Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for
wargaming with
miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules (later
TSR, Inc.
TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had been ...
), the publisher of ''
Dungeons & Dragons''. The ''Guidon Games'' publishing imprint was the property of Lowrys Hobbies (later Lowry Enterprises), a mail-order business owned by
Don and Julie Lowry. About a dozen titles were released under the imprint from 1971 to 1973.
History
By the late 1960s the miniature wargaming hobby had grown large enough that there was a demand for rulebooks dedicated to a single historical period.
Don Featherstone of the UK produced booklets for eight different periods in 1966.
[*http://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/timeline2.html Courier Magazine History of Wargaming] A few years later the
Wargames Research Group
The Wargames Research Group (WRG) is a British publisher of rules and reference material for miniature wargaming. Founded in 1969 they were the premier publisher of tabletop rules during the seventies and eighties, publishing rules for periods ra ...
began producing rulesets with an emphasis on historical accuracy.
[http://www.phil-barker.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/WRG/wrg.html History of the Wargames Research Group]
With this trend in mind Lowry conceived the ''Wargaming with Miniatures'' series for which he recruited rulebook authors from the ranks of the
International Federation of Wargamers
The International Federation of Wargaming (IFW) was a wargaming club operated from 1967 to early 1970s.
Formation
Founded by Bill Speer, Gary Gygax, and Scott Duncan in 1967, it emerged as a successor to an earlier club called the United States Co ...
. Through the IFW Lowry met
Gary Gygax, who served as series editor. Gygax began working for Guidon in 1970.
Gygax and
Jeff Perren
Jeff Perren is a game designer, a hobby shop owner, and an early associate of Gary Gygax.
Career
Jeff Perren was an early member of the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association along with Gary Gygax, Terry and Rob Kuntz, Ernie Gygax, Mike Rees ...
's set of rules for medieval miniatures that had been published in the
Castle & Crusade Society
The Castle & Crusade Society was a chapter of the International Federation of Wargaming dedicated to medieval miniature wargaming.
Formation
It was formed by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz in 1970. Its starting membership included Gary Gygax, Rob Kunt ...
's ''The Domesday Book'' resulted in Gygax being hired by Guidon Games to develop their "Wargaming with Miniatures" series of games.
Gygax also co-authored the first title in the series, ''
Chainmail
Chain mail (properly called mail or maille but usually called chain mail or chainmail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and ...
'', which became Guidon's best seller.
[http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/lynch01may01.html RPGnet: Interview with Gary Gygax] The series came to include games and books by
Lou Zocchi,
Tom Wham
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
, and
Dave Arneson
David Lance Arneson (; October 1, 1947Minnesota Department of Health. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002'' atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. – April 7, 2009) was an American game designer best known ...
.
Other notable titles in the series are ''
Tractics'', one of the first published games to make use of the 20-sided die, and ''
Don't Give Up The Ship!'', the first collaboration between Gygax and Arneson, the co-creators of ''Dungeons & Dragons''.
Guidon also produced
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...
style board wargames, as well as supplements designed to be used with existing Avalon Hill board games. Avalon Hill later republished ''
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
'', one of Guidon's stand-alone games, while TSR republished ''
Fight in the Skies
''Fight In The Skies'', also known as ''Dawn Patrol'', is a board wargame first self-published by creator Mike Carr in 1966, then published by Guidon Games in 1972 and TSR in 1975. The game simulates World War I style air combat, and is the only ...
''.
Guidon was a small publisher, and print runs were never more than a few thousand. Lowry apparently failed to recognize the potential of ''
Dungeons & Dragons'',
[http://wiki.acaeum.com/wiki/Dragon_11 Acaeum: Dragon 11] prompting Gygax to found
TSR. Gygax made the following recollection about the company in 2004:
Guidon Games had a game shop, sold gaming via the mail, published a magazine and likewise printed and sold military miniatures rulebooks and boxed board wargames. They were small but certainly a legitimate company.... I was paid for the work I did for them, yes. Unfortunately, sales volume did not make the income received thus sufficient to do more than supplement income from other work. I was asked to go to work for them full time. That would have required me to move to the state of Maine. Tom Wham did so, but I thought their new location was a poor choice. Furthermore, the company was not run in an aggressive and responsive manner. In my opinion there was no chance for growth and success as things stood and I said so to Guidon. Sadly, I was correct in my judgement.[http://www.enworld.org/article.php?a=39 EnWorld: The Ultimate Gary Gygax Interview (Free Registration Required)]
Despite its brief existence, Guidon had a large influence on TSR and the nascent
RPG RPG may refer to:
Military
* Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon
**''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...
industry. In addition to Gygax and Arneson, Lowry worked with
Lou Zocchi,
Tom Wham
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
, and
Mike Carr. TSR initially patterned itself on Guidon, publishing sets of wargaming rules such as ''
Cavaliers and Roundheads
''Cavaliers and Roundheads'' is a set of rules for English Civil War miniature wargaming. It was written by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren and published by Tactical Studies Rules (later TSR, Inc.) in 1973. The unassuming booklet was the first produ ...
'' in the same pamphlet format used by Guidon. TSR took over some of Guidon's titles in 1975.
In 1972 Lowry acquired ''
Panzerfaust Magazine''. In 1973 the Guidon Games imprint was shut down by its parent company, Lowry Hobbies.
Lowry published ''Panzerfaust Magazine'' instead under the name "
Panzerfaust Publications
The ''Panzerfaust'' (, "armour fist" or "tank fist", plural: ''Panzerfäuste'') was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light ant ...
".
Products
Wargaming with Miniatures Series
Board Games
Board Game Supplements
Footnotes
External links
Acaeum Website Chainmail Page* {{bgg publisher, 2010
Board game publishing companies
Wargame companies