Press Release - Webbed Sphere, Inc. Acquires Long Time Game Publisher Flying Buffalo, Inc.

https://flyingbuffalo.com/pages/the-flying-buffalo-press-release

Corbin, Kentucky (August 4, 2021) - Webbed Sphere Inc. announced today that it finalized acquisition of pioneering, award-winning game publisher Flying Buffalo, Inc., best known for the Tunnels and Trolls role playing game and bestselling Nuclear War card game series.

The deal was finalized July 31 with the estate of Flying Buffalo founder Richard Loomis. Loomis created the play-by-mail game Nuclear Destruction in 1970, and founded Flying Buffalo with Steve MacGregor in 1972. The company initially focused on running play-by-mail games, and later became well known for publishing the second-ever role playing game Tunnels and Trolls, originally designed by Ken St. Andre, starting in 1975. The Scottsdale, Arizona company is currently the oldest active publisher of pen-and-paper role playing games in existence.

“Flying Buffalo and Rick Loomis hold an esteemed position in the history of gaming, and we are proud to now be a part of that legacy,” said John Ward, CE

legacy,” said John Ward, CEO of Webbed Sphere. “Flying Buffalo has thrilled generations of gamers over the past 50 years, and it will make a great compliment to our Toy Vault and Mchezo brand lines. I am excited about what the future holds.”

Since its founding, Flying Buffalo published many popular board games and roleplaying game titles including: Tunnels and Trolls, Nuclear War, Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes; Death Dice, Ace of Aces, Lost Worlds, Monsters! Monsters!, Imperialism, Origin’s award winning Citybooks and a series of  role playing supplements that included the famous Grimtooth’s Traps. The company was also groundbreaking in its release of the first solo role playing game modules using it’s Tunnels and Trolls system, starting with “Buffalo Castle,” written by Rick Loomis and published in 1976.

“It's always hard when your child finally grows up and leaves home, but I'm looking forward to a bigger, brighter future for Tunnels & Trolls under the organization of Webbed Sphere,” said Ken St. Andre, creator of Tunnels and Trolls. “May T&T spread even further to the greater world than it already has, and may Webbed Sphere make all their saving throws going forward!”

Douglas Malewicki, the inventor of the Nuclear War™ card game in 1965, said he’s excited about the opportunities the purchase of Flying Buffalo represents.

“I’m excited and really look forward to working with the new Flying Buffalo team,” Malewicki said. “I definitely want to help ensure that Nuclear War continues to improve, evolve and thrill new generations of gamers. The fun begins!”

Specific announcements about Flying Buffalo properties will be forthcoming in the near future. The company plans to work diligently with retailers and distributors to make sure products are in stock and available to the public.

Flying Buffalo also plans to be an exhibitor at Gen Con, to be held in Indianapolis Sept. 16-19, and will release more exciting news as the show approaches.

About Webbed Sphere

Webbed Sphere Inc. is a management and holding company for numerous ventures including online retailer Troll and Toad, home decor brands Darware, Decorae and AuldHome; game and toy publisher Toy Vault, and jigsaw puzzle manufacturer Mchezo. Its array of companies also specialize in property acquisition and development, business and consumer fulfillment services, liquidation outlets, and hobbyist gardening supplies.

About Flying Buffalo, Inc.

Flying Buffalo, Inc. is a publishing company best known for the second ever role playing game distributed to the mass market - Tunnels and Trolls. It was founded in 1972 by Rick Loomis and Steve MacGregor as a play-by-mail game company, but also published numerous popular role playing games, card games, and gaming supplements. It is located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Flying Buffalo Update - The Loss of Rick and What now?

(this has already been shared via Kickstarter and Facebook)

By Steve Crompton

Loss of our friend: By now many of you may have heard the sad news that Rick Loomis, President of Flying Buffalo and a gaming industry legend, passed away on Aug 23rd, just a few hours before his 72nd birthday.  Rick created and ran Flying Buffalo for almost 50 years, and was also President of GAMA (Gaming Manufacturers of America) on several occasions.

Rick's loss leaves a huge hole in our hearts and Flying Buffalo.  Rick was our mentor, our friend (a brother for his sisters) and the intermediary between the high-flying goals of the creative team and the real world. He helped us stay on track and reminded us of the limits of our budgets. Rick also made sure that whatever we created would be something that players would want.  And many, many times he made suggestions that made a game more playable or an adventure more usable. We will miss Rick every single day, and we plan to honor his wishes and hopes for the future of Flying Buffalo going forward.

