Taking Stock, part II: The Odds & Ends

Continuing to take stock of my little library of self-published gaming material, here are some of the odd little projects that I did mainly for the enjoyment of doing.

Hero’s Journey
This one actually started off as my effort to create my own retro-clone. But, it quickly morphed into something else, and probably has more “original” ideas than Basic Arcana does. Hero’s Journey is, more-or-less, a complete RPG system. It’s very generic, and has no setting material at all. The Monster section is just a group of tables, rather than the MM-style write ups that I originally intended.

Over all, I like this thing. And I would love to be able to flesh it out, and help it grow. But, I think the market is flush with retro-clones now, so interest would probably be pretty low.

Oddly enough, I saw that someone published a game called The Hero’s Journey that is based on Swords & Wizardry. I’m curious what that’s all about, actually.

Zine-O-Morph
One day I had the brilliant idea of doing my own fanzine for RPG’s. The idea was that each issue would have a specific theme and genre, and would contain a few articles pertaining to that, as well as a piece of original fiction, an adventure or other game-supplement, and hopefully some cool artwork.

I managed to churn out two issues before the dismal sales numbers made me re-think the whole idea. The first was focused on the Underdark, as it could be presented in “basic” games. The second was all about military science fiction. I’m proud of both issues, and I think I did some damn fine writing in there. But, they just didn’t catch on, so Zine-O-Morph will probably remain shelved for good.

Attack of the Furryons!
What can I say other than this was a little bit of whimsy that caught some traction and somehow got finished. All of the artwork is public domain, and the rules aren’t even all that original. I would have loved to play this with my son. But, alas, he’s a bit old, and is more into video games than physical games (though we still occasionally dip into HeroQuest). Honestly, the fact that a few people have bought this surprises me. Especially with the sheer amount of similar products available.

Fists & Fury
Like Furryons!, this is another bit of whimsy that managed to get completed. Originally intended as a nod to The Fantasy Trip’s Melee game, but with a martial arts twist, Fists & Fury takes a lot of inspiration for wuxia cinema and from my favorite fighting game series, Street Fighter. I think it’s a pretty slick little system, and would love to maybe expand it into something bigger. But, there are some roadblocks to that. Regardless, it was a fun exercise in creativity.

Next time: What does it all mean?