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What is play by mail?
PBM stands for "play by mail". Since this IS the Internet, we use it to mean both ordinary postal mail and electronic mail. Games like Diplomacy have been played via postal mail since the 1960's, starting with John Boardman's 'zine. The US commercial PBM market was started by Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo in the early 1970's. Now there are commercial PBM companies all over the world. In addition, there is some activity in role-playing games via mail.
Why play PBM games? Well, even though the commercial games are expensive, they offer some things that some people have a hard time finding face to face -- good opponents, convenient playing times, and games with lots of hidden information. Non-commercial games can offer the same benefit, as long as the people running it are dedicated.
How do PBM games work? Generally you mail in orders to a moderator, human or computer, once a week, and they mail the results back to you. A PBM game can be as simple as a human running an ordinary Dungeons & Dragons game, or a 45,000 line program moderating a fantasy strategic/role-playing game with 50 pages of rules.
PBEM games -- those conducted via email -- are generally played by mailing human-readable files back and forth. A few games require special software on your home computer; if so, it will be mentioned in the game desription, if there is one.
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How do they work?
These games work on similar principals, but each game has it own unique world and atmosphere as you will find out by reading about them. They are all computer-moderated games played though the mail or email, and they are easy to learn. Best of all, you can test your judgment and skill against hundreds of other players in the same game!
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Starting a game
Many of these games are able to be played right though the internet, and others will be in the future, but if you can't wait, you can get information on starting though the page of the game of your choice. You can also play more than one, if you wish.
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