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Snit’s Revenge
In Pursuit of the Spark of Life
“Every once in a while, every normal person wants to play a game that’s more than a little bit different – a departure from the regular routine of cold logic, hardboiled strategy, and plodding action. Snit’s Revenge is a game that answers that need – a totally wacky, imaginative and off-the-wall game that’s nothing more than pure fun for everyone, no matter how young or old they are.”, so the blurb on the box of Tom Wham’s design by publisher TSR. And this description is accurate: The game is wacky, imaginative and off-the-wall.
packed Snit’s Revenge into a box in 1978 and published the game independently.
The rules were introduced by a two- and-a-half-page cartoon recounting the origins of the Bolotomi and the Snits, a very special genesis story for sure.
The game board was originally printed on thicker paper, the markers were thin cardboard. “If you need more Snits, just draw them yourselves,” recommended the rule book. Which just goes to show how different standards at the time were. The first print-run of 5,000 copies soon sold out and further editions were to follow, with the latest so far published in 2003 by Steve Jackson Games, uniting both
T he box cover is adorned with three evil-looking Snits, characters that seem to be made up mainly of
long legs, a long nose and a small head. And their size is totally exaggerated, for the three Bolotomi (plural for Bolotomus) in the background are in reality (reality?) a hundred times their physical superiors.
The game board is a section of a Bolotomus with all its inner organs. “Snorgs” are responsible for their function: Small, misshapen crea- tures (on round chips) that live within these organs. If a Snorg dies, the organ sheltering it stops work- ing. In the long run this is harmful to the Bolotomus, for whose sur- vival one of the two opposing play- ers is responsible.
The other player controls the Snits, also as chips, whose exact number he keeps secret. They enter the Bolotomus body through various orifices and try to kill the Snorgs, and whether they prove suc- cessful is determined by a simple
die roll. Their success is not entirely without danger, for there is a “Splop” hiding under some of the Snorgs, and if that explodes, the Snit also gets shredded. On a closer look, the Snorgs covering another chip are easy to detect. But attacking them is still useful, for one of these hidden markers is the “Spark of Life”, and if it is found, the Bolotomus is doomed.
However, the Bolotomus is not quite as helpless as it seems. Three of its organs are locations that either revive Snorgs or produce “Makums”, who are then further developed into “Runnungitms” in another organ. These voracious creatures are very skillful at hunting Snits and gobbling them up, but sadly they choke on their prey. If the spark of life remains unde- tected, the Snits win the game, provided
they have managed to shut down a spe- cific number of organs (how many exactly depends on the number of Snits), leading to a “system-wide shock”. The Boloto- mus for its part wins the game if it can manage to fend off the Snits.
Hard to believe, but this quirky pastime with a rather simple gameplay contains
strategical tips and rules for an advanced game.
Snit’s Revenge was originally published 40 years ago as a supplement in the mag- azine Dragon by TSR. The acronym stands for Tactical Studies Rules, a company founded in 1972 for the publication of Dungeons & Dragons, at the time a pen- and-paper roleplaying game.
If someone takes revenge, there has to be a reason for it, and that reason was Snit Smashing, another supplement game in the previous edition of the magazine. Here the Bolotomus tried to smash as many Snits as possible with his long trunk.
Tom Wham had not only designed the game, but also the characters. And they proved such a huge success that TSR
games under the short title of Snits. The advanced rules are missing here, not exactly a loss considering they contained some unappetizing passages dealing with the Bolotomus’ digestive organs. But sadly, the amusing cartoon is also gone.
Since then, Tom Wham has only spo- radically appeared as a designer – and frequently combined with being the illus- trator. One of his more well-known works is The Awful Green Things from Outer Space, available again for some years now. His last publication was in 2011: Feudality (sb 1/2012) by Lookout. For the moment, Tom Wham is selling prototypes for astronomical prices on his homepage (www.tomwham.com/stuff.html).
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