I am curious as to how a sysop would best be able to post game rules or announcements he wanted all players to get. Is there a text file that the TWGS or Tradewars program itself uses that sysops edit to post their rules and announcements?

One way to do it is to require players to email you for an account in the game. After you get their email address you can email them a copy of the rules in the email that gives them their user id and password. Another is to list a web site on your ANSI menu and have the players check it for updates. Post the rules and announcments there.

Another way is to change the FedSpace beacons. I've seen GameOps do that, make a short announcement like "The Game will be rebanged on Nov 11, settings not final".

another way is to have a website

You could also edit the main ansi menu when you log in to list rules, or you could use the ansi file for the ! game descriptions screen too.

Anyone remember offhand the name of those files you can edit? Thanks for the help you've already given

Under configure|settings you can specify whatever you want. Please note, you can not enter a file path, has to be in the right directory (either root TW or ansi, don't recall which right off hand).