R.I.P. Gary Gygax

[Noisybast]

"I found the spare funds to do a PBM (Play By Mail) game about gangsters, but the name escapes me"

It's A Crime?

[House of Usher]

I used to spent a great deal of my time from ages 14 to 16, and somewhat less time from 17 to 19, playing various role playing games (Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, Golden Heroes, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, Paranoia, Judge Dredd).

It was Forest of Doom and the other Fighting Fantasy game books that set me down that path.

I remember the 2nd edition of Dungeons and Dragons Tordelback was talking about. That's the version my mate Frank had when I first saw the game. After that my other friends and I went out and bought the then current 3rd edition in the red box with much more polished artwork.

I for one am glad of the influence Gary Gygax had on the person I turned out to be. But having said that, I'd still have turned out a goth who was into comics either way.

[Funt Solo]

Bingo, Noisybast!

I don't know if it would be allowed these days: you could spend money you'd earned (by murdering people) on drugs, which could have a positive effect on your gang's morale.

(Mind you, what am I talking about: in GTA you could hire a prostitute, which increased your health beyond normal, then you could murder her and take your money back.)

[Slippery PD]

And how can I forget in a similar vein, Killer.  A game of assassinating your friends.  Last one standing wins :D

That was always fun in our little scottish village in summer

[TordelBack]

Or indeed (not a roleplaying game per se) Nuclear War, many happy hours spent at LepreCon raining firey thermonuclear death on friends and strangers alike as we climbed Khan's ladder together.  

[Noisybast]

"I don't know if it would be allowed these days"

Y'know, I suspect it probably would...

Link: http://www.kjcgames.com/crime/index.php" target="_blank">Lookit I found!

[Funt Solo]

*erk*

I should've known da family would still be around in some form.

[Dog Deever]

I had the Golden Hero's boxed set, but I never played it. For some reason I just couldn't get into it.
I also remember having a FF gamebook which was essentially rules for an RPG. It also had a couple of sample 'dungeons' in it. I also think I played Tunnels and Trolls once. I remember seeing the adverts for It's a Crime, now that it's been mentioned- there was also a fantasy PBM which was being advertised at the same time- Crasimov's World (!?!), not sure if that's right though.

[SamuelAWilkinson]

You may well be thinking of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, Deever, which was a hellagood nice-n-simple tabletop RPG.

Having said that, the original, non-Advanced FF was also a tabletop RPG, after which things took a gamebooky turn.

AFF was awesome, though.

[Funt Solo]

Reckon Dog is talking about this:

http://www.gamebooks.org/gallery/ffrpg.jpg" />

Hotlink: if it doesn't work, it's at http://www.gamebooks.org/gallery/ffrpg.jpg">http://www.gamebooks.org/gallery/ffrpg.jpg

[Dog Deever]

That's the very one!
Actually, I reckon I've still got it- stored in my midden heaps somewhere.

[satchmo]

I think I have a spare copy of Fighting Fantasy, I'll double check later and then anyone who wants it, it's yours.

There was also a scenario book for it called The Riddling Reaver.

[House of Usher]

I had all my Fighting Fantasy game books stored in pristine condition - apart from the three that got 'lost' and had to be replaced from second hand book shops. They were in the care of my younger brother, who, as a child, trashed all the Matchbox cars, Lego, Action Men and Micronauts toys that mysteriously my older brother and I had never managed to detroy on our own account. We must just have been more anally retentive I suppose. Unless it's because we grew up in the 70s not the 80s, and so were more grateful for what we had...

Anyway... when my mother and her second husband split up, I repeatedly asked my brother, then in his late teens and left school, to retrieve for me the books that were still in his bedroom in the family home that was about to be sold.

But nothing happened except that he packed them away in boxes and they went to storage in his uncle's garage with all my brother's other tat. And, 10 years later, that's where they remain, unless they've long since been disposed off. In landfill. *tsk*. You can't even count on family, can you?

[House of Usher]

I mean, I ask the boy to do one simple thing for me and he can't be fucking bothered.

[TordelBack]

I've had similar fraternal storage problems with my youngest brother, still inhabiting the family home at 28, and now ensconced in my room no less (the cheek). He's currently on one of his endless fully-paid jaunts around the world as a sports video analyst (bastard), and my mother decided to tackle his rent-free post-adolescent pit, wading through the lads mags and Jack Daniels bottles (the poor woman), and what does she find but my beloved Kenner AT-ST, missing these 20 years, shoved under reeking laundry in a mouldy corner.  She presented it to me the other day - it was a tearful reunion.  Having systematically obliterated my Star Wars collection as a young-un, you'd think he'd know to do the decent thing when came across another man's Scout Walker!