[Fanzine Focus XXX] All That Glitters Is Palladium

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. And then there is All That Glitters Is Palladium.

All That Glitters Is Palladium: A Short History of Palladium is different. Published by Yaruki Zero Games, All That Glitters Is Palladium is a short history of the publisher best known for the roleplaying game, Rifts, or rather, “[A] short, tongue-in-cheek overview of one of the weirdest tabletop RPG publishers.” Within a handful of pages, it looks at the fifteen or so roleplaying games published by Palladium Books since its founding in 1981, as well as the entire Palladium Books Megaverse, explains the Megaversal RPG system which underpins the majority of the publisher’s titles and its general strangeness, discusses the publisher’s presentation style and values, and provides a detailed examination of Rifts, before coming up to date—at least in 2019—with the Robotech RPG Tactics Debacle. All with a dash of humour and a very knowing tone from someone who has played a lot of Rifts.

All That Glitters Is Palladium opens with an introduction that makes clear that the company is very much Kevin Siembieda’s and that he brings a “[G]onzo kitchen sink sensibility and boundless enthusiasm” to his books and also himself, often rewriting books when authors have already followed their brief. This is followed by detailed examination of the Megaversal RPG system, highlighting how the stats only really matter if they are very high, the inclusion of skills—often with surprisingly low chances, how the differences between Mega Damage Capacity and Structural Capacity, how even in the twenty-first century, a Science fiction/Science Fantasy roleplaying game like Rifts is using an Alignment system. In terms of production values it points to the publisher’s unwillingness to adapt to prevailing technology—the use of desktop publishing and the publication of PDFs in particular; the peculiar writing style with its use of underling, exclamation points, and ALL CAPS.

Although is best known for Rifts, Palladium found its fortune with two licences—Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness and Robotech. Consequently, All That Glitters Is Palladium begins its overview of the publisher’s major roleplaying releases with those titles and they receive more coverage than other modern titles like Ninjas & Superspies or Beyond the Supernatural. They receive more coverage of Palladium’s other games—The Mechanoid Invasion, Recon, Palladium Fantasy, Systems Failure, and others. These latter titles barely receive a paragraph each, which is something of shame because some of these are still interesting, if only from a historical point of view. It is Rifts though, which receives the most coverage, four pages in all. The author describes it as an “[O]verwhelming stew of kitchen sink post-apocalyptic science-fantasy horror” and charts its development from the core through some thirty-six World Books, eighteen sourcebooks, fifteen Dimension Books, three Conversion books, and more. It is noted here that a lot of the written content is artwork driven, that is, written to provide stats and background based on a piece of artwork rather than the other way around as is usual in the industry. That said, the overview concentrates on the first two or three books beyond the core rules, and consequently, the overview is fairly broad at this point. The section on Rifts closes with a section on Savage Rifts, of which the author is particularly positive in terms of the writing and the layout, labelling them both as competent.

All That Glitters Is Palladium comes to a close with the author delving into the ‘Robotech RPG Tactics Debacle’ and despite raising over a million dollars failing to deliver quite what was promised. The piece is again brief and provides the lightest of overviews. The author speculates that the licence will not get renewed when it runs out, and leaves Palladium awaiting lawsuits, its future uncertain… In between all of this, All That Glitters Is Palladium pokes fun at its subject with the humorous list or five. For example, ‘Odd Palladium Skills’ like ‘Lore: Cattle & Animals’ and ‘Microfilm/Microfiche/Microdot Technology’; ‘Questionable Magic Spells’ such as ‘Magic Pigeon’ and ‘Curdle Milk’; and ‘Dumb Superpowers’ from Heroes Unlimited, including ‘Alter Physical Structure: Rag Doll’ and ‘Clock Manipulation’.

Physically, All That Glitters Is Palladium is simply laid out and lightly illustrated. It is written in a very light and personal style. And that really sums All That Glitters Is Palladium up. This is all one person’s opinion upon Palladium Books, its history, its failings, and its idiosyncrasies. Consequently, it is not really a good history of the company and its books. Much of what it covers is already known and the author does not add that much more. It is clear that he knows the Megaversal RPG system and Rifts, but the joy he got from playing them in his games never really comes through. Nor it is a real history. Despite the author giving it both criticism and praise, there is no balance here because there is no voice from Palladium Books. So ultimately, whilst All That Glitters Is Palladium: A Short History of Palladium is far from uninteresting, the definitive history and assessment of Palladium Books is yet to be written.

