Introduction

My fourth foray into the world of game design resulted in a small colorful boardgame called "Where the Grimmits Live". (It took two decades to change the name to Fire & Ice). My best friend insisted it should be called "Where the Grimmits Grow", but I stood my ground and shot it off to TSR's Dragon Magazine after a dozen or so playtests. I felt that this game, unlike Minotaur Madness, was small enough (gameboard and rules) to compliment their magazine. To make the game familiar to them, I tried to continue the tradition Tom Wham started (short rules, small board, cartoony), and "Where the Grimmits Live" fit this mold perfectly. The cover of the rulebook even included comic book format story (my art style, not Wham's) and had a nice box cover design, but was poorly typeset on my old typewriter. Though rather primitive, the game mechanics and personality still make me smile to this day. The game had great potential if you looked deep enough, but lacked the polish of my later products.

I actually came up with the idea while making the complicated 3D game board for Minotaur Madness. The two games are linked in another way. Originally, Minotaur Madness required players to discover how to unplug the volcano in the middle of the game board to finish off the Minotaurs' reign of terror. That idea was scrapped early on, but the idea of battling over a volcano lived on in "Where the Grimmits Live," and even included two monster races that were also in Minotaur Madness.

Over the years I have revisited this game because I love the game board and concept - two races battling for control of a volcano - and even moreso, because of the game's personality and game mechanics. Now it's called Fire & Ice, and after a half dozen rewrites and a number of playtests, I am finally happy with it (er, 98% happy). I'll do significatntly more playtests in the days ahead - you can never have too many. The rules are smoother, the art is many times better and it has much greater market potential. There's really only two hurdles left: Should I keep the original cartoony look and feel (updated with new graphics of course) or give it more attitude?

The only other concern - and this one's a biggy - do people play boardgames anymore? Yes, yes, of course they do, but unlike the 1980's, we live in an increasingly impatient world of flashing images, instant gratification and "why read a book when you can watch it on DVD?" Our kids are used to XBox and Gameboy, and strobe effect toons and commercials. With all that said, Fire & Ice is "new and improved," with a faster pace and more professional appearance, and I'm tickled to death with it! I am not going to let it rot on a shelf - it's a great game and I will probably pursue it commercially some time in the future. Till then, I think I'll call my friends over to play. Keep an eye open, cause one day ... Wham! You just might see an advertisement for Fire & Ice ... and I think ... you just might be surprised how fun boardgames can be ....

Did anybody "important" ever see Fire & Ice?

Yes: TSR's Dragon Magazine (Now owned by Wizards of the Coast, makers of D&D). Finishing Fire & Ice before Minotaur Madness, I decided to submit it, typos and all - it was just the best I could do at that point in my life (I was about 17 at the time). Months crawled by and then I received a form letter from Dragon Magazine stating "Where the Grimmits Live" was "too Tom Whamish." There was that name again! It brought both pleasure and angst to hear the name of the "other cartoony game designer". I'd always liked Wham's style, partially because I identified with his wacky concepts and enjoyed cartooning myself. My game and art style were quite different than his, but the game was dead in the water as a magazine insert game. I seem to recall queering other manufacturers, but the companies I was familiar with all made role-playing games and weren't interested in seeing a boardgame. Several years would pass by before I learned the importance of timing, marketing strategy, minimizing production costs and a host of other vital factors that were must haves if one wanted even a slight chance of becoming successful. I was young and this was my first submission. My family told me I should take the "Tom Whamish" comment as a compliment, since he was very popular at the time. Instead, I groaned and went back to making Minotaur Madness, another "cartoony" game. This time, however, I spent more time on graphic presentation and editing. Why am I maintaining the copyright to this cool game? Because it's hot! (OK, cheap pun, but as I said earlier, this one may be on the burner, but it'll be done soon!)