May 1983, and Ian Livingstone is sounding the alarm bell. Heritage and SPI have collapsed or gone into liquidation and so he wonders about how the industry is faring. However, it is worth noting that Heritage may well have failed as their lead designer (and founder) got a job at TSR, and SPI will keep going in another form when TSR buys it out.
The boom days of the 70s may be over, but it might not be so simple as falling interest. He suggests there are so many gaming companies, and so many good games, that to do well you need to have something special. Gone are the days where “any old D&D” is good enough and this may be true. Interestingly, it seems to be a conversation we see a lot, even today. I’ve lost count of the amount of clickbait youtube videos declaring gaming is about to die horribly. Sure, it may be tough to make a dime, but I’d like to think a good idea can still do well.
If you want to compare notes, this month’s Dragon is issue #73.
On the Cover
A yellow jet, possibly even a spacecraft, glides out from between a clump of dark square buildings to take to an alien sky. Out below in a green haze of light, covering the lower part of the city that lies on the planet below as a scarred red moon sets on the horizon. But I could be wrong here. Maybe this is a vast space station and the moon is the planet it is orbiting? Maybe the buildings are the tallest skyscrapers, or an orbiting station the ship is leaving.
While it looks very Chris Foss, the artist is John Harris, and it will be his only White Dwarf cover. The work was also used as a cover for the novel “Enders Game”. John is an award winning artist and is still working professionally today. While he has done many book covers, he is also the artist for the covers of the Sinclair Spectrum Manuals! He has also worked for NASA creating art to chronicle the Space Shuttle flights.
Features
Battleplan (Alan E Paull): Effectively part 2 of Alan’s system for running battles in D&D. I was a bit disappointed with the previous article as it was really just a wargame system. But this is much more interesting, looking at the potential tactics for Dwarves, Elves, Kobolds and Orcs in war. Very good options for adding more role play to your battle (finally).
A Tasty Morsel (Oliver Dickinson): More Runequest Griselda fiction, this time about how she made friends with the trolls who were about to eat her.
Sorcerous Symbols (Phillip Hine): A new take on what is effectively Amulets and Charms which Lew Pulsipher has written about before. This is a more detailed system building on that though and a nice development of the idea with a solid system.
The Snowbird Mystery (Andy Slack): This is a pretty large adventure, but not a very inspiring one. Although if you enjoyed “Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh” it may be for you. A scoutship called “The Snowbird” has gone missing and the PCs have to find it. But if they take too long making search rolls the crew may already be dead. There is a lot of nice background here but the writing doesn’t help the GM make the best use of it. Odd there is no floorplan of the Snowbird, although I believe it’s a standard ship type. I also can’t help but note White Dwarf is really shrinking the font size in some of these adventures to get them onto the page count. Glad my eyes were in better shape in 1983!
Assignment: Freeway Deathride (Marcus L Rowland): Marcus Rowland continues to carry the load (for everything not D&D, Runequest or Traveller) following last issue’s Slayground for Champions, with a Car Wars adventure. It’s a solid idea for what is effectively a campaign set up. The players are tasked with keeping the roads in California safe from some particular nasties who are targeting the good drivers.
Regulars
News: There is a lot of figure news this month, even with the loss of Heritage. A lot is planned for Car Wars, but no specifics yet, and I suspect it all gets consumed into content for Autoduel Quarterly. Gaming conventions also expand to the north of England with Northern Games Day being held in Manchester this month. Games Day and Dragonmeet are still planned for London. In games production news, Avalon Hill will be releasing “Powers and Perils” which I’ve been meaning to play since about September 1984. TSR is not slacking either with some Star Frontiers modules on the way and the “Desert of Desolation” series modules for D&D which form a pretty solid mini-campaign if memory serves.
Letters: Just when you thought things had calmed down over the Necromancer (WD#35) Don Turnbull returns to have a rant at his critics, painfully specifically as well. He should have taken the hit and walked away, especially as even he has to admit a game where Assassin is a standard character class isn’t all about being the good guy. Dave Morris adds a minor correction for last issues computer program for Runequest characters, and starts up the alignment argument again. Come on people, it’s just a starting point for characterisation not a strict rule. It’s one of the few pieces of game design in D&D I think is genuinely good. Few games at this point had any rules or templates that focused on role playing.
