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Mission From God Issue 24 The directory of magazines that run games by post Lukas Kautzsch, An der Roßweid 18a, 76229 Karlsruhe, 0721/616815, Germany A5 booklet, yearly, DM 6.00 incl. postage(DM.7.00 overseas), 104 pages The German version of Mission From God only much better laid out. (John Harrington, November 2002) Clive Palmer, 36 Ravensfield, Barstable East, Basildon, Essex SS14 1UG E-mail: clive@pigbutton.screaming.net Issue 136+, A5 booklet, 5 - 6 weekly, 28 - 32 pages, 50p including postage
The above information is at least a year old as Pigbutton remains semi-detached from the hobby. I hear rumours that its former subzine Ratadan is now the senior partner, with Pigbutton appearing as a subzine within its pages.. (John Harrington, December 2002) Martin Burroughs, 15 New Earth Street, Oldham, Lancs. OL4 5ES (Tel: 0161 626 1580) Issue 67, A4, 6 weekly, 16 pages, £8 per season (sub fees donated to charity)
Still going strong, perhaps a bit erratic, but still living. Its three divisions of ten and has about one player on the waiting list. No other major games, but has occasional game reviews and is an interesting United variant. (Dave Carter, December 2002) A three division United epic with slowish turnaround, but nicely produced with some games reviews and chat. Martin doesn't charge, but asks subscribers to give the £8 season's fee to charity. He lives in Oldham too, which is an excellent recommendation on its own. (Howard Bishop, November 2002) Mike Dean, 28 Sunningdale Drive, Bramhall, SK7 2LJ E-mail: mike.dean@bigfoot.com
On his return to running games for other people Mike Dean made an attempt to interest the postal gaming hobby in a resuscitated version of his 1980's zine Psychopath but apparently met with indifference. The decision to go to a purely web format has paid handsome dividends, however, as the web site is thriving and drawing good reviews from - yes, you guessed it, people from the postal games hobby. Is there a moral in there somewhere? (John Harrington, November 2002) Pete Burrows, 9 Penrhyn Crescent, Chilwell, Nottingham NG9 5NZ E-mail: Buzzwackpbm@aol.com www.buzzwackpbm.freeserve.co.uk Issue 170, A5 part-colour, monthly, 16 pages, £1 (including postage) with multiple discount schemes available
A United zine which drops in to my Inbox with prodigious reliability. There are 11 turns to a season with the eleventh dealing with the close season and play-offs - the latter being a mechanism to ensure that virtually all teams have an interest in promotion or relegation (and sometimes both!) right up to the final session of the season. Puma has been designed to ensure that in order to maintain success you must be active in the transfer market, so this is not a league for managers seeking a low-maintenance game. The zine still has around one third of its original subscribers after 170 issues, which must say something for its reliability and popularity. (John Harrington, November 2002) Queen's Lane Advertiser aka QLA Jeremy Tullett, 7 Midland Place, Derby, DE1 2RR E-mail: jeremy.d.tullett@btinternet.com Issue 12, A5 booklet with colour covers, 8 - 12 pages, £1 including postage, appears when the editor feels like it, but rarely more than four times a year Documents face-to-face Diplomacy tournaments up and down the country and appears at somewhat sporadic intervals. (John Harrington, November 2002) Rob Mulholland, 2/5 Royal Palm Court, Southport, Queensland 4215, Australia. Subs are handled via a UK address. E-mail: rob.ratadan@virgin.net Issue 131, A5 booklet, 30 - 36 pages, 50p (UK), 75p (Europe), £1.25 elsewhere
The former subzine has emerged in Alientastic fashion from John Hurt's stomach (also known as Pigbutton), only to bugger off to Oz. Rob has confirmed that the zine will continue unabated with somebody Blightyside doing the printing. The Ratadan game (not dissimilar in concept to En Garde) will be the main event, with lots of other interesting games such as Mare Mediterraneum (trading in the Med) and The Tall Poppy (racketeering in Hong Kong?). Mike Brian (Shambles In Canra) provides willing and able support with an amusing editorial of his own and some brill games to boot. (Howard Bishop, November 2002) Andy Hyams, Applegarth, Knayton, Thirsk, N.Yorks. YO7 4AS Issue 224, 4 weekly, A4, 12 pages, £1 plus postage
This is another long-running football-based zine, although the rules for Andy's league are significantly different (and hideously more complex) than the more standard United-style games, based as they are on a game called Soccer Supremos (or is it Soccerboss?) I believe. This league is extremely involved, and demands a lot of your attention (scouting and team development, etc.) if you're going to have any hope of keeping up with the rest of your fellow managers. Andy strikes me as an extremely forgiving and conscientious GM, but has no hang-ups at all when it comes to telling his players how crap their decisions were, and neither does he hold back if he can see a manager leading a team down the path of eternal damnation (no prizes for guessing how I know that). Still, if you fancy something somewhat more involved than most conventional postal games and/or other football leagues, this could be the medicine you'll need... (Alex Bardy, December 2002) |
WORDS Postal gaming Published in January 2003 |
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