Did you know I wrote a Universal/Generic RPG in the 1980s?

...and that the free PDF version has been downloaded nearly 14,000 times since it was "re-released" back in 2011?

It's been a while since I mentioned The System around these parts. The System is the universal RPG that I originally wrote as a high-schooler in 1985, abandoned when I realized GURPS had hit the market, then finally resurrected when I discovered the OSR back in the early part of 2011 (though had yet to understand what a retro-clone was... which The System is definitely not). If you've never heard of The System, it was actually the first New Big Dragon RPG product ever published (in the early months of 2011), and the one that set the ball in motion for what I've done since. Below is how the "original edition" appeared in the mid 80s (on the left) and how it appears now in the "25th Anniversary Edition" (on the right). I suppose I should start getting ready for the 40th Anniversary Edition in 2026.



I'm quite willing to admit the game has its flaws... I mean, c'mon, I was 16 or 17 when I wrote it. (e.g., there is a very convoluted constitution-to-hit-point system, and there is an innovative but ultimately ill-conceived initiative and movement tracking system, and while it purports to handle supers among its genres, I can't claim that it actually scales to reflect the expanse of power levels between the weakest and strongest heroes). But over time, I have more and more appreciation for the fact that it uses d6s only, and led to some underlying things that Welbo and I would like to see become part of a "2nd Edition" of The System. (Should we ever get back to it.)

There have been some interesting developments over the last ten or twelve years. For example, it was poised to become a guy in Brazil's replacement for GURPS. I've also received several emails over the years with people asking about using the underlying system as a framework for other games (both tabletop and computer-based), though nothing has ever materialized from those inquiries.

• If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

• To download a free PDF from MediaFire, click here. 
• To buy a print copy of The System from Lulu, head over here.

The System Surpasses 10,000 Downloads!!!

So it seems that while I've been asses and elbows over the last few months with real-world client work, PDF downloads of my generic RPG The System surpassed 10,000 total downloads! The System is the universal RPG that I originally wrote as a high-schooler in 1985, abandoned when I realized GURPS had hit the market, then finally resurrected when I discovered the OSR back in the early part of 2011 (though had yet to understand what a retro-clone was... which The System is definitely not).

As a published RPG product, it predates the other things for which I'm known (including the d30 DM Companion, the otherwise first of my published products). It has been available as a free PDF download (direct from this link) and in print-on-demand from Lulu.com.

If you've never heard of The System, here's the topline overview... I originally wrote/designed this in late 1985/early 1986 (when I was about 16 years old) before other universal role playing systems were available on the market. As I was getting ready to playtest it with my friends, a guy in our gaming group brought in a copy of the (then) newly-released GURPS, and I shelved my system in the disappointment that comes with having someone beat you to the punch. In 2011, I "rescued the from oblivion" (that is, I scanned the old daisy-wheel printed version that came from my dad's word processor at work), gave it a (very) quick polish to the ruleset, and typeset it with a decidedly retro (1st generation) RPG feel to it.

As stated previously, I'm quite willing to admit the game has its flaws... I mean, c'mon, I was 16 or so when I wrote it. (e.g., there is a very convoluted constitution-to-hit-point system, and there is an innovative but ultimately ill-conceived initiative and movement tracking system, and while it purports to handle supers among its genres, I can't claim that it actually scales to reflect the expanse of power levels between the weakest and strongest heroes). But over time, I have more and more appreciation for the fact that it uses d6s only, and led to some underlying things that Welbo and I would like to see become part of a "2nd Edition" of The System. (Should we ever get back to it, but may something it takes us 10 or more years to complete.)

• If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

• To download a free PDF from MediaFire, click here.
• To buy a deeply-discounted print copy of The System from Lulu.com, head over here.

The System Surpasses 9,000 Downloads

It seems like the only time I mention The System on this blog is when it hits another download milestone (which is because the only time I mention The System on this blog is when it hits another download milestone). The System is the universal RPG that I originally wrote as a high-schooler in 1985, abandoned when I realized GURPS had hit the market, then finally resurrected when I discovered the OSR back in the early part of 2011 (though had yet to understand what a retro-clone was... which The System is definitely not).

As a published RPG product, it predates the other things for which I'm known (including the d30 DM Companion, the otherwise first of my published products). It has been available as a free PDF download (direct from this link) and in print-on-demand from Lulu.com.

Well... some time over the last few days, the free downloads of The System from my MediaFire link surpassed the 9,000 mark (which does not include downloads from co-located downloads, like the one at 1KM1KT).

If you've never heard of The System, here's the topline overview... I originally wrote/designed this in late 1985/early 1986 (when I was about 16 years old) before other universal role playing systems were available on the market. As I was getting ready to playtest it with my friends, a guy in our gaming group brought in a copy of the (then) newly-released GURPS, and I shelved my system in the disappointment that comes with having someone beat you to the punch. In 2011, I "rescued the from oblivion" (that is, I scanned the old daisy-wheel printed version that came from my dad's word processor at work), gave it a (very) quick polish to the ruleset, and typeset it with a decidedly retro (1st generation) RPG feel to it.

