Different Worlds: Issue #17

Issue #18 of Different Worlds (December 1981) begins with an interesting editorial by Tadashi Ehara. He discusses the need for "careful consideration" in choosing a roleplaying game system if one intends for it to become "a lifetime hobby." Ehara seems to be suggesting that a person might – or even must – choose a single system and then devote oneself fully to it. For that reason, he advocates choosing a system that is "lasting and worthwhile," providing "learning experiences that we can use constructively in our daily lives." I don't disagree in general, though I do find it odd that he doesn't consider the possibility of long-term devotion to multiple systems rather than a single "ultimate set of rules." 

The first article is a RuneQuest solo scenario by Sandy Petersen entitled "Ware Hall." Set in Glorantha, it's presented as a series of short boxed texts found at the bottom of most pages of the issue. The scenario itself is nothing special but I was impressed with its presentation, which is quite clever. Ronald Mark Pehr's "Speed in Melee" is a set of variant rules for Dungeons & Dragons focused on an alternative approach to initiative. I find it difficult to judge articles like this, as I've never cared much about these matters, preferring simpler, if "unrealistic," systems rather than more complex ones.

Paul Montgomery Crabaugh's "For Sale" provides three new fighter craft designs for use with GDW's Traveller. Greg Wilson's "Enuk Manamee" is a gateway cult for RuneQuest describing "the fire god of the tundra nomads." Ronald Mark Pehr appears again, this time offering "The Horseclans Player" for use with The Fantasy Trip. It's a short overview of how to set TFT in the universe of Robert Adams's Horseclans novels. As a fan of the source material, I was glad to see this article, even if it's much too brief. "The Log of the Lively Lady" by Gerald Seypura is an adventure for FGU's Skull & Crossbones – a RPG for which I've rarely ever seen articles published anywhere. 

"Questworld" is a lengthy article by Lynn Willis, Sandy Petersen, and Greg Stafford discussing the creation of a non-Gloranthan setting for use with RuneQuest. Ultimately, this setting would be published in the boxed set of the same name. I've long been intrigued by Questworld, which has long seemed to me to have been a path not taken for RQ. Most interesting to me is the article's mentioning of the fact that continents on Questworld had been set aside for Games Workshop and Judges Guild to use in producing their own adventures and support material. So far as I know, neither publisher ever did anything with Questworld, but then neither did Chaosium beyond the initial boxed set.

Robin Wood's "Conversions in Lead" is another lengthy article, this time discussing how to create non-standard miniatures by modifying existing ones. Like most topics pertaining to miniatures figures, I have a great interest in this one but absolutely no experience with it. Also notable is the article's inclusion of an Ahoggyá figure from the world of Tékumel, which is something you don't see very often. "Devious Magic" by Robert Plamondon is another D&D variant. Plamondon offers a number of new ways to use old spells and magic items in order to breathe new life in them. While I can't say I was blown away by any of his suggestions, I certainly approve of his intentions. 

John T. Sapienza also presents a D&D variant, entitled "Non-human Level Limits," which seeks an alternative approach to slowing the level advancement of demihuman characters. Sapienza's approach isn't what suggests – which is fine – but that he repeatedly notes that "the D&D rules are designed for human characters" and "humanity dominates among the intelligent races." It's a perspective that isn't much held nowadays, but I'm always pleased when I find further evidence that it was commonplace in the hobby prior to the 21st century. Issue #13 also reviews Champions, Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords, In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, and Cults of Terror. 

Gigi D'Arn's column begins by noting that the sales of many RPG companies were poor in 1981 and that many would likely not survive long into 1982. There's no specific support for these claims, however, so I can't speak to their truth. Then there's this story:

Lou Zocchi's ventriloquist dummy, Woody Knotts, was once quite well known in the hobby, so I found this tidbit fascinating. Gigi likewise mentions rumors of a gaming magazine from FGU, Rona Jaffe's upcoming novel, Steve Jackson writing a supplement for Dragonquest, and the first two volumes of the Armies of Tékumel series. 

My exploration of Different Worlds continues. It's an odd magazine, as I've said: when it's good, it's very, very good, but much of the time it's fairly mediocre, or at least of much less interest to me than any random issue of Dragon or White Dwarf. That might say more about me and my tastes than it does about Different Worlds, of course, but there it is.

