The Name "The Fantasy Trip"

[tomc]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

I would have liked to see "Hymenopera." I like bug games. The hive must be fed.

"Hymenopera" - The epic song of the hive. :)

[Jim Kane]

Originally Posted by tomc

"Hymenopera" - The epic song of the hive. :)

The big number from: My Hymenopera, the musical. Once again starring the original cast and crew from the Chitin theatre; a run which was longer than Cats, Phantom, and Miss Saigon combined. An even-more astounding box-office record, being a "way, Way, WAY off-Broadway" play. ;D

JK

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by tomc

Space Gamer 11 (April - May - Jun 1977)

Where We're Going:
"Melee will be ready for shipping a week or two after you get this issue."

"Large games working are LABYRINTH and HYMENOPTERA. LABYRINTH is our fantasy role playing biggie."

Space Gamer 12 (July - August 1977)

"...MELEE is the first component of an entirely new fantasy-role-playing system. The overall name for the system is THE FANTASY TRIP."

Hope this helps.

Thanks! That pretty well answers the question to my satisfaction

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

I would have liked to see "Hymenopera." I like bug games. The hive must be fed.

That was one I was looking forward to as well. I was a big fan of Dragon Masters, Serpent's Reach, Rogue Queen, Hellstrom's Hive and other buggy things... (later really liked Martin's Sandkings) and Chitin was a very good example of that. (Oddly enough, I'm working on a thing with a hive race now...)

By the way, do the hymenopterans still be in the new version of IN THE LABYRINTH, or do they get omitted because Chitin I? (One disappointment of In The Labyrinth was it didn't come with counters for the neat new races: TFT counters for the bugs, slimes, octopusses, prootwaddles, etc. would have been cool, since I didn't have the miniatures. Had to wait until Cardboard Heroes for the slimes and octopuses...)

Did Howard actually playtest any of the strategic game?

I played Chitin a number of times (one summer vacation taken in the countryside we had nothing but microgames on rainy days) didn't really think much about Hymenoptera until after I picked up Godsfire and Stellar Conquest around the same time In the Labyrinth came out. At the time my hopes for it were inspired by Godsfire, which I really liked (even more than Stellar Conquest) and what I'd like to have seen would have been:

* a big world, large region, or hemisphere map

* A number of named hives on the map, including "neutrals" you could conquer, with 2-5 players

* Each hive gets a "hive display" using a variant of Metagaming's Godsfire political mechanics (mix agriculture and industry) but with production resource units based not on holding systems but on harvesting agricultural regions and bringing in dead units

* CRT kind of "Chitin at Brigade Level" with different bug types getting bonuses in different terrain and a Chitin-inspired rock/scissors/paper set of combat modifiers.

* Stellar Conquest-inspired research and development system to let your Hive breed some more advanced unit types (Plunge, etc.) or possibly build up production (food vats like in Hellstrom's Hive, etc.)

* Seasonal turns with "quiet" winter/spring where you return units to the hive and breed up reinforcements, then multiple "harvest season" turns where you unleash your buggy hordes for the harvest wars

* A tie in with TFT so you could also run hives on Cidri (since the Hymenopterans were there).

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by tomc

"Hymenopera" - The epic song of the hive. :)

Dronesong!

[Dave Crowell]

I always figured "The Fantasy Trip" was a natural product of the times. "Trip" was a fairly common word then. "Like, what's your trip, man?"

I always hoped for Hymenoptera, I liked Chitin: I. I hope the bugs make into the new version of TFT in some form, even if they need a renaming.

I also second the request for counters for all the critters.

[Jim Kane]

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

Had to wait until Cardboard Heroes for the slimes and octopuses...)

DAVID re-check through your Death Test II counters, ...Here be Slimes and and the famous sword-wielding Octopus.

JK

[JLV]

Now THAT was a trip down memory lane! In fact, given that so much of the cool stuff they were working on turned out to be only pipe-dreams, you could even call it ... wait for it ... a "Fantasy Trip!" ;-) (Ba-da DUM swish!)

So Steve, what are the odds on ever seeing the "campaign game" version you were talking about? With the rules for player characters to build their own forces and castles... (I wonder if you even have any of that material anymore, given the horror of the flood.)

[Jim Kane]

Originally Posted by JLV

Now THAT was a trip down memory lane! In fact, given that so much of the cool stuff they were working on turned out to be only pipe-dreams, you could even call it ... wait for it ... a "Fantasy Trip!" ;-) (Ba-da DUM swish!)

ROFL!!! And remember folks, JLV will be here all week... don't forget to try the veal... and dancing under the stars begins at 9pm up on the Lido Deck... and please, don't forget to tip Issac, your bartender... ;-)

JK

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Jim Kane

DAVID re-check through your Death Test II counters, ...Here be Slimes and and the famous sword-wielding Octopus.

JK

Oh, that's good!

I probably made that mistake as I got Death Test II after I had In the Labyrinth, so I had it in my mind that these counters weren't available.

Though I think a few ITL monsters went un-countered...