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Just Reading Challenge #77...

P

PinkSplice

SOC-12
Cleaning out junk, and found my JTAS/Challenge tub. The very last one in the tub was Challenge #77 (the last published, I think). Eerie. The editorial was by Dave Nilsen, defending the decisions made in creating TNE. The last page had an "under construction" ad for the Space 1889 movie....

Reminds me of the transcripts in "Aftermath" in Flying magazine.

Wally.
 
A TUB full of old Challenge!!!????? drool, drool,
envy, envy, cry, cry, want, want,!!!!! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
file_21.gif
 
how many do you have?? would you care to part with them?? maybe ol Trader jim and you could make a Deal thats profitable to both you and i!!
can we discuss it??? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :D
 
I know exactly what you mean: I was recently looking at some of my old Challenge mags and was freaked out by ads for the forthcoming "Armor XXI" and "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Second Edition". Likewise, there's an ad for "Ships of the Regency" in the back of my "Regency Vehicle Guide" that always makes me wistful.
 
Indeed, Arsulon, Armor 21 was one of the ads I saw.

Trader Jim, I have JTAS #1 through Challenge 77 (all of them). No deal. Sorry.

Wally.
 
AAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrr scream scream yell yell
stomp stomp havafit,havafit!!!!! :( :( :(
temper tantrum, temper tantrum. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: AAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! :eek: :eek:
 
Yah, I have every JTAS 1-24 and most Challenges, although at the end of it, I was on to other things for a while so I am missing maybe a dozen or 18 of the tail-end issues.
 
Yep it certainly was a pity.... I remember getting a bit concerned after the editorial in Challenge 74. I always thought it was noble of Challenge to support systems like Space 1889 which was effectively dead by that point (although I appreciate that plans were afoot to resurrect it and bring the film to video). But I never dreamed that the company that made Traveller would ever have any financial problems, no matter how many gimmicky Cads & Dinos games they brought out.....
 
Cadillacs And Dinosaurs. Another brilliant idea from Frank Chadwick, along with the Space 1889 cartoon. What *genius*.

Freelancers were complaining about not being paid long before Challenge 74 (like two years).

Wally.
 
1889 I think is too often ridiculed. It was a clever background and, the one time I played, actually a terribly fun game. Now, I had the benefit of being a history major at the time with a bunch of people very into the British Colonial period, but it was kinda neat.

Of course, the science was complete tripe (it wasn't meant to be anything but science fantasy), but then Traveller ain't exactly text-book physics either.

My beef, I guess, was that I'm sort of a completist on gaming material, and I felt if I bought the 1889 game, I would have had to buy -all- of it, and there were way too many supplements there right at the beginning...

Ah well...

Oswald Smith, Gentlemen Adventurer (and Pear's Soap Advertising Representative for Mars), will still be stuck on the cliff, under fire, trying to set up a new advertisement for Pear's Soap along the Grand Canal.
 
Not knocking the Space 1889 game, qua game. But the idea of running development for a cartoon when resources were already stretched beyond breaking point was King Stupid. 1889 was dead anyway, as a property. So were Dark Conspiracy and Twilight 2000. TNE appealed to only a fraction of the Traveller fanbase. The Gygax Deal killed a lot of time that could have been spent on better things. Cads And Dinos was frosting on the Funeral Cake. Too Many Damn Fool Things being tried by Chadwick and Co.

Marc Miller has said that Traveller was the red-headed stepchild at GDW for resources. I believe the man.

Wally.
 
Frank Chadwick was brilliant at coming up with game settings and backgrounds. For the most part I wouldn't blow my nose with his rules but I still read Space: 1889 for the backstory.

As opposed to classic Traveller which had brilliant rules and, IMHO, a mediocre setting.
 
Hey I wasn't knocking Cads & Dinos either ... :) I just thought it was a bit gimmicky. But I like that kind of Torg-style B-Movie genre. I just wasn't looking to buy it when I was thirsting *so* much for new Traveller product :)

With the benefit of hindsight, I hope they would do it all again & have better luck. I have no idea what I would do business-wise - have one monolithic product or try to diversify to spread my risks. But I'm not going to knock them for having a damn good go. I have loved a lot of Frank Chadwick's output and I still re-read my old Space 1889 books just for pleasure (although Marcus Rowland is the king in my opinion.... and they mutilated his beautiful Canal Priests of Mars... sob).

A Space 1889 cartoon/film whatever would have generated a lot of interest in the game, que no?

Traveller the red-headed step-child..... I guess you guys don't use the word 'ginger' with quite the same evil intent that we do here in the UK..... (apologies to any gingers out there)...
 
Ah the old times...

I was also looking at my Challenges (I own around 25 of them and no, I dont want to sell them) last weekend (searching for stuff about Renegade Legion and Shadowrun) and a few hours later I found myself reading most articles in every magazines.

Also while reading I thought that after all this years there isn´t any magazine as good as Challenge...
 
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