Different Worlds: Issue #16

Issue #16 of Different Worlds (November 1981) begins with an editorial by Tadashi Ehara regarding the identity of Gigi D'Arn. Ehara excerpts a few letters he received on this topic – "Gary Gygax in drag!," "John Sapienza on drugs." – before he assures readers that Gigi is, in fact, a "real person." He then offers snippets of information about her, such as the fact that she lives in southern California and writes articles for her local newspaper (e.g. "Save the Fruit Fly Movement!"). I'm honestly not sure how to take this, but it seems quite likely that the whole thing is a big joke. So far as I know Gigi's true identity has never been revealed, which is why I suspect she's not, despite Ehara's claims, a real person.

The issue proper begins with "Different Views," the letters column, which, in past issues, had been located toward the back. Immediately afterward is Robert Plamondon's "Hand-Held Thermonuclear Devices," a strange, short article about thermonuclear hand grenades. There are no game stats and it's quite clear that whole thing is not meant to be taken seriously. Ken Rolston follows up last issue's treatment of "Tournament Role-Playing" with a second part focused on the practicalities of refereeing scenarios at conventions – preparation, sequence of play, game aids, etc. It's a solid article filled with helpful advice, though its appeal is limited only to those who run (or plan to) tournament-style adventures.

"Mythological Monsters for The Fantasy Trip" by Ronald Mark Pehr provides write-ups for six monsters for use with TFT derived from Greek mythology. "The Cult of Indlas Somer" by Angus MacDonald is a 9-page long parody article, offering up a new cult for use with RuneQuest. As its name suggests, the cult is filled with references to beach bums and surfers. It's well done and amusing, though I have to wonder about the wisdom of publishing such a lengthy spoof article. "Illusion Magic" by David F. Nalle is a seemingly system-neutral article that delves into quantifying various aspects of illusions, like sensory impact, volume, and duration, though to what end I'm not entirely sure. 

"Training the Novice GM" by Howard Mahler is a short article offering advice to neophyte referees on handling NPCs during combat. John T. Sapienza reviews the "Dungeon Adventurers" and "Space Marines" miniatures produced by Asgard Miniatures, complete with photographs. I really like these articles, if only from the nostalgia point of view: seeing all these old figures really brings back memories. Several AD&D modules modules are also reviewed, including Secret of the Slavers Stockade, The Secret of Bone Hill, and Dwellers of the Forbidden City. They're all reviewed mostly positively, albeit with caveats in all cases. Gamescience's Star Patrol, on the other hand, does not get off so lightly, which is described as "flawed" and "incomplete." Gigi's column this month contains little of lasting interest, alas.

I continue to find reading Different Worlds frustrating. The quality and consistency from issue to issue is all over the map. Many are truly excellent, surpassing what I saw in the pages of Dragon or White Dwarf, while others are either mediocre or bafflingly opaque in their focus. Compared to other RPG magazines with which I have greater familiarity, DW seems much more "experimental," for good and for ill. Being a man of rather staid tastes, this doesn't always sit well with me. Still, I do feel like I'm acquiring greater insights into the history of the hobby outside the East Coast and Midwest, which is useful, even if I don't always like – or understand – the products of the West Coast.

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.

Different Worlds: Issue #10

Issue #10 of Different Worlds (October/November 1980) features a cover by Rick Becker. Tadashi Ehara's editorial discusses the increased scrutiny roleplaying games were receiving in the media at the time, some of it quite sensationalistic and negative. Interestingly, Ehara's chief concern is not that others will believe the worst about the hobby and its participants but that roleplayers themselves might come to believe them. It's an odd perspective to me, but, as I've said in the past, I never encountered any significant negativity to my involvement in roleplaying games, so perhaps my perspective is skewed. 

The issue proper begins with Larry DiTillio's "You Gotta Be Fiendish," a collection of six "rules" to aid the referee in "bedazzl[ing] the hell out of his or her players." As is so often the case with articles like this, it's good for what it is, but I doubt anyone who's been playing for more than a couple of years will find it all that insightful. Referee's advice articles tend not to age well and this one is no different, even though DiTillio's advice – for example, "Think before you build" or "Delayed action pays off" – is just fine.

"Traveller Mutations" by Iain Delaney offers up some brief rules for adding mutant abilities to Traveller. Leaving aside the possible inappropriateness of such abilities in a relative grounded SF RPG like Traveller, the article is decent and could prove useful to referees simply looking to model certain common superheroic powers. "Dungeon of Pelius Mright" by Ken Rolston is a simple "adventure for novices," intended to be used as a brief (90 minute) D&D scenario accessible to people with no prior knowledge of roleplaying games. While the adventure itself is very basic, I enjoyed Rolston's commentary, in which he talks about his experiences initiating newcomers into the hobby and how those experiences influenced his choices in designing this "quicky" adventure.

