Tomes of Antiquity: Dark Folk a Role Aids Product of Mayfair Games

Published in 1983, Dark Folk was one of many supplements produced under the Role Aids moniker by Mayfair Games. The supplement covered the lives and motivations of Trolls, Orc, Gnolls, Kobolds and Goblins in addition to providing module style adventures for each of the species. Of note, Robert Lynn Asprin was the author of the orc section. Yes, the Asprin of Thieves’ World fame.

This supplement prominently features the statement “Suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” as part of the subtitle. Additionally, below the Role Aids trademark on the lower right side is the statement: “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is a trademark of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Use of the trademark NOT sanctioned by the holder.” Mayfair Games was founded by Darwin (David) Bromley, an attorney, in 1982.

Much like the current controversy surrounding the choices of Dice Cast Games’s decision to release a module, Insiduous (now with a different cover) espousing system compliance, Mayfair ran afoul of TSR’s legal department. The original suit in the 1980′s resulted in a licensing agreement between TSR and Mayfair. An agreement TSR claimed was violated in 1991. Another lawsuit ensued. In 1994 before the final judgement in the case, TSR reached a settlement with Mayfair and bought the rights of the Role Aids line. In short order, the materials disappeared. If you are interested in the suit, there are a number of sites covering it far better than I could. Try this one as a starting place.

I actually recall waffling over buying this book. I was in Denver in a mall bookstore flush with maybe $20.00 in my pocket. Now, at the ripe age of 13, that $20.00 was important and significant. I probably read the first half of the supplement in the store before I finally decided to buy it. I was sold on the depth of the content and the writing. The booklet actually had some depth. Not just a random series of encounters. Every modulet (is that a word? It is now), covers a reasonable set of encounters related to the monster at hand — contextually oriented and logical. Many of the early modules I had seen were exercises in random encounter tables. I had that down pat.

If you can find a copy, I recommend it.

Google Trends – How does Roleplaying Fare?

Just out of curiosity, I ran a number of terms through Google Trends relating to role playing and other terms. While I will not proclaim the death of the industry, the trends for the hobby as a whole are down and to the right. If it were a stock, analysts would agree it is not a good industry to be in. Google’s data only goes back to 2004. Less than 10 years. Not a good metric for a comprehensive study but the graphs are educational.

Roleplaying

Roleplaying Games

Roleplaying Online

Flowing downhill to the right. Not a very pretty picture but its a generic set of terms for an entire industry. How does the market leading term stand up? Let’s see.

Dungeons and Dragons

D&D

Not much better. Everyone says video games are taking over. Are they?

Video Games

Pretty flat of late but better than RPG’s. The next big thing promised but never really delivered is 3D online

3D Online Game

How about the standby board games every family owns and plays? Hasbro has a major market presence in those.

Board Games

Trivial Pursuit

Hasbro Monopoly

Very cyclical. Upticks occur every December as you would expect from a US driven holiday market. Still the trend mirrors the down to the right flow of roleplaying games. How do our slightly related brethren in the LARP and SCA markets hold up?

Society For Creative Anachronism

LARP

Okay, how about some search terms not related to the industry for comparison. There has been an explosion of online games of late. Farmville gets more coverage than any other game online I could think of.

Farmville

How about videos? It seems to be all the rage these days. Do cat videos stand up better?

Cat Videos

Donkey Videos

I’m shocked. I was trying to pick a random animal video term out of the hat. Who knew donkey’s were that much more interesting than cats? I guess times change. The one thing that doesn’t require stating but is an example of the trend you would like but can never achieve.

Porn

Hats off to our new naked donkey loving elvish overlords filming porn. Take it as you will. I just had fun looking at the trends.

Tomes of Antiquity: Choose Your Own Adventure — The Past & Present

I’m not an iPhone or iPad owner but if I were, I’d like to check out a new app, U-Ventures, available from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. The app revives the Choose Your Own Adventure series in digital form. I love the idea of combining exploration, reading and some digital magic interesting to the new generation of tech-savvy children.

Cave of Time

From the NPR article: (Listen to the interview.)

The classic children’s book series, Choose Your Own Adventure, puts you, the reader, in charge of your own fate: Will you emerge king of the dominion? Or meet your end in a duel with a sea monster?

Now, a new iPhone application aims to revive the series for a digital generation of readers.

Edward Packard, one of the authors of the interactive Choose Your Own Adventure series, has helped create U-Ventures, an application for the iPhone and iPad. It incorporates sounds, lights and special effects into the traditional Choose Your Own Adventure format.

The first U-Venture is a sort of a sequel to a classic title, The Cave of Time. In “Return to the Cave of Time,” the U-Venture, “you go back in the cave — you don’t have a choice on that,” Packard tells NPR’s Neal Conan. But from that point on, the reader chooses her own course. — Neal Conan, NPR

I can recall passing the original Choose Your Own Adventure books around our gaming group in the early 1980′s. The series arrived on the scene about the same time we took up role playing. I suspect they also had a subconscious influence on my style of game play. Make a decision. Move the story forward no matter the results. Sure, I leafed back a few times in the books to choose a new path but that never entered my mind as a RPG player.

