Starlord (play-by-mail game)

Starlord is a play-by-mail game that was designed and moderated by Mike Singleton.

Gameplay

Starlord was a play-by-mail computer-moderated game based on a 1977 board game of the same name invented by Gary Bedrosian and Lee Elmendorf. The game depicts a galactic empire on the decline, in a 1000-star galaxy, in which 50 players take the part of "starlords" trying to become emperor by conquering the Throne Star.[1]

Mike Singleton moderated Starlord using his PET.[2]

Reception

W.G. Armintrout reviewed Starlord in The Space Gamer No. 49.[1] Armintrout commented that "In my opinion, Starlord is one of the top five PBM games going. I highly recommend it to all gamers, even those who have never yet tried this type of game."[1]

In the April 1983 edition of Dragon (Issue 72), Michael Gray stated "A player who becomes Emperor early in a game, and is then dethroned and eliminated, may still win the game by accumulating lots of points during his or her reign. But with 50 players per game, Starlord could take many years to complete."[3]

W.G. Armintrout reviewed Starlord again in The Space Gamer No. 63.[4] Armintrout commented that "Starlord continues to receive my highest recommendation – a masterpiece of game design, ridiculously easy to play yet moderately challenging. Those who have never tried PBM could start here. I have only two quibbles: You can't choose your player name (you are named after your Base Star), and the map should have a circular frame."[4]

gollark: Muahaha, preëmpted.
gollark: You have to replace / with //.
gollark: A more flexible approach would be to offer some sort of webhook-type API, actually.
gollark: The obvious solution is to have an option to submit a neural network to emulate the user.
gollark: Actually, Esobot should have a general command delay mechanism.

References
  1. Armintrout, W.G. (March 1982). "Featured Review: Starlord". The Space Gamer. Steve Jackson Games (49): 12–13.
  2. "» Mike Singleton and The Lords of Midnight The Digital Antiquarian". Filfre.net. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  3. Gray, Michael (April 1983). "The PBM scene: Facts you can use when YOU choose what game to play". Dragon. TSR, Inc. (72): 31.
  4. Armintrout, W.G. (May–June 1983). "Star Mail: Three New PBM Space Games". The Space Gamer. Steve Jackson Games (63): 6–8.
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