# Have you ever played D&D PBM? What was it like?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-played-d-d-pbm-what-was-it-like/577180>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [April 4, 2011, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-played-d-d-pbm-what-was-it-like/577180 "2011-04-04T19:31:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-played-d-d-pbm-what-was-it-like/577180/1 "2011-04-04T19:31:50Z")

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Back in Ye Olde Tymes, there was a growing trend to play D&D by mail. Not e-mail, as Al Gore had not yet invented the Internet. This was played by US mail, or maybe international mail.

Moves took the form of not less than two and not more than seven sheets of paper, single spaced, plus two dollars – or something like that. Moves were due in two weeks, and you had to wait four to six weeks for the DM to mail back the results.

It seemed really slow and painful, and I decided it wasn’t for me.

Has anyone played this?

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-played-d-d-pbm-what-was-it-like/577180/2 "2011-04-04T20:36:20Z")

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Never did it. When I first started playing D&D (early 80s), I remember ads in _Dragon_ for various PBM games, but I don’t recall those being RPG-type games; IIRC, most of those were turn-based strategy games.

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**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-played-d-d-pbm-what-was-it-like/577180/3 "2011-04-04T20:47:41Z")

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Oh, is that what they were? That would make more sense.

Maybe it was because they were in Dragon that I thought they were RPGs.

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-played-d-d-pbm-what-was-it-like/577180/4 "2011-04-04T21:47:16Z")

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> [@tdn](#):
>
> Maybe it was because they were in Dragon that I thought they were RPGs.

Back then, while _Dragon_ definitely had a focus on D&D, it did have a certain level of support for other RPGs, and other games in general. And, there wouldn’t have been any better magazine for reaching gaming geeks.

ISTR that we had a thread here within the past year or so talking about PBM, and it was mentioned that one of those games from that era is still going on today. :eek:

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**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-played-d-d-pbm-what-was-it-like/577180/5 "2011-04-05T02:31:39Z")

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> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> ISTR that we had a thread here within the past year or so talking about PBM, and it was mentioned that one of those games from that era is still going on today. :eek:

Oh my. I hope that some participants have kissed girls in that very long time.