Tri Tac Games had its humble beginnings in 1978 when Role Playing was a single boxed set of TSR books and hard to get polyhedral dice. First called "Tacky Tack Games", the company produced the classic Micro game, Geriatric Wars. Everybody laughed and enjoyed the inexpensive game. Within three years Rich Tucholka had created Fringeworthy, the first RPG of inter-dimensional travel, and was hard at work on Bureau 13, the first Late Twentieth Century Horror RPG, and a space Role Playing game called FFL: 2448. The company name was changed to reflect thenew and more serious products.
In the years prior to Richard's passing from cancer early in 2017, a concerted effort was begun to revise and modernize classic Tri Tac and expand Tri Tac's range of products. With Richard's health and stamina in decline, his partner, Mel Natcher aka Wasahbe Green, took the helm as General Manager of Tri Tac, aided by Sally Vilkrnan, their Chief Editor.
What Richard wanted more than anything else was for Tri Tac to live on. Those of us who loved him are doing our best to ensure the survival of his legacy.
There are a good number of Tri Tac Micro Games including Monster Squash, Geriatric Wars, Pteroductyl, The Viral Vegetable Wars, Drive By, War on High, Escape From Westerville State, Baby Boomer, Duck Trooper, and Beach Bunny Bimbos with Blasters. And then there's HOLES, a different kind of SF Miniatures Combat Game.
About Richard Tucholka
Richard Tucholka was an amazingly creative individual who traveled SF Conventions for more than thirty years. You can tell he was destined to be a SF and horror fan by his last name, which is a variant of the name of the Etruscan demon Tucholka, the Ferryman of the Dead.
Tucholka has been called "one of the unsung heroes of Role Playing" and "Michigan's Gaming Guru". Knights of the Dinner Table (KotDT) voted him “one of the top 20 RPG game designers, one of the good guys, and lucky to rub your dice on”.You may know him more for his work in the creation of the Role Playing game Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic, voted Best Fantasy RPG of 1991 by the RPGA Network at Gencon. Classic RPGs designed by Tucholka include The Morrow Project*, Fringeworthy, FTL: 2448, Incursion, and Hardwired Hinterland. In his last years, he added Cloisters, Huradicator and Murderhoof to his body of work.
Modules include Invasion U.S., Rogue 417, Hellsnight, Haunts, Hearts, Bureau 13 Lost Files, Bureau 13 Special Edition, Bureau 13 Extreme, Bureau 13 Black Powder, Fringeworthy Portals I - IV, and the DM's Book Of Nasty Tricks & Misfit Magic.
Richard's accomplishments included work as a comic book publisher, book reviewer, and staff writer for STARDATE and STARDRIVE Magazine. His hobbies included gardening, house restoration, publishing, writing, reading (science fiction, game theory, anthropology, psychology, sociology, paleontology, astronomy, conspiracy theory and military history), and trying to index his 18,000+ books and B Budget Movies. Tucholka was a guest of honor at more than a dozen Science Fiction and gaming conventions over the years. He packed moms when he did "Uncle Richard's Trash Video Roundup" across the Midwest for a number of years at many Science Fiction Conventions and was a sought-after game master.
And he was owned by cats.
FBI Raid On Tri Tac Games, As Told By Rich Tucholka
OK, there has been rumor floating around about an FBI raid on Tri Tac Games.Let's set it straight. Yes, the raid happened. No kidding.
Apparently some fool at GENCON 1994 thought double-sized Plastic ID badges on flaming orange and bright pink paper were a threat to national security. These badges were given to players of Bureau 13 as promotional material. Here's the true story.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, on 23rd August 1994, a special tactical team from the FBI gained swift and overwhelming entry into the corporate offices of Tri Tac Games in Pontiac, Michigan, to the great surprise of the entire staff which was still sipping coffee.
Rich Tucholka, owner and president of Tri Tac, was duly informed of his rights as the squad of federal agents neatly and politely searched the offices of Tri Tac, claiming to be looking for "phony FBI identification badges" and "illicit government operation manuals".
Tri Tac Games publishes an award winning Role Playing Game called Bureau 13, detailing the adventures of a secret government agency which uses magic and Harrier Jump Jets to defend America from supernatural criminals and monsters.
Alter painstakingly searching everything, from the yet to be released CD-ROM computer game version of Bureau 13, through the paperback copies of the cult hit novels from Ace Books in New York, absolutely nothing incriminating or illegal was discovered.
An incident close to the precedent setting invasion of Steve Jackson Games a few years ago by the US Secret Service which resulted in a major lawsuit, rightfully won by the innocent game company.