Re: Ah, Stealth

I think Noam has hit upon a good point here; namely that
stealth/sensors/ECM
lend themselves to PBEM games.

I find PBEM is a very different beast than face to face, but it
certainly
excels in the arena of double-blind or limited intelligence.  In
practice,
face to face (FTF) engagements have either awkward, unwieldy, or
non-functional rules regarding secrecy and limited intelligence.

In PBEM, secrecy is absolute.  Indeed, accidental secrecy is one of the
most
common errors.

For example, if I shoot at a target in FTF and roll 4 dice, I know each
6
does at least one point of damage and what the rerolls will do.  In
PBEM, if
the referee (myself) fails to note the hit or miss in all the right
places,
one side may ask whether the shot was even fired.

Similarly, I tend to notice a lot of hand waving indicating where hidden
units might be.  In PBEM, secret communications between players are
simple,
secure (well, who'd intercept a guy's e-mail just for that ?), and easy.

For those reasons, I certainly like to use hidden information in a PBEM,
whether it be novel rules, cloaking technology, secret objectives, or
more.