Post by geneweigel on Sept 12, 2013 19:20:09 GMT -5
I just got it in the mail (I don't have a subscription. I ordered last week.)
Superficially it looks okay, an Easley "warm feelings" cover of the kind from the AD&D recovers. Basically a red dragon with a bird's nest of hatchlings emerging from eggs with "daddy" ("mommy" for you New Agers...
) in the background.
An advert for C&C that actually is the best image that I've ever seen associated with that brand with what looks like a dwarf swinging a hammer. If this is Peter Bradley then its a big improvement.
An Advert for DWARVEN FORGE picnic tables, an oaken bed, two barrels, two chests and a pile of gold in a 20 foot wide corridor surrounded by 10 foot wide corridors. Seems kind of off.
Contents. Looks like DRAGON circa 1986-87. Publishers Elliot and the two Gygax brothers.
Editorial. Some light realizing that this is their second issue with some summaries of whats inside sort of an "Advanced Contents"... An advert for a program called "Character Folio". Seems unclear. A small preview pic of Luke Gygax's page 40 "world".
Full page advert for a Cthulhu gaming magazine called UNSPEAKBLE OATHS. Has that all-encompassing un-Lovecraftian facetiousness that I can't stand anymore with a silhouette of what looks like one of Lumley's chthonians which the "C.M." (CTHULHOID MAJORITY... ) standardize as dholes.
Full page advert for some new RPG called TORCHBEARER. Looks like its kind of cool with a dragon in a cavern ready to pounce on fighter, a dwarf and a thief with some spiders.
Full page advert for a KICKSTARTER fundraiser (not an actual product) to make a series of manuals to instruct people on how to make maps "25 QUICK AND DIRTY MAP TUTORIALS GUIDE". I mean thers two alright images but the map that is on the proposed cover looks weak.
Full page advert for a game called ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS of HYPERBOREA with a note that it was nominated for 3 Ennie awards. A B&W sketch of a party with musicians for a massive spherical alien lifeform with a woman with a thong clenched in her cheeks in the foreground.
Full page advert for a "Pathfinder-compatible" (D20?) a trilogy of modules and upcoming Gamemaster and Player's Guides to KAIDAN setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG[Pathfinder RPG???]). Looks like a Western woman with layered hair madeup to look Oriental with a giant spider sniffing her backside.
Page 9. TACTICS IN SAMURAI BATTLES by Tim Kask. Kask goes over some tactics for a boxed miniatures game called SAMURAI BATTLES by a company called Zvesda (Russian?). I wasn't sure what the game was about at first. Its nicely illustrated with ink drawings of samurai but it seemed unclear what the game looks like. Its an article for the initiated as he mentions some in-game jargon "H&F tokens" without saying what that means. (I looked it up on the website its "honor & fortune tokens". And the game actually looks kind of cool: samurai-battles.com/samurai-battles/ It seems like its $80 retail).
page 12 THE EVOLUTION FROM WARGAMING TO ROLE-PLAYING by Ernest Gary Gygax Jr. A anectdotal in the vein of his father about the Greyhawk campaign with some light details. I've heard Gary's and Rob's accounts but not Jr's so this was interesting. Illustrated with a picture of a party tripping orcs into a pool of lighted oil that looks like perhaps I've seen it before. (Or at least the wizard standing at the left of the door does.)
Full page ad for a hardcover "streamlined for modern roleplaying" version of TRAVELLER by Mongoose Publishing. Looks like the old traveller on the cover of the book in the B&W image.
Page 15 an article HITCHHIKING IN DOCTOR WHO: ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE. Its a new content for this Doctor Who game done in the style of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series. Some goofy creatures and some goofy items. The items are illustrated.
page 18 LEOMUND'S SECURE SHELTER by Lenard Lakofka. This issue Len reapproaches his NOV 1979 Dragon #31 article "All Good Things Must End: Deadly Determinations For An AD&D Character's Fate" with an updated look on his take on below zero HP effects. Its interesting for sure. Illustrated with an image of a scratched up wounded fighter in the foreground of a jungle setting with a party fighting a spider ape in the background PLUS a b&w image of a sword stabbed in the ground when its continued on page 64.
