a rout, as the scattered remains of Under-Clean attempted to flee the field of carnage. Under-Clean had no forces surviving the conflict. All of Hammer Tribe’s forces survived the conflict. Unable to stay the course, battered, bloodied and at the last ebb of strength, the forces of Under-Clean were slain to the last.

After successfully retreating from the forces in 28:80 into 27:81, the 2nd Human Light Cavalry (U7901) continued on the path set out on at the beginning of the month. Within the area marked at 26:74, while the force relaxed in temporary camp, a hostile war party sprang from concealment to initiate combat without any prior parlay!

Only sharp eyes which sighted the would-be ambushers before they could spring their trap averted immediate disaster. With no time to maneuver, weapons were made ready even as the foe began to charge!

The Battle at 26:74…

The enemy’s banner, Black rat, on a purple field, heralded the forces of Under-Clean (R36): 10 Witch Doctors, Muridae (U7685), 4 Bugbear Slavemasters, 2 Cambion Barons, 2 Death Knights, 3 Human Militias, the 3rd Human Skirmishers (U7608), the 1st Orc Medium Infantry (U3021), 21 Orc Archers, the 1st Orc Heavy Infantry (U5333), Enchanted Platemail II (I1227), Cloaks of Protection (I1701), Bows of Quality III (I1372), 2 Light Catapults, Ballistae (I1552), Oil of Fiery Burning III (I1680), Javelins of Lightning (I1714), Adjatha the Drinker Sword (I1001) and Holy Avenger (I1646).

Our banner, silver hammer, on a red field, the 2nd Human Light Cavalry (U7901). It was a stand of the few, Hammer Tribe, against the many, Under-Clean. They spread out loosely upon the open field making the best of what little cover the surrounding terrain afforded. With the day well worn into afternoon, they prepared to make short shrift of their foes, the sooner to rest easy by the evening fireside while sipping from the flagons of victory.

The foe released swarms of magical bolts along with conjured fires and electricity to the bane of our realm. Lost to the ranks was the 2nd Human Light Cavalry (U7901). Battle had turned to panic, even the commanders began to flee after the routed forces of Hammer Tribe, lest they be swept up by the onrushing foes. Hammer Tribe had no forces surviving the conflict. All of Under-Clean’s forces survived the conflict. Unable to stay the course, battered, bloodied and at the last ebb of strength, our forces were slain to the last.

Orc Witch Doctor V (U6840) broke camp at 11:95 and joined Dragon XI at 02:82.

5 Units are still following to join Dragon XI, while 4 Units are still following to join the 1st Human Cavalry Archers!

Editor's Note: FR 257 refers to Forgotten Realms game number 257 in Reality Simulation, Inc.'s Forgotten Realms: War of the Avatars for those not familiar with the FR acronym.

Clickfest for Issue #47

The most popular link in Issue #47 with 3 unique clicks was:

https://discord.gg/9NFRcJgZkY

Total Number of unique clicks for Issue #47 = 12

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Maze Runners

Understanding the PBM Maze

This was the first turn that any player has failed to submit turn orders for Return to the PBM Maze. Ever wonder what could happen to your maze runner, if you - the player - were to miss the turn?

Your maze runner takes a nap and snoozes, that's what. The PBM maze is not the sort of place that you want to drop your guard in. Once you do, Fate sort of takes over, which you can discern from the drop in some of the maze runners' Life Force bars, this turn.

Hey, I know how it is. I understand what it's like. I get it, sometimes you just get distracted or forget to send your turn orders in. I've been there in some PBM games, before.

If you don't like how much health your maze runner lost due to an ill-timed nap, then take it up with Fate. His dice made the call on that, not me. Me? I'm just the Maze Narrator. At times like this, it's a good feeling to be entirely blameless for the misfortunes that strike the affected maze runners.

This isn't the last maze. This is the new one. In some ways, they are alike, and in other ways, they are very, very different. What's that old saying, again? If you snooze, you lose!

When in doubt, you really might just want to keep on moving and making your way through the maze. Dangers lurk in the maze, both seen and unseen. But nothing requires you to just stand around primping and biding your maze runner's time.

Hopefully, it's a lesson learned, albeit learned the hard way, perhaps. The more turns that you miss, the more dice that Fate may or may not roll.

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature, and it's not wise to tempt Fate!

Stefan

Life Force

Maze Vision = 215

Gold Pieces = 7

Maze Runner 1

Maze Runner 1 - Turn 8 Orders

Maze Runner 1 - Turn 8 Results

You have spent too much time in this accursed maze, and decide to rest. But rest soon turns to sleep, and you have no idea how long that you slept, before awakening and feeling sick to your stomach.

Such misery!

Will you be able to carry on? Or should you try to rest some more, in the hope that you will start feeling better?

Choose your fate. You can make the conscious decision to rest, by not moving further in the maze in the next turn. Just stay where you are, and hope that this sickness will pass. Or you can continue on your journey, and take your sickness with you.

You have no idea what has stricken you.

Rob

Life Force

Maze Vision = 235

Gold Pieces = 83

Weapon = Short Sword = 1d6

Maze Runner 2

Maze Runner 2 - Turn 8 Orders

Maze Runner 2 - Turn 8 Results

You walk and walk, and finally turn a corner in the maze that leads you to another dead end.

