Fantasy Games Unlimited, often referred to as just FGU, is a publishing house for both table-top and role-playing games. They have no in-house design teams and rely on submitted material from outside talent.[1]
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History
Founded in 1975 by Scott Bizar, the company's first publications were the wargames Gladiators and Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age. Upon the sudden appearance and massive popularity of Dungeons & Dragons from TSR, the company turned its attentions to role-playing games, seeking out and producing systems created by amateurs and freelancers. Rather than focusing on any one line and supporting it with subsequent supplements, FGU instead produced a continuous stream of new games. In its time, FGU published dozens of different role-playing games, more than any other company. In 1989, Fantasy Games Unlimited won All Time Best Ancient Medieval Rules for 1979 H.G. Wells Award at Origins 1980 for Chivalry & Sorcery.[2] Though FGU stopped publishing in 1987, the company still exists and maintains copyright over its titles. FGU has been very vigorous in defending any perceived threat to its intellectual property, sometimes taking what many consider to be unjustified umbrage at other publishers for even barely perceptible infringements. For instance, FGU has twice threatened legal action when other companies published role-playing games with the term "Space Opera" in the titles, even though the term pre-dates FGU's game as a genre label by several decades. FGU has also earned a bad reputation for holding their games in limbo, replying to requests from new companies even for simple reprint rights with demands for exorbitant licensing fees. A new FGU website appeared in July 2006 offering the company's back catalog. It promises new products "coming soon".
Publications
- Aftermath!
- Bushido
- Bunnies & Burrows
- Chivalry & Sorcery (1st & 2nd editions)
- Daredevils
- Down Styphon
- Fire, Hack & Run
- Flash Gordon & the Warriors of Mongo
- Flashing Blades
- Frederick the Great
- Freedom Fighters
- Gangster!
- Gladiators
- Land of the Rising Sun
- Lands of Adventure
- Merc
- Middle Sea
- Odysseus
- Other Suns
- Privateers & Gentlemen
- Psi World
- Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age
- Skull & Crossbones
- Space Marines
- Space Opera
- Star Explorer
- Starships & Spacemen
- Swordbearer
- Tyrannosaurus wrecks
- Villains and Vigilantes
- Wargaming magazine
- Wild West
- Wizards' World
- Year of the Phoenix
References
- ^ Fantasy Games Unlimited. Noble Knight Games. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
- ^ Charles S. Roberts/H.G. Wells Awards 1979 (List of Winners). Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
