Monday, August 11, 2014

#rpgaday Day Eleven



Weirdest RPG Owned

It would be easy to go with weird content and say Talislanta, or Unknown Armies, or Over the Edge.  Or any game that uses Tekumel as a setting (I have a few).  Instead, I’m going to tell you about a game I own that’s strange because no one else seems to have ever heard of it.

In 1984, Origins was in Dallas.  It was my first trip to a major convention and a great time.  The big release my friends and I were there for was Hero Games’ Justice, Inc.  We got our copies, played in an “official” session, and threw together pick-up games.  All in all, we were in a super-pulpy frame of mind.  Somewhere in all of that, a guy came up to me and said, “Hey, I overheard you like pulp games.  Here’s one my friends and I are working on.”  He handed me two slim photocopied and staple-bound booklets.  The first was called “Treasures of the Third Reich.”  The second was a supplement and right now, I can’t recall the name (both booklets are in storage).  It was a simple game of pulp adventure; nothing to write home about, honestly, in terms of writing or art.  The publisher was a game shop somewhere in Missouri, I think.  To my knowledge, I have the only copies in existence.  I’ve never encountered anyone else who’s even heard of it.

4 comments:

  1. And then that guy slipped back into the alternate timeline from he'd stumbled.

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  2. His name was probably Michael Naggi. He was one of the owners of The Dragon's Lair in Webster Groves, MO (closed around '89?), I think he was the primary author of the game. I played the game several times at that store, as a teenager. But I seem not to have my old copy of it anymore, which is why I came searching for references online. :-)

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  3. That sounds right. I haven't tracked my copy down either (I know it's on a shelf in the garage, but it's very skinny.

    Thanks for the additional information!

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  4. Mike, Pat Conoughton (another partner in the store) and Thomas M. K. Stratman were the Authors. I lost track of Mr. Naggi, but I'm not sure either of the other 2 even have a copy anymore...

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