White Dwarf #74 is a major swan song of sorts. Here we see the end of the White Dwarf I grew up with and the start of something new. Of course whether that new is better or worse is a matter of perspective.
The Frank Brunner cover could be the Necromancer that caused so much of a stir a while back. Or maybe I am seeing nostalgia where there is none.
Ian Livingstone bids us farewell in his last editorial, though he is sticking on as Editor-in-chief for a little while at least.
First up an extended look at Super Power a game of foreign policy that could have only been popular in the 80s. It is part Monopoly, part Risk and part Reaganomics The Game. Its from GW so I guess that is not surprise. I have no problems with a magazine showing off the house brands games. Dragon did it all the time.
Open Box is a big one covering all sorts of games. Dragon Warriors is up first along with The Elven Crystals and The Way of Wizardry. Robert Dale, a playtester of the game, gives it 9/10. Vikings for RuneQuest is next, though I recall using it as a system agnostic book. It covers, well Vikings. I remember the writing being good and the attention to detail nice. I should pick it up to see if it cleaves with my memories or not. Oliver Dickson gives it 8/10. Nightmare in Norway scenario for Call of Cthulhu gets 8/10. The big AD&D release Oriental Adventures
is up. The start of what we have recently taken to call AD&D 1.5. It gets a solid 9/10.
The Pendragon Campaign is an odd one. It has quite the reputation these days and was/is obviously a quality piece of work. But it also repeats a lot of the material found in the main Pendragon book. One could look at this and see the likes of Forgotten Realms on the way; fully realized campaign settings. It gets 9/10. Lastly we have two Star Trek books, Termination: 1456 and The Outcasts. Both are lauded for their sense of belonging to the Star Trek universe and are given 10/10 each. The reviewers must have all been in a good mood.
Terror at Trollmarsh is one of the largest AD&D adventures I recall seeing in the pages of WD at 7 pages. It is also one of the more detailed ones.
Lycanthropy in AD&D is given another look by Peter Blanchard.
The Power of the Frog is another attempt in a long time at some game-related fiction.
Hide of the Ancestor is a 2nd Ed RuneQuest adventure. It's not very long and mentions that some things will need to be updated to 3rd ed.
Gentlemen and Players is an interesting take on Call of Cthulhu on how create unique
British characters for the game. While the focus is the Pulp Era there is a lot here that I find useful for my own Victorian games.
Treasure Chest covers musical instruments in AD&D.
Some redesigned super-hero origins for Golden Heroes, but should work with any supers game really.
We end with a bunch of ads and Travellers.
It is hard not to look at this issue through the eyes of knowing what is to come. With little fanfare and announcement we got the last Fiend Factory last issue. This is a big deal for me and my retrospectives since FF was one of the reasons I enjoyed White Dwarf so much.
