Ian Livingstone's editorial focuses on the tenth anniversary of the Games Day convention. He notes not just the long queues to enter the event, but also the fact that its attendees now number in the thousands rather than the hundreds that first turned out for it in 1975. I have a vague memory that Games Workshop brought a version of Games Day to Baltimore sometime during the '80s, though I never attended it. I wonder how similar it might have been to the original in the UK.
The issue kicks off with "Rationale Behavior" by Peter Tamlyn. The article is actually an extended discussion of the concept of alignment within Dungeons & Dragons, including its limitations. Tamlyn then notes that GW's superhero game, Golden Heroes, includes a series of "campaign ratings" that measure a character's relationship with the in-game world, such as, for example, Public Status and Personal Status. These ratings, he contends, do a better job of describing a character than a simplistic alignment system. For that reason, Tamlyn puts forward an alternative to alignment that takes into account a character's religious attitudes, social status, public piety, and so on in order to give a fuller picture of his place in the fantasy setting. It's an intriguing idea and not without some advantages over alignment, though its use requires considerably more work on the part of both the referee and the player. Still, it was a thought-provoking article.
The second part of Peter Blanchard's "Beneath the Waves" appears, focusing this time on "developing civilizations." As with its predecessor, this article's purpose is to consider the ramifications of life underwater in a fantasy setting. Also like its predecessor, the second installment is well-done but much too brief. Blanchard wisely looks at many of the obvious considerations of the submarine environment, along with less apparent ones, like writing, working metal, construction, and even magic. Unfortunately, most of these topics get a couple of paragraphs at most – better than nothing but still barely scratching the surface of a huge topic. The article would have done well with more examples of how to employ its principles, I think.
"Open Box" starts off with short reviews of three different adventure modules for TSR's Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars (7 out of 10), Lone Wolves (6 out of 10), Cat's-Paw (6 out of 10). Interestingly, reviewer Marcus L. Rowland calls Cat's-Paw his favorite of the three and yet it does not receive the highest rating of the three, another indication that these scores were given not by the reviewer but by someone else on the White Dwarf staff. Also reviewed is Toon Strikes Again (8 out of 10) and the boardgame, Chill: Black Morn Manor (8 out of 10), two products with which I have no direct familiarity, though I remember being very intrigued by advertisements for the latter. Finally, there's a review for TSR's Conan Role-Playing Game. The reviewer, Peter Tamlyn, is generally impressed with the game (7 out of 10), but his enthusiasm is dampened by its many editing, proofreading, and typesetting errors. He hopes that there might be a second edition that corrects its many deficiencies..
Dave Langford continues to do his thing in "Critical Mass." At this stage, I find I most enjoy his reviews when he shares my own prejudices, hence why the only things I can remember about this month's installment is his skewering of both Barbara Hambly and Piers Anthony, two writers whose popularity has always baffled me. "Close Encounters" by Ian Marsh similarly held little interest for me. Marsh presents what he thinks RuneQuest really needs: an expansion of the game's strike rank system that takes into account weapon length ...
The saga of "Thrud the Destroyer" concludes as it was destined to do so: with Thrud and his fellow mercenaries screwing things up for their peasant patrons. "The Travellers" includes more character write-ups, including game statistics, this time for the characters of Hayes and Gavin. "Gobbledigook" likewise reappears. "The Surrey Enigma" is a solid, if inconsequential, Call of Cthulhu adventure by Marcus L. Rowland (did he write everything in WD in the mid-80s?), in which the characters investigate unfounded rumors of witchcraft only to discover something much more sinister. I find it fascinating that the adventure takes the time to explain the old British, pre-decimal currency system to readers. Had its existence already been forgotten by 1985?
"Plague from the Past" by Richard Andrews is an AD&D adventure for 5th–7th level characters. The scenario is clever in a folkloric way that fantasy adventures frequently are not. The village in which it takes up is built atop the body of a long-dead giant and present-day actions are resulting in the giant's restoration to life. Good stuff! "Battle Stations" by J. Evans and E. Wilson presents an alternate – and more complex – damage system for use with Traveller's High Guard. To each his own, but I cannot say I see the appeal. Mind you, the older I get, the more convinced I am that simple, straightforward rules are usually best if your goal is to sustain a campaign long-term, so I am probably biased against articles of this sort.
