White Dwarf Wednesday #69

White Dwarf for September 1985 takes us to the end of the 60s with issue #69.  This one is going to be interesting to try to do because my copy is falling apart.  In fact I have it in a bag to hold it all together. When I started this I wanted to see if I could find a new copy and then forgot about it till just recently.   I am not even using my own scanned image of the cover. It is in too bad of shape. The cover is an interesting one. It looks like it could be the demon Graz'zt.  Or someone similar. The artist is Mark Bromley.

Ian Livingstone discusses Games Day.  Here in reality Origins just completed. I had heard from friends that it  was great fun but really small this year.

We start of with an article on Golden Heroes.  Man, I really should dig this game up sometime.

Part 2 of Beneath the Waves is next.  I am missing page 1 of this.  I think it was due to the fact that we were gearing up an ocean based game.  But I could be wrong, 85 sounds too early for that.

Open Box has some reviews that I can relate to.  First are some Marvel titles. MH-4: Lone Wolves, MH-5: Cat's Paw and MHSP1: Secret Wars.  I will be honest with you. I didn't like Secret Wars.  I thought it was a pale attempt to get at the same epicness of DC Crisis on Infinite Earths.  I was even just telling my kids this yesterday morning.  I was getting out of Marvel at this point and out of the Marvel game.  Marcus Rowland gives them 6, 6 and 7/10 respectively.
Next up is the Conan RPG.  Unlike my peers I never liked Conan. It wasn't even till recently that I actually read some.  I liked it because yes it is good stuff, but in 85? No way. I was an Elric (the anti-Conan) fan. Pete Tamblyn gives it 7/10.
We get a review of Toon Strikes Again, a completely silly game that I loved. So did Stephen Kyle who gave it 8/10.    Lastly we have the Chill-influenced board game Black Morn Manor. I had always wanted to play this game but never could get my hands on a copy.  It got an 8/10 from Paul Mason.

Letters and RuneRites are gone according to my table of contents.

The Surrey Egnigma is an adventure for Call of Cthulhu that looks fun.
Followed by an AD&D adventure Plague from the Past that also looks like it could be fun.

Starbase has ship battle damage for Traveller and Travellers has stats for more of its characters.

Fiend Facotry is back this month but the "monsters" are Golden Hero characters. Yeah, it's not as fun anymore.

First page of Table top heroes is gone, but there are pictures.

Treasure chest has some poisons for AD&D.  Not quite as good as the article from Best of Dragon Vol. 2, but still worth the read if poisons are your thing.

Gobilidgook, small ads and ads.

The 60s end in a whimper though I do think both adventures are good.

White Dwarf Wednesday #68

White Dwarf continues to evolve here in the late summer of 1985.  We are now squarely in the issues where I have no personal connection with.  I wasn't reading WD anymore at this point, though I was heavily into Dragon at this point.  Also at this time I had pretty much dropped every other game I had played in favor of AD&D alone.

Our cover this time has some orcs and what could be a halfling or a small old human.  They are about to get ninja'd by a dude in the background.  I did say it was 1985.  This is another cover from Brian Williams.

Ian Livingstone discusses the data from the last reader survey.  People love the comics, which I don't get, but hey this thing is 28 years old now.  They also enjoy Open Box (which I do get).  Ian also mentions that WD subscriptions are on the rise.

Ok on to content.

First up is something we could use in the Old-school world now.  An Artificer character class for AD&D.
It's a pretty neat little class really and can help explain why the world has so many magic items.  What is nice is that was a way for dwarven characters to get some spells.  I am pretty certain I would have had at least one character using this class.

Open Box has a lot of products.  I think instead of talking about each one I'll focus on the ones that interest me.  There is a new Fantasy RPG called Dragonroar that I have never heard of.  It looks like what we call a Fantasy Heartbreaker.  It only gets 5/10 for being too narrow in scope and simple.  Maybe this why I have not heard of it.  The other game is Twilight 2000. It also only gets 5/10.  Now of course I knew about Twilight2k but I never played it.  I do recall years later picking up a copy at a game auction and it only confirmed what I had known for years.  I don't like Post Apoc games.  I like Gamma World and by extension Mutant Future, but so much in these games feels so contrived.  Plus I think I was reading it in 2002 so I rolled my eyes a lot and said "yeah. right" while reading it.
Interestingly enough there is a breakdown on what all the different aspects of the review mean.  Only about 60+ issues too late, but A for effort guys!

Nest is Critical Mass, an ad for the new TSR Conan game.

Crawling Chaos, another well liked article is next.  This time dealing with clergymen and hypnosis.
Beneath the Waves is a new series of dealing with aquatic adventures in AD&D.
Solo Adventures deals with running solo supers games.

The first adventure of the issue is Lone Dragon a scenario for Traveller.  It includes deck plans for the Lone Dragon.  These adventures are usually pretty hard for me to judge.  This is followed by The Travellers which has stats for two of the main characters.

The Star of Darkness is an AD&D adventure for 3rd to 4th level characters.  It uses the artificer class and would be a good introduction to the class.
Treasure chest has a lot of new spells.

While not an inspiring issue, certainly a serviceable one.  RuneQuest material has dropped off considerably but we have picked up more Call of Cthulhu which is nice.  AD&D continues to be popular though I despite my complaints on quality I do miss Fiend Factory.  

We are about to hit the 70s and 1986. My memory of this time tells me there was a lot going on publishing wise even if the industry was in the midst of a cool down period.  I'll see if the issues track with my recollections.

There was supposed to be a giant-sized poster with this issue.  My garage-sale copy is missing that.   Anyone know what it was?

White Dwarf Wednesday #67

July 1985 brings us White Dwarf #67.  We start the issue with something new, a cover from Mark Bromley. I don't believe I have seen him before, but I could be wrong.  Given the size of the door, I am guessing this is a dwarf, but not the eponymous one.  Still though a nice cover.

In the editorial Ian Livingstone talks about how Britain is catching up to the US in terms of Fantasy RPGs.  While hindsight tells me that this is partially correct (the entire industry was hitting the mid-80s slump) it had always been my perception at the time that the best things were coming out of Britain.  Sure it was my perception as a young anglophile, but the games I saw from Britain seemed "grittier" to me and that meant "better" in my 16 year old mind.

Haunters in the Dark brought non-mythos monster to your CoC game.  I had bought this issue for this article alone back in the day.  Though I had forgotten I had until rereading it this week.  I remember wanting to convert the Black Dog to Chill and use some of the other information for D&D.  I was always looking to expand undead and the first house rule "notebook" I put together included some of this information.
Interestingly enough I never cared for Will-o-wisps as undead, thinking them more like some sort of evil Fae creature.

Open box covers Pacesetter's StarAce (or Star Ass as we used to call it) and some Dragonloance modules. StarAce didn't get enough credit from me then, I still prefer Chill and TimeMaster for my Paesetter fun. It barely got any credit though from Marcus Rowland, giving it a 5/10.  Graham Staplehurst covers DL2, DL3 and DL4 from the Dragonlance Modules giving them 7, 8 and 9/10 respectively. He praises the amount of information in modules and says there is plenty for DMs to do with them.  I reread them recently myself, I did find them to be fairly rail-roady, even moreso that I recalled.  Oliver Dickinson wraps us up with 6/10 review for Monster Coliseum from Avalon Hill. It gets knocked down I think due to the price.

Critical Mass has an embarrassment of riches, claiming that by 1987 there will only be enough room in the column to list the names of the books and authors and that's it.   I am not sure if the out of Sci-Fi/Fantasy books ever reached that, I do know it began to wane though soon after.  For my part I had moved over to the darker stuff like Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith.  Insights anyone?

RuneRites covers Barbarian magic.  Useful for any FRPG with Barbarians in a magical world that distrust magic.  Odd thing really.  Is this trope from Conan?

A Champions/Golden Heroes adventure is next, "Peking Duck".  Phil Master wrote this so I am likely to to like it.  But I know so little of Golden Heroes it is hard to judge.

Starbase covers "Wordly Wiles" or Social Customs in Traveller.

Michael Heaton brings us A Murder at Flaxton, an AD&D adventure for low-level characters. Pretty simple and straightforward, but easily dropped into any game.
There is also an article "Parlour Game" about the Arachnid Assassin.

Fiend Factory takes an odd turn this issue.  First it is now listed as Bi-monthly.  Also it presents an NPC.  I say its and NPC, but it could be a type of "monster" or a PC class with some work.  The vivimancer or a spiritual helper.  I am not happy that FF is going to every other month.  On one hand it was my favorite feature, on the other the quality has been suspect for a while.

Tabletop Heroes covers photography of minis.
Treasure Chest has a collection of useful backpacks for AD&D.

We end with ads and the notice board.

