Some perspective on the gaming community ca. 1977

[Larsdangly]

I was recently re-reading V1.#5 of The Dragon and noticed a fascinating list of games in their opening editorial about the direction of the magazine. In short, the editor said it was time to expand the magazine's scope, reaching out to the broader gaming community beyond D&D. Here is the list of games they named as particular examples for which they'd like to receive material:

STELLAR CONQUEST
THE YTHRI,
GODSFIRE
STARSHIP TROOPERS
OUTREACH,
SORCERER
STARSOLDIER
GREEN PLANET TRILOGY,
OGRE
MONSTERS-MONSTERS
VENERABLE DESTRUCTION

Most of these are so obscure as to almost look made up. That was the gaming community ca. 1977.

[RunningLaser]

Nice:)  I recognize a three things from that list.  Would be great if there were some folks who had tales to tell about some of those games.  

You wonder how many piles of rpg's were printed and either stapled or comb-bound with love that never reached beyond the small community from which they were created.

Very cool, thanks for posting that.

[rgrove0172]

I was recently re-reading V1.#5 of The Dragon and noticed a fascinating list of games in their opening editorial about the direction of the magazine. In short, the editor said it was time to expand the magazine's scope, reaching out to the broader gaming community beyond D&D. Here is the list of games they named as particular examples for which they'd like to receive material:

STELLAR CONQUEST
THE YTHRI,
GODSFIRE
STARSHIP TROOPERS
OUTREACH,
SORCERER
STARSOLDIER
GREEN PLANET TRILOGY,
OGRE
MONSTERS-MONSTERS
VENERABLE DESTRUCTION

Most of these are so obscure as to almost look made up. That was the gaming community ca. 1977.

Played all but three.

[Trond]

How many of those are actually RPGs?

I looked up Venerable Destruction, and it is apparently a wargame parody.

[David Johansen]

I've seen six and played two.

[Tristram Evans]

How many of those are actually RPGs?

I looked up Venerable Destruction, and it is apparently a wargame parody.

Its 1977; D&D is just a type of wargame. It would be years before "RPGs" became a separate hobby.

[GameDaddy]

Don't know, right off hand.

Of this list I had and played Starship Trooper, Outreach, and Ogre. All board games. no RPGs. In 1977 I owned, played, and ran only two RPGs, D&D(which was an RPG even back in 1977), and Traveller, and had a very large collection of wargames, and boardgames.

Starship Trooper was an Avalon Hill Board Wargame that was about the adventures of the Mobile Infantry in their fight against the bugs. It was a splendid game that stuck closely to the original story in the book (Unlike the movies). Robert Himself had a house up in the Broadmoor on Mesa Drive, that included a fully stocked nuclear fallout shelter, along with a bunch of other "Hi-tech" conveniences he put in himself. It was a really good game to play, and you could make up your own scenarios for it as well. I owned a copy and liked it alot.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/670/starship-troopers

Outreach was an SPI Boardgame. It was about humanity, and their kin, and alien races expanding and conquering the galaxy. There was war in it, but there was also peace, exploration, colonization, and trade negotiations featuring on a galactic map. I'd call it one of the First Civ games, a civilization simulator. It was part of a trilogy, Starforce (ship-to-ship combat in 3000 A.D.), and Star Soldier (Tactical Future Wargame). They were all very interesting to play, but I only owned Outreach.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3663/outreach-conquest-galaxy-3000ad

Ogre of course, was Steve Jackson's $2.95 Metagame, that feature a futuristic army fighting ginormous supertanks known as Ogre. Had several copies then, and got the Designer Edition Kickstarter that SJG games did like three years back that has already doubled in value. Fast play, loads of fun, still in my collection and and awesome game to play. New expansions for this, and new minis, coming out very soon!
http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/

Robert A. Heinleins House
http://www.eastofborneo.org/archives/a-house-to-make-life-easy-robert-a-heinleins-colorado-springs-home

Featured in the June 1952 Popular Mechanics issue
http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/pm652-art-hi.html

[RunningLaser]

Ok, for those who have played some, list them you fuckers!    I crave knowledge!!!

I've only heard of Starship Troopers (chit & hex wargame), Ogre (steve jackson wargame) and Monsters, Monsters (T&T side thing).  What things about the rest?

GameDaddy- awesome!  Thank you!

[Herne's Son]

I've only ever heard of four of those: OGRE, Starship Troopers, Monsters! Monsters!, and Godsfire.

Godsfire was some sort of scifi war game by Lynn Willis, later of Chaosium fame. Don't know anything more about it than that.

[estar]

Stellar Conquest was awesome. The game is the literal grandfather of the Master of Orion computer game. It four players game with a board comprised of a small region of stars. You start off just achieving interstellar flight and go from there.

[Black Vulmea]

Stellar Conquest was awesome.

Yeah it was. I only played it twice - a friend owned it - but SC and the original Battlestar Galactica were a big influence on my first attempt at a homebrew Traveller universe.

