White Dwarf Wednesday #83

White Dwarf #83 comes to us from November 1986.  Just to put things into my gaming perspective we were running our final end-game game.  The war that would change our game forever. Why? Well we were all going to college and though we didn't know it at the time 2nd Edition was on the way.
The cover art to me always looked like a painting of miniature figure than the typical fantasy painting. Not sure why.
Paul Cockburn discusses how hard at work the WD staff have been and how next month will be bigger magazine, 8 more pages, with no extra ads and no extra charge.

Open box kicks off with the D&D Immortals set. Graeme Davis calls it an interesting and well thought out addition to the D&D rules, but not an indispensable one.  The infamous Warlock of Firetop Mountain Boardgame is reviewed. Infamous at least to me since I have always wanted to try it out but can never get my hands on one and they go for big bucks at my local auction.  Spawn of Azathoth for Call of Cthulhu is next. Peter Green says it has some nice ideas but lacks the "Oommph" that would make it a classic.  The 2nd Edition of ICEs Middle Earth Role-Playing is also covered.  Graham Stapplehurst calls it a better introduction to new players.  I will admit to not knowing very much about the 2nd edition.  Continuing on the 3rd page we get a new idea, GURPS Basic Set from Steve Jackson games.  Marcus Rowland calls it ambitious but can't recommend it.   We also get a number Open Box "Quickies": Cities by Chaosium, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, Revised Recon, Talisman the Adventure and Introduction to Star Fleet Battles.

Big two page ad for Warhammer Fantasy.

Critical Mass covers the Postman before Kevin Costner got a hold of it.  More interesting to me is the review of William Gibson's Burning Chrome. Funny how Gibson's work is looked at these days.  28 years ago it was science fiction, today the review sounds more like the review of a modern day spy novel.

A Day in the Life Sector 255 is a Judge Dredd "Patrol Adventure".  Reading this over I get a much better idea of how the game should work.  I have no idea if this is a good adventure or not, but it is unique and it tracks with what little I know about Judge Dredd. Followed by a strategically placed ad. I might need to give this game a try one day.

20/20 Vision covers some movies.  In particular is a favorite of mine, Big Trouble in Little China.  This would make for a great game and I have though so for years.  Of course the best system to use for this is the Army of Darkness RPG with Jack Burton taking the "Schmuck" Quality.  Aliens is also reviewed. Saw that movie a hundred times at least.  Vasquez and Hudson would late make appearances in my big end-game mentioned above as Katrine and Kiev, two fighters that hated each other in the roster of NPCs I created for the war.  They died fighting side by side and were recorded as having loved each other.  The idea was I'd use them to haunt other characters as ghosts until their bodies were separated in their shared tomb.

Up next is a Paranoia adventure.  Paranoia is a game I can only take in small doses.  After a while the jokes get really thin with me.

Carl Sargent goes over the costs and the role-playing of training between levels. The central thesis here is that with the advent of the "new" proficiency system that training between levels is more important than ever before.  I get what he is saying here and it was certainly something "in the water" back then.  I remember our group suddenly becoming very aware of training and no longer leveling up midst-game, but only after games.  We did spend some time seeking out trainers, which became interesting when our characters were in the 30th level range (it was the 80s) and we did not know anyone higher level.  Sargent's system is very detailed but for me these days I prefer something a little simpler.

The Crude, The Bad and The Rusty is a Warhammer Battle and it is up next.  I have no experience to judge this one by.  It has a set up and a map.  Maybe that is all you need?  I think it is.  I do *GET* why games like Warhammer are popular and by that extension any war game with minis.  Then I never had the money to put into these games properly and now I don't have the time or the skills at painting to do it right.

Everything Went Black has some rule options for Call of Cthulhu.  House rules mostly.

Up next our Warhammer Fantasy/AD&D adventure. The Black Knight is an interesting beast. As a Warhammer Fantasy adventure it seems to have more dungeon delving than I normally associate with WF.  As an AD&D adventure, more fighting.  I guess that is fitting when you think about it.  Course it has me wondering was a Warhammer/Tunnels & Trolls adventure might be like.

Psionic Combat expands on the Psionic articles from WD #79. I have always wanted a good psionic or even magical battle system.  This one is good, but no where near simple.  D&D combat is simple really, even AD&D. Roll your d20 and see what happens.  That is a feature of the game. Psionic/magical combat should be the same.  This one isn't but it certainly works with the bolted on psionics system in AD&D1.  I will admit I am not a fan of mixing my psionics and magic.

Ads...Thrud...'Eavy Metal. The pages for Eavy Metal are not in color which strikes me as odd.  Granted nothing is painted in this one so maybe they were saving the color pages...for the Wilderness Survival Guide ad.

More ads.  The letters page has a splash of color. Odd.
Fracas covers Games Day 86.

We end with ads.

Again, not a terrible issue, and actually a good one.  We are getting into the age where the complexity of AD&D is beginning to weigh it down.  More books, more optional rules more opinions.
Not a mention of Traveller or Runequest really.  Though AD&D and Call of Cthulhu rule the roost still, other games like Judge Dredd and Warhammer are seeing more and more space.  While I knew players trying out Warhammer and Paranoia at this time, not really anyone one in my little corner of the world was playing Judge Dredd.

One Man's God: Melnibonéan Mythos

Elric by Jeff Dee

Getting back to the mythos in the Deities and Demigods proper I want to take a look at one filled with demons, elementals and other creatures of the multiverse.  The Melnibonéan Mythos of Michael Moorcock.

The Melnibonéan Mythos is one of the two expunged mythoi from the D&DG, the other being the more popular Cthulhu Mythos.  I talked about those myths and some of the controversy around them in a previous installment of One Man's God.  I'll also talk a little more about that at the end, but first, Gods and Demons.

Elric of Melniboné was my gateway to Cthulhu.  I had done all the high fantasy that was popular in the 80s and Tolkien in particular.  But I was looking for something a little darker, something that also appealed to my same frame of mind that loved horror films.  Elric then was the logical next step.

Maybe as much as Tolkien, the works of Michael Moorcock laid down the foundation that was going to be the lens of D&D.  The alignment system, the multiverse, champions of Law and Chaos, all these things came to D&D via Moorcock.  Though in truth for this piece I could also just say Elric since these are the mythos we are discussing today.

Melniboné and Demons

The tales of Elric and Melniboné are overrun with creatures called demons. Everyone from Arioch on down is referred too as a demon in fact.  Elric's own ancestor, Terhali, also known as the Green Empress, ruled Melniboné for 605 years a thousand years before Elric. Her long life was attributed to her mother, who was a demon.  Other creatures in the books are also called demons. Arioch himself appears in many Medieval grimoires as a demon and in Milton's Paradise Lost, Book VI, Line 371.

