Image courtesy pixabay.com/GermanLopezR,
Stars, shadows, & highlights by Mike

One of the side-effects of some of the medication that I’ve been prescribed is that I have unusually vivid dreams. Some of these have solved plot problems in my games, others have suggested articles for Campaign Mastery (almost word-for-word), some have just been fun. Perhaps unusually, some have been serial episodes, continuing a dream sequence begun months or even years earlier.

Until I began taking this medication, I rarely remembered my dreams on waking, and the few that I did recall persist in my memory for decades. For example, when I was about 12, I dreamed that I had worked out how to fly, superman-style. I can still remember vividly the effortless push at the small of my back, the sensation of soaring out over the front yard at my Grandmother’s home, the visual stimulation of chasing the sunset as the last rays of sunlight ascended skyward through the clouds…

As a result of both these phenomena, I tend to pay attention when I dream. Which brings me to one night last week, when I was making my final plans for this tenth anniversary. I dreamed that I was attending a Christmas party at Stephen Tunnicliff‘s, accompanied by a number of mutual friends, and he demanded that I “bring out the Trivia Quiz”. I replied that since I hadn’t expected to be at the party (true, since he died of a heart attack some years ago), I hadn’t prepared one. He, and several of the other attendees, insisted quite pointedly that this was not good enough, so I shrugged, said, “if you insist,” and got on with creating one on the spot.
Celebrating Campaign Mastery's 10th Birthday!

(When the gamer’s group with whom I played, the NSW Wargamers, were meeting at Woodstock, a council building that we rented for playing RPGs and board games, I produced a number of trivia quiz tournaments that ran alongside the games being played – each week, I would put up ten or twenty questions, and after everyone had submitted their answers, post the results and the correct solutions. There were even times when people who had no game to play would turn up just for the Trivia Quiz! So there is a past association between the quiz and RPGs. And Stephen regularly hosted both Christamas and New Year’s parties. Anyway…)

Upon awakening, I immediately scribbled down a couple of questions. And then a few more. And then some more. And… well you get the idea. So, in memory of my friend, here is The Great Campaign Mastery Trivia Quiz! Answers will be posted in about a month.

Some of these are easy, some are very obscure or even fiendishly tricky. Some are fantasy-oriented, some sci-fi, some derive from RPGs, some from media, some from real-life science or history – and some from Campaign Mastery. Maybe.

[Evil Chuckle]

The best I can manage without looking things up is 38 – and I wrote the darned thing!

So have fun, and Season’s Greetings from Campaign Mastery!

Oh, PS: I’ve randomized the question sequence. Getting one question right won’t give you any help with the next…

The Questions:


  1. What is the word that Eliar reads from the Knife in David and Leigh Eddings’ “The Redemption Of Anthalus”, and what is the novel about (two words hyphenated) in a Fantasy context?

     
  2. The third creature whose name starts with a K in the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual.

     
  3. “Eureka”, “Sliders”, and “Space: Above & Beyond” – aside from being TV Sci-Fi series, what do the first episodes of all these shows have in common?

     
  4. In Anne McCaffrey’s “Pern” Sci-fi/Fantasy series, who uses genetic engineering techniques to create the first Dragons?

     
  5. Steve Jackson Games, through the pages of The Space Gamer and later Pyramid poked fun in mocking tones at the failures and foibles of RPG rules from everyone including themselves. In which game system did the strip suggest that 3 people were transported to the God Plane per day, every day, from a typical city population of 10,000?

     
  6. How many shelves of The Essential Reference Library for Pulp have been cataloged so far?

     
  7. If you were to watch the first season of “I Dream Of Jeannie” today, what one thing would be obviously missing or different?

     
  8. There’s one anime “series” that became famous in the late 80s/early 90s amongst the Australian RPG-playing community as exemplifying the power-gamer attitude. What is the English title by which the series is known outside Japan?

     
  9. Name the novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in which a science fiction author is escorted through Hell by Benito Mussolini.

     
  10. Which RPG replaces dead PCs with clones of the original character?

     
  11. In 1120, Henry I of England made peace with Louis VI of France when Henry’s only legitimate son drowned in the sinking of which Ship in the English Channel?

     
  12. The third creature whose name starts with a K in the Pathfinder (1st ed) Bestiary.

     
  • Comedy and Fantasy are not natural bedfellows but there have been numerous attempts at shotgun weddings, of varying success. Name the following three examples:

     

    1. Series of short novels by Robert Asprin and later Jodi Lynn-nye which were originally intended to lampoon the most common fantasy tropes, and which were adapted into comics and a board game, both featuring art by Phil Foglio of “What’s New” fame (for at least part of the run of the comic).

       
    2. Thhis series of stories shows psychologists figuring out how to move from one reality to another, an the first is set amongst the Norse Gods as Ragnerok approaches.

       
    3. A TV series in which a supernatural being marries a mortal.

       
  1. In which Sci-Fi novel was the term “Parallel Worlds” first used, and who was the author?

     
  2. The fourth Feat listed in d20 Future.

     
  3. Jurassic Park, Flash Gordon, Beverly Hills Cop, Batman – which is the oddest one out, and why?

     
  4. In Robert Don Hughes’ “Pelmen the Powershaper” series, who is the merchant who is trying to arrange safe passage for him and his “cargo” past the two-headed dragon when Pelmen turns the heads against one another?

