Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts

Sunday 14 January 2024

Mat Irvine, What a Modelmaking Legend

Whilst bimbling around on the YouTubes I came across a little documentary about the history of model kits.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mat Irvine at the Model Engineers Exhibition some time in the mid 90s. He was a gent and whilst I knew him from his sci-fi TV work, I was stunned by his impressive collection of car models.

Also in attendance at the show were a TV company looking for engineering contestants to enter into something called "Robot Wars"... Whatever happened to that?

The star for me was the Fantastic display for the upcoming movie Judge Dredd. Alongside the Hammersteinesque ABC warrior anamatronic puppet they had a Land Rover City Cab.

Judge Dredd 1995 Landrover City Cab

I think this is still one of the greatest futuristic vehicle designs ever to have made it onto the silver screen and, given my love of Judge Dredd, one model I would love to create in miniature for my 15mm Judge Dredd RPG Vehicle Fleet.  If anyone knows of a good STL pop it in the comments below.

Friday 21 January 2022

Sir Ian Livingston

The 2022 New Years honours list had a surprise in store for Gamers, with the legendary founder of Games Workshop, Ian Livingstone, getting a knighthood.

Arise Sir Ian Livingstone CBE

Sir Ian became a Knight Bachelor, the most ancient sort of British knight who can trace their history back to the 13th-century reign of King Henry III.

Sir Ian Livingstone CBE

He is a giant of the UK Games Industry (and I would argue the global one as well), being responsible for founding the behemoth Games Worshop which alledgedly is more profitable than Google.  Growing up in the 80s they dominated the boardgaming scene with epic titles like Space Hulk and Heroquest.

My Particular passion is for the bookcase boardgames released during this early period, but his influence on me includes his work as a writer of Fighting Fantasy Books, the early licensing and import of Dungeons & Dragons into the UK alongside publishing UK versions of games such as Paranoia, Runequest and Stormbringer.  

The founding of miniatures company Citadel rocked the little lead men idustry at the time and they were soon dominating the shelves with their excellent sculpts in never before seen detail.  

In later life Sir Ian got involved in Computer Games with Domark which was bought by Eidos and he was instrumental in securing the licenses to Tomb Raider and Hitman. He ended up contributing to the Tomb Raider Anniversary game.

I don't think there is another man who has made such a big impact, and continues to play a role in the UK games Industry and it is such a pleasure to listen to him speak at events like Dragonmeet which he regularly attends as a guest of honour.

Monday 10 January 2022

Starblazer: Small Format Science Fiction Adventures

I've blogged before about my love of the Starblazer Adventures RPG system which was inspired by the small format single story comic books published by DC Thomson Comics in the 1980s.

Small Size but Big Thrills

Starblazer was never as popular as it's war story cousins Commando and Battle and I know as a kid they were hard to come by in 1980s Bradford.  In fact I seem to remember there being one news kiosk in the bus depot that used to carry them in one of those wire racks for birthday cards.  Isn't it strange what you remember.

DC Thomson had started publishing collections of these long out of print gems, but after 2 volumes the faith seems to have departed.  Not to worry, I have a small collection of these thrill packed little comicbooks and they are still readily available on eBay at very reasonable prices. 

Starblazer #18 - Abandon Earth
#18 Abandon Earth - Space Wars did not exist.  By a series of treaties each galaxy remained alone and untouched.  Earth built a survey shi, Zephyrus, to prospect in deep space.  It was this ship that led to the call - "Abandon Earth".

In this tale of human humbris, the arrival of the Zephyrus in Vemlin space is interpreted as an invasion and gives rise to an intergalactic war with Earth.  The inexplicably named Carstairs is the robotic hero in this odd tale of politics and miltary strategy.

The cover art is reminiscent of the spaceship paintings of Chriss Foss, Peter Elson and Jim Burns which are gloriously immortalised in the Terran Trade Authority Books published by The Hamlyn Group in the late 70s.  I remember getting one of these coffee table books as a child and they were like nitromethane for the imagination.

