Designers & Dragons: The Column

Before I go, however, I've got three final articles planned. This month I'm going to offer up a preview of the new '70s and '80s books, then in December I'm going to do the same for the '90s and the '00s. Finally on January 1, I'm going to publish my annual look at the year in the gaming.—SA, 11/5/12

The original edition of Designers & Dragons let me tour the entire history of the RPG industry from Tactics and Chainmail to Sorcerer and Pathfinder. To fit in all that info, Mongoose opted to publish an impressive single-volume monolith.

However the result wasn't as approachable as I might have liked. Fortunately Evil Hat and I came up with a way to both include my vast collection of history and make it easier to jump in: a collection of four different Designers & Dragons books, one for each decade from the '70s to the '00s. I'm confident the histories will be far easier for readers to take in — and readers will be able to start with whatever decade they want, buying into the rest of the series (or not!) as suits their particular bent.

The new Evil Hat edition of Designers & Dragons has also given me the opportunity to both revise and expand my roleplaying histories, which should be another nice benefit. Right now my guess is that each new book will be 100k-140k words, which means that I'm shooting right down the middle as I work on my manuscripts, for 120k words per book. If we land somewhere near there, the new series will be a total of 480,000 words — or about 33% longer than its predecessor.

So where is all that new material going? For the most part it's headed toward the '70s and the '00s, which will see the largest revisions and expansions of the overall history. The '80s and the '90s meanwhile will get some more minor polish (and updating, plus at least one new company for each book)

Following you'll find my current outlines for the first two books, the '70s and '80s, which I'm scheduled to finish up on January 7th. These contents are, of course, tentative — but two months out they're probably at least 90% correct.

The 1970s

1. The Story Begins (1958-1974)
   1. 1974: TSR
2. The Floodgates Open (1975-1976)
   1. 1975: Flying Buffalo
   2. 1975: Games Workshop
   3. 1975: GDW
   4. 1976: Judges Guild
3. The First Wargaming Wave (1976-1977)
   1. 1976: Metagaming Concepts
   2. 1976: FGU
   3. 1977: Chaosium
   4. 1977: Heritage Models
4. The Rising of Roleplaying
   1. 1979: Grimoire Games
   2. 1979: Midkemia Press
5. Appendices
   1. Appendix 1: Timeline of the '70s
   2. Appendix 2: 10 Things You May Not Know About Roleplaying in the '70s
   3. Appendix 3: Bibliography & Thanks

First, I should comment on a few general organizational principals for the book.

Just as with the original book, this new edition of Designers & Dragons focuses on the individual companies that make up the industry. Though this book focuses on the '70s, it does so by talking about the companies that began RPG publication in the '70s. Many of their stories continue on into '80s or further, and it's all here; the intent is to offer a snapshot of the newcomers that defined the industry in each era.

You'll also note that new organization has given me the opportunity to more carefully define the major trends within each era — here by splitting the companies in the '70s into four major categories. I think it adds some nice new texture to the story of the industry that you couldn't see in the coarser organization of the first edition.

But let's get specifically to the '70s ...

Building upon the original edition of the book, I've added complete histories of four new publishers: Gamescience, Heritage Models, Grimoire Games, and Midkemia Press. Of those, Gamescience was the one I really wanted to include in the original book but didn't due to the very small amount of information available in the public record. (I've since been able to talk to Lou Zocchi directly and used that to stitch together the public info that does appear into a better narrative.) The others are all notable and interesting companies in other ways.

You'll note a gap at 1978. It's one of just a couple of years not represented by a roleplaying company (though there's actually a mini-history for Phoenix Games, who started publishing in that year). I really wanted to include someone for pure reason of elegance, but I couldn't find anyone that really enthused me. I considered Imperium Publishing for a bit, to better tell the story of Tékumel, and then I came to the realization that they hadn't publishing any actual roleplaying material. (The Tékumel story instead went into Gamescience.) Time allowing, I still might choose one of the tiny companies from '78 for a 1000 word history.

