Chainmail (game)

Last updated
Chainmail
Rules for medieval miniatures
Chainmail-1st-thumb.jpg
Cover for the first edition of Chainmail (1971)
Designers Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren
Illustrators Don Lowry
Publishers Guidon Games
TSR, Inc.
Years active1971–1985
Players2–10
Playing time6 hours
Skills Strategy, tactics

Chainmail is a medieval miniature wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the core medieval system of the game by expanding on rules authored by his fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) member Jeff Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly. Guidon Games released the first edition of Chainmail in 1971.

Contents

Early history

Origins

In 1967, Henry Bodenstedt created the medieval wargame Siege of Bodenburg , which was designed for use with 40mm miniatures. [1] Gary Gygax first encountered Siege of Bodenburg at Gen Con I (1968), and played the game during that convention. [2] The rules for Siege of Bodenburg had been published in Strategy & Tactics magazine, and Jeff Perren developed his own medieval rules based on those and shared them with Gary Gygax. [1]

The original set of medieval miniatures rules by Jeff Perren were just four pages. [3] Gygax edited and expanded these rules, which were published as "Geneva Medieval Miniatures", in Panzerfaust magazine (April 1970), using 1:20 figure scale. [3] The rules were again revised, and then self-published in the newsletter of the Castle & Crusade Society, The Domesday Book, as the "LGTSA Miniatures Rules", in issue #5 (July 1970), using 1:10 figure scale. [3] Later issues of The Domesday Book introduce a rule system for man-to-man combat at 1:1 figure scale and a rule system for jousting. [4]

1st edition

Gary Gygax met Don Lowry at Gen Con III (1970), and Gygax later signed with Lowry when he founded Guidon Games to produce a series of rules called "Wargaming with Miniatures". [3] The first game published was a further expansion of the medieval rules, published as Chainmail. [3] Guidon Games released the first edition of Chainmail in 1971 as its first miniature wargame and one of its three debut products. [5]

Along with the previous medieval rules, Chainmail included a 14-page "fantasy supplement" including figures such as heroes, superheroes, and wizards. [3] The fantasy supplement also included mythical creatures such as elves, orcs, and dragons. [4] [6] The fantasy supplement also referenced the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, Poul Anderson, and Michael Moorcock. [7] The fantasy supplement encouraged players to refight fixed battles based on fantasy fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, and other writers. [8]

The Chainmail cover art of a fighting crusader was inspired by a Jack Coggins illustration from his book The Fighting Man: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Fighting Forces. [2] Both Perrin and Gygax "swiped" Coggin's artwork to illustrate their preliminary articles about Chainmail that appeared in Panzerfaust and The Domesday Book. [2] When Don Lowry of Guidon Games agreed to publish Chainmail, Lowry swiped the same Coggins illustration for the cover. [2] For the fantasy supplement, the illustration of a mounted knight charging towards a dragon, was drawn by Don Lowry, based heavily on an illustration by Pauline Baynes for J. R. R. Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham (1949). [2]

First edition Chainmail saw print in March 1971. It quickly became Guidon Games' biggest hit, selling one hundred copies per month. [9]

2nd edition

Guidon Games published Chainmail second edition in 1972. [10]

3rd edition

TSR eventually bought the rights to some of the back catalog of Guidon Games. Starting in 1975, they published Chainmail as their own product. [11] It went through eight different printings from 1975 to 1985.

Rule systems

Chainmail session at Gary Con II Chainmail Gary Con II 2010 Stormberg.jpg
Chainmail session at Gary Con II
Chainmail session at Gary Con IV Chainmail Gary Con IV 2012 Moathouse.jpg
Chainmail session at Gary Con IV
Moathouse detail and miniatures Chainmail Gary Con II 2010 Moathouse Detail.jpg
Moathouse detail and miniatures

Mass combat

A set of mass-combat rules, heavily indebted to the medieval systems of Tony Bath and intended for a 1:20 figure scale. These developed from the Lake Geneva medieval system originally published in Panzerfaust and in Domesday Book #5. In these rules, each figure represents twenty men. [1] Troops are divided into six basic types: light foot, heavy foot, armored foot, light horse, medium horse, and heavy horse. [1] Melee is resolved by rolling six-sided dice: for example, when heavy horse is attacking light foot, the attacker is allowed to roll four dice per figure, with each five or six denoting a kill. [12] On the other hand, when light foot is attacking heavy horse, the attacker is allowed only one die per four figures, with a six denoting a kill. Additional rules govern missile and artillery fire, movement and terrain, charging, fatigue, morale, and the taking of prisoners. [12]

Man-to-man combat

A set of man-to-man combat rules (for 1:1 figure scale), ultimately deriving from a contribution to Domesday Book #7. Gygax lost the name of the contributor, and thus the rules were published anonymously. The core of these rules became the Appendix B chart mapping various weapon types to armor levels, and providing the needed to-hit rolls for a melee round. The man-to-man melee uses two six-sided dice (2d6) to determine whether a kill is made.[ citation needed ]

Jousting

A set of jousting rules, which derive from the Castle & Crusade Society jousting rules published in Domesday Book #6, and reprinted in Domesday Book #13. These rules were originally designed for postal play; members of the C&CS could participate in jousting tourneys in order to raise their standing in the Society. Dungeons & Dragons refers to jousting matches utilizing the Chainmail rules.[ citation needed ]

Fantasy supplement

The core of these rules is the Appendix E chart showing the die rolls needed for various fantastic types to defeat one another in battle.

