Tuesday, October 26, 2021

White Dwarf: Issue #14

Issue #14 of White Dwarf (August/September 1979) sports an unusual cover by Emmanuel, best known for the iconic cover of the Fiend Folio. Ian Livingstone's editorial compares US and UK game conventions, with particular attention paid to the length (typically three days in the US vs one in the UK) and expense (US conventions cost more) of these gatherings. Not being much of a convention goer myself – even less so in these crazy times – my opinion on the matter probably doesn't much matter. Still, I can't say that the increasingly theme park-like atmosphere of major game conventions holds much appeal to me. I'd much rather attend something smaller and more "restrained," but what do I know?

Part 2 of Andy Slack's excellent "Expanding Universe" article for Traveller appears here. This time, Slack offers rules additions for starships, computers, and all manner of weaponry, including nuclear ones. Like Part 1, this is excellent, full of both good ideas and good sense. There's a reason why Slack was – and is, in my book anyway – one of the stand-out writers for White Dwarf in its early years. "The Fiend Factory" offers up five more monsters for D&D. Interestingly, none of them seems to be among those chosen for inclusion in the Fiend Folio. 

"Open Box" provides three reviews. The first tackles two supplements for GDW's Traveller: Mercenary and 1001 Characters. The reviewer, Don Turnbull, thinks quite highly of the former and less of the latter. I find it fascinating that Turnbull notes that there are some who find perhaps the most inspired part of the Traveller rules – character generation – to be tedious and it's for these misguided souls that 1001 Characters would be most appealing. Turnbull also reviews two Judges Guild products, Dragon Crown and Of Skulls and Scrapfaggot Green. He considers Of Skulls the better of the two, but nevertheless criticizes the quality, both of content and production, of JG's releases when compared to those of TSR. Jim Donohoe gives Chaosium's Balastor's Barracks a very middling review (5 out of 10). He never explains why he rated it thus, but I know from my own experience that it's a dull slog of a dungeon for RuneQuest that gives little indication of the glories that would later appear for that game line.

"Lair of the White Worm" by John Bethell is a "mini-scenario" for RQ. Set in the ruins of a Dragonewt colony that reputedly sheltered a young wyrm, the locale is a two level affair, consisting of 24 chambers. It's not bad for what it is, though it certainly lacks the attention to world building that would come to characterize most Gloranthan materials (both fan-made and published by Chaosium). "Treasure Chest" presents two elaborate traps after the fashion of Grimtooth's Traps and a series of connected rooms filled with tricks and traps called "The Bath-House of the Pharaoh." These are quite clever and remind me that I need to do a better job of creating compelling traps for use in my fantasy games.

The issue ends with a lengthy interview with none other than Gary Gygax himself. The interview contains enough fascinating material that I'm going to save its contents for a second post I'll make later today. Suffice it to say that, as is so often the case, Gygax gives a good interview, the exact content of which depends greatly on when he was interviewed and by whom. In this case, I get the impression that Gygax must have felt well at ease and so was a great deal more frank about several topics than I would have expected. That said, he nevertheless pushes the "AD&D is a completely different game from OD&D" line that he has elsewhere, no doubt in an effort to shore up TSR's legal defense against Dave Arneson's lawsuits. Still, it's a good interview, as you'll see.

11 comments:

  1. I think the major difference between US and UK cons at the time (and still now to a large extent) is that cons in the US are where you go to play all sorts of games, whereas in the UK, you go to buy games and maybe try a game while you're there. That's probably a large part of why the discrepancy in time (you only need to go on the one day to buy stuff) and cost (more space is needed for tables, etc).

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  2. I've had a ton of fun running Balastor's Barracks a few times- and I hate most old school slogs- I guess we made it interesting through our playstyle and my approach in presenting it? :shrug: Definitely had better luck with it than the two JG adventures mentioned (and I am fairly fond of "Of Skulls and Scrapfaggot Green" )

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    1. I kind of liked Of Skulls myself, but it may just be nostalgia, it was one of my first JG purchases. Have gotten kind of tired of getting weird looks when you say the full name, though. "Did you just say..." "It's a corrupted version of an old-timey word for witch, grow the hell up."

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    2. I thought in this case it was the reference to twig or wood...i.e. scrapwood green?

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    3. In the module, maybe. The real-world version (which is in Essex) might have meant something similar (eg a green/meadow/clearing where everyone was free to pick up fallen sticks and branches for firewood) but somewhere along the line it got tied up in a myth about a witch who was buried under a boulder there. That got revived and amplified by some pranks pulled on a visiting journalist who faithfully reported a bunch of supernatural hauntings after a GI driving a bulldozer displaced the rock from the supposed burial site in 1944. The "haunting" ended when the boulder was put back in place. It's kind of a neat story that still attracts some tourist trade, you can read details online.

      Sources seem to generally agree that the original term (from East Anglia) was "scratchfaggot" - which again might have been a reference to stick-picking (a lowest-class occupation) but turned into a slang for "witch" over time, then got further mutated to scrapfaggot as it moved to Essex. I can easily see stick-pickers (who were usually about as poor as it gets) getting accused of witchcraft, since they were toward the bottom of the social heap and easy to scapegoat.

      OTOH, it might also have been a ref to being the Devil's helper - Old Scratch's "fag" in the same sense that old-timey English schoolboys "fagged' for their upperclassmen.

      Man, the weird stuff I know.

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    4. Weird or otherwise, I appreciate the education you gave me! Thanks.

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    5. Fun ancillary fact, "stick-picker" is used as an insult in Sartar culture in Runequest, suggesting you're dirt poor and possibly lazy or unambitious. Not surprising to find some real history in Glorantha, is it?

      I'm just guessing on that "Devil's helper" idea to explain the name. Not sure when "Old Scratch" became a common term for the Red Guy or "fag" first started to mean assistant, but if they don't both date back to at least the early 17th century (Anne Hughes was executed for witchcraft and maybe murdering her husband in 1621) then the explanation doesn't hold together. But it sure sounds good, doesn't it? :)

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  3. '"The Fiend Factory" offers up five more monsters for D&D. Interestingly, none of them seems to be among those chosen for inclusion in the Fiend Folio.'

    Only issues 2 and 6 through 13 of White Dwarf have monsters later included in the Fiend Folio. Issue #13 came out in June 1979, and Don Turnbull finished the Fiend Folio a mere two months later in August 1979. Sadly, red tape pushed back the Fiend Folio's intended 1979 publication date to 1981.

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    1. Interesting, never sat down and worked out the dates before. Kind of impressed the layout so fast with the kind of tech back then - but perhaps there were some minor revisions in the time before it went to the printers?

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  4. I prefer smaller cons myself, but having three days rather than just one works a lot better. US travel times tend to be much longer than ones in the UK.

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  5. This is one of my favorite issues because Lair of the White Wyrm is one of my favorite adventures. In some ways, yea, it isn't very world building, on the other hand, it meshed extremely well into my current campaign where the PCs ended up freeing the wyrm instead of killing it and it added to the PC leader's reputation with newtlings and dragonnewts (said PC had led the party in saving the newtlings of Rainbow Mounds from the Apple Lane module). Quincy the duck has always been one of my favorite NPCs.

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