Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Different Worlds: Issue #8

Issue #8 of Different Worlds (June/July 1980) features a cover by Steve Oliff and opens with an article by Robert Harder entitled "Teaching Role-Playing," another entry in the continuing "Better Game Mastering" series. Despite its title, the article is not about how to teach someone to play a RPG but rather about the process of becoming and developing one's skills as a Game Master. I have a fondness for these kinds of articles, especially older ones, since they sometimes offer unique perspectives on the art of refereeing. Harder has a number of worthy insights to share, including his emphasis a gaming session as a "social gathering" and his belief that a session "should not exceed three hours." The latter point is one I feel very keenly these, though I would never have accepted it in my youth, when four to six hours – or longer – was a more common length.

John T. Sapienza has written D&D variant article called "Sleep vs. Mixed Parties." Sapienza's concern is that, as written, the sleep spell is difficult to adjudicate against enemies with mixed hit dice. Consequently, he proposes rewriting the spell to be both clearer and somewhat less powerful, while also leaving the door open to higher-level versions of the spell. I don't have much to say about Sapienza's specific point, but I will say that I generally appreciate seeing articles like this, since they reflect a culture of play and reveal the idiosyncrasies of individual referees. To my mind, this is where roleplaying lives and it ought to be applauded.

"Alien and Starships & Spacemen" by Leonard Kanterman is a both a review of the 1979 science fiction film, Alien, and a scenario inspired by it for use with the aforementioned RPG. It's fine for what it is, though it's very grim for a game inspired by the original series of Star Trek. John T. Sapienza re-appears with another article, "Talent Tables," intended as a follow-up to his "Developing a Character's Appearance" piece in issue #5. This article is in a similar vein, providing a D1000 table that confers minor (+1 or +2) bonuses in a wide variety of situations to characters. For my tastes, it's a lot of unnecessary work for very little mechanical benefit, but, again, I think articles like this arose out of the play of individual campaigns and, for that reason alone, I have a certain affection for them nonetheless. Sapienza also penned a review of four RPG products from a company called Bearhug Game Accessories. The products are a series of counters for keeping track of equipment and treasure – an idea I've seen in other contexts and that definitely has something to recommend it.

Lewis Pulsipher's "Defining the Campaign: Game Master Styles" is an overview of the kinds of decisions a referee must make in describing his campaign, such its degrees of believability, risk, reward, the extent to which the referee is truly impartial, and so on. Pulsipher does a good job, I think, of outlining many of the big questions. Simon Magister's "Composite Bows" is a historical article about the development and use of these weapons and interesting if you're into this kind of thing. There's a review of Heritage's Dungeon Dwellers line of miniatures by – guess who? – John T. Sapienza. I didn't own many of this line, but I enjoy retrospectives on old school minis like this; they're a terrific blast of nostalgia.

Anders Swenson provides a very positive review of the D&D module The Keep on the Borderlands. Ron Weaver's "Zelan the Beast" is a Gloranthan cult for RuneQuest. Dave Arneson and Steve Perrin review the two volumes of Walter William's Tradition of Victory Age of Fighting Sale wargame and RPG. Perrin also reviews Advanced Melee and Wizard by Steve Jackson, both of which he highly praises. Lee Gold, meanwhile, describes "How I Designed Land of the Rising Sun," her RPG of feudal Japan. This is a fine article, since Gold talks not just about how she designed the game's rules but also the process of research, writing, and rewriting that led to the game's final form – very fascinating stuff! "Alignment on Trial" by David R. Dunham is exactly what you'd expect: another entry in the hoary genre of why alignment is too simple/limited/inadequate/just plain dumb. To be fair to Dunham, his perspective is more nuanced than that, though it does at times have the air of a teenager reading philosophy for the first time and suddenly thinking he's thought things no other human has ever thought. 

The issue ends with Gigi D'Arn's column, filled, as ever, with terrific tidbits from gaming's past. For example, it notes that the three volumes of Dave Hargrave's Arduin series have sold 40,000 copies! Not bad. There's also a reference to TSR's ending of its exclusive distribution arrangement with Games Workshop, no doubt a prelude to the establishment of TSR UK. Apropos recent discussions, Gigi notes that the name of SPI's then-upcoming fantasy RPG had run into a trademark snag with Martian Metals, which is not what I was expecting to read. There's also mention that school board of Heber City, Utah has "chucked D&D" (whatever that means in this case) because "townspeople found it un-Christian, communistic, liable to leave players open to Satanic influence, etc." I've said before that I never personally experienced much pushback against RPGs because of their supposed Satanism, but it was apparently a very real thing in some places and this is evidence of that, I guess.

In any case, Different Worlds is clearly growing more confident and interesting. I very much enjoyed this issue and will be curious to see where the magazine goes in future issues.

16 comments:

  1. Oh, what a surprise, a dink town in Utah being uptight about something. Have to admit "communistic" is a new complaint, though. Those Mormons always did like to add their own twist to things.

