This issue, Ian Livingstone talks about how gamers can get in touch. With no internet yet, one of the biggest questions in this age of the hobby was “how do I find a group?” I remember local games stores often putting up lists of groups looking for new players. But White Dwarf is helping a lot here by specifically calling on people to post their game clubs and groups in a special classified section so people can get in touch.
On the Cover
A very conanesque barbarian with a sword and an angry look seems to be failing to help a young woman with barely any clothes on get to her feet again. She must have just fallen over and be trying to help herself up by clinging onto his leg like that, poor girl. This is another by Eddie Jones, although in all honesty I think I like his spaceships a lot better.Features
- Advanced D&D Combat Tables (Gary Gygax): In something of a coup for White Dwarf, this article presents the combat tables from the upcoming “Referee’s Guide” for the new AD&D edition. In 1st edition, the target number needed to hit (by class level versus AC) was on a table (several in fact), and in the DM’s Guide not the Player’s Handbook. Given THACO would be introduced in 2nd edition you couldn’t otherwise calculate it (although if you knew the numbers you could figure out the formula). So these tables are printed to not only offer a preview of the next book, but make the edition playable!
- Expanding Universe (Andy Slack): The first of what would become many general articles expanding the Traveller RPG. In this issue a look at skills and how to use them, and how to run poisons and chemical weapons.
- The Houri (Brian Asbury): A new seducer/enchantress character class for AD&D, and one of the more balanced and well-presented ones. While it probably wouldn’t fly in today’s climate, this has always been one of my favourite classes from White Dwarf (along with the Demonist). While it offers an unfortunate staple of fantasy games (and a rather sexist stereotype) the writer does try to address these. But what I find most interesting is that as a charm/manipulator class it is very suited to role play encounters, cities and political games rather than dungeons, and so in that case is possibly ahead of its time.
- Valley of the Four Winds, Part 6 (Rowland Flynn): The sixth and final part of a short story introducing the setting of a new Ral Partha figure range, where our heroes fight a desperate battle against an undead horde to decide the fate of a kingdom.
Regulars
- Molten Magic: Quietly disappears again this month, but will return next month. Maybe it’s gone alternate.
- Letters: Its back, and people are still annoyed. This time about someone reviewing a game who didn’t like it as much as they did and someone else thinking Fiend Factory has gone downhill. Don Turnbull thinks it’s time we retired the Monstermark system and it is no surprise there are many letters about Don mistaking Gnomes for Halflings in his article on the Player’s Handbook.
- News: Not a lot of big news here. The industry is eagerly awaiting the upcoming Referee’s Guide for AD&D (I wonder when they’ll start calling it the Dungeon Master’s Guide) as well as the new DM’s Screen (possibly the first of its kind). TSR also announced some new boxed games, noteworthy among them being Boot Hill that will (along with Gamma World) be one of the more popular ones. The Judges Guild also gears up with a lot of new modules for D&D that TSR hasn’t approved but can’t do much about.
- Treasure Chest: A large collection of spells this month, 14 in total, for a variety of uses.
Fiend Factory
A collection of new monsters created by readers:- Doombat (Julien Lawrence): A rather neat undead bat creature for when you are bored of using Stirges.
- Imps (M. Stollery): An interesting and low level hell creature for a group not tough enough to face demons and devils. Lots of elemental varieties too to keep them fresh.
- Shadow Demon (Neville White): This one has an interesting background as it’s a demon suffering the punishment for being manifested in the form of a shadow. Lots of potential adventure ideas that come up with that one.
- Terithran (Ronald Hall): A really nice monster designed to limit mages who go too wild with spells. It is the ethereal police force that shuts down overuse of magical power that might damage the planer landscape.
Open Box
This month the (only two) reviews are:- B1 (In Search of the Unknown) and S1 (Tomb of Horrors) Adventure Modules (TSR) Two of the great grandfathers of adventures released for the first time. One, a great introductory adventure for low level (and to be included in the upcoming Basic D&D boxed set). The other, possibly the most deadly dungeon ever designed. I’ll let you guess which is which.
- Dungeon Floor Plans, Accessory (Games Workshop) The first of what will become a staple for floor plans for D&D players for the next two decades at least.
