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, August 23rd, 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.

After 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.

EDITORS NOTE:  Some resemblance to the actual basement office where Tri Tac was located in 1994 is intended.