Fantasy Master's Codex, 1981 - Retrospective

 

One of the perhaps more baffling TFT products was the Fantasy Master's Codex, which reviewer William Barton in Space Gamer No. 41 summed up as follows: "While the index to TFT is quite useful (and should have been released separately at a lower price), what Metagaming seems to have done with The Fantasy Masters' Codex 1981 is too little for too much." Though billed as "THE BOOK OF THE UNIVERSE.... The FANTASY MASTER'S CODEX is a computerized guide to THE FANTASY TRIP, ..." the actual end product fell short. Here is the official description of the item from the back cover:

"THE BOOK OF THE UNIVERSE.... The FANTASY MASTER'S CODEX is a computerized guide to THE FANTASY TRIP, Metagaming's fantasy role-playing game system. It covers all THE FANTASY TRIP items published through the end of 1980. A new, updated codex will be published yearly to incorporate new material. The FANTASY MASTER'S CODEX is the kind of complete reference guide you've wanted and waited for. The Codex contains a complete index of the ten TFT items published through 1980. Also included are lists of Talents - sorted by name and I.Q., Spells - sorted by I.Q. and type, Magic Items - sorted by name, type and cost; Potion & Bombs - sorted by type and cost; Equipment - sorted by type, Jobs grouped by classes, Monsters, Races, Combat summary - including Dexterity Adjustments, and a Saving Throw table. Also included at the end are some answers to commonly asked rules questions. THE FANTASY TRIP has been enjoyed by over 100,000 gamers since its introduction in 1977. It offers a rational magic system and a precise combat system. It has the high degree of internal consistency Fantasy Masters need for more intricate adventures. It is the fantasy role-playing game system most preferred by those desiring intelligent adventures. The publication of the FANTASY MASTER'S CODEX further adds to the system's playability. If you are an active Fantasy Master of THE FANTASY TRIP you'll find the Codex an invaluable play aid. If you're playing some other system the Codex may convince you to change."

Certainly in terms of physical presentation it was disappointing - while the cover was fine, the actual contents were indeed page after page of a "computerized guide" - which in this case was a deceptive way of saying dot matrix printed data, that was difficult to read and parse. The textual deficiencies were compounded by a general lack of clear headings, uniform page numbering (each separate print run had its own numbering, leading to a constant "start-stop" for each section), and descriptions for each section.

What the Codex did provide, however, was a very useful index along with a question and answer section that addressed a few issues that had cropped up in the TFT rules. Was it worth $9.95 (about the price of an AD&D hardbound book at the time, or per an Internet inflation calculator, $27.67 in 2019 dollars)? Well, yes and no. "Yes" from the perspective of "an index was really needed for TFT" and "no" from the standpoint of component quality in terms of readability and defects in the presented data, in terms of poor utilization of page space and occasionally extraneous information that was not really needed.

In origin, the Codex was built around material compiled and submitted to Metagaming by Bill Gustafson, at the time a TFT gamer, who apparently wanted to address the lack of an index (or in the case of Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard, even a table of contents - which seems to be a recurring problem for Metagaming, as not even the Codex featured one!) for TFT. Originally referred to as the "TFT Yearbook" the intention was to make this an annual publication that would "...keep gamers abreast of the latest rule changes, expansions and new enterpretations [sic.]. It will also contain variants and expansions supplied by gamers and game masters" (see Interplay No. 1, "Crossroads: Cidri", p. 8). The released Codex only barely met this goal, in that the bulk of the manual was the index, while the rule changes and interpretations were only several pages and only three new variants were mentioned: the Weakness spell (similar in concept to Clumsiness and Confusion, but for strength), and the Master Vet and Quick Draw talents.

The reason for this, as editor Trace Hollowell stated in the introduction to the Codex, was "Typesetting would have delayed publication and introduced chance for more errors." Which is really quite sensible, but in the end the presentation was so hard to read and took up far more pages than a properly typeset booklet would have done made this, in hindsight, a less desirable approach. And while having space for "...notes or changes which are needed to adopt the material to a particular player's universe" is not a bad goal, it certainly made the Codex enormously larger than it needed to be.

The Codex also has a rather cumbersome page numbering system, wherein each individual section is numbered from 1 to x, the rationale was to make a given location in the document easier to remember. The example given in the Codex was, "Job. 2 is easier to remember than p. 81, if you're looking for mercenary job information." In truth, though, it really makes matters a good deal more difficult. A given section might only be a few pages, and trying to locate that particular section within an 120 page booklet is a challenge, even if it is (theoretically) easier to remember the specific page within that section. In other words, and absolute page numbering schema ultimately is much easier to use, since I can simply look at the table of contents, divine the appropriate page, and then instantly flip to the approximate area in the document, and quickly find the correct page thereafter, rather than hunting for a specific section in a sea of sections.

Perhaps one of odder failings was the fact that the "Book of the Universe" was actually incomplete. For example, dragons are not presented (though 4- and 7-hex Dragonodons from Treasure of the Silver Dragon, which have slightly different stats, are included). Monster order varied from ITL for no discernible reason - while the monster section started with player races, it then went into the nuisance creatures, then plants, then aquatics, and continued on in weirdness. Each section was named M1, M2, M3, etc., rather than giving a more detailed and useful title. And though everything through 1980 was to be part of the Codex, there do not appear to be any references to materials from either of the Death Test MicroQuests, Tollenkar's Lair, or Grailquest. This is especially noticeable with Death Test 2, which had a separate jobs table for survivors of the labyrinth who go to work for the Thorsz. Granted, the lack of Death Test and Tollenkar's Lair materials was probably due to Howard Thompson's vendetta against Steve Jackson, but the omission of Grailquest is more puzzling.

How the Fantasy Master's Codex SHOULD have been released...

• Proper typesetting and formatting was an absolute must. As for concerns about errors, Howard should have invested a little time and shekels into proofreading!
• Proper headings and descriptions for each section.
• Proper pagination
• Make sure all monsters, MicroQuest, and Supplement materials are included and more logically organized
• More new material (talents, spells, monsters) than was presented historically. At least the Harpy (which was mentioned in conjunction with the Weakness spell) should have been given! Adding a section that included full descriptions of all of the unique Treasure of the Silver Dragon monsters would also have been welcome. Perhaps additional maps or other background material for Cidri or Silver Dragon world? Whatever was dreamed up, at barest minimum a couple full pages of new material should have been provided - and more would have been better

Note that the Q&A section was very good, as far as it went, so no changes would have been needed there.

Had a second Codex been published in 1982 for everything added in 1981 (Security Station, Unicorn Gold, Master of the Amulets) an updated index (either full or just a delta to the previous index) would have been a feature, along with Q&A. More new/variant material would have been needed, as well.

In the end, had one been playing a different game system it is difficult to imagine that this poorly formatted Codex would have convinced anyone to change...