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Buffalo Castle
''Buffalo Castle'' is a gamebook first published by Flying Buffalo in 1976 (). Using the ''Tunnels & Trolls'' role-playing system, ''Buffalo Castle'' consists of 150 paragraphs in A4 format. Description After a friend suggested that someone should make a dungeon adventure book that allows the player to choose an answer and turn to another page, Rick Loomis wrote ''Buffalo Castle'' (1976). ''Buffalo Castle'' was an introduction to ''Tunnels & Trolls'', a basic dungeon for a warrior of level 1–2. Although it is widely believed that the ''Fighting Fantasy'' series of books were the first gamebooks to use dice and allow the character to possess statistics and equipment, ''Buffalo Castle'' pre-dates the ''Fighting Fantasy'' series by six years and used the same types of mechanics. ''Buffalo Castle'' may have been the first published adventure gamebook. Reception Steve Jackson reviewed ''Buffalo Castle'' in ''The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not follow paragraphs in a linear or ordered fashion. Gamebooks are sometimes called choose your own adventure books or CYOA after the influential ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series originally published by US company Bantam Books. Gamebooks influenced hypertext fiction. Production of new gamebooks in the West decreased dramatically during the 1990s as choice-based stories have moved away from print-based media, although the format may be experiencing a resurgence on mobile and ebook platforms. Such digital gamebooks are considered interactive fiction or visual novels. Description Gamebooks range widely in terms of the complexity of the ''game'' aspect. At one end are the branching-plot novels, which require the reader to make choices but a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flying Buffalo
Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with '' Nuclear Destruction'', a play-by-mail game which started the professional PBM industry in the United States. Loomis added games and players while introducing computer moderation and soon incorporated into the company Flying Buffalo Inc. The company published games in other genres, including card games such as ''Nuclear War'' and a role playing game called '' Tunnels & Trolls'', a game similar to ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Flying Buffalo acquired its 10,000th customer account number in 1980 and reached its largest size of 21 employees in 1983. In July 2021, Webbed Sphere bought Flying Buffalo with plans to incorporate Flying Buffalo's products. The PBM games were not included in the sale and were continued by a separate company called Rick Loomis PBM Games. History Flying Buffalo Inc. was founded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tunnels & Trolls
''Tunnels & Trolls'' (abbreviated ''T&T'') is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more accessible alternative to ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and is suitable for solitaire, group, and play-by-mail gameplay. History Ken St. Andre, a public librarian in Phoenix, Arizona, liked the idea of fantasy role-playing after reading a friend's ''D&D'' rule books but found the actual rules confusing, so he wrote his own. "I just wanted something I could play with my friends at a reasonable price, with reasonable equipment,” he said. The first edition of ''Tunnels & Trolls'' was self-published in April 1975. Flying Buffalo Inc. published a second edition of ''Tunnels & Trolls'' in June 1975, which soon became a serious competitor to ''D&D''. ''Tunnels & Trolls'' had similar game statistics, character classes, and adventures to ''Dungeons & Dragon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A4 Paper Size
ISO 216 is an international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, which includes the A4, the most commonly available paper size worldwide. Two supplementary standards, ISO 217 and ISO 269, define related paper sizes; the ISO 269 "C" series is commonly listed alongside the A and B sizes. All ISO 216, ISO 217 and ISO 269 paper sizes (except some envelopes) have the same aspect ratio, , within rounding to millimetres. This ratio has the unique property that when cut or folded in half widthways, the halves also have the same aspect ratio. Each ISO paper size is one half of the area of the next larger size in the same series. Dimensions of A, B and C series History The oldest known mention of the advantages of basing a paper size on an aspect ratio of \sqrt is found in a letter written on 25 October 1786 by the German scientist Georg Christoph L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rick Loomis
Rick Loomis (August 24, 1946 – August 23, 2019) was an American game designer, most notable as the founder of game publisher Flying Buffalo, which he managed until his death. Career Early years Richard F. Loomis was born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona and attended Coronado High School. He served in the United States Army for three years starting in 1969, and was stationed at Fort Shafter in Oahu, Hawaii. He had discovered the wargame '' Gettysburg'' by Avalon Hill in a toystore, and in 1970 had invented a game called '' Nuclear Destruction'' which—unlike most tabletop games at that time—included hidden movement; in January 1970, Loomis began sending mail to readers who advertised in '' The General'' for play-by-mail (PBM) opponents, with an offer to moderate multiplayer games of ''Nuclear Destruction''. Before long Loomis had over 200 players across multiple games, and requested fellow soldier Steve MacGregor to write a computer program to moderate these games; they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fighting Fantasy
