To Boldly Go

To Boldly Go (commonly known as TBG) is a free open-ended science fiction play-by-web turn-based strategy game. Although most of this text-based space simulation game has a hard SF look, the treatment of very advanced aliens as deities and the use of spells adds a fantasy element. Also referred to as a space opera, it's a game of exploration, combat, trade, adventure, learning, acquisition and diplomacy.

Jeremy Maiden is the designer and original gamemaster of TBG, which started as a 25 person playtest in 1997. Since then, the "playtest" has taken on more-or-less permanent status -- over 1,600 turns played -- and the game's capacity is now 199 players. Although the name and some in-game chrome evoke a Star Trek philosophy/feel, TBG is not a Star Trek game.

To Boldly Go was voted one of the "Top 10 PBEM games of 1999" by PBeM Base International.

Overview

Each new player is a starship captain, given an old and failing ship by a group of mysterious aliens ("the Great Old Ones") with which to make a name for themselves. The starship comes with four inexperienced officers, no crew, and is made of primitive demo modules carrying just $500 units of energy (with energy functioning as money). Play begins in a star system containing an alien homeworld and other useful locations.

Because demo modules decay rapidly, players must find non-demo replacements fairly quickly (especially a warp drive, which is essential for most movement). Modules of various tech-levels can be acquired by purchasing them from shops, successfully completing adventures, trading with player-ships, or attacking other ships (either aliens or players).

Local space is a cluster of a hundred stars or so, containing about fifteen hundred assorted locations of interest: any other stars aren't accessible yet. A typical turn consists of having the four officers do things (for example, the science officer might go netrunning in the old Empire's computers while the weaponry officer hunts criminals, the medical officer researches medicine, and the engineer raises cash by asteroid mining), exploring for hidden opportunities, possibly a battle with another player or alien, and often ends with a jump to a different star for the following turn's adventures.

Interacting with other players and learning the various alliance connections and "social customs" (e.g., the less powerful ship is usually expected to hail the more powerful ship) is a significant part of TBG, and a key to maximizing ship development. While the TBG turn mechanism supports an anonymous ship-to-ship mail system and a turnly public newsletter, large amounts of diplomacy occurs via e-mail. Communications originate from a multitude of diverse forums -- both public and private [http://www.remtech.org/ScAvenger/#MailinglistsAndForums mailing lists] -- as well as direct mails to allies (to plot strategy) and adversaries (for the clever to sow confusion and discord).

Players choose their own goals and play until achieving them, or until some disaster -- often in the shape of another player -- destroys their position. New positions are usually available within a week of passing a short proficiency test (to ensure players understand a few key rules and are "serious" about playing).

Turns process three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at noon Pacific time), with ship and officer actions selected using a web form. Here's an example turn.

Defining Characteristics of TBG as a Game

TBG is is a single viewpoint game rather than a space empire game. Players control a single ship. Fleets are possible only through alliances with other players and bases do not exist except in the most ephemeral sense. The game has a single simplistic universal economy.

TBG is a social game. It is possible to play the game as a wargame with limited success. Game features such as power sorting and deliberately non-decisive combat limit the frequency with which players meet mis-matched opponents and the damage possible when that does occur. Role playing is common in player-to-player communications, but it is not directly supported by the game. Trading within the simple economy is the main strategic element for many players. Trade and combat are not mutually exclusive, but the trade-offs involved are an integral part of the playing experience and a significant part of the social structure within the player base. Large empires (or perhaps more accurately, large player-factions/alliances) are possible, but, with each player being limited to one ship, such empires must be controlled by diplomacy rather as direct empire building functions are deliberately absent from the game in order to promote the social aspects.

TBG is visually unimpressive. Aside from the starmap and player-created ship flags, the game uses a combination of text and tables to impart information. This minimalist approach is in keeping with its creative roots in play-by-mail games such as Diplomacy. That said, player-run alliances and information sharing groups have created some rather sophisticated mapping, tracking and database systems to enhance gameplay.

TBG is intended to be an open-ended game, meaning that there are no victory conditions - only relative achievements. Ship development is gradual with most player organizations citing 100 turns (33 weeks of play) as a significant milestone in maturity. The game mechanics scale in diffiulty with ship development and player-written utilities make orders easier to enter, but the official documentation is more accurate about recently added features than it is about mechanisms implemented prior to 2007. Player written guides and tutorials supplement the official rules. The nature of the documentation and the long term scope of the game make it more rewarding for those intending to play over an extended period of time.

Technical notes & development history

TBGs code is about 15,000 lines of C programming language. The game is playable with all known web browsers, even including MSN TV (formerly WebTV).

TBG was originally intended as a demo for a commercial game, but the for-profit approach was eventually dropped as unworkable. Plans for a more sophisticated TBG-2 were discussed as early as 1998, getting so far as the testing of various components and (in 2002) a prototype game implemented in nesh (cleverly called "TNG" by some). However, the inherent limitations of nesh led to a new effort using nesh-2/sash, referred to as TBG-2004 (and later TBG-2005), which stalled after a number of small sub-games, utilities and toys were produced. In August 2005, a small development team tried again, this time using the Ruby programming language, under the project name TBG_200X. Although this effort produced a ship modelling demo, there ultimately were not enough programmers interested in developing the game in Ruby.

In 2007, the TBG_200X project was revived with Perl as the programming language. A radically different user interface and turn-resolution process are currently invisioned and in the very early development stages.

For many years TBG resided on the same server as Rich Skrenta's Olympia and Shadow Island Games, but it has been hosted independently since 2005. Due in part to the on-again off-again work on TBG-2004/2005/200X, there were no major design changes to TBG from 2004 to 2006, although bugs were still found and dealt with from time to time. In March 2007, Eric Moore took over as the gamemaster, and various game enhancements are again being implemented.

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