A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: K is for Knightmare

A player dons the helmet of Justice as Treguard looks on

In the late eighties Tim Child, a Journalist/Reporter/Producer for Anglia TV, came up with an idea for a kids TV show having been inspired by the popular 8 bit dungeon questing games such as Atic Atac and Dragontorc.

The concept was simple, a team of four children would embark on a quest to retrieve an artifact from the dungeon.  One child played as the "dungeoneer" and wore the "helmet of justice" effectively blinding them (to the primitive TV technology available at the time) whilst the remaining three acted as guides watching the action through a "magic mirror" and telling the dungeoneer where to move and what to do.

L: Treguard (Hugo Myatt) and R: Pickle (David Learner)

The guardian of the dungeon was a character called Treguard (played by Hugo Myatt) who would act as Dungeon Master, giving the players clues as they progressed through the dungeon rooms.  Other characters would appear in rooms to offer clues to the completion of puzzle or give the players a riddle which might help in the next room.  In later series some of these characters like Pickle (played by David Learner, who also wore the Marvin suit in the BBCs Hitchikers Guide to The Galaxy) became permanent fixtures.  

Spells Yes, Combat and Roleplay No

Often players would be required to cast spells in order to defeat a puzzle, these consisted of the dungeoneer spelling out a word.  I was never sure whether this mechanism was deployed due to the limitations of the technology or as an educational content element to pass the TV commissioners scrutiny.  The technology was definitely a limiting factor with regards combat and the producers eschewed the opportunity to add a roleplaying element with the dungeoneers always being known by their real names.  In essence the show was essentially a puzzle solving exercise and although there was some inspiration to be got from viewing in hindsight it was pretty limited, but nevertheless a fun show to watch. 

The Technology

The show used the chromakey tecchnology to superimose the "real" world onto the digitised matte paintings of the "virtual" dungeon, the work of airbrush artist David Rowe who had painted a few of the more popular 8bit game covers of the early 80s.

Dungeoneer Martin gets fried by Sorceress Morghanna

Behind the scenes view of a typical room which 
demonstrates the "blue screen" (chromakey)
technique that the show used extensively

Knightmare: The Boardgame and the Adventure Gamebooks


It wasn't long after the show's debut that the first of six gamebooks were released, between 1998 and 1993, in an interesting part novella part gamebook format.

Knightmare - Book 1	The Labyrinths of Fear - Book 2	Fortress of Assassins - Book 3
The Sorceror's Isle - Book 4	The Forbidden Gate - Book 5	The Dragon's Lair - Book 6

The obligatory TV boardgame was released by MB in 1991 and seems lack lustre and pedestrian by comparison to other earlier MB adventure games such as Heroquest both incidentally designed by Stephen Baker. 

The Knightmare Boardgame

 All the above are quite rare but can still be found if you search for Knightmare game on eBay.


Groundbreaking For It's Time

Although I look back at this early attempt at an immersive TV show through rose tinted nostalgia glasses, it's hard not to be impressed with what they achieved.  An attempt at a CGI reboot (known as Knightmare VR) was attempted with a pilot in the early 00s, but to date no channel has attempted this level of immersion in a mixed media environment. 

The BBC have come close with the creditable shows Trapped!, Raven and Mission 2110 which are essentially reworkings of the Crystal Maze physical challenge format with expensive sets.

Want To Know More?

• http://www.knightmare.com - An excellent fan site with indepth history of the show.
• First Ever Winning Quest (Part 1) - Video from Series 2 (1988)

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: J is for Judge Dredd

2000AD hit the newstands in 1977 and its most popular and longest running character, Judge Dredd debuted in Prog 2.  The vision of writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, Dredd is a product of late 1970s pop culture, economic stagflation, and social and industrial upheaval.   

Judge Dredd: Comic Book Hero (1977 - Present)

22nd Century North America is largely a blasted radioactive wasteland known as The Cursed Earth, humanity has retreated to the safety of a handful of megatropolis known as Mega Cities.  The traditional policing structures techniques have been replaced by a system of hardline law enforcers known as Judges who are a combination of policeman, judge, jury and executioner.

Judge Joseph Dredd is the epitomy of a Judge, a single minded human machine entirely dedicated to the task of upholding THE LAW.  He is feared and respected in equal measure by his peers and the citizens of Mega-City One and is an example of the Anti-Hero character concept.  A peculiar aspect of the character of Judge Dredd is that in an almost unbroken 35 year long run of comic book appearances, his face has never been shown.  This gifts him an almost mythical "Everyman" aspect, which coupled with his status as a clone (via a policy of state sponsored genetic experimentation), reinforces the man/machine idea and that he is more a product of his environment rather than humanity.

