Nostalgia Thursday - Early Gaming

Over on initiativeone.blogspot.com, the insightful Wayne Rossi looks back at early D&D artifacts here.

Also, on meleewizards.com, they corral all things Melee and Wizard, two classic, early Steve Jackson games.  "Over 30 years ago [closer to 40!] a company called Metagaming released a small set of miniature combat rules simply named 'Melee.' Shortly afterwards another of these 'Microquest' games was released and was named 'Wizards.'"  Learn more here.

Finally, on the ClockMonsterLA YouTube channel, check out an old "SPI Infomercial."  Enjoy!

Nostalgia Thursday on MFWARS.com 

Focusing on the roots of current tabletop gaming
with an eye toward the last century and before.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Mars Attacks: The Dice Game (2014)

As the last First Sunday event was winding down, Nancy busted out her copy of Mars Attacks: The Dice Game (2014) for us to play.  We had six players and played two quick games.  Steve Jackson Games has quite a few dice games and a number of card games that are largely about the luck of the roll or the luck of the draw, so I don't play many but I like to try them out from time to time.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

In Mars Attacks: The Dice Game, the Martian players compete to see who can subjugate which U.S. cities first.

At the start of the game, four stacks of cards are dealt out randomly, with each stack having as many cards as players. On a turn, the player first declares which city he wants to attack, then rolls all ten dice. Any dice showing the "nuke" symbol are locked and cannot be rerolled. Laser guns are similarly locked, allowing the player to reroll only the alien heads. If he rerolls and ever has as many nuke symbols showing as the number on the face-up cards and the supplementary token, his turn ends; otherwise he can stop at any time, and if he doesn't have enough guns or alien heads to claim his target, he marks his total with one of his tokens, allowing him to add on to this number on a future turn — assuming that someone else doesn't claim the card first.

Some city cards have special powers, such as Seattle's, which allows you to place one die on the symbol of your choice prior to rolling. Las Vegas, true to its nature, wants you to go bust multiple times in order to claim the card. Whoever ends up decimating the largest portion of the earth wins. Ak ak ak ak ak!

It's definitely a game where rolling well is going to be more helpful than any planning or strategy.  Nevertheless, there are some ways to enhance your chances.It seems prudent to snag any easy points if they come up just prior to your turn.  Chances are they won't be around for long.  In six player games, getting in on the bigger cards can be a waste of a turn, again, unless you get lucky.  So, don't allow that to be your whole game.  I've only played twice, so that's about all I can fathom thus far.  I'm not big on dice games that mostly involve luck so I'm not sure when I will get to play this again but I won't rulle it out.

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Nostalgia Thursday - SJG Cardboard Heroes

Steve Jackson Games was one of the early entrants into the papercraft-for-gaming field.  In the early 1980s, they started releasing "Cardboard Heroes" which were printed cardstock sheets with 25mm images of monsters, characters, etc.  You'd cut them out with a razor blade (according to the instructions below) and fold them together.  The images included both font and back sides.  Eventually the line would include buildings and layouts as well.

Somehow among my many gaming possessions I managed to find a sample pack of Cardboard Heroes from the 1980s.  Slipped inside a tight Ziploc pouch were three four inch by seven inch cardstock samples.  One was printed in 1982 and says it is from the "Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 10 – Traps and Treasures" product.  Another simply says Cardboard Heroes and 1983 while the last has no date.  The two unidentified sheets are all obviously player characters of a fantasy design, so the best guess is that they are samples from "Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 1 – Player Characters" or from "Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 11 – More Player Characters."  All of the sets are listed (and still available in PDF format!) from SJG here.

Three other things were slipped in the pouch: A Car Wars Catalog (no date, set up as a third of a page flip book format), a Customer Satisfaction Survey, and a combination Instruction Manual, Order Form, and advertisement for the Man to Man Combat System.  That final sheet gives us a good time frame for when they would have been available to me.  On one side, the order form says it is no good after December 1986 while the artwork for Man to Man ad is signed by the artist with a 1986 year as well.  Since I would have had to have gotten this at a convention, it's most likely this was handed out at Gen Con XIX at the MECCA in Milwaukee, WI.

Nostalgia Thursday on MFWARS.com 

Focusing on the roots of current tabletop gaming
with an eye toward the last century and before.

Please Like, Share, Plus, Tweet, Follow, and Comment!