Unfortunately nearly all meaty information for things Magira and Midgard is in German. For all us hapless non-German speakers—hey, if it was in Spanish, Czech, or Slovak I would have it already covered—I am working on getting some translations up in the following month or two.
Big thanks to the kindly folks who have already stepped forward to help—we can always use more.
Links:
Empires of Magira and Adventures in Magira here
FOLLOW (the fantasy society with Tolkein leanings that kicked this off) here
Armageddon (the complicated massive mini/board game pictured below that has some continous games reputedly lasting over 30 years) here and here (English info, linked to yesterday, here )
Gorgeous. One footnote that Harami may shout down: I've suspected for awhile that German-language Midgard only confuses the line from Armageddon through what we could call "MidgardUK" -- http://www.newsfrombree.co.uk/midmap.htm -- but not back to the game now enshrined in wikipedia and elsewhere. Two separate games with theoretically common lineage. For all I know, Magira/MidgardDE even evolved back out of MidgardUK, recrossing the language barrier in the process.
ReplyDeleteSince Franke was apparently only around 10 years old when Patterson was busy ramping up Midgard UK, this gives me what might be a smoking gun! The hobby is punctuated with prodigies but even we have limits.
Thata's a cool map. I think the German just adds to it.
ReplyDeleteThe German Midgard RPG did NOT evolve from MidgardUK. Patterson's game was based on the Armageddon game, the wargaming component of the 'Eternal Game' played by the German FOLLOW Club since 1967.
ReplyDeletePatterson was the publisher of War Bulletin, a play-by-mail diplomacy fanzine. In May 1971, he proposed starting a PBM campaign based on Armageddon, using a transcription of a flyer he had brought home from the SF Worldcon in Heidelberg the previous year. Where he saw the FOLLOW Club demonstrating the game. He also explains this in White Dwarf No.2.
It's easy to understand that Jürgen Franke, a FOLLOW member and therefore a Magira and Armageddon player, used the name "Midgard" for his own RPG. "Midgard" is simply an old Germanic name for the world we live in, it's just the same as "Middle-earth".
(By the way, Franke dates back to 1952, so when Patterson started his "Midgard" he was about 18 years old. He joined FOLLOW in 1973.)
No smoking gun here, but lots of fingerprints...