The Fantasy Trip


The Fantasy Trip is a role-playing game designed by Steve Jackson and originally published by Metagaming Concepts. In 2019, TFT was revived by Steve Jackson Games.

History

TFT was developed from Metagaming's tactical combat MicroGames Melee and Wizard, also designed by Jackson, which provided the basic combat and magic rules. These games could be played on their own, or, using the gamemaster's module In the Labyrinth, expanded into a full-fledged role-playing game. The basic combat and magic rules presented in Melee and Wizard were greatly expanded for purposes of role-playing in Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard. TFT was the first published role-playing game to use a point-buy system for character generation, instead of the random dice roll method routinely used in the 1970s.
Metagaming also published a total of eight "MicroQuests" adventures for The Fantasy Trip. These inexpensive adventures allowed for group or solitary play. More traditional RPG modules were also released, including Tollenkar's Lair, a traditional dungeon crawl adventure published in 1980, and Warrior Lords of Darok and Forest Lords of Dihad, published in 1982 for the campaign setting The Land Beyond the Mountains.
Two Metagaming-published magazines, The Space Gamer and Interplay featured TFT material, including designer notes, setting expansions, and alternate rules.

Jackson–Thompson split

Jackson left Metagaming in 1980. By that time, Howard M. Thompson, the owner of Metagaming, was not happy with the TFT work done by Steve Jackson, stating that it was too complex and had taken too long. To address some of these concerns, Thompson partially revised the TFT mechanics for Dragons of the Underearth, a compact set of fantasy role-playing rules derived from Melee, Wizard and ITL, with simplified rules for combat and magic, and the related The Lords of Underearth mass combat system.
In 1983, Thompson closed down Metagaming and sold most of its assets. Jackson tried to purchase the rights to The Fantasy Trip, but Thompson's asking price of $250,000 was much too high, and TFT went out of print. This led Jackson to begin work on a new "third generation" role-playing system that eventually became GURPS, which was strongly influenced by The Fantasy Trip.

Jackson reclaims TFT

In December 2017, Jackson announced he had exercised an option under U.S. law for an author to unilaterally terminate a grant of publication rights between 35 and 40 years after publication, which allowed him to regain rights to The Fantasy Trip. In July 2018, Steve Jackson Games launched a Kickstarter campaign to reissue Melee, Wizard, and a TFT Legacy Edition boxed set with the expanded In the Labyrinth rules, among other materials. The revived TFT proved a success for Steve Jackson Games, raising more than $450,000 in 2018, and the company has committed to expanding and continued support for TFT.

The Metagaming ''TFT''

Melee

Metagaming released Melee in 1977 as MicroGame #3. It was designed to be a simple, fast-playing, man-to-man tactical combat boardgame. The game came with a small empty hex map, a counter sheet of men, monsters, and weapons, as well as a 17-page rulebook.
Every figure had a Strength and Dexterity attribute. Strength governed how much damage a figure could take and the size of weapons which could be used; heavier weapons increased the damage one inflicted in combat. Dexterity determined how likely one was to hit one's opponent. Armor could be worn, which would reduce the amount of damage taken in combat while lowering one's Dexterity.

Wizard

Metagaming released Wizard in 1978 as MicroGame #6, a pocket board game of individual magical combat. Its 32-page rulebook included most of the Melee combat system with the addition of a magic system.
Wizard added Intelligence as a third attribute that determined magical ability. A player could improve his character by adding points to the character's attribute scores. A high IQ score allowed the use of more varied and powerful spells. Casting a spell would temporarily drain a character's strength score, limiting the number of spells one could cast before requiring rest to regain strength.

In the Labyrinth

Released in 1980 as an 80-page, 8 × 11 saddle-stitched book, In the Labyrinth: Game Masters' Campaign and Adventure Guide added a role-playing system and fantasy-world background to The Fantasy Trip. Released simultaneously and in the same format were Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard, which greatly expanded and revised the physical and magical combat systems. Character creation, which had been part of the original Melee and Wizard, was incorporated into In the Labyrinth.
The three books together formed the complete Fantasy Trip game system. As in the original MicroGames, each character had Strength, Dexterity and IQ attributes, each calibrated to 10 for an average human. New characters began with 8 points of each trait, with 8 extra points for the player to add to any of the abilities as they desired.
In the Labyrinth introduced a point-buy skill system, an extension and generalization of the magic system inherited from Wizard. Each character had one talent or skill point per point of IQ, and each skill had a skill point cost as well as a minimum IQ to learn it. The range of abilities provided by character classes in a first-generation game like Dungeons & Dragons was replaced with talents. For example, the "Thief" talent would allow a player to roll against his Dexterity to pick a pocket or open a lock. Other talents included standard fantasy skills such as Literacy, Alertness, or Weapon Proficiency. It was possible for a wizard to learn mundane skills and for a hero to learn a spell or two.

Reception

Ronald Pehr reviewed The Fantasy Trip in The Space Gamer No. 31. Pehr commented that "The Fantasy Trip is an excellent FRP game system. I'd have liked it to be better organized and a few dollars cheaper. Those who purchase it anyway will be very glad they did."

Reviews

At least three different fanzines dedicated to The Fantasy Trip are known to have existed. Fantasy Forum ran from 1987 to 1992 with a total of ten issues. Inept Adept and Goblin Keep published two issues each. A fourth fanzine, Vindicator, was devoted to MicroGames in general but did have some material specific to The Fantasy Trip. Vindicator published at least fourteen issues from 1995 to 1998.
Online fan activity includes a fan tribute site at http://meleewizards.com and an E-mail discussion list archived at http://tft.brainiac.com. In addition, has been creating and selling "MicroQuest"-style adventures since 2005.

The Steve Jackson Games ''TFT''

On December 26, 2017, Steve Jackson announced he had re-acquired the rights for the TFT products he authored for Metagaming, specifically Melee, Wizard, Death Test, Death Test 2, Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, In the Labyrinth, and Tollenkar's Lair. This was accomplished through the provisions of 17 U.S. Code § 203, which allows authors to reclaim works after 35 years. The process "took well over a year" and "was also not cheap", according to Jackson, but it allowed for the revival of TFT by Steve Jackson Games.
On July 23, 2018, Steve Jackson Games opened a Kickstarter campaign for a "Legacy Edition" of The Fantasy Trip including updated versions of Melee, Wizard, and In the Labyrinth. The Kickstarter campaign was funded the same day. The game was released for retail sale on April 17, 2019.
Subsequently, Steve Jackson Games has kickstarted a group of TFT accessories, Decks of Destiny, as well as a new TFT zine, Hexagram. Additional supporting materials, including adventures, solo adventures, and beastiaries are also planned. The company also announced a licensing structure allowing other companies to produce material for TFT; the first such licensed project was a series of five adventures published by Gaming Ballistic in 2019.

Released products