page twenty Some musings about a photocopied mess of papers found in Phil M.A.R. Barker's house as some kind of bridge between CHAINMAIL & the 3 book set. The researcher (author of PLAYING AT THE WORLD) mentions secondhand that Arneson told someone it might have been his copy of a draft and Gygax never saw it before. From reading this, knowing Arneson's way of speech, it seems to me to be someone's mess of notes that might be ratified by another Rosetta Stone but this isn't one. I'm just guessing. An image of a locked tome.
page 22 some article about "geeks" socializing. Weird. If I were to write an article about geeks it would be about them all getting the fuck out of fantasy gaming. Illustration of ettin by Tom Wham. Ad for DARK SWORD minis with exception of the hamster samurai they don't look half bad.
page 24 article about building a spellbook for a customizable card game/miniature game called MAGE WARS. image of a woman i na wave casting spell.
page 26 A humorous cartoon. An ad for a "cooperative storytelling adventure" called MICE MYSTICS.
Advert full page for Goodman Games. Image of four player characters very second edition feel to it.
Page 28 T&T frontman Ken St. Andre has an article about how he's GM because he likes to be a storyteller. Blasphemy!!!
advert for Miniature Building Authority makes ready to play painted building in 28mm image of street and a tower
page 30 an article on how kids can get into old school renaissance gaming with some cloner stuff. I'd just say stop all the skilling and be done with it!
Full page advert for "Pathfinder/Adventure Game Engine" campaign setting MIDGARD. List of 3rd edition sounding game features "feats', "gearforged", etc. Image of a booklet and shield half lion/half eagle.
page 34 article on a Cthulhu-style bard class but its mostly talk referring to how play works in the early ad for a game called ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN AND SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA. Image of a medieval guy playing a violin (anachronism?) with a squid playing a horn with a jellyfish coming out of a starry hole in the ceiling.
page 38 a new monster for SAVAGE WORLDS game "Inkubus" appearing as a tattoo of women, dogs, sharks, snakes or winged skulls. Wouldn't that be a "sukkubus"?
page 40 THE BLIGHTED LANDS: ADVENTURING IN THE LANDS OF OKKORIM by Luke Gygax. He says its inspired by his time in Middle East. Nice. Now this was worth it. Its a short mission-like adventure with two new illustrated "monsters" (humanoid & scorpion) and two very nice fold out maps one a small city and the other a desert wilderness map. It promises a product based on THE BLIGHTED LANDS from TSR PUBLICATIONS. Cool.
page 46 an adventure for a game THE ONE RING: ADVENTURES OVER THE EDGE OF THE WILD. 4 trolls bothering a village. It seems like a lot of detail of action but it would have been more interesting with a map. Image of a long fanged troll. Image of a wagon. Troll portraits over some stats.
page 55 d20 article Super science in fantasy games. Okay nothing too portable here. Comic-like image of a yeti fighting space armored types.
page 58 DUELING THROUGH THE AGES duels for the AGE system. Uses something called a Dragon Die. ?? Image of a rider stabbing another rider with a sword.
Page 60 article about towers with strangely statted monsters for the MIDGARD CAMPAIGN SETTING.
bunch of short ads packed in two pages. Dungeon Crawler rpg, 13th age rpg, citystate of the sea kings from Judges Guild, Harn (WTF?), Seven Sisters rpg "now on KICKSTARTER", free pathfinder adventure Crow's Rest Island
advert FIGHTING FIRE adventure in support of the Ernie Gygax relief fund
advert SAVAGE WORLD deluxe hardcover image of book and anachronistic warriors
two page comic by the maker of NODWICK. Its forced humor at best for nonsensical geek play situation. This time involving a cheap DM not giving them food and geeky overreaction.
one page comic ORDER OF THE STICK. Same as above. This time involving feeling sorry for a monster ( a wererat) and giving him a weapon then worrying that other adventurers will kill him. BAAAADDD.... PEEYYOOO!!!!
full page ad for DUNGEONEER card game image of a warrior with a lantern illuminating an angry skeleton and some card examples.
Full page advert for STAR WARS EDGE OF THE EMPIRE beginner game. Pic of wookie, medical droid, Han SOlo cookie cutter and a green tenctcle headed stormtrooper. This is the game with its own dice.
