Retro awesomeness

[thebitterguy]

Via Progressive Ruin, a D&D ad from Omni Magazine in 1981. Totally awesome. To think some ad agency could pitch an ad where a guy in armour, weilding a sword, could get across the velvet rope with a hottie on his arm, and Gary would approve... Okay, it actually makes sense.



You'd think that it would be more appropriate to advertise Traveller in Omni, though.

Comments

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

You'd think that it would be more appropriate to advertise Traveller in Omni, though

Probably. But it's probably also true that GDW could not afford to advertise in Omni, whereas TSR probably could have.

[thebitterguy]

That was sort of the joke I was going for.

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Maybe Star Frontiers? Except nobody but my high school "gaming club" probably ever played that game.... (Ever notice that "gaming club" seems to be a euphemism for "driving the personal hygiene industry into bankruptcy", at least in high school? I'm just sayin'...)

[thebitterguy]

I recall some guys in my cub group having a copy. I think we almost played it once.

It's still got a bit of a following; apparently you can get the game books on the www.starfrontiers.com website.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Well, the tone of the ad doesn't surprise me entirely given who Omni's ownership and management group was...

[thebitterguy]

Hey, no hatin' on the Gooch.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

The ad was consistent with ownership, that's all I'm sayin'.

[thebitterguy]

Apparently he was publishing a graphic adaptation of the bible in PH for a while. That's my kind of crazy.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

...suit-wearin' playboys?

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Wrong magazine. But you're very close.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

when people tell me these things about nerd companies i get a little creeped out.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I can see General Media classified as a "nerd company". Really. I know there are "all kinds of nerds", but, really?

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

I guess i meant the writers, heh.

Does anyone have any of the comics that were in the magazine?

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Which thing: that Penthouse Publishing put out a semi-reputable SF magazine, or that TSR advertised in it?

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

They also, by the way, put out a semi-reputable modern music mag (Spin) until 1997 when General Media sold it off.

[thebitterguy]

Wasn't there a Spin columnist named in Axel Rose's bitchfest "Get in the Ring"?

Actually, IIRC it was Gooch jr.

[fossilapostle.livejournal.com]

I remember that ad! There was another one where he was riding a motorcycle and holding a jousting spear, with another sweet young thang (or possibly the same one) sitting behind him.

I want that one, too! Find it!

En garde.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

My goodness. I just noticed the way that our "knight" is holding his "sword," and the reactions that the ladies to the left are having to it.

Re: En garde.

[thebitterguy]

"Oh, what a mighty swordsman. He certainly does know how to handle it!"

The '80s pretty much rocked.

[thebitterguy]

It ain't me, it's all mikester. Do you remember what magazine that was in?

[fossilapostle.livejournal.com]

Oh, I realized that. I was just being bossy.

I think it was Omni, too. When I first started playing D&D back in '81, my folks were really concerned about it, based on what they heard in the news (Hey! Someone should do a website about that!). So, they sent me to a "counselor" who wanted me to show him how to play the game, so he could get an idea of what was going on.

We had a good time. He wasn't a bad player, either. His office was in the basement of his house, and when my session was over, I was sitting in his living room waiting to get picked up and I saw a copy of Omni on the coffee table, so I started to read it. Wouldn't ya know, I opened right up to the ad with the guy on the motorcycle. I think the caption said something like "Live the adventure" or thereabouts. I showed it to the "counselor" and we had a chuckle.

[frabjousdave.livejournal.com]

While I remember that one vividly, my favorite in this vein was the one TSR execs would not approve a couple decades later: An image of a beautiful woman, with the text, "The average teenage boy thinks of sex once ever 17 seconds ...


"The rest of the time he's thinking of Dungeons & Dragons."

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Hah! That's classic! Talk about convergence!

So, when are we going to see a sequence on Family Business where we see Uncle Stevie and the Warehouse Boys playing D&D on break? That would be awesome!

[thebitterguy]

Heh. Where were they going to print that one?

[frabjousdave.livejournal.com]

I've no idea where they would have run it, but probably it was shot down before the question arose. Fortunately, the ad guys made copies and posted a few in the building for the rest of us to enjoy.

[artbroken.livejournal.com]

That's like the third-best thing in the history of awesome.

[thebitterguy]

It is truly sooper.

Although I am curious as to what the first two are, or if they're just reserved for future use.

[crashing-angel.livejournal.com]

1981 - my birth year!

This is pretty awesome.

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

Man, folks just don't dress like that no more.