Set 1: The Battle for Earth

Art by Dave Dorman

INVASION!

In the year 2035, Earth is attacked by aliens – hostile Xenoborgs who selected our planet as the next addition to their galactic empire.  In mere days, man's conventional forces are destroyed, and the earth is overrun by alien troops.

Now, Earth's only hope lies with the CYBORG COMMANDO™Force (CCF) – a cadre of super-soldiers who are part human and part machine.  With their state-of-the-art defenses and built-in weaponry, the CCs may yet be a match for the invaders.  But time is running short!

With this game, you can be a member of the CYBORG COMMANDO Force and drive off the aliens.  This set includes everything you need to start the defense of Earth:

✪     A 48-page CCF Manual for players – with character skills, combat rules, and a technical section complete with diagrams of CC construction,

✪     A 64-page Campaign Book for the Game Master – including full details on the aliens and their invasion, the world political situation in the early 21st century, and an index of CC bases worldwide,

✪     A 16-page adventure booklet packed with beginning scenarios, and

✪     Two pre-inked dice.

The CYB✪RG C✪MMAND✪™ science fiction role-playing game was published thirty years ago, an era when “pre-inked” was a selling point for dice, not something taken for granted. Young people don't know how good they have it nowadays.  Back in the day, RPG box sets came with unembellished dice and a white crayon...and we were grateful.

Published by New Infinities Productions, at least three Cyborg Commando sets were contemplated; however, no sets other than “Set 1” were produced.  The reason is that the game isn't very good.  In his Heroic Worlds, Lawrence Schick is not complementary.  “The rules systems are eccentric,” he writes, “almost amateurish.”  Sub-par role-playing games are hardly unusual, yet Cyborg Commando is a special case – it is credited to Gary Gygax, Frank Mentzer, and Kim Mohan.  Given their prior contributions to the hobby, their target audience held expectations that the trio failed to achieve.

Ostentatious phrasing did not help matters.  For instance, page 41 of the CCF Manual defines 'light':

     This term here applies to the range of the to the electromagnetic spectrum from about 10¹⁶ to 10¹³ Hz, or wavelengths of 100 to 10 million Angstrom units (1 Å = 10⁻¹⁰ meter).  It includes ultraviolet (100 - 4,000 Å), visible (4,000 - 7,000 Å) and infrared light (7,000 - 10,000,000 Å).

With regard to the passage of time, a Combat Turn represents 8.6 seconds.  Each Combat Turn consists of ten phases of 0.86 seconds each.  Why not a phase of one second and a Combat Turn of ten seconds?  Because 8.6 seconds is “exactly 1/10,000 of a day.”  Now, doesn't that make for a better role-playing experience?  Except there are exactly 86,400 seconds in a day, not 86,000.  So much for “exactly.”

The “16-page adventure booklet” is truthfully sixteen pages.  Technically, the cover carries the title “GM's Adventure Notes” and is followed by eight pages of material (including the inside cover).  However, when the booklet is flipped over, the 'back' cover has the title “Players' Adventure Notes” and is followed by six pages.  While it is certainly an 'adventure' booklet, “packed with beginning adventures” is a misstatement.  The players' section provides setting information (“The infamous Berlin Wall was removed in 2003...”), playing tips, and lists of accessories and equipment.  The GM's section provides advice on running a game and creating adventures.  There are twenty scenario summaries and each summary consists of a couple of paragraphs.  The summaries are contained within two-and-a-half pages.  Even if we conflate 2½ pages of scenarios to 16, not all of the scenarios are of the beginning variety.  Eight scenarios are in the 'simple' category (i.e., they “have straight-forward goals and involve standard combat”), seven are 'tricky' (i.e., they “usually require clever and astute play if the dangers and traps are to be successfully avoided”), and five are 'tough' (i.e., they “involve very hazardous situations, and require astute play and imaginative solutions to problems”).

Ace Books published a trilogy of novels based on the Cyborg Commando setting and which were co-authored by Mohan.  In an attempt to gain an appreciation of the setting, I read the first book, Planet in Peril.  My analysis of this novel may be found here.

