GREAT SCOTT! PRESS

The RPG hobby industry has "only" been around for about 40 years now, but typically isn't spoken about in terms of separate ages. One could make an argument, though, that its Golden Age would have been right at the beginning, from 1974-1983. It was a period, like the Golden Age of Comic Books, of remarkable creative innovations and explosive sales growth.   

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The game that started it all came on the scene in 1974. The Original Game has been reinvented many times over the years, but has always been a class-based game (characters based on templates with downplayed variables), exploration- and combat-oriented (though its possible to play the game without either, there are fewer game mechanics governing other options), and -- perhaps most significantly, was inspired by the swords & sorcery and science fiction novels of the 1970s, like Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar novels, or Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. There were other influences, of course, including the Dr. Strange comic books from Marvel Comics.

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HIDEOUTS & HOODLUMS began life in 2008 as a thought experiment -- what if The Original Game had been designed from the beginning with the intent, not of emulating the works of Leiber and Vance, but of Siegel and Shuster? What if you kept two of the original classes pretty much as-is, but changed the cleric class into a superhero class, and changed the undead turning ability into a wrecking things ability? More innovations followed, like the save vs. plot mechanic. And, from there, the idea expanded to emulating all the comic books from 1935-1940 (so far!).

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All of this would have been a fun thought experiment I would have had to keep to myself if not for the Wizards of the Coast's Open Game License that came in 2000. Using the OGL, and initially building off of the Swords & Wizardry retro-clone rules by Matt Finch and Finarvyn, I was able to not only build the version I always wanted of my favorite game, but could share it with the world. 

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This large line of products can be found here!