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Tag Archives: old school
FASA Star Trek: to boldly go
West of these out to seas colder than the Hebrides I must go Where the fleet of stars is anchored, and the young star-captains glow James Elroy Flecker I’m not so much a games collector as a games hoarder. The … Continue reading
Dangerous Journeys: Mythus
Note: Since writing this piece I’ve had the opportunity of playing in a Mythus campaign. You can read about those experiences here. Back in 1992 I was on the lookout for a new set of game rules. I’d spent my … Continue reading
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Tagged Dangerous Journeys, GDW, Gygax, Mythus, old school, tabletop
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We were munchkins once, and young
Note: some of this was previously published on James Maliszewski’s Grognardia blog, where he called it Memories of the British Old School. I’m allowing myself more time to ramble now; you have been warned. I played my first roleplaying game … Continue reading
Vancian magic revisited
One of the things that’s bothered me about D&D from its early days was that magicians forget spells when they cast them – the so-called Vancian magic system, named for the late Jack Vance, who developed it for his Dying … Continue reading
Chivalry & Sorcery: The Early Years
Back in the days of the Loyal Order of Chivalry & Sorcery mailing list I enjoyed swapping emails – both public and private – with C&S designers Ed Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus and, at the last two Dudley Bug Ball … Continue reading
Laserburn – the ancestor of Warhammer 40K
This article was supposed to be the start of an occasional series on what I call revenant games: long out-of-print gems (or near-misses) cluttering up my bookshelves. However, I can’t class Laserburn as a revenant, because it’s still in print … Continue reading
One character or many: an old-school turning point?
When I started playing D&D in the early ’80s, it wasn’t uncommon for players to play several characters simultaneously. It wasn’t the way we played in my first game; there we each had one character, but I certainly played entire … Continue reading
Treasure Trap – the first British LARP
The last entry mentioned the White Dwarf ad for Treasure Trap, the first commercial British LARP, and perhaps the first British one altogether. It ran its first adventure in April 1982. I never visited it – LARP holds little appeal … Continue reading
From the Archives: White Dwarf 28
White Dwarf 28, dated December 1981/January 1982, contains the usual columns supporting D&D/AD&D and Traveller, with news reviews and one general article, The Magic Jar by Andy Slack, on how to convert characters from one system to another. The Magic … Continue reading
From the archives: White Dwarf 27
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying James Maliszewski’s descriptions of his old copies of Ares and Dragon magazines. It’s long been in my mind to do something similar for some of the wide range of British gaming magazines in my collection (and … Continue reading