As stated previously, I'm quite willing to admit the game has its flaws... I mean, c'mon, I was 16 or so when I wrote it. (e.g., there is a very convoluted constitution-to-hit-point system, and there is an innovative but ultimately ill-conceived initiative and movement tracking system, and while it purports to handle supers among its genres, I can't claim that it actually scales to reflect the expanse of power levels between the weakest and strongest heroes). But over time, I have more and more appreciation for the fact that it uses d6s only, and led to some underlying things that Welbo and I would like to see become part of a "2nd Edition" of The System. (Should we ever get back to it, but may something it takes us 10 or more years to complete.)

• If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

• To download a free PDF from MediaFire, click here.
• To buy a just-over-cost print copy of The System from Lulu (for $3.95), head over here.

The System Surpasses 8,000 Downloads

It's been a while since I mentioned The System around these parts. The System is the universal RPG that I originally wrote as a high-schooler in 1985, abandoned when I realized GURPS had hit the market, then finally resurrected when I discovered the OSR back in the early part of 2011 (though had yet to understand what a retro-clone was... which The System is definitely not).

Some time on this Friday just passed, the free downloads of The System from my MediaFire link surpassed the 8,000 mark (which does not include downloads from co-located downloads, like the one at 1KM1KT).

If you've never heard of The System, it was actually the first New Big Dragon RPG product ever published (in the early months of 2011), and the one that set the ball in motion for what I've done since. Below is how the "original edition" appeared in the mid 80s (on the left) and how it appears now in the "25th Anniversary Edition" (on the right).



I'm quite willing to admit the game has its flaws... I mean, c'mon, I was 16 or 17 when I wrote it. (e.g., there is a very convoluted constitution-to-hit-point system, and there is an innovative but ultimately ill-conceived initiative and movement tracking system, and while it purports to handle supers among its genres, I can't claim that it actually scales to reflect the expanse of power levels between the weakest and strongest heroes). But over time, I have more and more appreciation for the fact that it uses d6s only, and led to some underlying things that Welbo and I would like to see become part of a "2nd Edition" of The System. (Should we ever get back to it.)

There have been some interesting developments over the last four years or so. For example, it was poised to become a guy in Brazil's replacement for GURPS. I've also received several emails over the years with people asking about using the underlying system as a framework for other games (both tabletop and computer-based), though nothing has ever materialized from those inquiries.

• If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

• To download a free PDF from MediaFire, click here.
• To buy a print copy of The System from Lulu, head over here.

The System Hits 7,000 downloads!!!!!!!

If you've followed this blog for longer than a year or so have heard me mention The System, the universal RPG that I originally wrote as a high-schooler in 1985, abandoned when I realized GURPS had hit the market, then finally resurrected when I discovered the OSR, but a year or so before I became part of the OSR blogosphere proper.

Long story short, it's just hit 7,000 downloads from MediaFire (which does not include downloads from 1KM1KT). So you don't have to search through that site, download links can be found at the New Big Dragon web site.

If you've never heard of The System, the original story is here. It was actually the first New Big Dragon RPG product ever published (in the early months of 2011), and the one that set the ball in motion for what I've done since. I'm quite willing to admit the game has its flaws... I mean, c'mon, I was 16 or 17 when I wrote it. (e.g., there is a very convoluted constitution-to-hit-point system, and there is an innovative but ultimately ill-conceived initiative and movement tracking system, and while it purports to handle supers among its genres, I can't claim that it actually scales to reflect the expanse of power levels between the weakest and strongest heroes). But over time, I have more and more appreciation for the fact that it uses d6s only, and led to some underlying things that Welbo and I would like to see become part of a "2nd Edition" of The System. (Should we ever get back to it.)

New Acquisition, circa 1984: Time & Time Again (Time Travel RPG)

I love when I pick up something old and moderately obscure for next to nothing. Friday morning's find is Timeline Ltd.'s time-traveling RPG Time & Time Again. Timeline Ltd. is the company behind The Morrow Project, the RPG in which players rebuild after WWIII.

The first thing that struck me about T&TA is that game mechanics don't start until exactly halfway through Book I (Book I includes the following: Temporal Physics, Bureau of Temporal Affairs, World Governement, Character Generation, Armed and Unarmed Combat, Skills, and Voltageur's Tales). Literally, on the right-hand page on the spread where you see the staples, the game mechanics begin.

The first half of Book I deals with the background on the setting, including an account of the political and military events of the late 80s and early 90s (written in 1984; have I mentioned my fondness for early 80s near-future predictions where the U.S. and U.S.S.R. are the two superpowers?), an overview of "time translation" and the use of time travel, an overview of the The World Government (the former United Nations had failed its purpose), and information about The Bureau of Temporal Affairs where legions of paramilitary Votigeurs (a name taken from a type of Napoleonic skirmish unit) are sent on time travel missions. There is a lot of care taken in the reasoning behind the game's time translation methods to do as much as possible to eliminate the paradoxes that plague time travel fiction across the board (e.g., theories as to why the past can't be changed but the future can, rules for meeting one's self, "science" to explain why you can't be accidentally transported inside another object, etc.).

