Monday, January 10, 2022

A New Challenge from TSR

One of the things that strikes me about some of the game companies of my youth, like TSR, is how many different games they produced – so many, in fact, that, even a TSR fanboy like myself, couldn't keep up with them all. I owned (and played) most of TSR's RPGs and many of its boardgames, but there were still several that escaped my grasp.

I was reminded of one of them, Knights of Camelot, when I saw this advertisement on the back cover of White Dwarf #22. Was this ad unique to the UK market? If it wasn't, I never saw it prior to this point. Mind you, I never actually saw Knights of Camelot itself outside of the pages of TSR's "Gateway to Adventure" catalog. That's odd, because my local area had excellent distribution of gaming products generally and it was rare that at least one of the game or hobby shops I frequented didn't stock a given product. Judging from the exorbitant prices of used copies of the game, I'm guessing its print run might have been small.

This is a pity. In looking into the game, Knights of Camelot seems quite interesting. For one, it's designed by Glenn and Kenneth Rahman, who are probably best known for another TSR design, Divine Right. For another, it's illustrated by Jeff Dee, Dave Sutherland, Dave LaForce, and includes a map by Darlene that looks quite stunning from the images of it I've seen. 

Looks like I have another game to add to my list of white whales …
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Posted by James Maliszewski at 10:00 AM
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8 comments:

  1. NicklongshanksJanuary 10, 2022 at 10:10 AM

    This looks great, I would love a copy of the map. Somebody, maybe riseupcomus copied the quest/mission rules and it looked like great adventure seeds for dnd as well.

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    1. James MaliszewskiJanuary 10, 2022 at 10:13 AM

      I recall reading somewhere that the random tables included with the game are excellent and quite useful for RPGs, so this wouldn't surprise me.

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  2. grodogJanuary 10, 2022 at 10:25 AM

    Some nice summary info at BGG, including several pictures of the map: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1780/knights-camelot.

    Allan.

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  3. AlanJanuary 10, 2022 at 12:06 PM

    I still have this game. No one else in my group was interested in playing it, but I played a lot of solo games in my youth. good times.

    I agree that the encounter tables would be a great resource for knighthood flavored games. You can find them about 2/3 of the way down the page the page here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1780/knights-camelot

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  4. Shock SlogansJanuary 10, 2022 at 8:35 PM

    It's a decent little game and very obviously RPG influenced. Honestly, if you're patient, it turns up on BGG marketplace at a reasonable price semi frequently. Expect to pay around 40 dollars for one is good condition.

    There's also a Dragon article that gives you the option of playing evil knights which I like.

    Someone really needs to buy up the rights to more of the old TSR boardgames. Some of them were great and I can't imagine WOTC wants most of them.

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  5. Adam DicksteinJanuary 10, 2022 at 11:01 PM

    Very pretty.

    I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of this but then if it wasn't sold as an RPG I probably didn't pay attention to it back then.

    It had to say 'Role Playing Game' or 'RPG' somewhere in clear and obvious lettering or I wouldn't pay it any mind in those days. Who am I kidding, these days as well. LOL

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  6. lore sutoJanuary 10, 2022 at 11:40 PM

    I'd love to see the interior illustrations! The cover is by Erol Otus and Kenneth Rahman. The figures are very recognizably Otus' style and I'd love to know more about their collaboration on this piece.

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  7. artikidJanuary 11, 2022 at 1:24 PM

    Neve had a chance to play this one.

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