The new edition of the '70s material will also see largish expansions for TSR, Judges Guild, and Metagaming. For TSR I'm going to be going through lots of Dragon material to get more details and I've also used the new Playing at the World to get some great insights into the origins of the company. For Judges Guild I picked up a collection of 20 or 30 magazines that'll help me add details, and when I'm done with that I've got a modern history of the company written by Bill Owens. (Bill Owens' history is very recent, which means that I treat it with some suspicion, but still will probably use it for details missing from earlier writeups.) For Metagaming I got copies of the first eight issues of The Space Gamer (their first magazine) and all eight issues of Interplay (their last magazine).

Of those, I've finished the Metagaming writing to date and I'm very pleased with the picture it gives of the science-fiction board game industry that was exploding at the same time Dungeons & Dragons did. I'm also happy for some new insights about the company's death.

So that's the '70s. If there's anything notable that you think I'm missing, let me know.

The 1980s

I've done less work on the '80s to date, so this table of contents is even more tentative than the '70s one. (I've in fact changed it since I originally drafted this article, adding in the update for Different World Publications that now closes off the volume.)

1. The Second Wargaming Wave (1980)
   1. 1980: SPI
   2. 1980: Task Force Games
   3. 1980: Steve Jackson Games
2. Second-Tier Licensees (1980)
   1. 1980: FASA
   2. 1980: Gamelords
3. More Roleplaying Originals (1980-1982)
   1. 1980: ICE
   2. 1981: Hero Games
   3. 1981: Palladium Books
   4. 1982: Bard Games
   5. 1982: Leading Edge Games
4. The Third Wargaming Wave (1982-1984)
   1. 1982: Yaquinto Publications
   2. 1982: Mayfair Games
   3. 1983: Avalon Hill
   4. 1983: Columbia Games
   5. 1984: West End Games
5. Rise of the Small Press (1984-1987)
   1. 1984: SkyRealms Publishing
   2. 1984: Pacesetter
   3. 1985: DGP
   4. 1986: R. Talsorian
   5. 1987: Lion Rampant
6. Return of the Old Guard (1987)
   1. 1987: New Infinities
   2. 1987: Creations Unlimited
   3. 1987: Different Worlds Publications
7. Appendices
   1. Appendix 1: Timeline of the '80s
   2. Appendix 2: 10 Things You May Not Know About Roleplaying in the '80s
   3. Appendix 3: Bibliography & Thanks

For the '70s I'd gathered together a lot of new source material, hence the reason for its expansion. That wasn't true for the '80s, probably because that was the decade when I began my active gaming. I already knew a lot about the era, and much of that was already in the first edition of Designers & Dragons.

As a result, there's currently only one new history scheduled for this book, Leading Edge Games. It's actually not a lock because I haven't been happy with the material I've been able to dig up about the company to date. Still, I hope I'll be able to include it. I also hope to include a mini-history of TimeLine Ltd., because they share a lot of characteristics in common with Leading Edge (military RPGs with super complex systems, which were notable trends in the '80s). I've also got Different Worlds Publications expanded from a mini-history of about 800 words in the original book to a full article of 2000 words in this edition, because it helps to build up the trend of designers moving on to second companies around 1987.

For the '80s there are two years not represented by new publishers: 1988 and 1989 (and I don't yet know if I have mini-histories for those years, as I haven't written my section dividers for the era yet). I'd once again like to fill in those years, and will think more about them when I get more solidly into the work on the '80s.

Readers of the original Designers & Dragons may have noticed one game company gone missing: White Wolf. Previously I'd dated that company based on the publication of White Wolf #1, which put it in the '80s, but that was really the product of a precursor company. The modern White Wolf Game Studio actually got its start in 1990 after White Wolf Magazine and Lion Rampant combined, so you'll instead find it (very appropriately) leading off the '90s volume.