A WORD FROM THE DESIGNER
Glenn Rahman

Joe and Scott have asked me to contribute a bit of background concerning their network version of DIVINE RIGHT.

Over the last twenty years I've occasionally been contacted by fans of DR who have presented ideas for re-releasing DR as a board game or as a computer game. I have generally given the green light in regard to these proposals, but time and time again proposed project has sputtered and died. Sometimes the persons involved does it manfully, writing to me admitting that they lack the required skill or resources to bring it off, and sometimes in a cowardly way, by breaking contact suddenly and never offering any reason for their lack of progress.

When Scott Walters (who was soon joined by a partner, Joe Sackett) made contact with me regarding an idea for a network-playable version of DR I offered my interest and support. By that time I had become used to disappointment, but as the months passed it because increasingly obvious that Scott and Joe were a rare team -- people who were actually ready, willing, and able to work hard and spend the money needed to bring off exactly what they promised. I therefore want to express my deep appreciation. No doubt it was very hard work for them, replete with a lot of hair pulling.

It may sound strange, but I've never personally played a network game myself. Being a board gamer of the old school, I have not played computer games very often. My habits were formed decades ago and I never liked playing against Artificial Intelligence. Live competition is the best way to go for my money, and that is exactly what makes Scott's and Joe's idea of network gaming so great.

The last twenty years have demonstrated the continuing popularity of DIVINE RIGHT, which is all the more gratifying since board games have tended to be a here-today, gone-tomorrow affair. THIRD REICH and AXIS AND ALLIES have had long lives, true, but I can't think of any other fantasy board game that has achieved a loyal, enduring following such as DR's.

With a little luck, Scott and Joe (as well as the new board game soon to be released by Right Stuf) shall bring DR into the Twenty-First Century. It's awesome to think that DR may go on to make many new fans in the younger generation, not all of whose members were even born when DR first arrived in 1979. Why has this come about? Who knows? My brother Ken and I knew we were on to something good even when the design was still in pencil-sketch. It never would have occurred to us to be so vain as to suppose that soon-to-be fans would enthusiastically lay the laurels of greatness upon it.

Occasionally Ken and I have pondered why has DR lingered in the hearts of its fans while so many more ambitious efforts, like SPI's SWORDS AND SORCERY and Avalon Hill's DARK EMPEROR are remembered (if at all) with a wince and a shudder? I think DR's vitality come from the unique approach that the designers unwittingly took. I was a fantasy reader and writer from childhood. My brother Kenneth was an artist working in the same genre. In DR we spontaneously created what might best be called "an interactive novel," even to the point of characterizing the kings of Minaria. When DRAGON MAGAZINE asked us to write and illustrate a history of Minaria, a detailed history featuring Minaria's many actors, it sprang to life almost without additional effort. (This history, "The Minarian Legends,"runs to over 200,000 words. Right Stuf intends to include the entire text as part of their new 3rd edition release, promised for this Christmas season. It shall feature expanded rules and counters, and also brings the history of Minaria up to the present, covering the two decades that have elapsed since the last time fans have looked in on Minaria).

An internet game, a new board game - what more can one ask? Hopefully someone, somewhere, will develop it into a fantasy role-playing game. With the renewed availability of DR, who knows what the future may hold?

Anyway, for twenty years people have been telling Kenneth and me that DIVINE RIGHT is a game like no other. Join Scott and Joe's play test and see if you don't agree.

Glenn Rahman
Minneapolis, MN
October 2001