Alamaze is a computer-moderated, fantasy, turn-based game. It was published in 1986 by Pegasus Productions as a play-by-mail game. Reality Simulations later took over game moderation. The game itself has been played with multiple versions. The initial design, released in 1986, was replaced by the "Second Cycle" in 1991, offering changes to the kingdoms and game's history. The 3rd Cycle—"The Choosing"—emerged in 2015, doubling the available kingdoms while providing modifications to them. The publisher made additional changes to the player–game interface by 2017. In February 2019, Alamaze.co published the 4th Cycle, the world of Maelstrom, after two years of development. The game is currently run by Alamaze.co as a closed-end, play-by-email (PBEM) game in a turn-based format.[1]
In the latest game cycles, twelve players per game choose from eighteen possible kingdoms, employ various available characters, and strive for victory. Winning players achieve dominance of the map, meet the victory conditions of their respective kingdom, or have the greatest number of status points.
Alamaze received multiple reviews in the 1980s and 1990s. These were mainly positive, with some noting challenges with the publication company in the period, which were noted largely resolved. Alamaze has also received a number of awards, to include the Origins Award for "Best Play-by-Mail Game of 1987", and high marks in the Best PBM Game category in Paper Mayhem magazine in 1987 and 1989.
Publication history
Alamaze was a computer-moderated play-by-mail game designed by Rick McDowell.[2] It was born in 1983 as an idea for a fantasy game.[3] An initial playtest involved six "local gaming aficianados" and resulted in a computer-moderated game using two megabytes of RAM. The first "official" playtest began in 1985. 15 PBM professionals and experienced gamers participated, resulting in adjustments, another playtest, and a final publication version.[3]
In the May & June 1986 issue of Paper Mayhem magazine, Pegasus Productions announced that their first several games were filled and they were going "full speed ahead" with play.[4]
In The November–December 1991 issue of Paper Mayhem magazine, David Pitzer reviewed the game's "Second Cycle of Magic"—the newest scenario at the time. He offered two advantages to this version: (1) all players would be experienced, and (2) updates to the world's history and changes to the various kingdoms.[5]
In 2013–2015 the game underwent another redesign, this time to "The 3rd Cycle: The Choosing." This redesign adjusted aspects of the kingdoms and doubled their number to 24. The publisher also made changes to the formatting of the game interface, order entry forms, and turn results, as well as introducing a mini-dueling game within the broader Alamaze game.[6]
By 2017, Alamaze was no longer a purely play-by-mail game; Rick McDowell described it as both a "fantasy adventure war-game" and a "turn based, multi-player campaign styled game ... in the grand tradition of text based PBEM gaming".[7] Additionally, each games comprised 12 players, versus the previous 15.[7]
In February 2019, Alamaze.co released Alamaze 4th Cycle: Maelstrom which enables "[p]lay on the new world of Maelstrom, with 13 regions".[8]
Gameplay
According to reviewer David Pitzer, Alamaze is "a competition set in a fantastic realm where fifteen players battle to achieve victory".[5] Each player controls one of eighteen possible kingdoms: Barbarian, Darkelven, Dragon, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Halfling, Nomadic, Paladin, Ranger, Swampmen, Underworld, Urik, Warlock, Sorcerer, Westmen, and Witchlord.[3] The inhabitants of each kingdom each have different advantages and each has a special victory condition.[2]
Leaders: lead the military groups. As they progress in levels, they confer increasing bonuses to the group's strength
Wizards: The only wielders of magic in the game. Each kingdom has a fixed number of wizards; their maximum level varies from kingdom to kingdom.
All these various characters can advance in levels except the troops.
The game is played out on a 26 x 26 grid map, 676 squares of various types of terrain such as forest, mountains and cities, all of which have an effect on both movement and combat. Each player only has a rough idea of what the map contains, and must explore it, square by square, to uncover the locations of special items and other kingdoms.[2]
Meet the specific victory condition given to your kingdom
Have the greatest number of status points at the end of Turn 40.