In general the quality of the issue is up even if the amount of useful material to me personally was down.

White Dwarf Wednesday #66

White Dwarf Wednesday #66 takes us to June of 1985.

Up first we have a more classical fantasy cover from Chris Achilleos. Interesting that this dragon has a lot of similarity to the kobolds of 3rd ed era.

Based on the success and popularity of Citadel Miniatures and the new Warhammer, Ian Livingstone is wondering about the return of the War Game.  I don't recall if it ever really happened, but certainly Warhammer in its various guises remain popular.

Open Box is up first and it does something interesting.  It brings in computer games into the reviews. Something that had been handled by a separate column.  Reviewed are:  Battledroids (part of what will become Battletech) by Trevor Mendham, 7/10.  The Talisman Computer Game for the Spectrum 48k.  Also a 7/10 by Trevor Mendham. The Halls of the Dwarven Kings is a generic game aid designed for many games (but AD&D in particular) B Y Rowe gives it 8/10.  Two Fighting Fantasy books are also reviewed, House of Hell and Talisman of Death.  Chris Mitchell gives them both 9/10.   Finally, we get a review of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Second Edition.  Robert Alcock praises the changes, even if he does call them "predictable" and gives it an 8/10.

Critical Mass has praise for the "newest" Piers Anthony book "On a Pale Horse" the first part of his massive Incarnations of Immortality series.  I will admit a love/hate relationship with Anthony myself.  I loved the Immortality books, even if I thought the last book was actually kind of terrible.  I read his Xanth books and they became part of the backdrop of my gaming past.

There is a full-color ad for a new game called GURPS from the American Steve Jackson.  Wonder if it will catch on?

Graham Staplehurst has a long form review/advertisement of the Middle Earth Role-Playing Game from ICE. He makes a case on how MERP is better at MERP than AD&D would be.  Ok.  Though he is quick to mention that he doesn't like the magic system and gives too many powers to characters.  I can see that.  That is actually the issue I have with most Middle Earth games.

Heroes & Villains details two powers not found in Golden Heroes, Webslinging and Darkness Control.
Crawling Chaos has some clippings of clues for investigators in Call of Cthulhu, but could work with any horror/pulp game.

A larger article on Ambushes in Warhammer is up.  One of the larger ones I can recall.  Warhammer is certainly making a name for itself in the pages of WD.  Wonder why...(not really, I know).

We have a nice long Call of Cthulhu scenario, The Horse of the Invisible.  Again I want to point out that CoC has changed so little in the years I could run this without much in the way of edits under my newest 6th ed rules.

A long AD&D scenario (not "adventure"), The Philosopher's Stone, for 1st and 2nd level characters is next. It also includes some ideas for alchemy in AD&D.  A nice touch really.

Fiend Factory looks like it is back to its old form with some interesting monsters and a short connected adventure.  Most are swamp and marsh related creatures.

Treasure Chest has a good article with an interesting idea. The five rings of Alignment.  There are rings of Law, Good, Evil, Chaos and Neutrality.   Each is an artifact and each is also guarded by a specific spirit.   This, of course, reminds me of Fred Saberhagen's Twelve Swords.  The idea certainly has some merit and could be fun.

We end with some ads.

In general, I felt this was a much better issue of White Dwarf than we had been getting of late.  The extended look into MERP was very interesting, the adventures all had some good utility and regular features like Fiend Factory and Treasure Chest were more enjoyable.

Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue for a while longer.

White Dwarf Wednesday #65

What was the RPG scene like 28 years ago? Tales of the RPG market in decline! Rules vs. Role-playing! New Star Trek! New stuff from Tolkien and Herbert!  Hmm.  Doesn't sound too different from today to be honest.  Let's get the details in this edition of White Dwarf Wednesday with issue number 65.

#65 has a place of honor in my collection. Honor that is if you consider it one of the issues where I decided that WD just wasn't as good as it used to be.  I know such things are highly subjective, especially considering the source of this was my 15 year old self.  I remember this cover though, another Chris Achilleos.  This is one of his more famous ones to be sure.

Ian Livingstone talks about the rise of FRPGs worldwide even if the market is cooling in America.  This tracks with what we know of the world wide sales of D&D falling after the heyday of early 80s.  May 1985 was nothing but the start of a downhill slide.  Makes the whole nostalgia thing a little sour I guess...

Phil Masters is up first with NPCs in Superhero games.  Still a pretty good read, well.  Minus the terrible red art over 80% of the page.

Open Box has some classics. Marcus Rowland covers Paranoia. He enjoyed it but not sure he would run it as a long term game.  He gives it 7/10.  There are some Traveller Alien books next. Aslan, K'Kree and Vargr they get 9, 7 and 9/10 respectively from Bob McWilliams.  I remember reading these all a couple years later in my university's book store.  New reviewer R. Jarnor covers three new Trek books, The Romulans, The Orion Ruse and Margin of Profit.  I had always wanted that Romulan one.  I thought they were an under appreciated race. He gives them 9, 9, and 8/10 respectively.  All of these books I did not see till college a couple years later.  I played Paranoia and concur with Rowland; fun for a few hours and then that is it.

Critical Mass covers the new Dune book, Chapter House Dune, and the reissue of the older Dunes.

WD tries out fiction again with a tale from Dave Langford.

Graham Miller has a Traveller adventure for us.  At some point they became "adventures" and no longer "sceanrios".  Not sure when that happened.

Mike Lewis has the meaty article of "Rules and Role-Playing Don't Mix" in "Balancing Act".  The basic gist here is that long involved rules impede real role-playing.  I am not sure i buy into that really. That constantly pausing to look up rules is a determent to the flow of the game; which has some merits but it is not as dire as I think he makes it out here.

The Shuagin's Heel is next, an AD&D adventure for 6-8 characters of 2nd to 4th level.   It is a pretty good sized with 6 islands and a dungeon level. Good little side adventure for some seasoned characters.

Starbase has some more organizations for Traveller, in this case something for civilians.
RuneRites covers forecasting and divinations.
Fiend Factory has some very interesting monsters this time around.  The Noegyth Nibin or  "Petty Dwarfs" from Tolkein's Silmarillion.  The art makes them look like a cross between gnome, dwarf and goblin.  Instead though of presenting them as a race we get NPC stats for 9 different personalities.

Treasure Chest has more weapons for AD&D.  Some of which I recall seeing in Dragon and/or Unearthed Arcarna.

Tabletop Heroes covers painting horses.

Newsboard tells us of a rumor of the Buck Rogers rights being sold to TSR.  Not the TV series, but the old original Buck. They also mention some "board room shuffles" at TSR.

We end with adds.

Again, not a great issue, but there are some moments.  The AD&D adventure is nice.
A lot of new names on articles so maybe there are some changes on the way.

We will see.

White Dwarf Wednesday #64

White Dwarf Issue 64 comes to us from April 1985.  I have fonder memories of this issue than some of the others.  I think it was the Mirkwood adventure.  I was huge into Lord of the Rings at this time and MERP to me was my idea of a perfect game.  Idea that is, not execution.  This was also one of the issues I had had in my collection before finding all the others. Anyway on to the issue.
Up first of course is the cover.   A barbarian looking dude with a bard watch a spaceship.  So very 80s to me.  The artist is Peter Andrew Jones, who is unknown to me.

The editorial covers what could be be the first time I have seen LARPs covered. Ian Livingstone discusses "Planet Photon" a Laser Tag like place.

Jon Smithers has an article on Government, Law and Conflict for any FRPG. I remember finding it neat and great material for the project I was working on then, The Urban Survival Guide.

Open Box reviews the new RuneQuest from Avon Hill.  It's a pricey one too for 1985.  The "DeLuxe" ed was £39.95, the Gamemaster's Box was £26.95 and the Player's Box was £20.95. There are minor tweaks from the 1st Ed/Chaosium rules.  Oliver Dickinson gives it a solid 9/10.  The only other product reviewed is one from Marcus Rowland, Traveller Adventure 12. It gets 7/10.

Next up is a Star Trek adventure using a Constitution-class starship's senior officers.   Starfall is a great idea I think. The adventure reads like so much of the FASA material of this time in the Movie era before TNG.  While there are some Trek specific plot points it could be adapted to any sort of SciFi game.

Heroes & Villains is a new feature catering to Super Hero RPGs.  The first article is about Megavillains and it uses the Golden Heroes system.   Let's be honest, without the Joker, Batman is just a psychopath in a bat costume. Megavillians make the game.  I have to admit when I went back to read this article this week I kept thinking about this scene.

The Dawn of Unlight is an AD&D/MERP adventure from Graham Staplehurst. I always loved the idea of playing in Middle Earth, but never found the right group to do it with.   The adventure is simple enough and there is not much here to mark it as "Tolkien" save the location, but it was still great fun for me when I first saw it.

