Futurismic points out that role-playing games have finally gone meta. Mazes & Minotaurs is a new RPG that has been created to feel and play like it was created in 1972, which would effectively make it the first RPG ever. From the M&M story, the creator says he challenged himself to:

1) Write a complete game in English (which is not my native language).

2) Write a game with a genuine old-school, 1970s feel, reminiscent of early D&D — something very different from the roleplaying games I had created so far.. and from the games I play or run. I also wanted the game to have simpler and smoother mechanics than the first versions of D&D — something in between Basic D&D and Tunnels & Trolls, in terms of complexity. But above all I wanted to write a game with a strong nostalgia element... which leads us to the third point.

3) Write a game that would be totally coherent with Paul's article : a game that would 'feel' as 'the first RPG that never was' or perhaps, more accurately, the first RPG that could have been'... In his article, Paul listed a few of the game's highlights, limitations and oddities — such as the six basic character classes (Barbarian, Spearman, Noble, Sorcerer, Priest or Nymph), the fact that « all weapons did the same damage» or that « the sailing rules were crude — to say the least ». As part of the « exercise in game design » approach, I decided to integrate all these elements into the game...

You can download Mazes & Minotaurs (and its supplements and additions, all of which feel pretty goddamned authentic for PDFs) here.