Anyone out there in history land have any sense on what the best recent work on the 1970s version of the Committee on the Present Danger is? It's not something I thought I'd be writing a paragraph on in the context of role-playing games, but there you go.
Dr Malcolm Craig Analogue games and the Cold War, 1945-1991 ('Analogue games' refers to tabletop wargames, tabletop role-playing games, board games, card games, etc. It excludes computer and console games) Gender and America's Cold War World War Three in the popular and official imaginations, 1945-1991 The international constitutional history of the 1968 Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons negotiations
Our @ljmuhistory.bsky.social 2nd year students now have until the end of May to discuss and formulate their final year dissertation proposals. Interested to see what kind of stuff I get this time round, with my slightly idiosyncratic supervision areas!
“The Creep was close to the end of its operational life, having lost the ability to fight due to the extent of the damage sustained. Capture was straightforward, and it was subsequently transferred to the RF in Woolwich.” #HotWar #HandiworkGames
Containing stuff that's so good, it's being incorporated into other BitD games like Blades '68!
Just imagine you too could be gazing lovingly at the new issue of @wyrdscience.bsky.social before settling in to spend a lazy weekend reading about fighting men, fantasy, folklore, fairy tales, fungus and more
Go on, a better life away from your screens is (temporarily) possible
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Of course I’m biased, but I do believe that both games integrate hidden agendas into the overall experience of play in a very meaningful way.
The cover of issue 8 of Wyrd Science, which shows some mad psychedelic mushroom stuff growing from a pink skull. No, I don't know either.
Advertising page from the interior of Wyrd Science, promoting the Cold City and Hot War RPGs. They are very good and you should buy them.
It's here! Issue 8 of @wyrdscience.bsky.social magazine, packed full of all sorts of gaming goodness. Particularly looking forward to reading the interview with the legendary Lee Gold.
And there's an ad for Cold City and Hot War from @handiworkgames.bsky.social, by heavens!
Brandy, sir? BRANDY? It must be port, damn your eyes!
Hmmm...an article for @wyrdscience.bsky.social, you say? I might need to cogitate on that!
And here’s part 2 because there really is so bloody much in this issue even trying to speedrun it took over 4 minutes.
Please do consider sharing, buying a copy, supporting independent media and print press! Because my god we need it…
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One of my bugbears is that the UK angle tends to be overlooked in assessments of the 'indie scene' in that period.
There were some great games from the UK during that period: Covenant, Dead of Night, Contenders, 3:16, Duty & Honour, and many more.
The cover of the Covenant RPG, with the subtitle 'a stroy game of failing conspiracies' by Matt Machell.
I'll tell you what one of the most under-appreciated RPGs of the 2000-2010 indie era is: Covenant by Matt Machell. A genuinely great game about what happens when everything you believe in is proved to be a lie.
MUST. NOT. GET. DISTRACTED. FROM. RESEARCH. FOCUS.
Gone down a bit of a rabbit hole in the archives of Jackie. So on 19th April 1980, one 13-year-old reader wrote movingly to the Cathy & Claire agony aunt page about her fear of nuclear war.
That sounds an amazing exhibit!
I just want to make it 100% clear that as a historian of the nuclear age, I find this genuinely fascinating and exciting. There shouldn't be any smirking or dismissiveness about these sources - they are valuable, interesting, and deserve to be taken seriously.
Thanks you! That's extremely kind. In a different space, I've been involved in a conversation about this exact point (the sometime dismissiveness towards media focused towards girls and young women). As a historian of the nuclear age, seeing this stuff in Jackie is genuinely exciting to me.
100% agree. And yes, I now need to get y copy down off the bookshelves.
Great - thank you for that! I now feel compelled to trawl through the Jackie archives even more (although this is tangential to the main thrust of my research).
Digging into the British Newspaper Archive (which hosts Jackie) to find out more about the editorial staffs framing and contextualisation of the series. Super interesting stuff.
Absolutely - like all sources they need to be taken seriously and treated with respect. After all, these periodicals were a huge part of British culture.
I also never thought that I'd be writing about Jackie in my research, but there you go. Fascinating stuff. Now I need to go a see if Bunty, Mandy, and My Guy ever mentioned the threat of nuclear war. And that is absolutely not a joke.
The cover of girls magazine Jackie, from February 28 1976. It shows a smiling young woman face on to the camera, wearing a broad brimmed white hat and a red and white striped top. And as a bonus, you get a free leap year love brooch with this issue.
I never knew - until this morning - that Robert C. O'Brien's post-apocalyptic novel Z for Zacharia was serialised from February to April 1976 in the popular British girls magazine Jackie. Every day is indeed a school day.
That is the correct face to make while holding The Price of Freedom 😅
It rather overshadowed the equally acrimonious contretemps that exploded over Twilight 2000. That's a really interesting one as well, that centred on issues like ethics and morality in games.
By Ashley Shepard (a pseudonym for Carl Sargent), that kicked off an acrimonious exchange on the WD letters page.
Absolutely! You can’t beat Charles Grey’s sonorous tones.
The absolute best Holmes, accompanied by two great - but very different - Watsons.
Our best seller at Conpulsion! (And available in print to Cold City Hot War backers very soon in the pledge manager)
