Sailing & Strolling Down The Seas of Memory Lane With Flying Buffalo & Fighting Fantasy

Today was one of those days where I fell down a memory hole of my life and back to the early days of New York City Dungeons & Dragons scene back in the early Eighties. New York City isn't the cultural mecca it likes to pretend it is because the place has fantastic adverting & marketing departments. Anyhow back in Dragon magazine in the late Eighty two I saw the following advertisement. Way back in August of last year we lost Rick Loomis & its when you least expect it that some of the angst of a friend's death grabs a hold of you..



 Anyhow Mike Stewart's Facebook post grabbed me by the throat & forced me down as memory rabbit hole. But it also got me thinking about the overarching  urban theme of the Catalyst books according to the Wiki entry;"Catalyst is a series of fantasy role-playing game supplements created by Flying Buffalo as a series of game aids that could be used with any medieval fantasy-themed role-playing game system. The first one, Grimtooth's Traps, was released in 1981. Numerous other Catalyst books were produced including the Citybook series, seven Traps books, Treasure Vault, and the Lejentia campaign setting. The newest one, City of the Gods Map Pack was produced in 2011." Now one of the things that's got me thinking about Catalyst series is  sheer weirdness of some of the books  entries. Many of the businesses seemed to me to overlap providing the DM with a ready made urban & city environment. And before we get into isn't that the idea behind the supplement Mr.Obvious!?  Hear me out here folks. 


These books were made in Eighty two & yet there's some major rpg hobby & writing talent here;"Major contributors to the Catylyst books include Michael A. Stackpole, Liz Danforth, Steve Crompton, Ken St. Andre, Paul Jaquays, Deb Wykle (aka Debora Kerr and Wynn Mercere), Rick Loomis, Larry DiTillio, and Bear Peters along with many others." When Citybook III was published I couldn't wait for the next one. Why?! Because these books presented a perfect & I do mean perfect for using as a space going sailing ship port long before Spelljammer  was even a setting idea in TSR second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons writers & designer's brains!



This goes all of the way back to Dragon magazine issue #91's cover artwork which was one of my all time favorites. Sure I used Spelljammer much later on but with a few additions. Such as the fact that the Jammers could travel between planes & underwater.

Spelljammer was a 'johnny come lately' setting & as much as I liked it part of me still to this day resents the Hell outta of it. But back to Citybook setting there's everything from otter people to slime crime bosses. It was perfect to drop into its mini or demi plane or use right with Judge's Guild adventures & material.. 

 Anyhow this all goes back to my campaign notes & some idea that have been knocking around since the early Eighties. This goes back to staring at the cover artwork by Rodney Matthews for Fighting Fantasy #16 Seas of Blood. Damn I used to stare at that cover artwork for hours imagining all kinds of campaign adventures. Fighting Fantasy had/has some of the best cover artwork. BTW this is a damn fine adventure to run through for FF..


Rodney Mathews artwork makes this on point for me.

But its been a long time since I sailed these seas of dream & dungeons so I need to refresh my memories again. But already a lot is coming back to me & we'll cover this in the next blog entry coming up tomorrow. 

My Thoughts on the Fate & Future of Flying Buffalo After The Passing of Rick Loomis

Steve Crompton  whose been involved with the rpg hobby for a very long time & has a long history with Flying Buffalo. I've been racking my brain about the fate of the table top rpg company Flying Buffalo after the passing of Rick Loomis recently. I didn't want to seem tacky or disrespectful during this very difficult time for the Loomis or  Flying Buffalo family.
  Steve Crompton has been a friend, writer,  one of the many artists whose work that I've admired on many Flying Buffalo products. He just posted this statement  on Facebook as well as the Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eye Kickstarter page; "I just posted this on the MSPE Kickstarter and I have edited it here to give you all an idea of Flying Buffalo's plans going forward... Steve Crompton - Manager Flying Buffalo

By now many of you may have heard the sad news that Rick Loomis, President of Flying Buffalo and a gaming industry legend, passed away on Aug 23rd, just a few hours before his 72nd birthday. Rick created and ran Flying Buffalo for almost 50 years, and was also President of GAMA (Gaming Manufacturers of America) on several occasions.

Rick's loss leaves a huge hole in our hearts and Flying Buffalo. Rick was our mentor, our friend (a brother for his sisters) and the intermediary between the high-flying goals of the creative team and the real world. He helped us stay on track and reminded us of the limits of our budgets. Rick also made sure that whatever we created would be something that players would want. And many, many times he made suggestions that made a game more playable or an adventure more usable. We will miss Rick every single day, and we plan to honor his wishes and hopes for the future of Flying Buffalo going forward.

So What Happens now?
Rick's sisters and the entire Buffalo team are committed to continuing to process and ship out your Kickstarter and other orders. In fact just today I did another 25 orders and they are now in shipping, ready to be packaged up. And tomorrow we'll be taking 40 finished orders to the post office. As of now, we only have about MSPE 175 orders left to ship out of the original 675 we started with. And we will continue to ship out your orders until all of them have gone out.

