Tuesday, October 4, 2022

White Dwarf: Issue #52

Alan Craddock's depiction of a meeting between science fiction and fantasy characters graces the cover of issue #52 of White Dwarf (April 1984). As I've commented before, this is a common theme for WD covers and a subject near and dear to my heart. Meanwhile, Ian Livingstone's editorial is addressed to "new and old readers alike." In it, he hopes that "our faithful followers" will not object to the inclusion of content aimed at newcomers to the hobby. I imagine the inclusion of such content reflects the fact that, by this time, White Dwarf had become available at newsstands and thus might have attracted the attention of those otherwise unfamiliar with RPGs. 

This is one of those times when I wish we had better information on the growth in popularity in sales for roleplaying games. I tend to think of 1984 as just beyond the peak of the hobby's faddishness; from that point on, there is inevitable decline. That's based on very little but my own limited experiences and might well not be true everywhere. Indeed, I think there's good evidence that, in the UK, growth was still happening at this time, as the still-rising fortunes of Games Workshop would attest. In any case, it's a topic that continues to interest me and I live in hope we'll one day have more reliable data on the first decade of the hobby.

"The Name of the Game" by Marcus L. Rowland is an example of the kind of content geared for newcomers that Livingstone mentions in his editorial. It's a two-page overview both of roleplaying in general and Dungeons & Dragons in particular. It's fine for what it is, though, as I always ask when confronted with articles like this, who is this for? I have a very hard time imagining that a newcomer would buy a copy of White Dwarf without already knowing what a roleplaying game is. In that case, what's the purpose of articles like this? It's short, so it doesn't waste too much of this issue's precious pages, but, even so, I fail to see the value in it.

"Out of the Blue" by Daniel Collerton is a nice article that aims give clerics spell lists more in tune with the deities they serve. I'm quite sympathetic to Collerton's general point of view, so I'm naturally inclined to like this. At the same time, the article is simple and straightforward, making use of a combination of revised spell lists and a few new spells to give each cleric a distinct flavor based on his religion. In many ways, it anticipates the ideas developed in later TSR books like Dragonlance Adventures or in Second Edition AD&D, but without the need for spheres/domains. 

"Open Box" reviews several new products, starting with Talisman, which – surprisingly – receives a score of only 6 out of 10. The reviewer found that the game tended to drag on, which is a fair criticism, I think. Also reviewed was another Games Workshop game, Battlecars, which was scored more favorably (8 out of 10). Not so lucky is Dragonriders of Pern by Mayfair. The reviewer points out its "rotten artwork, unclear rules, complex and unwieldy game mechanics, [and] high price," giving it 4 out of 10. Finally, there's the series of Lost Worlds fantasy combat books. The reviewer likes them in general, but nevertheless finds of "limited appeal," hence the mediocre score of 6 out of 10.

Dave Langford's "Critical Mass" quickly reviews many books, including Isaac Asimov's Foundation's Edge (which he doesn't care for), Piers Anthony's Dragon on a Pedestal (which he does, in spite of himself), Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East (thumbs up), Vonda McIntyre's Superluminal (thumbs down), along with Robertson Davies's High Spirits (the best collection of ghost stories since M.R. James). Langford is something of an acquired taste and I frequently struggle reading his columns decades after they were written. Still, there's a strange joy in remembering that, once upon a time, our little hobby still looked to literature rather than itself and its distaff offspring for inspiration. I miss those days.

"Close Encounters of the First Kind" presents four new monsters for use with D&D, including one, the spider dragon, by editor Ian Livingstone himself. "Microview" by Russell Clarke reviews two computer games, Usurper (5 out of 10) and Caribbean Trader (8 out of 10). He also presents a short program to aid in handling impulse movement in Starfleet Battles. "To Live Forever" by Andy Slack looks at immortality in Traveller. Slack focuses on achieving this through drugs, medicine, clones, and low berths, not to mention the adverse effects of each approach. He ends the article with a sample scenario that introduces some of these concepts into a campaign.

"The Castle of Lost Souls" by Dave Morris and Yve Newnham is the first part of an extended solitaire adventure built on a model similar to the Fighting Fantasy books that were all the rage at the time. I remember really enjoying this series at the time. It's quite well done for what it is – no surprise, really, given that Morris would later go on to write the Fabled Lands series of gamebooks. "The Serpent's Venom" by Liz Fletcher is a beginning AD&D scenario that's quite cleverly done. Fletcher subverts a common trope of low-level adventures – a quest given by a mysterious NPC – to present something that looks like a lot of fun to play. 