Phil Masters has Modern day Ninjas for basically all other games except FRPGS.

Fiend Factory has some desert monsters including some Desert Orcs that are nothing at all like mine. Other monsters include Sand Golems, Cactus Cats and Sand Snipers which is like a sand dwelling squid.

More from Crawling Chaos. A new cult.
Treasure Chest has some cool AD&D spells that I remember using back in the day.

A full color ad for the first Dragonlance novel dominates the last part of the issue.

We end with ads, small ads and letters.

Ok. So this issue is a step up from the last few.  The FF monsters are not inspiring  but the spells and adventure is great for AD&D fans.  I liked seeing the Trek adventure and the addition of more games (Golden Heroes and MERP) was nice.

White Dwarf Wednesday #63

White Dwarf Wednesday is back!  Ok, I only took a week off, but hey.
We are up to issue 63 now which is from March 1985. So let's put on some old Cult, grab a New Coke jump into our Deloreans and have a go. The cover takes me back to some of the older WDs. Some orcs attacking courtesy of Gino D'Achille.

Ian Livingstone covers a lot of ground in his editorial on licenses and licensing.  The gist I get from it all. D&D is more or less a "brand" at this point (look at today in fact with Warner buying the D&D rights for a new film).

First up an article on Traveller vehicles, a follow-up to an article all the way back from Issue 43.

Open Box comes next with reviews of The Runemagic series, a game I have never heard of (there is an Obscure RPG!) from a company I have never heard of, Triffid Software Research.  Mike White gives it 8/10 but for the life of me I can't see why.  Not that the game sounds bad, it reads like RuneQuest Lite, but I can't figure out what the game is about beyond that.  This is followed by the classic Toon from Steve Jackson Games.  Interestingly enough the first RPG I ever knew about that did not have character death. Cause as we all know, cartoons can't die.  Stephen Kyle gives it a deserved 9/10 (10/10 for enjoyment).
We also get a couple of Starfleet Battles books (Star Trek III 8/10 and SFB Vol. II 7/10) and some D&D modules, B6 (9/10) and XL1 (4/10).  Graham Staplehurst saying the module XL1 is like everyone's first dungeon and this one seems to want to sell toys to you.

Part 5 of Eye of Newt is next. More on magic item creation for AD&D. This one focusing on Miscellanea.  I like this idea, but it also robs magic items a bit of their mystery.  Maybe the secret to crafting a Wand of Wonder is lost.
Part 3 of The Dark Usurper is after some ads.

The best entry in the issue is "Draw the Blinds on Yesterday" a Call of Cthuhlu adventure. A nice little adventure that draws together some neat ideas from the 1920s COC and modern age.

Tabletop Heroes covers doing settings for your minis.
Fiend Factory has some mountain encounters, only 4 creatures.
Starbase introduces "Imperial Trooper" to Traveller.
And Treasure Chest has some advice for the travelling Halfling in AD&D/D&D.

With the exception of the Call of Cthulhu adventure this was only a so-so issue. If you were not following some of the past issues then this one of Part 5s and Part3s would be lost on you.

White Dwarf Wednesday #62

February 1985 brings us Whited Dwarf #62. While most of my White Dwarfs from here on I picked up many years after the fact, this one was part of my early collection.  It might even have been the last one I bought new. Once again we have an awesome Chris Achilleos cover.  I wonder if they bought these in bulk or something. The monster is some sort of goblinoid, demon or yeti. Either way that dude looks like he is about to become Yeti-chow.

Ian Livingstone mentions he is going to Dallas for the Hobby Industry of America's annual show (and even gets off a even-tired-for-1985 joke about J.R.). There is quite a bit of chatter on the white metal miniatures production.

Up first is an article I really enjoyed back in the day.  A Place of Damp and Darkness dealt with the levels under a city.  Given that it was 1985 and my love of all things British I always thought of London.  In my mind "D&D London" was a weird combination of London of 1066, Elizabethan and Victorian London as cobbled together from various sources as Doctor Who and Hammer films.  Not a pretty place, or even a real place, but a fun one.  Goblins lived in the sewers, something that you will see in my adventures to this very day.

Open Box gets Super-sized. hehe. Not is size, but two new Super Hero games.  Golden Heroes by Games Workshop and Marvel Super Heroes from TSR.    I have only heard of Golden Heroes, never played it.  Marcus Rowland loved it and gave it a 10/10 (even though he gave it a 7/10 for Complexity).  He comes back with MSH and introduces the reader to FASERIP and the differences between Feeble and Unearthly.  He gives it a 8/10 but for the life of me I have no idea why OTHER than he doesn't like seem "tm" all over the page. At this point in my life I was moving away from DC and into Marvel, so this was an awesome time for me. I recall how much we had taking our current D&D characters and restating them up as Marvel Characters.

RuneRites in next with some great spells for RuneQuest.   All have a nice Celtic feel to them.

The Dark Usurper is up, Part 2 of the Fighting Fantasy Solo Adventure.

Gary Draabwell gives us En Garde, Parrying rules for AD&D.  My then DM latched on these and never let go.  I don't think a single sword hit I had ever landed after this article.

Ok this one is an odd duck.
An Alien Werewolf in London is a Traveller Adventure set in 1888 London. A Vargr has time-crash-landed in London and you need to go in a get him. It's a very straight forward adventure.  Frankly it would work FANTASTIC for Cubicle 7's Doctor Who game and I even ran it once under Ghosts of Albion..

Eye of Newt and Wing of Bat is up for part 4. This time Swords and other weapons.  The section on "bane swords" was very helpful when we focused on making "Demonbane" a unique holy avenger  for my then AD&D game.

Fiend Factory has some relatives of the Dryad, the O Caber. They seem interesting enough.'

Treasure Chest covers hermits and hags.  In this case they are ways to customize forest encounters with the strange old man/woman of the forest.

Crawling Chaos is a new bi-monthly Call of Cthulhu feature.  This time they cover two new monsters the Bokrug and their servants the Thuun'ha.  I like the idea of new monsters in CoC, but in truth players

Tabletop Heroes covers painting faces. Crash Course has some more Car Wars has a bunch of smaller ideas and articles.

We end with ads.

Ok so a lot for me personally in this issue.  A lot of material that I made use of over the years or later adapted to something else.  Let this be a lesson to you. Don't throw out your old magazines!

White Dwarf Wednesday #61

It's Wednesday...er Tuesday!  And that means it's time White Dwarf.
Ok, with the A to Z posts and the S&W Appreciation Day it is going to be a busy day of posting tomorrow.
Today. Not so much.  So instead of giving you WDW late, I figure early is better.  So let's begin.

White Dwarf Magazine #61 is our first issue of 1985.  The first thing we should notice int he increase in price to 95p or $3.00 here in the US. Well that and the cool cover, which is again a Chris Achilleos one, but I think it must be an older one. Ian Livingstone has some bits about things coming up in future WDs, but no mention of the price increase.

Oliver MacDonald is up first on more alchemy for RuneQuest.   I devoured all sorts of articles like this; I always wanted more out of the magic I was doing in AD&D and games like RQ seemed to have all those things.  Or at least that was my perception at the time.

Open Box is a BIG one for me personally. Let's dive in.
First up is the review of the LONG awaited Companion Rules for the D&D Basic game.  I discussed my own history with the Companion Rules before, but long story short I had already gone the route of AD&D (and other games) by this time.  To me, this Companion Set was too little, too late.  Megan C. Robertson (whom I also consider a friend and have worked together a number of times) gives it only a 7/10.  At the time I would have given it lower, but today it would have fared better.  So I can't disagree with her logic.
Next is TimeMaster from Pacesetter.  Man I really, really wanted this game back then.  I was (and still am) a HUGE Doctor Who fan and at the time this seemed like my best bet for getting a Doctor Who game going.
I never got to play TimeMaster though I do own it today. Steve Norledge gives it and it's associated adventure both 7/10.   Also reviewed is a game I never get tired of talking about, Chill. Also from Pacesetter, Chill was MY horror  game.  Not as in "I wrote it" but as in I loved it.  Angus M. McLellan gives it 7/10 and the adventure Village of Twilight a 6/10.  I would have given it more myself.
Witch Hunt is an odd little game and it is next.  I also owned this game. While playing it and Chill I came up with a number of things that would later become part of my games today.  Certainly my Witch book has some DNA from these two games. Jon Sutherland only gives it a 5/10.  Actually that is reasonable since re-playability was low in my opinion and the rules were not great.
Lastly we have Indian Jones.  A lot has been said about this game.  Andrian Knowles gives it a 7/10 and that is very generous.