Voltigeur's undertake a variety of missions, including: 1) initial contact (with cultures), 2) follow-up (after a contact mission), 3) observance, 4) escort, 5) rescue, 6) sojourn (dangerous missions of observance and learning in "bad times" where little contact is maintained; e.g., during the plague), and 7) eradication. That last one is the most interesting to me. In a game where changing past events should be theoretically impossible, there are factions attempting to change the past anyway. Eradication missions send Voltigeurs to deal with these troublemakers. Honestly, other than that last mission type, the majority of the time travel in the game is educational in nature (the World Government is also responsible for being a fulcrum of academic learning). Although the focus on time travel seems to be focused on the past, travel to the future is possible as well.

This brings us to the staples in Book I, and the second thing that struck me about T&TA... the game mechanics use a d200 system. Yes! A d200 system! The book suggests three ways to achieve a result from 1-200:

1) a d20 numbered 0-19 and a d10 numbered 0-9
2) a d20 numbered 1-20 and a d10 (requires subtracting 1 from every d20 roll)
3) two d20s numbered 1-20 (requires subtracting 1 from each of the d20 rolls)

This d200 system doesn't seem to facilitate anything that couldn't be done equally as well using a d100 system. So I have to ask, "Uh... why?" My guess is because they were trying to do use the Chaosium system without obviously using the Chaosium system. Welbo (a fan The Morrow Project) tells me some editions of The Morrow Project directly reference Chaosium's BRP system.

So if the d200 thing wasn't enough, "structure points/blood points" are divided by percentages into 12 total body parts. The 19% given to each leg includes sub-percentages for the thigh, calf, foot, hip joint, and knee! This same set of percentages comes directly from The Morrow Project. Don't get me wrong, I think there are times with this kind of simulationist detail is worthwhile, but here it seems unnecessarily cumbersome.

Book I ends up with some "Voltigeur’s Tales"—a group of first-person stories meant to give you a feel for role-playing a character personality in the context of the various mission types. It shows how even the simplest missions can be dangerous (e.g., an ambush in the dark by samurai armed with poisoned arrows), and sets up where this game can take you.

Book II is really the GM's book. It deals with climate, terrain, animals, economics, technology, transportation, government & politics, and ethics & etiquette. It's part textbook and part adventure recipe book. It gives little hints here and there how even the simplest missions can go wrong (e.g., even if the Voltigeur's are taught a language before they go somewhere, they won't speak it the same way as the people living there). There's some nice stuff here, but it appears to be only slightly less inviting to read than the first edition DMG.

Will I run this?
Not anytime soon. I've got other things WAY in front of it in the queue.

Did I get anything out of it?
Yes. One tiny-little-thing that I think might work for The System: Expanded.

Was it worth the purchase?
Hell yes! It's old and it's cool and it represents a time when putting out anything like this was a major undertaking of time and expense, and I cannot help but appreciate that.

How did the piece-of-$#!T game I wrote in 1985 get downloaded 6,000 times in the last 2½ years?

More than that, how did it become a guy in Brazil's replacement for GURPS?

Wait! What's that you say? You've never heard of The System? You must be new to the blog, then. I only mention this 28-page crapfest every time I get the chance.

This is the universal RPG I originally wrote in 1985, composed and printed from my dad's Wang (the computer, of course; not his penis), and published in a select run of only THREE COPIES! Then one day a buddy showed up to school with this brand new game called GURPS and I said, "Damn. There goes that idea," and I shelved it. Bitten by the OSR bug a few years back, I dug it up, only minimally polished up my crappy high-school writing, did a real typeset job on it, and published it in February of 2011 (with a retro-type-feel reminiscent of the old Traveler books, and strategically-selected-but-quickly-growing-tiresome public domain art). And now PDF downloads from MediaFire have topped the 6,000 mark! That's 6,000 folks who've downloaded a free PDF copy of The System from MediaFire, not including any Lulu or 1km1kt downloads. (BTW, the PDF is no longer available from Lulu because I don't like not being able to track free downloads. They need to remedy that situation.)

As per my previous 1K-interval blog posts, I have to thank Chris's Compendiums of Free Role-Playing Games, John Kim's Free RPGs on the Web, and Rob Lang over at 1KM1KT (1,000 Monkeys, 1,000 Typewriters), all of whom have taken on the vocation of helping rule-makers and home-brewers to get their work out there. Rob even goes above and beyond, working double-duty with the 24 Hour RPG competition, and triple-duty with the Game Chef competition. But now I also have to thank Heder at the RPG4Free blog; more people download the PDF from his blog every month than they do from the New Big Dragon web site.

• If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

• To download a free PDF from MediaFire, click here.
• To buy a print copy of The System from Lulu, head over here.

Pictured below at top: Cover and first 3 pages from The System, as published in 1985.
Pictured below at bottom: Sample page from "25th Anniversary Edition" published in 2011.

The System Hits 5,000 Downloads!!!!! (+Other Free RPG Downloads)

It's been a while 'round these parts since I've mentioned The System, my universal RPG written originally in the mid-80s and finally typeset and published in February of last year, but the PDF downloads have now topped the 5,000 mark! That's 5,000 folks who've downloaded a free PDF copy of The System from MediaFire,, not including any Lulu or 1km1kt downloads.

Here's something ironic... though I wrote the game originally in the mid-80s (pre-GURPS, but post-Champions), and though the PDF has now hit 5,000 downloads and has been floating around the interweb for about 1-1/2 years, I've only recently seen anyone out there talk about The System. About a month ago, RPG4FREE, a Portuguese-language blog, posted about it. (BTW, you'll have to hit the "translate" button if you don't read Portuguese). Heder (the host over there) said some rather kind words about it... "The System... presents a system of simple rules, which fits in less than 30 pages, but is built on a solid enough to be capable of magnifications without becoming a patchwork of contradictory," and "Highly recommended for general interested in versatility and strong candidate to replace GURPS as my main system." (The translation is by Google Translate; I'm sure it flows better in its original Portugese.)

As per my previous 1K-interval blog posts, I have to thank Chris's Compendiums of Free Role-Playing Games, John Kim's Free RPGs on the Web, and Rob Lang over at 1KM1KT (1,000 Monkeys, 1,000 Typewriters), all of whom have taken on the vocation of helping rule-makers and home-brewers to get their work out there. Rob even goes above and beyond, working double-duty with the 24 Hour RPG competition, and triple-duty with the Game Chef competition.

• If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

• To download a free PDF from MediaFire, click here.
• To buy a print copy of The System from Lulu, head over here.

The System Hits 4,000 Downloads (+Free RPG Downloads)

Just 3 months after the The System hit 3,000 downloads, it has now hit 4,000! That's 4,000 folks who've downloaded a free PDF copy of The System, my universal RPG written originally in the mid-80s. (Tally includes only MediaFire downloads, not including any Lulu or 1km1kt downloads.)

As per my previous 1K-interval blog posts, I have to thank Chris's Compendiums of Free Role-Playing Games, John Kim's Free RPGs on the Web, and Rob Lang over at 1KM1KT (1,000 Monkeys, 1,000 Typewriters), all of whom have taken on the vocation of helping rule-makers and home-brewers to get their work out there. Rob even goes above and beyond, working double-duty with the 24 Hour RPG competition, and triple-duty with the Game Chef competition.

If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

To buy a print copy of The System from Lulu, head over here.

A Few Of My Favorite Dice

If you'd only read this blog for the last week or two, I could see how you might think the only die I own is a d30. And while I am quite proud of my d30 (#1 in the picture above), it is by no means the favorite of my dice, though it is among the echelon. I thought that, in fairness to my other dice and gaming interests, I would feature several dice in my collection, most of which are reaching the age of retirement.

1. This is the 1982 smoky Armory precision d30 that I wrote about in my very first blog post. And while the idea of a d30-based pulp RPG system morphed into a d30-based mutant/barbarian/sorcery RPG system (an idea which I have not abandoned, only sidetracked), it is what launched me into what would become the d30 DM Companion.

2. My co-conspirator Dave Welborn got me these Traveller dice a couple of months ago. I've never really played Traveller (though some of my gaming buddies in high school in the 80s did), but I always dug the dice. I'd see the ads in Dragon, and think... "I gotta get those!" And finally, "I got those." Thanks, Dave.

3. This die, which features a teal dot on two sides, a red dot on two sides, and a yellow dot on the other two sides, came in a pack of mixed dice that I bought sometime in the late 80s. For years, I've been trying to develop a basic resolution mechanic that would use dice like this. And when I discovered the Toss Up dice, I thought I'd figured it out. Honestly, it's the same concept as Fudge's +/- dice, but does not support the simple addition/subtraction. I'm going to figure this out one day!

4. There's nothing special about these d10s from the mid-90s, except the concept of three opposing forces (in this case, physical/mental/spiritual) which spurned something that evolved into The System: Expanded, the foundation system for Starmasters. It's amazing how the simple purchase of dice could spawn an entire game system concept.

5. I love the old orange d6s from the Avalon Hill bookcase games. One of these came from Amoeba Wars which has, in my opinion, one of the most awesome pieces of cover art... ever! Hell, the cover art alone is why I bought the game.

6. I honestly can't remember where these green d6s came from. I'm guessing some other boxed game, either an RPG that uses d6s, or another bookcase game. But unfortunately they're just not as cool as the orange ones.

7. These tiny d6s came from a variety of games, but I didn't use them for those games. Everyone in our Champions group in 1985-6 had their own personal fistfuls of dice (which, if you've never played Champions, is pretty much a requirement for higher-powered characters) and these were mine. There's nothing like rolling a couple of dozen dice, adding up all the stun damage, then picking out the 6s for body damage. That mechanic alone is why we played Champions and never looked back at V&V. But looking back now, I prefer the older-school vibe of V&V and, as I've mentioned before, would love to get a V&V group going.

