Wednesday, January 22, 2014

White Dwarf Wednesday #94

White Dwarf #94 is an interesting one for me.  Not because of the content, which I'll get to, but because I didn't even own this one when I started doing this so long ago. Soon after though I found this one, added it to the box and then never really looked at it again.  I kind of like to be surprised when I first open them up and write about it at the same time.  So lets see what White Dwarf #94 from October 1987 has to offer.

First off we have another Chris Achilleos cover. Raven's Oath actually was a book cover fist. I remember finding the Raven, Sheildmistress of Chaos books at the local used bookstore that was my go to spot for old books, D&D and everything for my first year in college.  It's gone now.  But I did get a copy the original Deities and Demigods with Cthulhu and Elric for only 18 bucks.  Still have that.  Never bought any of the Raven books though.

New Editor, Sean Masterson, with an old story, big changes coming to White Dwarf.

The first big change is that Open Box is gone.
Yup. It has been replaced with Marginalia, or design notes from the GW team.  While it is an interesting idea and one I would have enjoyed IF I were at all interested in the Warhammer products, I can't help but think that it is a poor substitute for Open Box.  Sure most pretense at bias was given up a long time ago it was still no worse than the reviews in Dragon. Just a different slant.
Still. It is quite sad to see this one last vestige of classic White Dwarf go away.
There are some reviews for RuneQuest's Land of the Ninja and Paranoia 2.

Stop Press is the new rumors column.  I seem to say that a lot.  Let's be honest, rumors are really not all that interesting in a 25 year old magazine.

Critical Mass covers Elric at the End of Time. A potentially interesting, but some what dull in the end, entry of the Elric saga.  I was pretty heavy into Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon,  and Count Brass at this point so I grabbed this one when it came out. I think it sat on my "to be read" pile for a number of years.

A Rough Night at the Three Feathers is a short adventure for Warhammer Fantasy.  Could be converted I am sure, but I think something would be lost in the process.   I almost picked up a copy of Warhammer Fantasy the other day at Half-Price Books.

Likewise we have adventures for Judge Dredd and Call of Cthulhu.

Some more about Warhammer 40k and Blood Bowl.

We end with the normal rounds of ads and letters.

Yeah, so kind of a disappointment really. More so I guess seeing how I actually sought this one out to complete my collection.

If you are looking for more details on the minis that appeared in this issue then head over to Realms of Chaos 80s. A new find (new to me).
http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/2012/08/acceptable-in-80s-white-dwarf-94.html

Next week: Anyone have a turn-table I can borrow?

2 comments:

Hedgehobbit said...

Hold on a second. Why would you not buy a copy of Warhammer Role Play when you had the chance?!?!

Unknown said...

The Judge Dredd scenario is actually a very good one, the first part in a three-part series that takes inspiration from a lot of classic Dredd stories - I said in my readthrough reviews on ENworld that it is to Dredd what the Age of Worms campaign is to Greyhawk.
It's also the last thing Marcus L Rowland wrote for the magazine, as far as I can tell.

However, the trouble with the Dredd setting is that it is very specific. Whilst a GM could easily convert, say, a Traveller adventure into any other SF setting, with Dredd it's a bit harder. Which makes it pretty irrelevant if you have no interest in Judge Dredd.