Whether or not these meet the AD&D Monster Manual criteria for a demon is to be decided.  Let's explore some other details first.

Law & Chaos, Good & Evil

The battles in Elric's world(s) are not just of Good vs. Evil but of Law vs. Chaos. Chaos is shown to be a destructive, and often evil force.  Elric and his kin are all dedicated to the Lords of Chaos and have pacts with many of these lords.  So the "alignment" system of Elric's world view is the same as that as D&D really.  It's where we get it in fact.  So this does free up one issue; creatures described here as being Chaotic Evil are likely appropriately described in their own world and an AD&D one.  We are not going to run into issues here of Chaotic Evil creatures that also protect mothers like in the Aztec myths for example.

Lords of Hell and Demons

The Elric saga takes a "multiple hells" view on the cosmos.  There is more than one hell and they ruled over by Lords of Chaos.  Some of these Lords are also explicitly demons. They are called such in the text.  In many ways, One Man's God and my own games have evolved to be more like this point of view. 

Demons vs. Elemental Lords

There are many creatures of power in the Elric tales (and Moorcock's books as a whole). Some are explicitly demons. Others though are classified as Elemental Lords. These creatures do not see to differ very much the Princes of Elemental Evil first seen in the Fiend Folio.  In the 4e cosmology they would be called Primordials and the Titans and Giants are their offspring.  This also fits in well with the mythology Gary was building in the GDQ series.  So there are at least some relationships between these Elemental Lords and the Demons.  But that is for another day.  Though all of this leads me to two conclusions:

1. Many demons/creatures/lords of the Elric saga are very much like the demons of AD&D. Or maybe it is the other way around.
2. Elric might be listed as a "Magic-user 19th level" and "Cleric 10th level" but what he really is, using the current term, is a Warlock.  In fact he might be the exemplar from which we draw from.

But more on that later.

Elemental Lords & Animal Lords

Before I get to the Demons, let's look at the various Elemental Lords Elric has pacts with or is able to summon. We can compare them to other examples in other AD&D works.

In the Melnibonéan Mythos, we have Darnizhaan (NE, Earth), Grome (N, Earth), Kakatal (CN, Fire), Misha (N, Air), and Straasha (N, Water).  Generally speaking, these creatures are more powerful than the Princes of Elemental Evil found in the Fiend Folio. Which would track if these are the "Kings" and the others are just "Princes."

Elemental Lords are not the only creatures Elric encounters. There are also the various Animal Lords, or Master Types.  These are almost taken verbatim for the Monster Manual II Cat Lord and in the later editions of AD&D/D&D.  Among the Animal Lords are Fileet (Lady of Birds), Haaashastaak (Lord of Lizards), Meerclar (Lady of Cats), Nnuuurrr'c'c (Lord of the Insect Swarm), Nuru-ah (Lord of Cattle), and Roofdrak (Lord of Dogs).  Back in the 80s we treated Meeclar as the Cat Lord before the "current" Cat Lord and Bast as the one before Meeclar.  Gary would go on to support our claim in the 90s when he made Gord the new Cat Lord.  all of this fit into our worlds very nicely.

The Demons

Let's get to the demons.  There are lot of creatures in these myths are weird and Chaotic Evil.  BUT, does that make them an AD&D demon?  Well, some fit perfectly, others, we might need to file off some of the edges to make them fit.

Arioch (and Xiombarg)

Let's address the Chaos Lord in the room.  Arioch.  In the books he is Elric's patron.  I believe he is even described as a Patron Demon.  He often referred to a Lord of Hell, a Lord of Chaos and it is said he is worshipped as a god in many worlds.  But is he a god? He is certainly very powerful. On the side of a God is the fact that he can have many avatars on multiple worlds (though in D&D 3 and beyond this would be called an Aspect), on the side of Demon is the fact that he can be summoned, sometimes even against his will. It is possible that Arioch (Knight of Swords), as well as Xiombarg (Queen of Swords) and Mabelode (King of Swords, and not in the D&DG) are Demons, they are just very, very powerful ones on the level of the Arch Dukes of Hell.  

I am inclined to make them powerful Demon Lords/Princes.  Their power is such that would disrupt the hierarchy of Hell (the AD&D Hell), but in the Abyss they can plot and scheme all the like.  Again they have never been described as anything but Chaotic Evil.  I would also argue that their stats in the D&DG might be a touch high. Elric did kill Arioch in the end.

Assassinator of the Gods

Back in the AD&D days we always combined this creature with Ma Yuan of the Chinese Mythos. Though they were not exactly the same.  In this case, I am inclined to make this a completely unique creature. 

Clakar

Chaotic Evil winged apes that can be used as guards.  A bit like a summoned demon, but nothing about them screams demon to me.

Elenoin & Grahluk

These two are in a perpetual race war against each other. Not demons. I always thought of them as the female and male of the same species in a division that has gone very, very wrong.  I say every few years both races have a "pon farr" like time where both are compelled to mate.  While both can be summoned I took this more as they were responding to some other pact made. So they are not demons, but likely commanded or ruled by demons.

Kelmain

Humanoids from Limbo.

Mist Giant

More of a monster than a demon.

Mordagz

Now here is an interesting character. A former Lord of Chaos, he has been "demoted" to a Storm Giant. He could qualify as the classical definition of a demon; a former god reduced in power and status.  His alignment though is Chaotic Neutral.

Pyaray

Now this guy. Lord of the Ocean Abysses. Looks like a demon. Commands a flotilla of sunken ships manned by undead sailors. his soul is stored in the blue crystal on his head like a demon amulet.  Yeah, this one fits the demon description rather well.  His 250 hp makes him a bit more powerful than Demogorgon, but otherwise he is a good fit. We also know that Pyaray and Straasha are bitter enemies. so if Straasha is an Elemental Lord, we can have Pyaray be a Demon Lord.

Quaolnargn

Ok. This one is explicitly called a "demon from the Abyss."

There are more creatures in the tales, but these are what appear in the D&DG.

Elric as a Warlock

The big surprise here is not that there are demons and elementals in this mythos, but that Elric might be better represented as a warlock rather than a wizard, or as he is described in the book, a sorcerer.  We see Elric using magic, but mostly we see him summoning creatures to do his bidding. We rarely see him use the sorts of magics that one might expect of a 19th level magic-user/10th level llusionist/10th level cleric/5th level druid. However, all this magic can be used by a warlock. 

I did a quick build with Elic for the 5th Edition warlock. I made him a tiefling to cover his demonic ancestry and it worked out well.  But a better choice might be a Demonic Pact Warlock using some old-school rules.

