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[Let's Read] ARES Magazine
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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 7039890" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong>Ares 10 - The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat: September 1981 </strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>55 pages. Well, this is a very interesting tie-in to see indeed. Harry Harrison's roguish adventurer gets the big tie-in game this month. Given his adventures are as much puzzles as they involve personal danger, that definitely has potential for a different kind of game in here. Will it accurately simulate the books? Definitely hoping this one does it's source material justice. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Muse: Yet again, they make it clear that the amount of gaming material is only going to increase, but their magazines' material is going to stay segregated, with Ares taking the fantastical stuff, and Moves handling all the historical and modern day topics. They also solicit for articles, as like any magazine, they can't do it all alone, and freelancers are cheaper than full time staff. An involved readership putting their own twists on the companies ideas makes for much more interesting games than everything being written in house, as we also saw all too well in Dragon as it changed over the years. I wonder if they'll actually get any in the time they have remaining, or if it'll be mostly the TSR incarnation that deals with that. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Designer's Notes: One adventure and two new games promoted in here. An RPG is nothing without a few modules, so Universe has it's own ones in the pipeline, to come out very soon after the core set. Meanwhile, the standalone stuff they want us to know about are Ghostship and Star Trader, both space based sci-fi games, but very different in scope and playstyle. Horror exploration, or economics, which sounds more fun to you? I'll wager horror is the more immediate sell, but economics has more long-term complexities that make for greater replayability. If only there were some way to combine the two. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat: Unsurprisingly, the fiction this month is pure tie-in written by Harry Harrison himself, showing us how the adventure could go. (spoilers, but not really, as in the actual adventure a big chunk of the challenges are randomly generated, so this is only one of many options) He's called upon to rescue a space station who's computer has gone haywire. Hijinks and double-crosses ensue, as he has to not only figure out how to get too and fix the computer, but find out who sabotaged it in the first place. While short and obviously written to formula compared to the actual books, you'd expect that, as what's the point of getting the licence if you're not going to make a representative example of them. It's still a fun bit of sci-fi heist adventure that doesn't take itself seriously. You could well use his adventures as inspiration in a more modern system like Leverage as well. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Science for Science Fiction: These two columns go back on individual pages instead of being interleaved. Along with the usual stuff about the cosmos, we also have a rather more down to earth piece about the horrors of modern grain growing, and how creating hybrid crops that don't breed true and need recreating each year can leave farmers dependent upon a big company, and a weird bit of advertising for maps of the other planets in the solar system that feels like cross-promotion, and leaves me interested, but also dubious. They'll definitely have been well and truly supplanted by the modern day. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Facts for Fantasy: The information this month shows how things can have interestingly contradictory elements. Charlemagne was tough on his sons, but completely spoiled his daughters. African kings might be supreme rulers, but several countries had strong superstitions against them crossing rivers, or even seeing the sea, which means for all their authority, they were limited in strange ways. Siva is both the god of destruction and creation, aeseticism and fertility, because they see these things as part of a cycle rather than opposed. Some more reminders that reality is complex and messy, and you need some of that if you want your fantasy world to feel real. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Film & Television: Outland is grimy, claustrophobic sci-fi about drug abuse and corporate corruption in a mining colony on Io. As is frequent with sci-fi this allows them to engage in social commentary by filing off the serial numbers and giving the issues a more interesting backdrop. Low on special effects, and high on cynicism, it's interesting, but hardly light entertainment. These guys love it, unsurprisingly, as it fits their worldview to a tee. </p><p></p><p>Escape from New York is somewhat less intellectual, but there's still a fair amount of craft to the action-packed tale of future dystopia where only Snake Plissken is a bad enough hombre to save the president. Despite being set in a future that's well into the past by now, and not an accurate prediction at all, it still holds up as entertainment. (although definitions of fast-paced have also changed since then with digital editing making more and faster cuts easy.) Definitely one I'm pleased to have been reminded of and rewatched.</p><p></p><p>Dragonslayer gets slightly late coverage by this column as well. As you'd expect, it gets a strongly positive review, pointing out all it's strong points, and carefully avoiding any weaknesses. They've got a stake in this being a success, and if the film flops, then their tie-ins don't stand much chance, so the usual cynicism of their reviewers is duly suspended. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Media: The massive cynicism about the workings of the entertainment industry resumes with this piece on cable TV. On the plus side, you get to enjoy movies uncut and uncensored, which is a powerful draw to those who crave nudity in a pre-internet world, or dislike intrusive adverts every 15 minutes. On the negative side, they still lose a fair bit in the translation from a massive wide screen in a custom built room with surround sound to a little 4:3 aspect ratio box. And then there's the political aspect, where particular channels snap up exclusive rights, and movies appear on the small screen faster than they used too, making you question if it's worth spending the money on going out to the cinema in the first place. As usual, much of this has got better in the intervening years, as TV's are far higher resolution than they used to be, the internet has made network censorship laughable, and intelligence demanding long-form serialised storytelling has become far more common since it's easy to buy entire series and watch them on your own schedule. And somehow, there's still demand for cinema as well, despite all the naysaying that it's going to be replaced, it still has a profitable niche in society. So as usual, this manages to make me feel a little better by showing how things have improved over the past generation in quite specific quantifiable ways. And barring the outright collapse of civilisation, they aren't the kind of things that go backwards either, which is extra positive. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Books: Star Drifter by Dale Aycock gets one of those reviews where the reviewer gets distracted and goes off on a rant about the overall state of the industry and changing of fashion. Space Opera may be out of fashion at the moment, but this book is still a good example of it, and makes for fun reading unless you're going to be a snob about stuff like that. </p><p></p><p>War Games by Karl Hansen continues the space opera theme, although it contains more explicit sex and violence than they could get away with in the 30's. There are certain advantages to revisiting a genre once hindsight and technology lets you do things that were previously impossible and putting new twists on them. Makes me wonder if we'll ever see a revival of Westerns.</p><p></p><p>Homeworld, Wheelworld, Starworld by Harry Harrison gets a surprisingly mixed review given that he's being featured in this issue, mainly because he's trying to be serious here, which doesn't quite suit his writing style. A spoonful of sarcasm helps the moralising go down in a more memorable way. Trying to be a "proper artiste" is a trap that has ruined the career of many an entertainer. Don't fall for it. </p><p></p><p>Space Doctor by Lee Correy takes us back to hard sci-fi, examining the challenges of medicine in orbit, including microgravity, radiation, and highly limited resources. The kind of thing that would be quite different if it was written today, as we have a lot more information about what happens to people spending extended amounts of time in low orbit. (and the effects aren't good for potential interplanetary explorers, including bone degeneration, muscle wastage and longsightedness.) As with a lot of big idea sci-fi, the actual plot comes second to the science, so this probably hasn't aged well as a story. </p><p></p><p>Vampires of Nightworld by David Bischoff keeps the sci-fi theme, and does vampires as genetically engineered disease, which allows them to play up the uncontrollable urges from infection while retaining some humanity element. Once again, it gets a mostly positive review, which means this column is being a lot more lenient than usual. I suppose vampires are perennially popular in their many forms, so it's not too surprising.</p><p></p><p>Schrodinger's Cat II by Robert Anton Wilson is an examination of quantum theory and parallel universes that in practice, takes the form of a whole load of semi-interconnected short stories that thoroughly stretch the concept of narrative and continuity in all sorts of weird ways. Like Philip K Dick, this will divide the readership, with some loving it, and others being baffled. Sounds like a worthy challenge to me. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Camp of Alla-Akabar: Our second DragonQuest adventure moves away from the dungeon crawl formula a little more, with an adventure that they intend you to solve through roleplaying or stealth. It still follows the formula of being hired by a mysterious person to rescue their kidnapped daughter, but this time the kidnappers are a nomadic bunch of Bedouin, with the only supernatural monsters a hobgoblin (who is still one of the most complex and well developed characters) and a few sand golems. So while this might not pass the political correctness test today, it has a fair bit of depth to it, and has lots of opportunity for plot and roleplaying without being at all railroady. It also has some designers notes that detail how it turned out for him in actual play, which is very promising indeed, as that shows it's actually been tested, not just shovelled out there. And it's pretty easy to convert to D&D if that's what you'd prefer, which makes it even more likely I'll get some use out of it at some point. Two thumbs up. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>DragonNotes: Gerry Klug, the writer of the DragonQuest adventure, also takes over this column, which means the first half is just getting to know him (and presenting his credentials, which seems kinda pointless in a hobby less than a decade old. You're all just starting, you don't have anything to prove apart from how well you can write and how good your ideas are. And since you managed to come up with a pretty good adventure last article, I'll forgive the rest of this one being realism heavy new rules about riding various types of animals, which might be handy, but are also quite dull to read. Looks like things'll be staying on the gritty side for his tenure, however long that'll be. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>DeltaVee Enhanced: Another revisiting of their existing games to give them more longevity. Five new scenarios for DeltaVee, which instantly doubles your options, along with a few new ship types. (including a ghost ship that's indestructible and only there to troll players) There's a pretty decent variety of scenarios here, and they introduce the idea of alien threats that were absent in the original. So I can see why they didn't lead with these, as it's easier to start conservative and then become more gonzo with time. And thankfully a boardgame will never get the kind of accumulated continuity that strangles comics and RPG settings, no matter how popular it becomes, because you'll rarely be using more than one add-on at a time, and you can always turn the options off again. This is the kind of thing I can see myself using, so I approve of this article as well. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There's only one Universe: Gerry Klug gets a third article in quick succession, which shows how much he's doing for the company at the moment. This is another of those promotional ones trying to sell their upcoming Universe system, which I must admit is dragging on a bit. Hurry up and release it, so you can start selling supplements instead of going over what's in the core set again in greater detail. I know it's a big involved process, especially when trying to simulate entire star systems in an accessible way, but you can't keep on going on about it without giving me advertising fatigue. Let's skip onwards and see if they manage to get any further with this next issue. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Games: Griffin Mountain gets a fairly positive review that shows once again they think Runequest is the RPG that does things mostly right, even if they still put some D&Disms in there out of reflex or the desire to sell. As a mostly self-contained area in a bigger world, it has plenty of opportunities for adventure without making you reliant on a plethora of other sourcebooks (which don't exist yet anyway.) and the formatting makes it easy to read and reference, which is important when working on the fly. Hopefully other companies will learn from it in their own worldbuilding efforts. </p><p></p><p>The Lords of Underearth also gets a positive review, although in the process they take shots at a whole bunch of other minigames that they think suck. It takes advantage of the underground theme by creating tunnels and creatures of varying sizes, so there's places the big ones can't fit, while the smaller ones still have to struggle with co-ordinating their forces. If you think you could have done better than the dwarves in the hobbit against a marauding dragon, this is the system to play it out in. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Feedback: The exceedingly specific questions this month turn to your electronic equipment, asking if you own various things like a video player, camera, stereo, video games, and even a digital watch. They also ask if you belong to clubs involving the analysis and sharing of these various types of media. It reminds us that many things we take for granted were just being introduced then, and were an indicator of your socioeconomic status, and the lack of an internet forced you to actually physically go and see people if you wanted to discuss and develop a consensus on the latest releases. With a more efficient system developed, those kind of things gradually wither away like vestigial organs. On the gaming side, they have ideas for games based on James Bond and the Amber chronicles, and float the idea of spinning off a magazine dedicated to roleplaying, so ARES can concentrate on the fantastical war and boardgaming. Once again overestimating their long-term survival prospects, but you've got to keep on trying, especially since RPG's are a growth industry while wargaming is now in decline. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat: It's finally time for the stainless steel rat (and his mechanically superior wife) to save the day. For a second time, they do their best to squeeze an entire choose your own adventure book into 16 pages at the back of the magazine. It's a tall order, but they can pull it off, which just goes to show how inefficient most books are when they put pleasing layout over maximum density of information. On the other hand, the sheer density of information, and the very heavy reliance on random rolls to generate the challenges means I have no idea what this will turn out like in actual play, and suspect replays will look quite different each time. Make your way through the space station, facing both out of control robots and treacherous employees. When things don't go your way, decide whether you take actual damage, or raise the suspension of disbelief meter to represent his talent for getting out of scrapes in ridiculously improbable ways. So this is not only quite cool as a game, but also a precursor of RPG's with dramatic editing, fate points, and similar systems that allow the players control of the narrative. Anyone know of any even older games that did this, as I know it wasn't common then, but I don't know who did it first?