8. Like the d10s, these dice are newer. But they've become my Starmasters playtest dice. And hopefully one day, they'll become my Starmasters convention demo game dice.

9.Yep. Those of us that have these love them. But here's the odd part... I did not get them in with Holmes Basic. I started with the Moldvay set and own the "mud" dice that came with the red and blue boxed sets at that time. Like Grognardia James, I bought my set of low impact dice from Kay-Bee Toys.

I own a lot of newer dice sets, and plenty of other dice, but keep most of my older dice are housed in this (below), a re-purposed tackle box purchased with S&H Green Stamps. After I lost most of the lures that came in it, I threw the leftover lures in my dad's tackle box and... voila! Dice box!

The System Hits 3,000 Downloads (+Free RPG Downloads)

It's been just shy of one year now, and I've topped the 3,000 mark for downloads of the free copy ofThe System, my universal RPG written originally in the mid-80s. (Tally includes only MediaFire downloads, not including any Lulu or 1km1kt downloads.)

As per my 2,000 downloads post, I have to thank Chris's Compendiums of Free Role-Playing Games, John Kim's Free RPGs on the Web, and Rob Lang over at 1KM1KT (1,000 Monkeys, 1,000 Typewriters), all of whom have taken on the vocation of helping rule-makers and home-brewers to get their work out there. Rob even goes above and beyond, working double-duty with the 24 Hour RPG competition, and triple-duty with the Game Chef competition. I'd also like to say "C'mon Lulu! Why the hell can't I see how many people have downloaded a free PDF of this from you?"

If you want the full story on The System, check out this post.

A Holy Grail of RPG Collecting?

It's not every day you buy something for $2.71 that's worth worth nearly a grand. For me, that day was yesterday. On a seemingly innocuous stop at an indie used bookstore on my way home from jury duty yesterday, I chanced upon this beauty... The Official Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album... UNCOLORED!!! For those in know, that means the difference between $80 and $1,000. Once the store's $5 price was cut in half via my store credit, the addition of tax put the grand total at two dollars and seventy-one cents!!! (And I thought my $4 purchase of The Official Superhero Adventure Game was a good buy.)

I'm not going to go into too much detail about this baby because it's been talked about in these parts a lot recently by the likes of fathergeek and boingboing, centered mostly around the recent post by monsterbrains (who's scanned and posted the entire thing to his blog.)

The review that seems to sum it best for me, though, is from dungeonskull who states that it just might be "the best encapsulation of an 'old school' D&D adventure ever made." Well, let's see... 1) old EGG wrote it himself, 2) there's a quest for loot with no other heroic motive (like rescuing or saving); 3) it features a "well-rounded" adventuring party (fighting man, cleric, thief, magic-user, ranger, dwarf, elf... you get the idea); and 4) it's got classic D&D monsters like a bulette, a lich, a beholder, an umber hulk, a remhoraz, and Tiamat the dragon. Yup. That pretty much sums it up.

Now I know how Jared feels when he finds a safe in the back of a locker on Storage Wars.

Villains & Vigilantes & Civic Duty

Any of you who played Jeff Dee & Jack Herman's Villains & Vigilantes "back in the day" probably have some of the same fond recollections of the game that I do. First, the FGU ads for V&V in Dragon magazine were all it took for me to say to myself, "I want to own that game." Second, I thought it was pretty decent of FGU to include the game master's screen in the box (Revised Edition, 1982) rather than try to sucker me out of another 5 or 10 bucks later (even if it was in B&W white on a pretty cheap uncoated card stock.) And third, it included the "Laws of the Land," (section 5.5 A), a pretty standard criminal code that helped a high schooler wrap his head around concepts like "criminally negligent homicide" and the differences between first- and second-degree kidnapping.

So what has me reminiscing about learning criminal codes 5+ years before Law & Order started its 20-year run? I have jury duty today. I don't know what it is about me, but I seem to be a magnet for jury duty. No sooner is my ineligibility period over when my next jury summons arrives in the mail. C'mon, man... FUNK DAT! Hopefully I won't have to spend too much time in voir dire, which should leave me free most of the morning to concentrate on additional engines, tables, etc. for my d30 DM Companion.

Oh, and in the picture above (a scan of one of my old character sheets that's been in my V&V box since 1985/6)... I don't remember if the character's name was supposed to be an intentional pun, or if it was just a typo.

A Look Back: Games Inside Books That Aren't Technically Game Books

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THE BOOK: The Book of Medieval Wargames
THE GAME(S): The Joust, The Tourney, The Melee, The Battle
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1984

The title of this book by Nicholas Slope is a little misleading if your a gamer as a bit more than half the books is just a history of knights, chivalry, heraldry and medieval warfare done in a sort of "light" version of a Time/Life Books kind of way. But, per the title, the most interesting part of the book are the four "board games" (Harper Collins's words) and I think both Harper Collins and the author realized that; the book actually includes a full-color, three-dimensional "pop-up" medieval joust diorama, chance and hazard counters, stand-up player counters, and player stat cards. IMO, the coolest mechanic is from "The Melee" game, in which each player chooses to defend either high, middle or low, and attack either high, middle, low, or attempt to disarm, then roll for their attacks. It's a very nice mechanic for resolving sword and shield combat. For example, if you choose to disarm and your target attempts to parry, you automatically disarm them.

