Interview: Rudy Kraft (Part II)

4. Were you ever formally an employee of Chaosium or were you simply a freelance writer and designer for the company?

I was never an employee of Chaosium. All the work I did for them was as a freelance writer and designer. I was, for four months, an employee of Judges Guild. I was never an employee of any other game company although I was flown to Las Vegas to interview with Coleco for a job as a game designer in Connecticut. I was recommended for this job by Jennell Jaquays, with whom I had worked on several projects. I ended up turning the job down because at that time, Coleco only had a handheld gaming device with which I was not impressed. To be fair, I have never used a handheld gaming device or controller other than for the original Pong. All my electronic gaming has been on computers, so my judgment in this area might have been flawed.

Also, the pay being offered by Coleco was not significantly above what I was making as a combination freelance game designer, book seller, and legal secretary for my mother. And after spending four winters in Ithaca, New York and one winter in Decatur, Illinois, I preferred to live in the Bay Area to avoid snow. Other than my four months with Judges Guild, I was never a formal employee of a game company. Even my work as editor of Gryphon was done as a freelancer where I got paid a certain amount of money for gathering the articles and editing them for each issue of the magazine.  

5. You also wrote a number of products published by Judges Guild. How did that come about and what do you recall about it?

My involvement with Judges Guild came about when Greg decided to exclude the Broken Tree content from Snake Pipe Hollow.  As best I can tell, he did so for reasons of space not quality. Greg told me that they had signed an agreement with Judges Guild to produce licensed RuneQuest products. He suggested that I expand the material and submit it to them. I did so. I do not have any detailed memories of my work on that project, but it did lead to a job offer. Unlike the job offer from Coleco, which occurred several years later, I accepted this job offer and moved to Decatur, Illinois in January 1980. I remained there for 4 months during which time I designed and worked on several projects for the Judges Guild.  

I attended the Origins game conventions in Philadelphia in June of 1979 and again in 1980. I wanted to make contacts and look for work in the gaming industry. The job with Judges Guild partially arose out of the 1979 trip. My work on Frontiers of Alusia with SPI arose out of the 1980 trip.

I remember many things about my involvement with Judges Guild quite clearly and some not at all.  While I was Judges Guild, I injured my back moving heavy boxes. Prior to that time, I had no problems with my back. Since that time, I have had intermittent chronic back pain which requires precautions to avoid ongoing pain. I think it’s likely I would have eventually had back problems anyway, but I didn’t need it to trigger at age 22.  

I left Judges Guild because the owner, Bob Bledsaw, became concerned because there was a burglary in a building somewhat near the Judges Guild offices. He decided to address the burglary by buying a gun and leaving it in the office so whoever was there could protect themselves. This probably seemed like a perfectly sensible plan from the perspective of someone living in downstate Illinois, but it seemed crazy to me as a 22-year-old from Palo Alto, California. As a result, I left the Judges Guild and went home.

However, this was not a hostile breakup. I continued to produce projects for Judges Guild for several years thereafter. I began to represent Judges Guild at San Francisco Bay area game conventions by running a booth in the dealer hall. I don’t remember the specific financial arrangements, but it was financially profitable, albeit not greatly so, for both Judges Guild and myself.  

The RPGGeek website shows that I had been involved in 26 projects as a designer. Some of them are duplicate entries or things where I only contributed a short element. However, 10 of them were separate Judges Guild products. 

My contributions to the Book of Treasure Maps II, Book of Treasure Maps III, Legendary Duck Tower, Duck Pond, and Portals of Torsh were done as a Judges Guild employee. Treasure Maps II involved me completing work that someone else had already started. I started Treasure Maps III but Edward Mortimer completed it after I left. Legendary Duck Tower had been started by Jaquays while she was a Judges Guild employee. I finished it while I was working there. Its title was a pun on her Dark Tower D&D adventure. Obviously, Duck Pond took the punning title sequence one step further.

The other five products were items that I designed freelance after I left Judges Guild. Wondrous Relics was inspired by my RuneQuest product, Plunder. I thought it would be fun to make a bunch of new magic items for Dungeons & Dragons. I should pull out a copy and see if there is anything worth using in my current campaign.

The three portal products were designed to create an interconnected series of worlds where each product would provide a background for a world which Dungeon Masters could add to their campaign, if they wanted to have multi-planet campaign.  

I don’t remember much about design process of each of these items except that in September of 1980, I bought an Apple 2+ computer. From that point on I was typing my work, and my mother’s legal work, on that computer. At the time, there wasn’t any standardized word processing program, so I still submitted everything on paper, and it had to be retyped by the game publisher. I don’t remember the specific word processing program I used, but it was nowhere near as user friendly as the current ones.  So, for example, if I accidentally deleted something, there was no control Z to bring it right back. I had to retype it. Thus, there were number of occasions where work was lost because of accidental deletions or a failure to save combined with a computer crash, which also occurred much more often than it does now. In addition, there was no internal hard drive, so everything had to be saved onto a separate floppy disk.

