Yet another in an endless series of rpgs, this one offered an appeal that others did not. After many printings, the game is still in play. Simply put, the players take the role of various characters battling unspeakable evil in the world of the1920s. For H.P. Lovecraft, the great pulp writer, there were unspeakable monstrosities lurking just on the edge of reality and ready to manifest themselves to destroy the sanity or physical being of any who dared to confront them.
I bought my first copy at The Compleat Strategist on 33rd Street in NYC. The cashier that night assured me the game was focused more on shootouts between investigators and cultists. Happily, he was incorrect. The monsters are well catalogued and as readily sap the sanity as life from the players.
The quality of an rpg can often be judged by supplements and expansions in which case the game stands third only to Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer. Of course, this means lots of miniatures, first from Grenadier, and currently from RAFM.
So it is time to look at the combat system underlying encounters. What I find is likely the simplest of combat systems with figures exchanging blows until one succumbs or flees. The 7th edition expands on the basic combat rules but the system remains simplistic and heavily dependent on the presence of a keeper, a sort of referee and author of the adventure. Unlike many other RPGs, this one stresses avoidance of combat. The close combat system offers limited interest as a game in itself.
The Call of Cthulhu RPG has had a long life and so has spawned a variety of suitable miniatures. The two licensed ranges were from Grenadier and RAFM. The RAFM figures are still available as of this entry.
The figures are 25mm with similar figures listed simply as ‘pulp’ figures ranging up to 28mm. Pulp refers to the pre-tv action/adventure/ horror tales published in cheap magazines made of the cheapest type of paper using pulp wood. The initial stories of the Cthulhu Mythos were published in Weird Tales.
The figures lend themselves well to a variety of RPGs and there are a range of rules to choose from. Needless to say, certain figures resembling Indiana Jones, Amelia Earhart, and Sam Spade appear as a recurrent theme. Monsters from a variety of ranges make suitable antagonists.
Several imported monsters of unknown manufacture listed as Cthulhu Wars. Nyarlathotep is the large blue figure in the back with Shub-Niggureth a bit to the left and the King in Yellow in the foreground.A Hong Kong Cthulhu War cultist alongside a Grenadier Call of Cthulhu investigator standing on a RAFM base. The scale seems close enough.A night gaunt from Hong Kong Cthulhu Wars and another from RAFM. Scale seems about the same.Plenty of other figures mesh with The Call of Cthulhu, here, Ral Partha ghosts.Continue reading →
Traveller was one of the first widely accepted SF RPGs. Since its release in 1977, it has gone through a number of changes including a GURPS Traveller release. The original boxed set of 3 books is now referred to as ‘classic Traveller’.
A simple character combat system is provided in Book 1 of the set. In it, characters may close or open range with their adversaries, and evade or launch attacks. The system was expanded upon several times, first with Snapshot, a boxed game presenting combat between characters aboard starships.
This was followed by Azhanti High Lightning. The rulebook offered a simplified Snapshot combat system as well as a large number of deck plans mapping out the interior of an enormous starship.
There are numerous supplements produced by any number of publishers including some attractive maps of ship interiors and buildings. FASA, for example released a set of maps detailing the interior of a luxury hotel.
Finally, GDW introduced Striker, a boxed 3 book set, Book 1 covering the basics, Book 2 covering advanced rules, and Book 3, covering vehicle design. With each figure still representing a single character or creature, a standard infantry unit contains 4 figures mounted on a one inch square base.
The rules are designed for larger battles. They impose rules for leadership, morale, and unit combat readiness. They also provide a rich source for designing vehicles if one has the time and energy.
Book 2 of Traveller introduces starships and offers a combat system more complex than the character combat system. Movement is through vectors, ship’s abilities are modified not just by character abilities, but by software packages which may be loaded or unloaded each turn. The size of the ship’s computer will limit what software may be active and in this way limit the choices available to the player.
The rules were used to create a board game, Mayday. There is really not too much different here from the rules in the RPG but the game is easier to use in that a ship’s movement is tracked by 3 markers, one showing the ship’s position on the previous move, another showing the ship’s current position, and another used to determine where the ship will move.
A fifth book in the rule book series was added to cover battles between large fleets of ships. The first version of the rules with somewhat murky rules is on the right. The second version with rewritten and more understandable rules is on the left.
The fleet rules are closer in design to the character combat rules. Opposing fleets lie at long or short range in relation to each other. Fleets may close range or they may break off. Additionally, there are two lines of battle, The second line, the reserve, is screened by the first.
There are also rules for pursuit, planets, and more, and rules for boarding, the game being a post-Star Wars production.
For players wishing to avoid designing their own ships, GDW offered this handy supplement listing ships of the Imperial fleet.
