Having finished reading the thirty issues of Roleplayer, I’ve embarked upon the slightly longer task of reading the thirty issues of Pyramid magazine’s early print run that is now referred to as Volume 1. With 72 pages per issue, it’s a somewhat more demanding read.

The first thing was the sense of loss at the end of Roleplayer: both this magazine and Autoduel Quarterly were shut down to make way for Pyramid in May/June 1993. I enjoyed the 100% GURPS focus of Roleplayer and felt an immediate grief when I opened up the new magazine to see it was a generic gaming publication.

As I began to work my way through the first 5 issues, however, this disappointment at losing the GURPS-only focus gave way to a sense of curiosity as articles discussing various industry issues – such as Wizards of the Coast being sued by Palladium in Issue 1 – grabbed my attention.

The articles themselves seemed generally longer and a little more in-depth. It has been interesting to read reviews and designer’s notes for games and GURPS supplements that I either didn’t know existed or had forgotten about. Of especial note has also been seeing the various gaming adverts from the era.

Wizards of the Coast launched Magic: The Gathering in 1993 and you can see the immediate impact that game made on the whole community. There’s also a considerable splash – which I do remember more vividly – in response to White Wolf’s Vampire and Werewolf games.

The travelogue notes from Steve Jackson and others as they visited conventions in Brazil and then Europe have also been illuminating. It’s interesting to learn how the Brazilian RPG scene was seen much more as an art form, for example. It’s also great to see SJ Games becoming internationally popular.

Perhaps the most intriguing article so far has been in Issue 5 where Scott Haring describes his first experience of playing an RPG over a modem connection using AOL’s Online Gaming Forum. This being January/February 1994, the game is described as being played via text posting to a live chat stream, and Haring recounts the odd sense of detachment he felt.

Thirty years later, I have the impression that some things have perhaps not changed: some companies are still driving gamers crazy with their legal shenanigans and new products are continually flowing into the market place. But there’s a sense of the hobby just beginning to grow up in the early 1990s that I relish.

Overall, as with most trips back into historical artefacts, it’s a positively engaging experience to unearth forgotten magazine articles. I didn’t know there was a WWF RPG in 1994, for example, and I also forgot that Wizards used to be a small-time company who made cool stuff before they sold out to Hasbro.

All in all, I am looking forward to seeing what lies in the rest of the issues.

Game on!