Star blazer #76 - The Mind of Meredith Morgan
#76 The Mind of Meredith Morgan - Benjamin Starr was a teacher - A man who knew nothing of the mysteries of space travel.  Yet, when a simple accident brought him to the attention of the World Council, he found himself at the controls of a starship, pitting his wits against and alien computer, and warping space itself - and if he failed, Earth was doomed to an eternal Hell.

A rollercoaster of a tale which pretty much sums up a standard Starblazer storyline.  Heavy on the cliffhangers, bouncing from one near catastrophe to another a breakneck speed.  There's no time for an indepth discussion or detailed character motivations, its a swift punch to the jaw and a laser blast from the hip.  

The Starblazer Adventures RPG echoes this with it's hilarious random Starblazer Comic Title Generator.  Honestly, I could just spend a couple of hours happily rolling up different scenarios an imagining what might appear on the cover.   

Starblazer #77 - Fortress of Fear
#77 Fortress of Fear - The key to space travel, was the system of wormholes througout the galaxy.  As they were so far away, defence posts had to be constructed.  Operatives from Earth's elite fighting scientist branch, The Fi-Sci's, were put in charge of their construction.  Danger was a part of their lives , but even their brand of courage was put to the test by the... Fortress of Fear.

In this issue we follow the exploits of Hadron Halley (what a zarjaz futuristic name) as he explores the mysterious planet which is home to the even more mysterious Mind Lords.  

These cut price Mekon-like maniacal mentalists have subjugated the native population and turned them into puppets dressed like the Oz's Tin man (I kid you not).  They hide in the safety of their mushroom shaped city come spaceship and finalise their plans for Solar galactic domination.  

Elements of the artwork remind me of Simon Harrison's Bradley the Sprog but in classic fashion DC Thomson never cited who wrote or inked their comic books.  

Starblazer #160 - The Last Days of Earth
#160 The Last Days of EarthIt is 2500 AD, and Earth is protected by Earthwarriors - A select band of highly skilled fighters.  A mission starts on Picture 1 and progressively becomes more and more difficult... It is at this point that your help is needed to make vital decisions.  Read on... unless you succeed you will witness... The Last Days of Earth.

A cheeky subtitle change to "Space role-playing game in pictures" announces that DC Thomson have  jumped on the Fighting Fantasy style adventure gamebook in this story of post apocalyptic survival.  You are Space Patrolman Svenson .  I can't remember ever seeing anything as ambitious as this in comic book form although the Ace of Aces Game Books from Flying Buffalo.

Needless to say the adventure is a pretty ripsnorting affair with Svenson bouncing from one death defying panel to another before ending up in court.  I think this deserves a proper playthrough and mapping of the choice tree so I can work out what the hell is going on in this story arc.

Starblazer #174 - The Terminator
#174 The Terminator - Lawlessness abounded in the pioneer outer worlds of the Earth Federation, and the few over-worked, short lived Marshals attempted to stem the criminal tide.  Assisted by huge, deadly robotic terminators, justice slowly began to return to the colony worlds... Until one of these gigantic, unstoppable machines turned rogue and proceeded to eliminate innocent people.

It's 1986 and clearly James Cameron's lawyers thought it wasn't worth suing DC Thomson over the title of this issue.  This has all the hallmarks of a classic western story where up to no good town officials are lining their pockets with some scheme involving the mine.  Enter Marshall Skarr (God, I love these names) who is sent to Glasis V to investigate.  He gets straight to the bottom of things and stirs up trouble for the local Judge who programs a Terminator to exterminate Skarr before he really finds out what is going on.  

The Judge has done a deal with the Ellon, who basically are starfishmen, and not the cuddly Patrick kind these are more like Zygons.  The Terminator gets its second wind and helps rescue Skarr and everyone lives happily ever after.  The robot is a pretty cool design and lives up to its description as an unstoppable relentless agent of justice.

Starblazer #180 Eden The Hunter
#180 Eden the Hunter - Made an outcast because his mistake had caused the death of fellow villagers, Eden swore vengeance.  The only trouble was - he didn't know what he was fighting.

The depiction of Eden on the front cover is a bit misleading and clearly someone must have copied a picture of Kurt Russell as once you turn the page he looks more like a Native American Indian tribesman.  