Roleplay Relief I

Since 1985, Red Nose Day has been a biennial fixture here in the United Kingdom, a telethon originally set up to support famine relief in Ethiopia. In the almost thirty-five years since, it has raised over £1 billion, but in general ignored by the roleplaying industry. In 2019, that changes thanks to Simon Burley. Best known as the co-creator of the first British superhero roleplaying game, 1984’s Golden Heroes and a dedicated attendee of gaming conventions up and down the country—as evidenced in Conventional Thinking, Simon Burley has got several of United Kingdom’s gaming luminaries who together contribute to Role Play Relief. This consists of a two volume set. One is Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book, subtitled ‘For those who know NOTHING about Table-Top Role-Playing Games (but would like to know more)’, the other is Role Play Relief: The Experts Book, subtitled ‘For those who know EVERYTING about Table-Top Role-Playing Games (or THINK they do!’, and the proceeds from the sales of both will be donated to Comic Relief.

As the title suggests, Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book is designed as an introduction to the hobby and to roleplaying for anyone who is interested and knows nothing about either. As well as providing said introduction, it comes with three complete roleplaying games, three adventures, a history, a ludography, a glossary, and more. All of this content comes in a thick paperback and is donated by Simon Burley, JPete Cakebread, John Dodd, Ed Jowett, A. J. Kear, Paul Mitchener, Epistolary Richard, and Baz Stephens, with art by Claire Peacey, Jonny Gray, C. Michael Fanning, Sophia Michailidou, Rick Hershey, and Storn Cook.

Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book gets off to a jaunty start with Simon Burley introducing the concept of roleplaying and smartly leading the reader, step-by-step, into their first roleplaying game. Simon’s voice shines through here, the jolly patter of a man who attends convention after convention—not all of them dedicated gaming conventions—and encourages members of the public to play in his games. The game in question is Simon’s own d6 Hack. This is a fantasy roleplaying game a la Dungeons & Dragons, but one based upon The Black Hack. Thus, this is a Class and Level with four Classes—Warrior, Thief, Priest, and Conjurer—with character actions being decided by rolls against the character’s attributes. Now where The Black Hack and its derived roleplaying games employ a twenty-sided die for this process, d6 Hack uses a roll of three six-sided dice. This makes the game easier to pick up and less obtuse in its obvious use of funny shaped dice.

Very quickly, the rules cover actions, combat, and magic in as straightforward a manner as possible. A character sheet is provided for each Class as well as a ready-to-play example, so that the Referee can provide sheets for the players to roll up characters of their own or just grab one and play. This leads up to ‘One of Clerics is Missing’, a short rescue mission the type of which veterans will be familiar with. It amounts to no more than a ten-location dungeon which should provide between a hour and two hours’ worth of play. Certainly a veteran will pick this up without any difficulty, whereas although a neophyte Referee will be slightly more challenged, the author leads him through the process and gives him advice and pointers along the way. Beyond the adventure, the d6 Hack comes with some advanced rules, including monsters, more spells, and rules for experience and going up in Level. Overall, this is a nicely done start to the book, although perhaps a short solo adventure could have been included to get the reader playing and help him learn the rules?

Having given the reader his first roleplaying game, Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book delves into the history of the hobby with John Dodd’s ‘In the beginning…’ It is a brief introduction, before exploring a few games to choose from, all of them in print. It is very light with just a few choices being highlighted across a few genres. Fantasy is the main focus here, which is understandable given the popularity of the genre, but it is at the cost of other games being included. ‘RPG Genres’ by Paul Mitchener follows a similar pattern, but provides the reader with a slightly deeper examination of how roleplaying presents certain genres, but with less of an emphasis on particular roleplaying games. ‘How Actual Play came to shine a light on the hobby’ by Baz Stevens explores how a relatively recent development in the roleplaying hobby—the recording of roleplaying sessions and campaigns for viewing or listening by the general public—has become both its flagbearer, to the point that the recordings are listened to by people with no interest in actually playing and people are coming to playing their first roleplaying game after listening or watching them being played. It is a good introduction to the movement, but perhaps could have made clearer some sample shows for easy reference by the reader.

