Wikipedia articles on the topics being discussed :

 Metagaming the game Company : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming_Concepts

The Fantasy Trip :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fantasy_Trip

Steve Jackson : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_%28USA%29
..another bio on him : http://www.io.com/~sj/sjbio.html


- E.W.C.

Melee/Wizard boxed set were actually my first RPG way back when they first came out.  I snapped up In the Labyrinth, Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard as soon as they came out.  They used to have these solo playable boxed modules too that i just loved.  good times.  lol

...and Dark City Games picked up the ball:
http://www.darkcitygames.com/

So far they have Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and a Western genre series is in the works.

Not having written contracts cuts both ways. It's prevented a lot of Metagaming's games from being reprinted, *by anyone*, not just Steve Jackson. From that post by Greg Costikyan (Pax Britannica, Paranoia, Star Wars the RPG, Toon and more): "On the other hand, if I or another Metagaming designer tried to reprint, I'd fully expect Thompson to show up with a lawsuit claiming he owned the rights."

Reminds me of the situation the current owner of Digest Group Publications is in, who in their heyday pretty much ran MegaTraveller for GDW and created some of the best looking products for Traveller. He took over DGP after the original people were moving on when GDW ended MT. He's now sitting on increasingly aging IP and hasn't been able to reach an agreement with anyone else about even reprinting the old materials. All indications point to a too high asking price as a root cause. So DGP is considered "fuzzy canon"* and is being wallpapered over by newer Traveller books. To be fair to Howard Thompson, Roger Sanger has said more publicly though not much.

Reprinting Melee and its related microgames would be cool. But they can't be worth a whole lot of money and companies like Dark City Games and Steve Jackson Games are wallpapering over what can't be reprinted.


* one magazine issue was copyright GDW so can be directly referenced

Nox, if Metagaming was run by hippy-dippies starting a new RPG company based upon a tarot card reading, then I could excuse some amount of shoddy business practices.  But Metagaming was a wargame company, first and foremost.  I expect a hex-and-chit man to have his shit together.  Steve Jackson could be Mephistopheles himself, but that wouldn't give Thompson a free pass on sound business practices.

Good tribute article, Brasky. Melee does what it does very well & in just a few pages.

Some The Fantasy Trip (TFT) fans are writing adventures for Dark City Games, which is cool. Also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fantasy_Trip

Simply Roleplaying! is free (though it's not as elegant) and GURPS Man to Man and Orcslayer are on PDF at e23.

Copyright on Advanced Melee runs out this year...

Quote from: Casey777Simply Roleplaying! is free (though it's not as elegant) and GURPS Man to Man and Orcslayer are on PDF at e23.

I've more than once nearly bought a copy of Orcslayer based upon the name alone.

Quote from: jrientsI've more than once nearly bought a copy of Orcslayer based upon the name alone.

Along with that I've been tempted to get it and Man to Man just to compare them to Melee/TFT and its adventures as well as to GURPS 3e/4e. For less than $13 total on PDF that's not bad.

"Generations ago, the orc-hordes swarmed east into the peaceful kingdom of Caithness. Now they're coming back. Last time, it took an army to stop them; This time, your lord is sending you . ."

(caffeine is the killer of sleep)

There are a number of things about the GURPS combat system I like better than TFT (e.g., treatment of dodge & shields)...with a deft hand one might be able to selectively transplant them.

Quote from: Dominus NoxHT may have just been someone who loved making games for their own sake and the sake of other gamers. So he wasn't a fucking "lawyer" or a "businesman". He was a gamer, and I guess he got backstabbed by someone more interested in business than making games.

Nox, as someone who knows more than few freelancers that have worked for Steve Jackson, I've never heard of him falling through on his agreements at all, much less stabbing anyone in the back.

That leads me to believe he was the same back then.

Quote from: RPGObjects_chuckNox, as someone who knows more than few freelancers that have worked for Steve Jackson, I've never heard of him falling through on his agreements at all, much less stabbing anyone in the back.

That leads me to believe he was the same back then.

Some of the people at white wolf might disagree.