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I'm a hobbit! I'm a Fighter! I'm a Man-Eating Carp!
In May of ’82, D&D had made it far enough into the mainstream that it made the pages of Heavy Metal magazine who ran a few column inches of overview of RPGs and Wargames of the early 80’s – with more emphasis on the Mechanoid Invasion (Palladium) and Chiton* (Metagaming) than on Dungeons & Dragons (although D&D gets the nod as the most popular of these new RPGs).
But at the bottom of the page was this cartoon. Obviously one of the players in the D&D group rolled up his character for Gamma World instead.
* Heck, I’ve never even heard of Chiton. I don’t think it even existed after a brief scurry through google.
** And I have totally asked the DM if I was allowed to build a hotel in the dungeon or if I needed to get the monopoly on dungeons with that theme first.
Dyson's Dodecahedron 
I think I might remember seeing an ad for a Play-by-Mail campaign called Chiton in an old Dragon.
Like Ogre, Melee, Wizard and GEV, Chiton was a microgames from Metagaming. Chitin: I came out in 1977, with a second printing in 1978.
http://maverick.brainiac.com/cmm/mic.html
Yeah, I was familiar with Chitin, but not Chiton. Either way, definitely not a “winner” of an RPG in the grand scheme of things.
I remember the ads from back in the day, but remember them being for a microgame as Rev Keith says. It was about warfare between intelligent bugs. One of the selling points was that you get to eat your own dead to support the troops.
It’s Chtin, not Chiton:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2194/chitin-i
And it’s not an RPG. That should help 🙂
Oh, whoops. I didn’t see the previous comments. Never mind. Move along. Nothing to see here 🙂
Yeah, but the article definitely calls it Chiton instead of Chitin.
There was a micro-game called “Chitin” that Metagaming put out.. You couldn’t find it because “Chitin” refers to the exoskeleton of an insect warrior (the theme of the game) while “Chiton” refers to the very short dress-like garments worn by ancient Greek lads. Which would make for an entirely different sort of game.
I think I’d me more interested in a “Chiton” game personally. Maybe it’s just me…. That is too funny!
I think ‘chiton’ should be spelled ‘chitin’: “Chitin I – The Harvest Wars” was Microgame #2.
http://www.nobleknight.com/ProductDetail.asp_Q_ProductID_E_15217_A_InventoryID_E_2147667306_A_ProductLineID_E_173_A_ManufacturerID_E_48_A_CategoryID_E_13_A_GenreID_E_