A little bit of history
28/09/2025
The very first draft of Scimitar was written way back in 1989. It was… well, let’s be polite and call it “ambitious.” The rules were tangled beyond reason, the grammar suggested I’d never met an English teacher, and the whole thing was scattered across hundreds of bits of paper. But you know what? Buried in that glorious mess were some genuinely good ideas.
There was a second draft too. Best not to dwell on that one.
By the early nineties I was a student and making a little extra money by running play-by-mail games. (Yes, actual mail. With stamps. Some of you may have to ask your parents what that even was!) Under the name Lance and Crown Games I put out the third edition of Scimitar. “Published” is probably too grand a word – nothing was printed, but we sold PDFs and CDs. Friends pitched in, we ran games at conventions, and somehow we ended up with a small cult following. Reviews were kinder than I deserved, grammar and spelling aside. (Proofreading was clearly not my strong suit.)
Then came the 2000s. Lance and Crown closed its doors, I got a proper job, and life started making the usual adult demands. My own group still played Scimitar, but any dreams of new editions sank under family, work, and general responsibility. (Responsible adult? I’m still not convinced.)
Fast forward to 2020. Lockdown. Stress levels through the roof. Writing became my escape hatch. I didn’t have the energy for game mechanics, so I turned to worldbuilding. What began as one sourcebook for Scimitar turned into two… then three… then five. By now, I think I’ve got eleven semi-finished books rattling around. And I have every intention of writing more.
Originally, I never planned to publish any of it. This was purely a way to protect my sanity during some very rough times. Gaming with friends had become rare, and I wasn’t expecting anyone else to ever read the material. But the idea of publishing kept nagging away at me. Eventually, I thought: why not? If a few people read it and enjoy it, that’s reward enough. If it makes a bit of money, great – but I’ve got a day job. This is a passion project, not a business empire.
Of course, saying “I’ve got eleven books” is one thing. Actually turning those into something publishable is another. Proofreading, artwork, smoothing out continuity snarls… all of that has been just as much work as writing the drafts in the first place. And somehow I’m still trying to create new material at the same time.
Scimitar itself? It’s still sitting at third edition. There is a 4th edition – half started about 20 times and never finished. I don’t have the heart (or stamina) to rebuild the rules from scratch, so I’ve put it up for free in its old form. (If anyone fancies volunteering to modernise it, I’m all ears.) My focus now is on Thayathorn – the world that grew out of Scimitar. It’s deep, messy, and packed with history and nuance.
And here’s the best bit: you don’t need Scimitar to use it. I’ve kept Thayathorn system-agnostic. Bring your favourite rules, your homebrew mechanics, whatever works for you. My only warning? Thayathorn is a low-magic setting. If you throw in a high-magic system, you’ll miss a lot of the flavour that makes it what it is.
So that’s where things stand: a game born in chaos, a world shaped in lockdown, and a writer who still can’t stop tinkering with drafts. And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.