Included in my used copy of the Cyborg Commando RPG box set is an advertisement for Realms of Adventure (shown below) – New Infinities Productions' house organ that offered “...a wide variety of articles and adventures from authors all over the world.”  I am unable to find much information about this journal, but it seems at least two issues were published.

Also included in my copy of the game is a typewritten flyer for Rock-Con XIV (November 7 & 8, 1987).

Black Lotus Moon (SPOILERS)

Art by Peter Laird

Had Tom Moldvay lived, he would have been 67 years old today.  At Thoul's Paradise, we typically celebrate Moldvay's birthday by focusing on one of his contributions to role-playing games (of which there are many).  Today, however, we look at Moldvay's fiction.  It is your humble host's understanding that the well-read Moldvay aspired to be a fantasy novelist.  Alas, his only entry in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database is for a short story, Black Lotus Moon, published in the Dragontales anthology.

Dragontales was “An original collection of fantasy fiction and art, presented by the publishers of Dragon magazine.”  The 78 page volume was edited by Kim Mohan who, at the time (August 1980), was assistant editor of (The) Dragon.  Moldvay's story is accompanied by art supplied by Peter Laird, before he gained fame and fortune as one of the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  (Another Dragontales artist, Kevin Siembieda, would go on to produce the TMNT RPG.)

One of the characters in Moldvay's story is a “black-haired, gray-eyed barbarian...clad only in a fur loincloth.”  He claims to be of the “Aesir” tribe from “the northern mountains.”  We also learn that he has “been a mercenary in more kingdoms than you have fingers to count with.”  During the story, this barbarian and two accomplices (one of them a woman) infiltrate a tower to gain treasure.  This may sound familiar, but Moldvay isn't being derivative – he's toying with readers' expectations.

Anyway, the protagonists – two 'thieves' named Tamara and Saris – recruit the barbarian, Arngrim Wolfbane, as an equal partner in a venture to loot the tower of Gorilon, an immortal wizard.  Gorilon sleeps only once a month, during the night of the full moon.  On these occasions, he “retires to his sanctum in the tower to inhale the fumes of the black lotus.”  (Hence, the source of the story's title.)  Central to the plot is the knowledge that...

...while he sleeps, his treasure is protected by safeguards which he claims a clever and daring individual can overcome, as long as the thief uses no magic.  He could easily make the tower impregnable using his magic, but the standing challenge to thieves amuses him.

One of the safeguards is a “demon-monster” (shown above).  Prior to the beginning of the story, Saris found the testament of a thief who tried to raid Gorilon's tower hundreds of years previous.  The document explains that “only a physical attack will kill the demon.”  This is the reason the two thieves bring the barbarian along.

A significant portion of the story details the trio's foray into the tower and Moldvay's role-playing game mindset is evident.  Many sections of the narrative could easily be an account of player characters exploring a dungeon:

          They tapped the walls for secret doors, and scanned the floor...One by one, each twist and turn was eliminated until only a single dead end remained.
          Tamara crept forward, sweeping her spear in front of her to check for traps.  An inch from the end wall, the spear tip vanished.  Tamara continued to push the spear forward.  It disappeared inch by inch until nearly all of it was invisible.  When Tamara pulled the spear back, it slowly reappeared, complete and intact.
          “The end wall is an illusion,” Tamara said.

Did Moldvay create a story from a gaming scenario?  Perhaps it was the other way around.

The protagonists survive the tower and get away with some treasure but the story doesn't end well for the ersatz Conan, as shown below.

Art by Peter Laird

Man, Myth & Magic versus Timeship

Art by Clyde Caldwell

The contents of Dragon #80 (December 1983) offer a glimpse into the state of gaming as it was three decades ago.  The “Dungeon Master's Familiar” article provides the entire code for a program intended to facilitate AD&D combat.

This program was written to run on a Radio Shack TRS-80, but it can be used easily in any computer that uses a variation of Microsoft BASIC.  To use the automated combat segment, you need a disk drive...

In his introduction to the issue, Kim Mohan presents submission guidelines for computer programs.  He explains that programs should not be extensive...

