D&D was only the first published fantasy "roleplaying" game (even though the term didn't exist until 1976) and there was plenty "roleplaying" before 1974 - EGG states as much in his WD #14 interview and has no choice but to hedge given both Midgard and Hyboria appeared in early issues. :) D&D wasn't even the first published game that could be used for "roleplaying" (subtle distinction, remembering that the play example in OD&D is /not/ 1-1 roleplaying, but unit level with a caller). Curtis, Colwill, and Blake got there before D&D as was clear from the ongoing narrative and discussions in Wargamers' Newsletter: Gygax and Blume then repackaged that (i.e. ripped it off) as Boot Hill -- which, of course, didn't succeed anything like as well as D&D because it wasn't "fantasy" and was thus very limited in scope.
4 comments:
This is fascinating.
Would it be possible to get a scan of the entire map? In the provided image, only the top portion is visible.
i'll try to fix it
It sounds a lot like Tony Bath's Hyboria campaigns from the 1960s.
Midgard != Hyboria :)
D&D was only the first published fantasy "roleplaying" game (even though the term didn't exist until 1976) and there was plenty "roleplaying" before 1974 - EGG states as much in his WD #14 interview and has no choice but to hedge given both Midgard and Hyboria appeared in early issues. :)
D&D wasn't even the first published game that could be used for "roleplaying" (subtle distinction, remembering that the play example in OD&D is /not/ 1-1 roleplaying, but unit level with a caller). Curtis, Colwill, and Blake got there before D&D as was clear from the ongoing narrative and discussions in Wargamers' Newsletter: Gygax and Blume then repackaged that (i.e. ripped it off) as Boot Hill -- which, of course, didn't succeed anything like as well as D&D because it wasn't "fantasy" and was thus very limited in scope.
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