 | |
| Designers | Steve Jackson |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Metagaming Steve Jackson Games |
| Years active | 1977 to 1983 2019 to date |
| Genres | Generic Fantasy Role-Playing Game |
| Parent games | The Fantasy Trip |
| Website | https://thefantasytrip.game/ |
In The Labyrinth is a 1980 role-playing game supplement for The Fantasy Trip published by Metagaming. An expanded version released in 2019 by Steve Jackson Games as part of the company's revival of The Fantasy Trip.
The Metagaming release of In the Labyrinth contains the remaining rules for The Fantasy Trip game system, including rules for character creation, generating a labyrinth, rules for how to run an adventure, statistics and descriptions for creatures, and the table of weapons. [1] The Steve Jackson Games rerelease includes all the same character creating and game mastering rules in addition to the full combat and magic rules published by Metagaming as Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard.
In the Labyrinth was written by Steve Jackson and published by Metagaming in 1980 as an 80-page book. [1]
Jackson planned for The Fantasy Trip to be released as a boxed set, but publisher Howard M. Thompson decided that the price was too high, and so he split the game up and published it as four books: Advanced Melee (1980), which contained the extensions for the combat system of Melee; Advanced Wizard (1980), which contained the extensions for the Wizard magic system; In the Labyrinth (1980), which contained the rules for the gamemaster; and Tollenkar's Lair (1980), which was an adventure. [2] : 79–80
In 2017, Jackson reacquired the rights to The Fantasy Trip and the following year his company re-released In the Labyrinth. The new, 178-page version adheres more closely to Jackson's original vision for TFT, combining in a single tome the combat, magic, and game mastering rules that Metagaming had published across three books. [3]
Steve Perrin reviewed In the Labyrinth for Different Worlds magazine and stated that "this is a very readable and enjoyable work. As a guide for GMs who devise the fantasy worlds for others to adventure in, this is an excellent reference, whether the users ever play Melee or Wizard or neither one." [4]
Eric Goldberg reviewed In The Labyrinth in Ares Magazine #3 and commented that "ITL is as good as any FRP system currently available commercially. It has the Metagaming hallmark of easy accessibility, but also has the limitations usually found in the company's game (which, to be fair, are caused in part by the system's size constraints)." [5]
RuneQuest is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first published in 1978 by The Chaosium. Beginning in 1984, publication passed between a number of companies, including Avalon Hill, Mongoose Publishing, and The Design Mechanism, before finally returning to Chaosium in 2016. RuneQuest is notable for its system, designed around percentile dice and an early implementation of skill rules, which became the basis for numerous other games. There have been several editions of the game.
Tunnels & Trolls is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more accessible alternative to Dungeons & Dragons and is suitable for solitaire, group, and play-by-mail gameplay.
The Fantasy Trip (TFT) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game designed by Steve Jackson and published in segments by Metagaming Concepts starting in 1977 and culminating in 1980. In 2019, Steve Jackson Games republished it as The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition.
Steve Jackson is an American game designer whose creations include the role-playing game GURPS and the card game Munchkin.
White Bear and Red Moon is a fantasy board wargame set in the world of Glorantha, created by Greg Stafford and published in 1975. Stafford first tried to sell the game to established publishers, but despite being accepted by three different game companies, each attempt ended in failure; eventually he founded his own game company in 1974, the influential Chaosium, to produce and market the game.
Metagaming Concepts, later known simply as Metagaming, was a company that published board games from 1974 to 1983. It was founded and owned by Howard Thompson, who designed the company's first game, Stellar Conquest. The company also invented Microgames and published Steve Jackson's first designs, including Ogre, G.E.V. and The Fantasy Trip.
Howard M. Thompson is an American wargame designer and founder of Metagaming Concepts. His first game was Stellar Conquest, a popular and well-designed simulation of interstellar warfare.
Deathmaze is a fantasy board game published by Simulations Publications (SPI) in January 1980 that falls into the general category of dungeon crawls, more specifically, dungeon games in which players enter a dungeon, massacre the dungeon dwellers and steal their treasures.
Melee is a board wargame designed by Steve Jackson, and released in 1977 by Metagaming Concepts. In 2019, Melee was revived and re-released by Steve Jackson Games.
Wizard is a board game system of medieval fantasy magical combat published by Metagaming in 1978 that was designed to complement the previously published Melee, a system of melee combat rules. Forty years later, Wizard was revived and re-released by Steve Jackson Games.
High Fantasy is a fantasy role-playing game system originally published by Fantasy Productions in 1978. A second edition in 1981 and several subsequent books were published by Reston Publishing that featured solo adventures using the High Fantasy system. The game received mixed reviews in game periodicals including White Dwarf, The Space Gamer, Different Worlds, Ares, and Dragon.
Adventures in Fantasy is a role-playing game published by Excalibre Games in 1979, designed by Dave Arneson and Richard Snider. The game is a fantasy system, similar to early Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), which Arneson co-created. It received mixed to negative reviews in game periodicals, including The Space Gamer, Ares, and Pegasus, and ultimately flopped. Arneson later bought the rights to Adventures in Fantasy and published a new edition in 1981 through his own company Adventure Games.
Tollenkar's Lair is a 1980 fantasy role-playing game adventure for The Fantasy Trip originally published by Metagaming Concepts and re-released by Steve Jackson Games in 2019.
Grail Quest is a solitaire Arthurian fantasy combat adventure published by Metagaming Concepts in 1980 that uses the combat rules from The Fantasy Trip.
Death Test 2 is a 1980 fantasy role-playing game adventure for The Fantasy Trip published by Metagaming Concepts. It was re-released by Steve Jackson Games in 2019.
The Lords of Underearth is a 1981 board game published by Metagaming Concepts as part of its MicroGame line.
Starleader: Assault! is a science fiction microgame published by Metagaming Concepts in 1982 that was designed to introduce the rules of combat with firearms for a forthcoming science fiction role-playing game that did not get published before Metagaming went out of business.
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and tabletop role-playing games published in 2017. For video games, see 2017 in video gaming.
Duel is a combat-focused role-playing game published by Nightshift Games in 1992.
Death Test is a 1978 fantasy role-playing game adventure for The Fantasy Trip published by Metagaming Concepts.