We also have the usual calls for different systems in the magazine, but not a consensus on what they should be. Finally Marcus Rowland continues what is becoming an unofficial series, with another set of corrections for misprints in his recent work, this time his Eagle Hunt adventure.
Critical Mass: This month, Dave Langford is impressed but also disappointed by Frank Herbert’s “The White Plague”. He also looks at non-fiction with “Man & the Planets” by Duncan Lunan as a great source for realistic sci-fi world building (literally). He notes the Nebula awards offer an expected finalist list of Asimov (Foundation’s Edge), Heinlein (Friday), Phillip K Dick (The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) and Brian Aldiss (Helliconia Spring, with Autumn soon on the way).
Microview: Its Microview’s holiday month so no computing this issue.
Runerites: A lot of rules this issue for another look at unarmed combat is Runequest. It might just be easier to pick up a sword.
Starbase: This detail on the Covert Security Bureau of the Imperium is connected to the background of the Snowbird Mystery. Its good as far as it goes but a whole secret service bureau for Traveller probably needed more than a page.
Treasure Chest: This is rather fun, especially if you’re a fan of Tron or Xena: Warrior Princess (although you’ll have to wait until 1995 for that). Paul McCree gives us a variety of magical disc weapons for D&D. There are some nice magic options and a solid system for them as a new weapon.
Fiend Factory:
Inhuman Gods Part III (Phil Masters): More of the Gods of the small creatures from Phil Masters. In this article we look at the gods of: Frostmen, Mountain Giants, Greenmen (WD#27), Grimlocks and Lava Children. I especially like the cantankerous Mountain Giant god who is something of a libertarian as long as he gets to call all the shots.
Open Box
This month’s reviews are:
The boom days of the 70s may be over, but it might not be so simple as falling interest. He suggests there are so many gaming companies, and so many good games, that to do well you need to have something special. Gone are the days where “any old D&D” is good enough and this may be true. Interestingly, it seems to be a conversation we see a lot, even today. I’ve lost count of the amount of clickbait youtube videos declaring gaming is about to die horribly. Sure, it may be tough to make a dime, but I’d like to think a good idea can still do well.
If you want to compare notes, this month’s Dragon is issue #73.
On the Cover
A yellow jet, possibly even a spacecraft, glides out from between a clump of dark square buildings to take to an alien sky. Out below in a green haze of light, covering the lower part of the city that lies on the planet below as a scarred red moon sets on the horizon. But I could be wrong here. Maybe this is a vast space station and the moon is the planet it is orbiting? Maybe the buildings are the tallest skyscrapers, or an orbiting station the ship is leaving.
While it looks very Chris Foss, the artist is John Harris, and it will be his only White Dwarf cover. The work was also used as a cover for the novel “Enders Game”. John is an award winning artist and is still working professionally today. While he has done many book covers, he is also the artist for the covers of the Sinclair Spectrum Manuals! He has also worked for NASA creating art to chronicle the Space Shuttle flights.
Features
Battleplan (Alan E Paull): Effectively part 2 of Alan’s system for running battles in D&D. I was a bit disappointed with the previous article as it was really just a wargame system. But this is much more interesting, looking at the potential tactics for Dwarves, Elves, Kobolds and Orcs in war. Very good options for adding more role play to your battle (finally).
A Tasty Morsel (Oliver Dickinson): More Runequest Griselda fiction, this time about how she made friends with the trolls who were about to eat her.
Sorcerous Symbols (Phillip Hine): A new take on what is effectively Amulets and Charms which Lew Pulsipher has written about before. This is a more detailed system building on that though and a nice development of the idea with a solid system.
The Snowbird Mystery (Andy Slack): This is a pretty large adventure, but not a very inspiring one. Although if you enjoyed “Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh” it may be for you. A scoutship called “The Snowbird” has gone missing and the PCs have to find it. But if they take too long making search rolls the crew may already be dead. There is a lot of nice background here but the writing doesn’t help the GM make the best use of it. Odd there is no floorplan of the Snowbird, although I believe it’s a standard ship type. I also can’t help but note White Dwarf is really shrinking the font size in some of these adventures to get them onto the page count. Glad my eyes were in better shape in 1983!