Judge Dredd: The Games Workshop Boardgame (1982)

JUDGE DREDD Boardgame (GW)

In the 80s Ian Livingstone designed the Judge Dredd boardgame to fit in with its expanding range of bookshelf boardgames.  Essentially, a cluedo style race around Mega-City One to find and arrest a random collection of perps who were busy commiting random crimes in random locations.  Each of the perps were famous faces from the comic escapades of Judge Dredd and had a "Perp Rating" which coupled with the severity or "Crime Rating" of the crime they were committing gave a target number you had to roll against with a pair of d6.


The artwork came straight out of the pages of 2000AD and the board (by Ian Gibson) was a glorious piece of artwork in its own right.  Brian Bolland's cover pretty much sums up this very simplistic game, but lots of fun could be had trying to arrest the The Dark Judges for littering or The Angel Gang for Umpty Bagging even though these perp/crime combinations could be a bit bizarre.

This wasn't the last we'd hear from Games Workshop with 2000AD inspired games and they followed up with Block Mania (and its expansion Mega Mania) and Rogue Trooper.  I never got round to buying these with my meagre schoolboy resources but they are on my ebay/thrift store wish list.

Judge Dredd: The Games Workshop RPG (1985)

JUDGE DREDD RPG (GW) Boxed Set

In 1985 Games Workshop released Judge Dredd RPG written by Rick Priestley (Warhammer, WH40K, Warmaster) and Marc Gascoigne (Blood Bowl, Chainsaw Warrior). As a fan of 2000AD it was almost inevitable that It would become one of my favourite systems and it holds the rare distinction that it's only system which I've bought twice! and still own both copies.

Opening the box reveals 2 books; The Judges Manual (a Players Guide), the self explanatory Game Masters Book, a double sided map to the scenario contained in the gm guide (one side is a meg-way underpass the other a shaggy hall) and a sheet of cardstock counters and standees with a good mix of judges, perps and bystanders.

The game system is very simple being based on two stats STRENGTH (2-4) and INITIATIVE (Percentile) and 6 percentile skills; COMBAT SKILL (CS), DRIVE SKILL (DS), TECHNICAL SKILL (TS), STREET SKILL (SS), MEDICAL SKILL (MS) and PSI SKILL (PS).  The majority of roll playing is resolved through a simple percentile skill check (with modifiers dictated by the GM).  A Combat Round consists of 10 Phases (or Frames) and a character's INITIATIVE dictates how many actions they may make and in which phases, fans of Steve Jackson's CAR WARS will immediately feel at home.  Combat damage results in either STUNS (which temporarily reduce INITIATIVE) or WOUNDS (which temporarily reduce STRENGTH).

JUDGE DREDD Miniatures by Citadel

The full range of Justice Department specialisms can be replicated through this 6 skill system but the majority of PCs will most likely be Street Judges.

• TECH Judges have a TS of 40+
• MED Judges have an MS of 40+
• Psi Judges have a PS of 40+

Once a PC has a score of 40+ in any skill (and for every full 10 points thereafter) they may choose a Special Ability offering bonuses to completing actions or for us in certain situations in much the same way as D&D Feats.

The rules light nature means that a session of Judge Dredd is fast paced with the focus on action (just like the comic books), although there is plenty of opportunity through the skills system to have a more detective style game.  A healthy mix of rounding up perps and then trying to decipher the clues left behind in their aftermath is usually the best way to go.

Games Workshop supported the system with the hardback Judge Dredd Companion, a compilation of White Dwarf articles, two campaigns Judgement Day and Slaughter Margin, the excellent Citi-Block floorplans and a 200 figure strong range of miniatures.




Judge Dredd: The Hollywood Movie (1995)

Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd

It was only a matter of time before Hollywood would turn it's attention to the Dredd franchise and in 1995 the Judge Dredd movie was released starring Sylvester Stallone.  Although the film has been derided by many for it's poor plot and acting, the production, costume design, CGI and miniatures work met with wide spread approval, in fact Stallone looked great as Dredd (until he spoke and took his helmet off!!).  In a recent LA Times interview John Wagner was quoted as saying:

"perhaps that was one of the failings of the first film; they tried to do too much and ended up with not a lot." 

Judge Dredd: The Mongoose RPG (2002 - Present)

In 2002 Judge Dredd was acquired by Mongoose who rebooted the RPG system using the D20 system.  Although I have never GM'd or played this version, I do own some of the scenarios and supplements, which are eminently useable and are the usual high quality Mongoose products.

Mongoose were acquired by Rebellion Developments (who had bought 2000AD from IPC Magazines in 2000, coincdence???) and in 2009 they replaced the D20 System with its own Traveller System and also produced a set of free rules for mass combat in support of its excellent range of 28mm Judge Dredd Miniatures. 

Judge Dredd: The Future

March 2012 sees the 35th Anniversary of Judge Dredd and a new movie starring Keith Urban is released in September.  I hope to mark this resurgence of interest in my favourite comic book character by running a game with my Friday gaming group, writing more Judge Dredd blog posts and possibly releasing a PDF or two.

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: I is for Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

For most people of my age the movies of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are part of the pop culture landscape and none more so than those of the unlikely hero, archaeologist and tomb robber Indiana Jones.  The 80s saw Indy make three outings to the silver screen in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984) and The Last Crusade (1989) but his origins lie in the heroes of the Saturday Matinee serials of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Kids TV in the UK also saw the more popular serial heroes (Flash Gordon and King of the Rocketmen) being repeated as cheap time filler. Christmas TV schedules were always peppered with repeats of great pulp movies like Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze and Doug Mclure always seemed to pop up "At The Earth's Core", in "The Land That Time Forgot" discovering "The People that Time Forgot".

The net effect was that British cinemagoers were already primed for Indy's arrival.

Indiana Jones RPG (TSR)

TSR Indiana Jones RPG

TSR released the Indiana Jones RPG in 1984 and followed up with six adventure modules and an expansion:

IJ1 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
IJ2 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
IJ3 - Indiana Jones and the  Crystal Death
IJ4 - Indiana Jones and the Golden Goddess
IJ5 - Indiana Jones and the Nepal Nightmare
IJ6 - Indiana Jones and the 4th Nail
IJAC1 - Judge's Survival Pack

Bizarrely, for an RPG, the boxed set did not include any rules for generating characters in the world of Indiana Jones, forcing you to play one of the established characters such as Indy, Marion or Shortround which probably accounts for its poor critical reception.  When the license expired, all remaining unsold copies were ordered to be destroyed, all except one...

The Diana Jones Awards

The Diana Jones Award

When the staff at TSR UK destroyed their unsold copies the last one was creatively assembled into a perspex pyramid and has since 2001 been used as the trophy for the annual Diana Jones Awards celebrating excellence in gaming.

Other ways I've Roleplayed Indiana Jones

GURPS Cliffhangers - Originally released by Steve Jackson Games in 1989, this Genre Expansion for the popular GURPS System contains all you need to replicate Indy or any other pulp character's adventures.

Call of Cthulhu - CoC is set in the 1920s so needs little or no modification to update it for Indy millieu (anytime between 1930 to 1950).  Dropping the heavy mythos creatures has little effect on the game mechanics and SAN can still be lost as a result of truly terrifying or shocking events such as dangling over a pit of snakes or gazing into the Ark of the Covenant.  I have successfully used the system many times to game in the literary worlds of Agatha Christie, Tintin, Hercule Poirot, Jeeves and Wooster as well as other pulp heroes.  Check out White Dwarf #60 (or the WD Cthulhu Omnibus) which featured the mini-scenario "The Bleeding Stone of Iphtah", an archaeological adventure set in Egypt.

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - H is for Heavy Metal

H is for Heavy Metal

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
(Cover by Derek Riggs)

In the late 70's the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWoBHM) was unleashed across the airwaves and in dingy pubs and clubs all over the UK.  Spearheaded by bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Judas Priest, and Venom who, although they had been inspired by the largely educated and middle class Progressive and Heavy Rock bands of the late 60's and early 70's, were unashamedly working class and many originated in the industrial towns of the Midlands and North of England such as Birmingham and Sheffield.

Teenage rebellion usually goes in search for something that will annoy the heck out of your parents and NWoBM was just waiting to be discovered.  The music was a mix of piercing and wailing vocals, thumping bass and drums and a shredded guitar sound like an angle grinder on steel.

The album covers often featured Fantasy or Sci-Fi themes and the band logos (often using vaguely occult typography and symbology) were worn as patches on your sleeveless denim jacket like some sort of tribal brand.  You wore your greasy long hair like a viking marauder and bullet belts and studded bracers were all part of the genre uniform.

Fantasy in song

Uriah Heep - Abonimog
(Cover by Les Edwards)

The literary tones of Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy were evident in much of the lyrical content of earlier progressive bands such as Hawkwind and Black Sabbath and this influenced many of the later Metal bands to cover these genres.  On Iron Maiden's album "The Number of The Beast" the track "Murders in the Rue Morgue" was directly influenced by Edgar Allen Poe's novel of the same name, "Children of The Damned" influenced by John Wyndam's "The Midwich Cuckoos" and "The Prisoner" influenced by the cult TV Show of the same name starring Patrick Magoogan. 

Just to prove a point Maiden famously did a 13 minute rendition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" on the 1984 album "Powerslave".  This has to be both my favourite Maiden album and my favourite Derek Riggs cover.  I spent a lot of time staring at that album cover and if you look closely at the hieroglyphics you'll also see some graffiti from "Indiana Jones", "Mickey Mouse" and the British "Chad" a  version of "Kilroy was here". 

Other artists like Saxon had tracks such as "The Warrior" which portrayed a generic fantasy storyline.  

Of course Metal wasn't a peculiarly british phenomenon and US bands such as Metallica famously covered HP Lovecraft in the tracks "The Call of Ktulu" and "The Thing That Should not Be" and New York Thrash Metal band Anthrax covered 2000 AD's Judge Dredd in their song "I am The Law"

Art influences Art

Magnum - On a Storytellers Night
(Cover by Derek Riggs)

One of the other big attractions aside from the music where the amazing works of fantasy and sci-fi art which adorned almost every album.  In fact it seemed that in addition to the standard lineup of drums, bass, rythmn guitar, lead guitar and vocals it was almost as important to find a great artist to design your band logo and album covers.  A tradition begun in the 70s with prog bands like Yes employing Roger Dean and continued by Iron Maiden and their long (if not entirely harmonious association) with Derek Riggs.

Joe Petagno has had a 31 year association with Motörhead and devised their famous "Snaggletooth" emblem which has graced many of their albums.

Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy

Needless to say for every great piece of cover-art there were lots of awful ones which slipped through the net. 

A particularly comical one was that of Sweden's Yngwie "J" Malmsteen (pronounced Ing-vey) and his 1986 album "Trilogy".  The  impossibly posed neo-classical guitar-god Yngwie, is depicted seeing off a three headed dragon with what can only be described as "a fire spewing lick of his stratocaster".  I'm sure everyone in the meeting thought it was a good idea at the time.

In researching this article I also stumbled across an album cover which although it isn't metal is so monumentally bad that there just aren't words to describe it... Rick James - Throwin' Down

Métal Hurlant and Heavy Metal Magazine

Heavy Metal the Movie
(Cover by Chris Achilleos)

In France in 1974 two comic book artists Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) and Phillipe Druillet began publishing a quarterly sci-fi graphic novel under the title Métal Hurlant (Howling Metal).  These comic books were in a grphic novel format and featured distinctive and detailed artwork and strong storylines with adult themes it was picked up by National Lampoon, translated into English and relaunched in 1977 as Heavy Metal and in 1979 the format was changed slightly to include Rock Music reviews. 

With the release of an animated feature film Heavy Metal (1981), the combination of art, music and Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories was brought together in one vehicle.   A combination of original storylines and a soundtrack featured tracks by a plethora of rock bands of the era such as Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Grand Funk Railroad, Journey and Stevie Nicks it was every pubescent teenage boys fantasy brought to life. 

Other Metal Movie Moments

Maximum Overdrive

The 80s saw the use of Heavy Metal soundtracks in films particularly of the Sci-Fi Horror genre and led to AC/DC recording the soundtrack to the movie Maximum Overdrive (1986) written and directed by Steven King.  The movie featured Emilio Estevez and a bunch of "survivors" as they are terrorized by an army of machines, led by a "green goblin" faced truck, which have been brought to life by the passing of a strange comet.  The author also makes a cameo appearance in the movie as a bespectacled sunday driver.

1986 also saw Kiss bassist and tongue waggler extraordinaire Gene Simmons and rock legend Ozzy Osbourne appear in cameo roles in the horror movie Trick or Treat which featured a soundtrack by Fast Eddie Clarke (also famed for playing guitar on Motörhead's "The Ace of Spades").  The plot plays heavily on the urban legend of satanic messages being heard in records when they are played backwards (Hey kids! I bet you can't do that with your Lady Gaga CD) and the spirit of dead rock star Sammi Curr's attempt to be ressurected through a Halloween Dance sacrifice.  All good clean adolescent fun really.


Heavy Metal... Meet White Dwarf

The association of Heavy Metal music with gaming reached a climax in November 1987 when Games Workshop's John Blanche conspired to give away Nottingham Thrash Metal group Sabbat's "Blood for the Blood God" as a flexi-disc single in issue 95 of White Dwarf. 

Sabbat - History of a Time to Come
(Cover by John Blanche)

I was lucky enough to see Sabbat in '88 when they played London's Marquee Club (the Charing Cross Road incarnation) following the release of the album "History of a Time to Come"which also featured cover art by John Blanche.  A great gig which introduced me to the art of stage diving and I swear I had tinitus for three days afterwards.

Another Nottingham band to emerge in the late 80's in association with Games Workshop were Bolt Thrower whose name originated from the siege weapon featured in their Warhammer Fantasy Battle wargame.  The cover of their 1989 album "Realm of Chaos" is the same painting by John Sibbick which graced the front cover of the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader rulebook.

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - G is for Games Designers Workshop

As I've said earlier I started roleplaying in the 80s with Tunnels and Trolls and then gravitated to AD&D (1e) but my first experience of Sci-Fi roleplaying was as a player in a Traveller campaign. 

GDW Traveller

Although I never owned the LBBs (Little Black Books) or the boxed set I did (and still do) own a copy of Double Adventure 1: Shadows / Annic Nova.  At this time White Dwarf was still covering all RPGs and regularly featured scenarios for traveller, a favourite of mine being "The Sable Rose Affair" featured in WD#17.

I loved the hard edge that traveller put on the whole Space Opera genre.  It wasn't so much about racing through the galaxy to rescue the princess, it was about dealing with the day to day minutia of staying alive in the cold depths of space and yet trying to eke out a living and possibly making that big score.  In other words more "Alien" than "Star Wars".

Believe you me, this was hugely influential to my 11 year old self whose Sci-Fi diet at that time was limited to Doctor Who, the odd episode of Blake's Seven, Battlestar Galactica and re-runs of Lost in Space.  Traveller also heavily influenced one of the breakthrough 8-bit computer games Elite by David Braben and Ian Bell which I spent many hours playing on my school's only BBC Micro.  Yes back then the entire school shared one computer!!

In 1984 GDW released Twilight 2000 which focused on the plight of the survivors of WWIII assembling their rag tag militas to fend of the remnants of the soviet army.  This got quite a bit of play at the club I was a member of at the time, but it never fit in with my cold war childhod as I recall most of the scenarios being set in the US.
 
Towards the end of the decade GDW released Space: 1889 which in hindsight shows how groundbreaking GDW were when they published the first victorian Sci-Fi RPG before cyberpunk had truly emerged never mind steampunk.  In recent years I have come to enjoy victorian sci-fi more and more, partly as a refracted, quintisentially English, vision of Empire and partly as a result of my fascination with the aestetic of heavy engineering during the industrial revolution (with brass finials and plenty of scroll work).

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - F is for Fighting Fantasy

F is for... Fighting Fantasy

Flying Buffalo not Fighting Fantasy

My first exposure to the world of Adventure Gamebooks was actually a copy of Weirdworld, a Tunnels and Trolls solo adventure which my dad brough back from one of his trips home whilst working in Durham in the North East of England.  I was mesmerised by this crudely made book and I didn't let the mere fact that I didn't have a copy of the T&T rules stop me from repeatedly entering the Madhouse of Maximilian the Magnificent.

My father (who is to blame for all of this) was a keen wargamer and so I ended up going to the Bradford Wargames Society and being exposed to full blown Roleplaying Games such as D&D and Tunnels and Trolls at quite an early age.  Then came the first great gaming hiatus as we moved away from Yorkshire to South East London.  

I was already a veteran when the first of the Fighting Fantasy books was published in 1982.  Schoolmates who had not already been exposed to RPGs devoured the Fighting Fantasy books with gusto and whilst I enjoyed playing their copies and followed them on their trips to the only gamestore in the area, I didn't buy any of these gamebooks at the time.  However, it was on one of these trips that by chance I discovered a copy of the Corgi Tunnels and Trolls rulebook, money exchanged hands and I was now ensconced as the group DM.

So although my relationship with Fighting Fantasy is not atypical, I can acknowledge the huge debt owed by UK roleplayers to Steve Jackson and Ian livingstone for setting many of our friends on the path to exploring our own adventures, not just choosing them.

My Collection Includes

Island of the Lizard King Buy it on eBay

Free Way Fighter Buy it on eBay

The Warlock's Way Buy it on eBay

Warlock Magazine

The Abominog - Les Edwards

Fighting Fantasy fans could also indulge their passion on a monthly basis via the pages of Warlock Magazine which was a brilliant piece of marketing and essentially contained at least one new adventure per issue.