     
  5. One of the space aliens who occasionally appear in The Simpsons shares his name with a prominent Klingon in the original Star Trek series who later reappeared in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (again played by the same actor many decades apart). What is the name of the other one, Backwards?

     
  6. In what way does a scorched-earth policy resemble “I Dream Of Genie?”

     
  7. In retrospect, 1674 was a key year for the British Empire. Why?

     
  8. Name the 1-page original RPG by Mike (of Campaign Mastery), written in unlicensed homage to an animated TV series starring Dick Dastardly, Muttley, and Penelope Pitstop (amongst others) and, more broadly, to the spirit of the great Warner Brothers animated cartoons. (Hint: the final two words are “The RPG”.)

     
  9. Just after Jeremy Clarkson was sacked from Top Gear (technically, asked to resign), the BBC released a never-seen-on-TV Top Gear Special hosted by Richard Hammond and James May in which they investigated motoring “if the worst should ever have happened.” Segments included driving to work in the midst of a simulated nuclear winter, how to make racing fun when there are only two racing drivers left alive, and if there was only one barrel of petrol left on the planet, which cars would each choose for their last-ever drives, and why? – What was the title of this 73-minute special? (Hint: the first two words are “Top Gear”.)

     
  10. Which is often said to be the first RPG to employ a dice pools mechanic?

     
  11. Short Story by Robert A Heinlein in which the owner of a hardware store falls foul of a magic-based protection racket.

     
  12. How many episodes of “My Favorite Martian” are there in the first season of the show?

     
  13. According to the 2014 article at Campaign Mastery, the Envelope is doing what?

     
  14. The fifth skill listed in “Star Trek: The Next Generation RPG” from Last Unicorn Games?

     
  15. The Daleks are arguably the most iconic villains in Dr Who. Why would you be in trouble if you had to spell the word “Daleks” using only the chemical symbols of the elements?

     
  16. In Lyndon Hardy’s “Master Of The Five Magics,” what is the name of the alchemic ointment that Alodar and Saxton seek to make from the formula found in the Iron Fist?

     
  17. Name the famous robot who appeared in the first-ever Columbo mystery?

     
  18. What was the first RPG to represent a product exclusively licensed to the game company?

     
  19. True Or False: There is more oxygen in the top few feet of soil than there is in all the atmosphere above it.

     
  20. Some sources state that no-one knows where the term “Mexican Standoff” originated. Others point to its first use in print in work of fiction from 1871, or to a supposed US Warship that was actually alleged to be a pirate vessel in 1865 – but there is no actual record of the term being used at the time in describing what became, indeed, a Mexican Standoff in the modern meaning of the term. Some suggest the Spanish-American war as a likely source, but with no evidence, while others claim that it is offensive because the term “Mexican” was used at the time as a derogatory term to imply inferior workmanship within the US – even though a Mexican Standoff, being three-way and completely evenly-balanced, is clearly a superior form of a Standoff. Finally, and here’s the question, some sources – without explanation or attribution – claim that the term is slang from another country despite it being quite unlike the usual forms of slang used there. What is the name of that country?

     
  21. What is the title of the sequel to WarGames?

     
  22. In the D&D 3.5 DMG’s example of play, who gets the 6th passage of dialogue?

     
  23. In Andre Norton’s “The Beast Master”, the protagonist has a psychic bonds with an American Black Eagle, a pair of Meerkats, and a great cat crossbreed. I’ve often referenced the novel in thinking about Familiars for D&D. What is the protagonist’s name?

     
  24. Name the Alice Cooper album famous for the extended monologue by Horror legend Vincent Price.

     
  25. According to the the series at Campaign Mastery, a good name is what?

     
  26. According to an interview he gave to Atlas Of Adventure, how many copies of original D&D did Gary Gygax expect to sell when he released it in 1974?

     
  27. Why is the chemical symbol for Potassium a “K”, anyway?

     
  28. The original printing of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” had a subtitle that is now often left off in reprints, so famous has the main title become. What was this subtitle?

     
  29. TV shows are often ‘tweaked’ after the pilot episode airs. What prominent casting change was made after the pilot episode of My Favorite Martian (which was also entitled, “My Favorite Martian”)?

     
  30. In the section “Cross-Fertilizations: Metagenres in SF” in Star Hero from Hero Games, what is the Sixth “Metagenre” listed?

     
  31. Name of the novel in which computers create a simulation of Ragnerok for the entertainment of the population of Muspell’s Planet, and its author.

     
  32. Stargate: SG-1 created a parody of itself as the centerpoint of an episode in their 5th season (I thought it was the 100th episode but didn’t seem to be when I went back and counted – though I may have mis-counted). What is the name shared by both the episode and the spoof TV show?

     
  33. When did Polaris become the North Star?

     
  34. The most powerful weapon in AD&D was arguably the Vorpal Sword. Can you name the poem from which the term Vorpal derives?

     
  35. Name of the novel on which RPGs have become a combination of cosplay, live roleplaying, virtual reality, and special effects, which takes place in a custom-built amusement park?

     

So, there they are! Fifty questions ranging from the easy to the malevolently difficult. You won’t solve all of these with Google…

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