White Dwarf Reflections #7

It’s time to gear up the nostalgia again and return to our irregular reviews of the granddaddy of British gaming, White Dwarf. This issue marks the first full colour cover for the magazine, and a shift to a more glossy magazine style. The fanzine style of the first issues is gone as the magazine grows, and this issue also contains a short questionnaire asking what readers think of it so far and what they want more or less of.

On the Cover​

A feminine space traveller and her diminutive guide ride a strange creature across a bleak landscape. The painting is by John Blanche whose work will form much of the art style of Warhammer in years to come.

Features​

• Feudal Economics in Chivalry & Sorcery (Ed Simbalist): A look at buying, selling and income for PCs in C&S. Lots of numbers but potentially worth a look if you are a Pendragon fans.
• Lair of the Demon Queen (Don Turnbull): A short dungeon adventure designed for a Game Master to slot in their own traps and monsters. A bit vague as an article but a useful one shot.
• Thoughts of the Proliferation of Magic Items in D&D (Gary Gygax): Mr Gygax suggests that too many magic items make D&D too easy and GMs should be sparing with them. Less challenge is less fun. So they shouldn’t be sold in shops except for the odd potion, and only ever given as rewards for adventuring. After all, if the PCs won’t sell their good stuff, why would anyone else? He also notes that it’s tough to find time to actually play games the more you work in the game industry, twas ever thus!
• The Asbury System (Brian Asbury): The third part of a new experience system for D&D (1st ed) that rewards spellcasting and use of character abilities rather than just treasure and monster killing.

Fiend Factory​

A new regular feature introduced last issue asking for submissions from readers. This month we have:

• The Necrophidius (Simon Tilbrook) a skeletal naga-like undead guardian,
• Rover (Gary Ames) based on the suffocating ball from “The Prisoner”.
• Living Wall (Neville White) exactly what it sounds like.
• Volt (Johnathan Jones) a flying electric eel.
• Gluey (Guy Shearer) an adhesive mummy creature.
• Squonk (Christopher Kinnear) an ugly but friendly furry creature.
• Eye Killer (Ian Livingtone) a flying bat creature with a death stare.
• Witherweed (Simon Eaton) a poisonous moss found on treasure hoards.
• Withra (Don Turnbull) an incompetent wraith who cures instead of drains.

Open Box​

This month the reviews are:

• The Warlord Game, Knightly board game (Robert Williams Games) The Warlord Game | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
• The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, Adventure (Judges Guild) Revised in 2006 Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor | RPG Item | RPGGeek
• Bifrost Volume 1, RPG Corebook (Skytrex) Bifrost | RPG | RPGGeek
• Lords and Wizards, Battle Campaign game (Fantasy Games Unlimited) Lords & Wizards | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
• The Sorcerer’s Cave, Board Game (Philmar) An old favourite that got played across several rooms of the house. The Sorcerer's Cave | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
• Cosmic Encounter, Board Game/Wargame (Eon Products) The first edition of a game that will see many revisions and remains popular today. Cosmic Encounter | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Everything Else​

• News: Announces the arrival in the UK of the new Monster Manual for D&D (1st edition).
• Letters: One reader points out the real source of some of the monsters in an article in issues 4 and 5. Two readers (one of whom is Gary Gygax) take issue with Roger Musoon’s article on armour class in the previous issue. Interesting in that Roger’s suggestion of different AC values for different situations (like being prone) will become part of 3rd edition D&D as ‘touch AC’ etc. Another reader takes issue with a previous letter taking issue with a previous letter (and you thought it was the internet that invented this!). In this case a GM who refuses to allow players to roll dice as he doesn’t trust them. Last month’s letter said this was something of a silly idea, so this month’s letter is angry that anyone might tell someone else what is or isn’t a silly idea in their game. Again, all this is long before the internet!
• Treasure Chest: This week a surprisingly concise system for figuring out encumbrance in non-D&D games (D&D already having rules for this).
• Molten Magic: Example photos of the new figure releases from Minot’s Miniature Armoury, Oracle Miniatures, Wargames Publications, Archine Miniatures, Asgard Miniatures, Ral Partha, Miniature Figurines and Greenwood & Ball.
• Kalgar: Comic strip where Kalgar the warrior comes to the aid of a woman trying to save her grandfather from bandits.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wow, I loved Pre-Warhammer White Dwarf. Particularly things like (this will be quite some time after this issue) The City League and other articles like it. It was so interesting seeing White Dwarf interior maps looking like real building interiors while TSR was still doing rectangle-rectangle-square. And they'd also show you what the thing looked like on the outside, as well.

The details were what drew me in. There was a Traveller adventure which had a city map. And on that were designated zones for gravity vehicles to ascend and descend to another traffic level. Like, of course most civilized cities would have something like that, but there are zero mentions of such a thing in all of the Traveller literature until probably the Digest Group era.

I can't imagine GW's rights issues are any less tangled than TSR's were, but I'd love to see them dust off their old D&D stuff and redistribute it.

I remember one short spider-themed dungeon that had a magic wand that just created cobwebs at a touch, possibly with infinite charges. It was such a flavorful item that could clearly be used for mischief, but had no relationship to the wands-as-guns stuff coming out of TSR at that point.

The UK was such a great D&D scene in those days.

 

[pemerton]

There was a Traveller adventure which had a city map. And on that were designated zones for gravity vehicles to ascend and descend to another traffic level.

The Sable Rose Affair.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Fair point, in some ways magic items were how you "buffed" your character and gave them unique abilities. Nowadays...well now I watch Castlevania and see Alucard with his dancing sword and think "that guy is incredibly overpowered!" But a bog standard fighter with a dancing sword in early D&D days effectively doubled his power.

I think baking power advancement into level advancement is part of 5e's secret sauce. That being said, I still find myself handing out more magic items than the baseline amount.

 

[R_Chance]

The Sable Rose Affair.

White Dwarf had really great Traveller material. And D&D material for that matter. It all seemed to have more flavor and detail than TSR and GDW work at the time.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

White Dwarf had really great Traveller material. And D&D material for that matter. It all seemed to have more flavor and detail than TSR and GDW work at the time.

I suspect White Dwarf is quite responsible for my playstyle, and why I have always looked to do more than simple dungeon crawling.