From issue #57 of GDW's Challenge, a teaser advertisement for Mythus before it had been formally announced by the company.
Issue #58 featured a similar ad:
Issue #59 ran a third variation on the ad:
Finally, issue #60 spilled the beans (note the Dangerous Dimensions) title:
Gygax, post TSR…. I just couldn’t find the interest. The whole situation with him, TSR, and really the direction I felt D&D was going left me unenthused.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing Cyborg Commando, and even for the culture of the time period, and my naive exuberant youth, I remember rolling my eyes at the cheesiness of it.
Now granted, I never opened the rules to CC, or DJ, so this is all just assumptions on my part. I just remember a feeling that that niche portion of the hobby/industry was most definitely not what I was looking for.
And I’m glad for it, because it spurred me to dive into the plethora of alternative game styles, genres, and companies that were becoming available.
I owned and even briefly played both CC and DJ. You made the right choice, I assure you. Between the two Gygax became a name that guaranteed a no-sale from me when it showed up in the design credits ever since.
DeleteWorth noting that Challenge (which had been running since 1986, starting with issue 25 to maintain continuity with JTAS, itself launched in 1979) would only get 17 more issues from 1992 to its cancellation in 1995, a year before GDW itself went belly-up. In the time since the teasers dropped the magazine went from monthly to bimonthly to a meager four issues in 1994, its last full year of existence.
ReplyDeleteI can't fairly blame either DJ or TSR for that demise, GDW had other problems including a sharp contraction in Traveller sales over multiple years and perhaps spreading themselves too thin. But the legal actions, lackluster sales of DJ, and finally loss of all remaining unsold stock to settle things sure as blazes didn't help matters any.
Being reminded of these ads is a real burr under my saddle, and has done a lot to revive my dislike of TSR and Gygax for their involvement in GDW's collapse.
Jeez, even at the time, that ad copy in the final installment was cringey. It sounds like a Ford executive blandly blathering about how great Edsel is going to be, banking hard on stale reputation and empty buzzwords. I can't recall anyone at the time who was actually excited for Dangerous Dimensions/Journeys -- at a time when AD&D was a fading brand and the hot TTRPGS were Cyberpunk and World of Darkness, it was received as a curiosity as far as it was noticed at all. GDW convincing themselves it was going to be the next big thing was wildly foolish, even without the associated legal troubles.
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