 Cover of the second printing, 1st edition published by Metagaming Concepts | |
| Designers | Steve Jackson |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Metagaming Steve Jackson Games |
| Years active | 1977 to 1983 2019 to date |
| Genres | Tactical Combat Board Game |
| Systems | The Fantasy Trip |
| Website | https://thefantasytrip.game/ |
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.
Melee is a game of arena combat in which each player generates their character by purchasing Strength, Dexterity and even equipment as part of a point-based character creation system, and then these characters fight using a tactical combat system involving six-sided dice. [1] : 79
Every figure has a strength and dexterity attribute; the sum of the two must equal 24 for a starting character.
Strength governs the size of weapons used, with higher strength weapons allowing an increase to the damage inflicted in combat, and also serves as "hit points," dictating how much damage a character can take. Dexterity determines how the chance of hitting an opponent.
Each character has a Movement Allowance (MA) that indicates how many hexes can be moved each turn. The map also has megahexes (an arrangement of six hexes around a central hex), which governs the range of missile weapons. Armor can be worn to reduce the amount of damage taken in combat at the cost of a lower Dexterity and movement allowance.
Each attack, whether missile or melee, is determined by throwing three 6-sided dice (or four dice, if the opponent dodged or defended). If the total rolled is equal or less than the attacking character's Dexterity score (when penalties for wearing armor and effects of wounds are subtracted) then a hit is scored. Each weapon has a wounding capability determined by rolling one or more dice with some adjustments. For example, a dagger does 1 die minus 1 point (for a damage range of 0 to 5), while a battle axe does 3 dice of damage. This damage is then adjusted by any protection (armor and shields) used by the opponent. For example, chain mail stops 3 hits of damage; if a battle axe struck this figure and the score rolled was 9, the figure would only take 6 damage because of the armor. Wounds can affect a figure either by giving a temporary or permanent penalty to dexterity until healed. Single powerful blows can knock a figure down.
A figure that wins a fight gains experience points; when enough points are gained they can be traded in for additional attribute points, allowing a figure to advance in power.
Advanced Melee was tied more closely to In the Labyrinth, and featured more combat options, such as called shots, additional weapons, and greater detail in general. Also, IQ (introduced in Wizard) becomes important for allowing a figure to use combat relevant talents, such as Fencing, Two Weapons Combat, and so forth, making figures more varied.
While working at Metagaming Concepts in 1977, Steve Jackson created Ogre , a small, cheap, fast two-player microgame packaged in a ziplock bag. This became the first in a line of almost two dozen Metagaming products titled "MicroGames".
At the time Jackson was also playing the new fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons , but he considered the various-sized polyhedral dice from that game "irritating", and the combat rules "confusing and unsatisfying", especially the lack of tactics. Jackson had also joined the Society for Creative Anachronism to find a closer understanding of actual combat, and based on his experiences, he designed Melee, which became the third game in the MicroGame series. [1] : 79
While designing the game, Jackson saw the opportunity of expanding the Melee game into a full system of fantasy roleplaying rules that could be used to compete with D&D and started to design this RPG. Even before they released Melee, Metagaming began to advertise that role-playing system, The Fantasy Trip . [1] : 79 Jackson also designed the magic rules, which Metagaming published as the sixth in the MicroGame line, Wizard (1978). [1] : 79
Metagaming then published MicroQuest #1, Death Test (1978), which was a short adventure scenario that could be used with either Melee or Wizard. [1] : 79 Jackson intended for The Fantasy Trip to be published as a boxed set, but publisher Howard M. Thompson decided that the price was too high and so he split the game into four separate books: Advanced Melee (1980), which expanded the Melee system, Advanced Wizard (1980), In the Labyrinth (1980), and the adventure Tollenkar's Lair (1980). [1] : 79–80
Jackson disliked with this change and left the company the same year to found Steve Jackson Games. [1] : 80 Metagaming later released Dragons of Underearth (1982), a roleplaying game which was a stripped down version of The Fantasy Trip, based on the rules from the original Melee and Wizard games. [1] : 80 The Metagaming science fiction game Starleader: Assault relied on Melee's rules for hand-to-hand and handheld weapons combat scenarios.