So What Happens now?: While Rick was fighting cancer and was unable to attend to his work on processing the Kickstarter orders, he did manage to teach me how to do that, and I have been doing so since early July.  (Rick did everything before then.) 

Rick's sisters and the entire Buffalo team are committed to continuing to process and ship out your Kickstarter orders.  In fact just today I did another 25 orders and they are now in shipping, ready to be packaged up. And tomorrow we'll be taking 40 finished orders to the post office. As of now, we only have about MSPE 175 orders left to ship out of the original 675 we started with.  And we will continue to ship out your orders until all of them have gone out.  We have everything in from the printers and everything that Mike was supposed to sign has been signed, so its just a matter of continuing until we are done.

Down the road there will also be new products for T&T, MSPE, Nuclear War, and Catalyst books like new Traps and Citybooks. They may not come as quickly as we'd like right now, as there is a lot to do in regards to taking care of Rick's estate and Flying Buffalo. But rest assured, we are soldiering onward.  That's what Rick wanted us to do - and we plan to do just that. So you don't need to worry - your items will be shipped out.

Please feel free to  post you comments below and if you want to contribute to help with Rick's Medial bills, funeral arrangements and other outstanding bills that have accrued due to Rick's illness you can contribute to his Gofundme campaign.

Thank you all for your concern, your patience and your belief in Rick's dream - Flying Buffalo.

Announcement - Rick Loomis (Flying Buffalo) Has Passed

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that Rick Loomis, best known for being the man behind Flying Buffalo, has passed.

I'm quoting Steve Crompton below:

Fate is a strange mistress. For today is August 24th and that is Rick's Birthday. Unfortunately today is also the sad, sad day that I have to tell you all that Rick Loomis passed away, just seven hours before his birthday of complications of his cancer. 

Rick was an amazing person. He had the ability to inspire and nurture talented people to be more talented than they thought they could be. He had the ability to give his people the freedom to develop their own solutions to problems and then he would calmly guide them. He did this in every facet of his life, whether it was in gaming or management or even his church softball league. Maybe that's one of the reasons why so many people loved Rick and loved working with and for him and why he attracted so many talented people like Mike Stackpole, Larry Ditillio, Liz Danforth, Jennifer Roberson, Ken St Andre and so many others who went on to create entire worlds and realms -- Rick encouraged that in a way few do. 

Rick sacrificed his life for a dream. A dream of wonderful, fun games and worlds of adventure. Games that inspired creativity and fun. Rick' s games were always in the end, about fun - not winning. Rick's dream will live on and we who he has left behind will do our part to carry that dream forward. 

And we will never forget what he taught us - patience, persistence, fun and kindness. 

That is what Rick stood for. His loss will leave a hole in our community, our industry and our hearts - but I urge you to remember to be kind to each other, be patient with each other and don't let go of your dreams. Rick never did.

The world is lessened by your absence Rick, and you are missed...

I'm literally at a loss for words. Cancer is such a fucking horror. For a civilized word to be no closer to a cure today pisses me off. Not at the world. Not at science. But fucking cancer.

The Tavern's Community raised well over $400 for Rick's cancer-related expenses. I offered to match the first $200 raised and we have an anonymous donor who offered to match another $200. I'll be putting The Tavern's match in before the weekend is out.

You can still give at this link.

Prayers and tears for Rick's family and friends. The tears may be mixed with survivor's guilt.

But for the grace of God go I.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Loomis

Bundle of Holding - CATALYST Collection (Flying Buffalo)

Some of the best systemless RPG supplements ever published were from the CityBooks line of releases from Flying Buffalo. As for traps, few were as entertaining as the Grimtooth's Traps Collection.

You can get CityBooks I-III, Grimtooth's Traps I and II as well as a book on unique magic items in the Catalyst Bundle of Holding for just 7.95. That is a bargain and a half.