But something is there!

Scattered on the floor of the maze passageway that you are in lies gold coins scattered all about.

You reach down to grab them, counting as you go. 14 gold coins in all, a tidy little
stash! It'll come in handy, someday.

Suddenly, a noise!

You jump, and become nervous, as you hear the source of the noise growing louder and louder. Instinctively, you wield the sword that you have in your possession.

Quelling your anxious nerves as best you can, you grip the hilt of the short sword tightly, as you do your best to remain absolutely silent.

To no avail!

Turning the corner and entering this dead end to meet you face-to-face is an orc.

An orc!

Choose your fate. You can stand your ground and fight. You can surrender and plead for mercy. You can try to bribe the orc to let you pass him by. Or you can try to force your way past the orc barring your way. You can only chose just one of those options!

Steve

Life Force

Maze Vision = 235

Gold Pieces = 121

Magic Items

Scroll of Teleportation

Maze Runner 3

Maze Runner 3 - Turn 8 Orders

Maze Runner 3 - Turn 8 Results

Richard

Life Force

Maze Vision = 225

Gold Pieces = 10

Weapon = Battleaxe = 2d6

Maze Runner 4

Maze Runner 4 - Turn 8 Orders

Maze Runner 4 - Turn 8 Results

This maze and this cavern are getting the best of you, and you are fed up with being stuck in this awful place. Nothing that a little rest won't fix, though.

And so, you lie down right where you are in the cave, and close your eyes. You quickly drift off to sleep. Ah, it feels so good to get some real rest!

Pain!!

You jolt awake to discover a rat gnawing at one of your legs. You grab your battleaxe and swing at the filthy creature, but you miss. Damn your aim!

You begin to pray that your new-found injury doesn't get infected. You worry that it will.

Choose your fate. You can continue your journey through the maze, or you can rest anew here in this cave, in the hope that the pain in your leg will begin to ease off, or you can continue to explore the depths of this cavern.

Choose one, and one only, of these three options available to you.

Brendan

Life Force

Maze Vision = 235

Gold Pieces = 7

Maze Runner 5

Maze Runner 5 - Turn #8 Orders

Maze Runner 5 - Turn 8 Results

More walking. Always more walking.

But there ahead of you in the maze, you behold another maze runner that you have encountered, dressed exactly as you are, but lying down on the floor of the maze.

He's fast asleep, and you decide that discretion is the better part of valor, and allow this sleeping dog to lie.

You pass right by him in the maze, headed towards more parts unknown, without so much as wasting a quick "Hello!" on him.

For all that you know, this other maze runner could be a lunatic. He certainly looked the part.

Turn #8 Results Are In!

Maze Runner 1

You have fallen asleep in the maze (you missed the turn). A sickness has overtaken you, damaging your health.

Maze Runner 2

Your maze vision has increased!

You experienced an encounter!

Maze Runner 3

It's just another peaceful day in the maze for you. Thus far, it appears that the worst thing that is likely to happen to you is that you'll die of sheer boredom.

Maybe you'll find a way out of this maze, soon. Your thoughts drift to memories of your loved ones.

Maze Runner 4

You have fallen asleep in the maze (you missed the turn). Something has attacked you while you were sleeping!

Maze Runner 5

You experienced an encounter!

Hyborian War for Beginners: Provincial Armies

"Help your enemies to bleed, that they might trouble you no more."

In games of Hyborian War, there are both armies and navies - Imperial Armies and Imperial Navies, as well as Provincial Navies and Provincial Armies. This article is about Provincial Armies.

Imperial Armies are what lead invasions into enemy land and coastal provinces. Imperial navies can invade coastal provinces, but not land provinces.

Provincial Armies are often treated by players of Hyborian war as red-headed step-children. In reality, they can become an ace up your sleeve, if you elevate your awareness of the roles that they can play.

By this, specifically, I mean grasping and understanding that Provincial Armies in Hyborian War can be a real game changer for you, but only if you play your cards right.

Provincial Armies play a traditional defensive role, there to meet and greet any invading enemy armies that dare to cross into whatever provinces they choose to invade. Once you understand them better, though, Provincial Armies in Hyborian War can serve your kingdoms' interests all the more and all the better.

At times, I use Provincial Armies in these additional roles:

1. As hardened targets.

. . .and. . .

2. As major ambush forces without peer.

The key to employing your Provincial Armies in these roles is to not rely solely and only upon using troops awaiting assignment to add to the military strength and composition of your kingdom's Provincial Armies.

Rather, the real trick to forming HUGE provincial armies is to utilize the Detach Troops declaration in a timely manner. This will allow you to easily bypass the limitations inherent in assigning troops awaiting assignment to your Provincial Armies. I have yet to encounter any maximum limit on how many troops that you can cram into a provincial army, by way of utilizing the Detach Troops declaration.

Above is an example from one of my past games of Hyborian War, HW-957.

The Detach Troops declaration allows you to detach a maximum of one troop type, per turn, from any imperial army. So, you want to be selective in how and when you detach troops of a particular troop type number that you detach into your provincial army of choice. As long as you have more than one imperial army located in the province that you want to detach troops into, you can "harden" your province's Provincial Army even more, and even more quickly.