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THE BOOK: The Complete Book of Wargames
THE GAME: Kassala
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1980

From the editors of Consumers Guide and Jon Freeman comes this tome (285 pages) featuring information and reviews for over 150 of the most popular wargames on the market in 1980, including data on publishers, prices, playing time, packaging, game scale, size, balance, key features, playability, rules, realism and degree of complexity. There is a chapter on RPGs (I'm planning a future post on this chapter) and a chapter titled "Computers ad the Future of Wargaming." The book includes Kassala, an introductory wargame portraying a battle between Christian Ethiopians and invading Moslems in 1541. Since these styles of wargame have a rather "limited", situational- and geographically-based ruleset, many enthusiasts will tell you this game still holds up. You just don't get actual cardboard counters or a color gameboard; you have to copy the black and white art for them out of the book.

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THE BOOK: The Complete Guide to the World of Lone Wolf & Grey Star: The Magnamund Companion
THE GAME: Dawn of the Darklords
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1988

Okay, in all fairness, anybody who knows Lone Wolf should really have expected this (a game inside the book, I mean.) After all, this is the "world companion" book to a series of gamebooks that used a simple action resolution mechanic as part of a "choose your own adventure" combat format. The solo adventure in the book is just a stripped down version of what was inside all of the actual "novels." For tabletop miniatures enthusiasts, the book also includes instruction on modeling Magnamund and building your own "fantasy buildings," skyriders and fantasy fleet.

BTW, Lone Star author Joe Dever has offered to allow some of his books to be downloaded free on the internet, so give a visit to Project Aon. (Aon is the universe where Magnamund and the other planets in the setting are located.)

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THE BOOK: Dicing with Dragons
THE GAME: Fantasy Quest solo adventure, FQ1: Eye of the Dragon
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1982, 1983, 1986

There are a bunch of different editions of the book (mine is the 1983 Plume paperback pictured at left), but I assume the game inside stayed the same. Check out The Fighting Fantasist's post for info on this one.

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Vintage Game: Super Deck! (by Marc Miller?)

Every once in a while, I look back at some of the stuff in my collection to make sure I didn't miss anything good or interesting. I'm glad I did. I had written off Super Deck! as one of those awful "me too" CCGs. And, in some ways, it is. But in just as many ways... it isn't.

First, it was produced in 1994. Even MTG didn't hit the market until 1993, so that puts Super Deck! as one of the earliest. With MTG being the only CCG released in 1993, Super Deck! was only 1 of the 9 produced in 1994 (along with SJG's Illuminati: New World Order.)* 1995 saw 42 releases, with subsequent years averaging about a dozen.

Second, it was designed by Marc Miller. Yes! Traveller Marc Miller. Now, to answer the question, "Is there anything special about the design?" Well, I'm not a CCG guy so somebody else will have to hit me about this, but... aren't they kind of all the same anyway? Really, aren't games like this about weird power cards and killer artwork rather than the system mechanics? Neither Super Deck!'s art nor the powers/concepts are nearly as tongue-in-cheek as Stuper Powers!, though they're trying to be. So when you put that case together, Super Deck! the game seems like an obvious attempt to quickly get a super hero CCG to market before anyone else.

What I just said about the art aside, that brings us to my third point... the deck features art by several artist who would go on to become fairly noteworthy. First, Eisner Award winner Brian Michael Bendis, who wouldn't really start to make waves in the comics world until 5 or 6 years after this game came out. Second, Emmy award winner Dean Haspiel who, among other endeavors, collaborated with Harvey Pekar on some of the American Splendor series. Third, Green Arrow artist Phil Hester. And finally, Frances Mao and alt comic artist Josh Neufeld.

When dealing with vintage items, the inevitable questions arise: 1) "Is it worth anything?" and 2) "Is it worth buying?" As for the answer to question 1, take a look at this item on eBay and you tell me. (To save you some time, "No. Not really.") As for question #2, if you collect CCGs or are trying to design a CCG, then sure. Why not? If you collect comics (particularly Utlimate Spider Man, Daredevil, Green Arrow, American Splendor, or Sonic the Hedgehog), then sure. Why not? If you're a collector of World Trade Center/Twin Towers memorabilia (and I don't mean Tolkien's Two Towers), then sure. Why not? (Take a look at both the "Twin Towers" and "Robot Rampage" cards in the image above.) If you're looking for a CCG that only has 160 total cards available with very little chance of ever seeing any expansion packs so you don't get addicted to keep putting $$$ in the pockets of WotC, then sure. Why not? If you're looking for a fun, battle-style card game, check out some of these invented card games using standard playing cards.

* All statistics including release dates per Wikipedia.

