Flying Buffalo

Flying Buffalo Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Role-playing game publisher, Play-by-mail game moderator
Founded	1970
Headquarters	Scottsdale, Arizona
Key people	Rick Loomis,
Products	Tunnels & Trolls
Website	www.flyingbuffalo.com

Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a Scottsdale, Arizona game company that publishes role playing games, card games, gaming materials, and runs play-by-mail games.

History[]

In 1970 Rick Loomis invented a game called Nuclear Destruction, a play-by-mail game, for which he moderated multiplayer games.^[1]:34 Nuclear Destruction is widely considered to be the first commercial play-by-mail (PBM) game. He soon had more than 200 players in multiple games, and asked fellow soldier to write a computer program to moderate the games; they began renting time on a computer near Fort Shafter, using the name Flying Buffalo devised by Loomis.^[1]:34[2] After leaving the military in 1972, Loomis and MacGregor incorporated their PBM company as Flying Buffalo, Inc., or FBI.^[1]:34 Loomis and MacGregor pooled their savings to purchase a Raytheon 704 minicomputer to run PBM turns.^[1]:35 In 1976 the company started running a space exploration/conquest PBM game titled Starweb.

Flying Buffalo has also published games outside of PBM. Loomis acquired Nuclear War and began publishing it in 1972; it soon became one of Flying Buffalo's best sellers.^[1]:35 In 1975 they published Tunnels & Trolls, a fantasy role playing game generally similar to Dungeons & Dragons. Later products included background materials for fantasy role playing games, which became the "Catalyst" series. They also produce a range of unusual dice, such as a set to determine which toppings to order on pizza, and currently hold the printing rights to the Ace of Aces and Lost Worlds flip book systems. The staff reached its largest size of over 21 employees in 1983.^[3]:2529 The company also ran a gaming store at various locations in Tempe, Arizona until 1985.

In 1992, the fiction book Mage's Blood and Old Bones: A Tunnels & Trolls Shared World Anthology was published by Flying Buffalo.^[4] Following the dissolution of TSR in 1997, Flying Buffalo remains the oldest pen-and-paper role-playing game publisher in the world.^[3]:115

In July 2021, purchased Flying Buffalo Inc. with plans for Flying Buffalo to join its existing product lines.^[5]

List of games[]

• Ace of Aces
• Catalyst
• Heroic Fantasy
• Imperialism
• Illuminati
• Lost Worlds
• Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes
• Monsters! Monsters!
• Nuclear War
• Starfaring
• Starweb
• Tunnels & Trolls

Awards[]

Various Flying Buffalo games have won awards.^[6]

• . 1981 winner Charles Roberts/Origins Gamers Choice of 1980^[7] and was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1994.^[8]
• Citybook I, 1982^[9]
• Illuminati PBM game won best Play By Mail Game. 1990,^[10] 1991,^[11] 1992,^[12] 1993,^[12] 1994, and 1995 and was put in the Hall of Fame in 1997.^[13]
• Nuclear Proliferation, 1992^[12]
• Nuclear Escalation, Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1983^[14]
• Stormhaven, Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1983^[14]
• Starweb, Best Play By Mail Game 1984,^[15] 1997,^[13] 2000,^[16] 2003,^[17] and 2006.^[18]
• Wargamers Information, 1990^[10]

The Origins Hall of Fame award is given to game designers who have the best contributions of their field. Multiple Flying Buffalo writers and designers have won this award.

• Rick Loomis, 1988.^[19]
• Michael Stackpole, 1993.^[20]
• Elizabeth T. Danforth, 1995.^[21]
• Ken St. Andre, 2018.^[22]

See also[]

• List of play-by-mail games

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Scott Thorne (August 9, 2021). "Rolling for Initiative -- The Fall of 'Innistrad' and the Future of Flying Buffalo". ICv2. Retrieved September 1, 2021.