My favourite issue was the one featuring the monster form the Uriah Heep album "Abominog" painted by one of my favourite artist Les Edwards.

Les Edwards was pretty much the go-to-guy if you wanted a fantasy or horror painting for your new paperback or movie poster.

When they needed an artist to immortalise Hawk The Slayer, you guessed it they went to Les.

For some strange reason Games Workshop produced an artbook called Blood & Iron containing high quality prints of the many artworks they had used as cover for their games over the years.

Maybe this was part of the deal with Les, but they never did it with any other artist to my knowledge although John Blanche did publish the book The Emperor's Will under the Warhammer 40K banner.

Board Game

Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Buy it on eBay

In 1986 Gamesworkshop released the Warlock of Firetop Mountain Boardgame in their defacto Bookcase format.  A race to the finish with heavy Player vs Player interraction this was an immensely popular game in its day and still has a cult following over 35 years later.


Want to know more

In the course of dragging these memories from my caffeine addled grey matter I have encountered some very fine Fighting Fantasy resources:

• Fighting Fantasy Collector - A full listing of all the FF books and a price guide
  
  
• FightingFantasy.com - Official site of current FF publisher Wizard Books
  
• Fighting Fantasy Fandom - Wiki containing over 8,000 articles about the Fighting 
  
  
• Big Blue Bubble Inc have released iOS versions of Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon, Citadel of Chaos and City of Thieves.
  
• Fighting Fantasy Miniatures - Atlantis miniatures plans to release miniatures of all the cover art.
  
• Search for Fighting Fantasy on eBay - Help support this channel buy using the affiliate link
  

NEXT: G is for... GAMES DESIGNERS WORKSHOP

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - E is for Elric of Melnibone

E is for Elric of Melniboné (it's mel-nib-o-nay not mel-ni-bone)

Stormbringer RPG on eBay

Michael Moorcock was de rigeur reading amongst my fellow roleplayers and the Elric Saga particularly so.  Elric was for most readers the first true anti-hero and introduced the concept of exploiting flawed and troubled character possibilities in roleplay.

The Novels

My fondest memories were of my school mates and I swapping the London Panther editions in the playground like kids do today with XBox games. 

• Elric of Melniboné (1972) - Where Elric, the 428th Sorceror Emperor of Melniboné and he discovers the runeblade "Stormbringer" from which he derives power and vitality.
  
  
• The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976) - Forced to flee Melniboné, Elric journeys across the sea and learns his fate, to become the Eternal Champion.
  
  
• The Weird of the White Wolf (1977) - Where Elric returns to Melniboné with his companion Moonglum and confronts the usurper Yrkoon.
  
  
• The Vanishing Tower (1977) - Where Elric turns mercenary sorceror
  
  
• The Bane of the Black Sword (1977) - Introduces the love of Elric's life Zarozinia and sets up the events of Stormbringer
  
  
• Stormbringer (1965) - Elric must confront the Sorceror King of Pan Tang, Jagren Lern, who has allied himself with the Lords of Chaos in an epic final battle.

Elric is one of the many incarnations of The Eternal Champion, a hero who exists in all times, universes and dimensions who is charged by Fate to defend the cosmic balance between the gods of Law and Chaos.  Other incarnations being Doriam Hawkmoon, Corum Jhaelen Irsei, Oswald Bastable and of course Jerry Cornelius. 

The RPG

With all this rich source material and an established fan base it was an obvious move to publish an RPG based on the books, which Chaosium promptly did in 1981 with the release of Stormbringer.  This then led to a small (in relative terms) collection of sourcebooks, modules and expansions.

The Miniatures

When Games Workshop began distributing Stormbringer for Chaosium one of the first things they did was to make a set of miniatures.  The Eternal Champion range was quite extensive and, beyond the boxed set of hero characters,  featured Melnibonéan infantry and cavalry and Pan Tangian infantry, and tiger handlers.

(Top: L to R: Corum Jhaelen Irsei, Elric Kinslayer, Elric of Menibone, Erekose)
(Bottom: L to R: Jerry Cornelius, Moonglum, Count Ulrik Skarsol, Duke Dorian Hawkmoon)

The Music

Buy it from eBay

Michael Moorcock was heavily involved in the London psychedelic scene in the 1960s and he has explored many musical projects and  has colaborated with several bands including Blue Oyster Cult and most notably space rockers Hawkwind.

This lead to the album "Chronicles of the Black Sword" based largely on the Elric Saga, the notable exception being the track "Needle Gun" which is based on Jerry Cornelius another work by Moorcock and another incarnation of The Eternal Champion.