The first edition Chainmail fantasy supplement added such concepts as elementals, magic swords, and several spells including "Fireball" and "Lightning Bolt". [1] Borrowing a concept from Tony Bath, some figure types may make saving throws to resist spell effects; a stronger wizard can cancel the spell of a weaker wizard by rolling a seven or higher with two six-sided dice.[ citation needed ] Creatures were divided between Law and Chaos, drawing on the alignment philosophies of Poul Anderson, as popularized by Michael Moorcock's Elric series. [1] When fighting mundane units, each of the fantasy creatures is treated as one of the six basic troop types. For example, hobbits are treated as light foot and elves are treated as heavy foot. [1] Heroes are treated as four heavy footmen, [1] and require four simultaneous hits to kill; Super-Heroes are twice as powerful.

Use with Dungeons & Dragons

In the June 1978 issue of The Dragon , Gary Gygax wrote that for the first two years of Dungeons & Dragons , players played primarily without the use of any miniature figures. If visual aids were needed, then the players would draw pictures, or use dice or tokens as placeholders. By 1976, there was a movement among players to add the use of miniatures to represent individual player characters. [13]

In 1976, Swords & Spells was added as a rules supplement for Dungeons & Dragons, to provide fantasy mass combat rules for the game at 1:10 and 1:1 scale. In the foreword, Tim Kask describes Swords & Spells as the "grandson" of Chainmail. [14] In the introduction to the game, Gary Gygax wrote that the Chainmail fantasy supplement assumed man-to-man combat, and rules for "large-scale" fantasy battles were missing, so Swords & Spells was developed to cover 1:10 and 1:1 ratio fantasy battles: [15]

The FANTASY SUPPLEMENT written for CHAINMAIL assumed a basic man-for-man situation. While it is fine for such actions, it soon became obvious that something for large-scale battles was needed.

Reviews

Related Research Articles

<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> Fantasy role-playing game

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, later a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Gygax</span> American game designer and author (1938–2008)

Ernest Gary Gygax was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Arneson</span> American game designer (1947–2009)

David Lance Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the role-playing game (RPG) genre, pioneering devices now considered to be archetypical, such as cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win" and adventuring in dungeon, town, and wilderness settings as presented by a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miniature wargaming</span> Wargame genre

Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which military units are represented by miniature physical models on a model battlefield. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use abstract pieces such as counters or blocks, or computer wargames which use virtual models. The primary benefit of using models is aesthetics, though in certain wargames the size and shape of the models can have practical consequences on how the match plays out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackmoor (campaign setting)</span> Dungeons & Dragons fictional campaign setting

Blackmoor is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting generally associated with the game Dungeons & Dragons. It originated in the early 1970s as the personal setting of Dave Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, as an early testing ground for what would become D&D.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miniature model (gaming)</span> Small-scale model used in miniature wargaming

In miniature wargaming, players enact simulated battles using scale models called miniature models, which can be anywhere from 2 to 54 mm in height, to represent warriors, vehicles, artillery, buildings, and terrain. These models are colloquially referred to as miniatures or minis.

<i>Battlesystem</i> Tabletop miniature wargame

Battlesystem is a tabletop miniature wargame designed as a supplement for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The original Battlesystem was printed as a boxed set in 1985 for use with the first edition AD&D rules. For the second edition of AD&D, a new version of Battesystem was printed as a softcover book in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of role-playing games</span>

The history of role-playing games begins with an earlier tradition of role-playing, which combined with the rulesets of fantasy wargames in the 1970s to give rise to the modern role-playing game. A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create stories. Traditionally all the participants but one take on characters and determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization and the actions succeed or fail according to a system of rules and guidelines, and one of the participants takes on the role of game master who narrates the story, plays all the non-player characters and determine the challenge rating and the outcome of various actions. Within the rules, the participants may improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games.

Kobold (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional species in Dungeons & Dragons

Kobolds are a fictional race of humanoid creatures featured in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and other fantasy media. They are often depicted as small reptilian humanoids with long tails, distantly related to dragons.

Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. The Guidon Games publishing imprint was the property of Lowrys Hobbies, a mail-order business owned by Don and Julie Lowry. About a dozen titles were released under the imprint from 1971 to 1973.

