Does anyone remember this game? I saw advertisements for it in the pages of White Dwarf in the mid-1980s and was intrigued by it, in large part because of its inclusion of a double-sided cassette tape. One side of the tap is an introduction to the rulebook, while the other side contains a solo adventure. At the time (1985), I don't think I'd ever encountered anything like this elsewhere, so just how it worked was a mystery.
Unfortunately, like many UK gaming products, I never managed to see it in the wild on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. If anyone else knows more about it, I'd be very curious to hear from you.
I had a copy, never bothered to play it. It was pretty simplistic and nothing about it impressed me at the time, unlike the wargames the company was better known for, which were quite good for their day and rather impressive in terms of component quality for the 1980s. There's an excellent synopsis/review of Dragonroar over at this link that explains the game better than my foggy memory possibly could at this point:
ReplyDeletehttps://rpggeek.com/thread/542592/dragonroar-meet-war-hedgehog
The only thing I'd add is that the killer penguin thing the reviewer objected to so much may well have been inspired by SPI's use of killer penguins as a running joke in several of their games. Although calling the ones from Sword & Sorcery a "joke" is questionable since they stood about 50' tall, had spiked beak armor and were probably the second most dangerous penguin-related monster in gaming, right after Gammarauders bioborg Squawwk the Penguinoid.
I remember the game being in the local games shop. Some of the miniatures for it are still in production; I bought a 'war hedgehog' for my daughter a few years back: https://www.magistermilitum.com/bst10-homicidal-hedgehog.html
ReplyDeleteI've seen the ads for it. Hmm, too bad it doesn't seem to draw more from the board games. Those were some nice games. I have most of them (mostly just missing Samurai). I used to have the space ship combat game also, but I sold it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, some good stuff from Standard back in the day. I missed the starship game but had a lot of fun with Cry Havoc and its sequels/spinoffs.
DeleteI like that lizard like dragon.
ReplyDeleteAnyone play the Evening of Murder (from Max Haines) or How to Host a Murder from Vincent Price? they are nearly free at thrift stores, so I have a pile, cause why not?
ReplyDeletethey are baffling to me, but they come with a cassette tape (or, if newer, a CD) with clues and such for the diceless :)
I love it.
I had a copy. It was the publisher's only venture into roleplaying and it simply did not fit the market then. It was too basic and it was aimed at a segment of the market that the hobby was not catering for at the time or did not know that it wanted to cater to. It prefigured the rash of starter sets that TSR would publish in the late eighties and early nineties, when no one could really agree on what an introduction to roleplaying games should be like. The production values despite that, are excellent and the actual tape not that bad.
ReplyDeleteI do plan to review at some point. Probably in a couple of years on its anniversary.
That giant hedgehog with axe is pretty awesome....
ReplyDeleteI picked up a copy years ago at a games auction at a local Convention in Toronto. I still have it and it came with the cassette tape. The rules were really forgettable.
ReplyDeleteThis website helps
ReplyDeletehttps://vintagerpg.tumblr.com/post/651763022085455872/by-the-mid-80s-most-wargame-publishers-were
I bought it on initial release. It cost me nearly twice as much as the D&D basic red box
ReplyDeleteIt's a rules lite heartbreaker, a simplified hybrid of basic D&D and runequest
I played it loads as a teen to no objections from my group although looking at it again recently, it's a quick learn and in many ways an ideal intro game but some of the rules esp concerning movement and morale are just tad too clunky to do anything but disregard them completely
That being said I have a love for this that may be completely rose coloured but I'll never be parting with my personal copy, too many good memories