My Warlock book for Swords & Wizardry would be a good fit here since I also re-classified the various demons to work with multiple "hells" and planes.

Elric of Melniboné

19th level Warlock, Demonic Pact (Melnibonéan)
Tiefling Male 

Strength: 6
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 17
Dexterity: 17
Constituiton: 3
Charisma: 20

Invocations: Arcane Blast, Agonizing Blast, Arcane Mastery*, Arcane Mastery (Greater)**, Arcane Mastery (Superior)***, Beast Speech, Eldritch Sight, Minions of Chaos, Pact Blade, Thirsting Blade

Spells:
1st: Black Fire, Charm Person, Command, Detect Magic, Mage Armor, Obedient Beast, Spirit Servant
2nd: Agony, Burning Gaze, Cause Light Wounds, Clothes of the Emperor, Grasp of the Endless War, Magic Circle Aganist Spirits, Share my Pain
3rd: Astral Sense, Circle of Respite, Clairsentience, Fiend's Shield, Lifesteal, Summon Winged Steed
4th: Arcane Eye, Call Imp, Divine Power, Fear, Spell storing
5th: Blade Dance, Conjuration of Elementals, Extend Spell (Greater), Song of the Night, Ward of Magic

*6th: Invisible Stalker
**7th: Conjuration of Demons
***8th: Symbol

I rather like this. 

And Arioch would fit rather well in my Warlock book too.

And finally,

The "True" Story of the Melnibonéan and Cthulhu Mythos in the D&DG?

Up first an article from DM David.

https://dmdavid.com/tag/the-true-story-of-the-cthulhu-and-elric-sections-removed-from-deities-demigods/

And a video from Seth Skorkowsky on "The Notorious Deities and Demigods (Ft. Sandy Petersen)"

Both are worth the time to go over.

Back from Gen Con!

I just got back from Gen Con 2019!

Took the whole family and we had a great time.  In fact, it was one of the best Gen Cons in recent memory.  We played a lot of D&D 5 and Call of Cthulhu 7th ed.  I got in a game of Blue Rose and a public playtest of Cthulhu Tech 2.0.

More details later. Tired and needing some Chicago style pizza.  Indy is great, but their pizza sucks.

New Year, New Game

The recent announcement of 5th Edition D&D is now out, but the game itself will take a bit longer.

DrivethruRPG is though running a sale on 20 games for 2012 for $12 a game.
Depending on which book you get that can be an absolute steal.

Here is the list, along with my thoughts.

Arcanis: the Roleplaying Game
Artesia: Adventures in the Known World - awesome looking game. Very, very cool
Ashen Stars
Blue Rose - The Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy - big fan of this one. Gave us True20.
Buffy RPG Revised Corebook - I think you all know my thoughts on this one.
Burning Empires
Chthonian Stars Core Setting - Cthulhu is SPAAAACE! Well, not exactly (well. yes.) For Traveller.
Conspiracy X 2.0 - fantastic game of modern conspiracy.
Dark Ages: Vampire - loved the DA line of Vampire. Great stuff. POD versions too!
Fantasy Craft Second Printing - would have liked to try this one more.
Icons - great, fun game.
Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition
Legends of Anglerre - new one to me, but looks cool.
Macabre Tales rulebook
Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game
Mutant City Blues
Mutants & Masterminds Hero's Handbook - 3rd edition of the World's Most Popular Super-hero game. And tons of fun.
Outbreak: Undead
Requiem for Rome
Spycraft 2.0 Rulebook - Second Printing
Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
The Laundry RPG - more Cthulhu inspired goodness.
The Savage World of Solomon Kane - at 12 bucks this is more than a steal.
Traveller Main Rulebook - update of the classic SciFi RPG.
Werewolf The Wild West - never quite got this game, but werewolves in the Wild West? Yeah lets do it!
Wild Talents 2nd Edition - a steal at 12 bucks.
Witch Hunter: the Invisible World - I have had my issues with this game, but it is damn attractive and still fun.

There are 1000s of games out there.  Use this new year to try out a new game!

White Dwarf Wednesday #34

White Dwarf #33 takes us to the state of gaming of October 1982.   Unless I did my math wrong this is the last time I will write about a month in the same month I am writing in till issue 49 (Jan 1984).  Give or take.

So let's talk about this October some 30 years ago.  What do we know?  Well the cover always reminds me of the Hawkmoon RPG cover.   Ian Livingstone talks about Game Day '82.

Andy Slack is up first with Droids for Traveller.  It is easy to poke holes in Traveller tech; computers that only run one type of program and the like, but for some reason I never liked Droids in Traveller.  Maybe it was because they seemed to be too "Star Wars" and Traveller was more "Dune" and "Star Trek" to me.  There are lot of different types of functional droids, robots and even an android here.  Though there are some obvious ones that are missing; and I don't just  mean Galaxina (1980) or Cherry 2000 (1987).
The article takes a lot from Asimov's ideas on robots too.  So ingrained are these "Laws" that I never thought to question them, despite the inclusion of a Warbot in the article.  Assassin droids were something we all knew about from Star Wars, at least in concept, so there seemed to be a mismatch here to me.

Mike Costello is next with a new feature, Microview, to cover computers.
This first installment, Space Invader, is about how "microcomputers" (we will be using this term for sometime to come) can have an affect on your gaming.  Mostly in this brief first issue it is about what he calls GAP or Game Assistance Program.  I am sure will hear more on this exciting new world!

In the "Clip and Save" file Lew Pulsipher is back with a Guide to Dungeonmastering, Part 1 Setting up Adventures. There is some great advice here that can be applied to any game, but D&D is assumed.  Again, unlike the previous two articles that have dubious quality in today's age (again, no fault of the original authors), this article is just as useful today as it was 30 years ago.

Open Box is next with out independent reviews.  First up is Cults of Terror for RuneQuest by Chaosium. Oliver Dickson calls it "essential reading" though he has some issues with some of the content.  Mostly due to it not fitting together in the way he likes. It gets a 6/10.  Aftermath! from FGU is next.  We have been seeing the ads in WD now for a little bit and now we get to learn about this Post-Apoc game.  Andy Slack loves it and gives it a solid 10/10.  Worlds of Wonder is next and it is a very interesting one.  WoW was Chaosium's first entry into the Generic RPG market, or one system for multiple games. We would see this many times over and over.  GURPS became the undisputed king of "Generic" systems, but WoW was one of the firsts.  Based on the Basic RPG system that powered RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu you got various "Worlds" to play in.  Trevor Graver gives it a 7.10 and marks it down for being only the bare bones.  These days that same criticism would be touted as a feature in a Sandbox game.