Metagaming released a number of small games in plastic bags held closed with cellophane tape. The game came with a blank hex map overlaid with "megahexes" (groupings of 7 standard hexes into larger tesselating shapes for fast range determination), a counter sheet of men and monsters, and a 16-page rulebook.
After Metagaming went out of business, Steve Jackson's GURPS borrowed heavily from his first role-playing rule set The Fantasy Trip, with a similar minimal set of primary attributes to determine in-game results: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence (which had been added in Wizard), and a new ability, Health (which was added to address shortcomings in the original damage system).
In late 2017, Jackson used a provision of U.S. copyright law to reclaim the rights to The Fantasy Trip , allowing Steve Jackson Games to re-release Melee in 2019. [2]
Martin Easterbrook reviewed Melee for White Dwarf #4, giving it an overall rating of 6 out of 10, and stated that "There are no really original ideas in this game but a number of good ideas have been combined together. Because of this I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone who has already adapted rules from several combat systems for their own use, but it is likely to be a great help to anyone who finds that it is difficult to sort out exactly what is happening during a D&D confrontation." [3]
In the inaugural edition of Ares (March 1980), David Ritchie called the game "Clean, fast and deadly. Combats can be resolved between individual characters in 5 to 15 minutes." Ritchie concluded by giving the game a rating of 7 out of 9, saying, "Simple, but not simple-minded." [4]
In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames , game designer Jon Freeman called this "the cleanest, simplest, and most understandable role-playing game around. It's the only one that doesn't require a referee." Freeman concluded by giving the game an Overall Evaluation of "Very Good", saying, "Despite its atypicality, Melee is probably the best place for aspiring RPG players and designers to begin." [5]
Steve Perrin reviewed Advanced Melee for Different Worlds and stated that "All in all, Advanced Melee is well worth the money. Don't pay any attention to the publisher's attempt to get you to buy the Microgame, Melee is dead, long live Advanced Melee!" [6]
In the book Designers & Dragons, game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that "The tactical combat of Melee worked because it was also very playable; it was simple, yet allowed for thoughtful play, all without paging through charts and tables." [1] : 79
In Issue 27 of Simulacrum, Brian Train noted, "Together with Wizard , this set of simple rules for individual combat formed the framework for an array of expansions (Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard) and associated games (the programmed adventure Microquests, including Death Test; Death Test 2 ; Grail Quest; Orb Quest; Master of the Amulets; Security Station; Treasure of the Silver Dragon; Treasure of Unicorn Gold)." [7]
In a retrospective review in Issue 35 of Warning Order, Matt Irsik called this "a lot of game in a little package." He noted that "it garnered quite a following by fantasy gamers who used it as the combat system for their role-playing games." Irsik concluded "For $2.95 this was a very well put together game with a lot of ideas that worked out very well in terms of game play." [8]
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting. It was created by Steve Jackson Games and first published in 1986 at a time when most such systems were story- or genre-specific.
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.
DragonQuest is a fantasy role-playing game originally published by Simulations Publications (SPI) in 1980. Where first generation fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) restricted players to particular character classes, DragonQuest was one of the first games to utilize a system that emphasized skills, allowing more individual customization and a wider range of options.
OGRE is a science fiction board wargame designed by the American game designer Steve Jackson and published by Metagaming Concepts in 1977 as the first microgame in its MicroGame line. When Steve Jackson left Metagaming to form his own company, he took the rights to OGRE with him, and all subsequent editions have been produced by Steve Jackson Games (SJG).
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.
Wizard is a game system of medieval fantasy magical combat published by Metagaming in 1978 that was designed to compliment the previously published Melee, a system of melee combat rules. Forty years later, Wizard was revived and re-released by Steve Jackson Games.
Heroes of Olympus is a role-playing game first published by Task Force Games in 1981.
Steve Jackson's Man to Man is a sourcebook for GURPS.
Rommel's Panzers is a board wargame published by Metagaming Concepts in 1980 that simulates combat in North Africa in 1941.
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.
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.
Duel is a combat-focused role-playing game published by Nightshift Games in 1992.
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.
Death Test is a 1978 fantasy role-playing game adventure for The Fantasy Trip published by Metagaming Concepts.