Quote:Historical Footnote:

I was working for Dave at the time at Adventure Games, as the chief 'Tekumel Boat Person' (as he described us); the staff at AGI was made up of Dave's friends from the First Minnesota ACW reenactment group, and none of them were fantasy gamers of any type. Ken Fletcher and I were the only people there with any fantasy gaming experience; Richard was a free-lance author, and rarely in the shop.

The problem with AiF wasn't that is was a bad game or anything, it was simply one of no marketing. Dave had bought it back from Excalibur with the money that the first of his settlements with TSR, and like many other of the AGI product line was more or less just there because Dave or one of his friends had done the game. There was no real 'in-house' support for this game like there was for, say, "Compleat Brigadier", and it has to be said that there wasn't much support for fantasy gaming of any kind in house.

AGI's Tekumel line existed because of Dave's personal friendship with Phil, and my presence at AGI was a direct consequence of that. It always amazed the AGI staff that we 'boat people', so-called because we lived on pallets in AGI's basement under tarps (it was a very wet basement!) could sell our rather recondite products and the main AGI line never seemed to sell at all; I kept pointing out that one needed to run games at conventions and advertise the heck out of a game, otherwise it'd never sell to anyone.

I'm pretty sure that all the remaining copies of AiF went to Flying Buffalo when Dave closed AGI; you might want to try them to see if they have any copies left...

yours, Chirine

Dave Arneson Interview (2005) Wrote:In 1979, if I'm correct, you created your own fantasy RPG, Adventures in Fantasy, published initially by Excalibre Games and then by Adventure Games, your own company: the game is mentioned in the "1980 Game Survey" of The Space Gamer #35 (January 1981) and again in the "1981 Game Survey" results in The Space Gamer #51 (May 1982). When and how did you decide to create your own adventure gaming company? Was Adventures in Fantasy, which somebody at the time defined "D&D as seen by Dave Arneson", a successful game?

D&D had not come out the way that I envisioned it. The only answer was to present my system under a different title.

Was Adventure Games a successful company? I know it was still active in 1983 because in The Space Gamer #61 (March 1983) an impressive line up of products is announced, such as the Pentantastar fantasy board game and Mutant, a science fiction RPG.

In its history Adventure Games did a number of games. However Adventures in Fantasy was the only game that I did for the company. I felt that if we only published stuff that I wrote than it would be nothing more than a vanity press. AIF did well at the time but had no "Legs". Overall, Adventure Games made some money but it was a lot of work. Having gotten married and with a daughter, the company was just taking too much time. Pentantastar was our last game. Mutant was to be next but was actually never published.

The Space Gamer #76 (September/October 1985) writes: "Adventure Games effectively became a division of Flying Buffalo earlier this year, when company founder Dave Arneson was sent on a one year religious mission to San Francisco". I think this clearly marks the ending of Adventure Games as a separate company (I have read in FBI recent catalogues that they still have copies of Pentantastar for sale!). Why did you choose FBI for the management of your company's warehouse and orders' fulfillment?

I am a part owner in Flying Buffalo, and I have been so for several years before I founded Adventure Games. When I decided to terminate Adventure Games, Rick Loomis (president and founder of Flying Buffalo) agreed to take over my remaining stock. It is a reputable company with a wonderfull President and he is also a good friend: the choice was natural.

Dave L Wrote:"A one year religious mission" - what does that mean?

Dave L Wrote:"A one year religious mission" - what does that mean?