In the late 70s and early 80s there were a large number of magazines running around that talked about gaming in general and role playing games in particular. Of course most people are familiar with Dragon Magazine or the early White Dwarf, but I wonder how many remember the gem from Task Force Games that did as much to broaden my RPG horizons as either of those. That gem was Nexus Magazine and it began in 1982 talking about of all things, what is a role playing game.
Before we get there, I want to skip ahead a little bit to Nexus #5, published in March-April 1983. Specifically, I want to talk about that issues editorial. The editorial, by (I assume) Mike Joslyn (the editor) is a well written piece of commentary on the changing face of gaming back in 1983. In fact, I suspect it had changed quite a bit before 1983, but Joslyn was writing in that year. The piece mentions numbers of role players, three million, and how they are almost exclusively adventure gamers. It does not put down adventure gaming at all, but merely laments that historical reality, such as it is, is giving way to fantasy and made up worlds. The editor suggests that historical gaming is worth your time and seems to prefer the reality of the historical board game to the fantasy of adventure gaming.
Which must have been an interesting point of view to have considering Nexus #1 has a great deal of role playing game coverage in it. Right off the bat is an article by Eric Goldberg (Eric was a designer on Dragonquest for SPI) titled “But... Is It Role Playing?”(Nexus #1, pg.2) Mr. Goldberg talks about many role playing games (D&D, Runequest, and the Fantasy Trip to name a few) and whether the rules ofthose games encourage actual role playing. In several places he is critical of the games for focusing so much on the rules and only giving bare nods to the ideas and needs of actual role play. This is a discussion we are still having three decades later. Neil Randall wrote a response two issues later (But Is It Role Playing? A Second View, Nexus #3, pg. 36), which was one of several role playing related articles in that issue as well. In fact, to my surprise, role playing games make a great showing in articles, reviews, and advertisements through the early days of Nexus magazine.
Of course, Nexus was known for being the house magazine of Task Force Games and as such talked about their games most of the time. This included articles on their historical games and eventually their own role-playing game, like Delta Force, which was designed by William H. Keith. Eventually, two games came to dominate Nexus, Starfire and Star Fleet Battles. In fact, the latter is how I got turned onto Nexus magazine in the first place, though sadly near the end of its run. Starfire of course was at the time designed by David Weber (you may have heard of him) and eventually turned into a series of novels. Some of that early work can be seen in the pages of Nexus.
How influential was Nexus magazine at the time? I know it was a big deal for me and for those who were heavily into Star Fleet Battles, Starfire, and the historical game scene. Recently, Amarillo Design Bureau, publisher of Star Fleet Battles, has started posting PDF copies of Nexus up for sale on DriveThruRPG. Eventually the entire run of the magazine will be available. I cannot recommend enough that you give it a look.
contributed by Sean Hillman
Before we get there, I want to skip ahead a little bit to Nexus #5, published in March-April 1983. Specifically, I want to talk about that issues editorial. The editorial, by (I assume) Mike Joslyn (the editor) is a well written piece of commentary on the changing face of gaming back in 1983. In fact, I suspect it had changed quite a bit before 1983, but Joslyn was writing in that year. The piece mentions numbers of role players, three million, and how they are almost exclusively adventure gamers. It does not put down adventure gaming at all, but merely laments that historical reality, such as it is, is giving way to fantasy and made up worlds. The editor suggests that historical gaming is worth your time and seems to prefer the reality of the historical board game to the fantasy of adventure gaming.
Which must have been an interesting point of view to have considering Nexus #1 has a great deal of role playing game coverage in it. Right off the bat is an article by Eric Goldberg (Eric was a designer on Dragonquest for SPI) titled “But... Is It Role Playing?”(Nexus #1, pg.2) Mr. Goldberg talks about many role playing games (D&D, Runequest, and the Fantasy Trip to name a few) and whether the rules ofthose games encourage actual role playing. In several places he is critical of the games for focusing so much on the rules and only giving bare nods to the ideas and needs of actual role play. This is a discussion we are still having three decades later. Neil Randall wrote a response two issues later (But Is It Role Playing? A Second View, Nexus #3, pg. 36), which was one of several role playing related articles in that issue as well. In fact, to my surprise, role playing games make a great showing in articles, reviews, and advertisements through the early days of Nexus magazine.
Of course, Nexus was known for being the house magazine of Task Force Games and as such talked about their games most of the time. This included articles on their historical games and eventually their own role-playing game, like Delta Force, which was designed by William H. Keith. Eventually, two games came to dominate Nexus, Starfire and Star Fleet Battles. In fact, the latter is how I got turned onto Nexus magazine in the first place, though sadly near the end of its run. Starfire of course was at the time designed by David Weber (you may have heard of him) and eventually turned into a series of novels. Some of that early work can be seen in the pages of Nexus.
How influential was Nexus magazine at the time? I know it was a big deal for me and for those who were heavily into Star Fleet Battles, Starfire, and the historical game scene. Recently, Amarillo Design Bureau, publisher of Star Fleet Battles, has started posting PDF copies of Nexus up for sale on DriveThruRPG. Eventually the entire run of the magazine will be available. I cannot recommend enough that you give it a look.
contributed by Sean Hillman