John McEwan's "Fantasy Gaming and Scale" is two-page article in which the author talks about the various scales used for miniature figures, terrain, buildings, models, and so on and provides a chart to aid gamers in choosing pieces that are properly scaled to the others in their possession. Though not a big user of miniatures myself, I found it an interesting, potentially useful little article. "The Usefulness of FRP Games" by Steven Horst is an odd "theory" article of the type that Different Worlds seemed to publish often in its early days. Horst discusses all sorts of potential benefits to playing RPGs, particularly when it comes to enabling one to view the world from a different perspective or to experience things one might otherwise not have the opportunity to do. I have no objection to such benefits, of course, but, for me, RPGs are more about the fun of exercising my creativity with others. They're an entertainment, first and foremost.

"Another Look at RuneQuest Movement" by Morgan O. Woodward III is a set of variant rules and guidelines for adjudicating movement during combat. Being something of a novice when it comes to RQ's combat rules, I must confess I have little ability to judge how useful Woodward's variant might be. Kathryn E. Shapero's "Gem Types and Values" provides a d1000 table for gems, with each entry including a description, usual cut, usual mass in carats, and value. John T. Sapienza's "Metal Marvels" installment this issue focuses on Grenadier's wizards and halflings figures and Dragontooth's "personalities" line. Articles like this are fun to read, because they include lots of photos of old school minis that really take me back to my earliest days in the hobby.

"Aspects of Gaming Culture" by Glenn F. Blacow is another "theory" article, this time focusing on what he considers the four main "emphases" of those who get involved in the hobby, namely power gaming, role-playing, wargaming, and story telling. This is an early example of the now-common discussion of different gaming "styles" and how best to satisfy players of each one. I have no specific objection to articles of this type and can see how they might be helpful to some referees. However, like other referee advice articles, they're less useful to referees with any experience and a little limited in their focus. 

Anders Swenson reviews The Temple of Athena, a scenario book by Kenneth Richert and published by Dimension Six. He didn't think much of the adventure, which considered poorly written and conceived, with numerous errors and sources of confusion. Gigi D'Arn's gossip column is sadly lacking in the kinds of juicy tidbits I'd come to expect from it. That's understandable, I suppose; there are bound to be "slow" issues when there aren't as many rumors to report and this seems to have been one of them. Maybe next month!

Different Worlds: Issue #6

Different Worlds #6 is the December 1979/January 1980 issue and features cover artwork by Rick Becker. It begins with a brief editorial by Tadashi Ehara lamenting how hard it is to get writers to turn things in on time – or at all! – which leads him to extend an invitation to readers to submit their own articles. Speaking as both the producer of a fanzine, for which I've struggled to find submissions, and as a writer, for whom punctuality is not my great strength, I have sympathy for Ehara's frustrations. It will be interesting to see if future issues of Different Worlds feature a broader range of writers than the first six.

Leonard H. Kanterman, author of Starships & Spacemen, reviews Gangster!, a "cops and mobsters" RPG from FGU. Being a Gangbusters devotee myself, I actually know very little about other games of the genre, so this was a useful article to me. Brian Wagner's "Super Rules for SUPERHERO: 44" is a collection of rules expansions for Superhero: 2044, the first superhero roleplaying game ever published. "Finding Level in RuneQuest" by Rudy Kraft presents a system for converting characters between Dungeons & Dragons and RuneQuest. The purpose of this is to facilitate the adoption for the RQ rules by referees running D&D campaigns, allowing beloved player characters to continue to adventure under the new rules. I can't speak to their actual utility, but it's an intriguing article nonetheless (and an early example of a genre of article that continues to this day).

"How to Make Monsters Interesting" by Lee Gold is a good but short article on the matter of restoring "newness" and "surprise" to monster encounters, a perennial topic in RPG circles. Gold counsels, among other things, variability in monster abilities so that not every troll or ghost possesses the exact same powers, thereby throwing players' expectations into question. Meanwhile, John T. Sapienza offers a lengthy 10-page D&D variant called "Vardy Combat System, Part I." The system Sapienza presents here looks very similar to the combat system in RuneQuest and other Basic Role-Playing games, right down to being percentile rather than D20-based (though Part II, to be presented next issue, apparently includes a more traditional D20 approach). On first glance, the system looks decent enough and, even while including more detail about things like shields and weapons expertise, it retains most of the contours of D&D combat (like armor class). I'll have to look at it more carefully to decide my final feelings on the matter.

