"Great Rick Priestley Interview! Unsung Heroes of Gaming" Topic

Hey gamers,

here's a link to an incredible interview series that is starting up. Rick Priestley (who's brain-child was 40k) right out of the gate!

link

He's hardly an unsung hero though is he… :-)

Mike

Beat me to it !

Unsung – like Gary Gygax.

(who's brain-child was 40k)

He brought it into the world, then abused it horribly. The George Lucas of tabletop minis gaming!

Could a skull-encrusted, grotesquely power-armored Jar-Jar be far in the future? We'll have to wait & see.

I'm not sure they understand what the term "unsung hero" means. Not a bad interview though.

Maybe "over-sung anti-hero" was considered a bit harsh?

Harsh !

Leave Priestley alone. He's a good guy.

Don't bag on the man: he's made fun games.

Could a skull-encrusted, grotesquely power-armored Jar-Jar be far in the future?

$44.99 USD in FineCast.

I agree, had a long chat with him at a show couple years back. He seemed like a proper gamer first, business man second. I really enjoyed chatting to him, and his enthusiasm for all things wargaming was inspiring.
All in all, top geezer.
And no, I'm not a GW fan-boy.
John

Don't play 40k, not my thing, but Rick is a good guy.

He may not be unsung, but he is somewhat of a hero of gaming.

R

Hey gamers, this is Chris at CigarBoxBattle.com

Our goal is to bring even more recognition to the people who helped build and are continually contributing to all aspects of our hobby! You'd be surprised how many younger gamers have written to us today that are thankful for the insights and were not familiar with Rick. We want those, who may not know much about the minds behind the games we love, to know more about them and hopefully find out things they didn't know. I hope you enjoy reading the interviews! We enjoy bringing them to you for sure!

Happy Gaming and many thanks from CigarBoxBattle.com

I wrote back and forth with him in 1990 and found him to be a great rules designer and gentleman. He is tops in my book as a person. 40K for all of its flaws is still the Rosetta Stone of gaming. I can go to any country and find someone who knows the game and has played. That puts it in good company with Go or Chess. And seriously, in chess the fortification can move faster than foot troops, so let's not cast stones here. Um, no pun intended.

Warmaster 2nd ed would have been sweet, but when you look at the list of unpublished games from GW's stables it's in good company.

Would of been great to see the rest of the East Asian WAB books, complete the WW1 rules/lists, Warhammer ACW…

Hey dudes no need for the , ain't no-one dissing our man Priestley. No way!

Just The Word UNSUNG man, you dig? Sure I want to read the interview, man, it's just like youz saying you know like no-one knows the dude and that ain't the straight skinny, ya-dig ?

unsung means unsung..which he isn't

I was surprised not to see Gates of Antares in there. I thought that was an on-going project despite the failure of the kickstarter. Is that now dead in the water?

CBChris, who else do you have lined up for the series?

Sung or otherwise – very happy to contribute and it was very nice to be asked to do so – didn't realise I was kicking off the series – looking forward to seeing the other designers Chris has lined up (whatever their degree of sungness may be:)).

TSM – Gates of Antares is progressing at a rate I'm comfortable with – which means completing, at least, the beginnings of a model range before returning to a public domain. Meantime, I've distributed a few copies of the WIP rules to some of my regular contacts who have expressed interest in helping develop the game play.

Great article. This will be a good series and I am eager for more.

Hey guys, this is Chris again…

Thanks Rick and gang! We have a great lineup for the first season.

Not necessarily in this order:

Rick Priestley – duh
Jay Little – X-Wing
Graeme Davis – Talented and Storied RPG designer
Andy Hall – ios Warhammer Quest
Howard Whitehouse – Pulp Action Library
Roderick Robertson – Pulp Action Library and others
Andy Chambers – Dust Warfare, GW, Starship Troopers
Col. John "Buck" Surdu – G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.
and more… (I don't have my list with me here at my day job but I know there are a couple more)

We are working on compiling season two, so if there are any designers you want us to try and hunt down, let us know.

Make sure and subscribe to CigarBoxBattle.com email updates to get first notice of posts and other announcements!

Happy Gaming
Chris

Chris,

will you be interviewing John McEwan, the man who brought us the first set of published sci-fi miniature wargame rules ( Starguard!)?

