
Play-by-Mail Games - samfisher83
http://reality.com/
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legerdemain
They're still in business?! In the late 90s, I would wheedle a few bucks out
of mom every two weeks to get a few rounds of combat in Duelmasters. It was a
surprisingly rich simulation. The game was obviously pay-to-play in the most
direct way possible, so my gladiatorial team never advanced to much of
anywhere, but waiting for the biweekly printouts was still a huge thrill. The
operators even facilitated passing hand-written notes between players as an
anonymous mail system!

The other, older, founding operator of PBM games is the wonderfully named
Flying Buffalo, Inc., who are also the publishers of Tunnels & Trolls.

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Kyrio
I used to play a lot of Daifen [1], a French play-by-mail game that blends
strategy, diplomacy and role play. Games can last about a month, with
different game speeds (one turn per day, three turns per week, etc.) It's
still up, though the player count isn't what it used to be. You can do
everything in the interface, from sending orders to planning battles to
contacting other players, but the core mechanic of play-by-mail is still
there. I sometimes toy with the idea of making an international version...

[1] [https://www.daifen.com/index.php](https://www.daifen.com/index.php)

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TuringTest
They have links for a webring! Alas, the webring is no longer working,
although you can check it in the Internet Archive.

[1]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191213105245/http://www.webrin...](https://web.archive.org/web/20191213105245/http://www.webring.org/cgi-
bin/webring?ring=pbmring&id=7&next5)

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Hitton
> _What is a Play-by-Mail Game, Anyway?_

> _Play-by-mail (PBM) games are a rapidly expanding realm of the gaming
> world._

I somehow find that hard to believe.

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xellisx
I made a comment somewhere, where someone was asking about FTP games, and I
thought there were looking for games that would be like this. You'd upload
stuff to an FTP server instead of mailing it...

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rdp
Play-by-mail games are a pivotal part of John Darnielle's novel WOLF in WHITE
VAN. Some of these games sound like ones depicted in the book. Very
interesting!

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anthk
Now what I'd love is a list of play-by-email games.

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shagie
PBM is probably the easiest list -
[http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/](http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/)

The PBeM server on gamerz.net has a good sized list of games they host.
[http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/](http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/) (I used to
play a bit of Firetop Mountain long ago -
[http://www.gamerz.net/~fm/](http://www.gamerz.net/~fm/) ). Note that this is
a very old server and I haven't checked if anything is still running.

~~~
anthk
Now I realize it could be possible to play both IF and Nethack over email with
some scripting.

You can already play IF over the web and gopher.

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shever73
This brings back memories! I used to play a PBM football game back in the late
80s and had written my own fantasy-themed PBM RPG. Fun times.

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m3kw9
That’s gonna be a hot domain, you already made it.

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quiescant_dodo
Is there a link to a fully played out game? I didn't see any on the website.

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russellbeattie
The question is... What site comes up when you type _this_ domain into Safari?

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bArray
Their competitor, a horse simulation game:
[https://horsereality.com/](https://horsereality.com/)

~~~
pfdietz
I hope that's more fault tolerant than Bella Sara was.

[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/05/26](https://www.penny-
arcade.com/comic/2008/05/26)