"The World of Crane" by George V. Schubel is an overview of the play-by-mail game The Tribes of Crane, whose advertisements I used to see in the pages of Dragon. I can't say the article told me a great deal more about the game or its setting, but I enjoyed reading it, if only for the peak it offered me of an aspect of the hobby of which I have limited experience. Lewis Pulsiphr's "Insanity Table" is a percentile table intended for use with D&D, on those occasions when a curse or other effect results in a character's going insane. Greg Costikyan's "The Cult of Gestetner" is a tongue-in-cheek cult for use with RuneQuest that should get a chuckle out of anyone who's ever been involved in old school printing or publishing. 

Gigi D'Arn's column contains a number of fascinating tidbits and then-current rumors. For example, she mentions that Chaosium will be producing a H.P. Lovecraft RPG entitled Dark Worlds, to be designed by Kurt Lortz. Then there's this section about Gary Gygax and TSR:

Lots to talk about there! Mention is also made of SPI's upcoming fantasy RPG, Dragonflayer, which is presumably an early title for DragonQuest, and Lou Zocchi's attempts to purchase TSR's remaining stock of Empire of the Petal Throne. It should come as little surprise that Gigi's columns are favorites of mine. Leaving aside their frequent wit and sarcasm, they provide useful historical information about early games, companies, and designers that might otherwise be forgotten. Anyone interested in the history of the hobby should appreciate their value. 

Different Worlds: Issue #5

Different Worlds: Issue #4

Issue #4 (August/September 1979) begins with an editorial by Tadashi Ehara in which he declares – remember: this is just five and a half years after the release of OD&D – "The RPG state of the art is dull. You can count on your hands the number of innovative systems. And our hobby still plays second fiddle to historical board wargaming." If nothing else, it's a reminder that the past is a foreign country. That Ehara is bemoaning the lack of innovation in RPGs is hardly surprising; it's an eternal complaint, one that continues to echo into the 21st century and I think it's no more true today than it was then. More interesting, I think, is his assertion that board wargaming was more dominant than RPGs, based in part on the fact that "board game designers out-number RPG designers five to one." Amazing what a difference half a century can make.

The articles kick off with Rudy Kraft's "Games to Gold," in which he talks about the ins and outs of selling one's roleplaying game. The article focuses on what the author considers the major publishers at the time, namely Avalon Hill, Chaosium, Excalibre, FGU, Flying Buffalo, GDW, Gamescience, Heritage Miniatures, Judges Guild, Legacy Press, Metagaming, Simulations Canada, SPI, and TSR. The list is intriguing, because, while most of the names are recognizable and indeed notable, several (e.g. Legacy Press) are not and more likely reflect the magazine's editorial biases toward the companies of friends and contributors. Kraft offers an overview of each publisher, including their openness to submissions, pay rates, etc. Appended to the article is an anonymous note by "someone who has been bit," offering advice to would-be designers. The advice amounts to: never sell all your rights, get yourself a lawyer, and shop around for the best deal. I can't help but wonder if the author was Dave Arneson, given both his then-current lawsuits against TSR and his association with Different Worlds.

Charlie Krank's next installment of "Beginner's Brew" tackles the subject of "Mastering Your First Adventure." The article contains fine, if basic, information for a novice referee, the kind of thing most RPGs typically contain but that, in 1979, might not have been common knowledge. Emmet F. Milestone's "Kirk on Karit 2" is a report of the Star Trek scenario he ran at DunDraCon IV. Milestone incorporated elements of the miniatures game Starguard!, such as the alien Dreenoi (something J. Eric Holmes too mentions in various contexts). Milestone also presents some basic "romance" rules for use with the game, to simulate the tendency of Star Trek officers to fall in love with newly introduced characters.

John T. Sapienza offers up "Enchanted Weapons Table," a huge, 14-page article consisting of many, many tables for randomly generating magic weapons for use with "fantasy gaming," though it's clear from the text that D&D is what he has in mind. It's a bit much in my opinion, but I have known many referees who would have loved random tables as extensive as these. Stephen L. Lortz returns (yet again) with "A Perspective on Role-Play," in which he outlines the history of roleplaying – not roleplaying games but the activity itself. The article is filled with much of the pseudo-intellectual blather I've come to expect from Lortz articles – he namedrops Whitehead, Aristotle, and Einstein, as well as quoting from The Tao of Physics – but his perspective is interesting nonetheless. He gives the Viennese psychiatrist J.L. Moreno credit for inventing "roleplaying," for example, and does not, as is fashionable nowadays in some quarters, credit David A. Wesely as the "true" inventor of roleplaying games. Lortz is an odd fellow and I'm not entirely sure why Different Worlds provided him with a regular soapbox.

