One of the stranger games to have been released during the first decade of the hobby was Fantasy Wargaming. Though I've never played it (and unlikely to ever do so), the game nevertheless exercises a strange fascination over me. I still have a copy of it on my bookshelf and take it down a couple of times each year to browse. In a strange way, I find re-reading it oddly heartening, because it's quite clear that, for all its many oddities, Fantasy Wargaming was a true passion project by its authors.
Mike Monaco of the Swords & Dorkery blog is even more enamored of Fantasy Wargaming than I am. That's why he recently wrote a scholarly book on it, published by Carnegie Mellon University's ETC Press. Entitled The Highest Level of All: The Story of Fantasy Wargaming, the book presents the story of the game's creation, as well that of its creators. Because it's an academic work, I'm not sure how widely distributed it will be, but I'll definitely keep my eye out for a copy. This is a topic that greatly interests me and I suspect it will be a fascinating read.
how can I buy one?
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew!
DeleteYou can find it through Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-monaco-and-heather-ford/the-highest-level-of-all/hardcover/product-8p84jd.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Deletewow. I do not want it that badly. 140$ canadian. you can keep it.
DeleteSadly, the cost is prohibitive. Maybe if I win the lottery.
DeleteAcademic texts tend to be pricier. I will put it on my list, though.
DeleteFor a much cheaper taste of Mike Monaco’s writing I would highly recommend his Burgs & Bailiffs Trinity volume, on travel, funeral rites/beliefs, saints, and pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. A lot of fascinating things in there even if you don’t use the gaming side of the book. (I didn’t know that people in that millieu tended to wear only a hat to bed.)
https://mikemonaco.wordpress.com/burgs-bailiffs-trinity-the-poor-pilgrims-almanack/
Surprisingly, it seems to be available from Lulu for $80.00.
ReplyDeleteApparently ETC Press is an imprint of Carnegie Mellon publishing books related to entertainment; because they're publishing kind of niche-of-a-niche stuff, they print it POD via Lulu.
ReplyDeleteI remember getting a copy of FW the first time I joined the SFBC back in 84... my younger self considered it totally unplayable but still an interesting read, too bad that copy is long gone.
ReplyDeleteHe wrote it after fairly extensive interviews with the surviving author of that idiosyncratic RPG and a few other people who were involved.
ReplyDeleteOne significant value that Monaco's book provides is a detailed summary of the rules presented in the book. For the most part, people who found the game to be "unplayable" (I assure you that it is not) simply weren't able to parse the very poor organization of the rules. Monaco's summary should help with that problem.
Another useful part of the book is its second appendix (I am going off of a pre-publication copy designed for editorial and comment to which I have access) that lays out a detailed summary of the surviving material and recollections of participants (more of the latter than the former) for the Leigh Cliffs campaign supplement that was never published due to the untimely death of Bruce Galloway. Leigh Cliffs is mentioned in the introduction of FW, and was a weekend game run similarly to Braunstein in that each of the numerous* players had their own agenda to pursue in the eponymous town. According to some recollections, there were "hundreds" of NPCs and a similar number of terrible jokes in the setting. Further, there were obscure puzzles (one centered on figuring out that a "Desiree Street" was a corruption of "Dies Irae", which, sure). There's also some documentation of another Galloway weekend scenario, Malham Tarn, which was a WWII country house mystery/espionage scenario unrelated to FW directly.
Is it worth US$80? I mean, it's an academic work with some value to gamers. At this time, games are starting to run $50-$75 for core rules, or more if the publisher can justify releasing the game in multiple volumes, and those prices are actually somewhat in line with game prices in the past, adjusted for inflation. I know that I want a copy, but I'm also a very strong believer in the potential of FW, given adequate development (in fact, my eight-part blog entry on the game is cited in Monaco's study, and as noted I provided commentary and criticism on a draft).
*Apparently, there were enough to break into five smaller parties.
Ive actually been working on adapting it for a game I want to run. Nothing else is as authentically ‘Medieval’!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. There's an RPG with "authentic medieval" in the subtitle and it completely downplays social class and replaces the Church with a generic sun religion. Kind of mind boggling. I'd love to see what you come up with.
DeleteThanks for the notice!
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for the lack of distribution. We ran into a snag with printer and are still waiting on corrected proof. However, once it's really, sincerely ready for printing ETC will provide a *free* PDF download of the book on their site. Because the interior is all full color and we wanted the best reproduction of the art and facsimiles of some hitherto unknown documents, the cost is pretty high. For an academic press it's actually a pretty normal price, and I don't really have any control over that. I'm working on ebook (mobi format), which will have minimal illustrations and be much more affordable. But the free PDF is also in the pipeline, it's just not going to be easy to read on a mobile device due to the illustrations. Hoping for some news in the next week or so.
Well a month late and $80 short, here's the link to buy a copy or get the *free pdf* : https://press.etc.cmu.edu/books/highest-level-all
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike
ReplyDelete