Tag Archives: TRPG

Updated Blog

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As I try to better represent myself, as well as my ideas in Gaming, History, and print I have made some recent changes to the Emerald Tablet.  Please take note of some additional and modified tabs at the top, most specifically “Other Writing” to which I added my novel for easy reference. I have also significantly updated my “Troy Christensen” tab with a number of cover images from my games over the years as well as a listing of all my credits.  I also will be making two new additional entries into my Civ 4: Mod tab, as I am releasing a new version of Extreme2 and my reformatted mod Multiverse.

I hope you will return to the site regularly, as I update the blog on a weekly basis trying to add in new original content on my thoughts, aspirations, and ideas on gaming and history.

As always, I am looking for opportunities in Publishing, History, Gaming, and Print Production and would be interested in talking with anyone about such endeavors.

Troy Christensen
September 14th, 2011

The Game That Started It All

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I have always played games as far as I can remember.  My brother is eight years older than I and tried a number of games on me such as Squad Leader and Starship Trooper, two Avalon Hill box games.  Back in 1979 I was introduced to D&D and all of my friends were playing the game.  I vaguely remember going to the hobby store and looking at both the box game of Dungeons & Dragons, but also the Player’s Handbook of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  I settled for something a bit cheaper, because I never really had much money back then.  Metagaming in those days published a series of tiny games sold in plastic bags called Melee and Wizard.

This is my original copy of the rules, stored and kept for 32 years:

The rules are rather simple and straight forward, which amounted to twenty-one pages that covered character generation, combat, and long term development.  Utilizing only six-sided dice, the game could be played almost anywhere and at any time.

Soon after buying Melee (The Fantasy Trip), I realized that gaming and RPGs were something I simply loved to do and would occupy the next thirty-five years of my life, starting with Melee then jumping to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and on to all the variant games such as Villains & Vigilantes, RoleMaster, SpaceMaster, Champions, Star Wars, and a hundred other titles.

This is the original book I bought back in the Fall of 1979 and still hold as a treasured part of my youth — more than a thousand characters and stories were spawned from this single book and I have carried it from Comstock Park Michigan, to Japan, to Washington DC and hopefully soon to other parts of the world.  It is the one book that simply captures my imagination.  Sadly, I do not get much time to play table-top RPGs any longer, but perhaps that too may change here very soon.

I also have my first copy of Dragon Magazine still, from December of 1979.  It is extremely brittle these days and should be kept in a plastic bag — but I always find comfort paging through the aged magazine:

I wonder how many other peoples’ lives were changed by these three great books.  I know that for me, they changed my life forever.

Black Keep of Serpent Lake

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One of the few published Phantasm Adventure modules. The only other official module was called the Maldake Adventure. The Black Keep of Serpent Lake was published in 1988 by Dai Nippon Kaiga, the Japanese publisher of the game.

I cannot remember much about the game, and sadly the English version has been lost in time. It do remember writing a number of module packs for the game, but do not remember having a lot of contact with Dai Nippon Kaiga after the game was published.

I am still in negoitations with the Dai Nippon Kaiga and another Japanese game company about re-printing the game. If you would like to see another print, I ask you to write Dai Nippon Kaiga and express your interest: takagim@kaiga.co.jp

Make Your Own Dungeon

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Playing Phantasm, Bloodbath, or Realms of Ardaan but you do not have a dungeon map handy?  Well try this nifty site I found and generate one randomly on the fly.  It has great tile sets and really looks cool.  I have been using it for a while and truly deserves a visit:

Create a Dungeon

What is even more exciting about this wonderful site is that it is from a local gamer to me.  After briefly talking with him, I discovered he is in Kentwood, Michigan just a stone’s throw away from my hometown.  There is even more reason to follow this guy and try his product.

Check out my latest addition to the TRPG section

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Take a look at the newest game to be uploaded to the Emerald Tablet.  A game design from 1997, the Realms of Ardaan is full of playable races, classes, skills, adventure ideas, gods, equipment, and rules for combat and further adventuring. This game is looking for a home with a small gaming group, and I am more than willing to support the product with updates, Q&A, and additional development with feedback.

 

http://emeraldtablet.wordpress.com/rpg/

Phantasm Adventures Lives

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I am always continually amazed at the fortune I have had with my first role-playing game, Phantasm Adventures. And, even more so, all the wild experiences I have had with it. I have met so many wonderful people over the years, and I have been to so many incredible places just because of the simple game I started writing back in 1980.

It has been more than 30 years and just as I think that I have reached the end of the rope with the Phantasm, something wonderful happens and the game is brought back to life.

I have not done much with the game in over 10 years. It just seemed like I never have any time to play games any longer, and the friends that used to come over each week slowly faded away. For years the game sat in a pile at the base of my bookshelf, just collecting dust.

I tried desperately several times to start writing for the game. I tried making a simplified version, a complicated version, even a 4th edition to the classic game. Each time, however, it slowly dwindled to a stand still and ended back on the pile in my study.

I thought another year would go by, just as it has done for the last 10 years, but all of a sudden a spark has caused the game to come back to life. It is still far from being off life-support, but I am getting the feeling to write for it again.  I can hear the slow rhythmic beating of its heart…slow but steady. I can feel like it wants to jump up again and run for a couple of years, growing in strength with each passing day.

Even more startling, I found some friends in Japan who are still interested in the game and they have contacted my old publisher. Perhaps something will come of this? I am truly hoping that maybe they will want to publish the game again, which would stoke my fires to go back to writing full time.

If nothing else, I am just so happy to see life back into my old game. I don’t know where this will all go, because I cannot even fathom how this interest even came about. I would never have thought that in this year that my old fantasy rpg would have a revival.

I will take each day as it comes. But I am getting excited about the game again, and that always brings a smile to my face!

Cover of Book IV

Phantasm4

I have linked the original 4th book in the 3rd Edition rules from Phantasm Adventures.  This was never meant to be the final product, but more of a manuscript that I would have presented to a publisher perhaps in the United States or in Japan.  I have taken some liberties within this book, with style and presentation, that I would never allow to be published.  As a reference materials this works well.

I hope to push out the entire 3rd edition via PDF and hope others will find use of it in either gaming, or just have a fun couple of hours looking through the rules.

If anyone would ever want to contribute to the game, such as artwork, stories, ideas, programming, or just inspiration, please post a reply and I will sure make contact with you.