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+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Howdy. There exists a pbm by Adventures By Mail called Monster Island. Monster Island is a big game. There is room for over 15000 players on a map three times the size of Australia. The US game is run by Adventures By Mail, and can be contacted by mailing to bob@abm.com . There is also a European game run by KJC in England, but I don't know how to contact them... Needless to say, a lot of these players have access to the net. We maintain a loose mailing group, the core of which is the eMonster News newsletter, which I publish. If you play Monster Island, we'd love you to join us. For those unenlightened out there, I will give a brief desription of the game. The basic idea is; You are a monster. Not a vampire or godzilla type, but more like a human, orc, or hobgoblin. You are a member of one of the seven races of Ruk, the mainland. You are an adventurer and explorer, and you set out for the uncharted lands accross the water, only recently discovered. Monsters are bigger, slower, hungrier, less stealthy, better bargainers, thicker skinned, vastly superior yellers, and they regenerate missing limbs. They can carry lots of treasure and have a great sense of humor. Monster Island has a humorous bent -- one Action monsters can take is to issue the NF command: Let loose a Nasty Fart. Monsters have a number of stats, including Muscle, Stealth, Badness, and Toughness. As you become more experienced, your knowledge will increase, you will gain skills with weapons, and you will acquire treasure -- including armor, better weapons, tools, perhaps even a mount. By way of example, here is a summary of Stompin Rocksoul's latest turn... Stompin Rocksoul is a mudwalker (which is a smaller, tricky, greedy sort of monster). He's wandering around in the Jagged Mor North region of the Island, heading northwest toward a Temple of Shroud. Rocksoul worships Shroud, the Dark God, and has achieved Discipe status -- meaning that I'm so evil that Shroud has given me the ability to cast spells. (He hasn't actually gotten a chance to *use* them yet... they include such things as Detect fellow followers and Call Lightning on opponent.) Mudwalkers are better at Stealth, but not quite as Muscular as other races. After 91 turns though, he has really pumped up -- 152 Muscle. Since Rocksoul is a direct sort of guy, he doesn't use his Stealth much -- it's only 46 now. He favors Pole weapons, and currently uses a Smite Pike (class 4 weapon). He uses a Hand Catapult (kind of a slingshot, class 2 missle weapon) and a Swarth Net (defense class 2) rather than a shield. He wears Gator Armor, Iron Gauntlets and Greaves, and a Silver Helm (class 4, 3, 3, and 2 repectivly) and when forced to wrestle, he uses a Silver Knife (class 1). He has extensive weapons skills: level 4 Missle, level 5 Pole, level 4 Bashing, level 3 Pointed, and level 2 Edged. He has no skill at all with Whip right now. He has a little skill at wrestling, but is still no expert. In 13 bouts, he has gained level 13 offense and only level 7 defense, and no tricks (such as flip, or Hungarian Nose Hold) yet. A few of the items he carries are a Tuvian Shovel (for looting graveyards), Torches, a Spyglass, a Voodoo Cauldron and a Large Lockpick. He also has a White Lotus Elixir (which is a healing potion) and several Purple Lotus Elixirs (which cure poison). In his latest turn, he started by arriving at a waterhole, drinking his fill, and then sneakily dumping 20 Scorpoison into it (mwah-ha-ha!) to trip up unwary monsters. (Shroud likes followers who perform evil acts.) Knowing the location of a pair of graveyards (from talking to other players) I spent the turn Looting and Vandalizing! Graveyards are filled with unsavory creatures. In the course of the two graveyards, I had to fight off 3 Tomb Leeches, 4 Carrion Crows, 2 Zombies, a Barkbrute, a Mandibular Crab, and a Spring Spider. (This is exceptional; 12 battles in a turn is sort of a record for me -- the most I've ever heard of is 16.) I didn't find a whole lot of loot; a Damaged Silver Dagger, a pair of Damaged Silver Gauntlets, and 11 Occular Coins. All those battles reduced my health to below 50%, I had a standing order to drink a healing potion in such a case -- it gave me back 18 Health at once. I practiced a bit with my Curved Machete (my only edged weapon right now, only class 1) and Jazzercised to build up my strength a bit more. I set up a Bird Trap before making camp, just on the off chance I can capture a Reptron Bird. (I have the recipie for a Voodoo conconction that requires a live Reptron Bird and jumping into an erupting geyser -- it will increase the toughness of my skin so I won't take as much damage.) So. If this sounds like your sort of game, write to Adventures By Mail, PO Box 436, Cohoes NY 12047-0436. The rules are Free for asking, and a setup and first turn is also Free! Turns are $4.00 each, no extra fees, and can run as fast as once every 10-14 days, or as slow as you want: your monster will stay camped during the rest of the time if you want to play at a leisurly pace. (If you do, tell them you saw a post on INTERNET.) You can also reach them at bob@abm.com . We have a fairly large group of players with INTERNET access (about 140 at this posting) and together we publish an email newsletter for the game. If you are interested in joining us, send me a note at warden@einet.com .