Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) is a

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

house for

tabletop Tabletop may refer to: Common use * The top of a table Games * TableTop, an Internet-based show about board games * Tabletop games, encompassing several classes of games that can also be referred to individually as "Tabletop", including: ** Ta ...

and

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

s. The company has no in-house design teams and relies on submitted material from outside talent.

History

Founded in the summer of 1975 in

Jericho, New York Jericho is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States, approximately 29 miles (47 km) east of Midtown Manhattan. The population wa ...

by Scott Bizar, the company's first publications were the wargames ''Gladiators'' and ''Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age''. Upon the appearance and popularity of ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' from TSR, the company turned its attentions to role-playing games, seeking and producing systems from amateurs and freelancers, paying them 10% of the gross receipts. FGU also copyrighted their games in the name of the designer so that the designer would receive any additional royalties for licensed figurines and other uses. Rather than focusing on one line and supporting it with supplements, FGU produced a stream of new games. Because of the disparate authors, the rules systems were incompatible. FGU Incorporated published dozens of role-playing games. Fantasy Games Unlimited won the All Time Best Ancient Medieval Rules for 1979 H.G. Wells Award at Origins 1980 for '' Chivalry & Sorcery''. In 1991, Fantasy Games Unlimited Inc. was dissolved as a New York corporation. Bizar continues to publish in Arizona as a sole proprietorship called Fantasy Games Unlimited. A new FGU website appeared in July 2006 offering the company's back catalog. It said that new products would be "coming soon". New ''Aftermath!'' products appeared in 2008. By 2010, much of the company's back catalog was available. At that time, FGU sought submissions for new adventures for their existing titles, primarily ''Aftermath!, Space Opera, and Villains and Vigilantes''.

Publications

* ''

Aftermath! ''Aftermath!'' was promoted with the line: ''“Is it the sunset of the Earth or the sunrise of a brave new world?”'' It is a role-playing game created by Paul Hume (game designer), Paul Hume and Robert N. Charrette, Robert Charette and publis ...

'' * '' Archworld'' (1977) * ''Bireme & Galley'' (1978) * ''Blue Light Manual'' * ''Broadsword'' * '' Bunnies & Burrows'' * ''

Bushido is a Samurai moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. Its origins date back to the Kamakura period, but it was formalized in the Edo period (1603–1868). There are multiple types of bushido which evolved significantl ...

'' * ''Castle Plans'' * '' Chivalry & Sorcery'' (1st & 2nd editions) * ''

Citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

'' * '' Daredevils'' * ''

Diadem A diadem is a Crown (headgear), crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of Monarch, royalty. Overview The word derives from the Ancient Greek, Greek διάδημα ''diádēma'', "band" or "fillet", fro ...

'' * '' Down Styphon!'' * ''Fire, Hack & Run'' * '' Flash Gordon & the Warriors of Mongo'' * '' Flashing Blades'' * ''Frederick the Great''Frederick the Great , BoardGameGeek
/ref> * '' Freedom Fighters'' * ''Galactic Conquest'' * '' Gangster!'' * ''Gladiators'' * '' Land of the Rising Sun'' * '' Lands of Adventure'' * ''Legion'' * ''Lords & Wizards'' * ''Madame Guillotine'' * '' Merc'' * ''Mercenary'' * '' Middle Sea'' * ''

Odysseus In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus ( ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; ), is a legendary Greeks, Greek king of Homeric Ithaca, Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Odyssey''. Od ...

'' * ''

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

'' * ''

Other Suns ''Other Suns'' is a science-fiction role-playing game published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) in 1983. Description ''Other Suns'' is a science-fiction space-adventure system of medium complexity. The game includes a dozen alien races that res ...

'' * ''Pieces of Eight'' * '' Privateers & Gentlemen'' * '' Psi World'' * ''Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age'' * '' Skull and Crossbones: Roleplay on the Spanish Main'' * '' Space Marines'' * ''

Space Opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes Space warfare in science fiction, space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, i ...

'' * ''Star Explorer'' * '' Starship: The Game of Space Contact'' * '' Starships & Spacemen'' (now owned by Goblinoid Games) * '' Swordbearer'' * ''The Blue-Light Manual'' * ''Towers for Tyrants'' * Treasure of the Lost Temple * ''Tyrannosaurus wrecks'' * ''

Villains and Vigilantes ''Villains and Vigilantes'' (abbreviated as ''V&V'') is a superhero-themed role-playing game which competed primarily with '' Champions'' and ''Superworld'' in the early to mid-1980s. Origin ''Villains and Vigilantes'' was the first role-playin ...

'' * ''

War of the Ring ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually developed into ...

'' * ''War of the Sky Cities'' * ''Wargaming magazine'' * ''

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

'' * '' Year of the Phoenix''

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.fantasygamesunlimited.net
Mirror of the old official FGU site

with Scott Bizar Publishing companies established in 1975 Role-playing game publishing companies Companies based in Arizona 1975 establishments in New York (state)