This is another PBEM UPDATE, with your host, Mike Metlay.
This is an official request for contacts from TML members (or friends
of TML members with Net access) who wish to join the TML PBeM game,
now in its fourth year of action. This game is an interactive email
game describing the trials and tribulations of the crews of the
merchant Jump tender Alcyon, the Free Trader Korondor Talisman, the
scout ships Aurora, Paladin, Gemini Arbiter, Westwind, and Bernoulli,
and the Aslan ship Trakh, as they hurl themselves into the Great Rift
seeking the truth about rumors that a Ringworld has been discovered
circling an uncharted star.... (If I could figure out a hook for it,
I'd write up an article for CHALLENGE about it, as it's set a number
of records for Traveller games. Would GDW be interested in something
this off-the-wall, Loren?)
We have strictly limited admission to this game since Mark Cook and I
took over from Richard Johnson two years ago; this was necessary because
the PBeM is an INTERACTIVE game, and every new member was another mail
stream to deal with. This is a nonstructured system in that game turns
do not have fixed lengths-- in fact, when you have thirty people all
talking at once, one hour of game time can take a year of real time
to play! This is the largest game of its kind ever, and in fact we
were glad of the thinning ranks of players as the years went by. But
now we have a glut of very good characters with no one to play them,
and we want to put them back into people's hands.
People in the TML PBeM game as of now, who are not running two
characters at once already, are also free to ask for a second
character, and will get first choice of whom to play since they know
of the characters in question already. However, we will not honor all
such requests, and will gently but firmly refuse players whom we feel
are better suited to handling only one character at a time. We
anticipate that this will leave us with two or three openings for new
blood. People from the Listeners list will be considered first, but
only if they can meet the criteria given below.
So if you're interested, please send Email to [email removed] and
let us know. BUT be aware of the fact that this is NOT a first-come,
first-served matter. We will want people who can deal with the limitations
and stipulations of the game, as follows:
1. You'll be issued an existing character. You will have a choice of
whom you play, but some characters have extensive histories that you'll
need to read up on before you can jump in. No exceptions allowed.
2. Your mailer must be able to handle a HUGE amount of mail. When the
action starts flying thick and fast, we can generate nearly 100k per day
of mail messages. (Before you ask: I work during working hours, and
keep up with this stuff during lunches and evenings, with occasional
breaks for music, food, sleep, and tummybumping.)
3. You must read over the previous year's worth of consolidated Turns,
a total of nearly one megabyte of text, to get a feel for the game and
the characters, before starting play. You must also read, understand,
and agree to abide by the Rules for Posts that all players receive.
4. You should be willing and able to absorb a lot of data on the fly,
and at LEAST to have the capability of posting a short move (say, five
lines of text or so, to give a brief answer to a question) once a day.
5. We reserve the right to reject people whose Email connections are
sporadic or flaky, and we prefer but do not insist upon people who
either own their own accounts on public-access systems or who are
connected through jobs etc. No one believed that this game would still
be in its opening stages now, when we started it in 1988. It has enough
potential to be still going strong well into the 21st century, and we
prefer people who can stick with it for more than a year at a time.
We won't reject college students out of hand, but you must give us an
honest appraisal of how long you expect to be connected. One recent
addition made Mark and me jump through unbearable hoops to create his
character (it was Greyson, for those in the know), then QUIT at the
end of the school year. I nearly had an embolism on the spot.
6. This is not a democracy. Mark and I haven't thrown anyone out yet,
but we'll be glad to make a precedent with any willing volunteer.
This game has been running for four years, and those involved have a
strong sense of community and friendship. New people who act in a
disruptive or unpleasant manner will be ejected with extreme prejudice.
We do our damndest to make sure that our rulings are fair and equable,
but if you're one of the large subcommunity of the TML who find me or
Mark a pain in the neck, all you need to keep in mind is that in
this game you'll be dealing with both of us on a daily basis. 'Nuff said.
Also, for those who would like a taste of what's going on in the game,
the latest Turn has been compiled and is available for ftp from
ftp.engrg.uwo.ca, in the compressed file ~ftp/pub/traveller/pbem/Turn.92.03.Z
which uncompresses to one big file. A note about this file, it's actually
in two parts, running in parallel to one another, because this last Turn
was so big that it was impossible to edit into one smooth timeline. We
hope our new rules will prevent having another 500k Turn like this one....
Hoping to hear from y'all (players and new folx alike) soon,
- --
dr. michael metlay | and she's a master of return hitting
atomic city | giving rhythm to her posts
[address removed] | so you read her and think hey it sounds good
pittsburgh pa 15217-0675 | and wish her posts had a soundtrack too
[email removed] | (f. ercolessi)