RuneRites for RuneQuest is next with some monsters.  I always liked the monsters for RuneQuest, they seemed so much more strange to me.  I worked out conversions based on Call of Cthulhu so I could use them in my D&D games.

After that are some letters and then on to an AD&D adventure from Paul Vernon, Troubles at Embertrees.  Designed for 5-8 1st to 2nd level characters. It is a densely packed 4 pages.  The adventure itself seems fine. The inclusion of the new monster sets it up above a simple wilderness adventure.

Starbase introduces us to Morality in Traveller (oh nos! Alignment! not quite...)  and new race, the Mahwrs, a large, bi-pedial bat like creature.

Fiend Factory gives us our 200th monster since WD #6.  These monsters are all undead or something like that; appropriate for October.  Morbe are neither undead or alive. They feed on Con points and once they get to 18 they are human again. The Unborn are souls that died in childbirth.  The Rusalka is an evil, dead female magic-user, the Wraith Warrior and the Goldfinger, which are like an undead battery.

Treasure Chest has some magic weapons.  Of note is the Houri's Dagger, though it does not mention the Houri from issue 13 specifically. We get some Hellfire arrows, demon's knifes and the Druid's Cudgel.

We end the issue with some ads, including an ad for Gangbusters.

A lot of interesting bits in this issue.  First it is nice to see that WD can transition ot monthly format without too many hiccups.  I did not feel any part of this issue was filler. This issue continues the trends of the previous ones, but doesn't start any, save for the feature on computers. Traveller, D&D and RuneQuest still reign supreme as they have from the early days.

I will note that WD has not raised their price from 75p in a while.

Also the ENTIRE time I was re-reading this and writing this post I was humming "Winds of Change" by Jefferson Starship.  I went back and checked, Winds of Change was released October 4, 1982.  I must have been listening to that the first time I read this magazine.

Science Fiction and Horror

This week I am working my way through a bunch of Sci-Fi/Horror movies.  I thought then that today would be a good day to see how I use both genres together.

Science Fiction and Horror have had a long-standing relationship.  Where horror stories are some of the first stories ever told, Science Fiction, or Science Romances, are newer.  

For me, and many others, the Modern Age of Science Fiction began with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" in 1818.  While considered by many to be a Gothic Horror novel, it only has the trappings of a true Gothic Horror. The work is pure science fiction of a brilliant man, the titular Dr. Frankenstein, and his attempts using science to reanimate dead tissue resulting in the creation of his monster, who is NOT named Frankenstein. 

Like all good science fiction, it is far looking and attempts to tell us something about our society or morals.   Which is why when people ask "When did Sci-Fi become so woke?" I say "In 1818 when it was invented by a Regency-age, teenage feminist."  This was 10 years before Jules Verne, the so-called Father of Science Fiction was born and almost 50 years before H.G. Wells was born.

It would be disingenuous to ignore the horror elements of Frankenstein in favor of its Sci-Fi elements.  They go hand in hand.  The story was conceived from a nightmare, the same night that John Polidori gave us "The Vampyre."  

Almost a century later we would get another popular horror/Sci-Fi mix in H.G. Wells War of the Worlds. This give us the popular and potent combination of Sci-Fi, Horror, and Mars. 

Sci-Fi tends to organized into two large camps; the hopeful and the dystopian.  YES there is more, I am not talking about ALL of sci-fi right now.  But you make some clear demarcations alonge the line of Hope.

Star Trek for example tends to be on the side of hope.  Hope for what the future can bring and be.  Again "Woke" since 1966. Star Trek is about hope in the face of all sorts of diversity.  But what about hope in the face of fear?

"Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence."
 - Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, Star Trek (2009)

The goal of Star Trek: BlackStar very early on was the horrors of space.  Often times, especially in the TNG days, space travel was depicted as fun, and easy (ish), and the horrors were the ones we brought with us.  While that made for great TV in the 90s, I was still left wanting something more.  Star Treks Voyager and then Enterprise got back to the idea that space travel was not easy nor always fun.  BlackStar I hope delivers on the "in space no one can hear you scream" angle.  I opted for mythos monsters and settings with the idea that "in space the stars are always right."  Even though that was also the same time I was lamenting you can't just slap Cthulhu on something to make it sell.

Well. I am not "selling" anything with BlackStar save for my own home games. Still, I feel I owe it at least to myself not to "just slap Cthulhu onto Star Trek." 

On the flip side of this I have my Star Trek: Mercy.  Which is nothing if not about hope.  A Starfleet full of various species from across the Galaxy, even ones the Federation are not allies with, all working together to run a hospital ship to save lives. Not that I can't run into horror elements, that is not the goal here. 

I have, thanks to many of the October Horror Movie Challenges had the chance to watch some great Horror/Sci-fi.  I have also had the chance to read a lot of horror sci-fi over the years, but sadly nothing recently.

It is a topic that I would love to explore more in depth and find stories that are unique to this combined genre.   Much like how Sci-Fi lead me to Fantasy and Fantasty lead me to Dark Fantasy and Horror, Horror is bringing me full circle back to Sci-Fi.  

I think it would be fun to get back to some sci-fi games.  Even if I have to add horror to them. 

I am not sure where this is taking me, but I am looking forward to finding out.  Hopefully I'll have some more insights later this week.

White Dwarf Wednesday #74

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.

#RPGaDay2023 FAVOURITE RPG of all time

 This is a tough one. I have had so many favorites over the years. Each one representing a different point in my life and gaming.

Most of these will be known to readers here.

Basic (B/X) D&D - not the one I started with that would be the Holmes Basic, but the one that got me deep into the hobby.

AD&D 1st Edition - This is the one I played the most in those early days. The Monster Manual was my gateway drug to RPGs coming from Mythology.

Chill 1st Edition - This was either my first or second RPG after D&D (tied with Traveller) but it was my first horror RPG, and it spawned everything after.

Call of Cthulhu - Not my first Horror RPG, but one of my favorites. Really set the bar on what a horror RPG should be.

Masque of the Red Death - not an RPG by itself, and a bit wonky, it did something I always wanted: it brought my AD&D 2nd ed rules to Gothic Victorian Earth and Horror. Ravenloft brought some of this earlier, and both were my game of choice throughout the 90s until D&D-burnout set in and I went to my next big thing. 

CJ Carella's WitchCraft - I can't overestimate how much this RPG changed things for me. The world was close enough to that of Chill, Call of Cthulhu, and Masque of the Red Death that my ideas for those games gained new life under Unisystem. I loved the game so much I pestered the publisher, Eden Studios, to let me write for them. The result was my next favorite.