A bit on Critical Mass.  Dave Langford reviews Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein. I read Job at about this time as well and really, really enjoyed it.  It might very well be one of my favorite RAH books along with Friday.  I have never seen this cover for it before.

Part 3 of Eye of Newt is back.  Great ideas that didn't see an official counterpart till 15 years later.  Mix it with the Alchemy article for some good magic-based fun.

Andy Slack has some Traveller ideas on how to motivate characters (other than just money).

Beyond the Shadow of a Dream is next. It is an adventure for Basic D&D or Fighting Fantasy, though it is not a programmed adventure.  Kudos for WD for trying something new.  There is a defiant influence of Traveller of Call of Cthulhu here in this adventure design.

Letters talking about how boring the letters page is.

A programmed Fighting Fantasy adventure is next. Four pages and 104 entries.

The last part of Superhero games by Simon Burley.  In particular he looks at various other world for Supers games like high fantasy and sci-fi.  I have seen similar treatments in various Supers books out now, but it is still interesting to read this system-free point of view.

Fiend Factory continues with AD&D stats (thought we would be going to CoC or RQ stats as well).  Al sorts of weird bugs.  Perfect if you were running Q1 at the time (and we were).

RuneRites has some treasures, including the Ray Harryhausen inspired Fang Warriors.
Treasure Chest has an adventure contest.  They provided the map you provide the scenario.
Tabletop Heroes gets shoved to the back of the magazine. Must be all those letters they got.

Rumors: A new West End Star Trek Game. Mayfair gets Sanctuary. More Marvel Superhero books coming out.

Followed by ads and small ads.

A good issue. 1985 starts out big for WD and it will get bigger.
Issue 62 has one of my favorite adventures and soon we will see the end of an era.

White Dwarf Wednesday #60

The beginning of the 60s takes us to the end of 1984 which may have been one of the best years in gaming.  Issue #60 comes to us from Dec. 1984.  Let's talk about the cover for a bit.  Two warriors on horseback, one with a woman behind, either fighting or raising their weapons in salute to each other.  Majestic castle in the background.  I think I like to think these are not enemies; their stances do not scream combat to me though that is what the artist had in mind I think.  Doesn't matter. The cover is 30 years old and I get to see what I like now.  Again, we have Chris Achilleos to thank for this one.

Ian Livingstone kicks things off with an editorial about the price of metal minis and how they have tripled in price.  I never bought many metal minis myself, price being one of the factors, but mostly I can't paint worth a damn.  It seems odd to me that the idea of doing plastic minis didn't catch on then.  I think that the metal ones were very detailed (still are) and preferred by the people that do the painting (still are).  Hard for me to say really, not at all my area of expertise.

Up first is First Issues or how to start a supers game.  Really, if you are looking to start up, re start up or even just reboot a supers game then this is a must read.  They suggest minis, which I like and is not really as needed as they say, but you can also use good old fashioned action figures.

Open Box has a few classics on hand.  The Elfquest RPG from Chaosium is up.  I dismissed this game as a "kiddie" game back in the day.  Yeah, yeah I know how wrong I was now.  Murray Writtle rubs salt in that old wound by giving it a 9/10.  Three modules from TSR are up.  In case there was any doubt that this is the Silver Age of Gaming, included in this group is DL1 Dragons of Despair, the first Dragonlance module.  Now at the time I liked this and thought the concept was cool, new and exciting.  Graham Staplehurst agress and gives it an 8/10.  I have to admit I hated (and still do to far lesser degree) the Kender.  Also up are the next two UK modules in the new trade dress. UK2 and UK3 get 8/10 and 7/10 respectively also from Graham Staplehurst.

Graeke Davis has part 2 of the magical item manufacture rules.  This time covering rods and potions; ie things all characters can use.  Again, these have been superceded by similar rules in 3.x, but the flavor is great and it is much more than a list of spells and XP expenditures.  When dealing with magic in games, flavor text is often everything.

Steve Williams and Jon Sutherland are up with The Bleeding Stone of Iphtah (god choice for I day!) this scenario for Call of Cthulhu featuring one of my favorite races, the Yithians or Great Race.  CoC works best when it works in small doses like this. A mystery, some investigation, 1 (and not much more) monster or race and really nothing from the Great Old Ones.  If Cthulhu shows up in your game then play D&D.  This adventure is nearly perfect for me.  I'd love to try it either as a Cthulhu by Gaslight one or a Ghosts of Albion one.

Marcus Rowland has some tips for Scifi gaming.  If I was smart I should scan these in or copy them and put them in a folder for the next time I try Traveller.

Stuart Hunter as an AD&D adventure "The Fear of Leefield" for 4-6 characters of 3-5 level. The adventure is longish. It uses a new race from a whle back (Mandrake people) and has a new spell and magic item.  The scenario involves slavers and drugs, so it could be used just about anywhere.

Microview is back with some computer games.  Games Workshop was in the Sinclair Spectrum games biz for a bit and gives us Tower of Despair (also known as Argent Warrior). This game lives up to it's claim of "State of the Art" graphics and gets a 9/10 from Kevin Westbury. D-Day is also reviewed and gets a 9/10 from Andrew Miller. Lindsay Paton gives Lords of Midnight 9/10 as well.
Now here is an interesting thing going on here.  The Atari for all intents and purposes is seeing a decline in the home game market at this point while computer games are getting better and better.  Is the silver Age of RPGs related to the rise of computer games?  Or visa versa?  There were certainly some interesting things going on in 1984/85 on both fronts.

Ars Arcana details the uses of various new 8th and 9th level spells from AD&D.  I have read lots of articles like this over the years, a DIY in D&D (not DIYD&D) if you will.  Doing more with the tools you already have. Always a good idea or two.

Fiend Folio is up with some new AD&D monsters.  Felines, Fungi and Phantoms is the subtitle. We get a Bush Cat that changes stats as it ages. Also there is the Helghost, or an undead magic-user that was particularly vile in life.

Letters tackles such topics as Thrud and why won't WD cater to every type of gamer everywhere.

RuneRites has some monsters. I think. Hard to say really. There are pictures of monsters, there are stats, but I am not sure if I am supposed to take the Furballs, Wereballs, and Dragonballs seriously or not.  They look like Pokemon to be honest.

Table top heroes details brushing techniques.

News is up. First note is the Mayfair / TSR dust up is over. some rumors of Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers getting into the RPG market. Major new British RPG is on the way Dragonroar is set to take the world by storm.

Ads, and finally that last nail in the coffin of the Golden Age, an ad for software graces the back cover. Not only that but for Adventure Writer, a program that allows you to create the adventure in English on your computer.

If there was ever a doubt that we are in a new age, look no further than issue 60.  1984 was a big year in gaming. Lots of changes. Even the covers of the now classic AD&D are changing.  Next time it's 1985.

If you are looking for my A to Z post, just scroll down.

White Dwarf Wednesday #59

White Dwarf #59 comes to us from November 1984.  We have one of my favorite WD covers. It is vaguely reminiscent of the Dragon #114 cover, though it predates that cover by 2 years.  I saw the Dragon one first. In any case this is still a great cover.

Ian Livingstone starts off with talking about some more changes coming to WD.  Most notable for the magazine and for my retrospectives here is the change to Fiend Factory.  Up until now the monsters have been D&D/AD&D, now they are opening it up to other systems like RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu.

Up first is a story, the Mad God's Omelette, a play on the Micheal Moorcock book The Mad God's Amulet.  I typically don't read the fiction in magazines.

Open Box has some Call of Cthulhu products, Glozel est Authentique!, Curse of the Chthonians and The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island.  Stephen Kyle gives them 5/10, 9/10 and 7/10 respectively.

James Bond is also represented as well with For Your Information and the Gamesmaster Pack.  Bob Neville  is a bit disappointed with these giving them only a 3/10 and 4/10 respectively. Also reviewed by Phil Masters is the game based on Larry Niven's Ringworld. He likes the game mostly but finds some rather critical errors with it and gives it a 6/10 saying is lacks the depth it should have had.

We get the AD&D version of the Ninja, which is really just a re-skinned Assassin.  Not a bad idea mind you, and there are some new and noteworthy add ons, but after all this build up I was looking for something more.  I thought I had remembered this class prior to this review, but I think it must have been another ninja class and not the one in OA.

A bit on cults in Modern RPGS is next, a followup from last issue. Some neat little cults and odd religions to add to any game.

A Car Wars article on double-decker buses.

Graeme Davis has a great article on Magic Item production for AD&D.  The article is bit reminiscent of the magic item creation found in 3.x (some 16 years later).

Hour of the Tiger is an introductory adventure for Ninja characters for AD&D or Bushido.   The adventure itself looks good and is very detailed. A good introduction for ninja characters.