''Fighting Fantasy'' is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volume in the series was published in paperback by Puffin in 1982. The series distinguished itself by mixing Choose Your Own Adventure–style storytelling with a dice-based role-playing element included within the books themselves. The caption on many of the covers claimed each title was an adventure "in which YOU are the hero!" The majority of the titles followed a fantasy theme, although science fiction, post-apocalyptic, superhero, and modern horror gamebooks were also published. The popularity of the series led to the creation of merchandise such as action figures, board games, role-playing game systems, magazines, novels, and video games. Puffin ended the series in 1995, but the rights to the series were eventually purchased by Wizard Books in 2002. Wizard published new editions of the original books and also commissioned six new books over tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Jackson (American Game Designer)
Steve Jackson (born 1953) is an American game designer whose creations include the role-playing game ''GURPS'' and the card game '' Munchkin''. Education Steve Jackson was born in 1953. Jackson is a 1974 graduate of Rice University, where he was a resident of Sid Richardson College. Jackson briefly attended the University of Texas School of Law, but left to start a game design career. Career 1970s: Metagaming Concepts While working at Metagaming Concepts, Jackson developed '' Monsters! Monsters!'' (''ca.'' 1976) based on a design by Ken St. Andre connected to his '' Tunnels & Trolls'' role-playing game, and '' Godsfire'' (1976), a space conquest game by Lynn Willis. Jackson got his first design for the company published as ''Ogre'' (1977), followed by '' G.E.V.'' (1978), which were both set in a futuristic universe that Jackson created. Jackson became interested in ''Dungeons & Dragons'', but did not like the various-sized dice or the combat rules, and bemoaned the lack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Space Gamer
''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. The magazine is no longer published, but the rights holders maintain a web presence using its final title ''Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer''. History ''The Space Gamer'' (''TSG'') started out as a digest quarterly publication of the brand new Metagaming Concepts company in March 1975. Howard M. Thompson, the owner of Metagaming and the first editor of the magazine, stated "The magazine had been planned for after our third or fourth game but circumstances demand we do it now" (after their first game, '' Stellar Conquest''). Initial issues were in a plain-paper digest format. By issue 17, it had grown to a full size bimonthly magazine, printed on slick paper. When Steve Jackson departed Metagaming to found h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metagaming Concepts
Metagaming Concepts, later known simply as Metagaming, was a company that published board games from 1974 to 1983. It was founded and owned by Howard Thompson, who designed the company's first game, '' Stellar Conquest''. The company also invented Microgames and published Steve Jackson's first designs, including ''Ogre'', '' G.E.V.'' and '' The Fantasy Trip''. History The company's first product, released in 1974, was '' Stellar Conquest'', which had been rejected by Avalon Hill in 1973. Many of Metagaming's notable titles were also science fiction wargames, including ''Ogre'', '' G.E.V.'', and '' WarpWar''. In 1975, Metagaming started ''The Space Gamer'' as a quarterly house magazine. By its 17th issue, ''TSG'' was a full size bimonthly magazine, printed on slick paper and covering games from other publishers, including fantasy games. Thompson and Metagaming pioneered the idea of publishing small, low-cost games in what came to be known as the MicroGame format. For a whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantasy Gamebooks
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, which later became fantasy literature, fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century onward, it has expanded into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, manga, animation, and video games. The expression ''fantastic literature'' is often used for this genre by Anglophone literary critics. An archaic spelling for the term is ''phantasy''. Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror fiction, horror by an absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these can occur in fantasy. In popular culture, the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that reflect the actual Earth, but with some sense of otherness. Characteristics Many works of fantasy use magic (paranorma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Role-playing Game Supplements Introduced In 1976
Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing as "the changing of one's behaviour to fulfill a social role", in the field of psychology, the term is used more loosely in four senses: * To refer to the playing of roles generally such as in a theatre, or educational setting; * To refer to taking a role of a character or person and acting it out with a partner taking someone else's role, often involving different genres of practice; * To refer to a wide range of games including role-playing video game (RPG), play-by-mail games and more; * To refer specifically to role-playing games. Amusement Many children participate in a form of role-playing known as make believe, wherein they adopt certain roles such as doctor and act out those roles in character. Sometimes make believe adopts an opp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
