I found an old D&D ad. I think it ran for a short time in the early 80's. It is kind of cheesy. Anyone else got links to old advertisements from the hey days? http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/61/
Heres a commercial for an electronic D&D game that I had: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyYNjQ5CT-8 My dog Max ate the board and I had the little red things in my minatures for years before I got rid of them. I still have some parts in various states of use (semi-painted and the guy with the beard broke his mace off.). I lost the treasure chest too.
These were posted on the Kenzerco message boards-- I also remember a radio ad for the original Traveller game. Somehow the radio I was listening to on that night was tuned to a college radio station in Bloomington, Illinois--the home of Game Designers' Workshop so many years ago. I was not entirely paying attention to the broadcast when I suddenly heard the words, "Free Trader Beowulf." I stopped what I was doing and started listening as the whole distress call played out, complete with sound effects and Williams-esque background music. That was followed by the announcer telling how with this game you could be soldiers of fortune traveling the galaxy in search of adventure. That was the only time, apart from the D&D ads, that I heard of a RPG advertising outside of a gaming magazine or gaming store catalog. Did any other game companies try to advertise elsewhere? I seem to recall some SPI games for sale in the U.S. Cavalry Store's catalog, but I can't say for certain.
Yes indeed. That is my eldest sister Elise. I think she is about 17 in this advertisement. She was very popular at the conventions
Did the names used for the Drow city Erelhei Cinlu occur in order of oldest to youngest? Ernie, Elise, Heidi, Cindy, luke? That's got to be one of the best of your dad's word plays.
Right you are. He did that sort of stuff a lot when naming things. The World of Grayhawk is full of them. Ulek for me, Sundee, Idee, Ahlissa, Urnst. The Pomarj is based off of my mother's name (Mary Jo Powell). Geoff for my cousin Geoffrey, Perrenland for Jeff Perrin, etc.
This thread is truely fascinating! It's like observing a bit of history as it happened. More, Luke! I say more!
Luke, Man, that's some interesting information. I didn't realize that about the naming conventions in Greyhawk. Shows your dad thought a lot about his family. GP
I think he thought about family- but I also think it is a good way to make up alot of names! I believe Allan Grohe has a list of Greyhawk names and who they refer to on EN World maybe. It is a pretty good list.
I thought that was Elise Gygax from seeing the pics of old GenCons but honestly I was afraid to ask! Is this her in this GAMMA WORLD advertisements?
Yeah that siren in the gold outfit is none other than my sister Elise :lol: It is funny seeing those old advertisements now. The gaming industry has grown and changed a lot since then. Gamma World is a great game. I really enjoyed playing Metamorphasis Alpha with Jim Ward as GM at Gary Con. Hell I even survived for about 2 hours!
Yeah, its a different world alright... BUT FOR ME THATS ANOTHER STORY... A really big part of the "fantasy" of fantasy roleplaying is that Gary was, is and always will be "the king" and I mean that in a totally sincere manner. I just love imagining that Gary is still in charge and its perpetually so! Its this "fantasy" that makes the D&D game seem much more cooler than what it is these days. I had the chance to tell that to him too!
That probably made him blush He was always surprised (pleasantly) with the amount of positive feedback he got from people about how D&D changed their lives for the better. It was really awesome to read the posts people made after he passed away. It made me feel very proud to be his son.
Yeah, he always told me to knock it off but I could get away with a lot with him because I cracked him up most of the time. Last time I talked to him in person I was so damn high on Red Bulls/no sleep and he was going on and on about design elements left out of KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS because I kept ribbing that my cousin who was with me had played B2 so many times that he was a "B2 junkie" and he wanted to change his character's name to "castellan". And the next day I couldn't recall a word of what he said about it!
Luke, one of the last times I hung around with your dad was at The Ram in downtown Indy. After we ate, right before we headed up to your dad's suite at the Embassy, I remember this soldier approaching your dad to shake his hand. He'd just come back from two tours and he talked about sitting in a tent and gaming during the long hours in the desert. He thanked your dad for providing him that opportunity, and your dad was indeed a little embarrassed. He was saying, "No, thank you!"
