Space Gamer Article Index
The Space Gamer: The Metagaming Issues
Issues #1 to 14 were digest size (5.5 x 8.5”), and varied from 16 to 48 pages, with cover prices ranging from 70 cents to $1.50.
Issues #15 to #26 were in the 8.5 x 11” format, and up to 54 pages. Cover price $1.50 per issue.
1975
- Issue #2 (22 pages)
- The Intangibles Headache (writing on morale rules)
- Third Millenia, Inc. (list of game offerings by this publisher)
- Stellar Conquest Update
- Reviews: Space Centurions, Star Raider
- Issue #3 (22 pages)
- Two Views of the Future (comparison of Stellar Conquest and Starforce game systems and assumptions)
- The ESC Illusion (strategy for Stellar Conquest)
- Ignoring Einstein and Newton (weapons in SF games)
- Reviews: Siege of Minas Tirith, Star Probe, Tunnels & Trolls, War of the Worlds II
- Number 4
- "What’s in a Game" (Game Design)
- Stellar Conquest - "ATK vs. 3 ESC: A Cursory Discouse on Probability" (Analysis), C. G. Mitchell III
- 4000 A.D. - "I Have Seen the Future and it Doesn't Play Well" (Review), Neil Shapiro
- Tunnels & Trolls - "Game Review: Tunnels and Trolls" (Review), Larry Pound
- Stellar Conquest - "The PFS Rip-off vs. Super MB" (Strategy / Variant), Avery Goodman
- Empire of the Petal Throne - "Empire of the Petal Throne, A Review" (Review), Rick Mataka
- Sorcerer - "Game Review: Sorceror" (Review), Glen Taylor
- Lensman - "Review of Lensman" (Review), Scott Rusch
- Triplanetary - "Triplanetary Review" (Review), Scott Rusch
1976
- Issue #5 (30 pages)
- Laser Weapons, Present and Future
- Alack and Alas! (why that issue game was missing)
- Ship Effectiveness in Stellar Conquest (analysis)
- Interstellar War
- Allocation of Bonus Industrial Output Units (Stellar Conquest analysis)
- Reviews: Sorceror, White Bear and Red Moon, Starfleet Command, The Ythri
- Issue #6 (30 pages)
- Space War Games: Avoiding Cliches
- Muggers! Muggers! (humour article – parody of Monsters! Monsters!)
- Tips for Diabolical Dungeon Masters
- Variations on a Theme: More Realism (Stellar Conquest fog of war variant)
- Star Soldier: a Solitaire Game?
- Stellar Conquest: the Colonization Gambit (strategy)
- The Rule to End All Rules (variant for Triplanetary)
- The Ythri: An Historical Appraisal (variant)
- Empire of the Petal Throne fiction
- Reviews: War of the Worlds II
- Issue #7 (30 pages)
- Intermediate Rules for Stellar Conquest (variant)
- Orbiting Colonies
- The Space Warship: Prognostications
- Reviews: Star Command, Starship & Empire, Starship Troopers, Swords and Spells, The Ythri, Venerable Destruction
- Issue #8 (30 pages)
- Laser Weapons Compared to Projectile Weapons
- The Soviet Manned Space Program: The Next Three Years
- Stellar Conquest scenario
- Suggested revisions for Triplanetary
- Godsfire: designer’s notes, system sheets
- Designers notes for Monsters! Monsters!
