My Life As A Gamer: Expanding The Range Of Hobby Game Inquiry

The inquiry of other Games and Brands in the fantastic adventure wargame hobby expands.

Recently Jeffro Johnson looked at Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes and found some rather curious things in its rules. Read the Twitter thread for yourself.

It's 1982 and some dude thinks he has to tell you that you can change all the rules he just sold you. pic.twitter.com/AeA41vWZg6

— Cardinal Jefforieu (@JohnsonJeffro) August 30, 2023

He's had more to say since.

My first MSPE character was ambushed and died. Taking my own ambush skill to level two would have prevented this. Very upset that I did not get a chance to use my awesome Tactics-2 skill. I will complain to the DM. pic.twitter.com/8mT7qoPsyC

— Cardinal Jefforieu (@JohnsonJeffro) September 1, 2023

This is a good sign for the Bros.

It means that there is more curiosity about how contemporaries of AD&D1e stack up as games, and MSPE is one of those early games that fell by the wayside; I never even heard of it until I had a car and could drive to what was formerly The Little Tin Soldier in the early 1990s (Phoenix Games these days; haven't been there in decades at this point.)

Reading the manuals, playing solo by the book to see how the machine works, and comparing that to the standards for competent hobby game design to sift good from bad.