A Look at & Magazine Issue 7

Here is another post meant to break up the monotony of the D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge series of posts.  In this post, I take a look at & Magazine Issue 7.  This is not necessarily a review but more of a spotlight.  

What is & Magazine All About?

& Magazine is a free quarterly pdf publication supporting Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons by filling a role similar to other print hobby magazines of the past such as Dragon, the Fantasy Gamer, White Dwarf, & others.  Their goal with each issue is “filling in the gaps for old school gamers” & that is mentioned right on the cover.  I am going to take a look at Issue #7, the Winter 2013 issue.  This issue & all others are available for download at http://www.&-mag.com/downloads.html along with some bonus materials.  For anyone interested, they do take submissions & do print letters from readers.

Issue 7

Issue 7 of & Magazine is focused on the Inner Planes.  Within the 92 pages there are articles of various lengths covering such topics as extra-planar travel, adventuring on the elemental plane of fire, & expanding the elementals to name a few.  There are also articles outside of the stated Inner Planes focus such as an examination of the saving throws, bringing Doom & AD&D together, & even an update of the old Archer/Archer-Ranger character class from way back in Dragon #45 by the original author Len Lakofka.    

Artwork & Presentation

The cover depicts two people in a battle fairly reminiscent of the battle depicted on the cover of Deities & Demi-Gods; the biggest difference is that these people are using elemental powers to battle instead of divine powers.  Some of the dungeon maps are done in a style very similar to early TSR modules with the blue & white coloring; a very nice touch! The artwork used throughout the magazine is of varying quality but nothing feels out of place.  Some of it may not be to every reader’s taste but that is well within the normal range of artwork in this hobby.  I am reminded of the difference in artwork if you put an issue of Dragon, White Dwarf, the Space Gamer, Vortext, & other gaming magazines side by side.  The typical page is done in a two-column layout with a good font that is easy to read.      

Note: I am only discussing a limited amount of articles from each of the following categories.  This is not so much a review as it is a spotlight on & Magazine. 

Featured Articles

The features consist of two articles in this issue. The first article, You Want to do What??? Adventuring on the Elemental Planes, provides tips for both players & DMs about using the Elemental Planes in their campaign.  The article opens up with a bit of background & how the concept of the Elemental Planes has changed over the years in AD&D; this article is only concerned with the four basic elemental planes.  Then the article shifts to a player perspective for the first half while the DM perspective is used for the second half. 

The most important part of the player section is the note that regardless of whatever else has been read, the DM determines what is true for the elemental planes in his campaign.  Of course, most of the old timers know that from other topics but there is nothing wrong with reinforcement. The Players section covers the following topics on the elemental planes: how to gather information on them, how to get there, how to survive there, & how to get back home.

The DMs section provides tips for preparing & running adventures on any of the elemental planes.  The author points out that the DMs job is much harder while doing so.  The DM is directed to some official AD&D sources – Manual of Planes, Planescape, monster entries – that may provide clues about the planes.  Other topics of interest include methods of travel to the planes, spell & magic item changes, monsters, & changes to class abilities.  This section of the article is wrapped up with suggestions on how to make each plane a unique opportunity for adventure.         

Bonus Articles

There are four bonus articles in this issue.  The second article in this section, A Deeper Look At Saving Throws, shines on spotlight on saving throws in the older editions of A/D&D & the questions that often come up surrounding their use.  The author explains the concept of saving throws, why a simple ability check will not work, what saving throws really represent, & expanding on the uses of saving throws. 

Regular Columns

The seventeen regular columns in this issue are split among maps & several different types of articles.  There is quite a bit of variety on the topics with some articles being multiple entries of the same article type; Creature Feature I – IV & Spellcaster’s Paradise I & II, for example.  The included mini-adventure, The FireForge, is a companion piece to the earlier article about the elemental planes.  The For Further Reading section is not merely suggested articles from the past of & Magazine but a list of blog posts & articles from Dragon, Dungeon, & other magazines that tie into the theme of the elemental planes.  Along with the other articles not mentioned, there are classy touches like a featured artist spotlight included.   

My Thoughts

If you are an old school A/D&D player or enjoy one of the retro-clones then you should be reading & Magazine.  It lives up to the goal of “filling in the gaps for old school gamers” by the diversity of its content.  & Magazine is not one of those fan magazines that only include new monsters and maps in every issue but contains a healthy amount of substance within the contents.  The perfect way to describe how & Magazine is handling things is by reading the Tread Softly column which stated “we're trying to have the same type of balance Dragon had back in its day, with things aimed at more advanced players and other things aimed at those who just started and are getting their feet wet.”.  Nicole Massey explained it perfectly with that statement. & Magazine has the right feel and does, in fact, carry on the spirit of older Dragon magazine and I encourage everyone that fits into the old school type of play to check out this valuable resource.  Issue #8 should be out tomorrow… 

Arduin OSR

Well, it looks like the Arduin rules are now going to be done in a retro fashion.  There is not much news but the first two posts are here:

Arduin OSR

Arduin OSR & Arduin AGs

I am looking forward to this...