It is often a simple matter to tempt or to invite other players of Hyborian War to invade a province that you own, which you have turned into a hardened target (or are just about to). These sorts of tactics have worked many times for me against an array of different player opponents. Your opponent's experience advantage won't always save them from making bad choices and bad decisions.

It's particularly useful for "helping" your enemies to burn off large portions of their starting troop base, if they are playing one of the barbarian kingdoms (Asgard, Cimmeria, Pictland, and Vanaheim). If you "burn off" a large portion of their troops through employment of such timely, well-planned, and well-executed tactics, you can weaken them greatly, thereby reducing the level of threat that they pose to both your kingdom and to other kingdoms. I've used this tactic against Cimmeria in more than one game of Hyborian War, and it can prove to be quite devastating to the those barbarian warriors of the kingdom of Cimmeria.

Of course, if your kingdom only has light or medium troops, and you're facing off against heavy troops of an invading enemy, it won't work nearly as well. That said, if you have enough troops packed into your provincial army, then you may be able to utilize this tactic to cause the battle to be drawn out to the point where it times out, and your invader then retreats, thereby sparing your province from being conquered.

Imagine the surprise on your opponent's face, when they invade your province, and run face first into the brick wall of a HUGE provincial army, where you've stacked the deck against their invading forces.

You likely won't have enough troops to employ this tactic with a lot of your provinces, but it works well if you only have a few provinces to defend, or if you want to harden the defenses of particular provinces that hold disproportionately high strategic value to your kingdom.

Be sure to review the Hyborian War rulebook section that deals with the Detach Troops declaration.

I DECLARE (number of Troop units) of (Troop type number) (D)etached from (army ID)

SOURCE: http://reality.com/hwdecgen.htm

It isn't always 100% obvious what all that you can do in Hyborian War, especially when you are new to the game. The acquisition of experience acquired through experimenting with different tactics can sometimes yield very powerful knowledge that you can use in-game to your kingdom's advantage.

Do unto your enemy in Hyborian War before they can do unto you!

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The Rise of the PBM Zombies

Issue #1 of PBM Zombies magazine published as scheduled on October 1st, 2025. My apologies to W.G. Armintrout for misspelling his last name in that issue (as Armentrout instead of Armintrout). Of all the mistakes that I could make, that one strikes me as a genuine true regret. I knew how to spell his name. I just flubbed it. I had even put his name in bold text, which meant that I looked at it at least twice, but it's as good of an example as any, I reckon, of how things don't always register with the mind or the eyes when reading back through what you've already written (or transcribed, as was the case in this particular instance). I have since corrected that error, so if you would prefer to have a copy of the corrected version of PBM Zombies Issue #1, you can just redownload the issue.

Overall, I was very happy that I was able to meet the deadline that I had established for Issue #1 of PBM Zombies to go out the digital door and into the digital hands of readers. Not everyone seemed to have liked Issue #1, since a couple of subscribers unsubscribed after downloading it, so there's clearly room for improvement.

That said and conceded, here are some of the things in particular that I like about Issue #1:

I like the Contents page, both the background image that I used for it (ai created), and the fact that I included clickable links on that page to take readers directly to the articles/features listed on it. Furthermore, I like the fact that I worked the placement of those articles' names on the Contents page around, to better showcase most of the zombies in that background art piece.

I like the fact that I made a last minute change of Editorial to DEADitorial, which I thought was a good play on words. I placed the DEAD part of it in all capital letters, to better emphasize the dead instead of the ed all the more.

I like the fact that I included the little box of explanatory text on the first page of the DEADitorial, which said: Click on the green PBM Zombies on any page to return to the Contents page. I just thought that it was a nice visual touch.

I like the PBM Personalities Speak column, even though no one else has yet sought to grab one of those columns for themselves, since Issue #1 of PBM Zombies published several days ago. Maybe things on that end of it will pick up, going forward. One can only hope. I think that the underlying concept of the PBM Personality Columns is a good one.

I like both the Where will new PBM games come from? and the Because your turn results matter. . .more than most folks think. images. I think that it's important for there to be more focus upon bringing the issue of new PBM games to the fore, more.

I like the inclusion of a transcript of a podcast that pertained to play by mail gaming. It wasn't my words, it was someone's else's words, and I think that the podcast transcript made for a nice lengthy article, one with some PBM meat on it.

I like the new small PBM ad for PBM Chaos, and I especially like the Subscribe like your life depends on it! line of text that I added to it, before inclusion. It was another imperfect piece of ai-generated art, but I liked it enough to include it, the way that those several green creatures were coming after the girl depicted in that ad.

I like that PBMer Hammer has really gotten into the swing of things, and that he provided a dedicated article for inclusion in Issue #1. It makes my job as editor easier, but more importantly, it provides more diversity of thought to this new PBM magazine.

I like the fact that I included Davin Church's Galac-Tac: Interpreting Combat Reports article. If memory serves me correctly, that article had never been published in a PBM magazine before. Plus, articles from PBM GMs are always something special to include in any PBM magazine.

I like the ai-generated art that I used to make that Galaxy #228 PBM ad for. I didn't particularly care for the fact that one of her pant's legs looked more like shorts, while the other was long like pants, but I really liked that creature in it that ai created, and decided to make use of it, regardless of its imperfections. I also know that PBMer Hammer would really like for others to join that particular game of Galac-Tac that is forming, and since he has been so productive in writing articles for me, for both this issue of PBM Zombies and for multiple different issues of PBM Chaos, I felt that highlighting his Galaxy #228 game was important.