I stopped representing Judges Guild at Bay area conventions in 1983 or 1984 after I got a part-time job at a local bookstore which became a full-time job that lasted until 1985 when I left to go to law school. 

Interview: Rudy Kraft (Part I)

A long-standing and popular feature of this blog has been its interviews with designers, artists, and other luminaries of the hobby. From the beginning, I’ve believed it’s important to preserve and share their memories, insights, and experiences. They deserve to be heard not only by those of us who remember those now-ancient days firsthand, but also by later generations of roleplayers who might otherwise never encounter the stories behind the games they love.

That’s why I’m always especially pleased to speak with someone whose contributions were largely unknown to me in my own youth. Such conversations are reminders of just how many hands shaped this hobby in its formative years.

Rudy Kraft, who was involved in the early days of Chaosium – or The Chaosium, as it was then styled – very kindly agreed to answer a series of questions I put to him. As you’ll soon discover, he did so with remarkable generosity and detail. What follows is the first part of our conversation; the second will appear tomorrow.

1. How did you first become involved in the hobby of role playing?

I first got involved in gaming as a hobby because of my father. I was the oldest of five children—although we started gaming before the fifth child was born. We had family games of Clue and Monopoly—mostly Clue. At some point, my father bought me a Christmas present of the old Avalon Hill game Afrika Korps. He and I played that a lot often leaving it set up on the desk in my parents' bedroom. Because I liked this game, he bought additional Avalon Hill Games at least once a year until I went away to college in 1974.

Starting in elementary school, I became an enthusiastic reader of both science fiction and fantasy.  During this time, I read and reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and Asimov’s Foundation series on multiple occasions.  

During high school, some friends and I created a space exploration war game where one person acted as the moderator and the other people explored a star map from different locations until they ran into each other and presumably fought a war.  

When I was at Cornell University, I read a lot of science fiction and touched the periphery of SF fandom. In one fanzine I read about this new game, Dungeons & Dragons. This almost certainly occurred in August 1975. The game sounded interesting to me, so I ordered a copy of it which I received in September. Once I looked at it, it became obvious to me that I did not know how to get started in the game and I set it aside.

In October, I overheard two people talking about playing Dungeons & Dragons. It turned out that there was a small group of people playing the game regularly in the same dormitory where I ate my meals.  They played every Saturday, so I first started playing Dungeons & Dragons on the second Saturday in October 1975. In fact, I had a 50th anniversary celebratory session in October this year where, for the first time in years, I played rather than DMed a game of Dungeon & Dragons.

Following that first session, I became very addicted to playing Dungeon & Dragons to the point where it significantly adversely affected my grades. During those years, I bought Empire of the Petal Throne and Metamorphosis Alpha, but I never persuaded anyone to play them instead of D&D. 

Retrospective: The Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe

I've no doubt mentioned on numerous occasions that, as a kid, I was never a big reader of comic books – at least not superhero comic books. Even so, many of my friends were avid comic readers and, more than that, it would have been quite difficult growing up in the 1970s and '80s to not know at least a little bit about comic book superheroes, particularly those published by Marvel Comics, merchandise for which was seemingly everywhere at the time. So, while I never a devoted fan of the genre, I was familiar with its characters and storylines.

Consequently, once I got into roleplaying games, I inevitably picked up Champions and had a good time with it, though it was never going to rise as high in my affections as, say, Dungeons & Dragons or Traveller. Champions was too ponderous and math-heavy for my tastes and seemed, to my way of thinking at any rate, to be a poor fit with the fast and frenetic action of superhero slugfests. Champions was good enough, because I didn't have any other ready alternatives, but I never connected to it the way I did with other RPGs.

TSR's Marvel Super Heroes, on the other hand, was pretty close to perfect for my purposes. That it was published by TSR certainly helped, I am sure, but, unlike many of TSR's other non-D&D offerings, Marvel Super Heroes was one that I played regularly, because it hit a sweet spot in its design and presentation. This was a game that was meant to be played and my friends and I had a blast with it. Sure, one can quibble about its lack of a robust character creation system, but that mostly didn't matter, because the whole point of this game was taking on the roles of one of Marvel's immense pantheon of heroes. 

