Flying Buffalo

History

Flying Buffalo Inc. was founded in January 1970. That year, Rick Loomis invented a game called Nuclear Destruction, a play-by-mail game, for which he moderated multiplayer games. Nuclear Destruction started the professional PBM industry. He soon had more than 200 players involved across multiple games, and asked fellow soldier Steve MacGregor to write a computer program to help moderate the games; they started renting time on a computer near Fort Shafter, using the name Flying Buffalo devised by Loomis. The name came from Flying Eagle pennies and Buffalo nickels.

After leaving the military in 1972, Rick Loomis incorporated his PBM company as Flying Buffalo, Inc., or FBI. Loomis used his savings to purchase a Raytheon 704 minicomputer to run turns for the PBM games. According to Loomis in 1971, the computer cost $15,000 and had "4000 words of memory ... a teletypewriter, and a paper [tape] reader/punch".

By 1972, Loomis was running over 70 games of Nuclear Destruction, noting some game delays due to challenges with customer communications. Interest continued in Loomis's games with him stating that he was "starting many games a month", including Battle Plan. At this time, there were seven "official, licensed" Nuclear Destruction moderators outside of Flying Buffalo. Also in 1972, Loomis acquired and published Nuclear War; it soon became one of Flying Buffalo's best sellers.

By 1974, Flying Buffalo had added two PBM games—Board of Directors and Moon Base—while offering multiple other tabletop games for sale. These included Alien Space, Battle of Britain, Battle of Chickamauga, and Imperialism. In 1975 they published Tunnels & Trolls, a fantasy role playing game generally similar to Dungeons & Dragons, and Viva!: Revolution in Mexico, a board wargame. Later products included background materials for fantasy role playing games, which became the "Catalyst" series. In 1976 the company started running a space exploration/conquest PBM game titled Starweb. In 1978 they purchased a board wargame titled Schutztruppe from game designer Jim Bumpas. Also in 1978 the company began publishing Sorcerer's Apprentice. The company's gross sales in 1978 was $125,000 with expenses at $130,000.

In 1980, the company stated that it had more than 3,000 players worldwide. The staff reached its largest size of over 21 employees in 1983. The company also ran a gaming store at various locations in Tempe, Arizona until 1985. In 1985, Flying Buffalo reached a milestone, assigning its 10,000th account number. The company noted that, although account No. 1 went to its founder, Rick Loomis, account No. 10,000 went to a customer from Athens, Alabama.

In 1992, the fiction book Mage's Blood and Old Bones: A Tunnels & Trolls Shared World Anthology was published by Flying Buffalo.

In July 2021, Webbed Sphere purchased Flying Buffalo Inc. and as part of the acquisition, in 2023 Flying Buffalo’s entire line of roleplaying games was taken over by Rebellion. Until the acquisition, Flying Buffalo had been the oldest pen-and-paper role-playing game publisher still in operation (following the dissolution of TSR in 1997).

The PBM games were not included in the sale and a separate company, Rick Loomis PBM Games, continues to run nine PBM games originally published by Flying Buffalo, including Heroic Fantasy, Nuclear Destruction, Starweb, and others.

In May 2023, Rebellion Unplugged acquired all of Flying Buffalo's RPG products. The company announced its intention to continue to offer digital versions of these products, including Tunnels & Trolls.

Play-by-mail games

Flying Buffalo noted in their 14-years history to 1985, some of their PBM games had been run hundreds of times each, including over 870 games of Starweb, 930 of Battle Plan, and 720 of Nuclear Destruction.}} The company published various play-by-mail games.

• Battle Plan
• Board of Directors
• Covert Operations
• Diplomacy
• Election Year
• Feudal Lords
• Galactic Conflict
• Heroic Fantasy
• Illuminati
• Lizards!
• Mobius I
• Moon Base
• Nuclear Destruction
• Nuclear War
• Raumkrieg
• Riftlords
• Riftwars
• Space Battle
• Starlord
• Starweb
• Time Trap
• Treacherous Trajan's Trap
• World Wide Battle Plan
• 1939 World Wide Battle Plan

Other products

The company produced a range of unusual dice such as Runedice, as well 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 company also produced a beta version of a video game called Buffalo Tales.

