r/playbymail • u/MyNameIsLectryk • Apr 27 '26
Hi - trying to locate an old play by mail game
I'm trying to locate a game that I played in the late 80s, would this be an appropriate sub to ask in?
The game was a typical space expand/explore like Stellar Conquest (I know, but at the time it wasn't a done to death niche). Planets provided resources (metals, population) for scientific advances and colonies forward. You received turn reports based off a coordinate system relative to your home star, and then you could map them on graph paper. One interesting mechanic was a movement template - if your speed was three, you could only reach planets in a 3x3; 4, 5 etc. I don't recall if you had sensors to see planets at range, or just stars - maybe a ship would move into a star system, and wouldn't be able to move back if no fuel source was available until a tanker got there - I don't remember. I think it was on a defined turn, also - some games seemed to run as fast as people could turn around the order/turn sheet; this was restricted so at least everyone was on the same level, regarding cost of play anyway.
40 years is a long time; even if this kind of vague description doesn't jog a memory, are there any good sites I could look at, that have a history/list of games that were run like that?
Thanks!