My complete published works in White Dwarf

A quick post, actually a rather nice callback to some of my recent missives.

Here it is, the one and only time I made it into print in a gaming

So, one mystery solved, this was issue 89 from May 87 which was actually a bit later than I had thought. That been said I did send this ad in a lot earlier because I was completely unaware that my mum was going to be selling our house, and by the time this got published we had moved. So clearly no luck with me swapping my stuff. This is also strange because I had assumed I was trying to sell up but it turns out I was just trying to get different stuff - also clears up for me what White Dwarfs I need to collect as this tells me I owned 40 onwards - again I could have sworn I had started collecting earlier than this but clearly not. 

Reading through ads in other issues this week I actually saw the request of an Internet buddy in issue 91. It turns out he had rather more luck in his searches than I did, talk about born under a lucky star.

And briefly, concerning issue 89. It had this

That’s right, a review of Heroes for Wargames!! This must be the place I found out about this book, again, I was buying stuff much later than I thought. The review is quite similar to mine, so I know I’m not a complete idiot after all.

The  issue is okay, good CoC item on phobias by Carl Sargent (a genius), the Paranoia Electric Sheep scenario (fun) and Eavy Metal featuring the legendary Phil Lewis - good times. 

Again, a stream of consciousness, hope you liked it 

Carl

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

Heroes for Wargames

A recent Twitter post bought this book to mind.

I brought a copy of this new from a bookshop in Slough, so it must have been quite late in my gaming life. In 1986 I was 15/16 and definitely not as much into this stuff as I had been for for the previous handful of years. I have no clue where I heard about this book but I have a definite memory of really wanting it. (And I remember showing it off to my friend Robbie, who was less impressed than I - perhaps gaming hadn’t gripped him as strongly as it had me, or perhaps he just wasn’t an idiot!!

So what is it? I guess you could say it was a kind of coffee table book showing nicely painted ( Citadel) miniatures. There is an intro from Ian Livingstone/ Steve Jackson that doesn’t say a lot and a large serving of John Blanche/ early Warhammer. It starts with an introduction to RPGs (dull) and then goes to fantasy battles. A bit about figure making then a section on painting - nothing new in today’s world but this must have been quite cool then.
The section on Master Painters is quite cool, who didn’t love THAT John Blanche minatour?

One note about the book that bears sharing is that many of the photos are on a black background so are actually often not that clear, a minor quibble, and my eyes were probably better then.

All of this interspersed with what can only be described as iconic GE art from the mid eighties as well as some crap line drawings of new mini ranges (why?).

To sum up, I loved it 34 years ago and I still love it now, though I’m not really sure why. All in all it should be on every gamer of a certain ages shelf - good fun.