All I can find of my Melee / Wizard original and replacement items. Had all of it at one point, including most of the "Microquests" as well.
Great fantasy system, precursor to GURPS. The "archaic combat" pocket game Melee started it all and in quite historical combat wargame fashion. This was quickly followed by Wizard which added magic. Both are "arena combat" games built off a gladiator premise in a modest game board with hexes and "megahexes" of 7 hexes; so yes, this is a gridded game system for all you fans. If you no like grids, it is pretty easy to plop it onto an open table.
Melee is a medium-complexity combat system that intends to be historical in its approach, and highly tactical in its mechanics, just what you would expect from a wargame developed into an RPG system. Should be highly appealing to any historical wargamer who appreciates tactical skirmish combat.
A similar approach is used for magic - of course the historicity of magic is quite limited, BUT a real attempt is made to make it logical and orient it to the real world. After that, you can go on a full-fledged Fantasy Trip with the additional material, which can have as much or as little magic as you want.
The beauty of this approach is that it has enough specificity that the GM always has something to fall back on - if it is not identical, it is at least similar. So perhaps you have a player who wants to fight with the classic rapier / main-gauche Three Musketeer style. It's in there, just like that. But if someone wants to try out two short swords or use a small spiked target as an attack weapon, you can make a reasonable decision on it from the mechanics at hand.
As character builds, weapons, magic and fighting tactics have a trade off, player have to make real decisions. So one player may want a big brawny fellow with a shield so he can shield-rush opponents and knock them down. Totally different combat style from the Athos and Porthos style fellow above, but it is a real choice. This eliminates many of the arguments and exceptions that imaginative gamers want to use 'cause they saw it in a movie.
I hemmed and hawed, but in the end bought the Legacy Edition First Printing as A Nostalgia Trip as well as for ease of play. Hopefully, all the products will be edited and updated, and it will be easier than trying to cobble together 40 years of updates both official and un-official. Plus, I knew if I didn't get it, the price would double on the aftermarket!
The Legacy 1st Print came with the new Melee & Wizard pocket games, the solo adventures Tollenkar's Lair, Death Test and Death Test 2, a 176p. In the Labyrinth GM and world guide, GM aid and reference booklet, GM screen, Character Cards, megahex tiles, and other useful stuff.
As a system that's been around for 40+ years, it involves a bit of math [don't panic - adding and subtracting] and scratch paper. But it has aged well due to the strength of the original design concept and execution. The new release, known as the "Legacy Edition" has been updated. Still, as with any highly tactical game, players can find themselves in situations where they either confuse themselves or feel the rules are unclear. There are tons of resources to help out, or get one into the game, but some of the best I've found are below:
Boardgame Geek on the system:
The Fantasy Trip [CLICK]
Melee and Wizard [CLICK]
Tutorial Videos by James Eisert are here [CLICK]. These are great, and will save you boodles of time learning just how very tactical but simple this system is!
Then and now sort of comparison review [CLICK].
Intro vids with the designer, Steve Jackson [CLICK].
Anyway, thrilled to get my copy. My 10yo son and I have started with Melee. I pitched it to him as a general premise, we designed our first characters and had at it.
Next post: the first melee with Melee!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment! t will be posted after it's moderated.