Welcome to POST MARQUE, the section devoted to play-by-mail gaming. Many of you may not be familiar with PBM gaming, and many of the terms we use may seem confusing to you. The first PBM ad I ever saw was very confusing, full of references to "Turns" and "2 week turnarounds" and similar gibberish. I was so thoroughly confused that I shrugged my shoulders and ignored the ad, which was in a popular RPG magazine. It wasn't until years later that I discovered PBM, when I found a postcard inside Stew Jackson's "Illuminati" boardgame that promised me the chance to play Illuminati by mail. Woefully short of players, I sent the postcard in, and two weeks later, I entered the world of play by mail. It is my hope that any gamer can pick up any Issue of this magazine and find the material in this section mostly comprehensible. I absolutely adore the postal gaming hobby, and I'd like to introduce it to as many people as possible. If you've never really experienced PBM before, I'd like to encourage you to read the "Welcome to Play-by-Mail" article, and then to try and read this section. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'd also like to take this opportunity to direct your attentions to the free trial offer that Adventures by Mail has extended to POST MARQUE readers; details are available in the "Ship Ahoy" section. This is an excellent opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a game that has been successfully tested and marketed in Europe for years. Veteran PBMers will also find POST MARQUE of value. We will be profiling several games each issue, as well as reports of what's happening in various games, narratives by players, industry news, the occasional interview - the usual collection of information, in the unusual Post Marque style. The industry is expanding rapidly, and the interaction between the American, European, and Australian markets is bringing an even larger number of games to an ever-expanding audience. More and more innovative games are breaking out of the traditional genres and expanding the horizons of the hobby. However, we have had our setbacks. Many would-be PBMers were introduced to the hobby by the ill-fated "Buck Rodgers" game, and subsequently swore "never to mess with play-by mail again!" PBM has also met with competition from on-line game networks and play-by-modem games. Overall, though, the hobby is strong, and will become even more so in the years ahead. How long will PBM be around for? l think play-by-mail games will exist as long as mail exists - which would seem to be for at least a few more years, anyway. About our name: Post Marque is, first and foremost, a pun on the term "postmark," which of course is something a PBM gamer sees frequently. The term "Marque" refers to a "Letter of Marque," which was a license, granted by a country, that allowed the licensee to attack any vessels which flew the flags of enemy counties. Individuals who possessed Letters of Marque were referred to as "privateers." This also explains the nautical/piratical humor in the magazine (but doesn't excuse it.) Back to Table of Contents -- SHADIS Issue No. 9 Back to SHADIS List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Alderac Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com