Superhero '44

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

As everyone here presumably knows, John M. Ford did a lot of work in gaming (mostly role-playing games, but some board games) as well as in fiction. Some of this work is fairly obscure, and it is not well-cataloged anywhere I am aware of (there is a ludography posted somewhere, but it is not at all complete).

One of his earliest gaming credits must be for Superhero '44, which was published in 1977. This was an early role-playing game, and in fact the first published RPG about superheroes. It got some attention, but my impression is that most people played Villians & Vigilantes or Champions when those came out a bit later. I expect most people here are not familiar with it (and also that a few people here are very familiar with it, and are probably named below).

In any case, the relevant credits are

By Donald Saxman
based on an idea supplied by Mike Ford

The author wishes to thank Geneva Spencer
Mike Ford
John Railing
Aaron Giles
Eric Brewer
Dan Fox
Guy McLimore
Samanda Jeude
and the other members of the Indiana University Science Fiction Club who
helped playtest Superhero 44 for their suggestions, comments and time.

Artwork:
Mike Ford: 3, 4, 22, 25, 26, 44

(This may well be his only art credit - it's for little sketches about the possible fates of an NPC in the game.)

These credits are from the original, self-published edition of the game. It was republished as Superhero 2044 by Gamescience, with substantially the same credits.

The foreword to the game, by Donald Saxman, I thought worth posting here, so with Saxman's permission:

Superhero '44 traces its origins to a concept developed by Mike Ford, one of Bloomington, Indiana's more imaginative personalities. His many and varied pursuits include Treasurer of the Indiana University Science Fiction Club, Herald for the local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, member of the Conflict/Simulation Club and Dungeonmaster. He still finds time to pursue a career as a science fiction writer and reviewer.

His "Medieval" fantasy campaigns are as varied as his activities. The participants often find themselves armed with assault rifles instead of swords and fighting helicopters instead of dragons. One campaign featured a device which allowed the players to travel to over two dozen alternate universes, each with its own natural laws and historical motif. There was a world based on Space Opera, one where World War II was still in progress, one based on Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars, and, almost as an afterthought, one populated with comic-book and pulp-novel characters. Here the party of magicians and swordsmen met Batman and Doc Savage, and ultimately
fought Doctor Doom and Darkseid with the help of Luke Cage and the Phantom Stranger. The major problem wsa the total lack of rules for these characters. Tanks and infantry, magic, dinosaurs, science fiction, the old west and even Mars can be found in conflict simulation rules -- sometimes in many sets of rules -- but comic-book rules are notably lacking.

As time went on, Mike adapted other sets of rules to fit comic superheroes and they became a standard feature of his various campaigns. The culmination of this was the infamous Multipolarity II battle, in which he refereed armies of magicians, starship troopers, Nazis, Klingons, Martians, apes and elements of the Legion of Superheroes. It was a complete success, and spurred me on to begin developing a set of superhero rules which could be played on their own.

The end result of over a year of testing and design is Superhero '44 -- the game of crime fighting and superheroics in the year 2044. The world of Inguria is intended to act as an initial backdrop for the action of the heroes. It includes features gleaned from pulp magazines, almost twenty years of comic books, and vintage radio shows. Superhero '44 can be easily adapted to a variety of environments including various alternate futures, the present, or even the Golden Age of the Thirties and Forties without substantial revision. As the players create superheroes, begin to patrol, cross over, and interact, they can expand off the island to combat evil in its infinite and varied forms. The scope of Superhero '44 is limited only by the ingenuity of the referee and the imagination of the players.

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about art credits, but Mike certainly had many cartography credits; lots of fantasy authors have asked him to draw the maps in their books.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

Ah, right, I wasn't thinking of that.

Does anyone know if there exists or there are plans to compile a complete bibliography? The one produced for his Boskone GoH appearance is good, but is missing a few fiction items and doesn't attempt complete coverage of non-fiction, to say nothing of gaming material, maps, etc.

[damascene.livejournal.com]

See other reply: yes it's in the works, and please do send notes. I haven't much time to hunt, especially in strange (to me) fields, but I'll add in whatever I can properly document. (Scans preferred if at all possible, so I'm only making my own typos and can verify on third-party request, rather than the risk of unknowingly propagating anyone else's.)

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I'll certainly do what I can.

As far as published stories or poetry go, I don't know of any you don't already have listed aside from "Street Legal" (for which see other thread).