Donated by Ed Jowett of Shades of Vengeance, the second of the roleplaying games in Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book is Era: Lyres. This is a fantasy game in which the players take the roles of barbarians, bards, rogues, and warriors in a traditional medieval setting, that of the city of Yarnolth. Known for its innumerable number of taverns and city squares where the practitioners of Lyres’ arts, that is, the player characters, can pitch up and spin their yarns for potential profit. They must dress the part; they cannot profess to using magic—divine intervention is believable, but arcane arrows are not; avoid being found lying lest they ruin their reputations and end in barroom brawls; and lastly, not be seen committing acts of murder or theft. Okay, so far, but instead actually going on adventures, the player characters will spin stories of they slew great dragons, battered bandits, obliterated ogres and trolls, and more. The more successful they are, the more they will increase their party’s Confidence Rating and thus be able to ‘perform’ at bigger and more prestigious venues.

Era: Lyres is a brilliantly clever set-up. Essentially, it has the players roleplaying characters who are telling stories about their adventures, the types of adventures which characters in a fantasy roleplaying game go on. Unfortunately, neither the mechanics—dice pools with multiple attributes—fit the setting or Era: Lyres fit the Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book. Essentially both are too complex, the first mechanically for its concept, the second conceptually for what is meant to be an introduction to roleplaying. Had Era: Lyres been included in Role Play Relief: The Experts Book, its conceptual complexities would not have been an issue.

The third roleplaying game in Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book is Cakebread & Walton’s OneDice. Again, this uses a roll of a six-sided die, typically with the addition an attribute and a skill, to handle most of a character’s actions. In comparison to the earlier two roleplaying games, OneDice is very much stripped back, being a simpler game with just three attributes and a handful of skills. It adds the complication of Stunt Points, which when spent allow a character to get out of scrapes or survive a perilous situation, but provides some good examples of their use. There is a fairly knockabout feel to the rules, especially in the example of play. Accompanying the game are two scenarios. The first is a ‘The Hollow Horror’, a short fantasy adventure which is little more than a trek to face a big monster, whilst the second is ‘Raid on Graxlek 5’, a solo Science Fiction adventure. Consisting of just twenty-three entries, this has a security officer investigating a strange facility planetside and is a whole lot more interesting than ‘The Hollow Horror’. It is a pity though, that the reader has to get so far into Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book without being given an opportunity to play like this.

Rounding out Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book is A.J. Kear’s ‘What does that mean? A glossary of jargon and abbreviations used in roleplaying games’. From AC and Action to Worldbuilding and XP, this provides an explanation of the many terms we use regularly in the hobby. Helpful of course, and useful should anyone want to look up a term.

Physically, Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book is a a thick, digest-sized paperback, lightly illustrated and done in black and white throughout. It does need another edit and the layout is somewhat scrappy around the edges. So it feels slightly rough in places and has an amateur feel to it.

There is a lot to like to like about Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book, whether that is two good roleplaying games, the scenarios, the history, explanations, the fact that its proceeds go to charity, and so on, but there are disappointing aspects to the book too. Era: Lyres has already been mentioned as being unsuitable for a book intended to be read by anyone new to the hobby, but another is the fact that the book does not reflect the diversity of games that its various articles mention. Thus, there are is no horror roleplaying game or a Science Fiction roleplaying game—though there is a Science Fiction scenario—in the book, which is disappointing given that it would have broadened its appeal and better showcased what the industry and the hobby is capable of. Instead, what you have is three fantasy roleplaying games and two fantasy adventures when really only the one of each was needed.

In reading Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book, it feels reminiscent of a much earlier introduction to roleplaying, 1982’s Dicing with Dragons. It is not as polished of course, and in not offering a solo adventure at the start, it does not offer quite as easy an introduction to the hobby. Yet Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book provides a broader outlook on the hobby and provides more options in terms of play and so provides a solid introduction to the hobby in 2019.

Role Play Relief: The Beginners Book is available for purchase here.

A Conventional Hobby

When a man gets onto your train and announces, “You’re in the latest book I’m writing.”, that moment might be the time to start worrying. Fortunately this happened at eight o’clock on the morning of Saturday, 12th March, 2016 and I was on the London Midland 07:54 am train to London, Euston travelling to the village of Wolverton where I was to attend a very pleasant gaming convention. The gaming convention in question was Concrete Cow and fortunately, the author was also attending. The author in question was Simon Burley.