- Reviews: Sorceror, Starship, Starship Troopers, the Ythri
1977
- Issue #9 (32 pages)
- Notes on the Ogre (designer’s notes and background)
- The Bored Board (moving-planets variant for Triplanetary)
- Weekend Warrior (fiction)
- Iago’s Vow (fiction)
- Take That, Dice! (use chits instead)
- Reviews: Buffalo Castle (supplement for Tunnels & Trolls), Gods, Demigods and Heroes (D&D supplement), Outreach
- Issue #10
- Tank: Present, Future, OGRE (non-fiction on tank design trends)
- Planetary Probabilities in Stellar Conquest (analysis)
- Stellar Conquest: Alien Intelligences (variant for introducing alien races)
- A System for Generating Complex Results with Six-Sided Dice
- Duel (Ogre fiction)
- The Dust from Bianias (fiction)
- Reviews: Bunnies and Burrows (RPG), Metamorphosis Alpha
- Issue #11 (48 pages)
- Godsfire: prehistory, Designer’s notes, session replay
- Chitin: I Designer’s notes, story line and game premise
- Stellar Conquest Expanded (Using Starforce map with Stellar Conquest, part 1)
- GEV (fiction)
- Continental Siege Aircraft in Ogre (variant)
- Reviews: After the Holocaust, Battle for Andromeda, Deathtrap Equalizer Dungeon (T&T supplement), Ogre, Rift Trooper, Starweb, Swords and Spells, War of the Sky Galleons
- Issue #12 (48 pages)
- Designer’s notes for Melee
- Designer’s notes, errata, variants for Ogre
- Designer’s response for Stellar Conquest
- Game Intent – reviews of various SF/ fantasy games
- Playing with Fire (Godsfire fiction)
- Star Types in Starforce (using Starforce map in Stellar Conquest, part 2)
- Iron Mountain (Ogre scenario and variant with new map, new counters and variant rules)
- Ogre and the Fuzzy Wuzzy Fallacy (strategy and variant on the cloud-of-GEVs swarming tactic)
- Empire of the Petal Throne fiction
- Reviews: Nomad Gods, Ogre, Tunnels & Trolls, War of the Ring
- Issue #13 (48 pages)
- WarpWar designer’s introduction
- Hit Probabilities in Melee
- New Weapons for Melee
- Chitin: I strategy
- When Winning Hurts (analysis of and variant for Stellar Conquest victory conditions)
- A Walk through Dragon Pass ((background to White Bear, Red Moon)
- BPC Subs (Ogre naval variant introducing submarines and sea-going GEVs)
- Meeting Teela Brown (Monsters! Monsters! character from Larry Niven’s Ringworld)
- Ogre Meets Starship Troopers (variant introducing Ogre tanks)
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Gaming: Our Own Genre? (comment)
- Fool’s Choice (Stellar Conquest fiction)
- Absolute Zero (comic strip)
- Reviews: Chitin: I, Space Marines
- Issue #14 (48 pages)
- Designer’s notes for Rivets
- Rules for Hymenopterans (Chitin:I bugs) in Melee
- On the Creation of Star Maps
- Rationale in SF Game Design
- Modifications in Ogre (duel and solo scenario variations)
- Scenarios for WarpWar (two-player and solo)
- Absolute Zero (comic strip)
- The Master’s Game (fiction)
- Reviews: Star Empires (supplement to Star Probe), There and Back Again
1978
- Issue #15 January-February 1978 (32 pages)
- Designer’s notes for Wizard and Olympica
- Byte the Bullet (computer gaming)
- Robotics for TRAVELLER
- Floating Hulks (WarpWar variant)
- Ogre Update (differences between first and second editions)
- Orcs and Their Weapons (variant for Melee)
- Ya Wanna Buy A Used World? (fiction)
- Hot Stuff! (poem)
- Darnigame’s Alive and Unwell (humour)
- Absolute Zero (comic strip)
- Reviews: Imperium, Lords of Valetia
- Issue #16 March-April 1978 (32 pages)
- WarpWar tactics
- Classical Warriors Simulated in Melee
- Harmonious Fists in Melee (rules for unarmed combat)
- Alpha Omega: Corrections and Revisions
- Demons! (Moties in Melee)
- Matchmaker (fiction)
- Reviews: The Warlord Game, Atlantis 12,500 BC, War of the Ring, **Invasion America, UFO/Star Wars
- Issue #17 May-June 1978 (32 pages)
- GEV: Designer’s Introduction
- Chitin: 1 strategy and tactics
- Encounters of an Unlikely Kind (combining Ogre and Rivets)
- Adjusted Orc Rules (fixes for article in #15)
- Additional Units for Imperium
- Modified Rules for Imperium
- Designer’s Notebook (notes by Steve Jackson on upcoming games – some published eventually, some not)
