I want to state upfront that I actually don't have the flexi-disc. It was not part of the magazine when I got it (no surprise really). Plus I don't actually own a turn-table anymore so even if I did have it.
White Dwarf #95 takes us to November 1987. I asked my wife if she remembers what we were doing then. She didn't recall. I know that gamewise my old 1st Ed DM had come up and we were running an adventure together for some other people in the dorm. One of the characters we made that day would later live on as a vampire in other games and finally come back to my 3rd Ed game as the only person in my games to ever be cured of vampirism. I think I mentioned this one before. (yup, WDW 93).
Sean Masterson discusses the influence fantasy and sci-fi has had on rock. There is the obvious influence of metal at least on gaming, at least in terms of how WD does it. So we should not be surprised when gaming influences metal. Thus the flexi disk that came with the magazine.
Marginalia, Open Box's lesser offspring, is next with "reviews" of some GW products. Up first is "The Fury of Dracula" board game. I'll admit I have always wanted to play this one, and it always looked rather cool. Reading these design notes/reviews actually get me more interested in a game. Though I do feel compelled to point out something. The review is written for the point of view of someone who has only known Dracula in movies and maybe never read the book. That is fine, a lot of people don't like the book. They are careful to point out that Dracula was killed with a Bowie knife to the heart in the book (true) but add that he was trying to build an empire of the undead (not true). Not quite sure where they got that. Of course people have also been looking for some deeper romantic connection between Mina and Dracula and that was also never in the book.
Covered next are two city books, one for Warhammer the other for Judge Dredd.
Critical Mass covers a number of Sci-fi books including the latest Stainless Steel Rat book. Never could get into this series.
Our first big adventure of the issue is for Judge Dredd, "To Live and Die in Megacity One, Prog: 2 The Big Sleep". Again hard for me to judge this one, but I have been told that the Judge Dredd adventures of this time are good. It is a long one, 10 pages with 2 more of maps.
Lots of pages of pictures of painted minis even before we get to 'Eavy Metal. Here is a review (more detailed than I ever could do) on the minis. http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/2012/08/acceptable-in-80s-white-dwarf-95.html
Actually if you are looking for you White Dwarf fix every week I would recommend Realms of Chaos 80s as a good blog dedicated to things I only briefly touched on.
Ad for Fury of Dracula. At first I thought it was a mis-print of the first page of Marginalia again. Looked exactly the same.
"On the Boil" is an adventure (or is it Scenario?) for Warhammer Fantasy. 5 pages. I wish I knew more about Warhammer to be honest. Not just to judge these, but because reading these makes me aware of a huge gap I have in my RPG background. I honestly don't think I would get much out of the Warhammer experience. I can't paint. I don't like collecting minis of armies. But there is something so...well, Warhammer, about it. I am sure there has to be something in this experience that I could port back over to my own old-school D&D games.
"The Madcap Laughs" deals with setting the scenes for new Stormbringer Adventures.
"Warhammer Rock" is where the flexi-disk would have been. It is also an interview with the band Sabbat.
Here is a link to the entire article. http://hem.bredband.net/b306090/white_dwarf.htm
And here is the song.
The lyrics are in the magazine and on the video page on YouTube.
Next are ads, then Illuminations featuring the art of John Blanche.
Letters follow and then some ads.
Again we see similar things here that we did in issue 94. I have mixed feelings about Marginalia; I like the in-depth reviews but dislike that they are only focusing on house brands. Granted that is really the only way a magazine would do it and in 1987 I wasn't buying much of anything.
If you are looking for another good source of White Dwarf information I have been enjoying the fuckyeahbritisholdschoolgaming blog on tumblr http://fuckyeahbritisholdschoolgaming.tumblr.com/
1 comment:
The Big Sleep was the one and only time I ever saw a Dredd scenario set outside of Mega-city One. I can't even recall of a sourcebook referring much to the Wasteland so I guess the main source is 2000 AD. I have reflected in the past on the appeal of law enforcement somewhere in the Wasteland - albiet firmly via the means of Justice Department hardware.
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