"Dragons in the skies?" Topic

I'm sure some of you old Grognards remember how WW1 aerial combat (especially "Fight in the Skies") had a place of honor at early GenCons, to the extent of even scheduling screenings for Blue Max, Dawn Patrol and similar films *during* the convention <gasp>.

But I seem to be mis-remembering something. I was *sure* that at one point TSR had published a fantasy version of "Fight in the Skies" called "Dragons in the Skies", sometime around the mid to late 70s, but now my google-foo has failed me and I can't seem to find any trace of such a game, even though I have vague recollections of actually playing it. And even the acronym, FitS, was "borrowed" for DitS.

Did this game actually exist? Or do I just have memories of a parallel plane of existence?

Cheers, --- PhilB

I don't know whether TSR published a separate set of rules such as you describe, but in the 3rd volume of the original D&D (the three little brown books in the white box), there was a 4-page set of rules called "Battle in the Skies" for use in conducting battles involving fantastic aerial opponents. (Gygax and Arneson even give a "shout-out" to Mike Carr's "Fight in the Skies" for the name.)

The guidelines basically cover movement, while shooting and melee were to use the "Chainmail" rules. Perhaps you played in a scenario using this?

Rick Wynn

Nope, not the seventies-

Dragonlords-Grenadier Models, 1993.

18 metal dragon and rider parts, 6 plastic stands, six map sheets-(hexes), 70 counters-altitude and same hex combat.

My dragon/rider miniatures are buried somewhere. I was going to play it with SFB space dragon counters and ASL boards, mixing it with a variant Richthofen's War/Hostile Skies S89 Venus campaign. Nice system with hit location sheets, combat matrix tables, etc.

I don't remember any FITS version in the '70'.

That help or am I forgetting again?

Dragonlords is a great little game. I haven't played it in a few years; I should dig it out and give it another spin.

I don't remember any FITS version in the '70'.

It was there. Originally published, IIRC, by Guidon Games.

Dragons in the Skies was, if memory serves, an oft promoted but never actually published title.

The FASA game base on X-Wing but for Dragons might be a modern substitute.

TomT

try this one…

link

The word I was given by someone who was there at the time is that Mike would NEVER have despoiled his beloved game by hybridizing it with fantasy elements.

Mike (who I've known for years) was never as anti-fantasy as some of his supporters have claimed.

IIRC, it had a large square grid map, with large flat counters representing dragons & other flying critters, and used many of the same maneuvers from FitS, like barrel rolls, falling leaf, immelman and so on.

And I could've sworn it was called "DitS" or "Dragons in the Skies." And that it had a cardstock box.

Perhaps it was a prototype that never reached production. Or a one-off from Lou Zocchi games. He had many odd & unique items on his gencon racks.

This said, I have found no trace with my google skills.

There were some great games back in the day, that I wish I had kept hold of. Things like Ancient Conquest, or Triplanetary, or Old West Gunfight, or White Bear and Red Moon (whcih I do still have). And of course it was thanks to Lou Zocchi games that I got loads of Dragontooth miniatures.

Oh yeah, this is "The Miniatures Page". <g>

Thanks y'all for stretching memories for me.