If you step up to about 23 bucks, you add the following:

• CityBooks IV-VII: Four more sets of people and places you can easily drop into any city adventure -- IV: On the Road, V: Sideshow, VI: Up Town, and VII: King's River Bridge.
• Grimtooth's Traps 3-4: Titled Fore and Ate (don't ask us why), these two books give you hundreds more traps to waylay dungeon delvers.
• NEW IN THIS REVIVAL! City of the Gods Map Pack: The wondrous place built by all the pantheons of Earth after they left this world behind.
• Mercenaries Spies & Private Eyes: Michael Stackpole's classic action/espionage RPG inspired by Tunnels & Trolls. Includes the Adventure of the Jade Jaguar solo adventure. (Both were also part of our September 2018 Tunnels & Trolls Bundle.)
• NEW! Mugshots No. 1 - The Case of the Pacific Clipper: A high-flying pulp-era solo adventure for MSPE written by Dungeons & Dragons co-designer Dave Arneson.

Personally, I love Mercenaries Spies & Private Eyes (just got my Kickstarter hardcover of the rules delivered yesterday). All that said, the seven CityBooks are worth the extra money on their own.

The usual 10% donation from Bundle of Holding is being given to Rick Loomis to help offset expenses related to his current cancer treatment.

GoFundMe - Rick Loomis - Lymphatic Cancer (Flying Buffalo) - Gamer in Need

I know I've said this before, but cancer is the great equalizer. It doesn't play favorites, rich or poor, young or old, it doesn't care and you can't predict the outcome. The treatment is almost universally to poison your body and possibly irradiate it. Treatment sucks. Seriously. I know, cause I'm a survivor of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of Lymphatic cancer.

To see someone else in our gaming community come down with cancer strikes home for me every time. Recently, it was Tim Kask (in remission). Currently, it is Doug Reah (NTRPG Con) and Ernie Gygax (also Hodgkin's Lymphoma).

Now, Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo is suffering from Lymphatic Cancer. Truly, it seems like cancer is striking many of those we hold dear in the gaming community.

Rick and his family need our help. If you can donate to the fund, that is awesome. If you can't, simply share this post and hopefully, others will be able to.

The Tavern will match the first $200 raised by The Tavern's Community. Simply note your donation here as a comment or send me an email to tenkarsDOTtavern AT that gmail thing and let me know the amount you donated. When we hit $200 The Tavern will add its donation to the mix. Please DON'T stop donating when we hit $200 - Rick and his family are in great need.

From the GoFundMe page:

Rick Loomis has been an important part of the game industry for almost 50 years, and now he is in the fight of his life with cancer. Even though he is a US army veteran and qualifies for medicare, Rick's share of the medical bills are now in the tens of thousands of dollars. Please help his family through this terrible time and help keep the  legacy of Flying Buffalo going strong. 

Rick was one of the founding members of the Game Manufacturing Association and served as its President several times when they needed him. He started Flying Buffalo Games back in 1970 and was one of the first people to ever run a Play-by Mail game on a dedicated computer. He has traveled the world to promote role-playing and card games and over the years Rick has befriended hundreds (thousands!) of people at conventions from his Flying Buffalo Games booth and company.  He published Tunnels & Trolls, the Nuclear War Card Game, Grimtooth's Traps and so much more. Rick truly is a legend.  But being a legend doesn't mean you are wealthy, it just means that some people have respect for your accomplishments. 

Now Rick is 72, and in February he found out he has lymphatic cancer. Rick's biggest worry is not himself, but for his two sisters that live with him and the legacy of his company, Flying Buffalo. 

Both his sisters (Nancy and Laura) have been trying to help Rick as best they can, but he has needed specialized medical care in a rehabilitation facility.  Rick was recently sent back to the hospital and the bills have been overwhelming. They need some help taking care of the medical bills and catching up with other expenses that Rick usually took care, of but has been unable to, due to his illness.  

Rick has helped his church and the gaming industry for many years, now we are asking you to give a little help to Rick and his family during this very difficult time. Anything you can pledge will be greatly appreciated.
 
Maybe Rick was your camp councilor, or he  got you started in the gaming industry. Maybe he  helped you get a booth for Origins after the deadline or you played in one of his PBM games. Maybe he was just nice to you. If you feel a debt of gratitude for Rick and how he helped you or the game industry - now is the time to show your gratitude.  Help spread the word that a gaming legend and his family need some help.. 

If you can't afford anything - thank you for your time, your prayers and well wishes.  If you can help, we are eternally grateful for your contribution!