Simon Burley is best known for being the co-designer of Golden Heroes, the Super Hero RPG published by Games Workshop and being the designer of its more recent redesign, Squadron UK. He is also known for the prodigious number of gaming conventions that he attends each year from one weekend to the next, each time trying to referee as many games as he can. Now he has gone from writing his own RPGs to writing about the hobby in the form of Conventional Thinking. This is a guide to gaming conventions here in the UK from September, 2015 to February, 2016, serving as an introduction to the public side of our hobby as opposed to the hobby as we enjoy it at home around our domestic gaming tables.

In actuality, Conventional Thinking is not so much a guide to ten gaming conventions as a guide to the author’s experiences at each of the ten conventions that he attends throughout the course of the six months that the book covers. In each case, he provides not only the obvious such as name, date, location, and times, but also the convention and venue types, number of attendees, and entry cost, as well as his own personal travel and accommodation costs. So he begins in September, 2015 with ReUnicon 2015, a one day event in Brighton, where he stays overnight and as ‘Guest of Honour’, referees two games using his own rules system—one a superhero game, the other based on Doctor Who—and plays a Call of Cthulhu game set in World War Two and attends another eight conventions before book the closes in January, 2016 with Conception, a four-and-a-bit day affair at a holiday camp in Dorset on the south coast. Over the course of the convention the author runs games set in the Star Wars and Doctor Who universes as well as an anime game. Mr. Burley much prefers to be the referee rather than play games. In the process, his travels take him to Newport in Wales, Sheffield, Telford, Oxford, Dorset—again, London, and Stockport. All easily accessible because being Birmingham based, the author can get to most places in the United Kingdom with relative ease.

In addition to the details about each convention and his costs, the author goes into some depth about his experiences at each, about what he enjoyed and what he did not. This includes what he eats and drinks—the cost of beer being a constant concern—as well as how well each convention is organised. In fact, most of the ten are well organised and all of them are friendly and welcoming, all the more notable because in most cases they are not professionally run events, but organised by enthusiastic amateurs who do a good job on their own time, their efforts not only going towards the attendee’s enjoyment of the event, but also donations to charity that are organised as part of the event, typically a raffle or bring and buy.

As an introduction to an extension of what is a private hobby, Conventional Thinking is a useful little book. After all, taking a pastime that you normally do round the dining room table with your friends and doing it in public with gamers that you do not know, can be a daunting prospect (indeed, I know of gamers who would never think of attending a gaming convention). Thus it provides an introduction to roleplaying on a broader stage with fellow enthusiasts, in the process showcasing what going to convention can be like, though of course from just the one perspective, indicating perhaps that a book from multiple perspectives—for example, both a player and a referee—might not be unwarranted.

One issue with Conventional Thinking is that only covers six months of a year. This means that it misses out on the conventions that happen between February to August. This is intentional, as when this was released in April, 2016, the reader could pick this book up and plan ahead for the events that he might want to attend later in the year. That said, what it means is that does mean is that the author misses out on discussing the largest gaming convention in the United Kingdom, UK Games Expo, now also the fourth largest gaming convention in the world and the hobby’s showcase in this country. Its write-up will just have to wait for volume two.

Also, as much as the book is written in a light and chatty style, essentially that of a diary, it is somewhat scruffy and it really does need a good edit. Nevertheless, Conventional Thinking is a light and engaging read. 

Conventional Thinking highlights the public practice of our hobby and showcases how fun it is, how much effort organisers put into making sure that their conventions are well run and enjoyable, and to an extent, the state of the hobby in the United Kingdom. For anyone wanting to find out what attending a gaming convention is really like, then Conventional Thinking is a sound place to start. It is also a useful resource for anyone who runs a convention and wants to find out how others run theirs  and an even bigger introduction for anyone who wants to set up a gaming convention for others to attend.

Fanzine Focus III: Winged Snail Plays RPG’s

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Now Winged Snail Plays RPG’s is not about any of those RPGs or indeed any RPG. Rather it is an introduction to RPGs and the hobby published by Sarah E. Hoffman via her Winged Snail Mail, a fanzine dedicated to the sending and receiving of snail mail and the creativity that it engenders. Winged Snail Plays RPG’s was born of the author’s twenty year or so interest in RPGs and then her delving into the hobby, playing, running, and creating games and settings. It is a guide to getting involved and how to be a good player.

