Owl & Weasel Wednesday #2 March 1975

Owl and Weasel hits Issue #2 and doubles in size!  That is something even White Dwarf can't claim.
Still mot of the articles are by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, but some other talent is coming in.

Steve Jackson discusses the Brighton Toy Fair on page 1. Interesting in this perspective since this is a hobby on the verge.  How so? Well by how little he mentions is there. The Fair is big enough to take over "3 hotels"  he only mentions a handful of games and these are all board games.  Yes, at this point D&D has not come to England but there are no War Games mentioned either.

So a question the true Grognards out there.  Were War Games already dying out in 75?  I was under the impression that this was a good time for them.

A brief mention that the board game magazine Albion was no more. I had not heard of it at before this.

A little math puzzle for you to try at home:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 100
Add mathematical notations to make the answer equal 100.
(eg. 123 + 4 - 56 ... etc.)

Let me know if you figure it out.  Puzzles seem like a must add really to a games magazine. I wonder why it wasn't done more.

Ah that is why.  In the Editorial on Page 4 Steve Jackson reports a reader saying "get rid of the puzzles".  A thus the first irritated gamer raises his voice against the establishment or something. The editorial does mention more exciting things to come.

There are some more puzzles and a bit about the recent resurgence of Mah Jong.  1975 Percy Kenyon would be happy to know that nearly 40 years later the game is still played and in various formats.  At one point I remember my FLGS carried nice and expensive Mah Jong sets for a while.

The overall feel of O&W2 is a zine starting it's stride. It is obvious that Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone feel they are on to something big. While retrospect tells us they were right, it is not the same "big thing".

What I love is the frontier feel of this.  These are two guys, passionate about their hobby and want to share it with everyone and anyone they can.