Played the hell out of Starship Troopers - both my parents were huge Heinlein fans so I read it when I was about ten years old.  Beating the Skinnies is easy - beating the Bugs takes the willingness to expend a lot of cap troopers.

Played a lot of Ogre and GEV as well - awesome solo game for whiling away the odd lazy hour that we didn't know was quite so precious when we were kids.

[GameDaddy]

Ok, for those who have played some, list them you fuckers!    I crave knowledge!!!

I've only heard of Starship Troopers (chit & hex wargame), Ogre (steve jackson wargame) and Monsters, Monsters (T&T side thing).  What things about the rest?

GameDaddy- awesome!  Thank you!

Okay, Been meaning to do it anyway, I'll put up a review of Strategy I, Published by SPI games in 1971. I think this was the second best wargame I ever owned, ranking second only to Squad Leader, the unrivaled WWII squad level war game published by Avalon Hill in 1977

Strategy One @ boardgamegeek
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8362/strategy-i

I'll post my review in the reviews section, but do have a few choice comments for this quickie 1977 flashback thread.

I lucked out just before Christmas and managed to pick up a very good condition copy of Strategy I off of eBay for only $45. Been actively looking for this for over a decade now and haven't been able to find a copy for less than one hundred dollars. There were not many in the original print run I gather... and it is a very rare game.

It was one of the first monster war games, featuring a two panel 28"x42" continental map for providing almost eight square feet of gaming space. It was one of the first multi-player wargames which featured eight factions each having 112 counters including infantry, mechanized infantry, cavalry armor, artillery, headquarters, supply units, aircraft (fighters, and bombers, and tranports, as well as airfields, and factories.  The rules included plenty of variant rules, there is rules for recreating battles ranged from the ancient period of the Greeks/Romans all the way through to the modern age which was the 1960's. The Modern rules includes rules for combat, supply, manufacturing, biological weapons, and nuclear weapons including ICBMs.

Everything about this game is scaled big. The rules book was printed with typewriter typed 10 point font on sheets which were 21.5" x 10.75" which were then folded and stapled to produce an oversized 10.25"x10.75" rules book. Included were (see photos) also blank 11"x14" Strategy I conference maps, so the players could form up teams when it wasn't their turn and discuss strategy and tactics and mark out their military campaigns and battle plans that they were attempting to defeat their foes with. This alone gives this game uber massive geek cred. A multi-player wargame where you could host secret battle strategy sessions when it wasn't even your turn!

The game featured two sets of battle results using d6's and the popular combat results tables. The tables are labeled 1-10, but that is because there was plenty of modifiers included in the rules, penalties for terrain, and bonuses for terrain and combat style. No one even used d10's when this game was published. Finally there is an Errata table.

A few photos for you real quick tonite, and I'll include even more detail in the official review that will be posted here on the RPGsite in the next few days.

Imgur Archive for Strategy I
http://imgur.com/a/OJYbH

[Omega]

STELLAR CONQUEST
THE YTHRI,
GODSFIRE
STARSHIP TROOPERS
OUTREACH,
SORCERER
STARSOLDIER
GREEN PLANET TRILOGY,
OGRE
MONSTERS-MONSTERS
VENERABLE DESTRUCTION

Most of these are so obscure as to almost look made up. That was the gaming community ca. 1977.

Lets see. Stellar Conquest, if its the same one Im thinking of. Was well known at the time or after.
Godsfire got alot of mention for a while and still has a following I believe.
Starship Troopers was another well known wargame of the time and even today. Pretty solid rules and theres some magazine articles expanding it further.
Ogre just chugs along and has a huge fanbase and has seen many a reprint and that huge kicksarted a a year or three back.
Monsters-Monsters still gets talked about but was eclipsed by T&T.

[Spinachcat]

OGRE is a must try game. It's design genius.

Monsters! Monsters! is a Tunnels & Trolls variant where you play the Monsters! It is lots of fun, but needs a rewrite for 2017. I have run several one-shots of M!M! over the years at cons, especially my "Mordor: the Morning After" adventure where the various beasties who survive after Sauron gets whacked have to decide WTF to do now. I have played in a few M!M! games and they have mostly been run for laughs, AKA "Monster Toon"

[Doom]

Wow, am I the only one that played SPI's Sorcerer!?

It was a strange game, clearly influenced a bit by Titan (or maybe the other way around?). The board was a dazzle-happy inducing hex grid, with 7 colors, and grey (non-magic) hexes where humanity still dwelled. You played a sorcerer (specializing in one or more colors), summoning monsters. Combat was based around your color of monster, the color of your enemy, and the hex you were (eg, a yellow monster in a yellow hex was brutal good).

There were a number of scenarios (par for the course for games of that era), and they were pretty good, including a "solo" scenario where you had to run around from city to city and not get squashed. Good times.