Welcome to Richard's Play-By-eMail Server.  

Richard's PBeM Server (pbmserv@gamerz.net) exists so that we can play a variety of games by eMail. The games currently supported are listed below. Some of these now have a graphical web interface.

Chess

Chess, Amoeba, AvalancheChess, BOChess, Bughouse, Capablanca, Chex, DarkChess, DoubleChess, DoubleMoveChess, GrandChess, QuickChess, OmegaChess, ProgressiveChess, RennChess

Shogi, ChuShogi, MiniShogi, TenjikuShogi, ToriShogi YariShogi, Xiangqi, Jungle

Backgammon

Backgammon, Deadgammon, Grandgammon, Hypergammon, Moultezim, Malaka, Nackgammon, Plakoto, Savoy, Savoya, Spiro

Checkers

Checkers, Draughts, Dama (TurkishCheckers), MaxCheckers, MaxDraughts, ChineseCheckers

Connection oriented

Akron, Ankor, Antipalos, Antipod, Boche, Caeth Y, Chameleon, Conhex, Connexxions, Cross, Crossway, Cubox, Druid, Exo, Gates, Gonnect, Havannah, Hex, Hexma, Jade, Loophole, Marque, Onyx, Projex, Quadrant Hex, Quadrant Y, Quadrex, Quax, Star, Stymie, Thoughtwave, Trellis, Trilbert, Tripod, TwixT, Unlur, Visavis, Warp and Weft, Y, yXy

N in a row

Binar, Connect4, Connectris, Connect4x4, Fire and Ice, Gravity, Majorities, Ndengrod, Ninuki, Octex, Psycho, Qubic, MonsterQubic, Score4, Tic-Tac-Toe, Time Vectors, Trinim, Gomoku, Renju, Pente, Pente+-, Keryo-Pente, D-Pente, G-Pente, Yavalath

Territory grabbing

Alak, Ataxx and Hexxagon, Cathedral, Cephalopod, Copolymer, Drogo, Go, Limit, Margo, Orbit, Othello, Oust, Palisade, Reversi, and Reverse-Othello, Oddthello, Power of Two, PowerDrain, Scribe, Tanbo, Tanbo3D and Hexbo, Rings, Dots and Boxes

Capture/trap your opponent

Abalone, Adamas, Amazons, Blackbox, Chaos, Conway, Curio, Dipole, DNA, Emergo, Entropy, Fanorona, Focus, Forms, Halves, HexEmergo, Hijack, Hive, Hnefatafl, Knight Panic, Mutton, Nine Mens' Morris, Oshi, Quadrature, Sonar, Susan, Stratego, Su-do-ku, Survival, Tactics, Terrace, Terrace6x6, Truchet, Trugo, Tumbling  Down, Warship

Complete A Pattern

Andantino, Blobs, Che, Chroma, Cradle, Dragons, Hexade, Lambo, Lines-of-Action, Mambo, Osbo, Osbox, Palago, Plotto, Spangles, Superbo, Trax, 8x8Trax, LoopTrax, Trichet, Vasco

Reach a "Goal"

Accasta, Batalo, Borderline, Breakthrough, CoNeutron, Epaminondas, Koan, Mono, Neutron, Philosopher's Football, Quoridor, Razzledazzle, (RazzledazzleX) , Soccolot, Tug-of-War, Octi, (Octi3base, OctiLite), Hexi, (Hexi3base)

Mancala

Diffusion, Wari, ZigZag

Gipf Project

Gipf, Tamsk, Zertz, Zertz+11, Dvonn, Yinsh, Punct, Tzaar

Word Games

Scramble, Lingo

Domino Games

Hextad, Hextol, Hextup, Holomino

Card Games

Hearts, MHearts, Blackout, Pitch, Spades, Wizard

Dice Games

Perudo, Yacht, CooperYoung

Game Systems

Orion

Role Playing Games

Werewolf

Solitaire Games

Oxvo, Robots

If you are new to the server, you can read the tutorial (or send mail to pbmserv@gamerz.net with "help tutorial" as the Subject line) for detailed instructions on getting started on the server.