I like the new Dutchman article written by Brian Ciesielski. This Dutchman game is being deliberately designed as a brand-new-from-scratch play-via-the-postal-service type of game, hopefully a precursor to many other new PBM games in the future.

I like the way that the full-page image that highlighted PBMer Hammer's homeworld turned out. It was a little visual tribute to Hammer, for helping me out so much, of late, by way of his dog soldier approach to hammering out PBM articles, one after the other.

And last but not least, I like the Martian invasion ai-generated image that I used for the back cover of Issue #1 of PBM Zombies. I like the text bits that I added to it, including how the woman was focused upon a hair appointment more than the fact that the world was going to hell all around her. My last minute inclusion of the words, The End, was also a nice little touch, I thought. It just struck me as a good way to visually bring an end to Issue #1.

If there was anything about Issue #1 of PBM Zombies that you either liked or disliked in particular, feel free to send me a note about it and let me know. I'd love to include your thoughts about it in the next issue, even if you hated it, and certainly if you enjoyed it, whether in whole or in part.

The next issue of PBM Zombies isn't due out until November 1st, 2025. I will soon undertake to begin working on it. It will likely come together smoother than Issue #1 did, simply because I have already regained some of the old familiarity that I once had with putting together a PBM magazine in PDF format (which is not what PBM Chaos uses as its format).

As to what the specific content of Issue #2 will look like, I honestly don't have any idea, here in the current moment. People will either send me content for it or they won't, and I'll see to it that Issue #2 publishes, regardless of which of those two scenarios plays itself out.

If PBM Zombies doesn't catch on, then I can eventually put a publishing bullet in it. It wouldn't be the first zombie to ever get put down, now would it?

It's possible, I suppose, that the era of PBM publications has already come and gone. Perhaps I am simply too attached to the subject matter to let that era die in peace. There's no law against reminiscing, though.

It is now Monday morning, and I must bring this to an end, so that I can begin preparing this issue to publish.

PBM QUOTE

"K.S.K. Concepts continues design and development work on the first of its MIRROR EARTHSTM series of alternative-history games."

- K.S.K. Concepts

Quote from the Issue #88 of Paper Mayhem magazine.

(January/February 1988 issue)

Editor's Note: Have any of you out there ever played any of these Mirror Earths games? Or did they ever even reach the PBM market, way back when?

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Galaxy #223

The ongoing Saga of Galaxy #223 in Galac-Tac

Turn #2 Results

War has erupted!

On Saturday, September 27th, 2025 at 9:01 AM, turn orders for Turn #2 of Galaxy #223 in Talisman Games' Galac-Tac processed, and an automated e-mail was sent to the e-mail address that I signed up to play Galac-Tac with. Even though it was only Turn #2, war erupted amongst the stars!

Specifically, no less than 13 battles took place on Turn #2 in this galaxy. My empire, the Yonds of Droon, were involved in a few of them. Out of the 13 battles, no less than 10 involved forces under my command. My empire lost 1 battle and won 9. Hell yeah, baby!

Wyvern Supremacy
Lost 3 Freighters and 3 Scouts to Yond of Droon forces, for a total of 6 starships destroyed.

Kroji Konfederacy
Lost 2 Freighters and 1 Scout to Yond of Droon forces, for a total of 3 starships destroyed.

Yonds of Droon
Lost 1 Rocket to Wyvern Supremacy forces, for a total of 1 starship destroyed.

My warnings in Issue #46 of PBM Chaos about empires that opt for silence, their willful silence would be interpreted to be a brazen act of hostility towards my empire, went unheeded. And sure enough, conflict immediately broke out across a vast expanse of space.

I've removed the exact star location numbers, but here are the previously unexplored stars that I've charted over the last two turns, with their Production Values (PV) revealed. Think of PV as resources or raw materials that a star's solar system produces in a turn.

Turn #1
System charted. Base PV is 4
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 7
System charted. Base PV is 5
System charted. Base PV is 7
System charted. Base PV is 9
System charted. Base PV is 7
System charted. Base PV is 5
System charted. Base PV is 7
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 9
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 7
System charted. Base PV is 8

Turn #2
System charted. Base PV is 9
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 5
System charted. Base PV is 3
System charted. Base PV is 2
System charted. Base PV is 4
System charted. Base PV is 8
System charted. Base PV is 5
System charted. Base PV is 3
System charted. Base PV is 8
System charted. Base PV is 7
System charted. Base PV is 5
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 7
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 6
System charted. Base PV is 7

Just because you've charted unexplored stars successfully, like the above lists of charted stars show, doesn't mean that your empire automatically "owns" or "controls" those star locations. You can Load PV from them, once you've charted them. Each empire that wants to gather resources from other stars that way has to successfully chart them, first, before they can begin loading PV from them for transport to their homeworld (or to some other Production System, if their empire has any).

Just to emphasize, the more stars that you chart, the bigger range of choices that you'll then have, when it comes to deciding where to begin colonizing and transporting PV from. The PV value of stars that I have successfully charted, thus far, range from a low of 2 PV to a high of 9 PV, with most lying somewhere between those two extremes.

