Heroic Fantasy

Heroic Fantasy is a computer-moderated, dungeon crawl play-by-mail game, played by sending in orders and receiving printed or emailed turn results. It has been active since 1982, when Flying Buffalo published it, and it is now published by Rick Loomis PBM Games, who offer it by postal mail or email. The first edition had nine dungeon levels, but because the play was demanding the later editions limited the game to four dungeon levels plus a fifth outdoor level, where players can assemble an army and capture one or more castles. The game is open-ended, so play continues until the players decide to stop. A player can create a party of up to fifteen characters of various races, who may be fighters or magic users with a range of spells, and the party meets non-player characters, fights monsters for experience points and collects treasure. In 2011 it won the Origins Award for Best Play by Mail or Correspondence Game.