Notes from Hades

I
hope the holidays treated you all well. I was able to take some time off, but before that, I had a short trip to Stockholm. I've enjoyed my past trips to Stockholm, and this was no exception, despite the fact that the weather was overcast and daylight extended only from about 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. Our host treated us to an authentic Swedish yulebord (a holiday smörgåsbord) which was quite tasty. They had herring prepared in about 40 different ways, as well as salmon, various cold meats and sausages (including reindeer), meatballs, potato dishes, and an assortment of desserts.

Our Christmas was a nice, quiet affair at home – the best kind. The boys enjoyed their presents, and Celeste and I just enjoyed being at home and not needing to go anywhere.

In other news, you are probably already aware of the changes to the web site. Essentially, this started when Time Warner changed their home page offerings – I could keep the same kind of service as I had before (where I design the pages offline, and upload them to the site), but I was limited to 10 MB of space. I had been running about 50MB, so that wasn't going to work. The second offering allowed me the space I needed, but you had to design your pages using the online tools they provided, meaning I would have to redesign the site from scratch. Not acceptable. There are free hosting sites available, but they force you to accept banner advertising, and some of those ads were simply obnoxious. So, I went ahead and paid for web hosting. It's not much on an annual basis, but it does increase my costs, and I'm still trying to figure out how I am going to deal with this fact. I am leaning toward charging game fees, but I have not decided yet. I would welcome your input.

Finally, Hound, the Outpost game, completed this issue. Congratulations to Eric Brosius on his second Outpost victory in this zine. That also opens up another game slot, so next issue we will start Husky, the Power Grid game.

The next deadline is Tuesday, February 24 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Please do not call or fax orders after 10:00 p.m. Pacific time. My wife and I tend to retire early. Also, if you want to fax in orders, call first. We hang up on unannounced faxes.

Game Openings

Frontier Dog. Gunslinger .Scenario to be determined. Have Paul Bolduc, Chris Geggus, Mike Scott, and Andy Lewis, will take up to 3 more.

Pateel. Kremlin. Will start after Flea Collar ends. Have Ward Narhi, Mike Scott, Bill Scharf, Bob Robles, and Pasquale Giovine, will take up to 1 more.

Hunter. Silverton. Will start after Terrier ends. Have Dave Partridge, Michael Longdin, Ward Narhi, Cary Nichols, Bill Scharf, and Dave Hooton. This game is full.

Procyon. Merchant of Venus. Have Dave Partridge, Bob Robles, Chris Geggus, Dennis Cain, and Andy Lewis, will take up to 1 more.

Husky. Power Grid. Have Andy York, Michael Longdin, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, and Brad Martin, will take up to 1 more. Starts next issue!

Dogbreath. History of the World. Have Chris Geggus, Dave Partridge, and Andy Lewis, will take up to 4 more.

Basset. Outpost. Will start after Hound ends. Have Andy York, Cary Nighols, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, Eric Brosius, Andy Lewis, and Michael Lowrey, will take up to 3 more.

Bolognese. Machiavelli. Gunboat. This game will start after the next Machiavelli game ends. Have 5, will take up to 3 more.

Wish List

Industrial Waste. Have Andy York and Dave Partridge, will take up to 2 more.

Machiavelli. This game will start after the second Machiavelli game ends. Have Ward Narhi, Bob Robles, Pasquale Giovine, and Dave Partridge, will take up to 4 more.

New World. This will use the exploration variant, plus the Non-Player Nations variant in the event I get less than 6 players. Have Andy York, Andy Lewis, and Dave Partridge, will take up to 3 more.

Silverton. Will start after Hunter ends. Have Eric Brosius, will take up to 5 more.

In general, game ownership is recommended, but not required.

Note that a subscription to S.O.B. is not required to play in a game run by flier, but that a game fee will be charged to non-subbers.

S.O.B. is a zine of unusual postal games, and anything else I feel like including. Your publisher is:

Chris Hassler a.k.a. Cerberus

2000 S. Armour Court

La Habra, CA 90631

Phone: (562) 690-7827

Fax: (562) 690-7827

chassler@roadrunner.com

Subscriptions cost $2.00 per issue ($3.00 overseas). Web subscription is free.