By Mike, creator of GHOULASH™

GHOULASH™, the game that is the raison d'etre for this very Web site, is the culmination of almost 25 years of development.

(Dramatic pause.)

OK, so I've made it sound much more serious (and pretentious -- raison d'etre?) than it really was. It's not as if I was chained to my drawing table for two decades, feverishly drawing grid after grid, waiting for the Internet to be developed so I could foist my creation upon the public. But I've allowed myself the delusion that it was, at least, partly like that.

The original envelope, front and rear, from the 1982 version.

Here's how it happened: I first developed GHOULASH™ back in 1982, made a valiant, though woefully under-funded, attempt to market it, then left it on a shelf to languish for 15 years while I went about my life and career, all the while concocting various ways to resurrect it. In 1997 I dusted it off, with the intention of publishing it in book form, then got sidetracked for three more years. In the meantime, I became a professional Web developer, which convinced me that the best way to publish my game would be on the Wonderful World Wide Web (the WWWW, as it were).

Now, GHOULASH™ is back, a blend of the low-tech (it's played entirely on paper) and the high-tech (I assume you're reading this on a computer). For those who are interested, here's a look back at the infancy of The Last Game on Earth.

Normally in a written history of something, you begin with that lightning bolt moment of inspiration that first brought the concept to the creator's mind.

Unfortunately it was almost 25 years ago; I can't remember that far back. In fact, I'll be lucky if I can find the keys I put down a half-hour ago. All I know is that at some point in 1982 I came up with the idea of producing a partly satirical game that would boil the elements of video games (such as they were in 1982), adventure games and role-playing games down to a form that could be played entirely on paper, with no pieces, dice, spinners or other extra elements.

Inspired by the 1979 film "Dawn of the Dead," I decided that ghouls would be the main antagonists in my game, and indeed, the early concept of the Ghouls was much like the Romero-esque, undead zombie creatures.

(At this point, in the interest of full disclosure, I must clarify the term "inspired by." You see, I've never actually seen "Dawn of the Dead," nor its predecessor, "Night of the Living Dead," nor its sequel, "Day of the Dead." I don't like scary movies. But my two roommates at the time did see "Dawn" and described it to me in great detail. That was my inspiration.)

At some early stage of creation, I wrote in my notes the word "ghoulish," and when I looked at it again I somehow saw the word "ghoulash," and that's how the name came about.

GHOULASH™ became an obsessive project, into which I dragged my friends and family as playtesters. Considering that many of the early games could drag on to three hours or more, these playtesting sessions attested to their true friendship.

The original city chart, which filled an 8 1/2-by-11 sheet of paper.

My goal was to create a role-playing type scenario in which each player would be the Game Master for the other. In that aspect it was much like the old notebook paper version of Battleship. Not the plastic peg, store-bought version; I'm talking about the old, old version we used to play in school using grids that we drew on sheets of paper. Rather than one player being the GM and preparing the events and traps for the other, each player would be a GM and each player would get to play.

The first GHOULASH™ game grids were modeled on the maps that role-players used to chart their progress through an adventure. There were streets and buildings and rubble and debris and even tunnels, parks and hills, all on an 8 1/2-by-11 sheet of paper.

Those early versions featured such elements as roaming packs of dogs, scavengers and even cars that you could drive around the city (all on paper, of course). And Ghouls. There always were Ghouls.

From those early anything-goes prototypes, the game became simpler and more compact with each new version. The dogs were eliminated. Cars were deemed too complicated. Another early concept that was nixed was the time chart. A grid below the city chart was marked in 10-minute segments. After each move, another time box was marked off. After a certain "time" in the game (most likely midnight; I can't remember now), the Ghouls would come out in force! But it was too much work. (Some of these concepts will be reborn in future GHOULASH™ scenarios.)

Page 1 of the 1982 rules. Back then the rules were four pages long.

Eventually the "game board" became a rather simple, though sizable, grid of streets and buildings. Unlike the current incarnation of GHOULASH™, there was but one scenario: Players would leave the Shelter in the center of the city and search for food. Food, in that first version, was indicated by the numbers 1 through 10, hidden throughout the city. The numbers represented pounds of food, 1 pound, 2 pounds, etc. The object of the game was to be the first player to find 30 pounds of food and return to the Shelter.

Along with first-aid kits, available supplies included flares and ammo clips (players had "real" rifles and pistols in that first version, not just Ghoo Ghuns). On the Tally Chart, players kept track of how many supplies they could carry in their "pockets." Boxes on the chart represented theplayer's pockets, which they could "fill" with whatever supplies were on hand. The strategy was to figure out what supplies were most important at any particular time.

There was a lot of erasing in this first version. Players could restock their pockets by erasing the previous contents and writing in the new. Also, the Tally Chart featured only one Ghoul Battle Box. After a Ghoul Battle, the attacking player simply erased the weak spot mark until the next fight.

(Some elements of the original 1982 version remain in the 2000 version. For instance, the drawing of the Ghoul in the Ghoul Battle Boxes is the same one used in the original, with a few modifications. The main GHOULASH™ logo remains pretty much the same; only now it's in color.)

The original Tally Chart. The 12 boxes in the lower left represented the player's "pockets."