What are your memories of the Choose Your Own Adventure books? How about the app if you’ve used it? I’m going to see if the local used book stores have any of the older books just to relive my past.

Update: The current publisher of the book series is CHOOSECO including the title Zombie Penpal, which is now a must have on Kevin’s wish list.

Tomes of Antiquity: Polyhedron #71

Welcome to Tomes of Antiquity. This ongoing weekly series will investigate one book, module or magazine in my collection of materials at least a decade old. Without further ado, here is this week’s entry.

Polyhedron Newszine
Volume 12, Number 5
Issue #71, May 1992

Cover

Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Two was a good year. I graduated from college. Left the easy life of academic pursuits to make a living as chemist. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best choice of jobs but it was a job. Obviously enough, it was also a great year for conventions. Thirteen different conventions were listed on the paper cover page of the newszine. You read that correctly. 13 conventions between May 22nd and July 17th. How many conventions are there today? Check out the list. Do you remember any of these?

Continue reading »

One man, a castle and a fire breathing dragon

By all accounts, Jim Bishop is an eccentric. Many describe him as a madman. Certainly, his political leanings are to the right of conservative conservatives based off his continuous legal battles with local government. Building off a small, stone-work cabin on land purchased in the late 1950′s, Jim has constructed a castle in south-central Colorado. Other than a small amount of help from his father in the early construction, the castle was built stone by stone by his hands alone. No plans required or desired.

I first visited Bishop’s Castle in 1998 on a road trip with gaming buddies. The castle is amazing and frightening. The construction is stone, cement, and wrought iron. When I last visited it was maze that has grown over the last 12 years. While the lower portions of the structure are massive, solid chunks, the upper tiers are not for the faint of heart. Continue up as long as your will holds. The stone work gets less massive and the wrought iron stairs and bridges sway with every step.

Bishops Castle

Jim is a modern day hermit but not in the eremitic or recluse sense. He lives by his own rules. Ask him and you’ll likely experience a diatribe on the government, freedom and independence. His opinions are well documented.

Aside from his extreme viewpoints, Jim is inspirational. Building your own castle is a common dream of many role players. Actually building one is a beyond comprehension for most. Jim caught the bug and the results are open to the public. Follow his rules, enter and enjoy at no cost (donations encouraged).

I’m quite certain Jim wouldn’t have fit well in the medieval ages just as he doesn’t today. I would be hard pressed to come up with a more dynamic, oddball of society in a game context. He certainly would make for an interesting encounter in a modern day game among many other settings.

If you want to learn more about the castle and the builder, start with the references under the Wikipedia entry. I need to make another trip but my 1998 pictures are available. Do not miss his hand written signs.

Leather Kids Cuirass Nearing Completion

Another progress update. The front and the back of the 2-part cuirass are now complete. The one remaining task is adding straps for the shoulders and sides.

Front and Back Completed

The straps will utilize modern buckles to allow easy adjustment to Sir Dylan. He stopped by on Sunday to get a test fit. Both sections line up well on his frame. The neck opening could have been slightly larger but will fit nicely. The length looks nice on him. I’m glad. When looking at it on the table, the halves appeared overly long but my measurements were true.

Dylan liked the look. If he’s happy, so am I. I’ll post final build photos when I do the final test fit.

Yet Another Update on Armor for Kids

Finally got the front stitched together today. Ran into issues with that including broken thread. I’m learning as I go. Sort of on-the-job-training. It’s been fun and my fingers are not nearly as sore as they were after the back half stitching.

I believe I’ve convinced my over zealous evil half to keep the project simple. The end product is for a costume not for all out neighbourhood warfare. So instead of going nuts, I’m just going to add a small decorative feature to the front on the basic cuirass. I settled on a cross pattee.

While waiting on the dye to dry on the front, I cut out the cross. I could have stayed simpler and tooled it into the leather directly. Given I made the decision after the initial round of dye was on, that was not an option.

Sketching the Cross

Once sketched, I transferred the pattern to the leather and used a hobby knife to cut it out. Not perfect but close enough for Sir Dylan the Skinny. He won’t notice the imperfections.

Adornment Atop the Top

Once the dye has dried fully on the front, I’ll finish it off with a second coat to get a uniform color. The cross will need burnishing, dying and can then be stitched onto the base. I haven’t settled on a color for the cross yet.

I should also get a second test fitting in this weekend so I can position shoulder and side straps. Then I’ll have to cut those, burnish, dye and attach. Once I have all those techniques tested, I can try out something fancier.

I like the look thus far. Different than my original vision but still pretty cool. Unsurprisingly, I have at least two additional variants I want to try out. And now I’m a wholesale member at the leather store.