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I’ve decided to post an interesting or meaningful game from my collection each day of this crisis. A #CuratedQuarantine if you will. This is my very first hobby game, the original D&D boxed set. I got it at Eric Fuchs in Salem, MA in 1979. I was 10 and it changed my life.
I can’t swear Squad Leader was my first Avalon Hill game but it was the most important and my real intro to hex and chit wargames. It featured a terrific system for programmed learning using a series of scenarios that taught you rules in digestible chunks. #CuratedQuarantine
I was a Dragon subscriber in the early 80s and saw many ads there for Chivalry & Sorcery 2E. It sounded so detailed and complete, though when I got it I found it overly complicated (and that magic system—yeesh). This slim sourcebook though I remember fondly. #CuratedQuarantine
In but 34 pages it covers Viking, Celtic, and Mongol cultures in a gaming format, including fun stuff like using runes. It really woke me up to the historical possibilities of roleplaying, and I would go on read many books about these cultures. #CuratedQuarantine
You can trace a line directly from Swords & Sorcerers to the painted Saga Mongol army I have today. #CuratedQuarantine
Pendragon is the RPG I love the most that I get to play the least. I picked up its 1st edition on release in 1985 (books at left, box maybe in MA). Arthurian mythos writ large with truly supportive mechanics. Grey Knight is an excellent adventure of that era. #CuratedQuarantine.
Today's game is Machiavelli from Avalon Hill, another one I played frequently in my teenage years. The core of it is similar to Diplomacy but it adds randomness like famine & plague. Diplomacy is a purer strategy game, but I had a lot of fun with Machiavelli. #CuratedQuarantine
Today’s game is the Witch Hunt RPG from 1983. I heard about it at the time and it piqued my interest, both because of the historical setting and because I grew up right next door to Salem. This game was impossible to find though! It took me 15 years to find. #CuratedQuarantine
After that long of a hunt, I’d like to report it’s a hidden gem of a game. Alas, Witch Hunt is not very good so it’s just a historic curiosity from the first decade of roleplaying games. #CuratedQuarantine
Today’s game is Gang of Four. This is a Chinese card game that came out of the Cultural Revolution. When I was in college, a rep of its Hong Kong publisher contacted our game club. #CuratedQuarantine
He offered each of us a small amount of money or copies of the game if we’d participate in a demo event. We liked the game, and I think all of us ended up taking copies, which got quite a bit of use at the club. #CuratedQuarantine
Later, Days of Wonder did a new edition without the revolutionary aesthetic. Dragon and Phoenixes instead of Chairman and Vice Premieres. Makes no sense for a game called Gang of Four so I prefer this version. #CuratedQuarantine
Today’s choice is Revolt on Antares, a micro game from TSR I played a lot as a youth. It’s a pretty simple hex and chit wargame with great pulp scifi flavor.
You can recruit galactic heroes like Doctor Death, Lyra Starfire, and the Nullspace Kid, or ruin your enemies with artifacts like the Devastator and the Sonic Imploder. #CuratedQuarantine
When I was working at WotC in the early 2000s, I pitched @erikmona on a Revolt on Antares d20 RPG for Polyhedron Magazine but ended up doing a WW2 game called V for Victory instead. #CuratedQuarantine
Today’s game is Ars Magica, my favorite RPG in the early 90s. Its mix of medieval history & mythology was right up my street. Loved the magic system and troupe style play. Early in my career, I wanted to write its Mongol sourcebook but couldn’t make it happen. #CuratedQuarantine
Also of note, @Nikchick worked for publisher Lion Rampant. It’s possible the very first time I met her was GenCon 1989 because I remember stopping at the Lion Rampant booth and talking to a woman about the game. #CuratedQuarantine
We figure it was either her or MRH’s sister, so there’s a 50% chance I first met my wife in a random booth interaction! #CuratedQuarantine
I’m credited for design contributions in Ars Magica’s 4th Edition but I could have sworn I had done some other ArM writing. Didn’t see anything on my website’s Publications listing (now updated!) but here’s what I was thinking of, 1997’s A Medieval Tapestry. #CuratedQuarantine
Today’s game is Class Struggle from Avalon Hill. An educational game about the evils of capitalism by a socialist academic is not what you’d expect from a wargame publisher and yet here it is.