Also, some of the stars that I have charted might end up getting charted by one or more other empires, and they might also beat me to some of the richest star systems in the galaxy.

My empire's Economic Report for Turn #2 reveals that the Yonds of Droon are currently either in 1st place, or we are tied for first place, per the Empire Evaluation. More than one empire in a game of Galac-Tac can be rated at 100%, or at any other percentile, simultaneously, depending upon a variety of different factors that the game's program assesses and calculates each turn.

After Turn #2's results were processed, Talisman Games' GM, Davin Church, said in the galac-tac chat channel of the PlayByMail Discord server, "Comparing your empire's valuation with the galactic average can tell you a lot about where you sit in the scheme of things."

To which I replied, "It tells me that I'm barely above the galactic average, but that's probably a better place to be than below the galactic average."

Davin then said, "Since the lowest player's percentile is currently 92%, I'd say that "barely" isn't an adequate description."

I then asked GM Davin, "What would you consider to be an adequate description?"

To which he responded, "Top of the heap? Head and shoulders above everyone else this early?As far above average as the bottom empire is below average? Usually, by this turn, some empires have diverged all the way down to 99%. This is an exceptionally wide spread for this turn."

Of course, seeing as how we're all just two turns into this game, our respective empires' overall amount of assets and resources is still fairly limited, so I don't read too much into the 8% difference in valuation between the top percentile of 100% and the current lowest percentile for an empire at 92%. Still, it's better to be at the 100% percentile mark than the 92% percentile mark, as far as I'm concerned.

Also, Galaxy #223 started off with all players in the game knowing where everyone else's homeworld is, and that's not the case with the typical, average game of Galac-Tac. As such, it presented players in this particular game of Galac-Tac with different dynamics in play at game start. Still, you've got to play the cards that you're dealt in any game of Galac-Tac. Improvise and adapt ever remains sound advice, even and especially when playing Galac-Tac by Talisman Games.

It goes without saying that I believe that the flame of war will only burn all the hotter, once Turn #3 gets processed. Turn orders for Turn #3 for Galaxy #223 are due in to Talisman Games on Friday, October 10, 2025, which means that they'll process the next day, Saturday, October 11th, 2025.

Here it is on Friday, October 3rd, 2025, already. I finally began issuing a few of my turn orders for Turn #3, today. With this galaxy's turns processing every two weeks (the frequency at which turns process vary from galaxy to galaxy, from game to game of Galac-Tac), it gives me lots of time to get my turn orders in. I can make as many changes to my turn orders as I want to, and I've trained myself to upload them to the Talisman Games website each time that I work on them and make additions, deletions, or other changes to particular orders.

The Upload Process (for turn orders) and the Download Process (for turn results) always works smoothly and without issue for me. And at most, it only takes a few seconds, if that much. There's no big delays, nor even little delays, associated with the upload and download processes of turn orders and turn results in Galac-Tac. And that translates into a headache-free experience, which is always nice to encounter with any PBM game that offers upload and download options.

Above, you can see what it looks like on your turn results, when Combat or Cease Fires occur. You will only receive the ones for your own empire, not for every empire in the game.

The red and orange lettering helps with players being able to quickly identify at a glance the combat and cease fire reports on their turn results. These are things that the player needs to take notice of, and the colored lettering facilitates that.

System at 00-00 is Colonizing.

I changed the star location numbers to all zeroes in the colonization section of my turn report, above, so that other players don't read this article and learn exactly where I am trying to build colonies at. A number of other stars have begun the colonization process, also, but will take an additional turn to complete, as upgrading a planet that has been charted to determine its PV value to an actual Colony System is always a two-turn process.

Like every empire in this game of Galac-Tac, my empire is hungry for additional resources, so that I can have my homeworld (a Production System) then convert these additional PV into PI (Production Inventory), which is what I can use to build new ships with, as well as to create Colony Systems and Production Systems at other star locations.

All of the turn orders that I issued for Turn #2 were processed without incident. I still made a few mistakes (like sending two freighters to colonize the same star location - Duh!) It's not a fatal error nor even a critical error, but it is an error, and errors like that do matter, as they have a way of adding up. My empire can't get as much stuff done, when I'm screwing up and making silly little errors, due to lack of sufficient attention to detail.

On Turn #2, my empire classified three new classes of starship. That now brings to 16 the total number of different blueprints that my shipyard use, whenever I order new ships to be built on any given turn.

Turn #2 also saw me set up some shuttle runs for my empire. This will facilitate the loading, unloading, and transportation of PV resources from different stars to my empire's homeworld. This is a really nice feature of Galac-Tac. If you scroll back up and look at the Economic/Fleet Report, again, you'll see where it says Imports: 16 PV expected next turn. Assuming that my initial shuttle runs go off without a hitch next turn, then 16 PV will arrive at my homeworld, and my homeworld will then convert that PV into PI automatically, if memory serves me correctly.

This figure of 16 PV from shuttles arriving from other stars to my homeworld does not take into account any additional resources that arrive at my homeworld by way of one-time manual transporting of PV via other starship freighters. Using the Shuttle action/order initiates an automated cycle of PV harvesting and transporting from other stars to my homeworld. Not all of the stars that I harvest PV from, though, are intended as permanent repeat undertakings.

