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Traveller in White Dwarf

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Keklas Rekobah

SOC-14 1K
I've collected all but one of the issues of White Dwarf Magazine that feature Traveller-related articles. The one issue that I'm missing is number 13 (June/July 1979), featuring "Expanding Universe: Additions to Traveller Rules, Part 1" by Andy Slack. I'll be scrounging the used-book stores in the Anaheim area, although a donated copy would work just as well. PayPal and eBay are out of the question, after more than one bad experience.

My plan is to first Index all of the Traveller articles by issue, page, title and author (or editor), then endure the tedium of re-typing every single one into a compilation, and finally convert the compilation to PDF for archival purposes.

I never realized before that Andy Slack has been involved in Traveller so deeply and for so long.
 
Heh. :)

I just read WD #77 ... there really is a "subliminal" message hidden in the table of contents. I wonder if Ian Marsh found it difficult to get another editor's job after that.
 
Spill the beans, guys... not all of us have collections of old WD issues. And GW is hostile to them being made available. (I asked...)
 
I actually have one up on Aramis? WOWZERS!

Okay, that was fun ...

In the table of contents for White Dwarf, Issue #77 (the one with the Heavy Metal girl on the cover), the initial letter of each subtitle spells out, "SODOFFBRYANANSELL" ("Sod Off" being roughly the U.K. equivalent of "Drop Dead").

As the apocrypha goes, it seems that sometime around issue #76, White Dwarf had been sold off to the Warhammer people, and the demands placed on the original White Dwarf staff (relocate or say 'Good-Bye', I think...) by the new owner, Bryan Ansell, resulted in a lot of bitterness, which editor Ian Marsh expressed through this prank.
 
aramis said:
... not all of us have collections of old WD issues. And GW is hostile to them being made available. (I asked...)
Click to expand...
This may have to do with their policy (since issue #100) of restricting White Dwarf articles to topics related solely to Games Workshop products (LOTR: Strategy Battle Game and Warhammer). It's fair, I suppose, if pushing minis around a green felt tabletop is anybody's idea of fun.
 
Keklas Rekobah said:
This may have to do with their policy (since issue #100) of restricting White Dwarf articles to topics related solely to Games Workshop products (LOTR: Strategy Battle Game and Warhammer). It's fair, I suppose, if pushing minis around a green felt tabletop is anybody's idea of fun.
Click to expand...

No, they were hostile to PDF releases/rereleases, period. The invective on their part was unpleasant; sufficient for a TV-M rating.
 
Keklas Rekobah said:
In the table of contents for White Dwarf, Issue #77 (the one with the Heavy Metal girl on the cover), the initial letter of each subtitle spells out, "SODOFFBRYANANSELL" ("Sod Off" being roughly the U.K. equivalent of "Drop Dead").
Click to expand...

You know I even looked for that, but just couldn't spot anything!

One of my old colleagues sent an email to our then Boss where each of the first letter of each line on text in the email spelt "PissOff" (like Sod off, but more crass), and the email was about not doing something we were told to do (can't remember the detail). The clever bit was that the email would only format to spell "PissOff" if used by a certain email client, which only our boss used (not even my colleauge used the client). so when our boss asked about the details within the email with us, so he could check the email sent from my colleauge, the email didn't format to portray the message :)

Regards,

Ewan
 
<rummages through WD back issue collection>

OUCH!!

<rubs banged knee>

S-O-D-O-F-F- ... hahahaha! Good one, Mr. Marsh! :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Keklas Rekobah said:
This may have to do with their policy (since issue #100) of restricting White Dwarf articles to topics related solely to Games Workshop products (LOTR: Strategy Battle Game and Warhammer). [...]
Click to expand...

Which is a shame. I recently went through the stack of game magazines I'd accumulated, and I'm still impressed by the pre-100 WDs. Dragon was also good at the same time. Both carried interesting articles for a mix of genres and systems.

Now I'm getting back into RPGs, are there any good periodicals with general coverage any more? (Although I'm drowning in material from the web.)
 
PhilB said:
Which is a shame. I recently went through the stack of game magazines I'd accumulated, and I'm still impressed by the pre-100 WDs. Dragon was also good at the same time. Both carried interesting articles for a mix of genres and systems.

Now I'm getting back into RPGs, are there any good periodicals with general coverage any more? (Although I'm drowning in material from the web.)
Click to expand...

Not really. Almost all have moved either to the "Not-a-magazine-magazine" format supporting a single game (Rifter, for example, supporting Rifts) or have gone e-zine only, with PoD copies available.

Dungeon, Dragon, Pyramid, and several others have gone electronic only.

Closest is "Knights of the Dinner Table" which is Kenzer & Co's house organ. It occasionally does have a non-Hackmaster non-D&D Non-Aces&Eights article.

Signs and Portents seems to have dropped non-web.

All the mags I've seen have been house organs... Eden Studios Presents, Rifter, Captain's Log, and WD. And Rifter is published as a book, not as a mag; same with CL.

There might be some out there, but my FLGS isn't getting them. And PDF is much easier on the distribution side with a much longer tail.
 
aramis said:
Not really. Almost all have moved either to the "Not-a-magazine-magazine" format supporting a single game (Rifter, for example, supporting Rifts) or have gone e-zine only, with PoD copies available.
[...]
There might be some out there, but my FLGS isn't getting them. And PDF is much easier on the distribution side with a much longer tail.
Click to expand...

I guess it means I don't need to find any more space in the house to store new magazines....

Overall, the large volume of easily available material online is a plus for games. But it'd be nice to have it balanced with an independent, properly edited source.
 
aramis said:
No, they were hostile to PDF releases/rereleases, period. The invective on their part was unpleasant; sufficient for a TV-M rating.
Click to expand...
Well, if I keep digging around the Los Angeles area, I can come up with #91, #99 and #100 -- thus completing my White Dwarf "Golden Age" collection.

After that, it's all downhill.
 
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