#CuratedQuarantine
#CuratedQuarantine
Gameplay is old school “move your piece around a track” but your piece represents a class (workers/capitalists, etc) and your goal is to win the revolution. Right near the end of the track, there’s a nuclear war space. #CuratedQuarantine
If the capitalist player lands on it and realizes they are about to lose, they can trigger a nuclear war that ends the game with no winner. The rules booklet goes through each space, explaining both the game effect and the ideas behind it. #CuratedQuarantine
I first played Class Struggle in high school. My freshman year at NYU I actually took a socialist theory class with designer Bertell Ollman. I got this copy at Revolution Books in NYC.
#CuratedQuarantine
#CuratedQuarantine
Since I posted a pic of young me playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle, might as well make it my #CuratedQuarantine game for today. This is the 2nd edition, which is the one I started with when I was a college freshman. My first games were actually an outgrowth of a WFRP campaign.
To say this was the beginning of a journey is a vast understatement. In the ensuing 32 years I have played through 8 editions of WFB, 8 editions of 40K, Mordheim, Necromunda, Warmaster, Man O War, Epic 40K, Age of Sigmar, Warcry, etc etc. I’ll do the RPG later. #CuratedQuarantine
You know, Blood Bath at Orc’s Drift comes with a very nice regional map that’d be perfect for a RPG mini-campaign...
Today’s game is the James Bond 007 RPG from Victory Games. This was one of the first licensed RPGs I ever got and it’s a great one. Smart design by Chris Klug that really captures that Bond flavor. Strong line of support material too. #CuratedQuarantine.
Today’s game is the Thieves’ Guild RPG from Gamelords, Ltd, released in 1984. It was basically, “Hey, how’d you like to play D&D but everyone is a thief?” I was always amused you could play a centaur. Clip clop, so much stealth! #CuratedQuarantine
Gamelords advertised follow-up games focused on warriors and wizards but these never appeared. If they had pulled the plan off, it would have been an interesting precursor to the way the World of Darkness was released. #CuratedQuarantine
Continuing my weekend theme of obscure 80s fantasy RPGs, here’s Swordbearer from Heritage (and later FGU). I never did play this but it had some interesting ideas for 1982. Instead of classes you picked two “spheres” of skills you were particularly good at. #CuratedQuarantine
These included expected things like combat and magic but also “town” and arts/crafts. Also, Swordbearer didn’t use currency. You were basically allowed appropriate gear and lifestyle based on your social status. Magic system was also novel. #CuratedQuarantine
Recently unearthed the two white booklets (missing for like 30 years) so today’s game is the Hawkmoon RPG from Chaosium. The box I left in MA when I moved to NYC in 1987. I had gotten Hawkmoon on release the year before. #CuratedQuarantine
I was excited because I loved the Michael Moorcock books it was based on (fun fact, the Emperor’s throne globe in 40K is lifted directly from the Hawkmoon books). The game I found a bit of a letdown. Felt like a first draft in need of development and expansion. #CuratedQuarantine
Discovered only last night designer Kerie Campbell was but 20 at the time, so kudos to her on getting a game out when that young. Also saw the claim this was the first RPG with a female lead designer but I don’t think that’s right. #CuratedQuarantine
Lee Gold’s Lands of Adventure came out three years earlier (1983). In the early 2000s Chaosium did a Hawkmoon monograph with a greatly expanded background but I’ve never seen it and they can’t even sell a PDF due to licensing issues. Ah well. #CuratedQuarantine
Hawkmoon apparently enjoyed a much longer life and more support in France but sadly, I still don’t speak French.