This decision on my part to split my resource-harvesting activities has to do with both maintaining maximum flexibility with my empire's freighters, and with the fact that not all stars successfully charted and which I have a freighter currently at are resource-rich locations. Allocating precious and limited freighter assets to automated harvesting of PV at resource-poor star locations would be a self-inflicted inefficiency. But while my freighters are already at those resource-poor stars, I might as well have those very same freighters to grab some resources, anyway, however few they are. After all, where resources in Galac-Tac are concerned, some PV is better than no PV.

From my perspective as a Galac-Tac player, it would be a better idea to not bog down some of my freighters with inefficient harvesting duties that an automatic reach for the Shuttle action/order could inflict. My Yonds of Droon empire deserves better than that!

Of course, when empires come this next turn looking to pay me back for destroying some of their starships, these starships that I've assigned to shuttle duty on the resource runs could possibly end up being some of the targets of these other alien empires. There's always a price to be paid in wars. It's just part of dealing with other empires in Galac-Tac.

Waging war in Galac-Tac will result in a diversion of economic resources away from building and growing one's economy among the stars to warships, and warships can - and will - get damaged and destroyed along the way. Killing a total of 6 freighters on Turn #2 won't stop my enemies from growing and building, but it will slow a couple of these empires down just a little bit. That's my theory, anyway.

It's important to keep in mind, though, that these very same empires likely built more freighters than they lost, either on Turn #1 or Turn #2 - or both. So, all things considered, it can't be considered a knockout blow of either the Wyvern Supremacy or the Kroji Konfederacy. Then again, it wasn't ever intended to be.

The intention was to be disruptive, to disrupt their plans and to hinder their initial attempts to grow their economy and their overall base of resources. The six freighters that my starships destroyed on Turn #2 won't be colonizing anything. Again, it won't stop them, but it should slow them down just a little, and at the very crucial opening stage of the game.

Freighters are cheap and easily replaced, though. This early in the game, targets of opportunity are relatively few and far between. That will change, as the game proceeds. Fighting more than one empire simultaneously will drain resources faster, and places my empire, the Yonds of Droon, at a disadvantage.

The kills of the 3 Kroji Konfederacy starships was more luck than planning. The kills of the 6 Wyvern Supremacy starships was more planning than skill. Trying to have warships everywhere, and so early in the game, is impossible, so a Galac-Tac player has to decide where and how they intend to allocate the military assets at their disposal.

There are no great and massive and super-powerful warfleets in existence on Turn #2. It's more like come with what you've got, and after only two turns, no empire in the game has vast fleets of ultra-powerful starships to do their bidding.

It was almost a week after Turn #2 was processed, before I noticed an error that I made with Gorvak. It turns out that I had inadvertently names two different starships after Gorvak. Ack!

That's the kind of mistake that makes no real in-game difference, per se, but it is an embarrassing mistake, nonetheless.

Maybe it was Gorvak's doing, and not my own, though, the more that I think about it. Gorvak did have a devious mind in that old public domain comic book that I resurrected him from, in order to breathe life into him, again, here in the 21st Century for a game of Galac-Tac. PBM gamers have long had a colorful and inventive and inglorious history of "finding" excuses to cover their asses for their own mistakes. That will come in handy, for when my empire's new-found enemies bring forth the long arm of retaliation for my empire's dastardly deeds committed on Turn #2.

In the never-ending cosmic battle between Good and Evil, somebody's gotta be the villain. And the last time that I read those old comic books, Droon definitely wasn't a hero, even if he is the Hero of the Empire of the moment for the Yonds of Droon in this particular game of Galac-Tac.

Galaxy #223 Player Blurbs

Player Blurb - Ajwan

This game teaches you pretty early that there are no quick wins. PVs are the lifeblood and one must acquire as many systems as possible to be able to build anything used for conquering.

Player Blurb - Brendan

An eerie silence emanates from the empire that is the Wyvern Supremacy.

Player Blurb - Djinny

Good Morning, and welcome to your neighborhood Kroji Konfederacy! Please observe the "caution cones" where cleanup efforts are still in progress. Our maintenance associates are actively watching for carts left on some aisles, obstructing the path of our loyal shoppers, and will remove them as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.We also want to call your attention to our seasonal sale, 10% off on all on Pumpkin Spice items, including Pumpkin PI. Thank you for being a loyal Kroji customer today!

Well, I find myself somewhat disgruntled that I am not yet Queen Of The Galaxy. This may take a bit more work. I wanted to spend a leisurely two weeks plotting and planning, and I actually did spend quite a bit of time on it. I wanted to avoid last-minute midnight-hour changes and revisions, and I DIDN'T manage to do that... yep, I was up making changes at midnight. I missed a couple of things I meant to do, resulting in a couple of preventable issues. <sigh> I need to be ready for work in a couple of hours, and assist Davin with a few pre-trip tasks, and I'll be on the run all day tomorrow, so all my preliminary notes look like "What happened here???" and "Follow up on this!!!" and "Maybe reconsider..." to be addressed when I've caught up on sleep, work, and life.

I see that everyone is no longer at 100% - our good or bad luck and opening strategy has already created varying strengths, wins and losses, and we have begun to diverge. It is indeed unusual for so many encounters this early in the game, but it livens up what is otherwise a somewhat tedious process of getting established. Y'all are either luckier or smarter or more aggressive than I expected (maybe all three), and I think this game will indeed be challenging, and that's a GOOD thing. So, quite a few fireworks going off for so early in the game! I look forward to finding out for sure who zapped me in various locations, although I have a pretty good idea.