We also get a RuneQuest scenario dealing with a traveling caravan.  Reading it over I wish I had it back in the 2nd ed days when I was playing with gypsies in Ravenloft.

Table Top Heroes discusses brushing techniques.

Starbase discusses and intelligence agency that Travelers players can work for or against.
RuneRites discusses pit fighting.

Fiend Folio covers AD&D stats (has to be stated now) of Reavers, the evil foes of Death Knights. There are only 6 and interestingly enough for me and this month is that all the Reavers are named after demon lords.

Treasure Chest details more uses of classic spells.
Newsboard doesn't have much. Some pictures. No new product rumors.

Despite the size of the issue, there seems to be only a little actual content.


Looking for my A to Z post? Scroll down or click here.

White Dwarf Wednesday #58

White Dwarf #58 takes us to October 1984.  Right away we notice the Chris Achilleos cover.  I have always associated his work with White Dwarf and visa versa.  It's funny that some of his best work happened later than I remember.  This horde of evil is a theme he comes back too and I think he does well.  I seem to recall he has a few more coming up.

Ian Livingstone talks about how RuneQuest once again beat out AD&D for Best RPG at Games Day.  Under the new deal with Avon Hill RuneQuest will now cost £40 up from £30! Which is today's money is about $15 extra ($45 to $60), no idea what the value of that was in 1984 England, but I am sure it was a lot.

A couple of pages on traps.  After a DM with a couple of volumes of Grimtooth's traps I got used to checking for traps as I walked more or less. So today traps don't interest me much.

Open Box has some interesting games.  Lands of Adventure is first. I have never heard of it and Richard Clyne only gives it a 5/10.  Though up next is the classic Middle Earth Roleplaying from ICE.  They were such attractive books and I really lament not getting the game when it was new.  MERP gets 9/10 and Bree and the Barrow Downs (which I wanted FOREVER) gets a 7/10 from Jon Sutherland.  One day I need to spend some quality time with MERP.  The Q Manual for James Bond gets a 9/10.  Also an old favorite is the FASA Star Trek. Russel Clark loves it and gives it a 9/10.

Part 3 of the Ninja article is next. It deals with martial arts and the quasi-mystical ninja powers.  I have seen better treatments but I have seen worse too.

Graeme Davis is next with an article I remember well when I got a copy of this back in college. Beyond the Final Frontier deals with death in the games and how it might not be the last go.  The death myths of different cultures are presented it is a cool read.

Some significant typing is needed for the next article if you want to use the BASIC program to Grow Your Own Planets. This is the first time I have seen program designed specifically for the IBM PC using MS Basic (as opposed to Z80 Basic) in WD.

Some ads.  We come up next to a supers adventure for Golden Heroes and Champions.  Looks fun and simple enough.  I bet it would work fine for Icons, BASH! or M&M.
Not to be forgotten we have an AD&D mini adventure too with a couple of new monsters to boot.

Credit is detailed in Traveller.
"Colour" is the theme in Tabletop Heroes for mini painting.

RuneRites has a couple of really short scenarios. should work with about any game.
Treasure Chest details some old spells and gives them new twists.

Letters concerns itself with questions on what purpose does Tabletop Heroes serve.  Oh just you wait!
News details the new games coming up and licenses seem to rule the day; Indiana Jones, Star Trek, 2010, Conan, Star Fleet Battles and so on.

At this point White Dwarf is up to 56 pages and still 85p.  Most of the new space is used by ads though.
Serviceable issue, made better by the use of the fine cover art.

White Dwarf Wednesday #57

Ok so last week I tried something new and focused on the articles that I remembered the best and talked about what I was doing at the time.  I am not sure that entirely worked out they way I wanted.  I felt like I had left large portions of the magazine unmentioned.  This is going to become a bigger issue as I get into the 60s and 70s since I only recall a couple from that time and almost nothing from 80-100.
Still though. There is a lot I can say. So I think in the interests of trying to find a happy medium I am going to ignore the comics for the most part (unless they figure into what I am talking about) and I might ignore the book reviews.  My tastes in books was  going more to horror and dark fantasy at this point anyway so I less likely to see books I was reading at the time.  Course I could be wrong.

On to the issue!

The cover is pretty cool.  Barbarian on a zebra fighting a guy on a giant bird.  

We get a nice big full page, full color ad for the new FASA Star Trek Game.  I loved that game, but never got a chance to play it.

Ian Livingstone asks the perennial questions about licenced games.Do gamers prefer them?  That's not an easy one to answer. While D&D was and still is to a degree king I would argue that it is it's own brand.  The games I have worked on that have gotten the most attention Buffy and Ghosts of Albion did great and were based on a license.  Another game I dearly love, WitchCraft uses almost the exact same system and Eden has a hard time giving that game away.  So yeah.  My experience is that yes, gamers like licenses.

First article is one on Psionics in AD&D and other FRPGs.  I agree that psionics in most fantasy games are treated like another form of magic. I have a real Love/Hate relationship with psionics in D&D. We used it in our AD&D games and it was fun. I even was part of an OD&D game one summer that all the characters were psionic and that was a blast too.  But generally speaking I don't like to mix my magic and psionics.  Eventually my distaste for Psionics in D&D manifested as psionic characters were hunted like witches in my magic-centric world.  Played out rather nice really.  The article by Todd E. Sundsted does a good job of giving you tips on how to use psionics in a game and even gives them a more modern point of view.
Conversely I also don't like Magic in my Sci-Fi settings, but I do like to have Psionics in them.

Open Box is back to it's regular format.  Up first we have the first four Role-Aids books from Mayfair Games.  I have had a long relationship with Mayfair and I have enjoyed the Role-Aids books quite a bit.  Robert Dale here doesn't agree. He gives Dwarves, Elves and Dark Folk all 3/10.  Wizards fares better with 6/10.  Andy Slack gives 9/10 to the Traveller Adventures book.  Powers and Perils was always one of those games I was curious about but never bought back then.  I have a copy a copy now and it is cool. Adrian Knowles gives it 8/10, I'd do 7/10 myself.   Continuing with a licensed game we have the new James Bond 007 game which comes in two versions a single book or a box set.  You can see the shift here in that the reviewer, Bob Neville, far prefers the single book option. He faults it on several points, one of which I thought was amusing that it was written by Americans.   In the end he enjoyed it enough to overcome it and gave it a 6/10.

Sky Rig is a Traveller Scenario for 3-6 characters.  We are now at a point where the books needed to play must be indicated. An issue D&D has had for a bit now, but new here. The scenario is 5 pages long and looks good, but I am not a good judge of these things.  WD does use one of their color pages for an illustration though.  Most likely it for the Dragonlance ad that appears next and this was the same page in layout/printing.

Yes. Big Dragonlance ad is next. Often seen as the herald of the Silver Age or at least the herald of the end of the Golden Age.  The end actually happened much longer than this I would say.   To paraphrase Star Trek III the Search for Spock it was "the bold Experiment".  Now lets be honest.  Those ads sucked you in just as much as me.  The bold adventurers the dragons. That evil looking Darth Vader looking dude.  I never played the Dragonlance adventures, though I read the novels.  I hated the Kinder, I thought "Steel Pieces" and no gold was stupid.  But I still was caught up in it enough to buy the books again as an adult and the 3rd edition campaign guide.

We get more Living Dead in RuneQuest.  Again, cool and certainly something I want to come back too now I have finally picked up some RuneQuest books.

More on Ninjas in AD&D, RuneQuest and Bushido.  I loved these cross system articles.  The Ninja has gotten more treatments in AD&D than Witches I think (but still less than Necromancers).  I liked reading the Ninja stuff other people did cause I saw the same single mindedness I had with the witch.  Again if you remember last week I have played only one ninja my entire gaming life.

Lew Pulsipher is back with Lew's Views. He covers the life of a retired wizard. One issue it covers is the idea of "Magic Shops".  I like magic shops, but they are rare in my world as to be unique.

Part II of the AD&D of the Island of Rammas, The Sunfire's Heart, is next.  The adventure is quite in-depth as well. It got me thinking that the quality of adventures from White Dwarf always seemed a bit better than that of Dragon and the later Dungeon.  At least at this point in time.  Later I would give teh nod to Dungeon and Dragon, but today it is White Dwarf.  This adventure has some neat idea like the Frost Vampire.

Andy Slack has a new race for Traveller, the Staurni.  It's a snake with arms and wings.  Neat, but not something I would use myself.

Fiend Factory is back with monsters from the Majipoor Chronicles by Robert Silverberg.  Quite a collection too. I have no experience with the books, but the monsters looks interesting enough.

Tabletop Heroes has a how-to-do guide on how to set up bases for your minis, including some nice full color photos.

Letters has praise for the last few issues, including the comics.

Another Reader Survey is next. I'll discuss this when the results are published.

