In the last two reviews I’ve much established that the articles in White Dwarf at this time are hit and miss but generally still worth reading even after all the games they support are out of print. That’s a pretty good mark of quality for a magazine. However writing articles is one thing, trying to sell product is another. Last issue they failed to mention Games Workshops latest game Blood Royal in anything other than a very short preview. This issue something big is coming and I’m going to see if they sell me on it.
On the second page on less there is an advert for Warhammer 40,000, looking through the contents page Blood Royal isn’t mentioned at all. Oh well RIP Blood Royal July 1987- August 1987 we hardly knew thee. The rumours section mentions that Rogue Trader is in the typesetting phase and going to be released next month. Also for nostalgia fans there is a mention of a brand new games show on, Knightmare.
In the miniatures releases this month: Ninjas, Wizards a Minotaur, Normans, some Armoured Dwarfs and some models that look suspiciously like Dark Elves and Chaos Warriors but are referred to as Pan Tagians and Melniboneans. The last page of which is in colour at least. Citadel miniatures released a lot of miniatures like this around this time so get used to looking at them.
After Critical Mass comes a three page advert to work for Games Workshop, that’s two more pages than Blood Royal got. I fact this episode we get to page 20 before starting on the articles due to so many adverts for games and miniatures. Granted there was content but Thrud and Gobbledigook do not count.
Racial profiles for the Warhammer fantasy races. Extra rules for a game called Chainsaw Warrior and we are almost half way through the magazine before we get to an article about Paranoia, no wait, it’s an advert for second edition Paranioa which in August 1987 was coming soon, Ghah. As an aside if you want to get into Paranoia, the 3rd edition got Kickstarted recently and its coming up for a proper re release soon.
Finally we get into something that looks like sustained content and its an article on demonology in role playing games with a heavy disclaimer as this was around the time that RPGs were being falsely accused in the press of causing young kids to turn into Satan worshipping serial killers. You can read all about this media panic elsewhere but it’s baffling these days to see this article contain a paragraph explaining that demons aren’t real things.
More adverts for miniatures, at 4 or 5 models for about £1 a model in today’s prices, some actually look alright but nothing to write home about, having said that in 1987 if you wanted something to fill up your dungeon with they would be pretty good.
On to our mandatory AD&D adventure, it contains maps and building layouts, its clear that someone put a lot of time and effort into this (that someone being Carl Sargent, Euran Smith and Charles Ellott).
Finally there is an errata for WFRP, some art sketches and the regular Eavy Metal section talking about how to use brushes and that’s all. There were a lot of adverts here, nearly 30 pages of specific adverts in a 86 page magazine. Maybe they were saving them all up from the last issues?
