Survival/The Barbarian Play By Email Support Page By Walter O'Hara Back to the Play by Email Emporium

This is a two-for-one pocket game published by Task Force Games.  Survival is about the adventures of a crashed astronaut treking across a hostile planet to get to a research station (and safety), and the Barbarian is about the adventures of a noble Barbarian treking across a hostile wilderness in order to find some lost treasures.  Either one of the included games were pretty lightweight by the standards of the time they were released in (the Barbarian was originally a magazine game published in the White Dwarf).  What makes them interesting, however, is that they are very solitaire friendly, so if you ever find yourself in a hotel room with a laptop and not much else to do, you might consider playing this, or Last Frontier: The Vesuvius Incident (Fat Messiah Games), or Intruder (another Task Force Game designed for solitaire play).  

NOTICE: This Gamebox is created using Dale Larson's excellent Play By Email utility, Cyberboard (the poor man's Aide De Camp!)

Visit the Cyberboard website by following this link

SURVIVAL/THE BARBARIAN is copyright, Task Force Games, 1979.

Designer (SURVIVAL): Bob McWilliams

Designer (THE BARBARIAN): Ian Livingstone

Editing/Development: Stephen G. Wilcox & R. Vance Buck

TURN SEQUENCE (SURVIVAL):

• PLAYER MOVE PHASE
• ANIMAL ENCOUNTER DETERMINATION PHASE
• COMBAT PHASE
  • Ranged Fire Subphase
  • Melee Subphase

Note: Even though the combat isn't neccesarily sequential (in melee, you roll until someone is dead), the players don't play the role of animals in this game.  Most of the scenarios revolve around either playing in tandem with another player, or against him.   Therefore, the game can be played in a sequential fashion, with the turn being mailed after melee.

TURN SEQUENCE (The Barbarian):

• BARBARIAN MOVEMENT  PHASE
• BARBARIAN ATTACK PHASE

(send turn)

• CREATURE MOVEMENT PHASE
• CREATURE ATTACK PHASE

The Action

The graphic above illustrates some of the features of this gamebox.  On the left side, Jardine, the hero of the game, gets jumped by some interesting native fauna on his way to the deserted research station.  On the right side, Vaarn the barbarian faces some deep kimchee as he gets ganged up on by Goblins and a Giant.

The Charts

Normally I don't add charts of any kind to a gamebox, but I couldn't see how to play this game without them.  Both games have a charts file included in the gamebox.   The above illustration is from the Survival Game.

Note on a PBeM mechanic: I've added SEARCH? counters to assist in hiding artifacts from yourself in the Barbarian tileset.

Turn Record

Included in the Survival Chart file only.

How to get the files

Download Gamebox:

Game Availability:

Mediocre to Good.  I've found it new and unpunched in bargain bins.

Related Links/Resources:

None.

This page content copyright, Walter O'Hara 1998