Small ads - end of a White Dwarf staple

Just a brief stream of consciousness post brought on by a quick skim through WD94. A very battered copy of this arrived in a job lot and something caught my eye, perhaps about thirty years too late.
I love the small ads in White Dwarf, it’s always been a place where nonsense was written and deals could be made. Announcement of the deaths of unfeasably named characters alongside ads for early TSR modules abound, some great deals here to be sure ( back to the trusty time machine!)
However what struck me about this issue was this:-

Was this the beginning of the end of WD as we new it? Probably as new fangled Space Marines and a place called Rynn’s world have a heavy presence. Tabletop gaming was certainly starting to usurp the old favourites but I guess that is progress.

However this was actually an issue full of content and well worth a read - Live and Die in Mega City One was the first instalment if a frankly excellent scenario, and worth the price of admission in its own.

One last thing - I don’t have ready access to a lot of my collection but I wonder if anyone can find my only ever time in print in a gaming mag. A young lad called Carl with the phone number Farnham Common 4105 put in an ad selling up his collection. Never worked out though because we moved house by the time the advert hit the press!!

Good memories here as always.

Until next time

Beauty, eye of - blah blah blah

So, the beholder.
Beyond doubt one of the most iconic D&D monsters as well as a total bad-ass.
Much has been said concerning the beholder  and I will be treading very well travelled paths on this but such is life.
I love this beast with a passion, the ultimate bad guy, a lonely megolomaniac with a heart of stone.
If you look at the stat block in the trusty MM many questions could be asked, particularly about the array of hit points and the variable armour class. I’m pretty sure first ed wasn’t really set up for such things but I’m sure organised players could take advantage.  That being said, if I were a beholder with all of these powers (which is a recurring dream of mine!) then I’m pretty sure I would be nigh on invincible, and rightly so. No stand up fights for this chap, even with its slow speed it was absolutely made for hit and run attacks and definitely for fleeing any battle going even slightly against it. With disintegrate and levitation you would never need to be cornered and your home base ( of which you would have several) would be full of murderous traps and such like.

For further reading there have been any amount of articles and books written; I am personally a big fan of the Forgotten Realms Xanathar concept- a crime boss hiding behind layers and layers of lackeys and sops - it should be the finale of a great campaign to finally meet a beholder - my only faint tinge is sadness comes from the fact that they have no moustaches to twirl!!

I’ll leave you with some Beholder art ( better available), from my UK MM and  from my copy of the Greyhawk OD&D book.  Lastly is a photo of a t-shirt available through The Secrey Cabal Gaming Podcast ( easy to find with some google-fu). I love the cabal and recommend their podcast if you like gaming in general. The artwork is by Steve, a talented artist and member of the Cabal crew.
Until next time
Be safe
Carl

B is for Boo-lay - or something like that

So I’m at B. Already some of these things are irritating me; why were some of these creatures statted out as monsters?
Seriously ....... Badger,Baluchitherium, Barracuda, Beaver ..... just no need. Also the writing is completely random, I quote from the Bear listing

“The grizzly bear is a brown bear of very aggressive disposition. Black bears are usually not aggressive, brown bears are,  and cave bears are quite aggressive. “. What? The description really should have been “its a bear, you know, a bear”.

And why do Beavers have treasure- By the book they could actually have magical items!!

Boar and Buffalo - see Bear above.

Blink dogs are a classic, lawful good and a great companion for the ranger in your life. (Again, where does it keep its treasure?)

Black pudding - now I like black pudding on general principles but I’ve just never been a fan of slimes and oozes - looking at the stats though a couple of these could quite easily devastate a party / drop off the ceiling and there you go 3d8 damage a round and destroying your armour in short order. A DM could really go to town with one of these if he rules that a PC is envelopes and could take damage from his allies as they try and destroy the thing.

Brownie - dull faerie-kin, and I always thought they were evil because of the artwork.

Brain Mole -psionics, need I say more. Just a creature for that particular arms race between players and DM when they discover psionics are a thing.

Bugbear - essentially  a big old goblin but the 50% chance of surprise was new to me.

Bull - yep it’s a big cow.

And so to the real meat and drink here, the Bulette and the Beholder. I will save the wonderful Beholder for another time but the Bulette needs comment.

It’s pronounced Boo-lay I hear in many places but it doesn’t say that here. I’ll go to google and try and find out why, perhaps you could do it for me and leave a comment because I really might not get round to it. The 3 separate AC listings - AFAIK AD&D didn’t really go for variables like this on a big scale, perhaps I just missed that in the rules, but looking at it I’m sure my players would have gone for the eyes!! ( oh and beware the eight foot leap which can give it 4 3-18 attacks- bloody hell I would have him bouncing around like he was on a pogo stick if I was running him🙂. )

So that was B - some dead wood but some great fun as well

The Bulette and the Brownie, which looks like the more evil bugger?

And this just needs showing - Saxon Angel - a mini painter who’s work makes me think I should just cut my hands off😀