Lords Of Valetia
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''Lords of Valetia'' is a 1977 fantasy, role-playing
play-by-mail A play-by-mail game (also known as a PBM game, PBEM game, or a turn-based game) is a game played through postal mail, email or other digital media. Correspondence chess and Go were among the first PBM games. ''Diplomacy'' has been played by m ...
(PBM) game published by RB&B Design Operations, Inc.


History

In a 1984 issue of ''
Gaming Universal ''Gaming Universal'' (or ''PBM Universal'') was a magazine dedicated to play-by-mail games. The magazine was published between 1983 and 1988, in two separate print runs with Bob McLain as editor of both editions. Its first print run was publishe ...
'', Steve Jackson said that ''Lords of Valetia'' was "the most spectacular PBM fiasco in history" related to the issue of short-lived PBM companies of the period.
Rick Loomis Rick Loomis (August 24, 1946 – August 23, 2019) was an American game designer, most notable as the founder of game publisher Flying Buffalo, which he managed until his death. Career Early years Richard F. Loomis was born and raised in Scotts ...
echoed this idea, noting that this was "the most notorious of the disappearing companies". According to Loomis, the first moderator "was running the whole thing in between college classes". He stated that the game reportedly had more than 1,000 paid players at the outset. After some delays, game ownership changed and the game ran briefly before additional delays and another ownership change. Financial challenges then caused the game's collapse.


Gameplay

''Lords of Valetia'' was a fantasy role-playing PBM game run by subscription. The hand-moderated game was based on ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
''.


Reception

Brian Esterson reviewed ''Lords of Valetia'' in ''
The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...
'' No. 15. Esterson commented that "In all, the game shows thought and imagination. ..Very little information, aside from the rules, is given to you at first. You learn about the land and the creatures in it as you explore."


See also

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List of play-by-mail games This is a list of play-by-mail (PBM) games. It includes games played only by postal mail, those played by mail with a play-by-email (PBEM) option, and games played in a turn-based format only by email or other digital format. It is unclear what ...


References

{{Play-by-mail games 20th-century role-playing games American games American role-playing games Dungeon crawler board games Dungeon management games Fantasy role-playing games Heroic fantasy Graphical MUDs MUD games Multi-user dungeon Multiplayer games Play-by-mail games Role-playing games introduced in 1984 Role-playing games introduced in the 1980s Strategy games Sword and sorcery Tabletop games