Adventurer Magazine #1 Review

 

So

My current rpg collecting is now in its final form, which is as follows;

1 - D&D stuff (mainly Forgotten Realms but a little bit fluid).

2 - Traveller stuff - as much as I want.

3 - OD&D - good luck with that on my budget!

4 - UK RPG magazines.

So (4) is where we are at here. UK magazines are generally cheapish and readily available, in fact  generally can be more than the item itself.

I will subsequently list what I have and where I'm at but for now here is a new acquisition, Adventurer #1.

Brief review, it's ok.

90p in 1986 seems about right and it has a reasonable amount of content.

The fantasy adventurer, of which this is part one of 2 is formulaic but solid, nothing new in heaven and earth but ok.

The CoC adventure is actually quite decent but again, nothing much is new. The maps though are quite decent , but seem a bit overproduced for what is required (1986 was a bit like this though).

Miniatures stuff is again of its time, standard issue figures by decentish painters.

The reviews shine, seem well balanced and well thought out, good stuff.

Adverts if course are a joy, we can never get back to the halcyon years where all these products were on, and remained on, shelves in the high street. I know that times have changed but......

Little snippet on the news page, true that but whatever.

Great advice

See what I mean, a bit overdone.

You should go to this, and maybe try and buy some D&D stuff.

D is for Dragon - though not really

I’ve gotten round to reading about dragons in my old MM.  A couple of things have come up and given me cause for thought though the main one is I am NOT going to do an in depth review of dragons. I’m beginning to think the alphabet thing was a poor idea.
But that being said I have read the section and need to make a few comments. Firstly it is completely clear in the monster limit that dragon breath always causes damage totally the beasts total hit point value and not it’s current value. I seem to recall we had loads of arguments back in the day about this, players stating that once injured it’s potential to cause harm lessens. And who knew, it’s all here in the MM, plain as dad and incontrovertible - my god but we were idiots back then. I sometimes think that we weren’t mature enough to play games and enjoy them without it becoming a festival of bickering, bitching and point scoring - teenage boys in the 80s, what a bunch of twats!!

Secondly, read the section on dragon sundial. Easy peasy to do and very worthwhile financially. Why everyone wasn’t doing it is a mystery to me now - the rules and restrictions were right there in black and white High Gygaxian. That been said it’s a bloody nonsense of course, dragons are highly intelligent apex predators, particularly at the higher age categories and should be treated as such. Any DM worth his salt should be playing them as the greatest of bad guys, always ready to flee to fight another day if needs be. If I ever start playing again I will hold the dragon in high respect.

On the subject I can highly recommend the series “Dragons of the North” by Ed Greenwood. It was serialised in the Dragon and later appeared on the WOTC website statted up for third edition. This is how dragons should be. A great look at Firgotten Realms lore as well as insights into the machinations and desires of the Uber-monster, great stuff and well worth rooting out.

Anyway that’s it for now, stay safe in these strange times.

Carl

Lack of Charity

My luck in charity shops just recently has been utterly atrocious. At one time a trip to Windsor or Maidenhead might have been reasonably fruitful but it seem that there is simply nothing available at the moment. I guess that these shops are being cherry picked by their own professionals to get the good stuff, which I can understand from a professional point of view, but it's simply getting  to the point where it's not even worth bothering anymore.


The good old days have definitely gone, I remember when you could regularly pick up D&D books and boxed sets without trying too hard but I can generally say that I haven't found a single TSR product for sale in the last 6 months at a charity shop, not even the Isle of Dread, and everyone has one of those!


So  after the school holidays are over and some normality returns I have decided to redouble my efforts, and as a special treat I will do a review on the first product I buy from  here on in just to show that my efforts are not in vain.


Farewell until the next time, when the chances are I will be doing a review of an obsolete 40K codex.


Carl