Scott Haring, a veteran game designer and editor that started working in the game industry in 1982 has passed away, wrote Steve Jackson in his Daily Illuminator newsletter. Steve Jackson worked many years at Steve Jackson Games as Car Wars line editor, Autoduel Quarterly editor, Pyramid editor and Internat Sales manager. Here is the announcement: "Scott Haring, for many years a member of our staff (most notably as the Car Wars line editor in its most glorious days), passed away on July 1 from complications of pneumonia. He was 67. Scott was always fun to be around. His desk was covered with toys and baseball paraphernalia (as Andrew was to football, so Scott was to baseball). He also had a great singing voice, a talent which rarely crossed over with game design. Too bad office karaoke was not a thing back then! But when he put on the editor hat, he was one of the few people I would trust, without checking, to write or edit good copy. He was a pro". He worked at TSR too where he designed products for Classic D&D (The Republic of Darokin was a fine product), AD&D and Marvel Super Heroes. For the last twenty years he vas a freelance. The magazines he edited were always very interesting to read and he tried, along other brave people, to produce an independent gaming magazine - The Gamer - that lasted very little but it as a fine read.
My favorite work by Haring was Gaz 11 the Republic of Darokin, which was one of the first of the gazetteer series that I owned. It is always sad to learn about the passing of so many of the creative people who helped shape our hobby.
Rest in peace.
-Havard
Francois Marcela-Froideval has moved on. RIP
He was known for his hobby work in France and came to Gary's attention. He came to Lake Geneva for more than a year, and Gary & he & I got together often for design work and socializing. He proved he could handle a sailboat on the lake, for one thing... Francois produced two trial adventures for AD&D but they were never published by TSR. I still have the manuscripts in my archives. He contributed to Oriental Adventures, and (of greater note in Europe) was founder of Casus Belli magazine. As creator and screenwriter of Black Moon Chronicles series, he began with this preface: "This series is dedicated to E. Gary Gygax, the first dreamer, inventor of the role-playing game, without whom the heroic fantasy and science-fiction genre would only be today a minor, almost forgotten genre. To this quiet giant who made millions of players dream, to my master and friend. May he live forever in the universe he so patiently built." (tnx to Ciro Sacco for the news)
Froideval also made the global map of Mystara which first appeared in a complete form in the D&D Master Set Rules. This was also the product where the name Thonia first appeared.
My condolences to his friends and family.
-Havard
I am sure people attending the convention will have a lot of fun. Are you going to this year's ArneCon?
This Weekend, from May 30th - June 1st, The Piazza celebrated its birthday. The 17th Birthday Party was celebrated on Discord, both as a voice and text chat. The Discord was opened to non-members for the occasion. Former TSR designer Frank Mentzer dropped by to wish everyone a happy birthday. Thorf (from the Atlas of Mystara) and Ashtagon (creator of The Piazza) both had live streams where they did live fantasy map making. Aulddragon ran a Spelljammer adventure on Twitch where several party guests attended as audience members and players.
As a special surprise, a new section of the Piazza forum was opened. This one dedicated to Minor D&D Worlds. A typical Piazza birthday party tradition is that a certain number of guests can choose new custom titles. There are more of those that have gone unclaimed this year, so its not too late!
Overall a very successful online party. Thanks to everyone who came out to say hello. I look forward to many more!
What are your favorite experiences with The Piazza?
-Havard
Someone called Aaron Prati made a miniature that I want so badly. It is based on the cover of the D&D Master Set from the BECMI D&D line. Mr. Prati made this as a hobby project as a tribute to Larry Emore who did the painting for all the BECMI boxed sets.
He later released the Blackmarsh setting which while its clearly Rob's own original creation, bears heavy inspiration from the sources that he loves and admires from the 1970s era D&D. The new Northern Marches Kickstarter promises to be an expansion on Blackmarsh. Again, we will get to see amazing hex maps and interesting locations to explore.
The Living Sandbox concept also sounds interesting with techniques that promise to create a world that feels lived in. I am curious to learn more about this.
Check out the Kickstarter.
-Havard
Mike Carr Will Be a Guest of Honor at EGG Con 2 this year. This was announced today by Gary Gygax' daughter Heidi Gygax Garland in the EGG Con Facebook group.
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I was lucky enough to interview Mike Carr back in 2011 about his role in shaping the creation of D&D as part of Dave Arneson's gaming group playing the first Cleric in the history of our hobby as well as his many other contributions to the history of gaming.
