The Great Khan Game (1989): Tom Wham’s Whimsy Meets The Forgotten Realms

Tom Wham joined TSR in May 1977 as the company’s 13th employee. He designed and illustrated centerfold games in Dragon magazine (Snit Smashing, Snit’s Revenge, Awful Green Things From Outer Space, and others). Some would be expanded into standalone boardgames.

Wham was constantly designing games, storing them in paper bags. The Great Khan Game began as such a personal project, inspired by Richard Hamblen’s “Huns”.

When I went to work for TSR, my games started coming out of the bags, but I was never able to sell it to them… until the late 80’s when Jim Ward became some kind of lesser grand poobah there with power. He liked the Khan Game and persuaded TSR to do it. I wrote Richard and he agreed. The end result was a wonderful game (rather poorly packaged). (tomwham.com)

And so finally, The Great Khan Game released in 1989. It was branded with the Forgotten Realms and AD&D logos, but other than being set in the Whamite Isles, there is scant connection to either.

Players build “melds” of cards (leaders, armies, peoples) to control territories on a map of the Whamite Isles. 2–6 players attempt to amass the most gold and territory by the game’s end (via trade, conquest, coups, etc.). Event cards add to the chaos. Being a Tom Wham game, it’s light-hearted fun with humor, puns, and pop culture callbacks.

The Great Khan Game is long out of print. I’ve got a complete box set in the shop at the moment, so a great opportunity to create a collector reference post. There are a lot of parts catalogued in photos here.

The Great Khan Game (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons / Forgotten Realms) BOX SET

1989 … Tom Wham & Richard Hamblen … TSR 1044 … ISBN 0880387211

“one 32-page rule-book; one 11″ x 17″ full-color map of the Whamite Isles; 120 die-cut cardboard playing pieces; 162 playing cards; one plastic storage bag. Players must supply two six sided dice.”

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Box

The box is one of the slim format cases TSR loved in the late 1980s. Not a lot of room in there once you punch the cards, which must be bagged in multiple sets of 20 to fit! Perhaps this is what Wham was referring to in his comment “rather poorly packaged”.

Rules Booklet (32 pages, TSR part 1044XXX1901)

Tom Wham games are lovably mock-heroic, and only half serious in epic scale. Place names like Far Vandmeer, Graubunden,
Veldergauttland, Al-Ubaid (the Walled City), and titles like the Grand Wazir Nechamin, Badmuddin the Bald, Umgook (the Tusk Eater), and Andoquat the Sardar all evoke the grand scale of action-adventure fantasy literature and games with a friendly, lightly mocking tone.
I suspect this mock-epic tone works best for sophisticated gamers with a wry perspective on the cheesier values of the fantasy genre. Younger gamers may not get the joke. Also, the rules and procedures of THE GREAT KHAN GAME are more involved than those in the DUNGEON!, HEROQUEST, and SPACE CRUSADE games. There is also an important element of diplomacy – interplayer deals, conspiracies, and smiling betrayals – that I would find pleasant only in the Tom Wham light-hearted atmosphere. (Ken Rolston, review, Dragon magazine 168, April 1991)

The last page has a rather thorough card list.

Whamite Isles Map (11″ x 17″, TSR part 1044XXX0701)

Counters / Tokens (120, TSR part 1044XXX1201)

Cards (162, TSR part 1044XXX0506 etc)

The heart of the Great Khan Game is the cards. Each nation consists of six to eleven, representing the places and characters there. These are called “Nation Cards.”
Cards representing various admirals, generals, armies, fleets, and privateers who work for pay are called “Mercenary Cards.” Such cards can be melded as part of any nation. Mercenaries are only used in the Advanced Game.
“Special Cards” include non-aligned castles, magical items, and siege equipment. These special cards can usually be melded as part of any country. Special cards are used only in the Advanced Game.
Finally, there are “Event Cards.” These must be read and acted upon immediately as they are drawn. They can never be kept in a player’s hand.
Two other cards—“Battle Cards”—summarize the dice rolls that are made during battles. These are for reference only; they are never part of the deck. (from the Rules)

Card counts: