Alkahest

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge JMF* only wrote two complete pieces of gaming fiction, both set in the world of Steve Jackson Games' Car Wars. (He also wrote introductory fiction for two of the three games in West End Games' Star Trek III set [he did design work on all three games as well], but those are not complete stories.)

One of the Car Wars stories, "Street Legal," appeared in issue 58 of The Space Gamer and nowhere else. Nor does it appear in the most complete online bibliography I know of. These are parlous time when a story including a nun with a 50-gallon drum of Miracle Whip cannot get more attention.

The other Car Wars story, "Alkahest," appeared in issue 3.3 of Autoduel Quarterly, and while it hasn't been reprinted, it is available online. JMF's gaming notes for the story are here (they are of somewhat limited interest if you are not familiar with the game, but have some good bits in any case). The page design for these leaves something to be desired - if you highlight the text you may find them easier to read.

Some familiarity with the game's background might help when reading the story. Briefly (I have to be brief since I did not play the game myself), something happened to the US which caused it to be carved up into a multitude of small nations. The level of violence is fairly high and the level of law enforcement fairly low, at least outside major population centers, so people have taken to driving around in havily armed vehicles. As a consequence there is a considerable amount of vehicular combat (some of it legal) on the roads, and also arenas where people can duel in an organized fashion.

*I feel silly typing his full name every time, and I don't feel right referring to him as "Mike" since I did not know him personally.

Comments

[elisem.livejournal.com]

a nun with a 50-gallon drum of Miracle Whip

*gets the giggles*

Indeed.

[mister-borogove.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. "Tiger Moths do not have great adhesion on dry flat pavement, and in Miracle Whip, let me tell you, they are dogs."

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see your posts; one of the things I hoped in this community for was some mixing of information and memory from people knowing different pieces of Mike's career. I was involved in some campaigns he ran here in Minneapolis, but had very little contact with the gaming *industry* (those GURPS-based campaigns are the only packaged role-playing I've ever been involved in). So I won't be the one to pull out obscure bits of work that are 3/4 lost and remind everybody of them, as you're doing here.

It's strange how deeply fixed naming preferences seem to be. In other forums I feel weird naming Mike formally, but I worry I'll confuse people, make them feel condescenced to, or be seen as puffing myself up if I call him "Mike".

Your solution of using "JMF" here seems great to me -- nobody here will be in doubt who you mean, so if that's what makes you comfortable, that's great.

[damascene.livejournal.com]

These are parlous time when a story including a nun with a 50-gallon drum of Miracle Whip cannot get more attention.

Oh, I'd find it personally gratifying to give that story more attention, but until your post I didn't know it existed. Not surprising that I haven't found it on my own, but Mike was my primary source for the non-sf/f oddments in that bibliography, and he never told me of it either... Where do I get my hands on a copy, or even photocopy, of The Space Gamer #58?

(An updated bibliography in traditional format is taking shape on my laptop as I have moments to poke at it, for posting on a Mike-specific site being developed, so this is timely news if I can locate that piece. Send me more notes, hm? dnmsnyder at gmail)

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to provide a scan of the story, if that would work for you. I could probably scare you up a copy of the actual magazine as well, but first I may want to get one for an auction of gaming materials to benefit the JMF Endowment Fund (this is my own little project).

[damascene.livejournal.com]

Scans of whatever you've got would be grand, thanks. The actual story, and also please the ToC and copyright page for the source if at all possible. dnmsnyder at gmail