Welcome back to White Dwarf Wednesday.
Issue 3 takes us into Oct/Nov 1977.
The editorial opens up with a bit on whether or not the British SF/F game market was large enough to support a magazine like this. They decide that it is and begin looking for opinions on how they should cover items, namely D&D.
The Editorial ends, amusingly enough, with a "May the Force Be With You". It was 1977 after all.
Digging in we have an article on how to play D&D and Empire of the Petal throne as Solo games. Not a bad read really, I might try it out sometime to see if it works.
More on Fred Hemmings Competitive D&D. The interesting thing about this article that it really shows the roots of D&D in war-gaming and tournament play. It is not something I would try on my own, and I am not sure it would work so well with modern games. But a cool read all the same.
The News section talks about the smash new movie "Star Wars" and how Gen Con had attendance over 2,000 every day, out selling Origins. There is a new movie in the works with Marlon Brando named "Superman".
We delve deeper into the Monstermark system. By this point in my original readings I was loosing interest in it. It was such a convoluted system, but I appreciated it determination to keep on going. Though no new monsters in this issue.
In Open Box we get an overview of a number of D&D aids from Judges Guild including D&D Reference Sheets, a Judge's Screen and Dave Arneson's First Campaign book. They also cover what I believe is the first product to support the "City State of the Invisible Overlord", a place that was near legend when I would be playing a mere 2-3 years later.
Reviews of Citadel from FGU, Fourth Dimesion from J.A. Ball and Co. and The Battle of Five Armies (yeah that one) from TSR. The new reveiws list good points as well as bad ones and the overall score. I can't recall if this was something they kept, so I'll wait till I re-read issue 4.
The next installment of Lewis Pulsipher's "D&D Campaigns" is next. The main issue here is realism of the game and how PCs, NPCs and monsters should behave. There is also a bit about how rules should be handled. Interesting to read in a near-Pre DMG day.
Some details on painting minis comes up after that. A write up on the Assassin character class (with halflings still being referred to as Hobbits). A couple of magic rooms as "Treasure".
The letters section opens with a letter from Paul Jaquays, Editor of the Dungeoneer about the Monstermark system and a gripe about Competitive D&D. More letters follow on the Monstermark system.
The back cover is a cool looking faerie woman.
An interesting, but not landmark, issue. The layout seems a bit cleaner and they certainly know what they are doing now.
