We’re going to do Mammoth Monday in just a bit, but first, a little announcement: We’ve had a lot of people request a later start time for our evening events, so we’re going to move all of our 6:30pm start times, up to 7:00pm
Also tonight, for EuroGame Night at 7:00, we’ll be playing Tzolk’in, the Mayan Calendar Game. Everyone is welcome, we’ll teach!
And now, back to your regularly scheduled program …
Welcome back to Mammoth Monday, where we look at the golden oldies for the gaming world. This week, we’re going to look at some of the excellent examples of Role Playing Games that are out there.
We’ll start with D&D Module G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. Written by Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, in 1978 it was one of the D&D adventures to be published. It also started an epic campaign, that would take characters on a quest against three different types of giants, then to the tunnels of the Drow, before confronting the Demon Queen of Spiders on her own plane of existence.
Tegel Manor is one of the first “generic” supplements to come out. Billed as being for any game, they were written for D&D, with D&D stats, but with enough of the serial numbers filed off to keep it legal (most of the time). Mayfair Games’ RoleAids, and ICE’s Law series (until it evolved into Rolemaster) would do this too. Tegel Manor features a large poster map and a mysterious manor-fortress.
Bushido and Harn both came a few years later, and showcase the growth of the early roleplaying scene. They have full-color covers better printing and are aimed at smaller sections of the gaming community. Harn is a “realistic” fantasy setting, with beautiful maps and illustrations, but with a focus on politics, travel and cultures, rather than just dungeon delving. Bushido took gamers to Feudal Japan and tried to immerse them in that time and place.
What we have here are not just examples of great, old-school writing and production, but they’re prime exemplars of the companies that produced them. Tegel Manor was by the Judges Guild Game Company, which was well-known for their limited color printing and the horrible quality paper (newspaper, essentially) that they used. Fantasy Games Unlimited, made a large number of terribly edited wargames and RPGs, that nonetheless had great production values, and filled neglected niches in the themes and settings of the gaming industry with games like Bushido, Aftermath!, Psi World, Daredevils and Chivalry & Sorcery. Columbia Games is still around, best known for their block wargames, but still publishes Harn and Harn supplements.