Here's the announcement:
Mike Carr
Mike Carr began gaming as a teenager in the 1960s in Saint Paul, Minnesota where he met Dave Arneson and Dave Wesely – and became the first-ever Cleric in D&D. Through the International Federation of Wargaming (IFW) he met Gary Gygax, who encouraged him to self-publish his game “Fight in the Skies” through the IFW’s Wargame Inventors Guild. The game was published in 1976 as one of TSR’s first boxed games, and later as “Dawn Patrol” in 1982. At Gary Gygax’s invitation, Mike joined TSR in 1976 and worked there until 1983. At TSR he wrote the B1 Module “In Search of the Unknown,” served as editor for the Monster Manual, Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide, and wrote the Endless Quest book “Robbers & Robots” that sold over 250,000 copies. He also edited Gygax and Arneson’s Napoleonic naval rules “Don’t Give Up the Ship!” and earned credit as co-author. Mike attended the first Gen Con on August 24th, 1968 at Horticultural Hall and after Gary Gygax’s welcoming remarks, ran the first event, a “Fight in the Skies” game. Mike is the only person who has attended every Gen Con and his “Dawn Patrol” game is the only one that has been played there every year. Mike's current project is a rhyming book for children ages 4-9 entitled "Girls & Boys Love Great Big Toys," which he plans to self-publish, preceded by a Kickstarter campaign. The 48-page book features 19 different "great big toys" like monster trucks, hot air balloons, sailboats, motorcycles, snowmobiles and many more, each spanning a two page spread with accompanying rhymes (46 stanzas in all). A retail version will be produced and sold, but the bulk of the books will be donated to charities like Toys For Tots, Ronald McDonald Houses, Bernie's Book Bank, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and others. For information, visit the web site greatbigtoys.com.
If you plan on attending EGG Con, please let me know if you got a chance to talk to Mike or any of the other interesting people sure to be there.
EGG Con 2 is scheduled for July 24-27.
-Havard
The gaterhing is organized by Kevin McColl and the Castle Blackmoor group.
This year's TMg is scheduled for August 21st.
Once more details are revealed, I will report it here.
-Havard
Pegataurs are an iconic creature from the D&D multiverse that is strangely underused. In the World of Mystara they are found in the Known World, the Empire of Alphatia, the City of Serraine and on the Savage Coast. Some are found living among elves or making their lairs in moutain sides, while others lend their services as mercenaries or trainers of Pegasi mounts to ground dwellers.
Skip Williams was kind enough to share with me how the creatures came to be and how he worked with Jeff Easley to bring the creatures to life in the spectacular painting shown above, gracing the cover of the adventure.
I created pegataurs for the adventure—flying sentries for a flying castle. TSR had me write an art order for the cover. I wrote something along the lines of "ramparts of a floating castle sticking up through clouds with a pegataur (think of a centaur with pegasus wings). Easley took it from there, choosing the composition, color palette, and making a single pegataur archer as the focus.
M2 Vengance of Alphaks continues the saga of Norwold, a region in Mystara fought over by two Empires; Thyatis and Alphatia. Here we follow the story of Alphaks one of the main villains of the Mystara setting as he rises to become a powerful demon. The Demon's main goal is to destroy the Empire of Alphatia.This is not the last time we see Pegataurs in D&D however. In 1989, famous game designer and author Aaron Allston expanded on the backstory of Pegataurs and their connections to the Empire of Alphatia for the Mystara setting.
That same year, Pegataurs went from being just a monster to be encountered to also becoming a playable race in PC2 Top Balista by Carl Sargent. This sourcebook for BECMI focused on flying creatures that could be used by players and DMs alike and also explored the Flying City of Serraine that travels across the skies of Mystara. The source book also expanded on the lore by Williams and Allston.
In 1994 Pegataurs appeared in the AD&D 2nd Edition in the AD&D Monstrous Compendium Mystara Appendix by John Nephew. Here we learn more about Pegataurs, their allies such as the Phanatons and their way of life.
Toys and Sporting Goods Products Dice games; Role playing games; Tabletop hobby battle games in the nature of battle, war and skirmish games, and fantasy games, and playing equipment sold as a unit therewith.Paper Goods and Printed Material Role playing game equipment in the nature of printed game book manuals
My thoughts go to his wife Donna, the Gygax family and friends.
Rest in Peace.
-Havard
I have always been an advocate of playing a wide variety of tabletop RPGs. I have played and enjoyed almost every edition of D&D. I have also been lucky enough to play a number of non D&D RPGs. I have to thank my friends for exposing me to many of these games. After discovering D&D, we wanted to try everything we could get our hands on. I still love early edition D&D, but I am happy that I got to try so many other RPGs early on and am still able to play in many of them. I am currently a player in a RuneQuest 5 Campaign in an amazing homebrew setting. My first exposure to RuneQuest was RuneQuest 3 which we had a lot of fun with. One of my early non D&D experiences as a Game Master was running an early ElfQuest campaign. I am not sure I did a very good job, but my friends kept coming back for new games, so I guess I was doing something right. I put some money into the last year's ElfQuest RPG Kickstarter, so I can't wait to get that version in the mail.
I am happy to see Chaosium still going strong. I hope to see lots of fun stuff from this company in the future as well!
-Havard
I hope everyone has had nice celebrations for the New Year and are ready for 2025 to begin. 50 years ago, TSR published the second supplement for D&D. This booklet bore the title Blackmoor and was written by D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson, edited by Tim Kask and included additional material by Steve Marsh, Brian Blume and others. It was based on the campaign Dave Arneson and his friends had been running for many years prior.
This will be as good a year as any to celebrate our favorite D&D campaign world! I hope the year will be a good one for all readers of this blog.
-Havard
Just the other day, the Youtube Channel of Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo Organizer Ron Meischker had TSR game designer legend Frank Mentze...
