Old School FRP

Before they wore the giant Mesopotamian hats, the Chaos Dwarfs were more individually varied and chaotic (sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry, ad in White Dwarf 78, April 1986)

I'm always drawn to the upside-down victim beneath a wolf. The same pose appears in Pat Hidy's 1980 cover for Death Test 2.

Our fashion-conscious merc, Randy, is sporting the latest organically grown body armor* from the fine folks at Gigerwear Ltd. BIO PLATE (R) comes in a variety of decorator colors -- black, flat black, glossy black, blue black, dark black, light black, not-quite-so-dark black (medium black), black with black highlights and fuchsia. Surfaces include the popular textures Slime Coat (TM) and Liquid Fur (TM). *Muscle tissue not included.

Two against a purple worm -- By Fangorn, aka Chris Baker, originally drawn for the UK publication of Holmes’ Basic D&D (Games Workshop, 1977) then reprinted in White Dwarf 6, April/May 1978. Like all of Fangorn's interior illustrations for Holmes, it was a reinterpretation of one of David Sutherland's images in the original US printings.

Old time religion: Warrior Priest for Warhammer Quest, GW, 1995

Aerial ambush on a remote mountaintop (Chris Beaumont cover art, White Dwarf 6, April/May 1978)

Weapons striking a rust monster are affected as if touched by the creature's antennae, immediately rusting or corroding and falling to pieces (Roger Raupp, from Best of The Dragon, TSR, 1980). This accompanied the short story "Excerpt from an Interview with a Rust Monster" by Michael McCrery, told from the perspective of an NPC in the author's campaign who had been polymorphed into rust monster form, orginally published in Dragon 14, May 1978

Many of these plans are remarkably specific but were never completed by this Dream Park Corporation which went bankrupt in 1997. Some similar concepts have appeared in the MagiQuest game installations, found at several locations including Great Wolf Resorts. A new company calling itself DreamPark is creating what it calls "the world's first downloadable mixed-reality (XR) theme park platform," with one location active at a Dave & Busters on Hollywood Blvd in LA.

The Dark Lord wants to know: "Bored by tabletop role-playing games? Have you considered live role-playing?" (Danny Willis art in ad for The Shadow League LRP Association of North Dandenong, in Australian Realms magazine 8, Nov/Dec 1992) Note the term LARP is almost but not quite yet in use here.

A Knight Paladin of Unae rides against an orc horde. (from "Pure at Heart: Paladins in the World of Unae" by Adam Whitt, Australian Realms magazine 8, Nov/Dec 1992) The style resembles illustrations signed by AR art editor Vince Pask.

The myconids of the Twisted Caverns (Arnie Swekel, from AD&D 2e adventure The Gates of Firestorm Peak by Bruce Cordell, TSR, 1996)

The mage appears in a flash of flame and smoke (Chris Baker, aka Fangorn, White Dwarf 6, GW, April/May 1978)

In the gaming world everything is better in the US and the UK situation looks bleak, according to Games Workshop cofounder Ian Livingstone's editorial in White Dwarf 4, Dec/Jan 1977/1978