Treasure Chest has some tips for spell usage and a crossword puzzle.  I stared at the crossword and wondered if it could double up as a dungeon.

News items deals with the rumors of of games called "Toon" and "Paranoia".  NOW the Golden Age is dead! ;)

Despite the fact there is not much more here than the last issues, I felt this was a better issue.  Maybe due to the good adventures and monsters.

White Dwarf Wednesday #56

It's August 1984 and White Dwarf 56 is on the shelves and newsstands.

I have felt that the last few issues of White Dwarf, and my reviews of them, have been in something of a rut.  So for this issue I think instead of dedicating time to the minutia of the issue,  I will instead highlight sections and talk about what they meant to me then and now.

Interestingly enough I am starting in the same place; the editorial.  Ian Livingstone (and if memory serves these are among his last issues) talks about the state of the British RPG hobby.  While in retrospect I can see what he is saying, but back in 84 England was this magical land where True Roleplaying games come from.  Even the best American games had English roots.  Or so I thought.  Imagine my surprise living in Illinois that Ground Zero for RPGS was just a couple hundred miles north of me.  When I got to college I heard stories about how Gary would come down to SIU to play D&D. The store I was mail ordering from to get rare items (like White Dwarf) was in a Chicago suburb I would later move too and stay for 10 years.  So my perspective then was one of an anglophile living in a town that was in the middle of a cornfield and not really based on any reality.  It is interesting though that reading this now I do still think of the British RPG market as being more serious.  I think this is largely due to White Dwarf itself.
It was about this time I was HEAVY into Doctor Who, so the FASA game was on my must have list.

Up next is an article about playing Ninjas in FRPGs.  In the early 80s everyone was obsessed with Japanese culture and society.  Though I guess ninjas never really go out of style. I have played exactly 1 ninja my entire  gaming life.  His name was (horrible I know) Oko-nishi.  My lame attempts at a Japanese sounding name.  In my defense at what I knew was bad I made him a half-orc.  It must have been around this time I made him too using the Oriental Adventure rules.  My then DM and I had worked up a D&D combat simulator and we plugged him in with 9 other characters.  He was attacked by a Black Dragon (or Red, cant recall) and killed. The dragon kept attacking him and only him.  We had not worked out all the errors. In the end he had been reduced to something like -70 hp.  My DM offered to let him be ok, or keep him dead. We enjoyed watching it so much and getting the mental image of this dragon jumping up and down on my dead ninja that I felt it was a waste to say it never happened.
I am pretty sure that my half-orc ninja was not based on the cover of this issue.

Open Box switches to a new format. The games are now on "cards" like an offset window, self contained.  It makes it easier to see what you are reading and jump to a particular game, but the space economy is terrible.     The review I focused on was the World of Harn game.  It gets a 6/10.

A few more pages in we get something that was a feature of Dragon, the stating up of book characters.  In this case The Belgariad by David Eddings. This is something I do to this day. The issue then as now is that characters in books, movies or TV are not built according to the D&D rules.  We saw that a couple of issues back with Gandalf cast as a Cleric.  There is an ad for the books later in the magazine.

Up next is an interesting Call of Cthulhu game that takes place in the future on a distant planet. The Last Log is an interesting thing really. I was not expecting to see CoC used like this, but of course it works.  The creatures of Lovecraft's stories are more alien than demonic.    This very notion will be explored again and again till most recently with Eldritch Skies and Cthulhu Tech.
The adventure itself would fit in nicely with either of the newer products above and it was a nice bit of forward thinking.  Not so forward was the "dot matrix printer paper" of the layout, but hey.

We also get an AD&D adventure on an island.

The minis section works with the Cthulhu adventure (which some are used) and/or Traveller or Star Frontiers.

We get more ads in the middle of the magazine, similar to the style of Dragon including one for the new Dragonlance modules.

Fiend Factory seems to get back to made it so good in the past, really neat monsters.  This issue has monsters from the Planes.

An article on Tech in D&D.  For no reason better than "I don't wanna!" I never liked tech in D&D including black powder.

The newstand reports that TSR is releasing the Companion Rules. Finally.  I had moved on to AD&D at this point and was not a fan of the Mentzer books.  Now I am of course. Also excitement over the new Indiana Jones game that is due out.  An interesting bit about a new movie based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space is being made.  Wonder what happened to it?

Near the end we get one of the first of what I call the "classic" ads for MERP from ICE.

So in truth this is a better issue than the previous ones.  The common thread is taking the game you are playing and doing something new with them.  Maybe we are turning a corner here.

White Dwarf Wednesday #55

White Dwarf #55 comes to us from July 1984.  Our cover this month is what can only be called a "Space Marine".  The cover is good as in well done, but it doesn't fill me with anything.  I might have passed this issue up in the stores. Still though, I was a bit down on Sci-Fi games at this point, so I am sure that it would have been lost on me anyway.

Ian Livingstone's editorial is once again ripped from today's headlines.  The Gaming Hobby is DYING! But he admits that despite the shrinking market and layoffs the hobby is only changing.  He is right of course and the hobby will never hit the peaks it hit at this time, but it is, and was, changing.  Interestingly enough I did not  have this perspective back then.  To me it seemed like the gaming hobby would go on forever, if I thought about it all.

Marcus Rowland continues his Name of the Game series with Supers, Spies and Scary Guys.  Superhero games are covered with Champions claiming the top spot.  Spy games are next with Top Secret featured. Next are the "odd" games which includes a diverse lot of Call of Cthulhu, Daredevils and Gamma World.  Historical games end the article.

Spiderbite is next and it is a short scenario for D&D/AD&D, for 1st to 2nd level characters.  There are some interesting changes here. First thing you notice are the "DM's" sections to each room/adventure area. Canned text for the DM to read that began with B3.  Also are the "newer" non-orthogonal maps, ala Ravenloft (see next section). It comes in at four pages, but seems smaller than that.  The newer format certainly takes more text.

Open Box has some reviews. We get our first supplement to Warhammer, Forces of Fantasy.  I will admit I know very, very little about Warhammer except what is commonly known.  Jon Sutherland gives it a 7/10 and asks why was the Warhammer book so full of errors (glitches as he says) to need this book?
A bunch of TSR modules are next, X5, L2, I5 and the immortal I6.  Dave Morris goes over them in turn. He has the highest praise for X5, Temple of Death which he gives 10/10.  L2 gets 7/10, I5 9/10 and Ravenloft gets a 8/10.  He loves the plot and does call it a straight Hammer Horror yarn, but bemoans the puns.
Sherlock Holmes - Consulting Detective and an associated adventure The Mansion Murders are reviewed.  Nic Grecas enjoys it as a welcome diversion from dragon slaying or blasting aliens and gives it a 9/10.  I have been looking for a copy of this for a while.  Still haven't found one yet.  Finally Stuart Aston has a few books for Starfleet Battles; SSD Books 1, 2 and 3.  All get a 9/10.

Critical Mass has more book reviews. The only book in the bunch I can recall is Stephen Donaldson's Daughter of Regals.  I remember getting this through the Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club (ok hands up, who was a member?) and I enjoyed it, which is interesting because I didn't really care for much of Donaldson's other works.  The reviewer here disliked the book mostly (but liked his other stuff from the sounds of it).

ICE breaks up the flow (eh) with a full color ad for the Fellowship of the Ring boardgame.

Phil Holmes has more undead for RuneQuest.  Now back in the day I was not into RuneQuest except as a way to get more Call of Cthulhu into my D&D.  These days I am trying to educate myself more on RQ and this is the sorta thing I enjoy.

Another full page, full color ad.  This time to let us know that Finieous Fingers is going to Fantasy Gamer Magazine.  One though has to wonder if the big selling point of your magazine is the appearance of a comic.  BUT this is Fineous Fingers, and while I never was a big follower of any particular magazine comic (with maybe the exception of "What's New!") even I knew of FF.

Crash Course, bi-monthly Car Wars column is next.  This one concerns punks in 2034.  While it is easy to read this now and think "that is only in 20 years", its still an interesting insight into 1984.

Animal cults and worship for D&D is next.   Tony Parry and Jerry Vaughn correctly point out that this is an area that has gotten very little attention in D&D. And they are still correct.

Castle of Lost Souls part 4 is next, finishing up the series. This seems to be the longest one yet.  I think I should give this one a try sometime.

Letters covers some of the same observations that I have had.  The magazine looks better than ever, but showing signs of slowing down and not being as cutting edge as it once was.  Other bemoan the lack of Traveller articles and the increase in RuneQuest ones. Additionally one letter states how they don't like Travellers (the comic). 

Speaking of, Thrud is next.

Tabletop Heroes gets the color pages again.  It is my memory that at this time Dragon was moving away from minis while White Dwarf was embracing them more.  I could be wrong though.