...even if they're good, because most people couldn't cram them into their 16K or 32K systems.  We'll look at programs for 48K or 64K systems, but they'll only be accepted if they need to be that long.

What a difference 31 years makes.

The “How many coins in a coffer?” article goes into profound detail about numismatic dimensions, metallic impurities, specific gravities, and – for some reason – the speed of light.  Regardless, the author concedes that – for the sake of playability – “all coins are the same size (diameter and thickness) and weigh a tenth of a pound each.”  This is acceptable because AD&D™represents fantasy, not reality.  Good to know:  “...the figure for a loose coin is 110% of the effective volume of a stacked coin...”

One article, “Five keys to DMing success,” has the sub-title, “Reducing the work, increasing the fun.”  Huh?  Less work?  More fun?  How baffling!  Must be old school.

In any event, the purpose of this post is not to analyze old issues of gaming magazines; your humble host surrenders that task to bloggers greater than himself.  This post compares and contrasts the games Timeship and Man, Myth & Magic.  It just so happens that Dragon #80 contains reviews for both games.  It just so happens that both reviews were written by the same person – Ken Rolston.  (The same issue has another review by Rolston as well as an article he wrote on how to write game reviews.)  Here is an opportunity to see how a (professional) reviewer perceived both games at a time when those games were still in print.  In short, Rolston's verdict was:  MM&M, thumbs down; Timeship, thumbs up.  These are similar games from the same creator, yet the assessments were contradictory.  Why?

Rolston did not consider Timeship to be without flaws.  He recommended the game “[d]espite its weaknesses in game design” and notwithstanding his contentions that “the organization of the rules is confusing and the style is occasionally unpalatable.”  Rolston expressed similar misgivings for MM&M but was unable to overlook them when establishing his opinion of that game.

With regard to rules, Rolston wrote:

The term used locally to describe the level of sophistication of the mechanics of Timeship is “goofyworld,” a generally positive term suggesting wild and crazy action, with fast-and-loose judgements left pretty much in the hands of the referee, under the assumption that there is little competitive pressure and that the referee is basically out to show the players a good time.

Herbie Brennan expressed similar sentiments in the advice section of Man, Myth & Magic.  While Rolston commented that Brennan's advice was “practical and intelligent,” he did not believe it was “successfully translated” for MM&M.  Still, Rolston stated with regard to MM&M, “In fairness, I suspect a skilled gamesmaster could make the rule system and scenarios work...”

Rolston felt that the time-travel premise of Timeship reflected “the stuff of thousands of daydreams and fantasy adventure stories.”  Man, Myth & Magic, on the other hand, did not conform to any “literary adventure genre models” nor was it an “historical simulation game [although] it makes no claim to be.”

Was premise the deciding factor in Rolston's opinion?  He wrote:

Whatever reservations I might have had originally about Timeship were dispelled when I playtested the game with our local weekly gaming circle.  I don't believe I've seen FRP gamers have so much fun in years.  Everyone was quite enthusiastic about the concept of the game, and the players were quite willing to overlook any faults in the rules...As a gamesmaster, I was surprised at how smoothly the session ran, despite my original impression...

Regarding Man, Myth & Magic, however, Rolston “never felt tempted to playtest the game...”

Ultimately, Rolston praised Timeship for simple mechanics, accessibility to non-gamers, and the “marvelously fertile” genre of time travel.  He faults MM&M for poor execution (“not up to industry standards”) and a lack of innovation.  Perhaps if Rolston had the experience of playing MM&M – especially with a skilled gamesmaster – he might have been more inclined to forgive its flaws as he did with Timeship.  Perhaps not.  If a game lacks sufficient appeal even to want to play it, then it has failed on a fundamental level of engagement.  Evidently, a game with “historically implausible party composition” did not appeal to Rolston, nor did it particularly appeal to RPG consumers of the time.  As Rolston queried, “[W]hat would a Hebrew priest, a British apothecary, and an Egyptian warrior be doing together in the first place?”

Well, they could try walking into a bar.