Players can only write a number of orders each turn equal to their king's Influence, which starts at 12–15, depending on the kingdom. This can increase or decrease depending on actions of the player and his opponents. If the player is able to win a seat on the five-member High Council, the king's Influence increases by 1. However, each king hides three secrets. If any of these are discovered by another player and revealed, the king loses Influence, and if a member of the High Council, is removed from it.[2]
Each kingdom can have a maximum of four military groups, which can be composed of archers, cavalry, infantry, leaders and wizards. These military groups have 20 movement points per turn, but this is affected by terrain, and each kingdom has advantages and disadvantages in certain types of terrain.[2]
Players must pay their followers and feed their citizenry in order to accomplish anything. For example, it costs 6,000 gold to use a prince emissary. The money and food comes from human habitations: village produce a little gold and a lot of food; towns produce more gold than food; cities produce a lot of gold, but cost food rather than produce it. In the three months of the winter, gold production is halved and food production is 25% of normal.[2]
Other possible orders for player included trading surpluses of food or gold with other kingdoms, searching for artifacts, or having a wizard cast spells. (Each spellcasting has a cost dependent on the level of the spell.)[2]
Reception
Bill Flad provided an early review in the July–August 1986 issue of Paper Mayhem, listing ten reasons why he preferred Alamaze "to the more standard fare", ranging from computer moderation to its challenging, nonrigid gameplay.[9] In the March 1988 edition of Dragon (Issue 131), Michael Gray enjoyed the game, calling it "a treat". Gray liked the computer moderation, and the priority number of each possible order. He did have issues with the high-level spells he was given, finding them underpowered. Gray also didn't like the fact that "an enemy player can hit and run before you can catch him. For example, an enemy group can show up at one of my towns on one turn, then attack the town on the next turn, capture it, and move away before I can catch it. I can use an agent to find out where the group went, but unless I am lucky, it can always stay one jump ahead of me." Gray also found $6 per turn to be very high for a game that might last as long as 40 turns, and warned that players would have to spend a lot of time (and possibly a lot of money on long-distance charges) in order to coordinate with other players. However, overall, he highly recommended the game.[2]
Reviewer Jim Townsend stated in White Wolf Magazine in 1988 that "Alamaze is possibly the finest PBM game in existence", noting that it was "the most innovative design since the first PBM game emerged".[10] Townsend noted at the time that even though the game still had significant issues, and experienced players had "a MASSIVE advantage" over novices, Alamaze "should still be tried by anyone who considers [themselves] a real gamer".[10]
In his 1991 review, Pitzer noted that, "I have never spoken to a PBM player who thought that the award winning Alamaze was anything less than a spectacular game."[11] He also noted that many "became dismayed" with Pegasus Productions' service-related issues in how they ran and managed the game at the time. Pitzer noted that following the company's move [in 1991] from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Waynesville, NC, the issues had largely been resolved.[12]
Stewart Wieck reviewed the game in 1991 in White Wolf No. 21, stating that "Alamaze is the best fantasy PBM game I have ever played, and if not for a few problems with the program itself and a slightly erratic turn-around time, Alamaze would win my highest rating".[13] Wieck gave Alamaze an overall rating of 4 out of a possible 5.[13]
Awards
Alamaze was awarded the Origins Award for "Best Play-by-Mail Game of 1987".[14] Also in 1987, Alamaze tied for first place with Hyborian War for Best PBM Game of 1987 in Paper Mayhem, a magazine for play-by-mail gamers.[15] In 1989, Alamaze tied for second place for Best PBM Game of 1989 with Kings & Things* in Paper Mayhem magazine.[16]
A play-by-mail game is a game played through postal mail, email or other digital media. Correspondence chess and Go were among the first PBM games. Diplomacy has been played by mail since 1963, introducing a multi-player aspect to PBM games. Flying Buffalo Inc. pioneered the first commercially available PBM game in 1970. A small number of PBM companies followed in the 1970s, with an explosion of hundreds of startup PBM companies in the 1980s at the peak of PBM gaming popularity, many of them small hobby companies—more than 90 percent of which eventually folded. A number of independent PBM magazines also started in the 1980s, including The Nuts & Bolts of PBM, Gaming Universal, Paper Mayhem and Flagship. These magazines eventually went out of print, replaced in the 21st century by the online PBM journal Suspense and Decision.
Starweb is a closed-end, space-based, play-by-mail (PBM) game. First published by Flying Buffalo Inc. in 1976, it was the company's second PBM game after Nuclear Destruction, the game that started the PBM industry in 1970. Players today can choose a postal mail or email format. Fifteen players per game assume one of six available roles and explore and conquer planets within a universe comprising 225 worlds. The object of the game is to attain a predetermined number of points which are generated by various actions during gameplay. Multiple game variants are available. Starweb is still available for play as of 2021 through the company Rick Loomis PBM Games.
Legends is a turn-based, role-playing game with a medieval setting. It is currently published in English by Harlequin Games. Jim Landes—owner of Midnight Games, the game's first publisher—began developing the game in 1984, eventually publishing it in December 1989 as a play-by-mail (PBM) game after over a year of playtesting. The initial game comprised a module and game system built on the publisher's existing game, Epic, and was run briefly as Swords of Pelarn before publication as Legends. The first of multiple game modules was Crown of Avalon, which allowed up to 200 players per game. Demand by 1991 was "incredible" according to Bruce R. Daniel in White Wolf. Games could be lengthy, initially between three and ten years of play, settling into an average of three years by 2002.
Heroic Fantasy is a computer-moderated, dungeon crawl play-by-mail game. It has been active since 1982 when it was published by Flying Buffalo. The initial edition involved nine dungeon levels. Flying Buffalo published subsequent editions due to challenging gameplay initially, eventually limiting the game to four dungeon levels with a fifth outdoors level where players can assemble an army and capture one or more castles. The game is open-ended; gameplay continues until players decide to stop.
