[Shostak]

Initially, we played Melee and Wizard as combat games in arenas, forests, caves. Inspired by the Microgame adage that you could put the game in our pocket and play it at school, I did. It made a great solo game, too, when pals weren't around. I recall some huge battles, (which were played on extra-large boards) with 50-point wizards and a dozen minions on each side. Death Test was played so often, it was quickly memorized.

Then D&D hit our neighborhood, and we switched to that for a short while, until we found In the Labyrinth, Advanced Melee, and Advanced Wizard in our hobby store. When we shifted back to TFT, our days of just basic combat were pretty much over, and we used it for full-blown RPGs. We invented our own worlds, with our own Tolkien-inspired maps. I loved TFT for how its rules were so simple and few, that they rarely got in the way, and there was little rule-lawyering. And, best of all, it was super-easy to improvise adventures, since NPCs and monsters had so few stats. And I loved the groovy counters!