The connection between board games (BGs) and role playing games (RPGs) has always been close and it traces back to the idea of two players of giving a new dimension to a war-game. So in 1974 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, the father of all RPGs, was born, entertaining and involving millions of players with its fantasy setting.
It is not by chance that RPGs’ success is connected with fantasy Middle Ages, crowded of wizards, knights in armours and mighty dragons.
In every kid’s mind and in collective imagination game is always related to an escape from reality to a far-away world, where there is no everyday trouble. BGs, even if they are not as abstracted as RPGs, also work like that, so, from the most abstracted games of the old times, today we have BGs with novel-like settings.
This article starts exactly from the many common points of these two far planets moving under the huge and variegated vault of game heaven. In this article we will analyse, even if not entirely, the most famous fantasy settings that brought to the production of BGs and RPGs.
And if after reading this article you are shocked by the absence of two games like DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and THE LORD OF THE RINGS you will have to go to the deepening part of this article, about these two best-sellers.
For each setting dealt with in this article, like in the deepening part, only BGs will be considered, and a short review on the related RPGs will be made. Considering the huge research area, all other kinds of products have been ignored.
Special thanks to Glaucio Santos dos Reis and Greg Costikyan for their help.

CONAN
The first name commonly associated with fantasy games is Conan, the Cimmerian barbarian, born from Robert E. Howard’s pen. The importance of this Texan author’s contribution to this literary genre is so great that it deserves specific terms to define it. Writers like Michael Moorcock, Fritz Lieber and L. Spague de Camp considered him so great that they identified some fantasy sub-genres throughout his works: heroic fantasy (L. Sprague de Camp, 1967) and sword and sorcery (Fritz Lieber, 1961).
Conan’s stories take place on earth, but in a period known as Hyborian Age, describing a world far-away from the real one, where “men are strong, women are beautiful, life is brave and problems are simple” (L. Sprague de Campe, Ace editions, 1967). The main character is the most typical reluctant hero, who, moved by money, women and survival, often ends up in making the right choice, behaving as an hero.
As for RPGs, Conan has had different incarnations, beginning with the first two adventure modules produced in 1984, after the success of the movies, from TSR for the famous RPG ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. The following year TSR also produced an independent RPG named CONAN ROLE-PLAYING GAME, that went out of production in the same year after the publication of only three adventures.
Later the licence was taken by Steve Jackson Games, that first published a supplement for GURPS, named GURPS CONAN, containing the rules and the setting (1989) and then four adventures. It is important to underline that this supplement is the only RPG product for this character translated in Italy up to now (DAS/I Giochi dei Grandi).
Then there was no new edition for more than ten years, until 2004 when Mongoose Publishing made CONAN - THE RPG, for which 14 supplements with adventures, maps and accessories have been published in only two years. As for this publishing, Stratelibri editions have acquired the translation rights, and will publish the Italian version in 2006, together with Wyrd editions.
On the other side there hasn’t been a great board-game production, as only the JOGO DO CONAN was published in Brazil in 1992 by Estrella (the greatest game producer in that country).
There are two players: one plays as Conan, the other as the Monster. The first player has to cross the board and destroy the crystal in the hand of the monster before the sun sets down (the advancement of the sun and of the game is measured on a disc), the other one has to slow him down. In order to do that he chooses, before Conan’s move, which dragon on the board will blow fire in that turn, and, when Conan reaches the mountains on the other side of the board, which colour the crystal is (the other players has to guess). On the whole it is a very simple and strategically poor game, just good for kids.
Actually another BG inspired by Howard’s character should have been published before this one. As told by Greg Costikyan (CEO, Manifesto Games), who has worked for Simulations Publications, Inc (SPI) as a game designer since 1976, in 1981 they had worked on a BG named CONAN, until the playtesting, but SPI’s bankrupt in 1982 ended the project.

DISCWORLD
Fantasy genre, as the fans know, is very serious, and is rarely humoristic, as it is dedicated to the search for the epic atmosphere in the storytelling. But there is an English author who tried to catch the reader’s attention in another way, actually creating a sub-genre: the fantasy humour.
The author is Terry Pratchett, and even if his production covers all the aspects of fantasy literature, he concentrated on a series of adventures taking place in Discworld.
