PDF of Interview with Lou Zocchi
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Colonel Lou Zocchi: the creator of the 100-sided die, “the original dice guy,” professional magician, and inductee in the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame. Page 4 An Interview With Colonel Lou Zocchi olonel Lou Zocchi is the creator of the 100-sided die, “the original - C ture Gaming Hall of Fame. In this entertaining interview, he tells how he became one of the earliest distributors of Dungeons & Dragons, how TSR lost $8 million manufacturing dice, how he created a 79-sided Colonel Lou Zocchi has been active published an improved and expanded When you frst bought D&D, it came in the game industry since the early version of Tegal Manor. And of course, in a wood-grain box and had no dice. 1960’s. He has been a game designer, he has designed, published, and sold These wood-grain boxes were origi- publisher, and distributor. Many role- wargames for decades. nally intended to sell pantyhose, and players know him through his infuen- In this interview, DCC RPG creator TSR got them at a good price when the tial work on dice manufacturing. His Joseph Goodman asks Lou to tell us manufacturer in Milwaukee couldn’t company Gamescience produced the a little more about his role in forming move them. As a reseller of D&D, one original precision dice, and Mr. Zoc- the industry we know today. This in- of the things I quickly learned was chi himself created and patented the terview is transcribed from a series of that if I didn’t have dice, I couldn’t sell 100-sided die, which he trademarked phone calls conducted in late 2014. the games I had purchased. When I as the Zocchihedron. Gamescience was bought 100 copies of D&D from Gary, the most prominent reseller (and in- Hi Lou. Thanks for talking with me to- the frst thing I had to do was get on ventor) of many unusual dice shapes, day. First, can you tell me about your the telephone and call Creative Pub- including the d3, d5, d14, d16, and earliest involvement in adventure lications, a school supply company in d24, all of which were utilized by Jo- gaming as a fan, before you gained Palo Alto, California. They were the seph Goodman in the Dungeon Crawl only ones who had polyhedrons. If I Classics Role Playing Game. Well, I had been selling my own game waited a day I couldn’t get the dice, Although Lou is known best for dice, Alien Space. Because there were blank because Gary would have ordered his experience in the industry is vast. spaces in it, I got letters from other them, and then I would have to wait a He was designing wargames before people who had self-published. They week until the next shipload came in. Dungeons & Dragons was created. He said, “Why aren’t you selling my I kept writing to Creative Publications contributed to the earliest publications things in your game?” One of those to get a more reliable price and sup- of Guidon Games, original publisher people was Gary Gygax. I regarded ply. “Why don’t you sell me a barrel of Chainmail and early employer of Gary as a friend, even though I hadn’t of 4’s, a barrel of 6’s, a barrel of 8’s, Gary Gygax before TSR. In the 1970s, met him. He had written some com- and so on,” I asked the owner. “That he was one of the earliest distributors plimentary things about Alien Space. way I can assemble the sets myself.” of Dungeons & Dragons. He bought When he brought out D&D, I gath- The owner was named Dale Seymour. and re-sold wood-grain editions of ered some information about it, and He wrote me a letter saying he was D&D directly from Gary Gygax in the put the information about D&D in the burned out with me trying to get a bet- earliest days of the hobby. Lou found- empty spaces in Alien Space as I sold ter price. “If you want a better price, ed Zocchi Distribution and for de- them. Eventually I had so many things then make them yourself,” he said. about other self-published items in the cades was one of the leading distribu- Well, I had a friend from high school tors of game products in the US. After game, I had to print a separate page and insert it, and it kept growing. and we played in a band together. He Judges Guild closed its doors, Zocchi played accordion and I played gui- Page 5 noticed I had quite a few works that When I bought 100 copies of D&D from gave me information about the order of battle. I then worked at designing a Gary, the first thing I had to do was get game that would simulate the Battle of on the telephone and call Creative Publica- Britain. I succeeded. “ Strategy & Tactics was coming out of tions, a school supply company in Palo Alto, Japan, published by Chris Wagner. I California. They were the only ones who had asked Chris if he would be interest- ed in playtesting my Battle of Britain polyhedrons. If I waited a day I couldn’t get game. I sent him a copy. He wrote me back and said he liked it. He had an the dice, because Gary would have ordered advertiser who was selling a game them, and then I would have to wait a week called Confrontation. “If you have no problem, we will connect you with until the next shipload came in.” our advertiser Phil Orbanes,” he said. He sent a prototype to Orbanes, whose company Gamescience was planning a Battle of Britain game they hadn’t tar. I visited him while I was on leave play chess and 90% enjoy science fc- written yet. They were interested in from the Air Force base where I was tion. I was playing lots of chess, and publishing mine. stationed. I showed him one of the when I was in Japan I saw in the Sears dice that came from Taiwan. I said, & Roebuck catalogue a game called I put up $2,000 to have it published. “Can you make something like this?” Gettysburg. I thought, “Why would Orbanes would pay me back out of the He said, “Yeah, but those people work you play this game if the South always game sales. Phil took his game Con- for ffty dollars a week and we work loses?” Well, it turns out you didn’t frontation, along with Battle of Britain, for twenty dollars an hour. I can’t have to lose as the Southern player. If to the Chicago Hobby Show. There he compete on price. But this die is made you play an aggressive Southern side spoke with a man named Casey who from the cheapest and most frangible you can gobble up the Northern forces had a group called The Allstate In- plastic. I know a formula for dice that before they can win. vestors Group, which owned Renwal will work, and be durable, and they Models. When Casey saw Battle of Brit- I had been buying games from Milton ain, he made an offer to publish it. will soldier on year after year.” Bradley and Parker Brothers. They I gave him money for molding tools were all the same. You roll the dice Renwal had invested a lot of money in and he made the dice. We sold each and go the indicated number of clouds something called the Living Pigeon. It die for $1 for a single 20-sider, when and then you win the game. It was the was 3-D model of a pigeon. You could you could get a complete set of Taiwan same stuff, over and over and over. take it apart and see its muscles, skel- dice for $1.50. But players knew those But in Gettysburg, infantry marched at eton, internal organs, and so on. There cheaper dice would self-destruct after the rate they really marched in real life. weren’t that many pigeon buffs who 6 months and be ineffective as a ran- Everybody comes on to the board at were buying it up. And it cost them a dom number generator. the same time they came on in history. fortune to make all the intricate tools to ft all those parts in the cavity if the - You have the option of launching an attack or not launching an attack. The pigeon. They needed something else. duced for Guidon Games, future They published Battle of Britain, and ran Chainmail. more you out-number an enemy force before you make an attack, the bet- 25,000 copies of the game. Then they Guidon was the name of the company. ter your chances of destroying them. gave Phil Orbanes a job on their design Do you know what a guidon is? It was a very playable game. Even staff when he graduated from college. No. though there were historical errors in I thought you founded Gamescience! the order of battle, it opened the game - A guidon is a little triangular shaped concept for everyone else. Charles fag at top of pole that troops can see Roberts was the frst to fgure out how and know to rally on that point. At Well, it turned out that Mr. Casey’s to do it. Nobody else had games to do least they did during the Civil War. view was that they would sell little it that way at that time.