Fantastic stuff on Ragnarok Enterprises Mars (and you too, tfm ).
Really, I can't say I am even familiar with them, but you've got me furiosuly checking the posts and thumbing through Heroic Worlds.
It seems they managed to keep afloat for over a decade (not bad for a small publisher). I'm surprised I know so little about them! _________________ "Ah, Blackadder. Started talking to yourself, I see."
"Yes . . . it's the only way I can be assured of intelligent conversation."
Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Last Visit: 30 Aug 2023 Posts: 891 Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject:
I think the first edition of Ysgarth is 1979 and the latest version is the 25th Anniversary edition from a few years ago. They have them for sale on their website but I have the suspicion that these are just downloadable files rather than printed books (one of the shipping options is $0 to download them):
But they have certainly been around for a long time and are still actively producing stuff. For a while they also have a fanzine called the Abyss that I think has 49 issues too.
Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Last Visit: 30 Aug 2023 Posts: 891 Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:11 pm Post subject:
Ysgarth is a set of rules that started out in the late 70s and has been revised several times - I think the latest set is the 7th edition of rules. A number of small adventures were written generically with stats for both Ysgarth and D&D (check out the Ragnarok Forum: http://tomeoftreasures.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=163 ). This was their biggest product. They also had a long running fanzine called Abyss which ran for 49 issues (I think) - its also a very good fanzine.
Ragnarok also produced other books for gaming in different periods with a common rules set - I think most were based on the rules introduced in their To Challenge Tomorrow game. It had the same general idea as GURPS - one set of rules to rule them all. The Ysgarth rules and TCT rules are different though. Some of these different period rpgs have also been revised a few times too. For example By The Gods is now in its 3rd edition (I posted a 1st edition in the Ragnarok forum).
Basically, Ragnarok is a gaming company that has been around for over 25 years and produced a number of products and its own fanzine but few people seem to know about it. If you do a search for the driving force behind Ragnarok, David Nalle, you will also find that he has published a ton of other articles in various magazines too.
Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Last Visit: 26 Aug 2011 Posts: 35
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:05 pm Post subject:
Dave Nalle also owns the Scriptorium, which sells his custom-designed fonts. I recall he's got some pretty cool ones.
The Abyss is arguably the best US fanzine from the old days. It's amazing that the UK had so many with good quality, while the US really only had one that consistently published for a while.
Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Last Visit: 30 Aug 2023 Posts: 891 Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:46 pm Post subject:
vermilionfire wrote:
Dave Nalle also owns the Scriptorium.
Yes, he has some wonderful fonts. I remember back in the 80s, maybe 90s too, when you had to buy font cartridges for your printer to get the special ones. I'm sure most of those fonts must have been his as well. There is a good chance that if you have used any fancier type of font that it is one of theirs.
Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Last Visit: 30 Aug 2023 Posts: 891 Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:54 am Post subject:
The Ysgarth website is here: http://www.fontcraft.com/ragnarok/ysgarth/ but I don't think it has been updated in a long while. You can probably find an email address on the fontrcraft site or call the number and talk to Dave personally.
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