White Dwarf: Issue #8

Issue #8 of White Dwarf (August/September 1978) features a very striking cover by Derek Hayes. The story depicts a scene from Rowland Flynn's short story, "The Valley of the Four Winds," which appears later in the same issue (about which more shortly). Ian Livingstone's editorial returns to two common subjects of his pieces: first, that the USA produces more games than does the UK and, second, that "traditionalists" are slow to accept that "the presence of monsters and magic does not mean the absence of skill in play." If nothing else, these editorials offer one perspective on the British gaming scene in the late '70s, a perspective of which I might otherwise not be aware.

"Monster Modelling" by Mervyn Lemon is a wonderfully practical short article, in which the author provides four examples of how to turn wire, tissue paper, and other bits of household materials into miniature figures. The article includes fairly detailed diagrams on how Lemon created the monsters, much to my pleasure. Being utterly lacking in handicrafts, this is a subject that fascinates me. The "Fiend Factory" returns with eight more monsters for use with Dungeons & Dragons, including the tween, the carbuncle, and the coffer corpse, all of which would later be reprinted in the Fiend Folio.

Lewis Pulsipher offers up "Critical Hits," which is a relatively simple system for handling, in his words, "the odd chances of combat." Interestingly, Pulsipher's approach requires first a natural roll of 20 followed by a second roll that must be high enough to hit the target's armor class. This is similar to the approach adopted in Third Edition D&D and makes critical hits rarer than the 5% chance found in many other systems from the same era. If a critical hit is indicated, there's a d20 roll on a table to determine the effect, with double damage occurring only on rolls of 17–20 (all other rolls indicate some sort of temporary impairment, such as the shield arm becoming useless or unconsciousness). All things considered, it's not a bad system.

Part IV of Brian Asbury's eponymous "Asbury System" – the last part, he explains – focuses on percentile abilities, such as those employed by thieves and bards. Each success in using these abilities grants experience points, with diminishing returns. As I have said before, while I genuinely appreciate what Asbury is attempting to do with his system, I'm not sure the added complexity and bookkeeping justifies its use. "The Man-Beast" by Greg Foster is a new character class for D&D, representing a character who, through the use of a magic ring, can transform between being, well, a man or a beast. The class is thus similar to being a lycanthrope and is intended primarily for characters "with a tendency towards evil." I'm honestly a bit baffled by it, but I nevertheless enjoy seeing weird experiments like this one. They're a good reminder of the reckless inventiveness that the early hobby encouraged.

"Open Box" includes reviews of FGU's Space Marines miniatures rules, Starships & Spacemen, TSR's Monster Manual, and War of Wizards. All these products get good reviews, with the Monster Manual receiving the most effusive praise. Meanwhile, the "Letters" page contains four missives from readers and previous authors responding to comments and criticisms. The most interesting of these is Roger Musson's reply to Gary Gygax's intemperate letter in issue #7. By and large, Musson takes Gygax's criticisms in good spirit, which is to his credit. At the end of his reply, he nevertheless cannot resist – and I do not blame him – calling out Gygax's hyperbole:

Well said.
David Lloyd's "Kalgar" comic continues, followed by part one of the aforementioned short story by Rowland Flynn, "The Valley of the Four Winds." When I saw the title, I initially thought of the adventure scenario for FGU's Bushido , which has the same name. Instead, it appears to relate to a collection of figures produced by Miniatures Figurines Ltd. of Southampton. An advertisement depicting the figures appears on the page immediately after the short story. This issue felt strangely light by comparison to previous ones, even though it's the same length (28 pages) as its immediate predecessors. Perhaps it's my imagination, but there appeared to be more advertisements, several of them full-page in size, in this issue than there had been previously. True or not, issue #8 is not a stand-out one for me. If anything, it's yet another reminder of just how difficult it has always been to produce consistent quality in a periodical. With even my minimal experience in this area, I have great sympathy for what Ian Livingstone and his crew were doing, which is why I find it difficult to offer much criticism when an issue does not fully seize my attention. On to issue #9!