Ghosts of Albion - while this might be self-serving, it is my favorite for a reason. Everything I wanted in a Unisystem game is here. Victorian era, magic, horror, and Unisystem. I would have happily written for Unisystem for ever if I could have.  Which leads me to my last one and the top of my list.

NIGHT SHIFT Veterans of the Supernatural Wars - Again, a little self serving but NIGHT SHIFT is everything I have ever wanted in a game. It combines the best mechanics of all the games above along with a play style I love and in a world, or more to the point worlds, I enjoy.

If I only get to pick one, then it will be NIGHT SHIFT.

I have had the luxury and the privilege to work on a great number of RPGs over the years. Some of which were dream jobs and dream games. I consider myself lucky. But of all of those, NIGHT SHIFT is not just my favorite game, favorite rules, and favorite setting; it was also my favorite writing experience. Only Ghosts of Albion and my various Witch books come close.

Thank you, Dave Chapman for hosting this again! I had a great time.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Picked up Cthulhu by Gaslight in dead tree version today.

As you all know I love Victorian horror.

This is going to sit on my shelves very nicely.  It is going to sit at my table when I play Ghosts of Albion even better.

Sitting on my table next to me in fact is Ghosts of Albion, Cthulhu by Gaslight, Gaslight (OGL), Victoriana (2nd ed) and Victoria.

All are great fun.

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 #48

White Dwarf Wednesday takes us to the end of 1983. For Christmas I got a copy of the Police's Synchronicity and I believe the Monster Manual II (and check out the ad for it at the end...if you have a copy).  Out of the shelves was White Dwarf #48.

This one of the cooler WD covers. Brought to us by Alan Craddock I for years thought it was a Chris Achilleos.

Ian Livingstone talks about bring out some RPGs to play with the family this Christmas, wondering what Granny might think of Orc stomping.

Up first is Open Box with a ton of items.  For AD&D we have UK1: Beyond the Crystal Cave, EX1: Dungeonland and EX2: The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror. For D&D X3: Curse of Xanathon. Jim Bambara likes the modules for the most part giving them 9/10, 9/10, 9/10 and 7/10 respectively.  Andy Slack tackles the new version of the Traveller basic rules. This is the cover I remember most about the mid 80s.  It is also the version of the Traveller I never tried having ended with the Blue Book. He gives it an 8/10 overall, but still states that neophytes are better served with one of the other sets.  Jon Sutherland takes on the two Call of Cthulhu adventures (and they are called Adventures now, not Scenarios). Death in Dunwich and The Arkham Evil.  He gives them 7/10 and 8/10 respectively saying these are not for fool hardy players used to hack and slash.  Finally we have the Autoduel Champions and Car Wars Reference Screen.  Autoduel gives us Car Wars for Champions.  Marcus Rowland gives them 8/10 and 6/10.

The book reviews focus on the then recent batch of sci-fi/fantasy books. The Complete Book of SF and Fantasy is one that jumps out at me.  I think I owned this at one point, but the title is so generic I could have owned something very similar.   There is also a review of Moorcock's  Dancers at the End of Time, which I have not read.  A couple of Trek books are also covered including what is likely to have been the first time I had ever heard of what is now known as Slashfic, called Kirk-Spocking here.

Lew Pulsipher's  Lew's Views is back this month and covers Gods, Magic and FRP battles.  He discusses the nature of Gods and Magic in fantasy battles.

Rick Priestly has an article on using Giants in Warhammer.  There are some interesting and mostly game agnostic rules about giants getting drunk.  I might try these out.

The Dark Brotherhood is an alternate system for Assassins in AD&D by Chris Felton.  I remember reading this way back when and it influenced the assassin guilds I had made for my game. The Brotherhood (no relation I am sure since I was big into acronyms then and wanted it to spell out BEAST) and the Red Assassins were two rival guilds in my games.  I never made characters in either guild sign contracts.

Counterpoint discusses boardgames derived from books. The big ones are discussed; LotR, Dune, Call of Cthulhu and Asimov's books and the varying degrees of success they achieved.

Ian Bailey has some RuneQuest crunch and fluff for us in the form of Crom Cruach, a Goblin Cult.   It is interesting enough to use anywhere.

Tracing Errors is this issue's Microview article and Gareth Williams covers how to find and debug errors in your programming.

Letters covers level limits in AD&D, Marc Miller and Thomas Price praising the coverage of various Traveller articles.

Marcus Rowland covers computers in Traveller.  By this time the concept of what a computer could do had changed in the world since Traveller had been published.  Computers had always been one of Traveller's weakest area in terms of future tech.  This article helps, but doesn't quite get it there.  My smart phone laughs at the idea of 1 ton batteries powering a computer for only 12 hours.

RuneRites has a double feature for us today. Monsters and a new scenario.  The monsters are listed (nothing jumps out at me), we break for a Thrud the Barbarian strip and head into the scenario.  The Lone and Level Sands is dual stated for AD&D AND RuneQuest.   New monsters are given both RuneQuest and AD&D stats (or at least where you can get them).

Fiend Factory returns the favor and converts the RQ demons from the last few issues into AD&D demons.
Treasure Chest follows with some demon related spells for D&D/AD&D.

The Travellers get into more trouble. And the Victoria Gazette is another attempt at a news article.  No jokes this time, just straight news.

Classifieds and Small ads follow.  Gobbledigook shows us how to handle Illusionists.
Ads end the issue including full page ones for James Bond, Games Fair 84,  Games Workshop and TSR for the Monster Manual II.

In general I feel that once again the layout and general design of the magazine was turned up a bit.  The page count is now up to 52 and still only 75p.

You can get a better look at that cover art here:

Review: Victoriana 3rd Edition

While Victoriana 1st edition first caught my attention and 2nd edition became a favorite, it is 3rd edition that might be the best version of the Victoriana game.  My deepest apologies to all the people that worked on the first two editions, some who I now consider friends.

Full Disclosure: I bought my own hardcover and pdf copies of these books. While I consider many of the fine folks at C7 to be friends, they did not solicit or expect a review.

Victoriana 3rd Edition uses the same system that powered Victoriana 2nd edition, but cleans up the game and gives it some new life.  Led by Walt Ciechanowski, Victoriana 3 became something a little different than before, but uniquely more "itself".  You can use all the supplements, adventures and characters in 3rd edition that you did with 2nd edition with now issues.  Vic 2nd edition has a conversion guide to 1st in case you need that.  There are sidebars to let you know where the major differences are between 3rd and 2nd edition.  There are even a couple of places where specific 2nd Edition books are mentioned.