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A noticeably more positive issue than most of them, with most of their coverage actively enthusiastic about whatever they're tackling. (with the continued exception of the media column. ) Not sure if that would be a good thing if taken even further, but along with the continued increase in gaming material, it's definitely worth noting. Too far that way lies becoming a pure promotional house organ, although I don't think they'll get that far in the time remaining. I could be wrong though. Let's find out if the next issue continues the same trends.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 7039890, member: 27780"] [B]Ares 10 - The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat: September 1981 [/B] 55 pages. Well, this is a very interesting tie-in to see indeed. Harry Harrison's roguish adventurer gets the big tie-in game this month. Given his adventures are as much puzzles as they involve personal danger, that definitely has potential for a different kind of game in here. Will it accurately simulate the books? Definitely hoping this one does it's source material justice. Muse: Yet again, they make it clear that the amount of gaming material is only going to increase, but their magazines' material is going to stay segregated, with Ares taking the fantastical stuff, and Moves handling all the historical and modern day topics. They also solicit for articles, as like any magazine, they can't do it all alone, and freelancers are cheaper than full time staff. An involved readership putting their own twists on the companies ideas makes for much more interesting games than everything being written in house, as we also saw all too well in Dragon as it changed over the years. I wonder if they'll actually get any in the time they have remaining, or if it'll be mostly the TSR incarnation that deals with that. Designer's Notes: One adventure and two new games promoted in here. An RPG is nothing without a few modules, so Universe has it's own ones in the pipeline, to come out very soon after the core set. Meanwhile, the standalone stuff they want us to know about are Ghostship and Star Trader, both space based sci-fi games, but very different in scope and playstyle. Horror exploration, or economics, which sounds more fun to you? I'll wager horror is the more immediate sell, but economics has more long-term complexities that make for greater replayability. If only there were some way to combine the two. :p The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat: Unsurprisingly, the fiction this month is pure tie-in written by Harry Harrison himself, showing us how the adventure could go. (spoilers, but not really, as in the actual adventure a big chunk of the challenges are randomly generated, so this is only one of many options) He's called upon to rescue a space station who's computer has gone haywire. Hijinks and double-crosses ensue, as he has to not only figure out how to get too and fix the computer, but find out who sabotaged it in the first place. While short and obviously written to formula compared to the actual books, you'd expect that, as what's the point of getting the licence if you're not going to make a representative example of them. It's still a fun bit of sci-fi heist adventure that doesn't take itself seriously. You could well use his adventures as inspiration in a more modern system like Leverage as well. Science for Science Fiction: These two columns go back on individual pages instead of being interleaved. Along with the usual stuff about the cosmos, we also have a rather more down to earth piece about the horrors of modern grain growing, and how creating hybrid crops that don't breed true and need recreating each year can leave farmers dependent upon a big company, and a weird bit of advertising for maps of the other planets in the solar system that feels like cross-promotion, and leaves me interested, but also dubious. They'll definitely have been well and truly supplanted by the modern day. Facts for Fantasy: The information this month shows how things can have interestingly contradictory elements. Charlemagne was tough on his sons, but completely spoiled his daughters. African kings might be supreme rulers, but several countries had strong superstitions against them crossing rivers, or even seeing the sea, which means for all their authority, they were limited in strange ways. Siva is both the god of destruction and creation, aeseticism and fertility, because they see these things as part of a cycle rather than opposed. Some more reminders that reality is complex and messy, and you need some of that if you want your fantasy world to feel real. Film & Television: Outland is grimy, claustrophobic sci-fi about drug abuse and corporate corruption in a mining colony on Io. As is frequent with sci-fi this allows them to engage in social commentary by filing off the serial numbers and giving the issues a more interesting backdrop. Low on special effects, and high on cynicism, it's interesting, but hardly light entertainment. These guys love it, unsurprisingly, as it fits their worldview to a tee. Escape from New York is somewhat less intellectual, but there's still a fair amount of craft to the action-packed tale of future dystopia where only Snake Plissken is a bad enough hombre to save the president. Despite being set in a future that's well into the past by now, and not an accurate prediction at all, it still holds up as entertainment. (although definitions of fast-paced have also changed since then with digital editing making more and faster cuts easy.) Definitely one I'm pleased to have been reminded of and rewatched. Dragonslayer gets slightly late coverage by this column as well. As you'd expect, it gets a strongly positive review, pointing out all it's strong points, and carefully avoiding any weaknesses. They've got a stake in this being