He has a fair number of credits for board games and role-playing game books and modules. Many of them are listed here (http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=1545), but unfortunately there is at least one major error, as he did not write GURPS: Steam-Tech (according to the publisher). There are also some missing items. I can check the credits on some of the listed items and provide some missing credits.

The above-mentioned site also lists two gaming articles. I can probably provide scans of these. However, I know he had a number of others published, but aside from the gaming notes for "Alkahest" and the "Roadshow" Traveller scenario (reprinted in From the End of the Twentieth Century), I can't name them offhand. I can check my paper issues of The Space Gamer and Pyramid (and online issues of Pyramid if I pay for the privilege again), but I'd bet he had other articles in The Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society, which I don't have access to.

As you know he also published game reviews in Asimov's - I can't help much with those, but I'd love to see a list of them.

Maps, I can't help with either. I know he did the map for Eye of the World but I don't know any others.

And, while it is probably not material you would want to catalog, I wanted to mention that he posted a lot of material to the Pyramid newsgroups, much as he did to Making Light. Unfortunately I don't think there is any archive of this, so unless people saved the posts they are gone. I saved a grand total of one, which sadly was not the Impossible Missions Force briefing written by Chaucer.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

According to Jim Frenkel, Mike drew the map of WitchWorld displayed in Andre Norton's WitchWorld books; the map used "for the past twenty years," if I recall his words correctly.

Twenty years ago would mean Ace Books or DAW Books, or both. I'm sorry that I haven't copies anymore, or I'd check right now for cartography credit.

- Chica

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

As an RPGer growing up in the 1970s, of course I knew about Superhero 2044, but I had no idea of its origin. Thanks for incluing me.

I believe that "Free Enterprise", in Star Trek III: Three Solitaire Games, is his only actual published board game design.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Ah, my mistake--he's credited with contributing design on both "The Sherwood Syndrome" and "Free Enterpri$e".

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

Actually he has design credits on all three games in the set:

Free Enterpri$e
Design and Development: Greg Costikyan with Doug Kaufman and John M. Ford
Story: John M. Ford

The Sherwood Syndrome
Design and Development: Greg Costikyan
Story and Contributing Design: John M. Ford
Development Assistance: Doug Kaufman

The Kobayashi Maru
Design and Development: Douglas Kaufman
Contributing Design: John M. Ford
Development Assistance: Ken Rolston, Greg Costikyan

The exact different between "design" and "development" in the wargame and wargame-like world is often hard to discern, and what precisely is meant by "contributing design" as opposed to "design" (or "development"), or "development assistance" as opposed to just "development," I have no idea. I suppose I could ask Doug Kaufman who did what on these games, but I suspect all three of them were involved to an extent that the details will be fuzzy 20 years later.

The "story" credits are clear, at least - those are for the short bits of fiction setting up those two games.

In any case, you are correct in that he doesn't have any board game credits outside this set, at least none that I've heard of.

Gypsy AKA Geneva

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

I will have to ask Don Saxman (my ex-husband and Mike's good friend from that time) if Mike worked on any of Don's other games and how far they got in production. SH44 was sold out of my dorm room for the first 500 copies (I think it was 500) and then Don sold it to that guy in Biloxi... ;0 I know he worked on some others... But hey that was 30 years ago...

As for the "Multipolarity II battle, in which he refereed armies of magicians, starship troopers, Nazis, Klingons, Martians, apes and elements of the Legion of Superheroes." Yeah well there was a story there, between me and Mike and some of the other club members. The Nazis and Klingons somehow managed to kill Superman and the rest of the Legion (who I was controlling...) with an atomic kryptonite bomb (yeah right) and well, let's just say I threw SUCH A HISSY fit (it was that time of the month), and I probably set Mike's trust of women back about 5-10 years on that day.

I often wonder how much better my grades in college would have been if I hadn't participated with that group... and if I would have stayed in AFROTC (which I didn't have time for because of RPGs, SCA & SF...) and how different would my life since then would have been.

Mike had (at least) two groups of people he gamed with. One was a group in town and the other was on campus. With the exception of a couple of people those two groups didn't cross.

I've played RPGs with between 8-10 different gamemasters over the years, but Mike really spoiled me. Don was the only one who even closely measured up to Mike's ability to invent and modify and keep the game alive and moving. When I tell folks I miss D&D or RPG's what I really miss is Mike playing God and building worlds for us to live in.
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