Now set in 1856 (ten years earlier) we get a different feel for the age.  The world of Victoriana 3 is a little darker, a little more dangerous and a lot bigger.  So if you are using any of the supplements, such as the India one, you will need to adjust some events and tone, but not mechanics.  There are also sidebars that mention the differences between Victoriana world and the real world.  For example the Bolshivik revolution is getting started earlier here and Charales Darwin is now a "Dr." (he "only" had a Master's degree in real life).

This version of Victoriana puts more emphasis on technology. It is fantasy tech and steampunk tech, but there is more of it.  Not to say magic has taken a backseat here, but it is not as prevalent in the writing as it was before.  Also, the gothic horror elements have been turned up a bit in this as well.  Magic, when it is there, is scary.

Victoriana (any version, but especially this one) is the game where you can take anything from any other Victorian-era game, use it here and it works. Eldritch horrors from Cthulhu by Gaslight? yup.  Investigations from Baker Street? of course. Superhumanity from Victorious? Sure, why not!
In fact, this kitchen sink mentality works really well in Victoriana.

The system is the same. You get a dice pool of s6s. Roll them, explode the "6"s, count the successes.  If you have enough great.  The rules in this version read better.   I mentioned in my review of 2nd edition that the only way to truly review a game is not just to read it but to play it.  I have played Victoriana now for almost 10 years. Despite that, and even more years of World of Darkness and ShadowRun, I am not a fan of dice-pool games. I have tried play Victoriana using the Ghosts of Albion system. It worked, and it was fun. But it wasn't Victoriana anymore.  The Heresy game system is very much a part of what makes this game what it is. Much like the Basic Roleplaying System works for Call of Cthulhu and d20 for D&D, this system imparts a feel to Victoriana.  The black dice, the exploding 6s, all of it is part and parcel of the game experience.

Character creation is a bit easier, or at least a bit more guided in this version.  Emphasis is not placed more on social class than whether or not you are an orc, Eldren or human.  By the way, the Eldren (Elves) in this version get really strange.  You can be an elf, but be prepared to have some weird quirks or even some mental illness.  Personally, I loved this idea and would like to try it in other games where I have elves/Eldren.  Really, it is that cool.  There are some changes to gnomes and Huldufolk (halflings) that make them more different than each other and more interesting. Nocturnal academics vs. rustics with a keen interest in one area.
Note: This would be a great template on how to bring Castles & Crusades elves, gnomes, and halflings into a Victorious game.

The book is huge at 320 pages.  Again the cover is color and interior is black and white. And again this is how it should be.  The hardcover is sturdy and looks great. The PDF is bookmarked.  While I loved the mix of art in 2nd edition, the art in 3rd edition is more consistent.
The character sheet from 3rd edition is one of my favorites. It just looks so cool. A color option though would have also been nice for those special characters.

The rules include a great collection of items from the age and various forms of entertainment. There are also clarified rules on various chases (coach, boat, airships) and the effects of drinking and drugs.

Victoriana is one of the games with a quiet, but steady and dedicated following.  The fact that the games are always sold out in minutes at Gen Con is a testament.
For me, I will say this.  If there is anything you have ever wanted to do in a Victorian-era game then Victoriana has a way for you to do it.

White Dwarf Wednesday #89

It's the end of the 80s for White Dwarf. Not the 1980s, but the issues.  White Dwarf 89 takes us to May, 1987.  Our cover art is another Chris Achilleos one. But unlike the past ones that invoked a strong Heavy Metal feel this one is pure Warhammer to me.  Of course this is tied in with their big Citadel Miniatures give away.

Mike Brunton discusses the give-away in the editorial.  They giving out £2,000 worth of minis, a grand prize of £1,000 and four £250 prizes.  The details are in the center pages, more on that when we get there.  In other editorial news WD will celebrate it's 10th anniversary (they say birthday) and they are raising the price to £1.25! Ok to be fair there has not been a price increase in a while and we are just under 70 pages. They are promising an extra 16 pages of articles. We are already at a lot more cool than the previous few issues.
There is also an apology to West End Games for the tone and content of their remarks made in WD87 about "The Price of Freedom".

Open Box covers a few of the "home team" games like the Rogue Trooper board game and supplement for Judge Dredd ("Slaughter Margin").  The one that interested me then and I'll admit now, it the slick new Traveller 2300 game.  I remember playing this one in college a bit my freshman year. I remember a lot of talk about merging it with Twilight 2000, but I never saw it happen.  In their token D&D review Graeme Davis takes on module X11 Saga of the Shadow Lord.  He was disapointed by it, claiming it was just like the like the adventures they were doing 5 years ago (1982) which I guess would make it a big seller now.  I also didn't care for it, but for different reasons.  My reasons were it wasn't what I thought it could be; a nice tie-in with Death's Ride.  Again it would not be for another year or so till I got my hands on this one.

Awesome Lies, the news/gossip column (if I can call it that) is next. But there are some tidbits here of interest. The mention West End Games grabbing the Star Wars licence. A note about the post-TSR career path of EGG at New Infinities with Frank Mentzer and Kim Mohan.

Critical Mass covers some of then new books. Fredick Pohl's The Coming of the Quantum Cats is reviewed and I ate that book up. Wow. It was one of those books that went right into my game playing.  My then DM and I, already big on the idea of the multiverse, went all out gonzo on it.  In fact a lot of what makes up my Mystoerth world had its beginnings here and with this book.  It's funny how even sitting here now more than 25 years later how much of the book is coming back to me.  Though this review seems rather down on all the titles.

Thrud battles the Ramones from Space. Or something. Can't tell and don't care.

Be Afraid Be Very Afraid covers phobias in Call of Cthulhu. It is a laundry list from the DSM.  Hell maybe even from the same DSMIII-R I still own.  Generally speaking I don't like how most games handle insanity, madness and mental disorders.  I was a QMHP for years working in a center for schizophrenics. Most games get it so horriblly wrong as to be laughable. Call of Cthulhu is a notable exception even if it is simplistic and hand-waves a lot of the details; it works for the game.  This article is neat reading, but not much in the way of good game content.  By that I mean that one gaming group might use 2, maybe 3 of these, ever.

Next is a Paranoia scenario, Do Troubleshooters Dream of Electric Sheep.  Is it me or do all of these look the same? I think it must be me.

On Ealden Bergen is an "Adventure" or is is a supplement from Iron Crown Enterprises about Robin Hood. It is designed to be a "system-less" system but obviously based on Rolemaster. It reminds me in many ways of the their later Nightmares of Mine horror book.   It could be adapted and used with other systems, but a working knowledge of MERP or Rolemaster is really needed.  So much for "Systemless".

