Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - To-Hit Roll in Advanced Wizard

JLV · 02-26-2018, 07:42 PM

It was kind of an odd approach at the time, and I suspect was at least partially an artifact of the way the books were actually published, as opposed to the way they were intended to be published, but both Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard assumed that you already knew and had Melee and Wizard. Of the two, Advanced Wizard was more guilty of this approach than Advanced Melee was, IMO.

Still, it was clear to me as a purchaser at the time that I wasn't getting a "complete game" with the Advanced Melee/Advanced Wizard books -- but rather a significant set of add-ons to take the basic games of Melee and Wizard to the next level and let us actually play a full-on RPG with them. The reason it was clear though, was that I'd been playing Melee and Wizard for a couple of years by then and was impatiently awaiting the new material. Were I just seeing it them cold-turkey in a hobby store magazine rack for the first time in 1981, I'd have been quite confused, I think.

I have to be honest here; I thought that Metagaming's advertisements of TFT later on (say 1982 on) were verging on "dishonest" since they implied you didn't NEED Melee or Wizard to play the advanced versions, and it was quite clear you did if you wanted to fully understand how to play the games. I also thought it was poor customer relations tactics, in that it required additional purchases from an audience that tended to be somewhat restricted in disposable income (we were in our teens, for crying out loud) in order to get a fully usable game -- which tended to put me off a bit. It's one of the reasons I started looking more askance at Metagaming back then.

I sincerely hope that you fix that with Advanced Wizard and Advanced Melee in the new editions (ideally you'd sell them as a set -- both Melee and Advanced Melee, together in one ziplock bag or box, so players would have a complete game going in...).

02-26-2018, 07:42 PM	#8
JLV Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Arizona	Re: To-Hit Roll in Advanced Wizard It was kind of an odd approach at the time, and I suspect was at least partially an artifact of the way the books were actually published, as opposed to the way they were intended to be published, but both Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard assumed that you already knew and had Melee and Wizard. Of the two, Advanced Wizard was more guilty of this approach than Advanced Melee was, IMO. Still, it was clear to me as a purchaser at the time that I wasn't getting a "complete game" with the Advanced Melee/Advanced Wizard books -- but rather a significant set of add-ons to take the basic games of Melee and Wizard to the next level and let us actually play a full-on RPG with them. The reason it was clear though, was that I'd been playing Melee and Wizard for a couple of years by then and was impatiently awaiting the new material. Were I just seeing it them cold-turkey in a hobby store magazine rack for the first time in 1981, I'd have been quite confused, I think. I have to be honest here; I thought that Metagaming's advertisements of TFT later on (say 1982 on) were verging on "dishonest" since they implied you didn't NEED Melee or Wizard to play the advanced versions, and it was quite clear you did if you wanted to fully understand how to play the games. I also thought it was poor customer relations tactics, in that it required additional purchases from an audience that tended to be somewhat restricted in disposable income (we were in our teens, for crying out loud) in order to get a fully usable game -- which tended to put me off a bit. It's one of the reasons I started looking more askance at Metagaming back then. I sincerely hope that you fix that with Advanced Wizard and Advanced Melee in the new editions (ideally you'd sell them as a set -- both Melee and Advanced Melee, together in one ziplock bag or box, so players would have a complete game going in...).