Post by Zenopus on Feb 5, 2021 11:17:39 GMT -6
A thread for advertisements & announcements from the 1970s.
Here is perhaps the first announcement of Chainmail, in Domesday Book #9, published late winter or early spring 1970:
While referred to simply as "Medieval Miniatures rules", the rules are by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren, include a Fantasy Supplement, and are sold by Lowrys Hobbies, so there's no mistaking what it is for.
This excerpted image was posted by Rob Kuntz here on EnWorld in 2019, and its existence was earlier noted in Playing at the World, both the book (page 42) and the blog ("this issue contains the first notice of the publication of Chainmail in the Domesday Book"; find link on my blog post linked below).
For search-engine posterity, here is the transcribed text:
Lowrys Hobbies was the previously established Evansville-based mail-order business of Don Lowry, who in 1971 founded Guidon Games to publish Chainmail and other games; in 1972 he moved both to Belfast, Maine. See the cover of a 1972 Lowrys catalog on my blog (link below).
The "(of course!)" aside presumably refers to the fact that Perren & Gygax had published their medieval rules in an earlier issue of the Domesday Book (#4, July 1970), titled "The LGTSA Miniatures Rules". You can read more about these rules, which did not yet include a Fantasy Supplement, on the Playing at the World blog (find link on blog post linked below).
The Acaeum page for the Domesday Book has issue #9 as "Date Unknown" (indicated here as "undated"), but dates the next issue as "April 1971", which would place issue #9 as earlier that that. However, this April date seems to be taken from the date of the one of the articles ("Ancients Society Report, Last Issue, 4/30/71"), which since this is at the very end of April might mean that #10 was actually published later. Playing at the World indicates that issues #8-11 came out "roughly quarterly" (page 634).
Over on the mostly defunct but still useful Tome of Treasures forum, poster scribe wrote that the April 1971 issue of International Wargamer has a full-page advertisement for Guidon Games that includes Chainmail: International Wargamer April 1971 listing at ToT (find link on blog post linked below).
Domesday Book #9 also contained the first map of the Great Kingdom, which eventually led to the settings for both Arneson's Blackmoor and Gygax's Greyhawk campaign. An auspicious publication!
Also posted here:
zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2019/11/chainmail-announcement-from-domesday.html
Here is perhaps the first announcement of Chainmail, in Domesday Book #9, published late winter or early spring 1970:
While referred to simply as "Medieval Miniatures rules", the rules are by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren, include a Fantasy Supplement, and are sold by Lowrys Hobbies, so there's no mistaking what it is for.
This excerpted image was posted by Rob Kuntz here on EnWorld in 2019, and its existence was earlier noted in Playing at the World, both the book (page 42) and the blog ("this issue contains the first notice of the publication of Chainmail in the Domesday Book"; find link on my blog post linked below).
For search-engine posterity, here is the transcribed text:
Announcing a completely revised set of Medieval Miniatures rules, with a large
fantasy suppliment for fighting Tolkien-type battles, by Gary Gygax and Jeff
Perren (of course!). For this and your wargaming needs it's
LOWRYS HOBBIES, Box 1123, Evansville, Indiana 47713 Giant Catalog - 50¢
fantasy suppliment for fighting Tolkien-type battles, by Gary Gygax and Jeff
Perren (of course!). For this and your wargaming needs it's
LOWRYS HOBBIES, Box 1123, Evansville, Indiana 47713 Giant Catalog - 50¢
Lowrys Hobbies was the previously established Evansville-based mail-order business of Don Lowry, who in 1971 founded Guidon Games to publish Chainmail and other games; in 1972 he moved both to Belfast, Maine. See the cover of a 1972 Lowrys catalog on my blog (link below).
The "(of course!)" aside presumably refers to the fact that Perren & Gygax had published their medieval rules in an earlier issue of the Domesday Book (#4, July 1970), titled "The LGTSA Miniatures Rules". You can read more about these rules, which did not yet include a Fantasy Supplement, on the Playing at the World blog (find link on blog post linked below).
The Acaeum page for the Domesday Book has issue #9 as "Date Unknown" (indicated here as "undated"), but dates the next issue as "April 1971", which would place issue #9 as earlier that that. However, this April date seems to be taken from the date of the one of the articles ("Ancients Society Report, Last Issue, 4/30/71"), which since this is at the very end of April might mean that #10 was actually published later. Playing at the World indicates that issues #8-11 came out "roughly quarterly" (page 634).
Over on the mostly defunct but still useful Tome of Treasures forum, poster scribe wrote that the April 1971 issue of International Wargamer has a full-page advertisement for Guidon Games that includes Chainmail: International Wargamer April 1971 listing at ToT (find link on blog post linked below).
Domesday Book #9 also contained the first map of the Great Kingdom, which eventually led to the settings for both Arneson's Blackmoor and Gygax's Greyhawk campaign. An auspicious publication!
Also posted here:
zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2019/11/chainmail-announcement-from-domesday.html