No we get to the middle and the contest, Ravening Hordes.  Simple, write a Warhammer Battle scenario and send it in by August 3, 1987.  I'll update when the winners are announced.

Friends in High Places is a generic fantasy RPG article about deception and intrigue in your games.  It is a pretty good read really. It discusses who the npcs are, what are their motivations and then what are their means of getting to them. Heavy on court intrigue, I think it is a good thing to try out.  Granted, Vampire will come along in a few years and take this to the Nth degree, but this is a cool look at the state of FRPGs in a post AD&D world.

An ad for the Snarf Quest book. Which is interesting given that Larry Elmore is just now starting a Kickstarter for a new Snarf Quest book.

'Eavy Metal covers painter Phil Lewis. I know a couple of the guys that are big into painting these days and they have their own "stars" and "rogues" just like all sorts of other fandoms.  Me. I am lucky if I can draw a straight line with a ruler and laser guide.

Character advancement in Warhammer Fantasy.  I can't but help think that many of the topics that were covered for D&D 8 years ago, RuneQuest 6 years ago and Rolemaster 4 years ago are now being recycled for Warhammer now.  Still. If you are using secondary skills in your flavor of D&D today then there is some ideas here.

Three pages of Unearthed Arcana errata is next.  I am of the mind that if I didn't read it and my players never read it then the errata didn't matter.  Sure it made for some weird ass rules, but often we would house rule them away anyway.  The bits about Method V is a laugh though. It's like reading some grognard blog posts today about D&D4/Next.  More proof that gamers never really change.  If the pages were falling out I'd consider sticking them into my UA, but they are still in there.   Did any of you ever care about the errata for UA?

Letters are next. Do you  remember the old Monty Python skit where they read letters that were supposedly sent into the show? I recall one from Richard Nixon...that is the feeling I get here.  I think at this point people where writing in just to get their name published; the 1987 version of "First!".

Small ads and then more ads.  There is a great Citadel miniatures ad for Daleks and Cybermen.  I have a few of the Daleks still myself.

A big issue, but not really full of anything I found interesting for gaming, just nostalgia.  We will see where the next 10-11 issues take us.

Reviews: Leagues of Gothic Horror Guides (and a Kickstarter)

Yesterday I went on (and on) about my love for the Triple Ace Games' Ubiquity-powered Leagues of Gothic Horror.   Today I want to focus on a few of the supplements from the Kickstarter.

In all cases, I am reviewing the dead tree and PDF versions of the books. I purchased these via the Kickstarter they had a while back.   All links are affiliate links. No review was solicited or expected outside of me emailing the author to say "hey,  I am reviewing your books" a couple of days ago.

Leagues of Adventure - Globetrotters' Guide to London
Softcover book. Full-color cover, black & white interior art. 78 pages.
A great sourcebook for the Leagues of Adventure game this covers the City (and County) of London in the 1890s.  The bulk of the book is devoted to a "tour" around London pointing out places of interest.  There are also sections on the police force, entertainment, and transportation.  The book is largely fluff free (ie not much in the way of games stats) so it immediately has utility for a wide variety of games. Even the adventure hooks for London are game-stats free. Most of the game-related material comes in the form of detailing various NPCs and archetypes, but there is enough flavor test to still make them usable in other games too.
This is a well-researched guide and extremely useful.  If you are playing a London-based Leagues of Adventure, Leagues of Gothic Horror or Leagues of Cthulhu game then I say pick this up.

Leagues of Gothic Horror: Guide to Black Magic
(currently on sale at DriveThru RPG)
Softcover book. Full-color cover, black & white interior art. 64 pages.
Set up in a similar fashion to all of TAG's "Guide to" books, this covers Black Magic and "Wickedness".  This book is fairly setting specific, so it has more game stats than some of the other guides.  I still found it to be a fantastic read and can't wait to try some of this out in my next Ubquity game.  The book covers a brief history of "black magic" practices around the world.  Later (Chapter 2) we move into why someone might take up this sort of power.  Fiendish lairs are also discussed since in the tried and true traditions of both Gothic and Pulp fiction every bad guy needs a lair.
The next three chapters I found the most interesting, they are respectively, Power, Demons and Evil NPCs.  So much great stuff here that I really could spend dozens of sessions working through all the ideas this has given me.  In particular, I have a Ghosts of Albion adventure that would work so much better with some of the ideas here. I am going to have to re-run now under Ubiquity to see.
For a small book it packs a lot of punch.

Leagues of Gothic Horror: Guide to Apparitions
(currently on sale at DriveThru RPG)
Softcover book. Full-color cover, black & white interior art. 64 pages.
Set up in a similar fashion to all of TAG's "Guide to" books, this covers ghosts and the damned.  Again, this is fairly setting specific but a lot of the material here is drawn from myths and legends from around the world, so first of there should be something in this book that everyone recognizes. Secondly there is plenty in this book that everyone can use.
The first third of the book covers why ghosts happen and their nature. This is followed by the means of disposing of these pests and some of the powers that they have.  The last third (more like half) covers new monsters and some very specific ghosts.  Frankly it is worth the cover price for the ghost of Lady Macbeth alone.
I once said in a game at Gen Con that are more ghosts in London than living people.  This book helps prove my point rather nicely.
Another really solid buy.

Also don't forget about TAG's newest Kickstarter, Leagues of Cthulhu.  Yeah the name is awkward, but it does tell you exactly what this is about.  My youngest son, who is turning into quite a Lovecraft fan, really wants this game.
You add on any other "Leagues of..." book you like.

White Dwarf Wednesday #79

July 1986 gives us White Dwarf #79 with one of the most ridiculous covers ever.  I had always thought that this was a Chris Achilleos cover, but no, it is listed as Amazonia Gothique by John Blanche.  Let's be honest there is nothing practical about this armor even by White Dwarf's standards or even by John Blanche's standards. This of course has to be the ultimate evolution of the 80s big hair.  No surprise then that this cover would later be voted as one of the best.

Paul Cockburn takes over the helm of the editorial page. There is a notice that a warning label will now be attached to ads for lead miniatures.  Is there anything less old school than a warning label?  Don't know, but I am sure there isn't.  Cockburn promises more changes but already there seems some Imagine has leaked into my White Dwarf. If I had actually had a plan when I started this I should have alternated with issues of Imagine so I could better comment on this, but I didn't so we just have to go with it.

This is most evident in the Open Box reviews which look like the reviews in Imagine; reviews running across a span of pages.  Among the reviews, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (a game I have never played), Secret Wars II for MSH, Blacksword for Stormbringer, Terror from the Stars for Call of Cthulhu, Ghostbusters and Acute Paranoia for you guessed it Paranoia.  First I have to admire how gaming is diversifying at this point.  Outside of Stormbringer there are no FRPGs in the lot and only one TSR offering.