The advice starts with finding—or creating, a game and what you will need to play. Then it delves deeply into good player etiquette. This includes having a basic understanding of the rules, showing up on time, bringing snacks, reading and re-reading your character, and making sure that you separate yourself from your character. All of which is good advice, but not all of it may be seen as such. In particular, the advice to ‘Avoid the Negative Player’ and ‘Don’t BE the Negative Player’ is perhaps contentious because the one piece of advice countermands the other. In particular, it advises avoiding the negative player because engaging with said player is likely to reduce your enjoyment of the game, for example, not going with character to explore some caverns. Conversely, the advice of ‘Don’t BE the Negative Player’ suggests that the player should engage with the other player characters no matter what they want to do, for example, burning down a tavern, lest he becomes that negative player by giving negative feedback. Yet what if both players and their characters are undertaking negative actions—going into the caverns or burning down the tavern—surely the other player and his character can engage with the other to dissuade them as to their course of action? Especially if that is what a player character wants to do? Ultimately, ‘Avoid the Negative Player’ and ‘Don’t BE the Negative Player’ are extreme pieces of advice rather than ones to adhere to always.

Physically Winged Snail Plays RPG’s is roughly an A6-sized booklet. It is light on illustration and it feels rough and handmade for the most part. It is well written and clear in its purpose, although the poorly done title—or incomplete title—does let it down a bit.

Winged Snail Plays RPG’s is not really a booklet for the experienced player or GM. Most of the advice will familiar to them, but this does not mean that it is bad advice. In fact, the advice is sound, is clearly born of personal experience, and packaged in a charmingly small fashion.

Designers & Dragons I

As the gaming hobby reaches middle age, its sense of nostalgia and reflection have not only driven it to look to the past to bring back old games in new editions, but also to take an interest in its own history. Although there have been books about the hobby, they have tended to be minor affairs such as The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible; focused on particular aspects such as 40 Years of Gen Con and Hunters of Dragons; or academic works like First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. A complete history of the gaming hobby, that is, of the roleplaying gaming hobby, did not exist until 2011, when Mongoose Publishing released Designers & Dragons, a buff hardback that would win a Special Award at UK Games Expo and a Judges’ Spotlight Award ENnie in 2012. This single volume collected the ‘A Brief History of Game’ columns written by Shannon Appelcline that ran between 2006 and 2011 on RPG.net. Unfortunately, the book got a limited print run and it was published by Mongoose Publishing, so received neither the push nor the quality that such a book deserved.

Fortunately, a successful Kickstarter campaign and another publisher, Evil Hat Productions, LLC, best known for publishing Fate Core, has enabled the author to not only revisit those columns, but also to expand, revise, and update them. The result is Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry series—not one single volume, but as of 2015, five volumes. The first four volumes each address a single decade of the history of the industry, in turn the seventies, the eighties, nineties, and the noughties, whilst the fifth, The Platinum Appendix is a collection of miscellaneous articles. It should be noted that this series covers only the English speaking market of the hobby, and although that this is where it stemmed from and the one that remains the largest, it ignores the various other language markets. This is not to say they are not important or that they do not have influence upon the industry—as will be seen in later volumes, but the history of the gaming industry in the French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and other language markets will have to wait for a further volume or at least another history.

The first volume is Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s. Now that suggests that it deals with just the foundation of the hobby and the period between 1974 and 1979 when this is not really the case. It does indeed detail the industry’s beginnings and early development, but it really begins by laying the foundations of the industry in the hobbies of E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson beginning with their exposure to Avalon Hill’s Gettysburg wargame in 1958 and thus their interest games and the fantasy genre. Further, what it really does is tell the histories of the publishers that were founded in the 1970s right up to their closure, their bankruptcy, or indeed, their current status, rather than abruptly cutting off in 1979. Thus it gives us the histories of thirteen publishers, seven of which are no longer in business, two are a shadow of their former selves, and four are still in business. These histories are of TSR, Flying Buffalo, Games Workshop, GDW, Judges Guild, Metagaming Concepts, Fantasy Games Unlimited, Chaosium, Gamescience, Heritage Models, Grimoire Games, DayStar West Media, and Midkemia Press. Of these, the histories of Judges Guild, Metagaming, and TSR have been expanded since their appearance in the previous version of Dungeons & Designers, whilst those of DayStar West Media, Gamescience, Grimoire Games, Heritage Models, and Midkemia Press are new additions.

Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s is divided into four parts—‘Part One: Founding Days (1953—1974)’, ‘Part Two: The Floodgates Open (1975—1976)’, ‘Part Three: The First Wargaming Phase (1976—1977)’, and ‘Part Four: Universal Publishers (1978—1979)’. The first part is solely devoted to the history of TSR, comprising in total, a quarter of the book. This is understandable, since TSR both founded and dominated the hobby for three decades and more. Now, Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World explores this history in more detail, but since the remit of Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s is much wider, it is not quite as scholarly or as detailed. Now this is not to detract from the detailed historical overview that is Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s, as this is an immensely readable history. Rounding each of the company histories is set of pointers as to what to read next, further connections to the company's history, and what to read next in order to find out more about its luminaries. For example, the history of TSR suggests that the reader can simply read on to find out about the second RPG publisher, Flying Buffalo; or to find out about its first licensee, read the chapter on Judges Guild; read the chapter on Wizards of Coast to learn more about the later history of Dungeons & Dragons; and to see what E. Gary Gygax did next, read the chapters on New Infinities Productions, GDW, Hekaforge Productions, and Troll Lord Games in this and future volumes in the series. Of course these are hangover from the original presentation of this material as regular online columns accompanied by hyperlinks. As hyperlinks, these only work in the PDF versions of these volumes, but as pointers they are nevertheless useful.

Throughout each chapter, sidebars and lengthy boxed subsections—sometimes lasting several pages, explore particular aspects of a company’s history in detail. So for TSR, sidebars and subsections look at how much early RPGs cost, the history of the Greyhawk setting, the D&D Cartoon, Dungeons & Dragons computer games, and Dungeons & Dragons comics. Other sidebars explain both Steve Jacksons, Judges Guild’s The Wilderlands setting, details Different Worlds magazine, and more. In addition, mini-histories are given of minor publishers such as Wee Warriors and Little Soldier Games.  These are short pieces, but their inclusion is an indication of their influence upon the industry. For example, in the form of The Character Archaic and Palace of the Vampire Queen, Wee Warriors published the first commercially available character sheet and the first standalone adventure respectively.

Rounding out the first volume in the series are the appendices that give ‘10 Things You Might Not Know About Roleplaying in the ‘70s’, a bibliography, and a good index. Physically, the oxblood-covered Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s is well written, decently illustrated—though sadly in black and white—and decently organised. It does need an edit here and there, but these are minor issues. The index looks to be decent enough and supports the pointers are end of each write-up.

As a history, Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s is informative and knowledgeable, helped by the fact that the author can draw from a great many primary sources, that is, the many of those who were involved in the early days of the hobby. Unfortunately, the deaths of other significant figures mean that he has instead had to consult secondary sources. Nor is the history an exact one, but the author is open and honest where this is the case, whether due to conflicting stories or sources. This only points to the fragility of our hobby, the industry, and our collective memories—and thus the aim of Designers & Dragons, that is, to have a definitive record. Or at least as definitive a record as is possible.

Having been writing about games for over fifteen years and been collecting for much longer, my knowledge of the hobby is decent enough, but this does not mean that references—old or new—are not useful or unwelcome. For many years, Lawrence Schick’s Heroic Worlds has been a useful guide to RPGs and supplements published before the early nineties, whilst more recently, Hunters of Dragons proved a useful reference for Dungeons & Dragons. Now both of those books have been joined by the Designers & Dragons series. On a broad scale, my knowledge of the industry and its history is reasonable enough, but nevertheless, Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s builds on that knowledge, adding greatly to it, especially in its coverage of the new additions to this volume. So even the most informed of gamer—like myself—is likely to find something of interest in Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s, whilst anyone relatively new to the hobby will find it as definite a history of the industry during this period as there is, but whatever their level of knowledge, both will find Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s an informative and thoroughly engaging read.

Dungeoneering & Dragon Hunting

Roleplaying is all but forty years old, and thus, so is Dungeons & Dragons. As evidenced by the recent number of books that detail the hobby’s history, role playing has become something more than just a silly game. Mongoose Publishing’s Designers & Dragons, MIT Press’ Second Person – Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media, and McFarland’s The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games are all testament to that. Further, they have also become collectable, and none more so than Dungeons & Dragons. Collecting Dungeons & Dragons has always been something of challenge, for although sites like eBay and The Acaeum have made the task much, much easier, what collecting has always lacked is a guide. That is, until now.