It is absolutely impossible to describe the richness of Discworld in few words, it is enough to know that it is a flat round world, laying on the back of four elephants on the shell of a huge turtle wandering in the space. “Scientists calculated that the probabilities that something as absurd as this can really exist are one out of a billion. Wizards calculated that the one out of a billion probabilities come true nine times out of ten.” (from Morty the apprentice).
There is no independent RPG inspired by Discworld, but Steve Jackson Games published for GURPS in 1998 a module named GURPS DISCWORLD, and then in 2001 GURPS DISCWORLD ALSO.
The quality of these two products is very high, from the graphics by Paul Kidby in the first volume and Sean Murray in the second one, to the contents, with Terry Pratchett who helped the project giving unedited material.
On the other side, there is only one BG inspired by Discworld, even if, as we’ll see, it’s not proper to call it like that.
The title is THUD, first published in 2002, by Trevor Truran. In the materials there are good pawns made by The Cunning Artificer (a small society that produces fantasy models).
THUD reproduces the battle between dwarves and trolls in the Koom valley, and the search for the truth in this event is the key element in the new book (the 30th) of the Discworld saga (the title itself is Thud!). Another link between the game and the book is the cover, that is the same for the second edition of the first and for the latter, both published in October 2005.
The latter is clearly referred to the game, that presents a new optional set of rules in the last Mongoose Publishing edition.
THUD is a game played on an octagonal chessboard made of 165 cells.
Exactly like in chess game, it is easy to understand the base rules and the piece movements, but it is much harder to play with a strategy. There can be different strategies if you move the dwarves (faster and weaker), who move from the sides of the chessboard with their 32 pieces in order to attack the trolls, or the trolls (slower and stronger), who are just 8 and start from the centre.
In spite of the inferiority in numbers, it is easier to win if you play with the trolls, so it is good to play two games, taking both sides, and then summing the scorings.
Besides this one, that is the only game you can find now, in 2004, at Discworld Convention, Trevor Truran has presented two more games, that should be on market in 2006.
Here are some info about them:
WATCH OUT takes place in the streets of Ankh-Morpork, the most famous city in Discworld, where, like every night, there is a clash between the guild of the thieves and the city-guard. The board of the game is made of 48 pieces (each with its special effect), that form a 6x8 rectangle. The 8 guards start from one side, and the 8 thieves from the other, trying to get to the opposite side baffling the guards.
GET LOST is a game based on the use of paper and pen, set in the labyrinth of the garden of Death (one of the funniest and best characters in Discworld).

WARCRAFT
WARCRAFT is one of the best-known names of modern fantasy.
This game has been able, thanks to its spread success, to link the world of videogame players with the one of role game and board game players.
It all began in 1994 with the publication of the first videogame of the series (ORCS VS. HUMANS), that immediately revealed its great potential, making famous this new kind of videogame, the real time strategy (RTS).
And even if in these 12 years many RTS have been produced, the Warcraft saga has constantly been the main representative with: WARCRAFT II - TIDES OF DARKNESS (1995), WARCRAFT III - REIGN OF CHAOS (2002) and the MMORPG WORLD OF WARCRAFT (2004), plus expansions, new editions and future titles.
The results of the third chapter have been so good that Blizzard realized that, even if far from the PC world, a licence bringing the name Warcraft would have had a great market.
An agreement with White Wolf (that produces WORLD OF DARKNESS) brought to the publication in 2003 of WARCRAFT - THE ROLEPLAYING GAME.
This game and its following expansions allow to set the stories in the world of Azeroth and, using the Open Game Licence of Wizard of the Coast, to use a common rule set, the d20 System of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 3.X.
There is an Italian edition of this RPG, published since 2004 by 25th Edition, with the base manual and three expansions.
A parallel agreement with Fantasy Flight Games brought to the publication in 2003 of WARCRAFT - THE BOARDGAME.
This title by Kevin Wilson is for 2-4 players, and reproduces the game features of the digital version, in both managing and strategic aspects.
It is possible to command four races: humans, orcs, elves and undeads, and the game is played on a compoundable map, with the object to take the opponent’s base or to get the points fixed for that scenario.
Even if the game is quite funny on the whole, in the base version there are many negative aspects: there is no reference to the setting, the four armies are not different enough, the units are not characterized, the counters have abstract shapes and don’t represent the kind of unit, the cards don’t have any text but just symbols, making the manual necessary, the game in 3 players is not very playable, the managing part is repetitive.
