ephemera:
1. something of no lasting significance; 2. paper items (as
posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be
discarded after use but have since become collectibles.
–
Merriam-Webster.com
I recently
received an interesting Kickstarter project I backed: a print copy of
Terence Gunn’s The Fantastic Worlds of Grenadier, a
catalog-like overview of one of the first miniatures companies to
cater to the roleplaying game community with continued strong support
of numerous game lines and different genres. Although it doesn’t
exhibit the kind of meticulous scholarship displayed in works like
Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World, the book serves as an
important record of a game product line from a company that no longer
exists. The Fantastic Worlds of Grenadier
contains 128 glossy pages reproducing box cover art, advertisements,
and images of miniatures and sets, from original photos, the
black-and-white boxed-set inserts, and other sources...an impressive
array of ephemera related to fantasy miniatures and those for other
niche genres. Accompanying text discusses how the company got its
start, involvement of different sculptors, various product lines, and
other corporate developments. For me it’s a valuable
historiographical reference to a by-gone era in the earliest days of
roleplaying games, a record of corporate ephemera that can help
inform us where we’ve been, where we stand, and where we’re going
with the adventure gaming hobby.
The
adventure gaming hobby generates a lot of ephemera often lost amid
the vast volumes of “official” publications. Certainly
roleplaying gamers in particular generate volumes of character
sheets, adventure notes, character portraits, adventure chronicles,
and maps. Few
survive for public view, finding their way into the trash or, at
best, some forgotten file or envelope in a box of neglected
roleplaying game books. One might dispute the importance of
preserving and accessing these documents – they often have little
meaning to those beyond the immediate users – yet they can
illustrate the practical elements of roleplaying games beyond the
framework provided in rulebooks and scenarios. One
website, The Play Generated Map & Document Archive, strives to
collect and display some of this player-generated ephemera; while it
in no way claims to (or could possibly) collect all game-related
ephemera ever made for roleplaying games, it offers a fascinating
glimpse into the amateur creator’s mind. It serves as an archive
for future reference to samples of this material.
As
a gamer and game writer I have several bits of game-company ephemera
in my collection. Many come from my time on staff at West End Games:
old advertisements previewing the Star
Wars Roleplaying Game,
promotional artwork cards (some with author signatures), proof
sheets for boxed-set cards and maps, a copy of the Star
Wars Style Guide
I wrote to standardize company editorial practices, a marked-up copy
of the first Timothy Zahn story I edited, contracts
signing rights to my creative work over to West End and Lucasfilm,
and
the Mos
Eisley Shoot-Out
promotional mini-game I designed. But I also have ephemera from other
game companies whose work I admired. I
keep a
few copies of the “Legends
of the Lance” newsletter
promoting
the Saga-system
relaunch of the Dragonlance
franchise from
the final days of TSR.
I have a few posters
and dice for Iron
Crown Enterprises’
Middle-earth CCG (the
oversized dice have the burning Eye of Sauron on the “one” side).
In
the late 1980s I dabbled
in some Steve Jackson Games lines, so I’ve kept my OGRE blueprint
poster, the promotional Mini
Car Wars
game, and a copy of the “Where We’re Going: Trade News from Steve
Jackson Games” newsletter. I
regret
I long ago misplaced
the full-color TSR catalog that came with my D&D
Basic
set; it gave me a better idea the scope of adventure available and
offered ideas on what products I wanted to buy next. And,
of course, I still have some of my old Grenadier boxes and inserts,
though they’re scattered around my miniatures collection and not
always storing the minis that came in them.
While a
repository exists for ephemera generated by gamers, no centralized
archives exist for material from current and long-gone game companies
beyond, perhaps, the holdings at the Strong National Museum of Play
(which works to preserve materials from a broad spectrum of gaming
and generalized play). Serious researchers must track down individual
collections, some in the holdings of universities, others in private
hands, and still others unknown to the public. I’m grateful works
like Playing at the World and The Fantastic Worlds of
Grenadier offer the average gamer some insight into the history
of the adventure gaming hobby and a glimpse at some of these rare
primary sources.
(For several
years I’ve been sitting on a Hobby Games Recce piece encouraging
the formation of a national games library through the auspices of the
Library of Congress. I’ve avoided doing so for numerous reasons,
not the least of which is that the political climate has been, and
most assuredly will continue to be [with greater intensity] hostile
to such an expansion of government for an aspect of the American
culture that most citizens view as frivolous. Despite efforts by the
Strong National Museum of Play, the immense volume of artifacts and
ephemera related to the adventure gaming hobby – from roleplaying
games to miniature wargames, board wargames, and even Euro-style
board games – have limited representation in its collections. A
national library/archive might help promote gaming at a more visible
level, but I don’t think the country or the average citizen are
quite ready for that commitment.)
Many
voices have advocated preserving and considering our past with an eye
to understanding the future. Frequent Hobby Games Recce
readers know I invoke philosopher George Santayana – “Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – and
general George S. Patton – “Prepare for the unknown by studying
how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the
unpredictable.” – when discussing the value of wargaming. The
amazing living history institution of Colonial Williamsburg still
carries the
tagline “That the future may learn from the past.” Far
too often we fail to take the time to reflect on what’s come
before, evaluate
where we are, and gain some insight into where we’re heading.
Although
I value gaming ephemera generated by creative players, primary
sources
about the publication history of games should
be preserved and made accessible to the public to encourage a greater
understanding and further development of the adventure gaming hobby.
Failing to do so denies readers the insights into the hobby’s
formation, inner workings, and evolution that might help shape future
innovations and, hopefully, advancement of the hobby as a whole.
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