This is such a weird story and the sort of techno savagery story you used to get in science fiction back in the 80s.  As the story evolves the villains of the piece are introduced, a race of electro vampires that look like a cross between a human and a pteradactyl.  Eden encounters various people along the way all of whom seem to have fallen prey to the electro vampires but Eden is a rugged outdoorsman and not to be trifled with. 

The electro vampires reminded me of one of the character Worzel from the excelent Lensman anime movie.  A highly recommended adaptation of the E.E Doc Smith, Hugo Award nominated Lensman books from the 1950s.

Starblazer #182 - Bron The Avenger
#182 - Bron The Avenger - After the Nuclear Wars devastated Earth, civilisation ceased to exist as we know it.  Murderous bands roamed the country taking what they wanted, but the hand of fate selected Bron to stand against them.  A young man with strength in his limbs, and revenge in his heart.

Well from that description Bron sounds like a lot of fun.  Starblazer didn't just do Sci-fi with spaceships and aliens, there was a healthy smattering of fantasy and crossover post apocalyptic mad max style adventure too.  Bron is one of those sword and sorcery tales set in the ruins of 1980s civilization.

The scent of anachronism is heavy and at one point Bron delves into the subterranean underworld chased by zombies and finds himself on a runaway tube train.  This theme runs throughout, the idea that some technology survives, hoarded by the "sorcerors" and technomancers with the knowledge and skill to keep the machines alive and working for their own benefit or that of their overlords.  

Starblazer #186 - Starhawk

#186 Starhawk
- The 3rd Millenium, 2600 AD, and the Galaxy spanning Terran Empire is crumbling in decline.  The savage Krell ravaging its borders and order is replaced with choas.  Barbarism exists everywhere, and amid this lawless bedlam one man stands for law and order - Sol Rynn, known as Starhawk. 

This is a return to the square jawed smoke me a kipper type hero who roams the spacelanes like a one man A-Team.  His calling card, quite literally a card you push into a machine to make a call, reads "If your cause is just, but the odds are too great Use Me".  I'm suprised he gets any business at all with approach.

Somone on Wengel IV needs his help, but the first locals he encounters practically ignore him.  Fortunately he finds the terminal used to make the call in an abandoned communications centre.  Enter the Battletoads style mutants who chase Starhawk through the jungle.  Eventually he discovers the secret lab of Hak Galos the owner of Megalos Mining who has hatched a nefarious scheme to mine Trikalak K a banned substance and key ingedient in Quark bombs.  Galos clearly has some sort of plan for those quark bombs, but it is never fully fleshed out.   

Want to Know More?

I found a great resource with some fantastic interviews from some of the original artists and writers who worked for DC Thomson back in the day.  Check it out at downthetubes.net.


Saturday 6 June 2020

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - Q is for Qadim

Q is for Qadim, Al-Qadim

TSR brought out many different campaign settings during the 80s but the one that really caught my attention was Al-Qadim The Lands of Fate.  The premise is simple it's the world of exotic Arabian adventure. Think Aladdin, Sinbad and the 40 thieves or Prince of Persia.

Why Al-Qadim is Worth Your Time

If you are like me and have been running games for the best part of 35 years, I am sometimes weary of the standard quasi medieval fare.  Your players know the monster manual like the back of their hand and there is no mystery any more.

Al-Qadim is a rich and spicy setting which is both familiar and completely alien at the same time.  The protagonists are often humans hell bent on acquiring power through strange magics and the use of elemental forces.  The strange and unfamiliar monsters range from the plethora of Djinn (Genies) to the smelly mishapen Yakmen.  All of them will be unknown to your players and therefore genuinely mysterious, intimidating and scary.

Your players are going to have to use their roleplaying skills of guile, cunning and persuasion rather than putting everything to the sword.  Trust me they're going to love it.

Need More Inspiration?

There are a ton of classic movies out there which will whet your appetite for some sun, sand and sorcery.  

Unloved and Unwanted

TSR pumped out a huge number of settings during those heady days of 2nd Edition AD&D.  Like Birthright, Mystara and Spelljammer it didn't have much staying power and it got shelved like the rest. 