Player Blurb - Hammer

Here I sit pondering what to do for my (Misraw) Galac-Tac Game #223 orders!

It is late Saturday night, and Ihave only 2 Order Slots filled, but I am uncertain if I will change those Orders before they are due by the night of next Friday!

What I am certain about is that I could have done much better in my Orders selection beginning with my First Turn of this Game!

I could have left my Issue 48 Blurb blank, just like my current thoughts about what to do in this Game, but I should at least write something!

To be honest, I have not even deciphered the Report from my previous Turn!

I am enjoying playing this particular Game, but I still have a lot to ponder and decide!

Good thing that this Learning Game only runs every two weeks!

Hammer, Minister of War

Player Blurb - Richard

After two turns, this inveterate rôle player is actually really getting into Galac-Tac…

With a lot of help from Charles!!

Player Blurb - GrimFinger

What fate awaits the Yonds of Droon in Turn #3 of Galaxy #223?

With Turn #2 of Galaxy #223 having processed, this game of Galac-Tac is now careening towards Turn #3. I've got part of my turn orders issued, already, for Turn #3, but I'm nowhere near being finished with them, yet.

Two weeks between turns is a sizeable amount of time for players to get their turn orders figured out and issued. Two weeks is also a lot of time for players to get distracted by countless other things going on in their lives. Hopefully, all six players in Galaxy #223 will get their Turn #3 orders in on time. I fully intend to.

Even with me now staring down the barrel of retaliation from more than one other empire in the game, I am going to climb out on a limb, here, and predict that when my Turn #3 turn results arrive on this upcoming Saturday, my empire - the Yonds of Droon - will continue to have an Empire Valuation of 100th percentile. It don't cost any more to wish big than it does to wish small.

The other empires will begin to build more and more warships. They will continue to expand outward - which, in and of itself, is a natural catalyst for armed conflict, as expansion by empires results in a competition for resources.

Even without that "natural force" at play in the game, the recent events of Turn #2 will more than motivate at least two of the other five players in this game to up the ante, so to speak. They will "fight fire with fire." They will become more receptive to payback. Retaliation, thus, is forthcoming!

I bank on it. I count on it. Yea, I even yearn for it! I am a yearning Yond, if anything.

The last thing that I want is to be bored in this game of Galac-Tac. I don't want to wait ten or twenty or thirty turns to find my empire at war. War is a great tragedy and a huge squandering of both life and resources in real life. But in a PBM wargame? Oh, it is a joy to behold and to participate in!

Stirring up hornets nests in PBM games is excitement incarnate. Attacking other empires in Galac-Tac is something that I can really sink my PBM teeth into. Launching attacks early on is a good and useful way to tweak the noses of other players. Were any of them ready, as in truly ready, to face war as early as Turn #2? Of course not!

Which was all the more reason to launch a series of attacks, in my considered opinion.

My empire's kills on Turn #2 of several Kroji Konfederacy starships was as much luck or chance as anything. Hey, count your wins, where and when you find them!

Those nasty-looking Wyverns of the Wyvern Supremacy, though? They were deliberately and intentionally targeted. They don't seem to know how to communicate (or perhaps there's simply a lack of willingness on their part to communicate), so I won't think twice about seeking their species' extermination.

But can I pull it off?

Who knows? It's anybody's guess. I'm pretty sure that the Wyvern Supremacy player has more actual, first-hand experience playing Galac-Tac previously than I do. As such, it will be all the more satisfying when I begin to put a real hurt on that shabby excuse for an empire of his.

My empire will suffer some losses on Turn #3, but how many, there's no real way of knowing or predicting that in advance. Generally speaking, PBM players on the whole don't tend to wield a lot of patience, once their position in PBM games comes under attack. Their appetite for revenge, however, tends to be quite healthy, indeed!

If they don't retaliate against me on Turn #3, then that will grant my empire a reprieve. My empire could certainly use a breather, albeit only a temporary one

However, if they do retaliate, then the meat grinder will only spin all the faster, chewing up more and more early-stage assets that none of our empires can afford to lose. Once your empire comes under attack, the temptation to retaliate grows rapidly. To wait to retaliate is a concept that will just sit in the craw of many PBM players, and lots of PBM players would much rather risk damnation of the positions that they play, rather than bide their time until their empire is much better prepared to retaliate.

That empire of space-faring con men, the Krojis, are flying all through what my empire considers to be "its space." Nothing worse than nosy neighbors, eh? I can't have them feeling as if they can explore Droon space with utter impunity. If their starships hadn't entered Droon space to begin with, then they wouldn't have lost any starships to Droon fire, last turn.

It is what it is, though.

I have a gut feeling that player Ajwan is just itching for the blood of someone - and anyone will do, but she probably feels beholden to her space neighbor, the Kroji Konfederacy. The "agreement" already in place between these two Galactic Grannies already fans the flames of suspicion. They're up to no good, if you ask me.

