Howdy. First time posting here at The Forge. I've done some reading here over the years. Wasn't sure where to put this first post. Thought it should have been under, "Indie Game Design," but that's closed, I think... anyway, hopefully I won't offend.

After a lifetime of playing games and 1/2 a lifetime of monkeying about on the Web, I decided to munge the two fields of interest together and create something, I think, a bit different. A wiki for text-based, RPG and a rule system designed explicitly for such. Having played and enjoyed a bunch of play-by-email and cooperative text games, I thought a wiki would be a great match from a tech standpoint. But I also thought that we could use an RPG that was built from the ground-up on ideas of character and plot, rather than hexes and second-by-second, tactical combat. Not that I don't like that... but while it's great for hexes and live pen-and-paper games, it's not as cool when distributed over time-and-space, and when you're trying to generate "story" rather than combat results.

So. www.PlayByWiki.com. A wiki that can be used to play whatever-the-heck text-based games you'd like. And "Ninth Sigil," the rules system we've worked out (and are still funnin' with) for playing cooperative text games. We're looking for beta test players for both. Having never done this before, we need as many grognards bangin' on the pipes as possible, telling us what works and what doesn't. The gang I game with has been great in helping get it to where it is, but it's to the point where we need a wider group of players and critics. So, I thought of the Forge.

Hope, as I said, that it was OK to post this message here. If not, let me know. I'm honestly looking for serious feedback and as much intelligent, honest criticism as I can find at this point. So... bring on the red ink.

Thanks.

Andy Havens
[email]playbywiki@sanestorm.com[/email]