White Dwarf Wednesday #97

We begin 1988 with White Dwarf #97.  This is another one I picked up to be complete.  I bought though because it was an "attack of opportunity" so to speak; it was there and I had cash.

The dragon on the cover is nice. It's the same cover as Dungeonquest by Peter Jones.
The editorial is a blast against nostalgia and favors looking towards the new.  It is using the metaphor of rock bands and "Classic oldies" stations, but the message is clear. White Dwarf is changing and if you don't like that, well you can always listen to your dad's 8-Tracks.

Marginalia covers the Judge Dredd Companion.  Of course given the 80s hair and giant shoulder pads it could have also been clothing catalog.  It was the 80s after all.

An interesting bit, a couple of pages from Games Workshop mail-order store.
The next 50 pages are devoted to Warhmmer.  Not that this is a bad thing, but I have nothing to contribute to it.

An article for Call of Cthulhu is next.  Three cases for 1920s Call of Cthulhu.  Seems like a weak effort to me.

The Madcap Laughs is next with Ruins in Madness for Stormbringer. At nine pages is also fairly long.  It is nice and detailed.

We end with Letters and ads including a Dungeonquest one.

We all knew this was coming.  Sure there are more pages, but less and less of the things I am interested and outside the focus of this blog.  I was just talking with my son on Tuesday about Warhammer (because if you don't talk to your kids about Warhammer then who will?) and how I never got into it.  We were at our FLGS and I showed him all the stuff you can buy for it and the new weekly WD.  It dawned on me then and there that WH is younger man's game.  Not that you need to be younger than me to play it, but you need a lot of time.  Frankly I don't have that anymore.   So I am popping in my 8-tracks.  Get off my lawn.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 12

Day 12: First store where you bought your gaming supplies. Does it still exist?

I actually devoted an entire post or two a while back to this.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/09/reflecting-on-d-sometimes-you-cant-go.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/04/o-is-for-otherworlds-club.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/07/alas-borders.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-praise-of-your-flgs.html

My first game store was Waldenbooks in the Mall over in Springfield. Later Belobrajdic's Book Store closer to home also carried D&D books.

All these places have closed.

When I was in college I was privileged to be around when Castle Perilous first opened their doors.  Bought most of my Ravenloft stuff there.   Now I spend most of my time at Games Plus.

A to Z Blogging Guest Post

I have a guest post up over at the Blogging from A to Z site today.
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2014/02/how-to-use-atozchallenge-to-help-your.html

I am going to participate again this year. Like last year I am doing "posting with a purpose" and will be doing the A to Z of vampires.

It should be fun!

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 11

Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve.

Hmm.  Not so sure.  There were not a lot of splats available then.

I think the first one had to be the Book of Marvelous Magic for D&D.

There were a lot of really cool magic items and I wanted my assassin (AD&D) to get some of them.

We used a few, but never all. It was one of the books I lost when all my AD&D hardcovers went missing in the early 90s.  Since then I was able to get a hold of another copy.  It is still a fun little book.

As seen on TV!

Hey everyone I have a question.

What do you perceive the value of a "celebrity" write a forward of an RPG book? This would not be an RPG person, but someone in a similar fandom. For example a comic author/artist or an actor for a supers game.

So as an off the wall example. Getting Robert Downy Jr. to talk about how playing a super hero is fun or Vin Diesel talking about his D&D character?

Mind you the cost with the book is no different, just something extra for the book.

Thoughts?

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 10

Day 10: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.).

The first ever Dragon magazine I ever bought was Dragon #85.

I had been hanging out in Belobrajdic's Bookstore in my home town and I looked at the Dragons every month.  But this one grabbed my attention for some reason.

Back in those days we milked every magazine for what it was worth.  It wasn't like now where the amount to fill a magazine is posted every day for free. Then the new material was few and far between.

My first issue of White Dwarf came later. The local bookstores didn't carry it so I had to order it.  Not knowing what to get, only that it looked really cool, I grabbed issue #44.

Very fond memories of reading both of these over the years.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 9

Day 9: First campaign setting (homebrew or published) you played in.

The Known World for the Cook/Marsh Expert Set was my first world.
Later I would end up playing a lot in the World of Greyhawk a lot as well.

Around 1986 or so my then DM and I had this idea to merge our worlds into one.  So one half was Oerth and the other half was Mystara.

The map we came up with was no where near as good as this one, but the idea was the same.





I have detailed all of this on my Mystoerth page.