Old/Obscure/Rare RPGs: Oddities from My Collection

In continuation of my weekend postings regarding vintage RPGs and used books stores, (and since most of you guys are too busy gaming to read any meaty blogs until Monday anyway), I've decided to do a short post with a few obscurities and oddities I've managed to end up with my collection of RPGs. I bought Space Infantry new when it came out in the early 80s, but most of the others were picked up used sometime between 1991 and 1999. In general, they're rare, but not impossible to come by (except maybe that 1st edition of The Official Superhero Adventure Game.)

SJG's Killer is currently available in a new print and has been through several editions in several languages. The 1st edition from 1982 (below) used to be much harder to come by, but I've seen several copies floating around ebay lately. The 2nd edition from 1985 is a bit more common. (I think they may have re-published to ride the coattails of the movie Gotcha that same year.)

The 1st ed. of Mechanoid Invasion (below, Palladium's first real RPG) is also a little hard to come by, but the collected Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy is fairly readily available.

As for Omnigon, it's not terribly obscure, but not widely known. Honestly, if it weren't for games like Spawn of Fashan and World of Synnibar being so widely known for being so bad, Omnigon might be better known.

On a side, but related, note if any of you live in Austin (or nearby): A guy from one of the Half-price Books there (S. Lamar location) said that about once a month a woman from Steve Jackson Games comes in an dumps a bunch of old RPG stuff from their archives. (Don't forget to check the vintage/memorabilia section, not just the game shelves. And let me know if you pick up anything cool. I'd already spent my limit the last time I was there, or I would have bought The Compleat Adventurer and The Compleat Alchemist.)

d30 Bonus Edition: "Vintage" To Hit Area Chart (1983)

So while looking through some of my old gaming materials (and by old, I mean early 1980s,) I came across this beauty... a d30 Hit Area Chart I developed sometime during my freshman year of high school. The timing is fairly ironic since one of my recent d30 features was a hit-area determination chart. It's more interesting to see how my thought processes are hauntingly similar nearly 30 years later. (It could also be there's only so much you can do with a d30 hit-area determination chart.)

The old chart has some obvious shortcomings. First, the attacker's height roll adjustments should probably be broken into more than 1' increments. Second, it only accounts for a target of average adult human height. Third, the 2nd direction should probably read, "If different parts of the body are armored differently, the attacker should roll for hit area first, then roll 'to hit' based on the AC of the target area, then roll for damage if a successful 'to hit' roll is made." And fourth, I should have probably added rules (based on damage per body part) for losing use of the part altogether vs. 1d4 minutes. But, all-in-all, I wouldn't say it's too shabby for a ninth grader who didn't even have his learner's permit yet.

The System Hits 2,000 Downloads (Plus Links to Loads of FREE RPGs!)

I'd like to start off this post by saying "Thank you!" to the 2,000 (and counting) people who, in the last seven months, have downloaded a free copy ofThe System, my universal RPG written originally in the mid-80s. I'd also like to thank Chris's Compendiums of Free Role-Playing Games, John Kim's Free RPGs on the Web, and Rob Lang over at 1KM1KT (1,000 Monkeys, 1,000 Typewriters), all of whom have taken on the vocation of helping rule-makers and home-brewers to get their work out there. Rob even goes above and beyond, working double-duty with the 24 Hour RPG competition, and triple-duty with the Game Chef competition.

So... "What's The System?" you ask?

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Some time around seventh or eighth grade (this was around 1980, mind you), I started hearing about this game called Dungeons & Dragons. I knew a couple of guys who played it, but I didn't know much more than that. I remember making the mistake of buying the blue box Expert Set without having played the game or having read the Basic (red) Rulebook. So I saved up another twelve bucks, bought the red box, figured it out (a little anyway), and convinced my younger brother to roll up a character or two. Soon enough we were on our way... to adventure!

The bigger impact on me as a role player came not long after while accompanying my mother on her trip to the hobby shop for cross-stitching supplies. It was there, in a clearance bin, I spied it... a copy of Metagaming's Wizard. It blew me away. It was simple and straightforward. But more importantly, I realized there was more than one RPG out there, and there were other ways of handling character creation and combat.

I moved onto high school, joined the "Warlords" club (our school RPG club) and was exposed to the gamut of games available on the market—simple and fun superhero games, complex medieval games, unique starship combat systems. And the more I discovered, the more interesting it became. Then it hit me... "Why isn't there one RPG that lets you play in any setting or time period." It seemed so natural to me, and I couldn't figure out why no one had done it yet. So I set about creating one.

I'd go to my dad's office every chance I got, sit at that newfangled Wang word processing workstation (you know the one, the big thing with the black screen and green text, the one hooked to that big box on the other table, next to the daisy-wheel printer), and clack-clack-clacked my way through the rules. This early version of “The System” was mostly engineered from the mechanics of other games that made the most sense to me, filling in here and there with some contrivances of my own.

By early 1986, I had a working version of the rules together. I had a few copies printed out, ready to bring them to my gaming group (to see how they played), when a friend showed up at our weekly session with the first couple of GURPS rulebooks. "AAUGH! Somebody beat me to it! (Not that I shouldn't have figured it would happen.)" Staring at those fully-illustrated/typeset/printed GURPS books, I just didn't see the point in continuing with my game.

