Having been lucky enough to get the firs 10 years of White Dwarf on DVD (withdrawn due to copyright problems, I understand), I thought I would have a stab at reading them in order and commenting. So here goes.
Issue 1
The cover says June/July 1977, price 50p/1.50. The sub-title is "The science fiction and fantasy games magazine"
The cover itself is a black and white picture on a mustard coloured background and shows what I presume are two dwarfs. one of whom is lopping off the head of an unfortunate man in robes (presumably a wizard of sorts) while two strange-looking birds/demons look on in the background. It's no that badly drawn, all things considered, though clearly amateurish.
At the bottom of the cover it reads: "This issue: The Monstermark - monster malignity in D&D; Metamorphosis Alpha - review and suggestions; Competitive D&D - an introduction"
Inside....
We start with a page of adverts (for Thane Tostig by Barry Minot (what happened to him?), Monsters, Monsters, and Chris Harvey (who seem to be running some kind of mail order service).
Next, the contents page and editorial by Ian Livingstone.
The editorial talks of "dramatic change" in the "art of wargaming" over the previous two years and relates this specifically to the arrival of Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. He then goes on to report that there are now over 50 Sci Fi/ Fantasy games on the market, and 10 companies making SF/F miniatures, before stating that White Dwarf has been published to support these games, with particular reference to D&D. How times change....
The Contents list 9 items, some of which were destined to be mainstays of the magazine for many years: Metamorphosis Alpha, D&D Society, The Monstermark System, Open Box, Competitive D&D, No Way Out?, D&D Campaigns, The Warlord, and Treasure Chest.
The Metamorphosis Alpha article starts with a fairly poor full page drawing of a fight involving a a sentient plant, several characters with swords an knives, and a two-headed guy with a knife stuck in his thigh, and a look of surprise on one of his faces.
The article itself is by Ian Livingstone and gives a lot of comment and some suggestions about the game background - but virtually no comment about the rules themselves. He concludes that MA has the makings of an excellent game, and asks for tables, rules, equipment, mutated animals etc to be sent in.
D&D Society turns to be a short piece about the Society (apparently formed at Games Day 2, and inviting members - the main function seems to be putting players in touch with each other.
There follow a few more adverts, and then "The Monstermark System - out of the confusion of varying monster statistics comes a new system for assessing a monster's relative nastiness". This is by Don Turnbull, who becomes a regular contributor to the Dwarf in its early years. This article (only the first of several) is..... astonishing. It is 3 pages long, and gives a complex way of calculating the relative power of a monster in D&D.
It does this by calculating the D factor (defense) and the A factor (aggressiveness) based on things like "the average number of rounds it takes a first level fighter to kill a monster with a 1-8 sword allowing no bonuses".
There then follow a series of calculations that make my head reel before a series of tables that tell us for example, that a Shadow has a monstermark of 8.2, and a Troll a monstermark of 158.4...
I could not finish reading this article, which made me dizzy. I will continue afteer I have recovered - the best is yet to come.
Having been lucky enough to get the firs 10 years of White Dwarf on DVD (withdrawn due to copyright problems, I understand), I thought I would have a stab at reading them in order and commenting. So here goes.
I remember spider dragons.
C.
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I've moved the Actual Play links to my control panel.
Somewhere I have a copy of White Dwarf issue #14, which came out in the month I was born.
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Duncan James Campbell, Notorious Renegade of the Wushu Clan
"I am not a student of human nature. I am a professor of a far wider academy of which human nature is merely a part." -- The Doctor
I remember it well - and my brother has all of those issues as magazines. I think that WD#1 was the reason for me buying MA all those years ago.
Of course Open Box and Treasure Chest became regular features pretty quickly. There is a related thread in the D20 area about WD too.
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"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers." - Voltaire
"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through' narrow chinks of his cavern" - William Blake
Open box - the review column, reviewed Sorcerer (SPI), and Starship Troopers (Avalon Hill). These are pretty good, and clearly a lot of trouble has been gone to in assessing these. The price surprised me though - £7.95 for Starship Troopers - what a bargain!
Competitive D&D - an article by Fred Hemmings, basically dealing with a write up of a "competition dungeon" - I suppose like a tournament dungeon. It's not a bad write up, but I especially liked the bit where it was revealed that every character had a magic knapsack containing (at no encumbrance) one of every item from the D&D equipment list! Next issue we are promised point allocation and the use of pre-rolled characters...
No way out? is a short column by "puzzles expert, David Wells" and consists of 3 "puzzles" to insert in your dungeon. These are the typical puzzles that seemed so common once, and so tired now.... "Tweedledee always and only lies immediately after Tweedledum has lied..."
Next D&D Campaigns, by Lewis Pulsipher (also to become a WD regular). This is a sllightly odd article. The author tries to divide D&D into games played as games, and those played as a "fantasy novel". He then seems to criticise GMs who "make everything up". However, the artilce is redeemed by some sound advice on consistency within the GM's campaign world. The article kind of runs out of steam - I think it may be picked up next issue.
Next a lengthy review by Steve Jackson (the other one) of a board game called The Warlord - which he clearly loves, and is something to do with empires and nuclear missiles!
Treasure Chest - the first of another WD regular column. This issue has several items: The Helm of Vision - a powerful magic item, a short article called "What's wrong with D&D" (the combat system and the magic system apparently - plus ca change...).
Finally a new character class..... I kid you not, "The Pervert". Presumably tongue in cheek (I hope!). Some folk will remember when D&D classes had names associated with levels (eg enchanter, adept, conjurer etc). The level names for this class are: Peeping Tom, Voyeur, Graffiti Artist, Obscene Caller, Flasher, Streaker, Groper, Pornographer, Rapist!! and Pervert. Yuk.
Finally a short piece on poisons (with a table - of course), a call for letters and some more small ads, and a full page ad/catalogue for Games Workshop - this makes fascinating reading, and includes items such as:
Dungeons and Dragons £6.75
Boot Hill £3.40
Bunnies and Burrows £3.50
Finally a new character class..... I kid you not, "The Pervert". Presumably tongue in cheek (I hope!). Some folk will remember when D&D classes had names associated with levels (eg enchanter, adept, conjurer etc). The level names for this class are: Peeping Tom, Voyeur, Graffiti Artist, Obscene Caller, Flasher, Streaker, Groper, Pornographer, Rapist!! and Pervert. Yuk.
In about 15 issues or so you'll see the Strangler character class pop up, so maybe they just had a thing for odd character classes back in the day.
Now I wish I'd kept my tiny collection of old White Dwarfs. I was given them in '05 by a fellow getting out of gaming, but they were so beat up I got rid of them last year when I needed space. I remember that about a week before I got them I was exposed to Dune for the first time, which was good, as it made me understand the Fiend Folio with the Freeman rip off that was noted as being changed for copyright reasons.
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Excellent dealings with: Blizack, Bob Cram (x3), Chade (x2), cloak n' dagger, fanflicks, gunsel (x2), Juicinator, Risky McGee, Rumble, sidhe vicious, Spartan, Steve Dubya(x2), thatjimguy, Vivsavage.
I got rid of all my old WDs a few weeks ago. Starting at 76 I had erratically collected them until about 120 when I collected them religiously for a few years.
No regrets about getting rid of them. Apart from some interesting variant paint schemes there was really nothing in them of interest to me now. They just made me want to paint miniatures I can't buy anymore.
Still, this should be an interesting thread.
Re: In which I read White Dwarf from issue 1
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