Assignment: Freeway Deathride (Marcus L Rowland): Marcus Rowland continues to carry the load (for everything not D&D, Runequest or Traveller) following last issue’s Slayground for Champions, with a Car Wars adventure. It’s a solid idea for what is effectively a campaign set up. The players are tasked with keeping the roads in California safe from some particular nasties who are targeting the good drivers.
Regulars
News: There is a lot of figure news this month, even with the loss of Heritage. A lot is planned for Car Wars, but no specifics yet, and I suspect it all gets consumed into content for Autoduel Quarterly. Gaming conventions also expand to the north of England with Northern Games Day being held in Manchester this month. Games Day and Dragonmeet are still planned for London. In games production news, Avalon Hill will be releasing “Powers and Perils” which I’ve been meaning to play since about September 1984. TSR is not slacking either with some Star Frontiers modules on the way and the “Desert of Desolation” series modules for D&D which form a pretty solid mini-campaign if memory serves.
Letters: Just when you thought things had calmed down over the Necromancer (WD#35) Don Turnbull returns to have a rant at his critics, painfully specifically as well. He should have taken the hit and walked away, especially as even he has to admit a game where Assassin is a standard character class isn’t all about being the good guy. Dave Morris adds a minor correction for last issues computer program for Runequest characters, and starts up the alignment argument again. Come on people, it’s just a starting point for characterisation not a strict rule. It’s one of the few pieces of game design in D&D I think is genuinely good. Few games at this point had any rules or templates that focused on role playing.
We also have the usual calls for different systems in the magazine, but not a consensus on what they should be. Finally Marcus Rowland continues what is becoming an unofficial series, with another set of corrections for misprints in his recent work, this time his Eagle Hunt adventure.
Critical Mass: This month, Dave Langford is impressed but also disappointed by Frank Herbert’s “The White Plague”. He also looks at non-fiction with “Man & the Planets” by Duncan Lunan as a great source for realistic sci-fi world building (literally). He notes the Nebula awards offer an expected finalist list of Asimov (Foundation’s Edge), Heinlein (Friday), Phillip K Dick (The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) and Brian Aldiss (Helliconia Spring, with Autumn soon on the way).
Microview: Its Microview’s holiday month so no computing this issue.
Runerites: A lot of rules this issue for another look at unarmed combat is Runequest. It might just be easier to pick up a sword.
Starbase: This detail on the Covert Security Bureau of the Imperium is connected to the background of the Snowbird Mystery. Its good as far as it goes but a whole secret service bureau for Traveller probably needed more than a page.
Treasure Chest: This is rather fun, especially if you’re a fan of Tron or Xena: Warrior Princess (although you’ll have to wait until 1995 for that). Paul McCree gives us a variety of magical disc weapons for D&D. There are some nice magic options and a solid system for them as a new weapon.
Fiend Factory:
Inhuman Gods Part III (Phil Masters): More of the Gods of the small creatures from Phil Masters. In this article we look at the gods of: Frostmen, Mountain Giants, Greenmen (WD#27), Grimlocks and Lava Children. I especially like the cantankerous Mountain Giant god who is something of a libertarian as long as he gets to call all the shots.
Open Box
This month’s reviews are:
- Supplement 10 Solomani Rim, Traveller Supplement (GDW) Several premade sectors for Traveller. A pretty essential guide for the starting GM, but not so useful if you’ve already built your universe.
- Man Myth & Magic: Core Set, Death to Setanta and Kingdom of the Sidhe, RPG core set and adventures (Yaquinto) I’m amazed it’s taken White Dwarf so long to review this game; it’s been out for ages. I get the impression it was both ahead of its time, and not especially well realised given the review seems to suggest a nice try with many failings. But I find myself really wanting to see how it was put together. Yaquinto clearly seems to be trying to stretch the boundary, even if it didn’t work very well and I have to applaud that. Anyone out there play it?
- Star Explorer, Board Game (FGU) Make a ship and explore the universe, and hope the lawyers don’t come after you for making a Star Trek game. A little bland in design, but pretty average for 1983.