In 2004 an expansion for this game was realized: WARCRAFT - BOARDGAME EXPANSION SET, that improves many of these problems, changing some material and elements of the rules, and adding some new one (the new cards have a text, there are new rules for the resources, the races are more different and the heroes have been added), thus making the expansion necessary to enjoy the base set.
Both the base game and the expansion can be found in the Italian version since 2004, thanks to an agreement between Fantasy Flight Games and Nexus.
After making their new best-seller, the online game WORLD OF WARCRAFT , Blizzard renewed the licence for the distribution of a new RPG and a new BG.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT - THE ROLEPLAYING GAME was realized by White Wolf and d20 System; this game, with a couple of expansions already, can’t be considered a completely new game, but a new and improved edition.
In 2005 WORLD OF WARCRAFT - THE BOARDGAME by Christian T. Petersen and Eric Lang was published for Fantasy Flight Games. It is a great game as for the contents, both for quantity and for quality of the materials, and, considering the high cost of the game, it is what we expected. Also in this game the idea is to reproduce the experiences of the videogame player, trying to improve his character with some quests he has to face alone or with his group.
The players, from 2 to 6, are divided in two sides (Alliance and Horde), within which they cooperate.
The object of the game is to improve their characters, during 30 turns, so that they can kill the Overlord or defeat the other side.
On the whole this title is better than the previous one both for the fan, who will find many familiar elements, beginning with the board, and for the player who has never seen the digital version.
In spite of this, the price (about 80 dollars) and the long length of the game are great limits.

GLORANTHA
In 2003 Issaries published the RPG HEROQUEST, ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA, distributed by Steve Jackson Games.
This game, ideated by Greg Stafford (the original developer of the Glorantha setting) and Robin D. Laws, follows the tradition of RUNEQUEST (edited since 1978 first by Chaosium and then by Avalon Hill) and HERO WARS (edited in 2000 by Issaries).
In spite of the title, there is no connection with the famous BG HEROQUEST, by Steve Barker, edited in 1989 by Milton Bradley (Games Workshop was also in the project, as for artwork and miniatures). The homonymy is given to the fact that, when the game was not published any more, the licence on the name had expired and has been bought by Issaries.
The use of the name of this setting and of these RPGs is not worthless, as there had been some BG at their origins.
Greg Stafford began developing the Glorantha world in 1966, but, as the first RPG would be born eight years later, Stafford used that setting for a BG. The hardest part was the publication, as the first editor who accepted the game went bankrupt before publishing it, and the second one as well. The third one, after accepting it, then decided not to publish it.
The wish to publish his game was so great that Stafford decided to start his own publishing house to publish it. So in 1975 The Chaosium was born (then it lost “The” and became famous thanks to its RPGs STORMBRINGER and THE CALL OF CTHULHU) and published its first game, WHITE BEAR & RED MOON, in the same year.
It was a standard war-game on an hexagonal map, that, even if poor (the map was drawn in black on a yellow background and the game was sold in a plastic bag), was a good experience for those who played it, after managing with the many abilities of the different kinds of unit. This product reproduces the war between the armies of Sartar and the empire of Lunar, through nine scenarios for 1-3 players.
The peculiar part of the game is the manual, that has, together with the technical part, a detailed one dedicated to the Glorantha world.
After selling out the one thousand copies that Stafford had published, in ’76 and ’78 two new editions were published, with few changes in the contents.
Later (1977) NOMAD GODS was published; its authors were Stephen Martin and Robert Corbett, besides Greg Stafford. This too is a war-game on an hexagonal map, set in Glorantha, and it allows the players to command one of the five tribes in Prax.
It is remarkable that almost twenty years later its first edition, French Oriflam made in 1994 a new edition of the game (LES DIEUX NOMADES).
The rules have been changed to be compatible with DRAGON PASS (see below), the components are better and new elements and units, that could be only found in Wyrm’s Footnotes journal before (made by Stafford to spread news about Chaosium’s products) have been added.
In 1980 Chaosium published DRAGON PASS, another war-game on an hexagonal map, that can be considered as a new and improved edition of WHITE BEAR & RED MOON. This game by Greg Stafford and Robert Corbett is a very professional product (there is a box in spite of the bag and the map is coloured) and takes its name from the Glorantha zone represented in the map, the Dragon Pass.
