Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder,

Rick Loomis Rick Loomis (August 24, 1946 – August 23, 2019) was an American game designer, most notable as the founder of game publisher Flying Buffalo, which he managed until his death. Career Early years Richard F. Loomis was born and raised in Scott ...

, began game publishing with '' Nuclear Destruction'', a

play-by-mail game A play-by-mail game (also known as a PBM game, PBEM game, or a turn-based game) is a game played through postal mail, email or other digital media. Correspondence chess and Go were among the first PBM games. ''Diplomacy'' has been played by ...

which started the professional PBM industry in the United States. Loomis added games and players while introducing computer moderation and soon incorporated into the company Flying Buffalo Inc. The company published games in other genres, including card games such as ''Nuclear War'' and a role playing game called ''

Tunnels & Trolls ''Tunnels & Trolls'' (abbreviated ''T&T'') is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more accessib ...

'', a game similar to ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''. Flying Buffalo acquired its 10,000th customer account number in 1980 and reached its largest size of 21 employees in 1983. In July 2021, Webbed Sphere bought Flying Buffalo with plans to incorporate Flying Buffalo's products. The PBM games were not included in the sale and were continued by a separate company called Rick Loomis PBM Games.

History

Flying Buffalo Inc. was founded in January 1970. That year,

invented a game called '' Nuclear Destruction'', a

, for which he moderated multiplayer games. ''Nuclear Destruction'' started the professional PBM industry. He soon had more than 200 players involved across multiple games, and asked fellow soldier Steve MacGregor to write a computer program to help moderate the games; they started renting time on a computer near

Fort Shafter Fort Shafter, in Honolulu CDP, Page 4/ref> City and County of Honolulu, Hawai‘i, is the headquarters of the United States Army Pacific, which commands most Army forces in the Asia-Pacific region with the exception of Korea. Geographically, F ...

, using the name Flying Buffalo devised by Loomis. RDS 704 onsite seismic processing system

Loomis published the first issue of his bi-monthly magazine in September 1971—one two-sided page. Initially called ''The Flying Buffalo's Favorite Magazine'', Loomis eventually renamed it to ''Flying Buffalo Quarterly''. After leaving the military in 1972, Loomis and MacGregor incorporated their PBM company as Flying Buffalo, Inc., or FBI. Loomis and MacGregor pooled their savings to purchase a Raytheon 704 minicomputer to run turns for their PBM games. According to Loomis in 1971, the computer cost $15,000 and had "4000 words of memory ... a teletypewriter, and a paper apereader/punch". Also in 1972, Loomis acquired and published '' Nuclear War''; it soon became one of Flying Buffalo's best sellers. In 1975 they published ''

'', a fantasy role playing game generally similar to ''

''. Later products included background materials for fantasy role playing games, which became the "

Catalyst Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

" series. In 1976 the company started running a space exploration/conquest PBM game titled '' Starweb''. In 1978 they purchased a board wargame titled ''

Schutztruppe (, Protection Force) was the official name of the colonial troops in the African territories of the German colonial empire from the late 19th century to 1918. Similar to other colonial armies, the consisted of volunteer European commissioned ...

'' from game designer Jim Bumpas. Also in 1978 the company began publishing ''Sorcerer's Apprentice''. The company's gross sales in 1978 was $125,000 with expenses at $130,000. 1979 brought some additional changes. Flying Buffalo's Vice President, Dave Slight, died, slowing PBM operations. The company purchased another Raytheon computer from a local doctor's office, which promised to speed printing by an order of magnitude (although it initially was missing some key required equipment). In 1980, the company stated that it had more than 3,000 players worldwide. The staff reached its largest size of over 21 employees in 1983. The company also ran a gaming store at various locations in

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until 1985. In 1985, Flying Buffalo reached a milestone, assigning its 10,000th account number. The company noted that, although account No. 1 went to its founder, Rick Loomis, account No. 10,000 went to a customer from Athens, Alabama. In 1992, the fiction book ''Mage's Blood and Old Bones: A Tunnels & Trolls Shared World Anthology'' was published by Flying Buffalo. Following the dissolution of TSR in 1997, Flying Buffalo remains the oldest pen-and-paper role-playing game publisher in the world. In July 2021, Webbed Sphere purchased Flying Buffalo Inc. with plans for Flying Buffalo to join its existing product lines. The PBM games were not included in the sale and a separate company, Rick Loomis PBM Games, continues to run nine PBM games originally published by Flying Buffalo, including ''

Heroic Fantasy Heroic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy in which events occur in a world where magic is prevalent and modern technology is nonexistent. The setting may be entirely fictitious in nature or based upon Earth with some additions. Unlike dark fiction ...

'', '' Nuclear Destruction'', '' Starweb'', and others.

Play-by-mail games

Flying Buffalo noted in their 14-years history to 1985, some of their PBM games had been run hundreds of times each, including over 870 games of '' Starweb'', 930 of ''Battle Plan'', and 720 of '' Nuclear Destruction''. The company was also up to No. 50 in its print run of ''Flying Buffalo Quarterly'', its company magazine. The company published various play-by-mail games. * '' Battle Plan'' * ''Board of Directors'' * ''Covert Operations'' * ''

Diplomacy Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. ...

'' * ''Election Year'' * '' Feudal Lords'' * '' Galactic Conflict'' * ''

'' * '' Illuminati'' * ''Lizards!'' * ''Mobius I'' * ''Moon Base'' * '' Nuclear Destruction'' * ''Nuclear War'' * ''Raumkrieg'' * ''Riftlords'' * ''Riftwars'' * '' Space Battle'' * ''Starlord'' * '' Starweb'' * ''Time Trap'' * '' Treacherous Trajan's Trap'' * '' World Wide Battle Plan'' * '' 1939 World Wide Battle Plan''

Other products

The company produced a range of unusual dice, such as a set to determine which toppings to order on pizza, and currently hold the printing rights to the '' Ace of Aces'' and '' Lost Worlds'' flip book systems.

Awards

Various Flying Buffalo games have won awards. * ''Ace of Aces''. 1981 winner Charles Roberts/ Origins ''Gamers Choice'' of 1980 and was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1994. * ''Citybook I'', 1982 * ''Illuminati PBM'' game won best Play By Mail Game. 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995 and was put in the Hall of Fame in 1997. * ''Nuclear Proliferation'', 1992 * ''Nuclear Escalation'', Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1983 * Stormhaven, Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1983 * ''Starweb'', Best Play By Mail Game 1984, 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006. * Wargamers Information, 1990 The Origins Hall of Fame award is given to game designers who have the best contributions of their field. Multiple Flying Buffalo writers and designers have won this award. *

, 1988. * Michael Stackpole, 1993. * Elizabeth T. Danforth, 1995. * Ken St. Andre, 2018.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1970 establishments in Hawaii Board game publishing companies Card game publishing companies Companies based in Scottsdale, Arizona Play-by-mail game publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1970 Role-playing game publishing companies