Duke Siefried

To Duke

By Randy Porter

I met Duke at ORIGINS '78 in Ann Arbor. At the time some friends and I were using TSR's CHAINMAIL rules. I attended some seminars that Duke was running. At this time HERITAGE was at the top of it's form. It had the Battleline games, HINCHLIFFE miniatures, and it's own paint line. HERITAGE was one of the first game companies to get license products like JOHN CARTER WARLORD OF MARS and STAR TREK. Duke's big pitch at ORIGINS was that he had rules to play the game; the miniatures to move around; and paints to paint the figures. This was the first company to present a total gaming package. Duke was electric. he would enthrall a crowd and then send them to the dealer' a room to buy his stuff. He would sit down with a primed figure and show how to paint a figure in only a few minutes. For a kid who was struggling to paint his army, Duke's tips helped a lot. Some of those painted, I still have and use. When the industry was arguing about where to go, Duke's reason war that we should look on how to make the pie larger instead of how to slice it up. Duke was, and in, one of the best pitchmen for adventure gaming. He always had time to talk to a gamer. Looking at a figure that the person had just painted using Duke's system.

I would later work at Midwest Cons for Duke and HERITAGE after ORIGINS. Who can forget Duke's traveling road show that he did in the late seventies? Duke wanted to bind the newly emerging roleplayers into the world of miniatures. That'e why he promoted the term Adventure Gaming. Boardgamers, miniatures, and even roleplayers were all doing the same thing, playir, adventures at places from the fields of Gettysburg or the battle plains of Mars. To Duke, every miniatures gamer was a potential 'role player and visa-a-versa. He was one of the few people who could convince a die-hard boardgamer that SQUAD LEADER could be a roleplaying game. Besides missing some of the HERITAGE figures, I mine seeing Duke now, but hope to see him soon. I must say I am a better gams and person for knowing Duke. He is a person that gaming need back then and now, even more!

Duke Siefried MWAN Honoree of 1989

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© Copyright 1989 Hal Thinglum
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