"Waha's Quest" by Greg Stafford is a sneak peek of the upcoming companion game to RuneQuest, HeroQuest. As fans of RQ know well, HeroQuest was never released, at least not in its originally intended form, though a later game, bearing the same name, was published by Stafford's Issaries Inc. From the little presented in this article, it seems Stafford imagined HeroQuest to be a more freeform and explicitly "mythic" version of RuneQuest, using many of the same mechanics. It's hard to say what the game's impact would have been had it ever been completed. 

"Different Views" contains numerous letters to the editor, including one by Greg Costikyan, in which he lambastes David Feldt's Legacy (reviewed in issue #2) in which he calls the game "an extrusion of horror." So humorously strident is Costikyan's letter that I reproduce it here for all to enjoy.

The issue ends with Gigi D'Arn's latest gossip column, which is surprisingly tame compared to previous installments. It's filled mostly with bite-sized reviews/announcements of new products, along with details of marriages, births, and new jobs among game designers and publishers. Here's hoping future columns include a little more red meat.

Different Worlds: Issue #2

Issue #2 of Different Worlds (April 1979) features a cover by William Church (creator of one of my favorite RPG maps) and Steve Oliff. The issue kicks off with another installment of Charlie Krank's "Beginner's Brew," this one subtitled "... and you say that this is a game?" The article is aimed at first-time referees and focuses on the nuts and bolts of designing an adventuring locale. Krank even offers up a sample locale to illustrate his points. Like last issue's article, this is fine as far as it goes and the adventure locale it presents is actually quite intriguing. 

Steve Lortz reviews a game I've never heard of, Legacy, written by David A. Feldt. If Lortz's review is to be believed, Legacy is "a signal work in the expansion of role-play," but it's difficult to tell precisely what the game is about. It appears to be a game about the Neolithic era, but the review says little more. A quick search online reveals that Legacy is quite infamous for its convoluted and unclear rules, something even Lortz alludes to in his otherwise positive review. 

The second part of Mike Gunderloy's "Specialty Mages" is a meaty one indeed, covering six pages and providing details on mages of light, darkness, fire, and ice. While none of this is material I'd personally use in any of my own games, it's nevertheless fascinating to see early D&D variants, particularly those that appeared in publications outside of TSR's orbit. Elaine Normandy and John T. Sapienza Jr have written "Character Name Tables," which are just that: random tables for generating the names of humans, elves, dwarves, and hobbits, as seen in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The next installment of "My Life in Role-Playing" includes articles by both Steve Jackson and David A. Feldt, writer of the aforementioned Legacy. Jackson's piece is very fascinating and includes some interesting anecdotes about his The Fantasy Trip campaign, as well as his thoughts on roleplaying, that I'll share in an upcoming post. Feldt's article article is fascinating too but only because it's so bizarre. In it, he presents a probably tongue in cheek future history in which it's revealed that reality is itself a roleplaying game of sorts overseen by the Game Overall Director. I'm still confused.

"Starships & Spacemen Expansion Kit" by Leonard Kanterman is a collection of new rules and options for his 1977 Star Trek-inspired RPG. "Lord of the Dice" is a humorous set of one-page roleplaying game rules by Greg Costikyan. I share the developer's notes here, since they give you a good sense of the thing's overall flavor.

"Arduin, Bloody Arduin" is Dave Hargrave's overview of his famous game and campaign setting. Accompanies by a hand-drawn map, it's a good article for anyone interested in the setting and Hargrave's own philosophy of gaming. Like the previous installment of this series in issue #1, I enjoyed this one a lot and look forward to seeing more designers talk about their home campaigns. 