They know, though, that a "safe border" can be worth more than its weight in gold. But for how long, exactly, will that ill-conceived "border agreement" hold up? At some point down the road, one or the other of them will seek to gain advantage and the upper hand over the other one. Which Galactic Granny of the two will end up being the first to put the knife in the back of their current "border agreement associate" is anybody's guess. My own guess would be that Ajwan will eventually wake up and smell the Kroji daisies, but perhaps she is playing a species that is slow on the take for this particular game of Galac-Tac.

When the time comes, Djinny won't think twice about dispatching her empire's military forces to pillage and destroy Ajwan's empire. Poor Ajwan!

For now, though, they seek some degree of assurance against whatever other "threats" that they perceive, correctly or incorrectly, exist out there in the galaxy. PBM players often suffer from self-induced paranoia. They know in their heart of PBM hearts that danger lurks in the dark vastness of outer space. They grasp that there are, simultaneously, different threats "out there," and that these dangers and threats are headed their way. It's just a matter of time before the flame of war is visited upon them and their respective species!

One of my ships and one of player Hammer's ships encountered one another on Turn #2. Since Hammer is already at war with those dastardly Krojis, I have decided to vacate the star that I was intending to chart, when Hammer's path crossed mine. After all, it's just one star out of many, and after player Djinny's ill-conceived scheme to provoke the empire that is Misraw to war right out of the starting gate for this game of Galac-Tac, perhaps Hammer's empire will be receptive to another empire treating his species with a far greater degree of respect. Sure, it's a gamble on my part, but then again, all six of us players in Galaxy #223 face an assortment of gambles every single turn, from here on out.

While I can't really afford to spare the diversion of resources, I do think it to be prudent that I begin increasing the amount of defenses at my homeworld. For the time being, I can do so gradually, without unduly hampering my efforts to go on the offense and to simultaneously play defense. It all boils down to exactly how much that I think that I can safely divert to bolstering my homeworld's defenses, without leaving other parts of my empire too vulnerable. Right now, it's all a big guessing game, to a large degree. However, I still have several days left, before the due date for my Turn #3 orders to be sent in by arrives. That should be plenty.

Right now, I have a lot of confidence in my information warfare strategy. I believe that Turn #3's results will confirm the soundness of my empire's early strategic planning. I've spent a lot of time in recent days thinking about what to do for Turn #3, and the fact that I have pondered the Turn #3 results yet to come as much as I have, already, is, I think, a compliment on the game design of Galac-Tac. It's the mark of a good PBM game, for players to think about it even when they aren't actually playing it, or when they are thinking about turn results that have yet to arrive, or even to be processed, at all.

Galac-Tac may well be a largely-overlooked gem of a PBM game. I've known about its existence on the PBM market for many years, but I'm just now getting around to really sink my gaming teeth into it. Like most games out there of any kind, it's not perfect, but Galac-Tac is more robust of a design than perhaps strikes you at first glance.

For my Turn #3 orders, my empire's primary targeting scheme has already been determined. My turn orders already decided upon allocate starships to carry out these select missions. Now, I still need to decide upon what my empire's secondary targeting scheme will look like. With considerable assets already allocated to primary targets, I simply have less remaining assets available to assign to secondary targets.

The term "targets," as used in this context, doesn't automatically mean attacks. Rather, they could be attempts by me to defend certain of my own empire's assets or locations against enemy attacks, or to increase my empire's space-borne intelligence gathering apparatus. Targeting intelligence gathering deficiencies is, indeed, part of an overall competent targeting strategy.

Come next issue, I will be able to bring word of both victories and defeats. Be sure to tune in then!

The artistic inspiration of Basil Wolverton.

PBM QUOTE

"But any market analysis in PBM gaming is kinda academic until you have a game, and then playtesters. And then you polish it. Then you market it. Then you see if it is viable. I can't see any other route being sensible. The 80s and 90s, peak PBM time, was full of failed games and PBM companies. Nowadays? It's got to be harder, right?"

- PBMer Stuart

Quote from the pbm-general-chat channel of the PlayByMail Discord Chat Server

August 27th, 2022

Once again, we arrive at the end of another issue of PBM Chaos!

I hope that you enjoyed it, or at least part of it. Next Monday should bring Issue #49, and there's no telling what it will bring with it, when it comes.

I have tried to spend some time proofreading this issue. Hopefully, you won't stumble over too many typos or broken links. I always seem to miss something though (usually, several or even many somethings).

For the year, we are up 21 new subscribers, while suffering the loss of 5 who unsubscribed (or were unsubscribed manually by me - think "technical issues," here) in that same span of time.

My Twelve Days of Christmas initiative will soon wrap up over on The Road of Kings forum site. Just two more Days of Christmas left to go, now. The present(s) for the Tenth Day of Christmas still hasn't/haven't been shipped by Santa's elves, though, even as they assure me that the intended recipient will receive it/them just two short days from now (On Wednesday, October 8th, 2025).

Ironically, it is PBMer Hammer who is the only participant in that holiday extravaganza who hasn't made it onto the Nice List, yet, even though he was the very first one to toss his name in Santa's hat. Surely to goodness, he can lay claim to a Christmas present or two, before this drawn out Christmas-year-round event draws to a close. Time will bear out whether he can or not, but the window of opportunity continues to draw to a close. Poor, poor, Hammer!

I won't belabor this issue nor this article any longer. Take care of yourselves!

Charles Mosteller

Editor of PBM Chaos

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