Hyborian War is a play-by-mail game published by Reality Simulations, Inc. It takes place during the Hyborian Age in the world of Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard. The game has been continuously available for worldwide play since its inception in 1985 and has changed little in its overall format. It uses a computer program to adjudicate player orders. Although it relies on postal mail or email and has turnaround times which are relatively long for the digital age of video games, Hyborian War has remained active into the 21st century.
Warp Force Empires is a play-by-mail game that was published by Emprise Game Systems. The game was previously called Warp Force One, but renamed in 1984 by its publisher.
Space Combat is a play-by-mail game that was published by Twin Engine Gaming. It was computer moderated.
Midgard is an open-end, medieval fantasy play-by-mail game. It was published in 1984 by Time Space Simulations. Through 1996, the game passed through more than four different publishers, including Midgard USA. As of 2022, Talisman Games is the publisher. At initial publication, Midgard was computer moderated with partial human moderation.
Kings & Things was a computer moderated fantasy play-by-mail game published by Andon Games that was active in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the game, up to twenty players took the role of leader of a kingdom and recruited "things" or creatures to assist them in becoming the next emperor. Combat, diplomacy, and magic played significant roles in this fantasy role-playing game. Reception was generally positive, although there were comments about cumbersome turn results during the late 1980s. The game enjoyed peak reviews and ratings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, winning the Origins Award for best play-by-mail game in 1988.
Conquest is a play-by-mail game that was published by Earnshaw Enterprises.
Lords of the Earth (LOTE) is a play-by-email game, first published by Thomas Harlan in 1983 during a growing era of PBM games. Initially played by postal mail, the game featured mixed moderation—computer moderated with some human assistance. By 2002, the publisher processed turns by email (PBeM). Lords of the Earth comprises multiple campaigns, each one a separate game. Campaign 1 is the oldest, set in the mid-1800s in the "Age of Air and Steam". Other campaigns begin from 2000 BCE to 1400 CE. Settings were global in scale, with one campaign featuring an outer space setting.
Galac-Tac is a closed-end, science fiction, play-by-mail (PBM) wargame. It was first published by Phoenix Publications in 1982. By 1990, the publisher had changed its name to Delta Games, and then later to Talisman Games. In 2010, Talisman Games changed ownership and transitioned Galac-Tac to a web-based game. It is still available for play by postal mail or email for those with web access challenges. The game has been updated as well as reviewed multiple times in its 40 years of active play. Various reviews in the 1980s and 1990s provided both positive and negative comments as well as potential areas for the game to improve. The game has been featured numerous times in the modern PBM magazine, Suspense & Decision.
Victory! The Battle for Europe is a closed-end, military strategy, play-by-mail (PBM) wargame. The game was first published by Rolling Thunder Games, Inc. in 1991 after a period of initial growth in the PBM industry. The game centers on Europe while including parts of North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, and Canada. Forty players start each game with equal resources among countries, although geography causes differences between starting positions. Games last for about three years each. The game received positive reviews and rankings in the PBM magazine Paper Mayhem in the 1990s, including tying for second place in its Best PBM Game of 1995 list.
Company Commander is a play-by-mail wargame initially published by Schubel & Son in the 1980s. Jason Oats Games is the current publisher.
Quest is an open-end, fantasy, play-by-mail (PBM) role-playing game. Initially released in the United Kingdom in 1991, by Adventures by Mail, it later became available for play in the United States, Australia, and other countries in Europe. The game has a First and Second Age, initially comprising about twenty worlds of up to 1,000 parties controlled by players. After the year 2000, the worlds consolidated into four. The current publisher is KJC Games.
The Land of Karrus is a closed-end, computer moderated play-by-mail (PBM) game. It was published by Paper Tigers of Glendora, CA.
Odyssey is a heroic fantasy, play-by-mail (PBM) game.
Epic is a computer-moderated, fantasy play-by-mail (PBM) game.
Earthwood is a closed-ended, computer moderated, play-by-mail (PBM) fantasy wargame.
Townsend, Jim (December 1988). "The PBM Corner". White Wolf. No.13. p.50.
Townsend, Jim; Milliken, Chris; Bond, Chris (July–August 1987). "All You Ever Wanted to Know About Team Play in Alamaze". Paper Mayhem. No.25. pp.34–35.
Townsend, Jim; Milliken, Chris; Bond, Chris (September–October 1987). "All You Ever Wanted to Know About Team Play in Alamaze: Part II". Paper Mayhem. No.26. p.26.
Wieck, Stewart (June–July 1991). "Play-By-Mail Game Reviews: Alamaze". White Wolf Magazine. No.21. p.20.
Youellis, Kevin C. (July–August 1993). "Battle and Alamaze". Paper Mayhem. No.61. p.31.
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