Tangerine Terror
Tangerine Terror is a fanzine for play by mail gamers. What is a play-by-mail fanzine? Dead simple. In today's busy world, it's often difficult for gamers to find face-to-face opponents. One answer is to play games by post. Unfortunately this raises a host of difficult issues, like making sure that all players have the same set-up, can play their turns without the fear of dishonesty, etc. It's not always easy to find opponents either. A play-by-mail (PBM) fanzine (usually abbreviated to zine) overcomes these problems by providing a vehicle for gamers to find opponents and have games refereed impartially. The zine often has a bunch of interesting and uninteresting articles, unashamedly plagiarised humour, and a letter column, so it ends up being a good tool for gamers to communicate.
...and The Tangerine Terror?..
... is (of course) a PBM zine, of dubious quality and no great vintage. It's about games and chat and stuff. I tend to run games that you probably won't see in other zines; other folks can do Railway Rivals and Diplomacy much more smoothly than I ever can. I want to have a go at some of the wargames that are impractical to run face-to-face. I do features on stuff; archaeology, the playoffs, chips, gravy, the gravy train, long hops, Kentish hops, the Red Sox, hot tunes, Looney Tunes, Murdoch's grip on RL, the reverse sweep, Sooty and Sweep. Basically it's whatever you want it to be.
If you want to see a sample copy, just drop me a line (by snail or silicon) and I'll send you whatever is the latest issue. The Tangerine Terror costs a paltry 75p an issue or is even cheaper 50p if you get involved in any of the games. It's probably best if you sign up for a few issues in one go. The actual games are actually free. Bargain huh?!
Howard Bishop
43 Guinions Road
High Wycombe
HP13 7NT
latics@globalnet.co.uk
What games can I play?
I run fairly flexible and eclectic ship. The games are a mixed bag of board and card game conversions and stuff that have fermented in the deep dark recesses of my brain and really should have been left alone. Below is a list of what's being played at the moment. [Webmaster: 2002 moment!]
- Gotopoly - A dubious Monopoly variant about students and their evil landlord uncles
- Zeitgeist - Simultaneous movement chess variant
- Cube Farm - Cheapass card game conversion
- Postal Tennis - Tennis (by post)
- Quebec 1759 - Wolfe v Montcalm (Columbia Games conversion)
- Backpacks And Blisters - Walking in the Lake District (Ragnar Bros conversion)
- One Page Bulge - The Battle Of The Bulge (on one page) (Steve Jackson Games)
- Where In The World Is Kendo Nagasaki - Find the mysterious masked wrestler
- Gravel Kings - Speedway card game (Lambourne Games conversion)
There are also 3 subzines offering all kinds of other stuff, one is run by David Watts (of Railway Rivals fame) so the pedigree is much better than my humble offerings. So what are you waiting for?
Games which haven't started yet:
- Euroliga - European SuperLeague football action
- Cathedral - Classic building placement game (Go meets Big City)
- Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen - A preposterous storytelling game
- Dauntless - PBM version of the Battleline WW2 air combat game
- Origins of WW2 - Avalon Hill game of diplomacy and international power-politics
- Celebrity Weakest Link A game of popularity and offensive voting
- The Far Seas - SPI/S&T game of the hunt for German commerce raiders in WW1
- Going Underground - Abstract financial/strategic game of London Underground operation
- Diamond Dogs - A game about baseball wheeling and dealing (based on Pennant Race )