Today’s game is Old West Gunfight from Gamescience, a historical curiosity in my collection. It appears to be an early American roleplaying game but open the box and you discover it’s actually an English skirmish miniatures game! #CuratedQuarantine
The rulebook is dated 1975 but the GAMA logo on the cover sheet means this boxed set is from 1977 at earliest. My suspicion is that Lou Zocchi, seeing the popularity of D&D, put a minis game, dice, and Italian toy soldiers in a box and called it a RPG. #CuratedQuarantine
The rules, whose first edition goes back to 1970, don’t even have a nod to roleplaying though. They are, on their own merits, an interesting early example of a skirmish miniatures game and apparently they were somewhat popular in the 70s wargaming scene. #CuratedQuarantine
Continuing with digest-sized miniatures games of the 70s, today I’ve got Cavaliers & Roundheads (1973). The most notable thing about C&R is that it was the very first game published by TSR, who would go on to much greater success the following year with D&D. #CuratedQuarantine
Mostly designed by Jeff Perren with an assist by Gary Gygax, the rules are actually fairly simple as 70s wargames go. The whole thing is 38 pages, and six of those consist of (not great) illustrations. #CuratedQuarantine
Misspelling Parliament on the first page of an English Civil War game is not a great start but C&R seems well-enough researched, if light on details. This is in keeping with this sort of game in that era though. #CuratedQuarantine
They didn’t present a bunch of history. It was assumed you, as a historical enthusiast, would do the relevant research on the war, personalities, and tactics yourself. #CuratedQuarantine
Today’s game is Privateers & Gentlemen (1983) from FGU. Before he became a scifi writer, Walter Jon Williams designed a Napoleonic naval miniatures game called Heart of Oak (1978) and wrote a series of historical novels set in the same era. #CuratedQuarantine
Privateers & Gentleman packages a second edition of the minis rules along with a roleplaying game. Player Characters are officers (typically in England’s Royal Navy) having Hornblower type adventures, with ship combat handled by Heart of Oak. #CuratedQuarantine
Conceptually, I love it. Minis games that seek to accurately simulate the Age of Sail are, let’s just say, an acquired taste though. #CuratedQuarantine
Buckle up, it’s a long one! Today’s game is the Traveller RPG from GDW, originally released in 1977, though the (rather good) Starter Edition pictured here is from 1983. Traveller is the granddaddy of scifi RPGs. #CuratedQuarantine
When I was first getting into gaming, there was a bookstore called Lauriat’s in the North Shore Mall that carried some RPGs. It was mostly D&D but they had a whole shelf of Traveller’s “little black books” that I used to covet. #CuratedQuarantine
I couldn’t afford them though so it was only several years later I got to try the game with a friend’s copy. You wouldn’t guess it to look at the market now, but Traveller was a huge game for its first decade. #CuratedQuarantine
Look at the sales numbers from the reprint of the first 8 LBBs (sadly, I never did get the originals). It had supplements that sold over 100,000 units! Most RPG publishers today would kill for those numbers. #CuratedQuarantine
Professionally, I had one brief encounter with Traveller. During my first 6 months in Seattle, before I got a job at WotC in 1998, I was trying (and failing) to survive on freelance work. I heard that Last Unicorn Games was looking for staff so I hit them up. #CuratedQuarantine
Turns out they were looking for a Traveller designer. I was told a Traveller TV show was on the way and LUG would publish a new edition of the game. The job was to write 6 Traveller books a year.
#CuratedQuarantine
#CuratedQuarantine
I had a phone interview but that’s as far as it went, presumably because that whole deal never worked out. There was no show or LUG edition of the game. Shortly thereafter I got the WotC gig and my life went a different way. #CuratedQuarantine
Considering Traveller’s messy history with new editions, this was probably for the best (though if I’d have stuck it out, I’d have ended up at WotC anyway when they acquired LUG!).
#CuratedQuarantine
#CuratedQuarantine
Today’s game is Avalon Hill’s Dune (1979). With a new Dune movie and RPG (from Modiphius) coming this year, it seems like the right time to talk about this classic boardgame.
You play a faction (Atreides, Harkonnen, Fremen, Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, or the Padishah Emperor) seeking domination on Arrakis. #CuratedQuarantine
The designers (the team behind Cosmic Encounter) really captured the feel of Dune and the game remains a great example of how to marry mechanics and story. #CuratedQuarantine
It was out of print (except in France) for over 25 years and increasingly difficult to find at prices that wouldn’t break the bank. Somehow, Gale Force 9 resolved the licensing issues, however, and published a new edition last year. #CuratedQuarantine
I recently started a re-read of Dune for the first time since the 80s. I wrote a 10 page paper about it for my sophomore English class in high school. Fair to say that with its terrible politics, I’d write a very different paper today!
#CuratedQuarantine
#CuratedQuarantine