On one side the Lunar empire, on the other one Sartar and in the middle the initially neutral people, whom the players will try to bring on their side during the diplomatic stage. DRAGON PASS is not very good for three players (the third player should use the weak independents) and, as its predecessor, it needs some time for the player to get used to the many different units, but in spite of this it is a very good and strategic game.
In 1984 Avalon Hill got the licence and made the game more famous, publishing it with new rules and graphics. Now the licence on this game is back to Greg Stafford and to his new publishing house, Issaries.

ELRIC
Imagine a multiverse made of infinite worlds and life levels. Imagine the eternal struggle between Law and Chaos. Imagine being unconsciously a guardian of the Balance and your duty being not to let one of the opponents overcome the other, or the world will end. If you can imagine all this, then you are thinking of one of the best and most known fantasy sagas, Elric of Melniboné.
Elric is the most famous incarnations of the Eternal Champion, a character present in all worlds, dimensions and ages to keep the Balance.
Even if, like Conan, he is an anti-hero, Elric – the albino emperor, addicted to a dissolute world – represents the core of dark fantasy, being in the middle of two chasms, trying to deny reality.
All this, and much more, is at the base of Michael Moorcock’s cosmogony, the brilliant English writer of novels about Elric and other incarnations of the Champion.
As for the games, almost from the very beginning of the history of RPGs, Chaosium has had the licence for the publication of titles about Elric and Moorcock’s multiverse since 1981, and has produced STORMBRINGER.
Chronologically, the first game about the melniboneans myths traces back to 1980, when DEITIES & DEMIGODS was published by TSR. In that volume there were 17 divine pantheons, also the ones by Lovecraft and Moorcock, for which Chaosium had the licence. The latter wasn’t that happy about it, considering they hadn’t been asked for any permission. The problems related to that brought to the stop in the production, and then to an agreement for a second edition, where TSR thanked Chaosium. In Lake Geneva they soon realized that it wasn’t such a great idea to name in their own volume two competing products, so they immediately made a third edition (also in 1980), where they didn’t name the Chaosium’s settings.
As for the RPG Stormbringer, that has been publishing for 25 years, there have been many new editions of the base rules. In the second (1985) and third one (1987) there weren’t many changes. While the fourth one in 1990 had different rules as for the magical system, and in 1993 the game was deeply revisited and published as ELRIC!. In 2001, keeping almost the same rules, the old name, STORMBRINGER, was used again for the fifth edition of the game.
There are two more products: DRAGON LORDS OF MELNIBONÉ, published in 2001 by Chaosium, using the d20 System by Wizard of the Coast; the other one is CORUM, published in 2001 by Darkside Productions under Chaosium’s licence, and it describes the World of Five Planes, where the adventures of another incarnation of the Eternal Champion, Corum, take place.
STORMBRINGER is published in Italy by Stratelibri, who published the American fourth edition in 1993, and then six supplements, while DRAGON LORDS OF MELNIBONÉ was published in 2001 by BB Publishing, who then printed only one supplement: an adventure entirely created in Italy, named UNA SPADA CHIAMATA TENTATRICE (A SWORD NAMED TEMPTRESS).
As for BGs, there are way less products: only ELRIC by Charlie Frank and Greg Stafford, published by Chaosium in 1977.
ELRIC is a war-game played on a coloured map that represents the Young Kingdoms and that can easily remind RISIKO! more than a classical war-game, because of the subdivision in territories rather than in hexagons. The object of the game is to catch Imrryr, the capital of Melniboné; you need Elric to do that, but the game can also end in different ways. Depending on the events of the game and on the units, the Balance can go towards Chaos or Law, and when it is too far from one of the two sides, the world ends. If this happens, there is no winner, unless you own Stormbringer or Mournblade, if the Balance goes towards Chaos, or Runestaff, if Balance goes towards Law.
Like other BGs published by Chaosium in those years, it is a long game with a great variety of units, each characterized by special abilities, thus making the game understanding a bit long. The weakest part of the game is the rule set, that is complex, poorly organized and messy.
In 1981 ELRIC was more widely spread thanks to Avalon Hill, that re-edited it making some changes in the aspect and the components.