Monday, November 25, 2024

Naked Sword

I saw this advertisement in issue #89 of Dragon (September 1984):

Since I can find no evidence of its existence, I assume that it never came out. Is that correct? Does anyone by chance know anything about this? From the scant information here, I can only assume that it was a warrior-centric counterpart to Thieves' Guild, but it's hard to say for sure.

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Posted by James Maliszewski at 3:00 PM
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16 comments:

  1. JEFFBNovember 25, 2024 at 3:10 PM

    Yes, it was to be the warrior class version of the revised rules Gamelords was producing for Thieves Guild second edition. It never arrived. Neither did the magic users game (can't recall the name).

    I believe Kerry Lloyd passed away and Gamelords went under around d this time.

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    1. James MaliszewskiNovember 25, 2024 at 3:12 PM

      There was going to be a magic-user one, too? Wow. Thanks for this information. I had no idea.

      Delete
  2. JEFFBNovember 25, 2024 at 3:16 PM

    Yes. I want to say it was to be called "Path of the Magi", but I'm probably wrong (so says my wife all the time) I was into TG a bit and the catalog/price sheet in the 2E TG box mentioned the next two games.

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    1. Dick McGeeNovember 25, 2024 at 7:59 PM

      Have to wonder if they'd have tackled clerics or priests or whatever if they'd gotten through warriors and wizards. Divine classes feel more tied to specific setting (or at least pantheons) and I dimly recall Thieves' Guild as being pretty setting-agnostic.

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    2. JEFFBNovember 25, 2024 at 8:27 PM

      I want to say they tackled some priest/divine magic/class as a rules addition in one of the numbered Thieves Guild booklets prior to the 2E boxed set (likely as one of the adventures featured an NPC Priest). I don't recall which one. TG#2 presented the rules for Fighters and Mages for the original edition. obviously they were to be greatly expanded for the second edition game. Sad it never came to fruition. I really enjoyed many aspects of the TG rules and their adventures.

      Delete
  3. Pete BNovember 25, 2024 at 3:39 PM

    "Paths of Sorcery" was supposed to be the wizard one per the Introduction section of the 2nd edition boxed set

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    1. JEFFBNovember 25, 2024 at 4:35 PM

      Thank you. 40 years, surprised I got it partially correct!

      Delete
    2. rdpeytonNovember 25, 2024 at 4:55 PM

      You are both examples of why this community is awesome.

      Delete
    3. HuckSawyerNovember 25, 2024 at 6:48 PM

      Kickstart the time machine. If 1984 Gaithersburg could see the place forty years later, they'd have a stroke. Kickstart the defibrillator. Speaking of alternative planes . . .

      Delete
    4. T.G. MooreNovember 25, 2024 at 9:22 PM

      I grew up there and hate going back due to how much it has changed. Many fond memories of going to Dream Wizards in the old Rockville Pike, Congressional Plaza locale.

      Delete
    5. HuckSawyerNovember 26, 2024 at 8:00 AM

      Rockville BMX was the biggest baddest wolf on the block back in the 1980's. We had nothing to compare down in Virginia. At our own Fair Oaks Mall - one of the first of the 3-tier shopping malls, nouveau at the time - the Games Workshop had prime space alongside Hoffritz and Kemp Mill Records (!) at mall center by the glass elevators. Back when Christmas was allowable you could look right past rednose Santa with his Samantha Claus elves and see the huge Dragonlance displays at GW. Also, smoking in the mall! Thems' the days.

      Delete
  4. T.G. MooreNovember 25, 2024 at 3:50 PM

    The old “Stonehenge" font published by Graphic Products Corporation as paste up letters sure got around the early game industry. TSR, Palladium FRPG, Heritage Miniatures "Dungeon Dwellers" and Citadel Miniatures/GW to name a few.

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    1. Dick McGeeNovember 25, 2024 at 7:56 PM

      Yep. A few local-ish fanzines used it too. Very nostalgic font for gamers of a certain age.

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    2. HuckSawyerNovember 26, 2024 at 8:03 AM

      I lack an academic background but I distinctly remember the flamingo-W from that typeface. And that Sword backwards was Drows.

      Delete
  5. PicadorNovember 26, 2024 at 11:21 AM

    Looks like the assets of Gamelords were purchased by Tadashi Ehara in 1986. ("Ehara purchased Gamelords for Sleuth Publications in 1986, and on December 1, 1986 they sent him 10,000 pounds of backstock packed into 344 cartons.")

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadashi_Ehara

    He might be the guy to ask:

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/tadashiehara/

    https://www.facebook.com/tadashi.ehara/

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  6. AnonymousNovember 29, 2024 at 2:43 AM

    Did you ever see Gamelords' Free City of Haven? I found it in a mall in Carlisle, Pennsylvania when my father was going to the Army War College there. (We live in California.) I bought it (this was around 1980-1, and I was about 10-11 years old), thinking it was something to do with the original "little brown book" D&D rules. The Haven characters (and there were at least a hundred of them, all statted out in pages at the back of the package) all looked like Original D&D characters--the same weapons with the same damage scores, the same Magic-Users and Clerics' spells with the same effects, etc. And the City of Haven had a very detailed background, with very poor aristocrat families, very wealthy mercantile families, and any number of elven, dwarven, and halfling families (in their own quarters, if not ghettos) all struggling for power and prestige. Shakespearean to say the least! I don't remember if I ever got my RPG-playing colleagues to play in this setting, but it would have been a very fun experience for them, especially for someone who read a little and understood puns. Almost every NPC's name was a joke, and there were hundreds of them (Glumin Duhm, the mel-ancholy storekeeper; Neberhaard Olfaardt, old and impotent nobleman with a lovely young wife; Kelvar, the Armorer, who can produce +1 chainmail and shields within a month; Maas Turkar, the banker, who always honors his customers' claims (as long as they keep pouring gold into their accounts)--the list went on and on. They had a whole religion as well, with a sun god (good), a moon god (evil), a soldiers' god (honoring ones' enemies and following a code of ethics), and more besides. It was better than the Thieves' World RPG package, which I also purchased, but found less attractive (as the Thieves' World fiction series was mostly about the participating authors just feuding with each other instead of telling interesting stories).
    If you like Gamelords' stuff, get The Free City of Haven!
    Sundog

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