"The Starlight Pact" by Peter Haines and David Smith is the latest installment of the venerable "Fiend Factory" column. Up till now, "Fiend Factory" showcased new monsters for use with Dungeons & Dragons. This month, the column instead presents five superheroes for use with Golden Heroes, each of which is inspired by a miniature figure produced by Citadel. The times they are indeed a-changin' at White Dwarf. "Shopping for Inspiration" by Joe Dever briefly offers up the names and addresses of stores that sell supplies of interest to miniatures painters, along with the usual tantalizing photos of some of the author's own handiwork. Finally, "Poison" by Graeme Davis presents yet another "new and easy-to-use" system for handling toxins in AD&D – once again, more complexity than I'd ever need, but your mileage may vary.
"The Surrey Enigma" sounds intriguing. What is it lacking, to make it inconsequential?
ReplyDeleteIt's inconsequential only in the sense that it's very small in scope and importance. It's more of a "side quest" kind of scenario rather than something more elaborate. I didn't mean that as a criticism.
DeleteThere's not a lot to it. It's quite short and there are no antagonists as such, but it is interesting and there are some nice twists and turns.
DeleteThe central artefact (iirc an amulet associated with Y'golonac) turned out to be quite significant later on in my campaign, and was pivotal when the players took on Horror on the Orient Express.
"RuneQuest really needs: an expansion of the game's strike rank system that takes into account weapon length ..." Glad to see that! Not because of RuneQuest, but rather the idea that weapon length is critical. When rereading Moldvay's Lords of Creation, I was equally happy to see his focus on weapon length too. I remember the 80s obsession with weapon speed, a mistake Gygax later acknowledged. He got that one way wrong. Even a cursory review of the history of melee warfare reveals one consistent theme - weapons got longer (not shorter and faster) over time because length was critical. It's a great variable for determining strike order in combat.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, of course, but I generally prefer quickness over realism when it comes to handling combat and I worry that rules expansions like this tend to slow things down.
DeleteWhat I don’t understand is that the RQ weapons’ strike ranks already take the weapon’s length into account, e.g., a dagger has a SR of 4 whereas a two-nanded sword has a SR of 1.
Delete"Marcus L. Rowland (did he write everything in WD in the mid-80s?)" That was surely Dave Morris who used to have to resort to pseudonyms.
ReplyDeleteNo, Rowland is a real and separate entity. He tends to focus on RPG materials in the steampunk and Victoriana genres.
DeleteOh wait, I see what you mean about Dave Morris. Never mind.
DeleteI was born in 71...the year our currency changed to decimal...so I never learnt the mysteries of the old money. I mean, I knew there were ha'pennies, thruppeny bits, sixpences, farthings, shillings, half crowns, etc...but I couldn't have told you how many shillings in a pound (20) or pennies in a shilling (12). And I imagine most people who played D&D weren't that much older and so would have had no memory of old money, either.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense. I suppose I simply assumed that the nerdy types most likely to take to RPGs would be familiar with the older system. I grew up in the US and understood it from reading older works of English literature and watching Dr. Who.
DeleteI was born in 1979 and I remember artefacts from the Times Before hanging around. Most obviously some of the old coins were still in circulation, although they officially had new values, a shilling was counted as a 5p piece for example.
DeleteI'd often also encounter books with the cover price in old money.
Even so, I had zero understanding of how the old coinage worked, I was just aware of its existence.
Yeah...the mysteries of 2/6 or 9/- on old books.
DeleteWe also still used to get a sixpence in our Christmas pudding when I was a lad. Bet they're harder to find these days.
"Plague From the Past" is the winning entry from the scenario competition in #61. I don't know what happened to most of the others but another was published in 2019; "The Saltwater Inheritance", for Call of Cthulhu.
ReplyDelete"Plague From the Past" is one of my favourite published D&D adventures. For such a short adventure there's a lot going on, and there are some great ideas in there.
I always assumed that was some sort of giant though I guess a wonky perspective might make sense. It looks like that picture could appear on James Cameron's Avatar influences pinterest board.
ReplyDeleteThe cover was also featured as a colour plate (of a dark elf) in the Fighting Fantasy bestiary Out of the Pit. That was first published also in September 1985, so it's not clear which it was commissioned for. Since there's no specific dark elf content in this issue of White Dwarf, my guess it was intended for OotP.
ReplyDelete