White Dwarf Reflections #31

It's White Dwarf’s 5th birthday!
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Its White Dwarf’s 5th birthday! So, as is traditional they include a feedback coupon this issue for readers to air their thoughts. They will actually be adding one every issue now, basically offering an option to give each article a mark out of ten. As well as breaking open a few cases of ale, they are printing a few special t-shirts and giving some away to the first ten readers to write in with completed feedback coupons. Has anyone out there still got one?

On the Cover

A port city at night rises over the sea as a small boat approaches. The city is built on two hills, which are both packed with houses and an imposing fortress. Lights are scattered across the multitude of windows, especially from a separate building on a small island in the foreground. The artist is Alan Howcroft, and this is his only cover for White Dwarf. Alan no longer appears to be working as an artist, but he may be the same Alan Howcroft who has since gone into script writing (and/or become a martial arts prize fighter!)

Features

  • Arms at the Ready (Lew Pulsipher): This article is basically a series of tables for attacks in AD&D (remember 1st edition had tables to roll on by class and level instead of a set THACO). These tables are organised by weapon instead, and while they are an interesting shift in how the tables are used, I’m not sure it was that complex in the first place to make these any simpler.
  • Prior Service in Traveller (John Conquest): An adaptation of the character creation rules for service in the armed forces in Traveller. I’m not sure it’s especially useful, although it offers a better promotion system and a much-reduced chance of death in character creation.
  • The Mad Dwarf (Ken St Andre): A solitaire fighting fantasy style adventure for Tunnels & Trolls, written across the bottom of several pages of this issue. It’s a fun, if quite dark and brutal short adventure and very enjoyable to play.
  • The Town Planner Part 1: Designing and Running Villages (Paul Vernon): While ostensibly a new series of articles, this really follows on from the previous pair of economics articles. This first part looks at creating villages, where they are found, how they survive and what you might encounter there. All great background questions to consider to make your villages feel more real.
  • Treasure Trap (Ian Livingstone): Ian Livingstone has a go at Treasure Trap, one of the first commercial LARP events at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire. Blue Peter presenters Simon Groom and Peter Duncan would also have a go a year later in 1983 (there are videos of their experience on YouTube). The system is quite clever, as monsters have paint on their weapons, so post battle the referee counts marks on the player’s costumes. Monsters are trusted to fall over when they get hit. It looks like a great immersive experience, and the system will spread to university campuses long after this version closes in 1985. While short lived, it undoubtedly founded a legacy among today’s LARP scene.

Regulars

  • Character Conjuring: No character conjuring this issue again and looking ahead nothing next issue. So it looks like that one has quietly been cut to make way for Runenrites.
  • Letters: This issue is readers’ questions about AD&D, namely the use of psionics (which rarely got any use as it was so hard to acquire) and the use of the Phantasmal Force spell. The computer article debate gets another mention and another reader has an issue with a previous letter on combat rounds. However, the same reader suggests that White Dwarf should carry more articles for other games like Fantasy Trip and Top Secret. It is interesting that the magazine did very well mainly supporting mainly just AD&D, Traveller and Runequest. Not sure you could find three games with that level of market share today.
  • News: Midguardian becomes “The Star” this issue with a packed selection of news. Gary Gygax personally DM’ed the finals of the Games Fair ’82 convention competition at Reading. Games Workshop opens a new branch in Manchester and will be creating a new Judge Dredd game. I imagine they mean the board game as it releases in 1982 and I’ve not seen adverts for it in this issue (the RPG will come out in 1985). Eon Products and Chaosium both have releases coming out called “Borderlands” although one is a board game and the other is a Runequest supplement. Task Force Games has a literal armada of space combat games on the way too. One of TSR’s golden figures has been found in in Blackpool, there may be more of these gold plated promotional figures still out there. Ragnorok Enterprises who make the Abyss fanzine are trying their hand at an RPG to be made in six booklets called Ysgarth (it will see a 6th edition in 1995!). Finally, Puffin books are releasing a new solo gamebook by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone called “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain” (I think it might do quite well you know).
  • Runerites: This issue we have a list of rewards and punishment a cult might hand out for those who follow or break its tenets. While this is useful mainly for Runequest, the detail here could work for other games too, or other organisations or religions.
  • Starbase: Starbase takes a look at some different sensor systems your ship might have, from scanning for minerals to getting a good idea how damaged an enemy might be. There are a lot of useful ideas here. I especially like making players pick their scanner capabilities as unlike Star Trek they aren’t multi-functional and few crews can afford all of them.
  • Treasure Chest: We return to more amulets and talismans this issue, with six necklaces for your adventures: Amulet of Spell Deflection (50% spell immunity!), Talisman of Urdaeus (become a snake upon death and kill your killer), Amulet of the Astral Plane (bonus save vs Astral creatures), Talisman of the Eye (protection from evil and turn undead), Talisman of Muren-Shi (buff item for LG clerics) and the Amulet of Magical Precognition (grants clues for what an unknown magic item might be, very nice idea). Both the Talisman of Urdaeus and the Amulet of the Astral Plane also detail their stats as relating to Lew Pulsipher’s Amulet and Talismans article in White Dwarf #29.

Fiend Factory

We have more mini-adventure than monsters this week. “In Search of a Fool” sends the player characters after a lost faerie bard who has been seduced away from their court by a faerie vampire.
  • Daoine Sidhe (Daniel Collerton) These are faerie knights and ladies, with a powerful selection of arms, armour and psychic abilities, including some magic.
  • Dendridi (Phil Masters) A rather cute subspecies of gnomes who live close to plant life instead of underground. Very druidic, and would make a nice PC species.
  • Leanan Sidhe (Craig Cartmell) A form of fey vampire who can hide in mirrors. A slightly odd collection of abilities but she’s damn cool as a creature.
  • Lorelei Willow (Roger E. Moore) A carnivorous willow tree that ensnares with its vines after luring prey close my mimicking calls for distress.

Open Box

This month’s reviews are:
  • Federation Space, Wargame (Task Force Games): This is a “sister game” to Star Fleet Battles, widening the scope to armada battles instead of ship to ship. Strategy is played out in this game, and the ship-to-ship fights can be run using SFB.
  • Ordeal by Eshaar, Action Aboard, Uragyad’n of the Seven Pillars, The Legend of the Sky Raiders, Adventures (FASA): These four standalone adventures are in the usual Traveller booklet style but created by FASA. Everyone seems to be getting in on the third-party Traveller action these days. Bob McWilliams thinks the first two are okay and the last two are very good.
  • Thieves Guild (I, II, III & IV) and Free City of Haven, RPG Supplement (Gamelords Inc): This might be one of the first real attempts to shift to city and political adventures (coupled with Thieves World previously). The modules mostly assume the PCs are rogues and thieves and engage with encounters through guile instead of combat. There will be ten of these adventures eventually. The Free City of Haven is a setting supplement detailing a sizable chunk of the city the modules are set in. It will see a rereleased as a boxed set soon after. As reviewer Lew Pulsipher says, they might not be for everyone, but they are “a boon to the minority of FRPers at whom they are aimed”.
Finally, among the feedback forms and various adverts is a job advert for a Product Development Manager at TSR (UK). I note this mainly as the specifications show us a little more about life as a game designer in 1982. The job will involve running the department creating adventures and a magazine and managing a Prestel database for the player’s association. You need to know AD&D of course, but also know a few other games as well as having good writing and grammar skills. They are also looking for someone with good project management expertise who can make concise advisory reports (whatever they are). They are also looking for microcomputer skills and programming ability so TSR is embracing the digital revolution.
 

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Andrew Peregrine

Andrew Peregrine


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