Epilogue:
Overall this was worth it for the Luke Gygax tidbit alone. Everything else is all gravy.
Superficially it looks okay, an Easley "warm feelings" cover of the kind from the AD&D recovers. Basically a red dragon with a bird's nest of hatchlings emerging from eggs with "daddy" ("mommy" for you New Agers...
) in the background.An advert for C&C that actually is the best image that I've ever seen associated with that brand with what looks like a dwarf swinging a hammer. If this is Peter Bradley then its a big improvement.
An Advert for DWARVEN FORGE picnic tables, an oaken bed, two barrels, two chests and a pile of gold in a 20 foot wide corridor surrounded by 10 foot wide corridors. Seems kind of off.
Contents. Looks like DRAGON circa 1986-87. Publishers Elliot and the two Gygax brothers.
Editorial. Some light realizing that this is their second issue with some summaries of whats inside sort of an "Advanced Contents"...
An advert for a program called "Character Folio". Seems unclear. A small preview pic of Luke Gygax's page 40 "world".Full page advert for a Cthulhu gaming magazine called UNSPEAKBLE OATHS. Has that all-encompassing un-Lovecraftian facetiousness that I can't stand anymore with a silhouette of what looks like one of Lumley's chthonians which the "C.M." (CTHULHOID MAJORITY...
) standardize as dholes.Full page advert for some new RPG called TORCHBEARER. Looks like its kind of cool with a dragon in a cavern ready to pounce on fighter, a dwarf and a thief with some spiders.
Full page advert for a KICKSTARTER fundraiser (not an actual product) to make a series of manuals to instruct people on how to make maps "25 QUICK AND DIRTY MAP TUTORIALS GUIDE". I mean thers two alright images but the map that is on the proposed cover looks weak.
Full page advert for a game called ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS of HYPERBOREA with a note that it was nominated for 3 Ennie awards. A B&W sketch of a party with musicians for a massive spherical alien lifeform with a woman with a thong clenched in her cheeks in the foreground.
Full page advert for a "Pathfinder-compatible" (D20?) a trilogy of modules and upcoming Gamemaster and Player's Guides to KAIDAN setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG[Pathfinder RPG???]). Looks like a Western woman with layered hair madeup to look Oriental with a giant spider sniffing her backside.
Page 9. TACTICS IN SAMURAI BATTLES by Tim Kask. Kask goes over some tactics for a boxed miniatures game called SAMURAI BATTLES by a company called Zvesda (Russian?). I wasn't sure what the game was about at first. Its nicely illustrated with ink drawings of samurai but it seemed unclear what the game looks like. Its an article for the initiated as he mentions some in-game jargon "H&F tokens" without saying what that means. (I looked it up on the website its "honor & fortune tokens". And the game actually looks kind of cool: samurai-battles.com/samurai-battles/ It seems like its $80 retail).
page 12 THE EVOLUTION FROM WARGAMING TO ROLE-PLAYING by Ernest Gary Gygax Jr. A anectdotal in the vein of his father about the Greyhawk campaign with some light details. I've heard Gary's and Rob's accounts but not Jr's so this was interesting. Illustrated with a picture of a party tripping orcs into a pool of lighted oil that looks like perhaps I've seen it before. (Or at least the wizard standing at the left of the door does.)
Full page ad for a hardcover "streamlined for modern roleplaying" version of TRAVELLER by Mongoose Publishing. Looks like the old traveller on the cover of the book in the B&W image.
Page 15 an article HITCHHIKING IN DOCTOR WHO: ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE. Its a new content for this Doctor Who game done in the style of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series. Some goofy creatures and some goofy items. The items are illustrated.
page 18 LEOMUND'S SECURE SHELTER by Lenard Lakofka. This issue Len reapproaches his NOV 1979 Dragon #31 article "All Good Things Must End: Deadly Determinations For An AD&D Character's Fate" with an updated look on his take on below zero HP effects. Its interesting for sure. Illustrated with an image of a scratched up wounded fighter in the foreground of a jungle setting with a party fighting a spider ape in the background PLUS a b&w image of a sword stabbed in the ground when its continued on page 64.
page twenty Some musings about a photocopied mess of papers found in Phil M.A.R. Barker's house as some kind of bridge between CHAINMAIL & the 3 book set. The researcher (author of PLAYING AT THE WORLD) mentions secondhand that Arneson told someone it might have been his copy of a draft and Gygax never saw it before. From reading this, knowing Arneson's way of speech, it seems to me to be someone's mess of notes that might be ratified by another Rosetta Stone but this isn't one. I'm just guessing. An image of a locked tome.
page 22 some article about "geeks" socializing. Weird. If I were to write an article about geeks it would be about them all getting the fuck out of fantasy gaming.