I was lucky enough to pick the majority of my collection up at the height of their unpopularity when my FLGS was clearing out.  Prices are significantly higher now but investing in Al-Qadim has a solid and fun payback.

My Collection Includes

Al-Qadim The Land of Fate
The Land of Fate

Al-Qadim Arabian Adventures
Arabian Adventures

Al-Qadim City of Delights
City of Delights

Al-Qadim Corsairs of the Great Sea
Corsairs of the Great Sea

Al-Qadim Ruined Kingdoms
Ruined Kingdoms

Al-Qadim Assassin's Mountain
Assassin's Mountain

Al-Qadim Secrets of the Lamp
Secrets of the Lamp
Al-Qadim Golden Voyages
Golden Voyages
Al-Qadim Caravans
Caravans


Sunday 31 May 2020

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: N is for Northern Militaire

N is for Northern Militaire

Wargaming was a part of my childhood in the 70s/80s.  I would willingly be dragged to conventions like Sheffield Triples, FIASCO in Leeds or my favourite Northern Militaire in Manchester.  

I have particularly fond memories of one participation game I must have played for hours called "Kamikaze" where you piloted 1/72nd scale WWII Japanese torpedo bombers attacking a US Navy Carrier.  It was a lot of fun and very simple.  

Each turn you chose the height your plane was flying at and the carrier would fire its guns at you.  If you survived long enough you got to launch your torpedos and if you got close enough you could attempt a "Kamikaze" attack and fly directly into the carrier. 

The planes had verticle holes cut through the fuselage so they could be threaded onto a metal rod (a scientific stand if I recall) and you adjusted the height of the plane using a small bulldog clip fixed to the rod.  Damage markers were white red and yellow coloured rings and of course if you caught fire you would get the obligatory cotton wool smoke trail attached to your plane.  

My memory of the carrier was that it was huge and fairly basic in design.  To an impressionable 7 year old, detail didn't matter, it was the mutts nuts.  I'm fairly sure that the PC brigade would have none of it today but it was accepteable in the 80s.

If anyone reading this has any photos of the Kamikaze game from back in the day please leave a comment in the box below.  I would love to talk to you.

Northern Militaire 1979
My Family (circled) at Northern Militaire circa 1979
(courtesy of The Wargaming Megalomaniac)

Special thanks to the following blogs for sharing their photos and memories.

Thursday 28 May 2020

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - P is for Pondsmith, (Mike! where's my flying car?)

As some of you are aware I am based in the UK and I've blogged before about how the roleplaying scene differs in Blighty to that across the pond (and probably that over in the Eurozone to boot).  Here's an attempt to pick out some of the highlights of what it was like to be a roleplayer back in the dark days of Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s (cue the V for Vendetta trailer)...

Cyberpunk
In 1988 R Talsorian released Cyberpunk, set in the dystopian near future imagined by the likes of authors William Gibson (Neuromancer), Bruce Sterling (Mirror Shades) and Walter J Williams (Hardwired).

Designer Mike Pondsmith did a great job of amalgamating the disparate source material into one and with the release of CP2020 in 1990 the game really took off.  I was one of the early adopters of the original boxed set.  It could usually be found languishing at the back of the dark and dingy gamestore (trust me some were) among the RIFTS and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books.  The black box set had minimal artwork just a cool looking negative line drawing of a punk with a big gun... I had to have it.

The three skinny books were:
  • View From The Edge: The Cyberpunk Handbook (48 pages) - The "Players Handbook" if you will, detailing character generation, the net and netrunning and cyberwear.

  • Friday Night Firefight: INTERLOCK Man to Man & Weapons Combat System (22 pages) - The combat manual containing all you needed to know about melee and missile combat, wounds damage and recovery and a whole heap of guns and armour.

