Gary Gygax's toys-thrown-out-of-the-pram response to this is also worth reading.

Where can we read that?

I seem to recall another early review, possibly from a British minis magazine. If I find it, I'll link here.

QuoteThe scope is just too grand, while the referee is expected to do too much in relation to the players.

So true. So very true.

Quote from: pawsplay;337137So true. So very true.

Eh, I can do either way. Sometimes I want one person to be totally in charge, and other times I want to share the workload. And not always to the same degree, either. You've got your games like Buffy and FATE at one end of the spectrum(the end closest to "trad" games), games like Primetime Adventures somewhere in the middle, and games like Mythic and Capes at the opposite end(equally-shared narrative control). Something for everyone . . . or lots of somethings for me, depending on how one looks at it.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;337006Where can we read that?

Here.

Gratzie Hairfoot!

Quote from: Hairfoot;337235Here.

Thanks Hairfoot. Another interesting read.

So the contrary opinion (presumably favourable toward D&D) was written by the president of Heritage Models, which as Heritage USA would publish Dennis Sustare's and Arnold Hendrick's Swordbearer ten years later.

The early days of our hobby were certainly incestuous, weren't they?

Actually, there's a fair bit of that going on these days, too.

Now, does anyone have a disinterested third party review of one of Hendrick's efforts from The Strategic Review?

Quote from: Gordon Horne;336788Possibly, however your personal experiences also mean not a lot. You want something closer to the late 70s? A random sample:
Printings in 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979 (25th Anniversary Collection), 1984, 1985
Lord of the Rings calendars for 1973 to 1979
Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (1975)
The Hobbit TV animated film (1977)
A scathing communist review from 1977
Understanding Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings (1977)
1978 Ralph Bakshi film
1979 National Public Radio adaptation
1980 Rankin/Bass film
1981 BBC Radio adaptation

Not bad for an obscure book your friends hadn't read.

thanks a lot, especially for the humorous socialist critique. Gonna post this around.

Quote from: Hairfoot;337235Here.

"Possibly in light of TSR's success in publishing miniatures rules and games, Mr. Hendrick has decided to begin peddling a line of his own creations. If these creations are as well-thought out as his "reviews", as learned and clever, they will be rare products indeed."

The irony dripping from it all made me laugh my ass off. Thanks for that.

I thought it would have been far less tactful.

RPGPundit

Writing was more tactful in the days when you had to type it up on a big clunky old mechanical typewriter, pass it by an editor, then mimeograph or photocopy it, before putting it by hand in 1,000 envelopes and posting it off... compared to "type, then hit submit/send."

Plus Gygax, as Old Geezer said, was never one to use 2 words where 150 would do.

That was an interesting newsletter. I liked,

   "In #1 we mentioned a "Conan" line to be released by Miniature Figurines, Ltd, but it is not yet available — quite. The new range will actually be called "Swords & Sorcery", with over 125 figures initially and they look good. Although they are not "officially" to be for games based on the Conan series, many of these figures will be ideal for such usage."

In light of subsequent dramas over "compatible with AD&D" and some people's more recent indignation over retro-clones... Filing the serial numbers off, and doing so quite openly, is as old as the hobby itself.

And just this month there has been more drama around a Conan game.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I suppose one should note that history proved Gary right and this other guy practically no one has ever heard of wrong.

RPGPundit

Yes, but this outbreak of dignityphobia isn't why.

Quote from: Gordon Horne;337328And just this month there has been more drama around a Conan game.

Wonder if Mongoose will be producing any further d20 Conan supplement books, after this public airing of dirty laundry and throwing the Conan trademark owners under the bus in the process.

If they believe the Conan license won't be renewed next year, there's very little incentive for them to produce any new stuff.  Maybe if they have an almost complete supplement book in the pipeline, that may possibly be published.