Are You going to Keep publishing?
Down the road there will also be new products for T&T, MSPE, Nuclear War, and Catalyst books like new Traps and Citybooks. They may not come as quickly as we'd like right now, as there is a lot to do in regards to taking care of Rick's estate and Flying Buffalo. But rest assured, we are soldiering onward. That's what Rick wanted us to do - and we plan to do just that. So you don't need to worry - your items will be shipped out.

Please feel free to post you comments below and if you want to contribute to help with Rick's Medial bills, funeral arrangements and other outstanding bills that have accrued due to Rick's illness you can contribute to his https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-gaming-legend-rick-loomis

Thank you all for your concern, your patience and your belief in Rick's dream - Flying Buffalo."

My thoughts go something like this Steve Crompton's had years of experience with his own company, comic book properties, etc as well as being heavily involved with Flying Buffalo since the very beginning of the Nuclear War card game. I've met Steve at several GenCons back in the 90's. He was/is a very nice guy & very capable so there isn't really any argument from me for a better manager for  Flying Buffalo. I wish to say nothing but good luck, my prayers, & great thoughts for Flying Buffalo moving forward into the future. My deepest condolences to Rick's family and friends. I heard the news and thought of all the laughter I shared with friends while playing Nuclear War. Thank you, Rick for publishing that game and for the time we spent playing it. But I'm grateful for the fact that Flying Buffalo will be moving forward into the future with a steady & faithful hand at the helm of the company.

Flying Buffalo's Website is Here. 

Some Thoughts About The Passing of the Founder Of Flying Buffalo Rick Loomis

Game designer Rick Loomis at Gen Con Indy 2014 on August 15, 2014
by BOZ 


Its never easy to write about friends passing, Rick Loomis has died. I met and spoke with Rick numerous times at GenCon over the years. Tunnels & Trolls was a staple of my uncle's table for many years. I was introduced to  Nuclear War as a kid. But as an adult it was the 

Citybook I: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker series 

 that set the standard for my campaign gaming. Not to mention all of the great contributors, artists,etc. I'm leaving out folks contributions  like Liz Danforth,  Jennell Jaquays & many others. 
 I'm sorry but Rick's passing took me by surprise.  As I'm writing these words the reality of Rick Loomis's passing hasn't set in yet. Tunnels & Trolls was/is a game that in many ways rivals or mirrors Dungeons & Dragons as the other game. Ken St.Andre's creation is still played to this day a great game from a great company. Rick Loomis was a down to Earth man who played & published games. He was so much the beating heart & soul of Flying Buffalo. The man was its center & there were so many great things about Flying Buffalo.


I really came into knowing & loving the company through Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes rpg because of the catalog that was included in the Michael Stackpole game. This catalog opened my eyes to the world of system neutral rpg setting materials that was the Citybooks books. Those in turn gave me insight into Grimtooth's Traps. But The Citybooks gave me insight into how an rpg book should be made; "Stefan Jones reviewed Citybook I: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker in The Space Gamer No. 54.^[1] Jones commented that "This aid is a perfect example of how any game product should be done: clear descriptions, a wide variety of places and people, and possibilities for adventure easily playable. If you think the only place to have adventures is in a dungeon or the deep wilderness, pick up a copy of City Book and be amazed. If you want to see how descriptive and imaginative your game settings can be, get it. An excellent product that is worth every cent of its cover price.""  That's the standard that I try to adhere to today when it comes to buying rpg books & products.
The Grimtooth's books were/are some of the deadliest trap products ever to grace the stage. The author of the first book Paul O'Connor,  did some amazing books for Rick Loomis & Flying Buffalo. Not to mention the incredible artwork that Steve Crompton has done over the years.



So the incredible legacy that Rick Loomis leaves us is all the richer in the table top hobby from having felt his guiding hand in the world of gaming. From his serving as the president of GAMA multiple times to the incredible Kickstarter for  Tunnels & Trolls Deluxe & Nuclear War;
"In 2013, Flying Buffalo announced a new version of Tunnels & Trolls. This Deluxe version was done as a Kickstarter (which earned over $125,000) and was released in 2015. This new edition brought a lot of new interest in T&T and many of the old products as well as new adventures have been published in the ensuing years. Rick Loomis oversaw all the logistics and was the publisher of these new products. He also wrote a new section for his solo Buffalo Castle that was added to the deluxe version of that adventure."

"In 2015, Flying Buffalo announced the kickstarter for the 50th Anniversary edition Nuclear War Card Game. That Kickstarter earned over $156,000 and the 50th edition was released in 2016 and contained a new population deck and a couple of additional cards (designed by Rick) added to the main deck"

I do mourn the passing of Rick Loomis & I'm very sorry for the loss of the Loomis family is experiencing during this terrible time. Thank you to Rick for all the fun I have had playing your games over the years. RIP Rick Loomis publisher, designer, etc. & one of the lights of our hobby.