Kickstarter - Mercenaries Spies & Private Eyes RPG by Michael Stackpole

Mercenaries Spies & Private Eyes is an RPG I've owned for years and I've always wanted to find a group to play it but being out of print finding others that owned it has been damn near impossible. Now that Flying Buffalo is putting it back in print I may be able to find that elusive MSPE gaming group ;)

Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes RPG was first published in 1983 by Flying Buffalo Inc. MSPE (as it came to be known) allowed players to run rpg adventures from the 1800's all the way to the modern era, ranging from Victorian steampunk, and crime noir, to super spy thrilllers in the cold war. Michael Stackpole wrote the MSPE role playing game, using the Tunnels & Trolls framework as a jumping off point.  

In 1986, Flying Buffalo took a hit from an unrelated disaster, and sold the rights of MSPE to Sleuth Publications. They came out with an edition that had a black & white cover, and they left out a few things that Buffalo had included, and inserted a few new things that weren't in the Buffalo edition. The last existing copies of the Sleuth edition have sold out, so now Flying Buffalo is printing a third (Combined Edition of MSPE) which includes all the material that was in both editions!  

The Combined Edition: What's in it? The new edition will contain all the original text and art from the Flying Buffalo and Sleuth editions.  From the Buffalo edition, we will use the amazing painted cover and will include the Tunnels & Thompsons section (which was not in the Sleuth edition) along with some missing art. We have also made various corrections to the rules text that have been found by players and fans over the years.

Shit, looks like even I need the new edition.

18 bucks for the print plus PDF (free shipping in the US), 25 if you want a signed edition. Decisions decisions...

But it damn it! I want to play some MSPE!

edit - in for the Hardcover at 55

Dungeon Crawl Classics #87.5: Grimtooth's Museum of Death for ONE BUCK Through July 17th

Just got the email and figured I'd share it out.

Goodman Games has partnered with Flying Buffalo to publish all-new material by Grimtooth the Troll! That’s right, THAT Grimtooth, the one who trapped your dungeons in the 80s! He’s back with Grimtooth’s Trapsylvania, a Kickstarter running right now. And to celebrate Trapsylvania, Goodman Games is offering the adventure Dungeon Crawl Classics #87.5: Grimtooth’s Museum of Death for only ONE DOLLAR!

Can you survive DCC #87.5: Grimtooth’s Museum of Death? This entertaining dungeon crawl is the crossover you’ve always wanted: the legendary Grimtooth the Troll meets Dungeon Crawl Classics! This adventure module is written under DCC RPG rules and is officially licensed by Flying Buffalo to include Grimtooth. The evil troll Grimtooth has finally thrown wide the gates of his castle to all comers. Of course, there is a catch. The adventurers must wind their way through a maze of traps in Grimtooth’s Museum of Death, a curated collection of the deadliest and most devious traps ever assembled in one place!

This 28-page adventure is only ONE DOLLAR until next Tuesday!

Yep, there's an affiliate link up above. Help keep the taps flowing and the lights burning at The Tavern by using our affiliate links.

Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes now available in PDF (Tunnels & Trolls meets James Bond)

If ever there was a game that I regret never having played, its Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes. I own the boxed set and I've been psyched for YEARS to play it, but alas. it simply hasn't happened. I can say the same about Tunnels & Trolls itself, but at least there are a ton of solo adventures your can use with T&T. Heck, there are a ton of solos I've soloed ;)

Still, any game written by Michael Stackpole is probably going to be good. This is no exception. Now to dig my boxed set out of storage.

The PDF of Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes is $6.95 at OBS. Print copies are available at the Flying Buffalo site for 10 bucks.

Remember kids, buying via The Tavern's RPGNow affiliate links helps keep the virtual taps flowing.

edit - there IS a MS&PE solo adventure! Need to snag it.

edit2 - MS&PE is currently the #2 best seller at RPGNow

So, yesterday afternoon I packed my bag real quick for a weekend in the Poconos.  I like to pack light (because everyone else in the car tends to pack heavy), and i wanted to get some T&T solo gaming in this weekend so I grabbed the T&T 7.5e boxed set and some of the Corgi T&T books.

I could have gone even lighter if I had left the 7.5e behind.  I forgo that the Corgi books have a nearly complete T&T ruleset included in each one.  They really are a great buy, especially if one wants to test out the system for cheap with a physical book.  If you can't find them in a used bookstore, Flying Buffalo still as them cheap.  Most are actually two solo adventures and the rules, so it's a great bargain.