RPGs that time forgot... Fantasy Wargaming

Fantasy Wargaming
Tag Line: The Highest Level of All
Makers: Stein and Day (1981); compiled and edited by one Bruce Galloway, if that is his real name

What is it?
In the running for worst RPG ever made, the ineptly named Fantasy Wargaming is a medieval fantasy role-playing game that prides itself on a level of logic and consistency unavailable in previous books. Uh-huh.

Neat Stuff
-Well, I can't really fault the research on medieval society. I know I've used the book as a reference for historical social classes, for example. It's always good to know that a "pimp" is higher up than a "whore".
-There's a discussion on important fantasy novels (which admits that Lord of the Rings can be hard going, hehe). I wish more generic RPGs took the time to do this, giving you not only avenues of research, but also opening up what (in this case) "fantasy" can be. Of course, it throws it all away by making the rules useful for only one world view.

Bad Stuff
-The rules are incomprehensible. The System of astrological Corresponencies used throughout is ridiculously complex. You'd really have to be an astrologer to really make sense of it.
-In the Sword & Sorcery vein, the rules are also too detailed. Do we really need a mathematical formula to figure out who the party leader is? Well, here it is:
Throw in rules for questioning the leader's decisions, challenges, etc. and you've gotten rid of the pesky trouble of actually ROLE-PLAYING YOUR CHARACTER! Combat and magic are likewise obsessively detailed.
-Bad taste? Sure. Especially if you're sensitive to religious issues. Catholic rituals are reffered to as spells with Mass and Confession costing Mana and giving in-game bonuses, there are rules for becoming a Saint, you can go in for Devil worshipping instead, and comparative ranking of Ethereal hierarchies places the Virgin Mary equal to Beelzebub! Strangely enough, the only religion discussed in detail is Norse mythology.
-But let me add another bullet point to cover even more bad taste decisions: Homosexuality as a "flaw", but Bisexuality as a "quality"; a monster race called "Black Men"; and a discussion on "ethnic mages", i.e. the Jewish Sorcerer (Jewish also a "flaw", by the way). I can't go on.

Quote
"Elephants copulated backwards, pelicans fed their young by digging chunks out of their own breasts, beavers eluded pursuit by biting off their own testicles..." I wouldn't make sentences like that one up, people.

How I've used it
Sadly, this was my very first RPG, and we played it for a couple years. Sorta. This was 9th grade (scary to think the book was in print at least 4 years) and I had an interest in role-playing, but didn't live in a town where they sold any gaming material yet. My understanding was patchy at best. All I owned at that point was Grimtooth's Traps, the original Monster Manual and the original Deities & Demigods. I was also in the Science-Fiction Book Club and so ordered a couple books on role-playing. One was Dicing With Dragons which served as my primer, I think, and the other was Fantasy Wargaming, which served, well, as my first game. Or really, as a template to my first homebrew. We used the character sheet and did our best to make sense of attributes like Piety and Selfishness. We used the "bogey table", upon which more than one Bisexual was rolled, let me tell ya. We used "Mana" to cast spells, working from a list of hundreds of spells mentioned in my only two AD&D books (without working descriptions, just what it sounded like it did). I know we didn't use the combat system, but not what we actually did. It was all improvised and stuck together with duct tape. We played for a long time, everyone had 3 characters, they were all unbalanced in the extreme (one guy had Powerword Kill at level 2, it took exactly the same amount of XP to get from one level to the next no matter where you were, and they all ended up as canonized Demi-Gods with full levels in three classes and maxed stats - some of this as indicated by the rules). Fun though, and that's what matters, right?

In conclusion
It's F.A.T.A.L. without the anal rape. It can be amusing to skim through as an example of how NOT to design an RPG. The System of Correspondencies is an interesting attempt at injecting medieval color, but it's totally inefficient at doing so. In a weird way, it's a sort of ancestor to Ars Magica.