Ragnarok Enterprises

Beyondthebreach · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:22 pm Post subject: Ragnarok Enterprises

Fantastic stuff on Ragnarok Enterprises Mars (and you too, tfm Very Happy

).

Really, I can't say I am even familiar with them, but you've got me furiosuly checking the posts and thumbing through Heroic Worlds.

It seems they managed to keep afloat for over a decade (not bad for a small publisher). I'm surprised I know so little about them!
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Mars · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject:

I think the first edition of Ysgarth is 1979 and the latest version is the 25th Anniversary edition from a few years ago. They have them for sale on their website but I have the suspicion that these are just downloadable files rather than printed books (one of the shipping options is $0 to download them):

http://www.fontcraft.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=roleplaying

But they have certainly been around for a long time and are still actively producing stuff. For a while they also have a fanzine called the Abyss that I think has 49 issues too.

FormCritic · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:06 am Post subject:

I just followed the link to look at Ysgarth.

What am I looking at?

Is it a game, a module, a book, a magazine, a breakfast cereal?
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Mars · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:11 pm Post subject:

Ysgarth is a set of rules that started out in the late 70s and has been revised several times - I think the latest set is the 7th edition of rules. A number of small adventures were written generically with stats for both Ysgarth and D&D (check out the Ragnarok Forum: http://tomeoftreasures.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=163 ). This was their biggest product. They also had a long running fanzine called Abyss which ran for 49 issues (I think) - its also a very good fanzine.

Ragnarok also produced other books for gaming in different periods with a common rules set - I think most were based on the rules introduced in their To Challenge Tomorrow game. It had the same general idea as GURPS - one set of rules to rule them all. The Ysgarth rules and TCT rules are different though. Some of these different period rpgs have also been revised a few times too. For example By The Gods is now in its 3rd edition (I posted a 1st edition in the Ragnarok forum).

Basically, Ragnarok is a gaming company that has been around for over 25 years and produced a number of products and its own fanzine but few people seem to know about it. If you do a search for the driving force behind Ragnarok, David Nalle, you will also find that he has published a ton of other articles in various magazines too.

OolEurts · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:05 pm Post subject:

Dave Nalle also owns the Scriptorium, which sells his custom-designed fonts. I recall he's got some pretty cool ones.
The Abyss is arguably the best US fanzine from the old days. It's amazing that the UK had so many with good quality, while the US really only had one that consistently published for a while.

tfm · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:16 pm Post subject:

Britain also enjoyed a lot of creativity with regard to wargames.
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Mars · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:46 pm Post subject:

Plaag · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject:

Dave Nalle has come up before over on the Acaeum recently...is there a site for Abyss or him in general anywhere?

ShaneG.
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Mars · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:54 am Post subject:

The Ysgarth website is here: http://www.fontcraft.com/ragnarok/ysgarth/ but I don't think it has been updated in a long while. You can probably find an email address on the fontrcraft site or call the number and talk to Dave personally.

simrion · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:00 am Post subject:

Tried emailing them to determine if the 25th Anniversary Ysgarth is printed or .pdf but the email bounced. $29 seems awefully high for a .pdf....

FormCritic · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 7:46 am Post subject:

The Ragnarok website is mostly dead. 90% of the links do not work.
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Plaag · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:24 am Post subject:

Things don't stay dead on the internet usually Cool

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.fontcraft.com/ragnarok/ysgarth/

(You'll have to paste the full link above to get it to work by the way)

Once there select either date with a *, the later one has the adventure link that works.

Love the Wayback Machine Very Happy

ShaneG.
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beasterbrook · Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:11 am Post subject: