I like to remind people that it's no coincidence the rules to classic Traveller, when they were first released by GDW in 1977, came in three little digest-sized books. Marc Miller was clearly following the model of OD&D, right down to the content and organization of those three books (and did a better job at it, frankly).
Whenever I think of this fact I remember that Miller, along with most of the GDW crew, were early adopters of Dungeons & Dragons, a fact that he relates, I believe, in an issue of Different Worlds magazine. Given that, it should come as no surprise that he made a contribution to issue #4 of the first volume of TSR's The Strategic Review newsletter (Winter 1975). What is surprising, at least to me, is that the contribution isn't an article about wargaming or even D&D but the following comic, one of the very first ever to appear in a TSR gaming periodical.
Note the shout-out to Loren Wiseman next to the signature.
ReplyDeleteThe connection goes back even earlier - on page 5 of Strategic Review Vol. 1 No. 2 (Summer 1975) there's a small cartoon of two frogs sitting next ti a helmet and one is saying to the other "No Fred, I think he was a _14th_ level..." signed "LW '74." The signature is ambiguous, but Loren Wiseman of GDW confirmed that it was in fact he who drew and submitted that cartoon.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I didn't notice the initials in that original comic. Thanks for pointing them out.
Delete