Another one of many esoteric games advertised in Fate over the years. However, this one seems just as insubstantial as its subject matter: there's no photos of the actual product available online, and one reference claims that the game was never released. Google does have an entry for Laurie G. Larwood's patent application for the game, complete with schematics:
And a product abstract:
A game for evaluation and development of various psychic abilities between its participants. Objects are furnished which include bi-valued dimensional attributes, such as rough-smooth, solid-hollow, or heads-tails. A player concentrates on a chosen attribute and attempts to either transmit, receive, block, predict, or influence a given valued condition. A gameboard is provided on which a player's successes are marked by position of his player-piece or counter on the board. Counter positions are marked with the chance probability of reaching a given position from a start position in a given number of moves. Board layout is such that if the incidence of successes is greater than that expected by random chance alone, counters are moved toward another player, thereby establishing a higher degree of psychic connectivity.
Author Stacy Horn has an article on ESP/psychic board games on her EchoNYC blog, mentioning this game and also detailing some funny interplay between famous ESP researcher J.B. Rhine and colleague Dr. Louis D. Goodfellow, who tried his hand at creating his own ESP board game way back in 1939! Rhine thought it a tawdry bit of claptrap and said as much to Goodfellow.
As for Psychic Connection, weep for the loss to the ages: we could have had an 18 page instruction booklet, polymer game board, and a black candle all for $19.50 - that's roughly $60 nowadays!
Edit: see the comments for some updates! It seems there was a released version of this game, revamped by Laurie G. Larwood as a Dungeons and Dragons tie-in! Board game geek dot com has an entry for the retitled "Mystic Master" complete with this beautiful spread:
Oh what a tangled web ...
From Fate, Volume 34 - Number 6, June 1981.
A bargain!
ReplyDeleteI mentioned this game to a friend and they found that it had been released in the 1980s under the title 'Mystic Master' with a tie-in to Dungeons and Dragons. Interestingly the game may have been pirated as it omitted any details of who came up with it. There is an entry on BoardGameGeek for it.
ReplyDeleteIncredible!
DeleteLaurie Larwood was the registered agent and incorporator of Mystic Games, Inc. (C1017046) at the same address in Montclair, California as is shown in her patent for the game, so "Mystic Master" seems to just be the finished product of her efforts.
DeleteThanks for taking the time to track that info down, appreciate it
DeleteWintheactualf!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteI mean AWESOME
ReplyDelete