RuneRites has some really cool looking threats for RuneQuest. First we have a bipedal bat-like monster, a rather nasty spell and a magic ring that seems to be just as cursed as it is magical.

Fiend Factory has the Gods of the Shapelings (from last issue). The gods seem more interesting than I recall the monsters being.  The trouble is they are presented as something along the lines of uber-archetypes to fit the psychology of the Shapelings.  Noble effort, but the result is the gods seem a little bland.  Though with some work I think they would work out well.

Treasure Chest has an interesting article about Arch Enemies in FRPs (and D&D in particular).  I like the idea.  The concept of the reoccurring villain is older than Lex Luthor or the Joker, and not something I think we use enough in fantasy games.  It is something VERY common in games like Buffy, or Ghosts of Albion sure.  But there is something to be said about having an enemy come back for more and more.  Keeping him alive though is the real trick.

Travellers is next followed by an article on variant universes in Traveller.

News is up. We learn about Mayfair's "The Keep" movie tie-in game/adventure.  Also from Mayfair are the Roleaids products.  RQ3 is on the way.  The Star Trek RPG from FASA will hit the shores of the UK soon.

We end with the usual rounds of ads.

Not much to say about this issue really. Nothing new or innovative from the last few issues to be honest, but serviceable material.  I think WD needs to shake it up a bit here soon.

White Dwarf Wednesday #54

White Dwarf #54 comes to us from the far off time of June 1984. This was a time when I probably played more AD&D than any other time in my life, before or since.  Let's talk about that cover for a bit. Wow. Could it be more 80s?  Mystical wizard with a glowing eye and a huge, almost to damn big to be useful Sword-Axe!  It's the mighty Sword-Axe! The only weapon that can kill the dark lord holding the hero's love.  Stick in a metal guitar riff and that is all you need.  Of course I love this cover.  The wizard is actually kind of cool looking and that sword is EXACTLY the sort of ridiculousness that I would loved to have stated up back in the day.

Ian Livinstone brings up the Satanic Panic issue. I guess he was abroad in Australia and New Zealand and the subject of "black magic" was brought up to him.  I like his response, one of dismissive confusion.

Not content on bring logic to the real world, the next article tries to bring logic to the fantasy world as well.  Christopher Hunt gives us Laws of Nature; or how to create a logically consistent game world.  There was a lot of this around this time and I think a hallmark of the Silver Age.  While older adventures were content with the dungeon crawl and room after room of monster and treasure; the mid 80s was a time when people began to ask why are these rats here? and why do they have a sack of 2,000 coins?  This is reflected in the modules and the articles we read.  I took a lot of this to heart then and as a consequence my games are still not full of gold or even magic items.

There is a Barbarian writeup for RuneQuest next. I know I never read it then because it was too new to me. I never got into playing barbarians at all.  I never read Conan growing up and I preferred the magic using types. But the article is quite good.

Marcus Rowland is back with Name of the Game.  This entry is on Sci-Fi games, with Traveller dominating the article.  Others are mentioned, Space Opera, Star Frontiers, Star Trek (FASA) and Laser Burn.

Microview reviews two computer games Apocalypse and Battle 1917, both are for the 48k Spectrum computer, which of course means most people could run an emulator and put these on their phones.  While reading about their tape loading woes was nostalgic, I never heard of either of these games.  There is a BASIC game aid included in the article as well, a random name generator.

Table Top Heroes is reserved for the color page again (as it should be) to show off the miniatures.

Open Box reviews Traveller Adventure 11 (7/10 by Andy Slack), Book 2 of Steve Jackson's Sorcery, Kharé -  Cityport of Traps (Marcus Rowland gives 8/10 as a book 2, 6/10 as a stand alone).  Espionage  and an adventure Border Crossing by Hero Games.  For Hero's entry into Spy Games Marcus Rowland gives them a   8/10 and 9/10 respectively.  Nic Grecas reviews Theatre of the Mind Enterprises' Pursuit to Kadath, a third part of a Call of Cthulhu adventure. He gives it 8/10.

Critical Mass has a review of Battlefield Earth.  I thought the book (when I tried reading it in the late 80 say 4 years from this review) was abysmal dreck.  I am happy say that all the reasons I hated it are brought up here. Well, not all, my reasons are a long and varied, but they hit on the big ones.

The solo "adventure" The Castle of Lost Souls is back for Part 3. This time it is longer than Part 2. A few of the entries are fun, but it's still a programmed adventure.

RuneRites has some undead.  As always, some great ideas for the the AD&D gamer here too.
Thurd is back.

Temple of the Doomed Prince is up. An adventure for 5 to 8 AD&D characters of 4th to 6th level  or RuneQuest characters of 45% to 65% weapons skills.  It also mentions Empire of the Petal Throne.  The adventure is simple and the monsters are dual stated.

Letters from Hobbits grace the Letters page.
What follows is a first, a mid magazine full color ad for Battlecars.

Fiend Folio has two related ghostly creatures; Surrogates and Shapelings.  Related in the fact that have one set of stats.

After that the parallel color page for I.C.E.'s Fellowship of the Ring boardgame.
Travellers is next.

Some more ads with color (but not full color) are next.  This is a change form all the ads being at the end of the magazine.

Treasure Chest cover Goals for Role-Playing. Or basically, what drives your character.

News this time looks like a posting board of newspaper clips.

Small ads, Gobbledigook and the ads close out the issue.

Like last issue this is a solid, serviceable issue but nothing that sticks out. It seems that despite all the physical growth of the magazine the creative and critical growth is off.  I see more of the same ahead at least for the rest of 84.  We will see.

White Dwarf Wednesday #53

White Dwarf #52 comes to us from May 1984.  Our cover this time is an army of orcs ready for battle; a tie-in to the Warhammer scenario coming up and a D&D article about orcs.

Ian Livingstone discusses the growing pains of the hobby.  Sure it is nice that so many people are now interested in it, and it is too bad that so many people are now interested in it!  So the exclusivity is gone.
This is the time of "Red Box D&D" (see last page).  Was this something you noticed in your games?  Many reading came to the hobby before this time, what were your thoughts then?  I grew in a small town where I knew everyone my age that gamed.  Or mostly everyone.  There was a feel of "get off my lawn" to some of the newer gamers.  Which of course is funny because there was the generation of War Gamers that looked at us the same way.  This is reflected in Livingstone's editorial.  We are now seeing the first glances of a generational effect in the Edition Wars.  Livingstone though gives some sage advice then and it is still good now, it is up to us (the older player) to help the newer player along and teach them "the old ways".

Marcus Rowland is back with Part 2 of his introduction to RPGs.  Continuing where he left off on D&D he moves to other Fantasy games for beginners starting with RuneQuest. Rowland is obviously a fan, and RQ gets the lion's share of the article (but still less than D&D).  He follows up with other games such as Tunnels & Trolls, Chivalry & Sorcery, Warhammer and Men, Myth and Magic.  Though these only get a paragraph or two each.

In our new full color section we get Minas Tirith, the Battle of Pelennor Fields for Warhammer. It's a long one, described as a Mega-Scenario. If you are a Tolkien fan then this is cool. Honestly few battles are as iconic to the Tolkien/Rings saga as this one, save for the Battle of Five Armies.

Our color pages continue into Open Box.  Up first Richard Meadows reviews Game Workshop's Caverns of the Dead.  The first in a new line of dungeon aids.  It gets a 7/10 noting that it compares less favorable to D&D modules.   We also get the 6th and 7th Fighting Fantasy books from Ian Livingstone, Deathtrap Dungeon and Island of the Lizard King. Both get an 8/10 from Marcus Rowland. Andy Slack gives us more Traveller material in the form of Book 6: Scouts. It gets an 7/10 overall, but the component ratings are all 8s and 10s with only one 7.  Not sure why it was rounded down like that.

Thurd the Barbarian is in more trouble. It looks like his biggest problem was that he was drawn by Rob Liefeld. Ok, in this context it is supposed to be funny.

We get a short (one page) Gothic tale from Chris Eliot and Richard Edwards.

Lew Pulsipher brings back Lew's Views. This time it is about demons, devils and pacts.  Something that would work well with the new lot of demon summoning and binding spells that seemed to be popular at this time (Module S4, Unearthed Arcana).  Still useful today in any game to be honest.  Don't like demons? Or you game has robots instead?  No big, the rules are really more "programmed" of any sort of guardian creature. So it could be a robot, a sphinx, a ghost, a curse or a golem.  Whatever you need.

Next up is The Naked Orc.  A new look at Orcs in D&D.  I think I have read this one before cause my own write-up of orcs is similar.  It's a good read and have some very interesting ideas.