Tracklisting

1. "Song of the Swords" (Dave Brock)
2. "Shade Gate" (Harvey Bainbridge)
3. "The Sea King" (Huw Lloyd-Langton)
4. "The Pulsing Cavern" (Bainbridge, Alan Davey)
5. "Elric the Enchanter" (Davey)
6. "Needle Gun" (Brock)
7. "Zarozinia" (Brock, Kris Tait)
8. "The Demise" (Bainbridge, Brock)
9. "Sleep of a Thousand Tears" (Brock, Michael Moorcock)
10. "Chaos Army" (Bainbridge, Brock)
11. "Horn of Destiny" (Brock)

NEXT: F is for... Fighting Fantasy

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - D is for Dungeon Floors

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)...

D is for Dungeon Floors

No self respecting DM in the 80s could get away without using cardstock dungeon floor plans.  Back in the 80s we didn't have photoshop and photo-quality printers, so if you wanted nice floorplans you needed to either make your own (and be very arts and crafty) or you could pop-along to your local specialist retailer and buy some ready made ones.  There were quite a few ranges to choose from:

Endless Plans (Endless Games 1983-?) - Not much info has survived about these other than that they were mostly two colour plans and were also featured in The Complete Dungeon Master series of boxed sets and Tortured Souls magazine.  There were at least 8 sets, with Set 8 being Forests, and they were very architectural in design.  As I recall you were meant to cut them out along the dotted lines and you could then build up quite intricate and irregular dungeons by layering pieces one on top of another.  This approach was novel, but futile and unplayable unless you had access to plenty of magic tape and an A3 photocopier.  The wilderness tiles did have overlayed crosses for movement but they were far too intricate to be really useful (in comparison with the Dungeon Planner or Dungeon Floor Plans sets around at he same time.

Example of Endless Plans floorplans
(as found in CDM3 The Watchers of the Sacred Flame)

Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Floor Plans (Games Workshop 1979) - Published by under license from TSR these are the granddaddy of all the Games Workshop floorplan sets and were reprinted in 1982 without any reference to the Dungeons and Dragons brand and also form the basis for the Dungeon Planner series reusing the same ground artwork. 

Dungeon Planner (Games Workshop) - Neither of these are the traditional type of floorplans.  Each box set came with an A2 map of the area in question (1in to 5ft scale) and a booklet for the DM to write scenario specific information in blocks corresponding to the numbered locations.  The covers of the booklets also doubled as a DM's screen containing Encounter Tables and a black and white DM's version of the map with the rooms and doors numbered.  I particularly liked the fact that the doors were seperately numbered as it is irritating when running a commercial scenario to find the status of the doors in the last line (or worse buried in the middle) of the room description. 

• Set 1: Caverns of the Dead (1984) - (Artist: Gary Chalk) - This map depicted a typical dungeon and came with an extra A4 map of the region of Koss.
  
  
• Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh (1984) - (Artist: by Albie Fiore and Robert Neville) - This set was part of a waterside village called Blackmarsh.

Set 1: Caverns of the Dead	Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh

Dungeon Floor Plans (Artist Uncredited) - Designed in the same style as the Dungeon Planner series and based on the original Dungeons and Dragons Floorplans tile design.  The latter sets included an overlayed cross grid to aid movement which was also used in the Judge Dredd RPG floorplans which were included in the boxed game.  This series included: 

• Dungeon Floor Plans (1982) - 12 Sheets of generic dungeon floors including;  4 sheets of grey "crazy paved" stone floor, 3 sheets of beige flagstone floors, 1 sheet of wooden floors and 1 sheet of stone steps.
  
  
• Dungeon Floor Plans 2 (1982) - 12 Sheets of exterior floors including; 3 sheets of grass, trees and Hedges, 3 sheets of water, 2 sheets of grey corridor features, 2 sheets of beige and 2 sheets of beige flagstone floors.
  
  
• Dungeon Floorplans 3 (1983) - 12 Sheets of exterior features including; 4 sheets of roof tiles, 2 sheets of roof junctions, 2 sheets of timber features, two sheets of boats and two sheets of stone/dirt features.
  
  
• Dungeon Floorplans 4 (1984) - 12 coloured sheets including; 5 rocky cavern floor Three Tunnel and Cavern walls 2 sheets of junctions openings and corners, 1 sheet of Cave features and 1 sheet of mine rails, rail junctions and accessories such as wagons, wheelbarrows and buffers.