  • Welcome to Night City: A Sourcebook for 2013 (44 pages) - The dark future sourcebook containing all you needed to know about Night City (the primary urban setting) and the rest of the world including, corporations, fashion, weapons and transportation.
Now don't get me wrong I absolutely love Cyberpunk, but if it were released today no-one in their right mind would buy it, but not because there's no market or appetite for a dystopian near future subculture game.  Compared to todays slickly produced, source material heavy books, its just a skeleton of a game system really, there just wasn't enough source material in there for you to run a convincing game.  This is probably why only two years later it was completely revamped and flung another 7 years into the future with Cyberpunk 2020, and to be honest this is the game I play, even now.

No Source Material, I'll give you Source Material

It wasn't until you teamed up the boxset rules with one of the sourcebooks published the year after the original release, that the game came together.
  • Hardwired - An alternate reality sourcebook set in the world of Walter Jon Williams 1986 novel of the same name.

  • Near Orbit - Focusing on the corporate expansion into space and it's exploitation in the wake of nation state collapse and the failure of US and Russian space programmes.

  • Rockerboy - Expanding upon the Rockerboy character role from the basic game.

  • Solo of Fortune - Expanding upon the Solo character role from the basic game.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575591494&toolid=10001&campid=5338691580&customid=Hardwired+CP2020&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm570.l1313%26_nkw%3DHardwired%2BCyberpunk%26_sacat%3D0%26LH_TitleDesc%3D0%26_osacat%3D0%26_odkw%3DHardwired%2BCyberpunk

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575591494&toolid=10001&campid=5338691580&customid=Near+Orbit+CP2020&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm570.l1313%26_nkw%3DNear%2BOrbit%2BCyberpunk%26_sacat%3D0%26LH_TitleDesc%3D0%26_osacat%3D0%26_odkw%3DNear%2BOrbit%2BCyberpunk
HardwiredNear Orbit

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575591494&toolid=10001&campid=5338691580&customid=Rockerboy+CP2020&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm570.l1313%26_nkw%3DRockerboy%2BCyberpunk%26_sacat%3D0%26LH_TitleDesc%3D0%26_osacat%3D0%26_odkw%3DRockerboy%2BCyberpunk

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575591494&toolid=10001&campid=5338691580&customid=Colo+fo+Fortune+CP2020&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm570.l1313%26_nkw%3DSolo%2Bof%2BFortune%2BCyberpunk%26_sacat%3D0%26LH_TitleDesc%3D0%26_osacat%3D0%26_odkw%3DSolo%2Bof%2BFortune%2BCyberpunk
RockerboySolo of Fortune

Time for Predictions

Cyberpunk has taken quite a lot of flack in the post internet years for its lack of foresight, but I think that this is unfair criticism, infact William Gibson said "As soon as a work is complete, it will begin to acquire a patina of anachronism." in his recent interview with BoingBoing.  There are plenty of games and a whole genre of science fiction which has done the same whilst trying to imagine a vision of a dystopian near future.  You only have to look at Bladerunner's vision of 2006 or Mad Max's vision of an  Australia after a Third World War to see that others also got the future spectacularly wrong. 

Let's dig a little deeper into that source material and see whether or not any of the ideas and concepts from the game and genre actually came true.

Global Data Network - ARPANET had been around since 1972 and a lucky few may have been on BBS or USENET on a computer via a modem and the game acknowledges that history. But in 1988, when cyberpunk was released, Tim Bernes-Lee hadn't yet invented The Internet and no-one knew what a browser was, so instead we had this bizarre virtual reality construct which you interfaced with.  This came straight off the pages of the novels which inspired the game (and I noted with interest that Walter Jon Williams is credited with playtesting the game).  The global data network which we now call the internet did arrive and thank god it was not entirely dominated by the corporations although we did have the likes of AOL and GeoCities.  8/10 - "Not Far off" 

Virtual Reality - The interface of the dark future was direct injection, without the 2D visual interface of a monitor to hold them back, the aspiring netrunner went all 3D virtual reality on us.  This vision of the future is still some years away, and it is now the movie and games industries which are driving the development of 3D technology and it is only a matter of time until the web and 3D merge.  The advances in mobile computing and telecoms have spawned another potentially far more interesting technology which Cyberpunk did predict in the shape of Times Square Marquee, a form of Augmented Reality (AR) where a virtual layer is superimposed on the realworld.    5/10 - "Still waiting for my neural plugs"

Aerodyne Vehicles - The transport of choice in Night City was always an AV of some sort or another and thanks to the relentless self publicity of Dr Moller and his Sky Car this has always seemed so tantalisingly close.  Cyberpunk is in good company when it comes to flying cars alongside many futurists, tech journalists and sci-fi authors but sadly this is still just a dream - 3/10 - "Dude Where's my flying car??"