Crash Course is our Car Wars column written by the American Steve Jackson.
Part 2 of the Castle of Lost Souls is next.  Not as long as last months.

More fawning over the changes in letters.
Starbase has some Traveller NPCs.
RuneRites has some spells based on celtic Druid myth.  These are pretty interesting to be honest.  Of course I look to them for conversion for D&D.

Tabletop Heroes has some more minis, but they don't take advantage of the color pages this time.  More is the pity to be honest.

Fiend Factory has some creatures and mini-scenario. The creatures are good for the scenario and maybe some eerie woodland area.
Treasure Chest has an odd collection of random treasures.

The News section under goes another makeover.  This time looking like a Bulletin board; a real one with tacks, not a virtual one.  Of interest is the upcoming "Dragonlance" which is listed as an RPG in the same breath that Marvel is listed as an RPG.  Was there a plan back then to have Dragonlance be a self contained game?

Color pages are next again and they are saved for the ads.  We have a few pages of those and then end with a full color ad for the new Red Box D&D Basic game.

For lack of a better word this issue feels like a "reboot" of the magazine.  No surprise that now it is available in a wider market they want to make sure it is accessible to all sorts of people.  There are still some interesting things going on, but not the same sort of things that were being printed prior to 83.  Still though, quite a fun read just nothing (other than the orcs) that jumped out at me.

White Dwarf Wednesday #52

White Dwarf #52 is a big issue. Not just in terms of size; it's now 56 pages, or price; it's now 85p, but there are color pages now inside.  Not all are full color, but we are getting there.

Let's start with the cover.  Pretty cool stuff, alien spaceship lands in front of a couple of barbarians. That's everything you need to know about gaming in April of 1984.
We start out with more ads with the editorial starting on page 11.
Ian Livingstone talks about the new changes, welcoming old and new readers. He discusses one of the new features, The Name of the Game, and some of the regular content.

The aforementioned Name of the The Game is a Beginner's Guide to Role-Playing Games by Marcus Rowland.  There are the basic basics. These are dice, this is what you do.  Then he covers "The Big One" D&D.  Reading him cover how AC works though makes me wonder why we didn't see the 3e way of doing things sooner.  This article also features one on the new, nifty full color pages. Looking forward to future installments of this one.

Speaking of 3e an predecessor of the Clerical Domain spells appears next.  Out of the Blue covers specific spell lists for various types of gods.  It is Clerical Domains is all but name really.

Open Box gets the full color treatment too.  Good place of it really.  Reviewed this issue are Talisman (a game I always wanted to try out) and Battlecars, both by Games Workshop.  Alan E. Paull only gives Talisman a 6/10  noting that it would be better if it were shorter. Ian Waddelow gives Battle Cars an 8/10.
Dragon Riders of Pern from Mayfair  gets a dismal 4/10 (Enjoyment 2/10!) from Nic Grecas siting rotten art work, unclear rules and complex and unwieldy game mechanics.  Ian Waddelow is back with the Lost Worlds books from Nova Games.  He gives them 6/10.  I liked the idea of a character book with all the rules you needed to play.  I later adopted the idea after getting 1 (and only 1) Lost Worlds book and realizing I couldn't play it but really liking the concept.

Machines and Magic is the subject of this issue's Critical Mass.  One book covered is Vonda McIntyre's Superluminal.  I read this book about this time and I enjoyed it, but it left me feeling like there should have been more.  The article also mentions something I was certainly feeling in 1984.  The Xanth joke had gone on long enough.

Thurd is up next with the beginning of a cycle of adventures.

Fiend Factory has some low level monsters for D&D.  The Spider Dragon looks neat, the rest I am not thrilled about.  FF seems to have lost some of it's spark if you ask me.

Microview gets expanded.  Now it also reviews software ala Open Box and still has some BASIC code for you to enter.  Software is rated on terms of Graphics, Instructions, Long-Term Interest, Playabilty, and Value for money.

Andy Slack discusses living forever in Traveller.  So make your own 40K Emperor now.  The long article also includes some methods of staying alive beyond your years and some associated scenarios.

Castle of Lost Souls is the first part of a Choose Your Adventure.  You have a basic character sheet and plenty of scripted options. You just need a single d6.   There are 104 entries, not sure how many combinations.

Liz Fletcher gives us The Serpent's Venom for 1st to 3rd level AD&D characters. Three pages and some better than average art work.

Letters covers some the style changes of WD, with most happy with the changes.  In a nice touch that would have amused me then as much as it does now, the letter image has a Dalek stamp.

RuneRites covers Magic Rings. Most are adaptable back to D&D.

Travellers is next.  I wasn't into it then, can't get into it now I am afraid. I hate to say it, but when it comes to comics Dragon was the superior magazine here.

Treasure Chest has a bunch of random magic items. The amusing one is "Troll Dust" which is basically an instant troll, just add water.

The News section is now  "The Midgardian". Of interest is coverage of Mayfair releasing the Role-Aids line.

Tabletop Heroes covers fighter figures. Some nice full color images to go with it.  Certainly a shade of things to come.

We follow with a number of ads and classifieds.

This was a big issue.  8 more pages and full color ones at that.  I felt there were some more ads (maybe four pages) and four pages of new content, but I have not counted to be sure.  I never owned this issue back in the day.  It was one of the ones I picked up much later. Again also at this time my purchase of White Dwarf was waning in favor of Dragon.  I also hate to admit it, but I am kinda on a "death watch" now.  How much longer with Livingstone stay on as editor? When do the comics disappear? What happens to Fiend Factory? When is the last of the D&D, RuneQuest and Traveller content? These will be answered soon I feel.

White Dwarf Wednesday #51

Good afternoon all!  Welcome back to Wednesday and the next issue of White Dwarf.  This week we are going to be looking at Issue #51 from March 1984.  We have this awesome cover.  As can be expected I remember this one well.  I loved the idea of the caster gathering something in her right hand to blast her enemies with the left.  To me this meant she was an evil witch or a "Left Hand Path" witch.  Don't know what the artist meant it to be, but that is what it was to me.

Ian Livingstone's editorial discusses changes, not just in the world and the gaming industry,  but also in White Dwarf. We will be getting some new articles soon including coverage on Car Wars and minis.  The big changes coming up though are color (excuse me, colour) interiors, more pages and a 10 pence price increase.

First up is Gifts From the Gods: Religion and Magic in AD&D by Thomas Mullen.  This continues from last issue's installment.  While I recalled the previous issue well, this one is drawing a blank for me.

Open Box has some more classics.  First, two from Chaosium,  Cthulhu Companion and Superworld.  Both get a 7/10 from Jon Sutherland. CC gets downgraded because of it's use mainly for Keepers.  Fantasy Games Unlimited gives us Dardevils and Daredevils Adventures 2. Marcus Rowland gives them a 8/10 and 7/10 respectively.  Andy Slack turns away from Traveller to review Star Frontiers Knight Hawks. He praises the Campaign book comparing it favorably to Traveller's offerings. He gives it 8/10.

Next is Critical Mass and the lengths Thrud will go to for a drink.

Richard Hanniwell has an article about thieves in Warhammer.  The cross game appeal for this article is evident in the different types of thieves.  Oddly enough "Pickpocket" is not one of them.

After that is new RuneQuest story featuring Griselda.

Starbase has an article by Bob McWilliams on extending UPPs for NPCs.

The Black Broo of Dyskund is a color RuneQuest Cavern Crawl.  Plenty of cults and new monsters in this one.  The adventure itself looks fun, but an evil cult hiding in the caves?  I think that was cliche even in 1984.

Letters is a general bunch. Some liking the new improvements, others not.
Comics Gobbledigook and the Travellers follow.

An AD&D scenario is next. Also in color (well mostly blues and greens like the Black Broo).   Four pages, it is a respectable size.

Fiend Factory has Creatures in Exile Based on Julian May's The Saga of the Exiles novels: Firvulag, Tanu (human off-shoot), and Howlers.

RuineRites has an article by Russell Massey on RuneQuest Economics. There is a lot of good information here that can be used anywhere.  Granted in 84 I was not thinking about Dungeon Econ 101, but today it is something I consider.

Treasure Chest gives us "A Page of Many Things" which is a bunch of small articles.  A cart for pulling all that gold you clean out of a dungeon (unless your GM read the last article), a word search and drowning rules for D&D.

Ads, small ads and classifieds follow.  Can you speak French, well is so then Game's Workshop is (was) looking for a salesman for France.

We end with an ad for Gamma World.

Ok, so another transitional issue.  The D&D content is much lower than the past though there was hardly any Traveller content outside of Starbase.  I do enjoy seeing more games being covered and right now the balance might still be weighted a bit more towards D&D, it is getting better.

Also the last issue at 75p.