Dungeon Floor Plans	Dungeon Floor Plans 2
Dungeon Floor Plans 3	Dungeon Floor Plans 4

DUNGEON Floor Plans (Games Workshop) - The previous sets released by GW all had a very flat feel to them, being at most 3 spot colours and no attempt was made to light, shadow or texture them.  The next floorplans series attempted to fix that and hence moved to a full colour printing process but the lack of a defined grid made them far less useful for roleplay even though they were very pretty.  The series was made up of:

• Dungeon Floor Plans 1 (1986) - (unknown artist) - A re-imagineering of the 1982 set with full colour artwork including doors and furniture.
  
  
• Dungeon Caverns (1986) - (Artist: Dave Andrews) - 12 Sheets of Caverns including 3 cavern floors, 1 cavern floor with stream, 3 curved cavern tunnels, 1 straight cavern tunnel with mine rails, 2 junctions 1 entrance and 1 sheet of cavern features such as steps, planks, treasure and weapons and a magma river.
   
• Dungeon Rooms (1986) - (Artists: Tony Ackland, Dave Andrews, Colin Dixon) - 12 sheets including 23 rooms: Torture Chamber, Necromancer's Study, Armoury, Temple, Bedroom, Mausoleum, Apothecary, Guardroom and Cell, Treasure Room, Throne Room, Alchemist's Laboratory, Orc's Den, Wizard's Study, Great Hall, Forge, Kitchen, Barracks, Mortuary, Gladiatorial Pit, Library, Large Stairwell, Magic Well, Dragon's Lair plus Corridors and Passageways.
  
  
• Dungeon Lairs (1987) - (Artists: Dave Andrews, Colin Dixon) - 10 sheets of monster lairs including: Sewers, Tunnel Complex, Troll Cave, Chaos Cavern, Chaos Temple, Ancient Temple, Barrow, Goblin Hall, Mossy Cave, Tree Root Cavern, Water Filled Cave, Ice Cavern Chaos Throne Room.

Dungeon Floor Plans 1	Dungeon Caverns
Dungeon Rooms	Dungeon Lairs

Role-Play Floor Plans (Playtwice Ltd)  - I have one sheet (I have no idea when or where I acquired it) from one of the two sets published and they mimicked the Dungeon Floor Plans Set 1 but were slightly more colourful.  No lighting effects were present but you did get a good spread of floor accessories as can be seen in this period advert from Adventurer Magazine.

Other NoteableFloorplans from the Era

• Halls Of Horror: Gothic Floor Plans (Games Workshop 1986) - (Artists: uncredited) - Although not technically in the "DUNGEON Floor Plans" series these came out at the same time and were squarely marketed at Call of Cthulhu players even though GW did not brand them as such (probably due to licensing issues).  12 Sheets of floorplans depicting a gothic mansion including 11 Rooms; Hall, Dining Room, Kitchen, Conservatory, Laboratory, Guest Bedroom, Drawing Room, Library, Scullery, Attic or Cellar, Master Bedroom, Bathroom and 2 sheets of accessories including 2 cars, staircases sarcophagi and some
  corpses.
  
  
• Heroquest (Games Workshop / MB Games 1989) - This boardgame featured a big full colour dungeon which although it has some unfavourable design characterstics it is still quite useable for smaller dungeons. 
  
  
• Advanced Heroquest (Games Workshop 1989) - Came with some really nice floorplans with jigsaw connectors so they didn't slide all over the place.  Far nicer and more useable than the DUNGEON Floor Plans which GW released 3 years earlier.
  
  
• Judge Dredd: Slaughter Margin (Games Workshop 1986) - (Artist: Dave Andrews) - A campaign scenario boxset which included 8 A3 playsheets depicting scenes from the scenario but designed to be quite generic and 3 sheets of accessories like furniture and machinery.
   
  
• Judge Dredd: Citi-Block (Games Workshop 1987) - (Artist: Dave Andrews) - 8 A3 Floorplans representing an open area, park, entrance plaza, office units, helipad/hover bus stop, 2 pipeway/corridors, and sky-rail station and 4 A4 sheets of cardstock vehicles, street furniture and machinery to populate your own Mega City block.  Fully compatible with the earlier Slaughter Margin and very useable for all manner of Sci-Fi games. 

Collecting Dungeon Floors

Despite the rise in popularity of digital roleplaying platfroms such as Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, there is a large base of players still using analog floorplans.  As result the products above can command high prices for what is essentially pieces of cardboard.  If you are a completist that doesn't matter you just have to search for Dungeon Floors on eBay.

Next: E is for Elric of Melniboné