That's what made the Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe, released in four 256-page volumes over the course of 1988, so appealing. Modeled on the 15-volume Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series from Marvel Comics, TSR's Handbook provided game statistics for nearly every Marvel character ever to appear in its comics, as well as information on their history and even roleplaying notes. If you were playing Marvel Super Heroes, this was pretty much a must-have product, especially if, like me, your favorite heroes and villains had never appeared in other MSH products or in the pages of Jeff Grubb's excellent "The Marvel-Phile" series.

Much like the Monstrous Compendium for AD&D Second Edition, the Handbook's pages were five-hole punched so that they could be organized into a binder. Unlike the MC, I don't believe TSR ever produced officially-branded binders for this purpose, but my memory is hazy. Interestingly, Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe, released between 1985 and 1987 in obvious imitation of Marvel's earlier effort, was released in a similar loose-leaf format. I have no idea whether TSR was, in turn, borrowing a page from DC or if it was simply something the company had, for whatever reason, hit upon as a useful format for releasing its products at the time.

I loved these books and regret that I no longer own my original copies of them. Unfortunately, they came out during my college years and a lot of things I acquired during that time went missing as I regularly moved between my parents' home and various dormitories. TSR released four more, slimmer follow-up volumes to the originals – annual updates that included new or overlooked characters, in addition to literal updates previously presented characters. I never saw any of these and so cannot speak to their specific contents, but I get the impression that, like the initial volumes, they were well-regarded and useful.

Thinking back on this series of products, I find myself remembering just how good Marvel Super Heroes was and how much I enjoyed playing it. Though I've played (or attempted to play) several other superhero RPGs in the years since, none has ever really grabbed me the way MSH did. That might just be because I'm not, as I said, a diehard superhero fan and thus have never really committed to the genre for roleplaying purposes. However, I prefer to think it's more likely that Marvel Super Heroes was just a solid, intuitive design that fit its subject matter in a way few others have. I miss it.

Thousand Suns 2e Playtesting

It's still very much my intention to release a new edition of my science fiction roleplaying game, Thousand Suns, either this year or next. While my public discussions of my design work on this project take place over at Grognardia Games Direct, I'll also be doing a series of playtests the details of which will periodically appear at my Patreon. If that's something you'd be interested in, my latest (public) post talks a bit about this, with more information to follow in the weeks ahead.

REPOST: The Articles of Dragon: "Mutant Manual"

Since this blog could hardly be accused of intellectual rigor, I trust no one will object to my choosing the "Mutant Manual" as the "article" I wish to highlight from issue #98 (June 1985) of Dragon. Written by Randy Johns, Douglas A. Lent, John M. Maxstadt, William Tracy, and James M. Ward, the "Mutant Manual" was a 12-page insert that detailed 17 new mutants for use with Gamma World.

To say that I adored the "Mutant Manual" is a bit of an understatement. Along with only a handful of other articles, it became a permanent addition to my "referee's binder" in which I kept maps, notes, and photocopies of useful articles from Dragon, White Dwarf, and elsewhere. In the case of the "Mutant Manual," though, it wasn't a photocopy, but the original itself, which I carefully removed from the center of my copy of issue #98. Since I generally preferred to keep my copies of Dragon "pristine" – a shock, I know – the fact that I removed the "Mutant Manual" was a high tribute.

I'm not sure I can really convey why I liked it so much. Were I to describe any of its constituent mutants, like the flying squids, armor-plated rhinos, or post-apocalyptic sasquatches, I doubt most readers would find them particularly interesting and perhaps rightly so. Back in '85, though, I appreciated having a source of new mutants to throw at my players when we played Gamma World. Creating good monsters takes time and imagination, as many entries in the Monster Manual prove. You need more than a name and some game statistics to create a worthy monster – an indescribable something that makes it more than the sum of its parts.

In my opinion, this is particularly the case with regards to Gamma World, where it's all too easy to take some normal animal, roll a few times on the mutations tables, and think you're done. More often than not, this led to some utterly ridiculous creatures that I could barely take seriously myself, let alone my players. So, having some ready-made mutants that weren't immediately laughable was invaluable to me. Whether others might deem the "Mutant Manual" a success in this regard is a matter of opinion, of course, but I loved it and still strongly associate it with my fondest memories of Gamma World.

The High Struggle

The High Struggle by James Maliszewski

A Breakthrough for Thousand Suns 2e

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Pulp Fantasy Library: Dwellers in the Mirage

Despite the fact that I’ve long championed the fiction of Abraham Merritt on this blog, I’ve somehow never devoted a proper Pulp Fantasy Library post to his 1932 novel Dwellers in the Mirage. That omission is especially glaring given that it’s one of only three Merritt works singled out by Gary Gygax in Appendix N of the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, the other two being Creep, Shadow! and The Moon Pool. In my defense, I did write about Dwellers years ago, but that was for the short-lived Pulp Fantasy Gallery, not this series. Correcting that oversight has also reminded me how easily certain classics slip through the cracks simply because one assumes they’ve already been treated. I intend to rectify that in the weeks and months ahead.

