Down at Fraggle Rock

Recently the HUB network, one of the newer "retro" programming networks hit the air and brought back one of my all time favorite childhood programs, Fraggle Rock.

I remember when this show first came out and being lucky enough to have HBO at the time (a pretty big deal in 1983). I have always been a Muppet maniac and this was right up there with the Muppet Show and the various Jim Hensen Christmas specials like Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (now available on DVD!). I quickly found myself caught up in the series and the adventures of little Fraggles in their ever more complexly fantastic world.

Once I started gaming, the series was still on and the appeal of the show to my budding gamer mind was not lost. Here we had a twisting, winding bunch of catacombs populated by a variety of creatures and perils. The Fraggles had secret orders, great halls, holy men, social pr4oblems and even a symbiotic relationship with other creatures. There were giants and oracles, kings and realms and a strange interdimensionality between the outside world on one side of the rock and the other. As much as these ideas might have bounced around, I never really did anything with it.

Until now...

As I am re-watching these episodes, I shall be taking notes on elements that are worthy of interpretation as gaming fodder. Rather than straight, silly homage pieces, I'll try to interpret these write-ups into something that can be used in people's games in a versatile and serious manner. Of course, I'll still include plenty of fun images from the original series when I can, though episode stills are hard to find in programs predating the explosion of Internet fandom. I'll likely be writing them up in either a Labyrinth Lord format as it is what I am using for fantasy RPG fun these days, but this should still make them useful to other OSR players as well as players of newer systems.

Stay tuned as I venture forth into the world of Fraggle Rock.

Thanks for reading,

-Eli