First up we notice another step up in the cover art.
We have a few pages of ads and the editorial begins on page 7. Ian Livingstone talks about how WD was voted the best games magazine in the recent Game Day Awards. The questionnaire they did a few months back is reprinted here (later in the magazine) and they want to get feedback.
Lew Pulsipher has 3 pages on monsters from the Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series for AD&D. I was always one of those people who stopped reading the book after the rape of Lena so I have no idea if these are on target or not. The monsters though look like they will work and there is quite a bit of them.
Andy Slack gives us more of the Traveller Universe with Social Class and Psionics. These articles, while neat, are all over the place. Maybe it is my modern sensibilities or just me in particular, but I would have enjoyed these more if there had been some organization to them.
A table of Boot Hill encounters is next from Dominic Beddow. This is generic enough to be used in any system dealing with the Wild West. I might try this in Ghosts one day, I have had a desire to have an adventure in America.
Dominic continues the Boot Hill love with an 8/10 review in Open Box. Also reviewed are GDW's Imperium (9/10) and Snapshot (8/10). The biggie is Don Turnbull's review of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. The book is "Not Applicable" for a review since, by Turnbull's thoughts, this is a book everyone needs. So basically it got WDs first "11/10".
A mini-adventure "The Paths of the Lil" from James Ward is next. It deals with with some new mutants from the Gamma World game, the Lil, and an area they inhabit to investigate. It's an interesting little mix of Gamma World and D&D to be honest. The Lil are fae like creatures. The adventure could be used with D&D for low level character with no problems, even with kids.
The Fiend Factory is back with only two pages of monsters. The odd "Tenser Beast" which is a monster of Tenser's Floating Disk. The Man Scorpion, which is not the same as other creatures I have seen like it. The Ogress, the offspring of a male ogre and a female human with some disguise ability. The Wrecker, a specialized Iron Golem and the Plant Man, which is part plant and part man, natch.
Pictures from Games Day V are posted. Including White Dwarf winning the best Games Magazine. Letters follow that.
The questionnaire is printed on page 25. Typicall range, what do you like the best, what do you like the least. Favorite games, would you like to see a comic strip.
After that, more ads.
I certainly feel WD is lacking something at the stage that I saw in earlier editions and what I know I'll see in later ones. It seems kind of in a rut at the moment.
This was my first issue of White Dwarf, and I purchased it specifically for the Covenant monsters. All in all I think they were good D&D versions and I used them several times.
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