White Dwarf Wednesday #96

White Dwarf #96 is the last issue of 1987.  I had considered stopping here to be honest. This issue marks the first of what I consider the "All Warhammer, all the time" issues.  But hey, I have gotten this far and 100 is more round number.
The cover art is the same as Casket of Souls by Iain McCaig.  We have a competition for it later in the issue.
The editorial is a bit of nonsense from Sean Masterson on what gaming is.  I guess the only really interesting thing about this is that it is a reflection of the gamin scene of the late 80s; everything going in a thousand directions at once yet still gaming.

Marginalia covers Dungeonquest, a game I have wanted to try out, and Warhammer Fantasy Battle, 3rd Ed.
This review of Dungeonquest only revives my desire to find a copy of this game.   By my estimates this $10 box of White Dwarf magazines has cost me a couple to three hundred extra bucks.  I had to buy other WDs to fill in the gaps (I still have a WD 105 that I am not going to review) but mostly in old games I see reviewed and want to pick up.  Some have been cheap. Most have not.

Culture Shock is the oft renamed news/rumor column.  Of interest, Citadel is selling a million miniature figures a month.  I wonder if that rate kept up.
Critical Mass covers the books of the time, none jump out at me.  I was reading the Chronicles of Corum at this point.

Barroom Brawl is the first Scenario for Warhammer Fantasy.  In my mind most of Warhammer was about fighting in large scale wars and then going to the pub to fight again.

After that, Elfwardancers for WH Fantasy.  This is something I could see being snagged for D&D or even ShadowRun.  I have seen stranger things in both games.  Plus it helps get rid of some the "Tolkienesque" qualities of elves.

The conclusion of "To Live and Die in Mega-City One" is next. I am told it is quite good.  I personally don't know enough about Judge Dredd to know for sure.

In a rare departure (and soon to be rarer) we have The Beast of Kozamura, an Eastern-themed adventure for RuneQuest. Overtly for Land of Ninja rules.

An article/ad for Casket of Souls.
The first Warhammer 40,000 regular article "Chapter Approved" is up.

On the Boil details various topics in Warhammer Fantasy, this time Middenheim the City of the White Wolf.

An aside for a bit.  There is a lot of Warhammer stuff going on here now and really I have no clue. I read through WH40k once and I see the appeal, but I am not into painting mins all day.  By extension I also guess I see the appeal of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Wish I could offer more at this point.

'Eavy Metal paints some dragons.

Last issue we discussed The Madcap Laughs, this issue we have the first adventure in the series.  A Heart of Dust, A Hand of Death is for Stormbringer but it could be adapted to RuneQuest easy enough.

We end with the usual run of letters and ads.

So. Much less in this issue for me to be honest. Nothing against the change WD is making or the Warhammer stuff, just not where my gaming went at the time or now.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 5

Day 5: First character to go from 1st level to 20th level (or highest possible level in a given edition).

Going back to my first character I have to say Johan Werper.  Since I was playing (mostly) Basic/Expert with bits of Advanced thrown in we decided the maximum level for playable characters was 36.  After that characters became immortal.  We had heard about the immortal rules, but never saw them.  I think at that point they were more rumor than reality.

Johan made it level 30 before my DM decided he was too powerful.  He was "retired" and became an NPC, St. Werper, Patron Saint of those who battle Undead in my games later on.

He had lost levels over the course of his adventure career, can't battle undead and not loose some levels sometimes.

I was quite amused when D&D 4e came out and the level max was back to 30.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 4

Day 4: First dragon you slew (or some other powerful monster)

I will be honest with you. I can't remember the first dragon I killed.
I am pretty sure it was a blue one, but outside of that I can't recall.

Now I do remember what was one of the most powerful monsters I killed.

It was Jr. High and I was in a game with my friend Jon Cook, from posting #1.
His older sister was running us through a dungeon crawl one summer night and I remember we ran into a Lich.  
This was big deal because I had been mostly playing this odd collection of AD&D and D&D (B/X) and had not run into a Lich yet.  Plus Mary was your typical Chaotic Evil DM. So this Lich kept jumping in and out of the Ethereal plane and she ruled I couldn't turn it since it wasn't on my sheet.

We, that is Johan and Sneaker the thief, managed to kill it with best weapon we had.  We burned down the building it was in.

Still love throwing Liches at players.  It brings out the CE DM in me as well.

Kickstarter: Strange Brew - The Ultimate Witch & Warlock

The Kickstarter for Strange Brew: The Ultimate Witch & Warlock is now up.

Ok so what makes Strange Brew - The Ultimate Witch & Warlock, well...Ultimate?

The Ultimate Witch & Warlock began a number of years ago for me.  I was working on collecting everything I had ever done for witches for various games that never saw print (Buffy, WitchCraft RPG, Ghosts of Albion), items from my blog here and what I considered the best of the best OGC.

When the whole Old School thing hit, I shelved UW&W and produced "The Witch for Basic Era Games" and then later "Eldritch Witchery".

Christina Stiles approached me about a potential Pathfinder book a while and asked if I had material.  I turned around and gave her 500+ pages of things I have been working on.

UW&W is the spiritual successor to "Liber Mysterium", but also to "Way of the Witch" a product I very much loved.  If you liked either of those then you are likely to like this one.  With Liber I have had another 10 years of playing witches in a d20/3.x game and have made many tweaks that only real play can afford you.

Let me say this. I am so excited about this. Not only do I have a ton of great material, but the idea of getting it all together for the first time in one book is fantastic.

So please consider backing my Kickstarter!

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 3

Day 3: First dungeon you explored as a PC or ran as a DM.

Another one I have to really think about.
I think it is very likely that first dungeon I ever went through was a home brew on.  I remember a lot graph paper maps back in those days.

But I do know that the first dungeon I ever took anyone through was a home made one.  I remember writing parts of it in class at school and then adding to it later in the summer sitting on my front porch.  Yes I am sure I was drink a class of sweet tea.  Summer time in Southern Illinois.

I am pretty sure I have no idea where that adventure is.  I have some maps from around that time still, but not that one.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 2

Day 2:  First person YOU introduced you to D&D. Which edition? Their first character?

This one is easy.  The first person I introduced was my younger brother Brian.
The edition most certainly was Moldvay Basic / Cook/Marsh Expert.

I am nearly certain that his first character was an Elf. He liked the idea of the character doing magic and being able to fight at the same time.

When I was in Jr. High and High School most everyone that was going to ever play already did.
But since then I have introduced dozens more.  Most notably my own kids.

Text Versions of Questions:

The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 1: First person who introduced you to D&D? Which edition? Your first Character? Day 2: First person YOU introduced to D&D? Which edition? THEIR first character? Day 3: First dungeon you explored as a PC or ran as a DM. Day 4: First dragon you slew (or some other powerful monster). Day 5: First character to go from 1st level to 20th level (or highest possible level in a given edition). Day 6: First character death. How did you handle it? Day 7: First D&D Product you ever bought. Do you still have it? Day 8: First set of polyhedral dice you owned. Do you still use them? Day 9: First campaign setting (homebrew or published) you played in. Day 10: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.). Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve. Day 12: First store where you bought your gaming supplies. Does it still exist? Day 13: First miniature(s) you used for D&D. Day 14: Did you meet your significant other while playing D&D? Does he or she still play? (Or just post a randomly generated monster in protest of Valentine's Day). Day 15: What was the first edition you didn't enjoy. Why? Day 16: Do you remember your first edition war? Did you win? ;) Day 17: First time you heard D&D was somehow "evil." Day 18: First gaming convention you ever attended. Day 19: First gamer who just annoyed the hell out of you. Day 20: First non-D&D RPG you played. Day 21: First time you sold some of your D&D books--for whatever reason. Day 22: First D&D-based novel you ever read (Dragonlance Trilogy, Realms novels, etc.) Day 23: First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why? Day 24: First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why? Day 25: Longest running campaign/gaming group you've been in. Day 26: Do you still game with the people who introduced you to the hobby? Day 27: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming? Day 28: What is the single most important lesson you've learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons? Feburary 2014, d20darkages.blogspot.com

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 1

Here we are with the D&D 40 Anniversary Bloghop.  Been looking forward to this.  So without further ado!

Day 1:  First person who introduced you to D&D. Which edition? First character?

Ok. Let's start thing off complicated!  No one person introduced me. In fact it seemed to be a conspiracy to get me to play.  I remember borrowing Asa Herald's AD&D Monster Manual to read during silent reading in grade school.  I remember Darin Buhlig and I trying to figure out Holmes basic on a field trip bus ride to St. Louis.  But I have to give credit to Jon Cook for being my first DM. We played the hell out of some D&D then.  He had the AD&D books and I had the Basic/Expert books. We ran with it.

My first character was Johan Werper, human lawful cleric. He worshiped an unnamed sun god.  At this point in my life I had become fairly committed to my own atheism but I still found religion interesting.  I guess to be a religious human was as alien to me as an elf or dwarf.  But I also thought the turning undead thing was really cool.   I was very, very much into vampires and horror and I *got* that the Cleric was supposed to be Van Helsing, so that is how I played him.

Johan became something of my "ego" character.  With my assassin Nigel as my "id" and my grizzled old wizard Phygora as my "superego" they made up the trinity of characters I played most often in Jr. High and High School.  Larina my witch was an "anima" character. Cause eventually all psychologists leave Freud in favor of Jung.

He also became one of my first "generational" characters.  Anytime a new version of D&D came out I would make a new Johan who is the son of the previous one.   Johan I was a cleric under Basic, Johan II was a Lawful Good Paladin for AD&D, Johan III was a Cavalier for Unearthed Arcana.  Celene was Johan II's daughter and she was a Healer in 2nd ed.  I kept this up even until recently with Johan V for D&D 4.  I fully expect that Johan VI will be for Next.  All Lawful good clerics or paladins, or something similar.

I still have all the sheets.

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