First serialized in Argosy magazine across six issues in early 1932, Dwellers in the Mirage perfectly captures a transitional moment in fantastic fiction. The 19th-century Lost World romance had not yet entirely vanished, but it had begun to darken and mutate under the influence of the weird tales of the pulps. Merritt’s novel stands squarely at this crossroads. Its protagonist, Leif Langdon, an American of Norwegian descent, is exploring Alaska when he stumbles upon a warm, hidden valley cut off from the outside world. There he discovers two ancient peoples locked in ceaseless conflict and, more disturbingly, the worship of a monstrous, tentacled deity named Khalk’ru, whose cult demands blood sacrifice.

As if this weren't complication enough, Langdon gradually learns that he is the reincarnation of Dwayanu, a legendary warrior from the valley’s past. The memories and passions of that former life begin to surface, creating a psychological tension that drives much of the novel. The struggle against Khalk’ru is thus not merely external but internal. Langdon must reconcile his modern identity with the shadow of an older, more ruthless self. In doing so, Merritt transforms what might have been a straightforward lost race adventure into a story of possession, temptation, and the perilous allure of power.

That fusion of elements is one of the novel’s strengths. Merritt weaves together reincarnation, romance, occultism, lost civilizations, and cosmic horror with a confidence that makes the whole feel seamless rather than overstuffed. The narrative moves briskly, pausing just long enough to explore the psychological toll of Langdon’s divided soul and the seductive pull of Khalk’ru’s terrible grandeur. Merritt’s prose is, as always, lush, rhythmic, and incantatory. He imbues even the more conventional adventure scenes with a dreamlike intensity. The result is a tale that transcends its pulpy origins without abandoning them.

By 1932, Merritt was among the most popular and respected writers in the American pulps. Earlier novels such as The Metal Monster and The Ship of Ishtar had already established him as a master of exotic fantasy steeped in ancient civilizations and occult forces. Dwellers in the Mirage is very much in this vein as well, but it also exemplifies how far the genre had evolved from its Victorian antecedents. Where Haggard and Doyle offered rationalist heroes confronting marvels at the edges of empire, Merritt presents a world in which the marvelous is tinged with cosmic dread and psychological ambiguity. The adventures in both are similar, but Merritt's version embraces the weid and uncanny.

Khalk’ru himself deserves special mention. Readers have long debated whether this tentacled, malign entity was intended as an homage to H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu or represents a case of parallel invention. Lovecraft greatly admired Merritt and the two even collaborated on the round-robin story “The Challenge from Beyond.” While their styles differ markedly, both writers were captivated by the intrusion of ancient, inhuman powers into the modern world. Merritt’s vision is ultimately more romantic and mythic. His heroes are not reduced to insignificance before the abyss. Instead, they resist it. Cosmic horror still remains, but Merritt believes it can be confronted and, at least temporarily, overcome. In this respect, Dwellers in the Mirage thus anticipates later sword-and-sorcery fiction, in which bold heroes pit their wills against dark gods and sorcerous tyrants. One can readily see why Gygax valued the novel highly enough to cite it in Appendix N. 

Some of Merritt’s fiction is more significant as a historical artifact than as living literature. Dwellers in the Mirage, however, retains an immediacy that makes it rewarding for its own sake. It is delightfully atmospheric and filled with both memorable characters and situations. More than that, it stands as a vivid testament to a moment when pulp fantasy had finally coalesced into its own distinct genre, one that would go on to influence not only later fantasy literature but also comic books, movies, and other forms of popular entertainment.

If you've never had the chance to read the novel before, I highly recommend you do so. There's a wonderful new edition of the novel available through DMR Books that I cannot recommend enough.

One Book or Two?

One Book or Two? by James Maliszewski

Pondering a Change to Thousand Suns

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What Are You Playing Right Now?

I write a lot about the various roleplaying games I'm currently refereeing and/or playing, since it's good fodder for posts. It's also because I know many readers enjoy learning about which games I'm enjoying and what I'm doing with them. Truth be told, I feel similarly. I love hearing about the games others are playing and what's going in their adventures and campaigns. 

To that end, I'd like to return to some questions I asked here just a little over three years ago:

If you are currently playing in or refereeing a roleplaying game:

• What RPG(s) are playing/refereeing?
• How long have you been playing this/these particular campaign(s)?
• How often do you meet to play?

If you are not currently playing in or refereeing a roleplaying game:

• How long has it been since you last played/refereed?

Thanks in advance.

Logjam (Part II)

Logjam (Part II) by James Maliszewski

An Update

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