ABOUT THIS GAME

My name is Steven Murphy. I test software for a living in Austin, Texas, which means I spend my days finding out what happens when people do the wrong thing, and my evenings finding out what happens when eleven people try to take over a galaxy. The second job is more fun and pays worse.

VGA Planets is Tim Wisseman's shareware game of galactic conquest. Eleven races, each with their own ships and their own tricks, start on separate home worlds in a cluster of unclaimed planets. You colonize, you mine, you build starships, you make friends, and then, eventually, you stop being friends. Turns are played by mail: each player gives orders on his own computer, sends them to the host, and the host program works out what happens to everybody at once.

I'm the host. I don't play. I run the host program, keep the schedule, answer questions, settle disputes, and publish the Gazette. I have been running PBEM games since 1996 and this is my third VGA Planets game. It is the best group I have had.

TURN SCHEDULE

The host runs every Monday and Thursday at 10:00 PM Central. Your turn file must be in my mailbox before then. Results go out by e-mail within an hour, usually less.

If your turn isn't in when the host runs, the host runs without you. Your ships keep doing whatever they were last told to do and your planets keep doing what they were doing. Nobody waits, and nobody gets a re-run, including me.

Turn 1 ran on Monday, February 15, 1999, and the host has run every Monday and Thursday since. Thanksgiving week, the Thursday run moves to Wednesday night. I'll post it here and in the Gazette.

THE PLAYERS

Players are listed by race number and e-mail handle. Real names and addresses are kept private. If you need to reach another player, write to them through their handle or ask me to forward.

The Rebels' original player missed turns 34 and 35 after a move and a dead hard drive. Under the house rules, tumbleweed took over at turn 36 from the standby list. He inherited twelve planets and a lot of enemies, and he has kept both.

HOUSE RULES

1. One race per person. One player, one race, one e-mail address. No second accounts, no running a race for a friend, no "my brother is playing the Robots." If I find out, both races go to the standby list.

2. Alliances are announced in the Gazette. You can talk to anyone about anything in private. But if you make a formal alliance, both sides send me a short notice and it runs in the next Gazette. Breaking one is your business, but the other side is welcome to announce that too.

3. Miss two turns in a row and a replacement steps in. One missed turn happens to everybody. Two in a row means you're gone, and your race goes to the next name on the standby list. If you're going to be away, tell me ahead of time and I'll hold your race for up to two weeks, once per game.

4. Don't touch the files. Use the regular client, Winplan or DOS, and the regular utilities. No editing result files, no sharing your result file with anyone, no sharing your password. Tell me about bugs instead of using them.

5. The host is final. If something looks wrong in your results, tell me within 24 hours and I'll look at it. If I made a mistake I'll fix it and say so in the Gazette. If the program did what the program does, that's the game.

6. The game ends when one player or one announced alliance holds half of the occupied planets, or after turn 120, when the highest score wins. At two turns a week, turn 120 comes around next April.

7. Register your copy if you can. Shareware players are welcome. But Tim Wisseman made a great game, and he should be paid for it.

SCORES AFTER TURN 64

PLAN = planets, BASE = starbases, WAR = warships, FRT = freighters. The score I publish counts 10 for each planet and each warship, 120 for each starbase and 1 for each freighter, so that you can check my arithmetic. It is not the whole story. The Privateers own very little and steal a great deal, and they are nobody's idea of a pushover at 646 points.

The Lizards have led since turn 51. Everybody has noticed. See the Gazette.

WANT IN?

The Echo Cluster is full, but I keep a standby list for replacements and I'll start a new game when this one ends. Read the newcomers page first, then write to me. If you like your treachery on a smaller map with no spaceships, Howard Green runs Diplomacy by e-mail for seven players at The Chancery.