Howard M. Thompson is an American

wargame A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for Recreational wargaming, recreation, to train military officers in the art of milit ...

designer and founder of

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 inven ...

. His first game was ''

Stellar Conquest ''Stellar Conquest'' is a science fiction board game published by Metagaming Concepts in 1974. Description ''Stellar Conquest'' is a science fiction board game for 2–4 players that is a prototype of the 4X strategy game genre. The game feat ...

'', a popular and well-designed simulation of interstellar warfare. Thompson is most famous for his idea to publish small, low-cost games in what came to be known as the MicroGame format. For a while, Metagaming dominated this niche wargaming market.

Career

Howard Thompson founded

in 1975 to publish his game ''

'' when he was unable to find a publisher for the game. Thompson, as the first editor of ''

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 la ...

'' magazine, stated "The magazine had been planned for after our third or fourth game but circumstances demand we do it now." In 1976, Thompson published ''

Godsfire ''Godsfire'' is a science fiction board wargame published by Metagaming Concepts in 1976 that simulates planetary empire building, economics, and diplomacy. The game was reissued by Task Force Games in 1985. Description ''Godsfire'' is set in t ...

'', designed by

Lynn Willis Lynn Willis (died January 18, 2013) was a wargame and role-playing game designer, best known for his work with Metagaming Concepts, Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), and Chaosium. Biography Willis began by designing science fiction wargames for M ...

and developed by Steve Jackson. In 1977, Thompson pioneered the concept of the MicroGame, the first of which was ''

Ogre An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...

''. In the early 1980s, some speculate that the company started to run into financial trouble, partially because of the generally poor economic situation at that time, and because of the split with one of his main game designers, Steve Jackson. Thompson was not satisfied with the work done on ''

The Fantasy Trip ''The Fantasy Trip'' (''TFT'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game designed by Steve Jackson and published in segments by Metagaming Concepts starting in 1977 and culminating in 1980. In 2019, Steve Jackson Games republished it as ''The Fan ...

'' by Jackson, stating that it was too complex and had taken too long. Thompson decided that packaging the game in a box would be too expensive, so he split ''The Fantasy Trip'' into four books, publishing them individually in 1980 as ''Advanced Melee'', ''Advanced Wizard'', '' In the Labyrinth'', and ''

Tollenkar's Lair ''Tollenkar's Lair'' is a 1980 fantasy role-playing game adventure for ''The Fantasy Trip'' originally published by Metagaming Concepts and re-released by Steve Jackson Games in 2019. Plot summary ''Tollenkar's Lair'' is a complete labyrinth with ...

''; while the game was getting prepared, Thompson altered his production methods and thus Jackson was now unable to see the final proofs like he had on earlier releases. Because of these actions, Jackson left Metagaming and founded

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

that same year. Jackson purchased ''

'' from Metagaming, and agreed with Thompson to sell the rights to ''The Fantasy Trip'' to Metagaming. However, Thompson sought legal action against SJG for the rights to a short wargame called ''One-Page Bulge'', and the lawsuit was settled with an agreement reached on November 26, 1981 giving Jackson full rights to ''One-Page Bulge'', and to ''Ogre'' and ''G.E.V.'' (whose ownership was questioned during the legal proceedings). In the first SJG issue of ''The Space Gamer'', Thompson wrote a report on Metagaming and stated "Metagaming's staff won't miss the effort. After the change in ownership Metagaming feels comfortable with the decision; it was the right thing to do." Thompson wrote MicroQuest #3 ''Treasure of the Silver Dragon'' (1980) and MicroQuest #6 ''Treasure of Unicorn Gold'' (1981) for ''The Fantasy Trip'' and marketed each of them linked to a real treasure hunt where readers could search the books for clues to receive a prize of $10,000 from Metagaming. Wanting to publish more products for groups of players for ''The Fantasy Trip'', Thompson signed an agreement in 1982 with publisher

Gamelords Gamelords was an American game company that produced tabletop role-playing games and game supplements. History Kerry Lloyd founded the company, with three friends - Richard Meyer, Janet Trautvetter, and Michael Watkins in 1980. Gamelords was ...

to design a campaign world for the game, but only two campaign books were published before Thompson ended the agreement. On 1 January 1982, Thompson created Games Research Group, Inc., which was initially part of Metagaming. Thompson let his two remaining wargame designers go on April 16, 1982, allowing them to work as freelancers for Games Research Group instead of working as employees. Metagaming ended its operations in April 1983 and Thompson left the games industry; Steve Jackson sought to purchase ''The Fantasy Trip'' from Thompson, but Jackson declined the offered price of $250,000. Thompson promised to come back to the field one day to publish computer games, but by 1984 he stopped returning phone calls and thereafter disappeared completely from the gaming community.

Games designed

* ''

'' (1974) * '' Chitin: I'' (1977) * '' WarpWar'' (1977) * ''Treasure of the Silver Dragon'' (1980) (module for

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 ...

) * ''Treasure of the Unicorn Gold'' (1981) (module for

) * '' Starleader: Assault!'' (1982)

Illustrations

Thompson also provided illustrations for two of his company's games, '' Helltank'' and ''

Monsters! Monsters! ''Monsters! Monsters!'' is a role-playing game first published by Metagaming Concepts in 1976. Description ''Monsters! Monsters!'' is a fantasy system in which the player characters are monsters who prey on adventurers and the civilized world. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Howard Board game designers Place of birth missing Possibly living people Wargame designers Year of birth missing