Published by Italian publisher Wild Boar Edizioni srl through Chronicle City, Hunter of Dragons – The Original Dungeons & Dragons Collecting Guide is the complete guide to collecting Dungeons & Dragons. It is important to note this because its focus is entirely on Dungeons & Dragons and what that game became, Basic Dungeons & Dragons, rather than its bigger, bolder, better supported, if not bloated, younger brother, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Its time frame is also thus limited to just a nineteen-year time frame from 1974 to 1993. Within that span it not only covers the various editions of the game, adventures and accessories, miscellaneous items and unreleased products, but also titles from Judges Guild too! It is even more important to note that Hunter of Dragons is not a price guide. That would be impossible to accurately report given that such prices are constantly changing. So instead, it gives a rarity value for each entry.

Hunter of Dragons opens with “The History of Dungeons & Dragons” before discussing “The various editions of Dungeons & Dragons.” What is surprising to note is that there are as many editions as there are – six all together. Each edition is given its own entry with each entry giving the book or product name, its publication date, the names of its designers, its contents, its rarity, some notes, and whether there were any foreign editions. These include the Australian and British editions as well as those in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and even the Japanese and Hebrew books! Some entries also include a trivia entry, for example that B3 The Palace of the Silver Princess Orange version is one of the few TSR titles to have been written by a woman and is one of the most sought after items for Dungeons & Dragons – more so than the fabled ST1 Up the Garden Path. Each section ends with a thumbnail illustration of each of the entries it includes.

Although the book has no index, it is neatly organised. Each section is broken down by edition of Dungeons & Dragons. So that for the Accessories section, the entries are from the game’s first through fifth editions, while for the Boxed sets the entries come from the fourth and fifth editions. Some ranges receive a section of their own, for example, that devoted to the Hollow Earth line. The “other products” section covers the 10th Anniversary Products, the Endless Quest books, novels, Calendars, Electronic Games, licensed items, magazines, and more.

Judges Guild receives a section to itself. This is almost a mirror of Hunter of Dragons, including as it does a history of the publisher as well as the listing of products that it released. The trivia sections for each of these entries are consistently more extensive than those for entries elsewhere in the book and makes for interesting reading.

Rounding out Hunter of Dragons is a trio of interviews, each appearing in print for the first time. These are in turn with Gary Gygax, David Arneson, and Larry Elmore. The one with Gary Gygax dates from 2002 and is the more noteworthy of the trio, being a lengthy piece that covers Gygax’s complete history – before, with, and after his time at TSR. Gygax takes the time to answer each and every question, and does not avoid the difficult subject of the financial difficulties and other problems that he had during his time at TSR. In many ways it is actually the most interesting read in the Hunter of Dragons, to an extent because it really offers the book’s strongest narrative, but mostly because five years on from his death, it presents a retrospective on the father of Dungeons & Dragons, if not the hobby itself, one in his own voice. In comparison, there is a certain reluctance to the interview with David Arneson and an obvious ebullience to the one with Larry Elmore, and as a consequence neither is particularly interesting.

As much as Hunters of Dragons describes itself as the “Collecting Guide” to Dungeons & Dragons, one aspect it does not address is the actual “collecting.” To an extent, this is understandable, for just like the notion of including an actual price guide, it can be countered by the fact that either is by their very nature, ephemeral. Prices change and fluctuate just as the sources that a collector goes to for the titles that he is after will also alter and vary. Nevertheless, some general guidance would have been useful.

Physically, Hunter of Dragons comes as a thick digest book, its vibrant red cover evoking Larry Elmore’s illustration for, and the trade dress of, the classic Red Box Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In addition to the illustrations for each of the book’s entries, Hunters of Dragons is illustrated with a range of surprisingly interesting TSR adverts. It is a pity that that the book’s many illustrations could not been in colour, as that would aided the collector’s visual identification of any of the books that he is after, but the fact that it is not, is understandable. Another issue is the language. Hunter of Dragons is written in English, but he is Italian and it does show in paces. That said, the author’s English is better than this reviewer’s Italian, and this could have been addressed with a closer edit.

The release of Hunters of Dragons is a timely one in light of Wizards of the Coast’s re-release of its extensive back catalogue for both Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in PDF and thus making them available to all. That said, the re-release of those PDFs by Wizards of the Coast has to an extent superseded some of the details given in Hunters of Dragons, essentially the history and the trivia, thanks to the efforts of Shannon Appelcline, the author of the aforementioned Designers & Dragons. That said, the focus and remit of Hunters of Dragons is much, much tighter and certainly successfully fulfilled by its author. Hunters of Dragons is a well-written, solidly researched, treatment of what to collect when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons that will with any luck be joined by companion volumes devoted to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.