Illustration of ettin by Tom Wham. Ad for DARK SWORD minis with exception of the hamster samurai they don't look half bad.page 24 article about building a spellbook for a customizable card game/miniature game called MAGE WARS. image of a woman i na wave casting spell.
page 26 A humorous cartoon. An ad for a "cooperative storytelling adventure" called MICE MYSTICS.
Advert full page for Goodman Games. Image of four player characters very second edition feel to it.
Page 28 T&T frontman Ken St. Andre has an article about how he's GM because he likes to be a storyteller. Blasphemy!!!
advert for Miniature Building Authority makes ready to play painted building in 28mm image of street and a tower
page 30 an article on how kids can get into old school renaissance gaming with some cloner stuff. I'd just say stop all the skilling and be done with it!
Full page advert for "Pathfinder/Adventure Game Engine" campaign setting MIDGARD. List of 3rd edition sounding game features "feats', "gearforged", etc. Image of a booklet and shield half lion/half eagle.
page 34 article on a Cthulhu-style bard class but its mostly talk referring to how play works in the early ad for a game called ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN AND SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA. Image of a medieval guy playing a violin (anachronism?) with a squid playing a horn with a jellyfish coming out of a starry hole in the ceiling.
page 38 a new monster for SAVAGE WORLDS game "Inkubus" appearing as a tattoo of women, dogs, sharks, snakes or winged skulls. Wouldn't that be a "sukkubus"?
page 40 THE BLIGHTED LANDS: ADVENTURING IN THE LANDS OF OKKORIM by Luke Gygax. He says its inspired by his time in Middle East. Nice. Now this was worth it. Its a short mission-like adventure with two new illustrated "monsters" (humanoid & scorpion) and two very nice fold out maps one a small city and the other a desert wilderness map. It promises a product based on THE BLIGHTED LANDS from TSR PUBLICATIONS. Cool.
page 46 an adventure for a game THE ONE RING: ADVENTURES OVER THE EDGE OF THE WILD. 4 trolls bothering a village. It seems like a lot of detail of action but it would have been more interesting with a map. Image of a long fanged troll. Image of a wagon. Troll portraits over some stats.
page 55 d20 article Super science in fantasy games. Okay nothing too portable here. Comic-like image of a yeti fighting space armored types.
page 58 DUELING THROUGH THE AGES duels for the AGE system. Uses something called a Dragon Die. ?? Image of a rider stabbing another rider with a sword.
Page 60 article about towers with strangely statted monsters for the MIDGARD CAMPAIGN SETTING.
bunch of short ads packed in two pages. Dungeon Crawler rpg, 13th age rpg, citystate of the sea kings from Judges Guild, Harn (WTF?), Seven Sisters rpg "now on KICKSTARTER", free pathfinder adventure Crow's Rest Island
advert FIGHTING FIRE adventure in support of the Ernie Gygax relief fund
advert SAVAGE WORLD deluxe hardcover image of book and anachronistic warriors
two page comic by the maker of NODWICK. Its forced humor at best for nonsensical geek play situation. This time involving a cheap DM not giving them food and geeky overreaction.
one page comic ORDER OF THE STICK. Same as above. This time involving feeling sorry for a monster ( a wererat) and giving him a weapon then worrying that other adventurers will kill him. BAAAADDD.... PEEYYOOO!!!!
full page ad for DUNGEONEER card game image of a warrior with a lantern illuminating an angry skeleton and some card examples.
Full page advert for STAR WARS EDGE OF THE EMPIRE beginner game. Pic of wookie, medical droid, Han SOlo cookie cutter and a green tenctcle headed stormtrooper. This is the game with its own dice.
Epilogue:
Overall this was worth it for the Luke Gygax tidbit alone. Everything else is all gravy.