Here is a battered up copy of Chainmail published by Guidon Games before their acquisition by TSR. Gary Gygax co-creator of D&D wrote this with Jeff Perren a local hobby shop owner. As an afterthought, a fantasy supplement was added including monsters, heroes, and wizards. The rules were heavily referenced in the original D&D. It is for this reason that the rules book is highly sought after. There are three editions the first two published by Guidon Games, the last by TSR. This is the second printing of the second edition published in Belfast, Maine.
The second edition has some modifications to the first including the inclusion of giants. I am not sure the rules are still in print or frequently played but they certainly hold a place in wargaming.
So what are the rules like? The figure scale is 1:20, the ground scale is 1″: 10 yards. Two sequences of play are offered. One is an alternate move system with the usual move-fire-melee with first player decided by roll of a die. The other is a simultaneous movement system with a phase for writing specific unit orders.
Terrain is pretty standard though there is no provision for buildings except castles in the siege rules and no impassable or desert or beach terrain.
Figures are not based. The rules were written for Elastolin/Starlux figures which have standard bases. 25mm scale is assumed though there is provsion for 30mm. 15mm is not mentioned and likely still unknown at the time the rules were written.
Formations are very limited to column, line and square with optional rules adding a hedgehog formation. Facing and formation changes occur as portions of a unit’s move. Move and range distances are given in increments of 3″. There are rules for fatigue that involve bookkeeping to note a unit’s activity.
Firing is gauged by type of weapon which determines how often during turn the weapon can fire. Beyond that, one simply adds up the number of figures, determines whether or not the target is armored, rolls a single die and consults a small chart in the book to determine the number of casualties inflicted. Arquibuses are handled individually. Rules for cannon fire require the use of a specially marked dowel.
Melee is handled on a figure by figure basis with individual die rolls. There are also optional rules including prisoners, charges, and hedgehog formations.
Morale checks follow melee and may result in retreat or route.
Historical characteristics are also provided. Knights may charge without orders. Peasants may completely ignore orders. Mercenaries may also ignore orders based on the roll of a die. Generals may also be included, granting a bonus point to die rolls of associated units and mandating a morale check if eliminated.
There are also rules for jousting and castle sieges and the highly thought of fantasy supplement which allows players to introduce fantastic persons and creature into games using the basic rules. These fantastic beings are usually allowed the strength of multiples of a standard unit type. There are also rules for magic.
It is easy to see the appeal of the ruleset when they were the only game in town. Now they provide an historical context by which current games can be measured.
Privateers and Gentlemen.
These are pretty old rules for Napoleonic warfare at sea complete with an interesting role playing component. The combat rules are pretty detailed so smaller actions would seem preferable. There is an earlier version of these which I also have buried in the closet somewhere. The rules went beyond games existing at the time in covering ship movement, crew allocation, and combat. Some of the rules seem eccentric. The method for determining who fires first involves slowly pushing ships towards each other and seeing who shouts ‘fire’ first. Move distances sometimes drop to single digit millimeters, small enough that an accidental bump of a miniature might exceed the ship’s movement allowance for that turn.
There is also an interesting role-playing component that allows players to generate a range of naval officers and follow their successes and failures as they captain ships in battle. The rules also provide a useful overview of the life of a British naval officer while providing helpful details on the minutia of the cloistered world of a Napoleonic era ship. This includes a description of the responsibilities of the various personages that could be found aboard a ship of war. This is all very helpful information for anyone who wonders about what a carpenter or sailing master or marine might be called on to do. It also will aid in understanding films and novels based in this era such as those by C.S. Forester, Alexander Kent, and Patrick O’Brien.
The stuff of empires. Here are the original 3 books that began the whole thing as well as the first supplement. For those who do not know, players would take the part of a fantasy adventurer and enter dungeons in search of treasure while battling all sorts of foul creatures. One player, the dungeon master, would moderate the game and perhaps even craft his own dungeons and fantasy worlds. At the time I bought this, the game was not too well known but it sure caught on quickly.
Perhaps one of the things that binds the most popular games is introduced here. Players craft their characters, building a little game-playing avatar who goes for a romp in an imaginary world, not unlike the point-based armies created for games like Warhammer and WRG Ancients. By creating these imaginary persons or armies, one invests in it and is anxious to see how it fares.
It is surprising that a game shaped by miniatures rules in this case Chainmail should neglect that side of the hobby. TSR and Gary Gygax did provide Swords and Spells as a kind of Chainmail ver 2.0. But it was not enough to satisfy and the niche left open allowed all sorts of modules for single and massed combat to be concocted by other companies. Eventually, there was an effort to generate a more compelling set of rules but by then most gamers had found other approaches.