Cybernetic Enhancements - Putting the cyber into cyberpunk were the mechanical and neural enhancements you added to your characters just to let them get through a tough day in Night City.  Everyone had them, from rockerboys to cops, and street vendors to corporate execs, so where are they?  A little ways off it seems, the plastic surgery and body sculpting fetishes are most definitely with us but those spearheading the field of limb and organ replacement are still the same war veterans and disabled of 50 years ago.  Although advances in material science have given us the likes of athlete Oscar "Bladerunner" Pistorius and in cybernetics, Prof. Kevin " Captain Cyborg" Warwick the world has yet to turn to the elective surgery seen in the game.   2/10 - "Still just plain punks"

Rise of the Mega-Corporation - Another dark them in the game was that of the collapse of nation states and their replacement by Mega-Corporations.  There are undoubtedly dark times ahead still for the world as it blunders its way through this latest global recession and todays corporations seem to be lacking in their resolve to take over everything just yet.  5/10 - "There's still time for this one"

Mobile Computers - No self respecting Netrunner would have been seen dead without his portable deck and trodes ready to jack in from a public data term, a household line or a dead suit's deskphone in Arasaka Towers.  However, the rise of the internet and the desire for mobile data all the time has led to the invention of the smartphone instead.  The mini wifi terminal most of us now carry in a shirt pocket or handbag, capable of handling data, voice and video was not on cyberpunk's or any other tech radar.  Need proof? just check out Harrison Ford in 1980s "Bladerunner" making a video call to Sean Young from a public phone booth.  2/10 - "The future's now, the future's iPhone"

Addendum

Most of this post was written many years ago and was languishing as a draft utnil very recently.  We are all on tenderhooks waiting for the full edition of Cyberpunk Red to be released and I for one am glad that Cyberpunk is gettting the love now that it deserves.

Sunday 24 May 2020

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - T is for Tunnels and Trolls


T is for Tunnels and Trolls and Flying Buffalo

My first exposure to Roleplaying was actually Tunnels & Trolls. My Dad came back from one of his working trips with a photocopy of the Weirdworld solo module and I voraciously lapped it up. This was back in the day when Flying Buffalo (the company formed in 1970 by Rick Loomis) released their T&T solo modules as spiral bound A4 booklets making game piracy a fairly simple task.  Perhaps that was the point, what's good enough for Microsoft is good enough for Flying Buffalo.

The pages were full of great images like the entrance to the dungeon itself and new and strange words words like myriad.  As you can imagine it made quite an impression on my tiny growning brain.

The entrance to Maximillian the Magnificen't Madhouse (Weirdworld)
The entrance to the Madhouse which was solo adventure #6 Weirdworld

I had no rules and I had no idea how to play it, I just treated it as choose your own adventure book before I even knew what one of those was.  Later on I would experience my first group session of the game at a games club in my home town of Bradford.  The DM using the a very early boxed set version of the rules with the little yellow booklet.

Our relocation down to London in the mid 80s coincided with the release of the Corgi edition paperbacks and I picked one up in a local Virgin Games store (remember them).

Core
Rulebook
The Amulet of the Salkti
Arena of Khazan
Catif D'Yvoire
Beyond the Silvered Pane
The City of Terrors
Gamesmen of Kasar
Misty Wood
Naked Doom
Deathtrap Equalizer
Sword for Hire
Blue Frog Tavern



The Corgi editions are really memorable.  They had amazing cover art by Josh Kirby and were published in a standard paperback formfactor at pocket money prices.  The main competition at the time were the Puffin Fighting Fantasy books written by the Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson of Games Workshop.  I preferred T&T because there was a bit more meat on the bones and I remembered the fun I had playing in that group game back in Bradford.