Steve Perrin writes about "The Cacodemon Cult" for RuneQuest and Steve Lortz appears again with "Dramatic Structure of RPGs." I must confess to finding the article, which begins by comparing RPGs to movies, quite tedious. It's precisely the kind of unnecessarily abstract philosophizing about gaming that sets my teeth on edge. Much more enjoyable is the very first column by the pseudonym Gigi D'Arn, the roleplaying hobby's famed gossip columnist. I could – and probably should – write an entire post about this first installment, because it's filled with lots of amusement, not to mention genuine gossip, such as 

So far as I know, the identity of Gigi has never been revealed, though I believe the most common theory is that she was not a single person but rather a house name used by editor Tadashi Ehara and anyone else who submitted bits to the published piece. From the vantage point of 2021, though, it's fun to read columns like this, if only to get a sense of what the hobby was like at the end of the 1970s – small but growing and still very clubbish. This is right before I started gaming and, though I never participated in its directly, being just a little too young, echoes of it could still be heard. I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss those days.

Different Worlds: Issue #1

Different Worlds premiered in February 1979 with Tadashi Ehara as its editor, a position he held for the entirety of the magazine's run. Ehara states, in his inaugural editorial, that Chaosium wanted to produce "a magazine to cover all aspects of role-playing, from Dungeons and Dragons to Bunnies and Burrows, from Traveller to En Garde! Even SPI's Commando." Thus, Different Worlds was intended to cover the entirety of the hobby rather than focusing on a specific game or even group of games. In this, Different Worlds was no different than Dragon, White Dwarf, or Imagine, though I have little doubt that its origins on the west coast of the United States colored its content in ways both subtle and obvious.

The issue kicks off with Charlie Krank's "Beginner's Brew," the subtitle of which is "What is all this stuff?" Krank then explains what an RPG is and what its various elements (referee, players, dice, etc.) are and how they all relate to one another. The article is basic, as one might expect, but what interests me most is that such an article was deemed necessary at all. Yes, it was written in early 1979, barely five years after the invention of the hobby, but how many readers of Different Worlds wouldn't know what a roleplaying game was? Of course, Imagine regularly included such articles, too; perhaps it was simply considered a requirement at the time, much like examples of play in RPG rulebooks.

Next up is the first part of Mike Gunderloy's D&D variant, "Specialty Mages." Specialty mages, as opposed to "True Mages," (i.e. OD&D magic-users) are somewhat more robust (d6 hit dice) and have a wider range of weapons (swords and spear) but have a narrower, more focused list of available spells. The first part focuses on the Mages of Earth, providing lists for spell levels 1–10 – yes, 10. This is not explained, simply presented as if it were a fact, which I suspect reflects early house rules of an additional level above 9. I myself remember encountering such things in the early '80s, which suggests it was a widespread notion. I'm curious to see what Gunderloy might do in the second part of the article.

"My Life and Role-Playing" is a collection of articles of varying lengths by notable game designers and writers of the period, in which they talk about their early experiences with the hobby – how they discovered it, what led to their creating a game of their own, etc. – and, in several cases, give us insight into their home campaigns. The range of writers is indeed vast, consisting of (among many others) Ken St. Andre, Marc Miller, Greg Costikyan, Dennis Sustare, Lee Gold, and Dave Hargrave. I could devote a post or more to each of these articles, since nearly all of them contain historical tidbits that were otherwise unknown to me. For example, Marc Miller not only mentions his unpublished fantasy RPG, Companions of the Road but also Frank Chadwick's If I Were King … (which might be an earlier version of Liege Lord). Equally interesting is reading about Dave Hargrave's disappointment with OD&D and how it fueled his desire to come up with his own design. It's terrific stuff and I'm so very glad I read it.

Ed Simbalist, one of the creators of Chivalry & Sorcery and Space Opera, presents "Archaeron," his home fantasy campaign setting, along with a hand drawn map of its main area. What's most appealing about the article is not so much its content, which, if I am honest, isn't all that remarkable, but Simbalist's own comments on why he designed the setting in the way he did. I adore articles of this sort and wish more game designers – or indeed just gamers – would do something like this. Greg Stafford provides "The Cult of Geo," a new cult for use with RuneQuest, the first bit of content in the issue specifically geared toward a Chaosium game. 

Steve Lortz's "What is a Role-Playing Game?" is an odd article, not quite in the same genre of Charlie Krank's earlier piece from the same issue. Rather than being a discussion of RPGs from the perspective of a neophyte, it is rather an examination "rule organization," with a focus on things like time, scale, and sequences, among related topics. He demonstrates his point of view more fully by outlining the rules structure of an imaginary game, Cannibals and Castaways, in which the player characters attempt to survive on a desert island inhabited by cannibals. There's even an example of play, followed by yet more analysis of RPG rules, this time with an eye on "move structure in RPGs," "move" here being a synonym for "action." As I said, it's an odd article and I must confess I found it tedious and generally uninteresting to me (but my disinterest in rules discussion is legendary). The issue concludes with an article by P.E.I. Bonewits and Larry Press to support Authentic Thaumaturgy. 