Dave Morris returns with "Rings," a collection of more than a dozen magical rings for use with RuneQuest. "Pandora's Box," on the other hand, is a collection of six miscellaneous magical items by various authors for D&D, including the casket of troubles. Joe Dever and Gary Chalk (later of Lone Wolf fame) offer "A Hard Day's Knight," a "close-up look at fighter figures," complete with color photographs. I used to love articles like this, since I was absolutely awful at painting and never ceased to marvel at others' artistry. This issue also includes new installments of "Gobbledigook," "The Travellers," and "Thrud the Barbarian." The latter is the first part of "The Three Tasks of Thrud," a short series of connected installments that tell a longer story of the necromancer To-Me Ku-Pa's enlistment of the dimwitted barbarian to undertake the titular tasks of the title.

Issue #52 is a bit less enjoyable than its immediate predecessor but still solid. White Dwarf continues to distinguish itself for the variety of its content, as well as the slightly off-kilter approaches it took to its content. Compared to Dragon, it's a bit less professional and predictable, which is both a blessing and curse. For myself, White Dwarf gave me new perspectives on the hobby that I wouldn't otherwise have had. For that, I remain grateful, whatever criticisms I might have of individual issues.

11 comments:

  1. I think you're right that RPGs were still growing in the UK in 1984; the year marked the release of the second (and best!) edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, with Warhammers 40K and FRP still ahead - along with Dragon Warriors (published in paperback form and sold in normal bookshops!) and the 'own-brand' GW editions of RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu. I wonder, though, if *D&D* was past its first peak at that point. Certainly, when I got into gaming (in 1983, I think, though it may have been 1982), RuneQuest seemed to be the Big Thing, with D&D modules looking, to my juvenile eyes, a little quaint.

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  2. I have a very hard time imagining that a newcomer would buy a copy of White Dwarf without already knowing what a roleplaying game is.

    With a cover like that? I would definitely have picked it up without knowing what a roleplaying game was. It’s exactly the kind of science fiction and fantasy I enjoyed at the time (and still do). I picked up Heavy Metal (or some Heavy Metal lookalike, I’ve long since misplaced that issue and don’t recognize the cover on GCD) originally solely for the cover.

    Pretty sure it was a Gigeresque, if not Giger, cover that convinced me to browse and then buy a copy of Omni.

    In both those I would have recognized that the content was something I was vaguely familiar with when I browsed through it—science fiction/science fact/paranormal. If I were not already an RPG gamer that wouldn’t be true for White Dwarf. But magazines based around new ideas was normal for the era. It’s how I’d discovered that owning a computer was a possibility a few years before—a magazine about “hobby” computers, something I had no idea was possible until I saw a Hobby Computer Handbook.

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    1. Plus the "cheesecake" on the cover will get a few more people to buy a copy: fantasy fan or not.

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  3. I would quite happily browse in John Menzies looking at the magazines, and as Jerry says about the cover it would have attracted my attention too, if only for the lady's shapely rear (I was 12 in 1984). So a two page article on RPG might have sucked me in to buy the mag.

    A confession: the first issue of WD I bought (as opposed to read someone's) was No.81. 100% the reason I bought it was the rather fetching Eagle Rider lady as painted by the late, great, Chris Achilleos.

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  4. "Langford is something of an acquired taste and I frequently struggle reading his columns decades after they were written. Still, there's a strange joy in remembering that, once upon a time, our little hobby still looked to literature rather than itself and its distaff offspring for inspiration. I miss those days."

    I'm quite the fan of Langford's White Dwarf columns, to the point that I have his collection of columns in book form (The Complete Critical Assembly). He left White Dwarf and subsequent gaming magazines when he kept being asked to review more "distaff offspring" of RPGs and fewer books on the more literary end of the SF&F genres.

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  5. Just learnt that the Serpent's Venom was actually written by Dave Morris too. "Liz Fletcher" was a pseudonym. https://fabledlands.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-serpents-venom.html

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    1. Thanks for that link! It's still amazing to me that I can hear about some gaming products I missed out on and then immediately someone comes along with a link to the creator's website, or a Kickstarter for the reboot, etc.

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    2. I do vaguely recall this at the time it was published but having rarely played D&D in any form, I never read it. Now that I have bought OSE Advanced Fantasy though, I have a renewed interest in this kind of thing. Also, despite Morris's protestations that it is mere hack work, it does have some plot twists not often seen in Dungeon crawls. So, happy to have stumbled upon the link as a result of reading this post. Thanks James.

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  6. Regarding Thrud, the necromancer To-Me Ku-Pa is a reference to prop comic and magician Tommy Cooper, some of whose antics can be found on YouTube.

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    1. Tommy Cooper told what I think is one of the funniest jokes ever, possibly because it seems on the right side of plausible.

      He was in the Royal Horse Guards regiment and at 6'4" in his socks must have been a fearsome sight in full uniform. His story is that he was on guard duty one evening and dozed off in the standing position. He opened his eyes to find the sergeant-major angrily staring at him only a few inches away. Realising he's in the shit he shouts out "Amen!" and gets away with it.

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