Where and Back Again? covers starting up a Middle-Earth game.  Graham Staplehurst spends four pages covering this well trod land. The focus here is on the ICE game of course, but a lot of it can be used with other incarnations of the game.  It is still a desire of mine to play a game here, maybe using the D&D Basic rules (or ACKs), the only thing I am lacking is time.

Critical Mass and 2020 Vision cover reviews of books and movies respectively.  There is a certain pathos in providing reviews to something review nearly 30 years ago.  Though the highlights are their review of Highlander.

The special feature of the issue is next, a alternate view on Psionics in AD&D.  Steven Palmer creates different "classes" of psioncs to help group the powers.  A potential psion has access to 1 to 3 of these classes.  He also gives characters an additional 3% if they have psions in their family line.  It is a clean up and clarification of the rules in the AD&D1 Player's Handbook, but not yet at the Psionics as a strange magic seen in later editions of D&D.

Graeme Davis has an adventure for the Call of Cthulhu game, Ghost Jackal Kill, which among other things features some new monsters.  I am afraid though the overall feel is one of a D&D adventure.

Phil Masters has an article on using the intelligence monsters have. Novel for the time, old information in todays games.

'eavy Metal is the new(ish) Miniatures feature.

Letters page gets a facelift.

The last part of the "brains" featured articles are Psi Judges for Judge Dredd.  Reading these I might actually give the game a go sometime.  But only if I can play them as very Big Brother or as Babylon 5 Psi Corps.

Fracas is the revamped Rumors section.  Notable the introduction of the Zochi 100 sided dice.

We end with ads.

Now to be honest this was a good issue. I felt the featured content on powers of the mind fit together rather well and even went across a few game lines. There were some good advice in the articles and it did the one thing I really want a game magazine to do; get me to play the games they are talking about.

We could be closing out the 70s here (issues, not decade) on a positive note then.  I know my opinion will change over the next 20 issues, but that is for another Wednesday.

White Dwarf Wednesday #70

White Dwarf for October 1985 feels like it should be ushering in a new era in WD.  It doesn't, at least not yet, but there is change coming.  We begin with a cool cover of a barbarian of some sort fighting an undead wizard or lich and his demonic concubine/familiar/slave in front of a golden idol.  Pretty cool.  The cover is by Brian Williams.

Our editorial is interesting since it covers the demise of Imagine.  I picked up the first dozen or so issues of Imagine myself and wanted to do a retrospective of them as well.  When James over at Grognardia was doing his I was hoping that the months we reviewed would have been close together to get a good idea of what was going on in 1983-1985 gaming wise, at least from a perspective outside my own local one and my own remembrances. But like Imagine, the retrospectives stopped short of their full potential.  Pity really.  Maybe I will pick up Imagine someday.   Ian waxes nostalgic as well.

White Dwarf had been over the last few issues moving into newer games, mostly Golden Heroes.  This issue though is a pretty firm "D&D" one.  We begin with Graemme Davis discussing literacy and languages in AD&D.  The rules he suggests are more complicated than what most of us would want to use today, but I can totally see people using this.

The Coven is a group of super villains for Golden Heroes and the focus of Heroes & Villains this issue.  The members are listed, but only one is detailed.  They are a bit (ok a lot) cliched, but for comic book/supers villains they are not so bad.  There are five members and each one takes on the name of some other mytho-historic figure (Morgan, Salome, Cain, Moloch and Maximilian).  With some tweaks they could be fun.

Crawling Chaos has a great article on converting 1920s Call of Cthulhu prices from American dollars to British Pounds, Shillings and Pence (Britain was not on a decimal money system till 1971).  This article seems quaint to us now, not just because we have Cthulhu by Gaslight, but also because such things are easy to find on the net now.  Heck even in the 10 years since I wrote Ghosts of Albion this stuff is easier to find (unless of course you happen to have the rates of inflation between 1837 and 1845 memorized).

Open Box does D&D this month.  The X modules are reviewed, X6, X7 and X8 as well as the AD&D DL5 module. Graham Staplehurst reviews all four giving them 8/10, 8/10, 8/10 and 6/10 respectively.  Megan Robertson, who still reviews today for DriveThruRPG reviewed The Lost Shrine of Kasar-Khan. It is an adventure for any FRPG (coughh*D&D*cough) and gets 8/10.  The AD&D Battle System for large battles is reviewed by Graeme Davis. He says it is a good system but maybe over priced.

We get a Golden Heroes and Champions adventure next, Reunion by Simon Burley.  I was never sure why Golden Heroes was given precedence over Champions.  Must have been a local thing.

Diane and Richard John discuss Bounty Hunters as a career in Traveller.  Pretty much every character I ever conceived of in Traveller was some sort of bounty hunter.

In Too Deep has nothing to do with the Phil Collins song out at the same time but an underwater AD&D adventure for 3-6 characters. The adventure is quite detailed and I am struck by how I could work this into the whole Saltmarsh series with some tweaks.
Following up on this is Part 3 of Beneath the Waves.  This issue covers Creatures of the Depths.

Treasure Chest pretends to be Fiend Folio this issue and gives us some monstrous NPCs, a lizard man, a stone giant and an intellect devourer.

Tabletop Heroes covers customizing minis.  My favorite is the saxaphone playing T-Rex.

Gobbledigook is now a full page. The last few pages are all ads.

All in all I like this issue and I hope it is signals some positive changes in the future of WD.  Looking ahead I think I will be pleased, but I know the changes are coming.

The new edition "They Will RUIN it!!!!"

And other things your are not hearing from Call of Cthulhu fans right now.

Chaosium has announced that they are going to produce a new Seventh Edition of their flagship game, Call of Cthulhu.

In many ways I am with James over at Grognardia, http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-do-new-edition.html

The edition changes for CoC have never been a jarring as the ones for D&D.  Even the relatively minor changes between 3.0 and 3.5 were met with more angst and yelling than the changes to 6th ed CoC.  It could be that D&D has a much larger market share and thus more people to either complain or applaud the changes.

But it does make for an interesting point.

For the longest time the collective wisdom of the game industry has said that core books are what fuels the company coffers (and make no mistake this is about making money and that is NOT a bad thing).  This wisdom is reflected in many realities.  The price I get paid for X Core vs. Y Splat freelancing gigs and what you see reflected in sales numbers on such sites as DriveThruRPG or Amazon.  It means that new core rulebooks are necessary to keep a business afloat.

I for one am looking forward to CoC 7 and I am sure it will work well with my CoC 5th ed.