My overall impression of Different Worlds is immensely positive after only a single issue. Unlike Imagine, which seemed to take a while to find its footing, it's pretty clear that Different Worlds already has a good sense of what it's about. Since I only ever read a single issue of the magazine back in the day and one fairly late in its run – I can't recall the issue number but I will remember it when I get to re-reading it – this is all new to me. I anticipate that there will be many moments of discovery and pleasure along the way; I cannot wait to read more.

REVIEW: Shogun & Daimyo

Shogun & Daimyo is the second volume of Tadashi Ehara's Gamers Guide to Feudal Japan and the companion to his earlier Daimyo of 1867, with which it shares several qualities. For one, it's large (nearly 350 pages in length) and expensive ($59.95 in print form and $29.95 for the PDF). For another, it's exhaustive in its discussion of "the military dictators of samurai Japan," from the 12th to the 19th centuries. I'm not kidding when I say "exhaustive," since this book details 170 daimyo clans and provides biographies of their most famous members, along with descriptions of their holdings and sometimes even a family tree. Also like Daimyo of 1867, it can be a little off-putting at times. There is so much information packed into the pages of Shogun & Daimyo that it's easy to lose the forest for the trees, so to speak, and have no idea what to do with it.

Fortunately, this is a reference work. It's not intended to be read cover to cover in a single sitting, though, if you're an aficionado of feudal Japan it might be hard not to do so. The book begins with a brief overview of its material, along with guides to pronunciation and the romanization of Japanese characters. There's also a history of feudalism in Japan, from 711 B.C. to 1869. The structure of imperial and military governance is also treated, with attention given to how both changed over the centuries. It's little details like this that make Shogun & Daimyo so interesting, because the past, like the present, wasn't static. Seeing the ways that samurai Japan evolved not only helps to differentiate the various eras of its history but also provides excellent fodder for adventures and even whole campaigns. In the same way, the biographies of all the men who held the title of shogun also hits home the diversity to be found just within Japanese history, something easily overlooked by Westerners whose primary knowledge of the country comes from the cinema.

The bulk of the book, though, is given over to descriptions of 170 daimyo clans not included in Daimyo of 1867. The reason these clans were not included in that volume is that these are

the warlords that were defeated, dispossessed, or otherwise discontinued from the annals of history prior to the end of the samurai era.

Of course, many of these clans are also some of the most famous ones in Japanese history and well-known even in the West -- Ashikaga, Fujiwara, Taira, Takeda -- which ensures that their descriptions are usually very interesting. Each clan write-up includes its mon (family crest), territories, castles, revenue, and notable ancestors. In many cases, there are family trees and historical pieces of art depicting important members of the clan. I did say the book was exhaustive! Fortunately, the book also contains a very useful collection of indexes, both of clans and of individuals, and they cover both volumes of the Gamers Guide to Feudal Japan.

The book concludes with several shorter sections. The first of these discusses chanbara movies, which are historical films that focus a great deal on sword-fighting (which is what the word literally means). Chanbara films make good models for RPG campaigns set in feudal Japan, since they're filled not only with samurai but also with ninja, yakuza, and oppressed peasants in need of heroes to defend them. Ehara divides up his overview of these films by period, suggesting the ones he believes most inspirational for roleplaying purposes, in addition to giving details and a brief summary of each one. It's a very handy primer for anyone unfamiliar with this extensive genre of Japanese film making. Other sections provide ideas for campaigns, gazetteers of several areas, and a system for randomly generating mon for a PC's clan, along with illustrations of 100 of them.

Taken together, Shogun & Daimyo, like its predecessor, is a very impressive volume, all the more so because it's eminently accessible even to readers such as myself who have little real knowledge of Japanese history or culture. Ehara is quick to note in his introduction that this is not a scholarly work and perhaps that is so, but both the breadth and depth of the book left me impressed. Make no mistake, though: while readily accessible to individuals without much prior knowledge of feudal Japan, one must still be very interested in the subject matter to make one's way through its pages. Though clearly written and illuminating at times, it can still rough going, reading somewhat like a textbook, albeit an often engagingly written one. Buy it only if you are either very interested in the subject matter or plan to use it in a RPG campaign, preferably both.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're playing a RPG set in historical or semi-historical Japan (or are just interested in Japanese history)
Don't Buy This If: You're not especially interested in historical Japan or don't play RPGs based on it.