a success, and if the film flops, then their tie-ins don't stand much chance, so the usual cynicism of their reviewers is duly suspended. Media: The massive cynicism about the workings of the entertainment industry resumes with this piece on cable TV. On the plus side, you get to enjoy movies uncut and uncensored, which is a powerful draw to those who crave nudity in a pre-internet world, or dislike intrusive adverts every 15 minutes. On the negative side, they still lose a fair bit in the translation from a massive wide screen in a custom built room with surround sound to a little 4:3 aspect ratio box. And then there's the political aspect, where particular channels snap up exclusive rights, and movies appear on the small screen faster than they used too, making you question if it's worth spending the money on going out to the cinema in the first place. As usual, much of this has got better in the intervening years, as TV's are far higher resolution than they used to be, the internet has made network censorship laughable, and intelligence demanding long-form serialised storytelling has become far more common since it's easy to buy entire series and watch them on your own schedule. And somehow, there's still demand for cinema as well, despite all the naysaying that it's going to be replaced, it still has a profitable niche in society. So as usual, this manages to make me feel a little better by showing how things have improved over the past generation in quite specific quantifiable ways. And barring the outright collapse of civilisation, they aren't the kind of things that go backwards either, which is extra positive. Books: Star Drifter by Dale Aycock gets one of those reviews where the reviewer gets distracted and goes off on a rant about the overall state of the industry and changing of fashion. Space Opera may be out of fashion at the moment, but this book is still a good example of it, and makes for fun reading unless you're going to be a snob about stuff like that. War Games by Karl Hansen continues the space opera theme, although it contains more explicit sex and violence than they could get away with in the 30's. There are certain advantages to revisiting a genre once hindsight and technology lets you do things that were previously impossible and putting new twists on them. Makes me wonder if we'll ever see a revival of Westerns. Homeworld, Wheelworld, Starworld by Harry Harrison gets a surprisingly mixed review given that he's being featured in this issue, mainly because he's trying to be serious here, which doesn't quite suit his writing style. A spoonful of sarcasm helps the moralising go down in a more memorable way. Trying to be a "proper artiste" is a trap that has ruined the career of many an entertainer. Don't fall for it. Space Doctor by Lee Correy takes us back to hard sci-fi, examining the challenges of medicine in orbit, including microgravity, radiation, and highly limited resources. The kind of thing that would be quite different if it was written today, as we have a lot more information about what happens to people spending extended amounts of time in low orbit. (and the effects aren't good for potential interplanetary explorers, including bone degeneration, muscle wastage and longsightedness.) As with a lot of big idea sci-fi, the actual plot comes second to the science, so this probably hasn't aged well as a story. Vampires of Nightworld by David Bischoff keeps the sci-fi theme, and does vampires as genetically engineered disease, which allows them to play up the uncontrollable urges from infection while retaining some humanity element. Once again, it gets a mostly positive review, which means this column is being a lot more lenient than usual. I suppose vampires are perennially popular in their many forms, so it's not too surprising. Schrodinger's Cat II by Robert Anton Wilson is an examination of quantum theory and parallel universes that in practice, takes the form of a whole load of semi-interconnected short stories that thoroughly stretch the concept of narrative and continuity in all sorts of weird ways. Like Philip K Dick, this will divide the readership, with some loving it, and others being baffled. Sounds like a worthy challenge to me. The Camp of Alla-Akabar: Our second DragonQuest adventure moves away from the dungeon crawl formula a little more, with an adventure that they intend you to solve through roleplaying or stealth. It still follows the formula of being hired by a mysterious person to rescue their kidnapped daughter, but this time the kidnappers are a nomadic bunch of Bedouin, with the only supernatural monsters a hobgoblin (who is still one of the most complex and well developed characters) and a few sand golems. So while this might not pass the political correctness test today, it has a fair bit of depth to it, and has lots of opportunity for plot and roleplaying without being at all railroady. It also has some designers notes that detail how it turned out for him in actual play, which is very promising indeed, as that shows it's actually been tested, not just shovelled out there. And it's pretty easy to convert to D&D if that's what you'd prefer, which makes it even more likely I'll get some use out of it at some point. Two thumbs up. DragonNotes: Gerry Klug, the writer of the DragonQuest adventure, also takes over this column, which means the first half is just getting to know him (and presenting his credentials, which seems kinda pointless in a hobby less than a decade old. You're all just starting, you don't have anything to prove apart from how well you can write and how good your ideas are. And since you managed to come up with a pretty good adventure last article, I'll forgive the rest of this one being realism heavy new rules about riding various types of