- Lucky Lady (fiction)
- Reviews: Gondor, Sauron
- Issue #18 July-August 1978 (32 pages)
- Ice War: Designer’s Introduction
- Referee, Declare Thyself (hints for role playing)
- Red Guard (scenario for Invasion America)
- The Great Northern War (variant for War of the Ring)
- More Harmony for Fists in Melee (more unarmed combat rules)
- Traveller Addendum Equipment and Weapons
- Mounted Melee
- Playtest (fiction)
- Reviews: Starships and Spacemen, Mayday
- Issue #19 September-October 1978 (32 pages)
- Pond War (unplayable parody game by Allen Varney)
- Adding Fear and Loathing to GEV
- Combining WarpWar and Imperium
- BattleFleet Mars: analysis
- The Firing Line (fiction)
- Reviews: Swords and Sorcery (two reviews, one good and one bad), Raumkrieg, Runequest
- Issue #20 November-December 1978 (36 pages)
- Scaling a Mountain (comments and variants for Olympica)
- Psionics in Traveller
- Tartars and Martyrs (outline for a game on converting Mongols to Christianity)
- Reality in Melee (system for ancient warriors)
- Those Rip-off Blues (consumer protection for game buyers)
- More Optional Rules for Ice War
- The Hazards of Wargaming (humour)
- Starships and Spacemen designer’s notes
- Issue #21 January-February 1979 (32 pages)
- Interview with Dave Arneson
- Running a Microgame Tournament
- Playing the Odds at Ogre and GEV (notes on tactics)
- Getting more from Black Hole
- The Deryni (new race for Melee)
- Juggernaut One (fiction)
- Reviews: survey of spaceship miniatures and rules, Lords of the Middle Sea, Mind War, The Realm of Yolmi, Stomp!
1979
- Issue #22 March-April 1979 (32 pages)
- Ice War unit analysis and tactics
- Beauty and the Beast (analysis of Black Hole)
- Submission Impossible (how to write wargame articles)
- Party Brawl (solitaire game using Wizard rules to simulate a drunken party)
- Three Words (fiction)
- Reviews: Mercenary, Spellmaker, Quest
- Issue #23 May-June 1979 (32 pages)
- Invasion of the Air-Eaters designer’s notes and multi-player scenario
- Ice Ogre (combining Ogre and Ice War)
- Primal Man, Primal War (Sticks and Stones expansion and scenario)
- Know Thyself (personal evaluation system for Melee)
- Attributes of the Deryni
- The Valde (new character race for Melee)
- Vikings in Melee
- Soldier in the Sky (fiction)
- The Harvest (fiction)
- Reviews: Starfighter, Gunship 2000, Quazar
- Issue #24 September-October 1979 (32 pages)
- The Psychology of Wargaming
- Black Hole Designer’s Introduction
- Ships and Swords (naval Melee)
- The Arch-Reaper (new unit for Chitin: 1)
- The Four-Howitzer Defence in Ogre
- Adding Monsters vs. Monsters to Creature That Ate Sheboygan
- Reviews: John Carter of Mars, Strange New Worlds, Stargate
- Issue #25 November-December 1979 (32 pages)
- Special Stellar Conquest issue: articles on its third printing, strategies, expansions
- Order out of Chaos (benefit cost analysis in wargaming)
- Again, Harmonious Fists (more unarmed combat rules for Melee)
- The Case of the Missing Micros (humour)
- The Unwritten Rules of Rivets (hints on play)
- Everyday Life in The Fantasy Trip
- Reviews: Cyborg, Star Fleet Battles
1980
- Issue #26 January-February 1980 (56 pages)
- The Psychopathology of Wargamers (commentary)
- Some Variations on Wizard
- One World Designer’s notes
- A Variety of Hobbits
- Defensive Tactics and Strategy in GEV
- Rerum Novarum (account of some kid’s 8th grade grad party where he played life-size Melee with his friends)
- Operation Boltcutter (new scenario putting humans back into Rivets)
- Heroism and Happenstance in a World Gone Mad… Sort Of (fiction)
- Reviews: Dune, The Awful Green Things from Outer Space, Wizard’s Quest
- 16 – page Spring 1980 Metagaming catalogue bound in
This was the final issue of The Space Gamer as a Metagaming organ, with Howard Thompson as publisher. It included a Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation that specified a total press run of 8,500 copies, with a paid circulation of 5,800 (2,449 sales copies, 3, 351 mail subscription copies).
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