In light of yesterday's post about Revolt on Antares, this advertisement from issue #58 of Dragon (February 1982) seemed like it would be of interest.
I owned and enjoyed all these games in my youth. After Revolt on Antares, I think Saga was probably my favorite, though Vampyre was also fun. Does anyone make games like this today? I don't mean reprints of older games, like Ogre, but new, original minigames with simple components that can be played in an hour or so? If so, I'd love to hear about them.
Simple card games (and app games) seem to have largely replaced the microgame format these days, but they crop up now and then. Dark City Games is probably the most prolific company focused on micros, although most of their output are microquests (akin to Death Test) for TFT-like systems. They've got some wargames but they're still a sideline compared to the RPG stuff. RV Games has a few, including an open "re-imagining" of Hot Spot - wonder how Armintrout feels about that? There are other one-offs - your best bet is to poke around Wargames Vault looking at the cheaper end of the scale.
ReplyDeleteNone of it quite recaptures the old days for me, but YMMV. Dark City is probably trying teh hardest to homage Metagaming's style.
Just looking at that ad, I'm struck by the bullpen of artists that TSR could throw at a new project, like mini-games, and make them instantly appealing. Dee, Willingham, Otus (and interior art by Roslof).
ReplyDeleteLike the silver age Marvel comics bullpen, the art team of this period was a powerful weapon for TSR.
Agreed 100%. That's something I've been planning to write about, because it really is striking in retrospect.
DeleteIndeed. I came to D&D with the LBBs and Ad&d shortly after, so I love DCS and DAT- but Willingham, Dee, Otus, and Roslof are the ones who really captured what was in my mind's eye and inspired me.The switch from monochrome modules to the reprints in new trade dress had me buying items I already owned.
DeleteI think the art for the early Top Secret products and Gamma World modules is fantastic and often overlooked, as well.
Absolutely agreed about Gamma World's art. There's some amazing stuff in that game.
DeleteNot exactly the same, but you may be interested in Mike Lambo's solo wargame books. The subjects range from Battles of Medieval Britain to WWII and even a few fantasy titles. All of the games are solo, available is a perfect bound book or PDF format, and you have to print/provide your own counters. Most of the scenarios take around 30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteMy family got me a fun little game called Rock Paper Wizard:
ReplyDeletehttps://shop.wizkids.com/products/rock-paper-wizard-online-store
that was replaced by MagicTG
ReplyDeleteMagic came out in 1993. By that point the microgame fad had been over and done with for nearly a decade, with almost all lines ending before 1984 and no further ranges of small format games until Cheapass Games came along in the very late 90s. Magic didn't replace anything, it carved a new niche for itself and its legion of mostly short-lived imitators. CCGs are a very different animal from microgames, and are nowhere near as economical, not even if you somehow restricted yourself to just a starter box.
DeleteModern non-collectable card games have filled in some of the old micro niche, but they're nothing like CCGs or even the non-randomized living card games that some of them morphed into.
Funnily enough, Richard Garfield originally imagined Magic would often be played in quick “pick-up” games. Of course this didn’t really pan out. The way Magic actually ended up being played is so different than how Garfield imagined it would be in so many ways.
DeleteHe (and everyone at WotC) also badly underestimated how many cards individuals would be willing to buy, which led them to believe that they could make rarity part of game balance - hence cards like Mox gems and the Black Lotus and the initial lack of serious restrictions on deck-building. They had to course correct on that hard when they realized people were buying whole cases and aggressive trading (and handfuls of cash) lead to people having dozens of copies of some key rares.
Delete"Funnily enough, Richard Garfield originally imagined Magic would often be played in quick “pick-up” games. "
DeleteYup, just like King of the Table Top! :)
A few years ago my nephew drew this map of these islands with ruins and such. I built a little hex crawl game kind of like Dungeon! that used the map and we played it a few times. This post reminds me I should post it as a print and play game on Drive-thru.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a Japanese publisher called Oink games that makes tons of tiny board games that fit into matchbox-sized boxes.
ReplyDeleteVampyre went all in on the Bram Stoker original, and was something I used to play on my lonesome when I was stuck in boarding school and needed a reality break. I think it involved exploring an old house and trying to keep your team together before the vampire and minions did you all in. It was very well designed for its size.
ReplyDeleteBoardgamegeek.com has a pretty robust search engine where you can filter by game time, complexity, user rating, mechanic / feature, etc. If the goal is to find a short wargame with a map for 2-4 players, you should be able to find it there. The number of games coming out these days is pretty overwhelming. They have yesteryear's games in there, too.
ReplyDelete