animals, which might be handy, but are also quite dull to read. Looks like things'll be staying on the gritty side for his tenure, however long that'll be. DeltaVee Enhanced: Another revisiting of their existing games to give them more longevity. Five new scenarios for DeltaVee, which instantly doubles your options, along with a few new ship types. (including a ghost ship that's indestructible and only there to troll players) There's a pretty decent variety of scenarios here, and they introduce the idea of alien threats that were absent in the original. So I can see why they didn't lead with these, as it's easier to start conservative and then become more gonzo with time. And thankfully a boardgame will never get the kind of accumulated continuity that strangles comics and RPG settings, no matter how popular it becomes, because you'll rarely be using more than one add-on at a time, and you can always turn the options off again. This is the kind of thing I can see myself using, so I approve of this article as well. There's only one Universe: Gerry Klug gets a third article in quick succession, which shows how much he's doing for the company at the moment. This is another of those promotional ones trying to sell their upcoming Universe system, which I must admit is dragging on a bit. Hurry up and release it, so you can start selling supplements instead of going over what's in the core set again in greater detail. I know it's a big involved process, especially when trying to simulate entire star systems in an accessible way, but you can't keep on going on about it without giving me advertising fatigue. Let's skip onwards and see if they manage to get any further with this next issue. Games: Griffin Mountain gets a fairly positive review that shows once again they think Runequest is the RPG that does things mostly right, even if they still put some D&Disms in there out of reflex or the desire to sell. As a mostly self-contained area in a bigger world, it has plenty of opportunities for adventure without making you reliant on a plethora of other sourcebooks (which don't exist yet anyway.) and the formatting makes it easy to read and reference, which is important when working on the fly. Hopefully other companies will learn from it in their own worldbuilding efforts. The Lords of Underearth also gets a positive review, although in the process they take shots at a whole bunch of other minigames that they think suck. It takes advantage of the underground theme by creating tunnels and creatures of varying sizes, so there's places the big ones can't fit, while the smaller ones still have to struggle with co-ordinating their forces. If you think you could have done better than the dwarves in the hobbit against a marauding dragon, this is the system to play it out in. Feedback: The exceedingly specific questions this month turn to your electronic equipment, asking if you own various things like a video player, camera, stereo, video games, and even a digital watch. They also ask if you belong to clubs involving the analysis and sharing of these various types of media. It reminds us that many things we take for granted were just being introduced then, and were an indicator of your socioeconomic status, and the lack of an internet forced you to actually physically go and see people if you wanted to discuss and develop a consensus on the latest releases. With a more efficient system developed, those kind of things gradually wither away like vestigial organs. On the gaming side, they have ideas for games based on James Bond and the Amber chronicles, and float the idea of spinning off a magazine dedicated to roleplaying, so ARES can concentrate on the fantastical war and boardgaming. Once again overestimating their long-term survival prospects, but you've got to keep on trying, especially since RPG's are a growth industry while wargaming is now in decline. The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat: It's finally time for the stainless steel rat (and his mechanically superior wife) to save the day. For a second time, they do their best to squeeze an entire choose your own adventure book into 16 pages at the back of the magazine. It's a tall order, but they can pull it off, which just goes to show how inefficient most books are when they put pleasing layout over maximum density of information. On the other hand, the sheer density of information, and the very heavy reliance on random rolls to generate the challenges means I have no idea what this will turn out like in actual play, and suspect replays will look quite different each time. Make your way through the space station, facing both out of control robots and treacherous employees. When things don't go your way, decide whether you take actual damage, or raise the suspension of disbelief meter to represent his talent for getting out of scrapes in ridiculously improbable ways. So this is not only quite cool as a game, but also a precursor of RPG's with dramatic editing, fate points, and similar systems that allow the players control of the narrative. Anyone know of any even older games that did this, as I know it wasn't common then, but I don't know who did it first? A noticeably more positive issue than most of them, with most of their coverage actively enthusiastic about whatever they're tackling. (with the continued exception of the media column. ) Not sure if that would be a good thing if taken even further, but along with the continued increase in gaming material, it's definitely worth noting. Too far that way lies becoming a pure promotional house organ, although I don't think they'll get that far in the time remaining. I could be wrong though. Let's find out if the next issue continues the same trends. [/QUOTE]
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