- The issue starts with a detailed article on the Traveller roleplaying game. I know nothing about the game at all, but still found it a fascinating read due to superb writing by the author (a real rarity in these early issues of the magazine). The point of his article can be summed up by saying that the success of a character is far more related to how they are played than by the random stats they are generated with. I've mentioned this topic before, and it's something we no longer even think about really given that randomly generated character stats have largely gone the way of the dinosaur in modern RPGs (tabletop or video game). In days of yore, some players (*cough*munchkins*cough*) would whine when they rolled up a character who they felt didn't have good enough stats, and that became their excuse when the character failed. Nowadays when you roll up a human paladin in World of Warcraft you know he is exactly the same as every other human paladin that ever has or ever will be rolled up, which eliminates that particular excuse. Sadly though, now our excuses have shifted to whining about balance problems between races or classes.
- There's quite a few game reviews in this issue, from the Traveller game already mentioned (and yes, they do intentionally spell it with two 'l's), to some board and miniature games, to my favorite board game of all time (which I've talked about previously), Cosmic Encounter. Alas for the lack of time to be able to experience all these different games...
- We get a couple of articles on magic for D&D. One is a list of new spells researched by players in the author's campaign. They're a little on the powerful side, and I don't believe any of them ultimately caught on. The other in an article discussing the theory of magic - elements like the Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion, etc. It's interesting, but really only useful if you're going to be creating your own magic system to replace the existing one.
- There are a few short articles that demonstrate how not to write an article. First is an article on weapons for monks based on traditional Japanese weapons, but the author bizarrely forgets to include actual stats for any of the weapons. Second is an article on poison that I don't even understand. Finally there is an article on NPC stats for shop owners that shows that most people just don't know how to design rules that are simple and mesh well with the existing system. Good writing is definitely at a premium at this point, mainly because the magazine is still relying heavily on fan submissions. It will be a while before it transitions to professional staff writers.
Some articles for other games (Boot Hill, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World) round things out, including this month's Sorcerer's Scroll. We get back to products now with the D series of modules.
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