Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Different Worlds: Issue #14

Issue #14 of Different Worlds (September 1981) opens with "Judges Guild and D&D" by Patrick Amory. This is an unusual article, in that it offers an overview of all the Judges Guild D&D/AD&D products, with an eye toward drawing attention to the best ones. This is necessary, in the opinion of the author, because "the Guild has always sacrificed quality for quantity." He hopes to save the reader the need "to wade through masses of rubbish, poor art, and typoes [sic]" before finding a genuinely useful product. That's harsh but fair. The full article is five pages long and singles out those Amory considers especially worth, such as City-State of the Invincible Overlord, City-State of the World Emperor, Tegel Manor, Caverns of Thracia, and First Fantasy Campaign, among a few others. 

"Character Personality Profile" by Mark Lukens presents a system for rating the personality, attitudes, and interests of a character, whether player or non-player. The system is usable with multiple RPGs, since Lukens provides multiple rating scales (2d6, 3d6, d20, d100). The system reminds me a bit of the opposed personality traits system presented in Pendragon, albeit in a less developed form. It's not bad for what it is and I imagine many referees would find some utility in it.

Richard L. Snider offers a preview to the second edition of Adventures in Fantasy. The article is mostly interesting as a historical curiosity, since, unless I am mistaken, this second edition was never published. "Painting Miniature Figures" by Robin Wood is a lengthy but fascinating article, complete with photographs, about the process of painting figurines for use with roleplaying games. Lewis Pulsipher's "Taverns and Inns" provides a system for randomly rolling up drinking establishments – everything from their size to proprietors to patrons. "Familiars" by David F. Nalle provides a handful of short tables for generating familiars, including unique ones. 

"Plausible Geography for Role-Playing Games" by George Hersh is a surprisingly short article, consisting mostly of a recommendation to acquire copies of United States Geological Survey topographical maps to use as the basis for adventure maps. "Come, Clash with the Titans" by Larry DiTillio provides AD&D and RuneQuest stats for the monsters and opponents from the 1981 movie, Clash of the Titans, along with magic items and scenarios employing them. The issue also includes reviews of the Traveller double adventure Argon Gambit/Death Station and Grimtooth's Traps

Gigi D'Arn's gossip column includes quite a few tidbits this issue, starting with rumors that "SPI is losing money rapidly," which is why it is trimming its staff. Gigi also mentions Avalon Hill and Heritage had supposedly made bids on the company. There's also this story:

This is a reference to the module, Palace of the Silver Princess, about which Jean Wells talked a bit in my interview with her some years ago. I find this fascinating, since, at the time, I had absolutely no idea there was any controversy regarding the module. It was only sometime this century that I became aware of and I still sometimes can't believe it actually happened.

Issue #14 is an improvement, in my opinion, over issue #13. There's a great deal more immediately useful gaming material and not a single "theory" article, which is a welcome change. It's worth mentioning that editor Tadashi Ehara began the issue asking readers to send him letters indicating what games they play and which articles they have found most enjoyable. This suggests that Ehara was well aware of the need to better balance in the magazine's content. It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the next few issues.

11 comments:

  1. Tadashi's...err Gigi's column was so much fun. I was never aware of the B3 "issue" either, at the time, nor saw an Orange cover in the wild. I think it wasn't until the mid to late 90s and getting into some discussion online that I heard about it, and then TSR/WOTC released it online for free (much to the chagrin of the collectors) along with a article about it on their website.

    And I'm firmly in the camp of Mr. Amory re: Judges Guild. Their good stuff was very good, but the majority of their output was crap (putting it kindly). Especially in that '79-demise period.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "to wade through masses of rubbish, poor art, and typoes [sic]"

    That's priceless. :)

    Can't really argue with their choices for what's worth looking at out of the mass of Judge's Guild stuff, though. Most of their products are evidence that Sturgeon's Law is valid IME, but they had some things I enjoyed.

    The SPI gossip is sad but true by this point. First I'd heard of Heritage making an offer though. Interesting if true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gigi doesn't believe the rumor but reported it anyway. I, too, have a hard time imagining that Heritage ever had the resources to place a bid on SPI. Avalon Hill, on the other hand, seems more plausible.

      Delete
    2. Avalon Hill did hire much of the talented SPI design staff and they founded Victory Games under the Avalon Hill umbrella.

      Delete
  3. I had the fortune to play the unadulterated and "suppressed" Palace of the Silver Princess. Haven't seen anything remotely controversial or edgy in it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's mostly down to one piece of art where Otus supposedly drew the faces of several TSR management members onto the ubues, new monsters in the module whose description includes a mention of how much they argue and bicker between their (three, gender-mixed) heads. Might also have been the slightly extreme description and illustration of torture in the decapus encounter's illusion, but I'd be willing to bet it was the former that really got it pulled. You can see the specific pieces around 2:15 on the video at the link, which is generally worth a watch anyway:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rrX_obJ_9s

      From a 2021 POV there's some other awkwardness, but they wouldn't have been a factor way back then.

      Delete
    2. The Grogtalk podcast show on YouTube has interviewed a few of the TSR people that were involved at different levels with the module. It’s all more complicated than generally gets reported, and is an interesting story.

      Delete
  4. I can’t believe it took me until now to recognize why Gigi D’arn was ringing so many bells. Clever to name a gossip after those two famous squabblers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! I just got it after reading this. That's a solid joke name right there!

      Delete
  5. I learned how to paint miniatures from the article in this issue.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sad timing on the Robin Wood article. She passed away only a few weeks ago.

    https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/dungeons-dragons-robin-wood-passes-away/

    ReplyDelete