    I never saw any of these figs myself, but some quick research shows that Martian Metals had "DragonSlayers" figure ranges in both 15mm and 25mm scales that probably predate both the Disney film and the RPG that became DragonQuest, so I guess that explains that. You can see some of them over on the eternally-useful Lost Minis wiki here:

    http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/?title=Dragonslayers

    http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=DragonSlayers_15%27s

    Some of them actually look pretty good, although most are typical products of their time. I mostly remember MM for their screwball upside-down (and once sideways) ads on the back covers of the Space Gamer, a small Runequest range, and for making teeny tiny Ogre figs.

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  2. Before I forget and succumb to rambling, I want to mention that the covers on both the DW and Howard items are really captivating. A bit in the vein of the Farrah Fawcett poster: they may not represent exactly what you're thinking, but they strike directly at "how you feel". What an immensely powerful device.

    There were never any Satanic mutterings among the parents with D&D. The Iron Maiden poster, KISS Army (blood-face), or Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap? Yes and oh yes.

    I also can't discern if the outcry is a sign-of-the-times evolution. Half of our fathers were Vietnam soldiers. They typically had bigger things on their minds than the Green Ghost wearing a Redline BMX tee hurling an ess-storm at Captain Kirk and Magnum PI. I waved Tomb at my dad once and he said (gripping a Wild Turkey brimmer, neat) "I don't know what that cartoon is, but I've got to repair this TV, so leave me alone until dinner."

    REPAIR a TV?

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    1. Yikes! Repair a TV meant it had some kind of CRT, and those things could be dangerous. Here's to your Dad. Salute.

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  3. cover artist Steve Oliff was the colorist on the Marvel/Epic comics run of Akira and helped pioneer digital comics coloring.

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  4. I don't know what the deal was in Heber city, Utah, circa 1980, but my mom had Conservative Mormon friends back in the Early '80s and the thing about my playing D&D that really freaked them out was that it was a game with no winner. Not the demons, not wizards or Drow or Orcus or Chaotic Evil, but the fact that it was a "Game" that no one "Won". That seemed to disturb them on a fundamental level.

    This is only my own personal experience. Make of it what you will.

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  5. It's probably worth mentioning that Martian Metals built the miniature of the dragon used in the movie Dragonslayer. I'm not sure if that's related to the trademark snag alluded to here or if it was simply due to the line of figures from that company. Since the movie didn't happen until 1981, it's likely the figure line.

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    1. Really? AFAIK the film miniature was made by ILM, although the SFX team on it was huge (over 80 people) so Forest Brown might well have been involved without my knowing. The film dedicated almost a quarter of its budget to bringing Vermithrax Pejorative to life, and it shows even when held up next to modern CGI.

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    2. I was operating off of something I was told at the time. It seems that the person who emphasized that it was MM who built the miniature in the movie was misinformed and therefore misinforming me. Ken Ralston built the movie miniature. Martian Metals were licensed to produce a 25mm kit with an Ulrich figure. I should keep in mind that we were basically playing telephone with a lot of the information we got back in those days.

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    3. Fair enough. Pre-internet hobbyist/gamer/geek culture was a very different thing, for certain.

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  6. When did "lead figures" become "minis"? Or was that a regionalism we had in the early 80s?

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    1. "Miniatures" or "minis" was what we always called them in suburban Maryland. I don't recall anyone saying "lead figures" in my area, but that doesn't really mean anything.

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    2. Adding to the anecdotal evidence, I never heard gaming miniatures called anything but "minis" or "figs" in my areas (upstate and western NY, and central PA) - and that's going back to the late Seventies. "Lead figurines" were old-fashioned toys, usually around 1/12 scale.

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  7. "Dave Arneson and Steve Perrin review the two volumes of Walter William's Tradition of Victory Age of Fighting Sale wargame and RPG."

    I assume this is the sci-fi author Walter Jon Williams. His game was reissued (I think) in the early 80s as Privateers and Gentlemen, coinciding with the release of his historical fiction novels of the same name. There are five in all, telling the tale of the Markham family of American privateers from the American Revolution through the War of 1812. They're actually quite good--a bit long and dense, but more literary than the usual sail 'n' cannon adventure tale.

    I've got a reprint of Privateers and Gentlemen, which I'd love to play someday, but it's a hard sell to my gaming group (who are highly resistant even to non-5e D&D). The reviews I've read tend to say it's a good game, but that the RPG and wargame parts were clearly written separately.

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    1. I think you're right. I did know this, but, like so much else, it receded into the recesses of my brain, only to resurface now. Thanks for the reminder.

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    2. There's a name I haven't heard in a while. Still wish he'd write a few more Drake Maijstral books for us, but after a quarter of a century I'm not holding my breath. Not that the Dread Empire's Fall series has been bad, but I really liked Drake for all the silliness inherent in the setting.

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