Starguard! Is the granddaddy of all sci-fi miniature war-game systems, and has been in print since 1974 through various editions.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I will definitely follow up on that! Thank you Leland!

Chris,

another is Captain Lou Zocchi, creator of the first starship combat rules for miniatures that I am aware of, being Alien Space, and the Star Fleet Battle Manual. As far as I know like John McEwan, Captain Zocchi is still very much kicking' it…

You might also consider interviewing Bruce Neidlinger of Iron Crown Enterprises, as ICE was the company that brought us the Middle Earth Roleplaying Game series, Rolemaster, Spacemaster, and Silent Death: The Next Millennium.

Add to that John Tuffley of Ground Zero Games (who gave us Full Thrust and Star Grunt II), and favorite very British ne'er-do-well hooligan John Treadaway, who gave us his Fantasy Facts review column for a good many years, and IIRC was a major driver behind bringing us the official Hammer's Slammers miniature game system among other mischief on the other side of the pond.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

P.S. You can reach John McEwan via his website: tin-soldier.com

the first set of published sci-fi miniature wargame rules ( Starguard!)?

Starguard! Is the granddaddy of all sci-fi miniature war-game systems, and has been in print since 1974 through various editions.

Dave Rotor's Galactic Warfare (spaceship combat) pipped them to the post then – they were a Skytrex/Davco rules printing of 1973.

I think I read somewhere that it's too late to interview Dave Rotor – now there is an unsung early gaming hero.

I found a TMP glossary entry for Galactic Warfare as follows:

"(2) Galactic Warfare – a set of spaceship combat rules written by Dave Rotor and published by Decalset in 1976. Believed to be the earliest published SF wargaming ruleset."

Do you happen to have a copy? I have an original Starguard Battle Manual copyrighted 1974…

I found a copy of Galactic Warfare on Ebay, but the listing offers no details as to date of publication, etc. It would be a neat thing IMHO if Skytrex or whoever has the copyright would run a reprint for the sake of us old-timers who would at least appreciate a copy for our library…

I entered this hobby in 1975 (bought my first GHQ micro armor!), and in 1976 had my first encounters with sci-fi miniature combat systems was stumbling by accident into the last day of a wargame convention where Starguard! was being played (and I was hooked with it on sight).

The first starship combat rules I encountered was Star War 2250 A.D., the space combat companion to Starguard! published in 1975 (I got to play my first game of Star War 2250 A.D. at Pacificon IIRC in 1976 or '77).

Even if Galactic Warfare beat Starguard as the grandaddy of all sci-fi miniature game systems, Starguard! to the best of my knowledge remains the granddaddy of all sci-fi miniature ground combat systems here in the U.S., if not the world.

At least that's my story, and I'm sticking' to it until someone pulls the necessary habeas carcass with an older set of rules, citations and all.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I have two copies ! I'll dig one out and check the date. You've got me doubting my memory now !

Ok – so the front page reads as follows :

Skytrex Limited

Rules for

GALACTIC WARFARE

by Dave Rotor

1st Edition 1973

Copyright Reserved

A reprint seems unlikely with the problems Skytrex have had. They were trying to sell the business as they wanted to retire (IIRC) and then about 2 months ago Skytrex went bankrupt. :-(

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere (TMP ??) that Dave Rotor has died :-(

Even if Galactic Warfare beat Starguard as the grandaddy of all sci-fi miniature game systems, Starguard! to the best of my knowledge remains the granddaddy of all sci-fi miniature ground combat systems here in the U.S., if not the world.

Seems very likely to me !

20th, thank you for that bit of info. IIRC Skytrex's historical AFV line was picked up by Early War Miniatures (who have been rereleasing the Skytrex models at a steady clip ever since).

Another outfit picked up the Red Eagle 1/144 WW1 aircraft line from Skytrex as well. My hope is that perhaps, just perhaps, I can at least get a photocopy or scanned copy (PDF) of this as an historical reference for my game rules library…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Just had a look – seems what hadn't been sold of Skytrex have been bought by Skytrex(2013) skytrex.com

They might actually have stocks of the Galactic Warfare rules. Could be worth an email.