Consimnet

New email list and email dice server

Author: jmccann

Date: March 21 2005

I have set up a mail list at consimnet, consimnet-l@mccanns-online.com. Archives are not yet online but the posts are saved and will be put into online form at some point (if I had known how icky majordomo was before setting up the lists, I would have used something else).

I have also set up a dice server for email play. You access it by sending email to dice@mccanns-online.com. It is just a basic dice server where you send text with dice specs interspersed, and it replaces the dice specs with the requested random numbers. dice@pbm.com has always bugged me because I can never remember their syntax (when it is even working). So the server uses the commonly used "3d6" format.

A simple example looks like this:

The dice you can roll are [d4 d6 d8 d12 d20].

One bracketed set of dice specs per row only.

What comes back:

The dice you can roll are [2 1 6 8 2].

One bracketed set of dice specs per row only.


### begin die roller summary ###
 Roll    # rolls  # sides      add      raw  raw+add
    1          1        4        0        2        2
    2          1        6        0        1        1
    3          1        8        0        6        6
    4          1       12        0        8        8
    5          1       20        0        2        2
total dice rolls: 5
### end die roller summary ###

PBEM services at Consimnet

Author: jmccann

Date: February 18 2005

I think the first area we should focus on is PBEM, providing "one-stop shopping" for all your PBEM needs. I have already mentioned a dice server and sealed envelopes. A "double-blind" registry that lets players indicate the positions of their units, telling them only of any locations where both sides have units present, is another service that could be provided. Walt also brings up a couple of ideas, ladders and tournaments, and having a place for people to store files - ADC, cyberboard, whatever. Both are great ideas and I think should be implemented. A ladder he points to as an example is here.

One problem I have with PBEM is losing track of files and what sequence they should be in. Hosting at CSN could take care of that problem, and we could provide an address which would essentially be a "mailing list" for the PBEM game. The mail would be broadcast to all players, and a web archive could be automatically generated with all files, die rolls etc. in chronological order. Care would have to be taken to keep enthusiastic players from filling up the hard disk. How big is a typical Cyberboard file?

Probably because I work in the web services department of Amazon, I am always thinking about web services, and all of the things I mention would be implemented as web services as well.

Here is a more detailed list of PBEM services:

• Dice Server - This would have a pbm.com compatible mode for convenience
• Sealed envelopes - send out a hash of text, then when text is revealed, the hash is checked against the text
• Double blind
• Ladders and tournaments, leagues etc. - allow easy creation of web pages for organized play
• Game pages with history

Announcing Consimnet

Author: jmccann

Date: February 15 2005

Now that I have DSL at home, one of the things I want to do is to promote consim gaming (defined pretty broadly) over the internet. I know this means supporting PBEM, web and other kinds of online play. What else it means I am not quite sure of. I have been working with Stephan Beal on a project for years now called Universal Gameplay Protocol for playing any game over the internet and would like this site to be a repository for UGP.

I'd like to hear what others would like to see in a site devoted to consim gaming. I anticipate providing basic services like limited email services for free, and charging for more resource intensive services like hosting games. I don't want to duplicate an existing site like Web-Grognards or Consimworld. Instead I want to promote new ways of using the internet for consim gaming. Part of the purpose of early discussions here is to figure out what the best ways I can promote consim gaming over the internet are.

Here are some of the ideas I have so far:

• PBEM Services: dice rolling, sealed envelopes. Eventually game history and other similar services, along w/ other new services.
• Web server for games: PHP/ Perl based online gaming, email servers
• Interoperable PBEM applications: currently there are a number of non-interoperable PBEM apps - Aide de Camp, Cyberboard + others - but they are of no use to anyone not running Windows. An open specification for sharing game state would permit many new applications to be written
• Game design - I have a number of designs I am working on and I'd like to discuss them here
• Web services - I have some ideas for running web services for wargamers. Think about a way to integrate data sources from all over the web into one location, configurable by the user.
• ????? I am sure there are a lot of things I have not thought of yet. I'd like to hear the ideas of others

Go ahead and post any ideas you have here. I'll be posting more details in the days and weeks ahead.