If you have been here a while, you may find the summary of commands useful, to learn about the many things you can ask the server to do. (Or you can send mail to pbmserv@gamerz.net with "help commands" as the subject.)

To play games via the PBeM Server, send mail to pbmserv@gamerz.net with the command as the Subject: line. Use the signup command to choose a PBeM userid and password. It may be anything you wish provided it contains no spaces, quotes or colons. As a matter of form the name should be based on your real name. Popular methods include using your first name by itself, or prepending your first initial to your last name.

The password is a personal choice, but the key is to pick something you can REMEMBER. If you forget your password, it is a real nuisance to fix it. The only restriction on your choice is that no spaces, quotes, or colons be included in the password. The password is designed to prevent accidentally moving for someone else rather than acting as a tight security measure, so remember that whatever you choose you are going to have to type EVERY TIME YOU MAKE A MOVE, so don't choose anything which is going to be a problem.

The server will automatically maintain a history of your games as well as a picture of the boards. Each time a player moves, a copy of the board will be sent to each of the players in that game. If you want to peek at the status of someone else's game or just check up on one of your own to make sure you haven't missed some e-mail, use each game's 'show' command. The server will respond to queries to recall the history and position of any of its boards.

As an additional social feature, the PBeM server will forward mail to all the players of a given game so you can make comments (taunts) to your opponents. You can also send non-game specific messages to any PBeM Server user via the message and broadcast commands or via the PBeM Server mailing list (pbmserv-users@gamerz.net)

Response time is usually very quick (not much more than roundtrip email time), and you should always get a response (unless something goes wrong) If the PBeM Server does not respond to a command, you can try the simple command "help" to see if the system is down or not. If the PBeM Server responds to "help" and you don't have a response from your other command still, something has gone wrong. Try again or ask rrognlie@gamerz.net for help if problems persist.

An archive of some games is maintained at http://northumbria.tripod.com

Comments, suggestions and assistance are welcome.

In Case of Fire, contact:

• Richard Rognlie <rrognlie@gamerz.net>

Getting Help:

    help [ subject [ ... subject ] ]

Administrative commands:

    signup userid password [ e-mail address(es) ]

Adds you to the PBeM server. You must sign up before you are allowed to participate in any PBeM games. userid is any sequence of characters not including colons, spaces, or quotes. The same goes for password. If you have multiple E-Mail addresses or have a particular favorite account you wish all PBeM mail sent to, specify it after your password. Otherwise, the PBeM server will assume the return address of your signup request is where all PBeM mail should go.

    change password userid current password new password

This allows you to change your PBeM password. You may wish to do this periodically. The PBeM server uses the passwords for its own purposes. (It stores them as clear text, so you probably do *not* want to use the same password as you use for your login accounts!)

    change address userid password [ e-mail address(es) ]

This allows you to change the PBeM servers mail address for you. Any mail that the PBeM server send will normally go to this address. If no address(es) is(are) specified, the PBeM server will assume the return address of the request as the desired address.

    delete userid password

When you have decided that you have wasted enough of your life playing these silly games that can last for weeks, delete your user account as a courtesy to the other players.

Miscellaneous commands:

    list [ game type 1 [ ... game type N ] ]

List the status of the game types specified. If no game types are specified, a list of PBeM users will be displayed. For privacy reasons, only their PBeM userid will be displayed.

    message userid password toUserid1 [ ... toUseridN ]

If you wish to send a message to a PBeM user, but do not have their eMail address, you may send it via the PBeM server.

    broadcast userid password

If you wish to send a message to ALL PBeM users, use this. Please limit use of broadcast to topics of potential interest to all players. You may want to use the PBeM Server mailing list (pbmserv-users@gamerz.net) as an alternate to the broadcast command. Please include your pbmserv userid in your message so people know to whom they should address their responses.

You are visitor since August 22th, 1996.