REVIEW: Daimyo of 1867

Although very few historical RPGs have ever garnered a large audience for themselves, many gamers are keenly interested in history. One of the reasons historical RPGs tend not to become wildly popular is that "the past is a foreign country," an epigram all the more true when you're literally talking about the past of another land. Some players already find it intimidating enough to roleplay a character living in a past age of their own culture. Imagine how they feel when they're trying to portray a character from a different culture entirely. And of course many referees feel similarly intimidated -- perhaps even moreso, as they must portray not merely a single character but many and indeed present an entire historical culture in a way that's both "authentic" and accessible to the players.

Feudal Japan is probably one of the most consistently popular historical cultures to serve as the basis for roleplaying games. It has, to Western eyes, a powerful "cool factor" because of its samurai (and ninja), which are similar enough to European knights to be intelligible, yet different enough to appeal to the taste for the exotic and alien. But this cool factor, while important, isn't in my experience enough to support more than a few adventures. If you want to sustain a campaign, the referee needs more. He needs to draw upon the breadth and depth of feudal Japanese society, culture, and myth and that's a tall order for most of us. That's why, despite my love for Bushido, I don't really feel up to running a campaign with it.

Enter Daimyo of 1867, a "gamers guide to feudal Japan" written by Japanese-born game writer Tadashi Ehara, perhaps best known for acting as the publisher and editor of Chaosium's Different Worlds magazine throughout the 1980s. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of and research into feudal Japanese history, Ehara has produced a 336-page softcover book that catalogs each and every one of the 277 daimyo clans in existence in 1867. Each clan includes a picture of its mon or crest, the name of its fiefdom, its revenue, its social rank, ancestry, and more. In many cases, there are photographs of clan castles along with maps of the same. Some entries also include representations of famous personages associated with the clan, as well as brief biographies, histories, and information on connections between the various clans. Just as useful is an extensive collection of resources detailing the geography, history, population, religions, government, and monetary system of feudal Japan.

Of course, any book calling itself a "gamers guide" has to include game-related material and Daimyo of 1867 has about 25 pages devoted to generic gaming notes. These include campaign scenario outlines set in different eras of history and discussion of topics of particular interest to gamers, such as ninja, ronin, vengeance, and the like. In each case, Ehara makes clear what history has to say on these topics but doesn't lose sight of the fact that, in a game, it's often acceptable, even necessary, to alter details slightly to make things fun. In doing so, he manages to simultaneously inform and inspire and I found myself frequently imagining ways to use the information he imparted to create adventures and characters for Bushido. I can't imagine others won't be similarly inspired.

Daimyo of 1867 ends with a "daimyo name generator" to aid in the creation of plausible Japanese names. The generator includes the kanji for the names, along with their meanings. Extensive indexes, glossaries, rosters, and bibliographies round at the conclusion of the book. Taken together, it's an impressive package, one that is scholarly but accessible. The information the book presents is not only engagingly written, but it's also well arranged, meaning that you can easily find your way around the book to locate the details you're seeking. That's a pretty impressive feat, especially in a book intended for use with roleplaying games, which are notorious in their poor organization.

Daimyo of 1867 is excellent but it isn't flawless. First, there's its price: $59.99. That's quite a lot more than most gamers expect to pay for any gaming product, especially one as niche as this one. On the other hand, if one is running a game set in or inspired by feudal Japan, it's money well spent. Second, though the book includes a plethora of details about earlier periods, its main focus is on the latter days of Japanese feudalism. As its title suggests, its baseline is the 19th century, as the ways of the samurai were dying and the flashing swords and clan wars so beloved of gamers were (mostly) a thing of the past. Still, there's enough information on earlier eras here, along with plenty of bibliographic pointers, that it can serve "double duty" as a sourcebook for earlier, more violent times.

Despite these caveats, I daresay that Daimyo of 1867 is the only book about historical Japan that you'll need to run a great campaign, one that is both reflective of Japanese culture as it actually was but also intelligible to non-scholars. That's as strong a recommendation as I can make when it comes to historical RPG source material and I hope that the virtues of Daimyo of 1867 are widely recognized.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're playing a RPG set in historical or semi-historical Japan (or a setting inspired by it).
Don't Buy This If: You're not especially interested in historical Japan or don't play RPGs based on it.