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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4451449" data-attributes="member: 27780">The strategic review 7: April 1976 The last issue. That was quick. We get our first taste of colour on the cover, and the size and price increases again, to 24 pages and $1. A 4fold increase in only a year. I find it amusing that if you put all 7 strategic review issues together, they are still smaller than a single issue of dragon at its heyday (for those of you who are wondering, the largest issue ever is 170 pages long. Which one it is, I shan't reveal yet though.) They start off by announcing the demise of TSR ( <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) and its successors, Dragon, and Little Wars (whatever happened to that? Oh well, I guess I'll probably find out in a while) to be published on alternating months, and their new staff. (Dave Sutherland, oh yes, we're talking iconic here) This is exciting stuff, and I have to wonder how people reacted at the time. Hopefully the letters page will be apprearing soon so I can find out. Anyone who was there at the time, I want to hear your comments as well.  This issue also contains: Gary explaining the vancian magic system, why he designed it that way, and taking potshots at powergamers and people who don't use the rules as written. He admits that despite attempts to balance them, magic users are probably still the most powerful class in the game, especially once they get magic items. I get the impression I'm going to be seeing a lot more of this. Oh well, I knew what I was getting myself into. Snark between the various companies at gencon and origins. Ahh, dirty laundry, how we love to see thee aired. A full page advert. Supplement III eldritch wizardry coming soon, featuring druds, (ha ha, they misspelled the advert) psionics, new monsters and lots of other stuff. Doing this is really giving me a picture of the order the D&D classes appeared. Stats for lots of TV gunslingers for boot hill. Another thing that would be harder to get away with today, thanks to copyright annoyances. A comic, Dirt. Simple little 3 panneler. Meh. Wouldya like to take a survey. There's a $1 store credit slip in it for you. Things weren't that cheap even then so you'd have to spend more money to take advantage of it. Nice work if you can get it. Gencon 1976, special guest Fritz Lieber. Not surprising, since they're making a game of his books. Still, 2 full page ads in quick sucession, they're really upping the commercial content. Fiction: What price gold and glory, by Jim Hayes. An unremarkable little encounter tale featuring a werebear and a pixie as the protagonists. GM advice on town building. This is system free, and the kind of stuff that is still relevant today. Magical items: The cup and talisman of akbar (no al yet, curiously) staff of the priest kings and the brazen bottle. All familiar to me, and are the sort that seriously change the power dynamics in the game. Give to your players with caution.Centerfold spread of the Dungeon game store. More on the conflict between origins and gen con, and about attempts from the established wargaming crowd to marginalize the new pen & paper gaming style. Another case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. And once again there's the air of you can't stop the new ideas. We know we've got something good and are going to spawn lots of imitators oh baby <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Finally, a monster I don't recognize. The denebian slime devil. I can see why this one never caught on, as it's basicaly an unkillable comic relief annoyance monster. The catoblepas, I do recognize however, with its weird combination of weak neck and instakill gaze.  Goes to show what players and GM's prefer. DEATH BEFORE HUMILIATION!!! A third page full of adverts. A boring essay on the use of missile weapons in historical warfare. Optional rules giving thieves 18% dexterity scores(a la fighters exceptional strength) which give them bonuses to their thieving skills. Another one I've never seen before and obviously didn't catch on. Frankly 18% strength was arbitrary and dumb enough. We don't need it applied to other abilities as well. Lots of tekumel stuff. Interesting that easily the best setting stuff in the early days is coming from here. Whatever happened to M.A.R Barker? An essay by Gygax on what constitutes successful gamemastering. As expected it is quite oriented towards competitive play, chastising GM's who let their players advance level too quickly, and encouraging strict enforcement of timekeeping rules. We also get our first estimation of proper advancement time. According to Gary, it should take about a year of weekly gaming to get to name level, and then characters should gain around 2-3 levels a year after that, so overall, getting to 20th level should take around 4-5 years. So yeah, things have definitely got a lot more slanted in the players favour since then. I suppose since they make up more than 80% of the group at any one time, social pressure would make it happen sooner or later. With the rapid expansion, there's finally room for things to slip between the cracks, and me to see stuff I haven't before. As a result, this issue definitely feels less consequential, despite (or perhaps because) its the last one. But It's a good deal less dull than issue 5, and as the intermediate between formats, it feels significant historically.</blockquote>

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