Way back in the day, I played a lot of PBM games. Among them were Supernova II, Legends, Feudal Lords, Midgard, and others with names I've forgotten. I paid a good bit of money on turns and rules and printouts and even more on long-distance phone calls to fellow players. One I wanted to play, but never actually took the plunge, was Hyborian War.
I loved the map for Hyborian War. I found it more attactive than the maps in the Conan books - especially those that superimposed the outlines of Europe over it - and in the GURPS Conan book. I decided to see if anyone had it up online, because somehow I'd lost my copy.
Wikipedia says it's still going. There are webpages talking about it . . . but the publisher's website looks like a late-90s Geocities site. It had a contact section and I asked to have a rulebook mailed to me. What the heck. I have my doubts this is still a thing, because I can't really find very recent posts. Plus people are still doing mailed-in PBMs?
But maybe it is.
We'll see if anything ever arrives.
But I can still find the map here:
And this nifty fan map, too.
Gonna steal that map, thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteThe rules are on the website you linked:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reality.com/hwconten.htm
Hope this helps.
Inspired by this entry, I did a bit of Googling, and came across this index of active PBEM games: https://suspense-and-decision.com/index/
ReplyDeleteThe list is apparently updated regularly, with the most recent update being the 9th of August, 2022.
Yes, people still play PBM games via the postal service, while other PBM games are playable via different digital methods.
ReplyDeleteYou're not gonna find "recent posts" about Hyborian war on Reality Simulations, Inc.'s website, because that site doesn't have a place to post on it. To find the biggest gathering of Hyborian war players on the Internet, you need to visit The Road of Kings forum site located at: https://www.warbarron.com/
PBM Unearthed talks about PBM games:
https://sites.google.com/view/pbm-unearthed/the-magazine
As does Suspense & Decision magazine:
https://suspense-and-decision.com/
Rules for Hyborian War can be found here:
http://reality.com/hwconten.htm
And here:
https://grimfinger.net/HWRulebook.html
A draft Hyborian War rulebook in PDF format was compiled a number of weeks back, and submitted to RSI for their review and any corrections or changes. It just hasn't been finalized, yet.
PBM games are also discussed here:
https://www.facebook.com/PlayByMail/
And here:
https://www.facebook.com/PBMUnearthed/
I play Hyborian War, myself. Currently, I play the Kingdom of Nemedia in HW-982. My turn orders for Turn #21 in that game are due today, actually. I stumbled upon your blog posting this morning, while looking for something else, and decided to chime in with a few comments.
very helpful matey! I looked into it maybe 30 years ago, but the logistics from an international standpoint were difficult to say the least. Thinking I might get back into it - between email and their Australian office, it should be much easier to do. Hope there is still space for noobs in the game! :)
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