Awards

Various Flying Buffalo games have won awards.

• Ace of Aces. 1981 winner Charles Roberts/Origins Gamers Choice of 1980 and was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1994.
• Citybook I, 1982
• Illuminati PBM game won best Play By Mail Game. 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993,
• Nuclear Proliferation, 1992
• Nuclear Escalation, Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1983
• Stormhaven, Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1983
• Starweb, Best Play By Mail Game 1984, 1997, 2003, and 2006.
• Wargamers Information, 1990

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.
• Michael Stackpole, 1993.
• Elizabeth T. Danforth, 1995.
• Ken St. Andre, 2018.

Notes

References

References

1. . (1993). "PBM Company Listing". *Paper Mayhem*.
2. . (1993). "PBM Company Listing". *Paper Mayhem*.
3. Shannon Appelcline. (2011). "Designers & Dragons". Mongoose Publishing.
4. Townsend, Jim. (1988). "The PBM Corner". White Wolf Publishing.
5. Wichner, David. (August 12, 1991). "Flying Buffalo rounds up players Moves mailed to fantasy game entrepreneur". [[Phoenix Gazette]].
6. Loomis, Rick. (May 1974). "Survey Results".
7. Loomis, Rick. (October 1984). "Golden Anniversary".
8. Loomis, Rick. (October 1984). "The Flying Buffalo's Favorite Magazine: Issue #1 [Reprint]".
9. Loomis, Rick. (October 1984). "Golden Anniversary".
10. Loomis, Rick. (November 1972). "(([Cover Story]))".
11. Loomis, Rick. (November 1972). "(([Cover Story]))".
12. Loomis, Rick. (May 1974). "(([Cover Story]))".
13. "Schutztruppe: East African Guerilla Warfare, 1914–1918 (1975)".
14. Johnson, Forrest. (May–June 1980). "A Guide to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Game Publishers".
15. Loomis, Rick. (June 1979). "Editorial".
16. Flying Buffalo, Inc.. (August–September 1980). "StarWeb".
17. Appelcline, Shannon. (2014). "Designers & Dragons: The '70s". [[Evil Hat Productions]].
18. Flying Buffalo. (Jan–Feb 1985). "Gameline – News and Items: Flying Buffalo Assigns 10,000th Account Number".
19. "Mage's blood & old bones : A tunnels and trolls shared world anthology".
20. Jeffrey Dohm-Sanchez. (August 4, 2021). "Webbed Sphere, Inc. Acquires Flying Buffalo, Inc.". ICv2.
21. (April 17, 2023). "Rebellion acquires influential Tunnels & Trolls roleplaying game".
22. . (August 2021). ["Flying Buffalo Has Been Sold"](http://rickloomispbm.com/). *Rick Loomis PBM*.
23. (May 10, 2023). "Rebellion acquires trailblazing Tunnels & Trolls RPG - Rebellion Unplugged". Rebellion Unplugged.
24. (June 1979). "Back Issues".
25. Charles Mosteller. (January 6, 2011). "PBM Boneyard". PlayByMail.net.
26. Trunzo, James V.. (April 1994). "The Silicon Dungeon".
27. "Awards we have won". Flying Buffalo.
28. "Origins/Charles Roberts Award Winners (1980)". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design.
29. "Origins Award Winners (1993)". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design.
30. "Origins Game Fair Winners 1982". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
31. "Origins Game Fair Winners 1990". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
32. "Origins Game Fair Winners 1991". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
33. "Origins Game Fair Winners 1992". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
34. "Origins Game Fair Winners 1997". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
35. "Origins Game Fair Winners 1983". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
36. "Origins Game Fair Winners 1984". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
37. "Origins Game Fair Winners 2000". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
38. "Origins Game Fair Winners 2003". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
39. "Origins Game Fair Winners 2006". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
40. "AAGAD Hall of Fame Award 1988". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
41. "AAGAD Hall of Fame Award 1993". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
42. "AAGAD Hall of Fame Award 1995". GAMA – Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.
43. "Len St Andre Inducted in the Origins Awards Hall of Fame".