Happy New Year!

Looking back at 2011 and looking forward at 2012, I really do not have profound observations, predictions, or resolutions to make at all.  Thanks to all that follow this blog and I hope you have a great 2012!  Most important, I hope every one out there is in a better situation this next year than they are at the current moment.  With that being said, I do have one thought about the future...

Actual Play 
I do not recall playing any role-playing games in the last year; maybe longer even.  I came back to the hobby with the release of 3E and since then have discovered the OSR movement and I am a fan of several of the games.  That is all well and good but I have not had many opportunities to play recently.  I have some games I would like to play - BFRPG, Mutant Future, Pathfinder, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardy, CFRPG, Dark Dungeons - but I will be completely honest and say that I do not even care what the system is at this point. I just WANT TO PLAY just about any rpg.  I would not even care if it was not face to face, either.  It could be play by post or whatever.  I do not care!  Any suggestions?

I originally intended to include several more "thoughts" in this post BUT I believe this is the most relevant to my enjoyment of the hobby from this point on.

 

re: OSR Community Starter 2

As promised, here are my thoughts on what would go into an OSR Community Starter.

Credit Where Credit Is Due
First things first, this is not my original idea.  The genesis of this product happened at this sub-forum on the OD&D Discussion forums.  I take no credit for this idea.  The following is just my collected thoughts if I were to be involved in this project.

Focus
The intent of this product should be to introduce role-playing games to people that are interested but have never played or are now returning to the hobby after an absence.  I think there are two ways to approach this:

1. Tailor the product to focus on the interested individual.  The only thing a single person would require is the product itself and some dice.
2. Tailor the product to focus on a small group that shows interest in role-playing games.  

There is merit to both of these ideas.  It would be great to design this for a group but my initial gut reaction is to tailor it towards an individual.  Something like a "more involved version" of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books.  Plus, that would keep the page count lower.

Some would say that a quick start version of an existing game would serve this purpose well.  I am aware of and have some of the quick starts that are available.  They are fine products but I believe they are best used by people that have role-playing experience but just want to try out a different game.  I envision an OSR Community Starter being the product you grab when one of your non-gamer friends asks "What is this D&D stuff anyway?".


Game System
There are several OSR style games that could be trimmed down a little bit for a starter package but I think there is a better option.  I think a minimalist system specifically designed around showing the play options available in the starter package would be best.  There is no need to explain more than what is necessary to play in the adventure included in the starter.


Dice
I think it would be best to design the OSR starter system around 2D6 or some other D6 only system.  By keeping with the D6, interested players can just go to a set of Yahtzee, Monopoly, RISK, or some other similar game and grab the dice out of it.  No worries about an interested player needing to scrounge up a D20 to try out some role-playing fun.

Here are a few ideas about organizing this hypothetical starter package:


Introduction
Of course, there would need to be a short introductory section explaining what role-playing is all about and how to do it.

Characters
I think that character creation should be mentioned but not detailed in the starter.  Instead, players should be able to choose from 3 to 5 pre-generated characters that they can play through the adventure; maybe a Dwarf Warrior, Human Mage, Elf Ranger, or some other combination of chooses.  These characters should be presented in a 2 column format with the character information on the left and the some notes on the rules in the right column.  There could be arrows or matching numbers that the player could reference to remember how to perform tasks and other things in the game.

Adventure
I think the adventure should avoid the wide open freedom involved in full-fledged games and use a setup similar to the old Choose Your Own Adventure game books.  Yes, this will be somewhat of a railroad sort of adventure but it will get the point across.  Only the monsters and treasure needed for the adventure will be included in the starter.

What's Next?
For players that enjoyed the experience and want to know about their options.  There are several choices:

• Further solo adventures for people that want to try it again without worrying about gathering a group for play.  There would need to be new monsters detailed in this product.
• An adventure designed for group play.  This would basically be like the solo game but would also introduce the role of the game master and the adventure options would be wide open instead of programmed like the solo adventure.  There would be additional monsters and treasures detailed in this product.
• A website with the complete rules of the system outlined in the solo adventure.
• A short section detailing other OSR games that are available and their websites. 

There are my ideas for the OSR Community Starter.  What are your ideas?

re: OSR Community Starter 1

Over on the OD&D Discussion forums I have been checking up on this thread about an OSR Community Starter project.  The discussion has gone back and forth with no real consensus among the people involved.  In a nutshell, some people want a stripped down version of an existing product while others want to use expanded pre-generated characters; there was at least one person that offered up a system he had designed to serve this purpose.  I pretty much have a full plate as far as RPG projects go but I do have some ideas for designing such a product. I am not going to detail them in this post but there will be a follow up post that shows an outline and examples of what I would do.  If anyone would be interested in helping, let me know.  It should not be too difficult to make this thing a reality.

TO BE CONTINUED...