Over the years I've experimented with different variations in the placement of Ghouls. Originally, players indicated Ghoul Attack Spots with exclamation points. Later, when I revised the game, I tried a variation in which Ghouls were not hidden with other obstacles; Ghoul Attacks were spontaneous, at the attacker's whim. This was fun, but ultimately I returned to the hiding of Ghouls.

There wasn't much to the packaging and marketing of that first version. I simply had envelopes printed -- black and white only -- into which I packed enough charts for 10 games. Each packet sold for $6. I launched it locally with the help of a friend who owned a downtown game store. The local newspaper ran a story on my new game. (More full disclosure: I was, and still am, an employee of the newspaper.)

My friend organized an autograph session at his game store, where I inscribed the game envelopes with "Thanks. And Enjoy." One of the friends who helped me playtest GHOULASH™ was there, and laughed every time I signed another game. To this day he kids me about that being the dorkiest thing he's ever seen anyone add to an autograph.

I mailed review copies out to various publications. One magazine, the now-defunct Adventure Gaming, gave GHOULASH™ a very favorable review. (Even more full disclosure: While I feel the review was sincere and would have run anyway, the publisher did convince me to buy an ad on the facing page.)

This photo accompanied the story about GHOULASH™ in the local paper.

The game sold in the handfuls. I think perhaps about 12. A game store in Australia asked for a sample copy; for all I know, it's still being photocopied down there.

This early foray into game publishing only convinced me that, while GHOULASH™ was a fun game, it defied a practical marketing solution. To wit: Once someone bought the packet of charts, there was nothing to keep them from running down to the local copy store (such as they were in 1982) and running off a few dozen copies for a mere fraction of the cost of the game.

So, I shelved the game until I could think of a more practical way to market it.

My family, career and dozens of other creative projects kept GHOULASH™ to a far back burner, but occasionally I would pull it out and play it and mull some alternate forms.

Around 1997, I noticed in my original notes a marginal thought: If and when GHOULASH™ got off the ground, expand the franchise by developing other city grids with, perhaps, supplements to the original rules.

That note led to the next evolutionary step for GHOULASH™: According to the plan, instead of one scenario, there would be many, packaged in book form, like those crossword puzzle or word search books you buy at the supermarket. Every so often, I would come out with new play books.

That new concept inspired me to again work on the game in earnest. By this time my son Joe was 13, and he was enlisted to help me playtest. The project went along fine until another professional project took precedence. The book form wouldn't be happening. I shelved GHOULASH™ again.

In 2000 I returned to the game. By this time the game had undergone a massive overhaul. I worked hard to make the action faster and the game itself more strategic. Again, elements were set aside in the interest of simplicity.

The size of the grids was reduced. Instead of requiring three charts to play, a player needed only two. The rules were edited down to three pages.

Also by this time, as I mentioned at the outset, I was a professional Web designer. One day, as I was considering how much it would actually cost to produce the kind of play book I was hoping for, it occurred to me: Why not just give it away on the Web and see what happens?

The new, streamlined version was posted in 2000. But I still wasn't satisfied. My goal was to create a fast, fun game that could be picked up by a new player in only minutes. The "new" version, with two charts and three pages of rules, just wasn't it.

So, I literally went back to the drawing board and worked on an even faster grid style and realized, in one of those "eureka" moments, that I could get both grids, Movement and Obstacle, on one chart, as well as the Briefing, Ghoul Battle Boxes and Wound Meters. The movement style was changed; instead of players only able to move a certain number of squares per turn, they could now move freely, stopping only when they encountered an item, obstacle or Ghoul.

Best of all, the rules were rewritten from scratch. They now fit on one page!

For the next few years, all of the scenarios were available for free on the Web site. For a while I maintained a registration system in order to access the downloads. By the time I discontinued the registration requirement, more than 1,000 players from across the globe had registered. There are GHOULASH™ players not only in every U.S. state, but also in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Sweden, Belgium, Kenya, Hungary, Peru, Russia, China, Japan, South Africa, Lithuania, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Chile, Finland, Germany, Holland, Mexico, Argentina, Pakistan, Scotland, Bulgaria, France, India, Brazil, Ireland, Malta and Iceland!

Joe, left, and yours truly, with friend, today.

After several years of offering the scenarios for free, I decided to try once again to market them, via the Web site. I experimented with various ways of offering the scenarios for sale -- selling downloads of the PDF files, for instance -- until some gamers told me that their preferred method of distribution was -- believe it or not -- pre-printed charts. That way they didn't have to worry about printer settings or make trips to the local Kinkos; they could just keep a stack of scenarios ready in their backpacks or tucked within their stacks of D&D manuals to play between campaigns.

So, the latest method of marketing the game is in Scenario Packs, collections of scenarios in booklets of pre-printed Scenario Charts. And finally they're being presented in stores in the form I had envisioned in the late '90s, in booklets of pre-printed scenario collections.

(Joe, by the way, is in his 20s and is now my full partner in the GHOULASH™ enterprise.)

I hope you like the game. Whether you like it or whether you don't, I hope you'll drop me a line, to Mike@ghoulash.com, and tell me about it.

Thanks. And enjoy.