Avalon Hill Oddity

[ArizonaTank]

I was flipping through an old Avalon Hill price list from 1980, and it lists a "Witchcraft Ritual Kit" that was apparently not a game.  So I looked it up on BGG and apparently AH also sold a "Black Magic Ritual Kit" as well.   

Why the heck would AH would sell such a thing and put their name on it?  Just baffles me.  Must have been a real marketing albatross. 

Anyone know the story?  Were they just caught up in the weirdness of the post-60s? 

[besilarius]

There was a lot of supplemental material coming out for RPGs, that could be used with D&D in particular.  Another group had come up with a book for creating a town that was a really popular add on.  I think at AH, Dana Lombardy thought they could expand into the RPG crowd with such material before coming up with their own RPG.
Ah, it was Thieves Guild that put out a pamphlet on Town creation.  Very well received and better than the bare material from TSR at that point.
Actually from early on, AH was always looking at ways to improve their product lines.  They put out Verdict and Verdict II when the TV lawyer show, Perry Mason, became popular.  They had a reverse Monopoly game, squander, which did not do well.  They had an airline game that was pretty popular in the 60s.
The real stretches though were almost all duds.  The Travels of Saint Paul was a board game where the players tried to do St. Paul better.  Charles Roberts thought it might open up a whole new market in religious groups.
Shakespeare was sort of a Parcheesi board with trivia cards on the plays.  He hoped it would be used by english teachers and give them a new way to get students interested.
Roberts had two real fan interests of his own, military games and railroads.  I think it was a personal disappointment that he couldn't produce a good railroad game.  Rail Baron came out long after he left AH.

[GJK]

I think that Avalon Hill, namely Monarch Printing, was a conglomeration of several small divisions.  It was probably something that the printing side of the company had in their catalog (for whatever reason) and my guess is they thought some gamers might want to pick it up so they moved it the Avalon Hill division (possibly for the reasons mentioned - RPG, D&D).

[magnus]

 I had the " Black Magic " game.

It really wasn't a game. It was based on some of the grimoires from the middle ages to the Golden Dawn.

The pieces in it were just to put out the the correct sigils etc. to call forth certain angels ( both good and bad ).

If you have even a slight belief in the above it was much like handing a box of C4 and telling a twelve year old to go for it.

[LongBlade]

If you have even a slight belief in the above it was much like handing a box of C4 and telling a twelve year old to go for it.

Probably for the best it didn't receive wider circulation...