I went off to college at the end of that summer, got REALLY busy on my schoolwork and lost time to play, and drifted away from the hobby for a while. So my rulebook sat in a folder for years... somewhat forgotten. Until I found them in a box stored in the back of my garage last year, about the same time I discovered the OSR.

Call it nostalgia for those early years, call it the internet “if he can do it, I can do it” attitude, or just call it a waste of virtual space. With a little help from my scanner, an OCR program, and 20 plus years of graphic design experience, I published my original system earlier this year via a downloadable PDF and in a print version through Lulu.com. There was very little content editing (just some clean up for comprehension and a few glaring rule inconsistencies,) and I gave it a decidedly retro bent to the layout and graphics (inspired more by the post white box wave of wargame based RPGs.) So there it is... very raw, but "out there" in the universe nonetheless.

The rules are a little bare-bones and include some very obvious holes (and more typos than I care to mention). Moreover, I feel it to be plagued by the poor writing of a teenager who had yet to discover his voice as a writer, and was doing his best not to plagiarize the writing of the games that "inspired" him.

The new layout, however, is much more user-friendly than the original version produced on that Paleolithic word processor with monospaced daisy-wheel printing and justification forced to the point of illegibility. (It might as well have been chiselled on stone.) And with the addition of a few perfect pieces of vintage public domain clip art, I think it captures the spirit of that early wave of (now “retro”) role playing games. (BTW, there is a much smarter, much stronger, much deeper, and much more streamlined version in the works - The System: Expanded.)

So why did I put it that original (albeit re-published) version out there? Vanity? Legacy? Boredom? Most likely a combination of all three.

I hoped that somebody might find something useful in there, whether it be a game mechanic they'd adapt for their own use, an insight to the home-grown nature of early role-playing games, or (at the risk being committed) a system of mechanics they actually use outright!

So what do those 2,000+ people who've downloaded The System think of it? I have no idea. Though my email address appears with the copyright indicia, I have yet to hear from a single one.

To download a PDF of The System, follow this link to MediaFire.

And don't forget to let me know what you think. I've been in the advertising/design biz for 25 years. I've got thick skin. I can take it.

1982: Role-playing Infancy and Infantry

I officially declare 1982 as "The Year of the RPG Sucker!" That was the year that saw mainstream outlets like Waldenbooks scrambling to stock their shelves for gaming enthusiasts primed for the hustle. That was the year I bought The Highest Level of All Fantasy Wargaming. (To this day, I still have a particular fondness for Margaret Welbank's illustrations from the book.) It was also the year that I that I bought Daniel Douglas Hutto and Roger Allen Esnard's Space Infantry.

I won't get into detail about the system mechanics or offer too deep a review; you can find that here. The real point of this post is not to criticize, but rather praise. You have to applaud any gamer back then with his own set of rules for having the wear-with-all to organize said ruleset, then dig into their pockets to pay for production and printing (which included typesetting, paste-ups, filmwork and stripping, plates, and then the biggest expense of all... offset printing, because digital printing wouldn't begin to be an option for a couple of decades plus.)

I think more than any other game I ever owned (even D&D), Space Infantry may be the most responsible for my deciding to create my original edition of The System on my dad's Wang (ahem) and copy machine. (It was all I could afford.)

I think we now all take for granted for the ease of the personal computer and the downright bargain of print-on-demand services like Ka-Blam and Lulu. It's led to some really interesting offerings like X-plorers and Planet Eris. Unfortunately, it's also led to some blatant copyright infringement in an attempt to turn a profit.

I always have an appreciation for those who do it for the love of the hobby, regardless of the quality level of the content, mechanics, or layout. It's the scam artists and opportunists that disgust me.

Cover and first 3 pages from The System,
self-published in 1985.

Ingenious Initiative System

I suppose it's a good thing I held back my rant the other day about Half Price Books getting greedy. Not that my complaint doesn't hold up (in the long run it does,) but maybe karma paid me back with a couple of decent finds yesterday. The best of which was this baby... an unopened, still shrink-wrapped copy of the Dr. No adventure from Victory Games James Bond RPG. To clarify, the price sticker on the front (since removed) and back sides are from the adventure's life before Half Price. The HP sticker was also easily removed, and its $9.98 price was more than reasonable for this item.

For those of you who've never played it, James over at Grognardia is right when he says that "...its designers and writers really got the world of James Bond and tailored their game to provide it to players and referees alike." One of the most ingenious things to me about the game's mechanics is the initiative system.

The James Bond Initiative System: All characters involved in a chase or combat declare their actions in reverse order of Speed (1-3, based on the sum of Perception and Dexterity), then those actions are executed in order of speed (highest to lowest,) giving faster characters the advantages of knowing what slower characters are going to do, and being able to take their action earlier.

It's honestly the perfect system for any genre where the hero is larger-than-life, and particularly the d30 pulp system I'm developing. Granted, it does make more sense for the Doc Savage/Flash Gordon style hero, and it may not work as well to emulate the style of the Weird Menace or Hardboiled Detective genres. However, as an optional initiative/action, something similar should work rather nicely.