I am not much of "collector" in the classic sense of the word. Other than books, which I get to read, I do not have a lot of things that I "collect".
Except for one obscure role playing game: Gamma Word, First Edition
(Exploration: Because nothing says "A good idea" like having to check the city you are literally about to walk into with a Geiger Counter within a half klick)
Gamma World was one of the games that made its way out of TSR in the last 1970's (1978, if you are counting). Unlike its far more popular cousin Dungeons and Dragons (1st Edition also, thank you very much), it was actually placed on Earth in the early 25th Century after a cataclysmic war ended the almost the perfect world.
(Map of North America, 25th Century. Look hard to find your current location)
The premise of the game was after 100 years, the survivors - Pure Strain humans not impacted by the war, mutated humans, mutated animals, and even mutated plants - were starting to make their back into the world and discover the technology and creatures that had survived. Like Dungeon and Dragons, everything was based on dice rolls. Unlike Dungeon and Dragons, there were no character classes. A character had their statistics and their mutations and they were off to see the world.
(The game never really explained how things survived: thus a Samurai helmet and parking meter, centuries apart, totally make sense)
Unlike many of the modern sorts of role playing games, Gamma World (again, like the original Dungeon and Dragons) was not specifically scripted for actions or skills. In that sense, one just "made things up" as they went along: "Can I do this?" "No idea! Have a roll and I'll make something up". Later versions of the game - like most role playing games as they continued through the years - continued to defined both actions/skills and the chances of successfully doing it.
(The pre-New Wave 1980's motif with the pink shirt and a Stop sign shield sadly expired by the 2nd edition.)
The first edition lasted from 1978 to 1982, when it was eclipsed by the 2nd edition (and then, over time, by editions 3 through 7 (2010), when it essentially dissolved into the ether). The 2nd edition was lesser, both in fun factor and in imagination - as time went on, the reason civilization failed needed to be more clearly defined and realistic. Why, I have no idea. After all, the point of the game was what happened after civilization fell, not before it. Also, things became a lot more defined in terms of what and how things could be done - odd, considering the whole thing was an exercise of the imagination anyway.
(I will always choose to believe this was TSR's block-art image homage to the animated film Heavy Metal.)
There were only five published items produced for the 1st Edition: the rule book, the accompanying map, two modules (The Legion of Gold and Famine in Far-Go), and the Referee Screen with the mini-module The Albuquerque. Additionally there were a number of articles published in Dragon Magazine (TSR's in-house generated gaming magazine) and related mini-module, Cavern on the Subtrain.
(Erol Otus illustration. He did them for many early TSR items.)
As you might have guessed from my opening statement, all of these are from my collection. I have all of the Dragon materials saved and/or printed out.
It is odd. These items add nothing to my life. Yet my simply having them, to look at from time to time as I want, somehow makes me happier. I could not really tell you why - in some ways my whole thought process and interest in "what happens if civilization fails" did not precisely start here, but was certainly built here. Perhaps it is simply that it reminds me of happier times and less complex games, where the point was fun.
(Hoops: 2M tall mutated rabbits with opposable thumbs. Not surprisingly, my favorite mutant.)
Could I make back what I paid on these? Probably not. The pool of buyers is small. Does it matter? Not really. Sometimes the reason to collect is the joy it brings us, not the sensible use of these things.
Something attracts/fill up the fun meter eh? How that happens can defy explanation, kinda like a Vulcan trying to understand emotions.......:) Oh man....TSR.....that brings back memories.......used DragonQuest from SPI myself back in the day.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - It is partially nostalgia, I think: I have very happy memories of such things as Gamma World and Dungeons and Dragons (First Edition) and Traveller. Maybe it was my age or where I was in live, but it is in some ways irrational. Were I to try to play a game now (I have tried) it is just never quite the same as it is in my memory, so easier to just have them, I suppose, and keep the memories.
DeleteI do not remember DragonQuest specifically, but reviewing quickly I do note their system (in terms of skills) seems to be the one that survived. Also, I did not know they were absorbed by TSR (who then, of course, was eaten by Wizards Of The Coast).
I have a thing for small objects / tools. I never understood it, but I just roll with it. I should probably post about that. Like Nylon said, it fills up the fun meter. And I like to use them. Jewelers screwdrivers, small dividers, calipers.... I even have a 1/2 inch micrometer. It just floats the boat.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a little space but the rewards seem bigger than the objects. That's pretty neat, I never knew about that game.
STxAR, I do not think there is any rhyme or reason to it. It has a lot to do with how we are wired and our interests and our associations with objects - for example, I spent a lot more time playing Dungeons and Dragons than I ever did Gamma World, yet I do not feel the same need to collect (partially at this point because of expense, but also because I do really "need" another collection).
DeleteIt is funny - ever age since the 1970's could call itself its own "age of role playing", but the last 1970's and early 1980's were unique in that it had never really been done and so there was a sort of blossoming of all sorts of role playing games (for example, TSR also produced a Wild West Game (Boothill) and a 1920's Prohibition Game (Gangland). Later the whole thing became a lot more systematized.
I have liked the idea of collecting something and someday owning a great collection but I'm terrible at it in reality. I guess my attention span just isn't long enough. I used to have a hot sauce collection for awhile and I do have a fair amount of playing cards I pick up as reminders of places I have been too. But neither are anywhere complete enough to call a collection.
ReplyDeleteI think a collection is what we deem it Ed. There are all kinds of collectors - somewhere out there I am sure is someone that owns every piece of Gamma World material that ever was. They would call themselves a collector. So would I. The difference is in the amount and variety of our collections. They still both count though.
DeleteI was more of an SSI computer game type person. We actually found a handful of our computer games shortly after what I have come to call "The before times". It was nice finding them, even though they are in formats that can no longer be used.
ReplyDeleteI think I even found a Zorkmid from the Zork I game (that I was terrible at), though what happened to it since, I don't know.
But we keep them because, as you say, they bring back memories. :)
You all be safe and God bless!
Linda, maybe 10 years ago I "found out" that many of the computer games I had played in the '90's were still available on the abandonware sites. I tried one or two - Ulitma IV and V - and while I had some fun with them (and again, those happy memories), I just found I could no longer invest the same amount of time in them. And I struggle with Software emulation.
DeleteThe graphics comparison between 30 years ago and now is truly shocking.
Oh yes. Wizardry. Before the game mapped it for you, you needed good mapping skills, almost like Dungeons and Dragons. "You go to the end of the hall, which way now?" Haha.
DeleteI was terrible at that, too. :)
Funny how we take things like that for granted in games now (and frankly, in real life as well).
DeleteFor me it was (is) Twilight 2000. I even bought some stuff to keep and read. Last time I played was 1988. I remember playing Gamma World a couple times in Okinawa. I don't know what happened to my copy of the game.
ReplyDeleteI remember Twilight 2000. It was right on the cusp of when I stopped playing regularly, but I loved the concept. I have picked up some of the modules on-line for reading; they continue to fascinate me as a planning and imagining exercise.
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