<i>Siege of Bodenburg</i>

Siege of Bodenburg is a wargame developed in 1967 by Henry Bodenstedt. It is one of the earliest sets of rules for conducting battles with medieval miniatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle & Crusade Society</span> Miniature wargaming club

The Castle & Crusade Society was a chapter of the International Federation of Wargaming dedicated to medieval miniature wargaming.

<i>Cavaliers and Roundheads</i>

Cavaliers and Roundheads is a set of rules for English Civil War miniature wargaming. It was written by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren and published by Tactical Studies Rules in 1973. The unassuming booklet was the first product released by the company better known for Dungeons & Dragons.

Don Lowry is a wargamer, businessman, illustrator, and game designer who is best known as the publisher of Chainmail and the editor of Panzerfaust Magazine.

<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> (1974) Tabletop role-playing game supplement for Dungeons & Dragons

The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson was published by TSR, Inc. in 1974. It included the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation was TSR 2002.

<i>Greyhawk</i> (supplement) Tabletop role-playing game supplement for Dungeons & Dragons

Greyhawk is a supplementary rulebook written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. It has been called "the first and most important supplement" to the original D&D rules. Although the name of the book was taken from the home campaign supervised by Gygax and Kuntz based on Gygax's imagined Castle Greyhawk and the lands surrounding it, Greyhawk did not give any details of the castle or the campaign world; instead, it explained the rules that Gygax and Kuntz used in their home campaign, and introduced a number of character classes, spells, concepts and monsters used in all subsequent editions of D&D.

<i>Swords & Spells</i> Tabletop role-playing game supplement for Dungeons & Dragons

Swords & Spells is a supplementary rulebook by Gary Gygax for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation is TSR 2007.

Timothy James Kask is an American editor and writer in the role-playing game industry. Kask became interested in board games in his childhood, and later turned to miniatures wargames. While attending university after a stint in the US Navy, he was part of a group that playtested an early version of the new role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) for game co-designer Gary Gygax. Gygax hired him as the first employee of TSR, Inc. in 1975. After editing some of TSR's early D&D publications, Kask became editor of The Strategic Review, which later became The Dragon, and then Dragon Magazine.

Jeff Perren is a game designer, a hobby shop owner, and an early associate of Gary Gygax.

The term melee has been adopted and popularized in wargaming, table top, and video games to encompass all forms of close combat. This can include any combat that involves directly striking an opponent at ranges generally less than a metre, especially using martial arts or melee weapons. This term is especially used in comparison to other strategies, such as ranged combat or magic when the game offers multiple methods of combat.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tresca, Michael J. (2010), The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, McFarland, pp. 60–61, ISBN   978-0786458950
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Witwer, Michael; Newman, Kyle; Peterson, Jon; Witwer, Sam (2018). Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History. Ten Speed Press. pp. 10–15. ISBN   978-0-399-58094-9.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '70s. Silver Spring, Maryland: Evil Hat Productions, LLC. pp. 8–9. ISBN   978-1-61317-075-5.
  4. 1 2 Peterson, Jon (2016). "A Game Out of All Proportions". In Harrigan, Pat; Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. (eds.). Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 3–31. doi:10.7551/mitpress/10329.001.0001. ISBN   9780262334945. OCLC   936684796.
  5. ↑ La Farge, Paul (September 2006). "Destroy All Monsters". The Believer Magazine . Archived from the original on 2008-09-20. Retrieved 2008-12-25.
  6. ↑ Mizer, Nicholas J. (22 November 2019). Tabletop role-playing games and the experience of imagined worlds. Cham, Switzerland. p. 30. ISBN   978-3-030-29127-3. OCLC   1129162802.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ↑ Pötzsch, Holger; Hammond, Philip, eds. (2019). War Games: Memory, Militarism and the Subject of Play. New York, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 182–183. ISBN   978-1-5013-5115-0.
  8. ↑ Peterson, Jon (2020). The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity. MIT Press. pp. 19, 115. ISBN   978-0-2620-4464-6.
  9. ↑ Kushner, David (2008-03-10). "Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax". Wired.com. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  10. ↑ Harrigan, Pat; Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. (2016). Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming. MIT Press. p. 762.
  11. ↑ Witwer, Michael; Newman, Kyle; Peterson, Jon; Witwer, Sam (2018). Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History. Ten Speed Press. p. 43. ISBN   978-0-399-58094-9.
  12. 1 2 Gygax, Gary; Perren, Jeff (1975). Chainmail: rules for medieval miniatures (3rd ed.). Tactical Studies Rules.
  13. ↑ Gygax, Gary (July 1978). "D&D Ground and Spell Area Scale". Dragon Magazine. No. 15. TSR Periodicals.
  14. ↑ Ewalt, David M. (2013). Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It. Scribner. p. 109. ISBN   978-1-4516-4052-6.
  15. ↑ Gygax, Gary (1976). Kask, Tim (ed.). Swords & Spells: Rules for Large-scale Miniatures Battles Based on the Game Dungeons & Dragons. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR Games. p. 1. OCLC   7541099.
  16. ↑ "The Playboy winner's guide to board games". 1979.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.