Recently, I was able to ask Steve Jackson, of Steve Jackson Games, a couple of questions about the upcoming relaunch of his classic role-playing/combat game The Fantasy Trip. In addition, he gave us at EN World an early look at the preliminary art for the cover of The Fantasy Trip: Melee.
Christopher Helton: First off, let's talk about the game itself. For the uninitiated, what is The Fantasy Trip?
Steve Jackson: It's a fantasy role-playing game that I started writing in 1977. It had a period of great popularity, which waned when Metagaming went out of business and there was no further support. But some people have always continued to play it. And last year I recovered the rights, so I can publish a new edition now.
CH: What led to the creation of The Fantasy Trip?
SJ: TFT grew out of the combat game, Melee. I created Melee specifically because I didn't like the combat system in original D&D. I wanted something that would feel more realistic, that would take into account where the characters were in relation to each other, and that would not be so table-driven.
When Melee became popular, I did a magic version of it; that was Wizard. The next step was to write a full set of role-playing rules around the Melee/Wizard combat system, which is what we know today as The Fantasy Trip.
CH: There is a lot of interest in older games again, from the early editions of Dungeons & Dragons to a Kickstarter based around the third edition of Champions. What does The Fantasy Trip offer to people who are looking at older games, or want to recreate an experience from when they were younger?
SJ: It's an old-school role-playing experience, centered around dungeon-crawling, monster-fighting, swords-and-sorcery adventure. It does not try to be generic, and it does not try to go into overwhelming detail. It's for people who want to sit down with a few friends and explore, fight, and try to get home alive!
CH: To flip that question, what about the Fantasy Trip would appeal to people who've never played it?
SJ: The same things, I hope. It's a lot lighter than GURPS, or, for that matter, the current edition of D&D. Character creation is easy, combats are quick without being trivial, and there are just not all that many rules to learn. It's not a game about finding exploits or weird combinations of skills. It's about creating a hero or a wizard, and going on an adventure.
CH: After four editions of GURPS some may wonder why you would revisit The Fantasy Trip. What do you say to them?
SJ: Because it's a different game and I like it a lot!
CH: Should people who've invested a lot of time and money into GURPS worry that it might be replaced by a simpler game in the Fantasy Trip?
SJ: Nope. The games have different strengths, and people who are into GURPS are not going to abandon it.
CH: What do you hope for the future of the Fantasy Trip?
SJ: Enough interest from fans that we can continue to put out new background and adventure material at a good rate. But I don't want to layer on complexity. Fans of complexity have already got games to play. This is about making a character in five minutes and going out to fight the orcs.
Christopher Helton: First off, let's talk about the game itself. For the uninitiated, what is The Fantasy Trip?
Steve Jackson: It's a fantasy role-playing game that I started writing in 1977. It had a period of great popularity, which waned when Metagaming went out of business and there was no further support. But some people have always continued to play it. And last year I recovered the rights, so I can publish a new edition now.
CH: What led to the creation of The Fantasy Trip?
SJ: TFT grew out of the combat game, Melee. I created Melee specifically because I didn't like the combat system in original D&D. I wanted something that would feel more realistic, that would take into account where the characters were in relation to each other, and that would not be so table-driven.
When Melee became popular, I did a magic version of it; that was Wizard. The next step was to write a full set of role-playing rules around the Melee/Wizard combat system, which is what we know today as The Fantasy Trip.
CH: There is a lot of interest in older games again, from the early editions of Dungeons & Dragons to a Kickstarter based around the third edition of Champions. What does The Fantasy Trip offer to people who are looking at older games, or want to recreate an experience from when they were younger?
SJ: It's an old-school role-playing experience, centered around dungeon-crawling, monster-fighting, swords-and-sorcery adventure. It does not try to be generic, and it does not try to go into overwhelming detail. It's for people who want to sit down with a few friends and explore, fight, and try to get home alive!
CH: To flip that question, what about the Fantasy Trip would appeal to people who've never played it?
SJ: The same things, I hope. It's a lot lighter than GURPS, or, for that matter, the current edition of D&D. Character creation is easy, combats are quick without being trivial, and there are just not all that many rules to learn. It's not a game about finding exploits or weird combinations of skills. It's about creating a hero or a wizard, and going on an adventure.
CH: After four editions of GURPS some may wonder why you would revisit The Fantasy Trip. What do you say to them?
SJ: Because it's a different game and I like it a lot!
CH: Should people who've invested a lot of time and money into GURPS worry that it might be replaced by a simpler game in the Fantasy Trip?
SJ: Nope. The games have different strengths, and people who are into GURPS are not going to abandon it.
CH: What do you hope for the future of the Fantasy Trip?
SJ: Enough interest from fans that we can continue to put out new background and adventure material at a good rate. But I don't want to layer on complexity. Fans of complexity have already got games to play. This is about making a character in five minutes and going out to fight the orcs.
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