They are very collectible and hold their prices but they are very available when you search for Tunnels Trolls on eBay.

Flying Buffalo have of course continued to publish games and still exist today.  Their products were always on the fringe of the hobby never taking themselves too seriously but they were always popular.


My Collection Includes:

Corgi Edition
Core Rules
5th Edition
Core Rules
Grimtooths
Traps Too
The Hole Delver's
Catalogue
Maps
Cities Book 1
Sword for Hire
Blue Frog Tavern
The Amulet of the Salkti
Catalogue



Availability of Flying Buffalo is good and they tend to be on the cheaper side of RPG collectables. I aim to reacquire all the Corgi adventure books in the very near future. Search for Flying Buffalo Products on eBay.



The AtoZ of UK RPG in the 80s
  1. is for Adventurer Magazine
  2. is for Beast Enterprises
  3. is for Citadel
  4. is for Dungeon Floors
  5. is for Elric of Melnibone
  6. is for Fighting Fantasy
  7. is for Games Designers Workshop
  8. is for Heavy Metal
  9. is for Indiana Jones
  10. is for Judge Dredd
  11. is for Knightmare
  12. is for Large Box Games
  13. is for Mayfair Games
  14. is for Northern Militaire
  15. is for O
  16. is for Pondsmith (where's my flying car Mike?)
  17. is for Qadim
  18. is for Robots
  19. is for Steve Jackson
  20. is for Tunnels & Trolls
  21. is for UK Series of AD&D Modules
  22. is for V
  23. is for White Dwarf
  24. is for X
  25. is for Y
  26. is for Z


Monday 22 June 2015

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: M is for Mayfair Games

M is for Mayfair Games founded by Lawyer Darwin Bromley in 1980.  This small games publisher branched out into RPGs with the help of veteran Bill Fawcet and began publishing their "Unofficial" AD&D / D&D / T&T compatible adventure modules like 1982s Question of Gravity under the Role Aids banner.  Their attempt to steer through the copyright minefield by using the coverline "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Use of the trademark NOT sanctioned by the holder." they eventually fell foul of the changing attitudes to product licensing at TSR.

Role Aids - A question of Gravity
Role Aids - A Question of Gravity
Looking at these modules through OSR spectacles they are refreshingly light, yet ambitious and Question of Gravity in particular has a quite unique take on the traditional dungeon.

The cover art (by Fantasy author Janny Wurtz) does not allude in any way to this singularly impressive locale which is the focii for this scenario... 

... a dungeon on the inside of a 1000ft wide cube.

The interior maps are an impressive feat considering the lack of digital artistry back then.  I saw something similar nearly 20 years later in Issue #86 of Dungeon Magazine which was a Tracey Hickman Dragonlance scenario called "The Anvil of Time" but this was only one room not a whole dungeon.

Grids are notable absent from the maps, this was the 80s after all, where play was freer and not concerned with tactical movement, flanking or god forbid Attacks of Opportunity!!  The room (or should I say platform) descriptions oddly don't have the tried and tested "read aloud to the players" boxed text that we have all come to know and love in our pre-written dungeon crawl modules, but in this case I can understand.  Enemies can come from any direction and the mind boggles at trying to replicate this on a tabletop grid.  The descriptions are brief and designed to give a flavour of what you may encounter, the salient points rather than detailing the minutia.


original hand illustrated map (click to embiggen)Sketchup Render (click to embiggen)

Whilst these modules are rare, they are still available in all the usual places, and they may well prove to be an unexpected and inspirational distraction for your players.  I know that I've got plans for using the cube in my own campaign world.

My Collection Includes:


705 Question of Gravity
706 Tower of Magicks
710 FezII The Contract
 715 Swordthrust
716 Deadly Power 
719 Fantastic Treasures
720 FezIII Angry Wizard
725 FezIV Wizard's Revenge
728 Clockwork Mage
732 Elven Banner
741 Crystal Barrier
742 Beneath Two Suns

These books are not terribly rare and many listings come up when I search for Role Aids on eBay.