An Old Treasure Revived

Monsters! Monsters!

I forget why Liz made this really nifty picture, but it seemed likd a good cover for my new Monsters! Monsters! game.

Way back in 1977, when Tunnels and Trolls was new–way back when roleplaying itself was new, a man called Howard Thompson, who ran a company called Metagaming, asked me to design a role-playing game for him.  What I came up with was sort of the flip side of Tunnels and Trolls–a game in which the characters played the monsters and competed with each other to do more monstrous havoc than the other players.  The mechanics were pure Tunnels and Trolls–same combat system, same magic system, same saving roll system, but all seen from the other side of the fight–all seen from the monster’s viewpoint.  Players could be Orcs, Trolls, Ogres, Dragons, or whatever they wanted.  The adversary victims would be Men, Elves, Dwarves, etc.

And Elizabeth Danforth (Liz to her friends) who had become my main T & T artist at the time did this stunning painting for the front cover of the game.  I don’t remember who paid for the artwork, probably Thompson, but somehow I wound up in posession of the actual painting, and it rested in my back room, quietly undisturbed for decades.  I think I must have paid Liz some money for it, but I have no idea now how much.  Maybe she just gave it to me.  We were close in those days.  I moved away from my old home of the last 3 decades, and as I move my stuff out, I keep discovering things–treasures!  This (and a whole ton of other art from the Day) is one of the best of those treasures.  Now, I just need to get it framed and hung.  I wish I knew how to do that.  I guess it’s time for an internet search.

–Ken St. Andre
–Jan. 3, 2012