OD&D and White Dwarf Magazine

[Zulgyan]

So, do early white dwarf magazines got some good stuff for OD&D, if at all?

Are they worth getting?

[ffilz]

There is some interesting material. There are some interesting monsters. There is also the monstermark system which is an attempt to make a more representative rating of the difficulty a monster is to fight. Lots of mathy, but may be of some use (the author rates almost every "official" monster and a few non-official). There are also some nice articles on running games, though they represent the trend away from mega-dungeon style play to more logical scenarios which in my opinion takes the game away from what actually works well for the class/level system. There are also some nice character classes, including a barbarian that I feel is better than the one in Unearthed Arcana (though I don't plan to use it).

They also started to have some nice modules.

Frank

[Zulgyan]

Thanks Frank, that looks interesting.

Can you point specific issues where the stuff is found?

That will help me hunt them down.

Z.

[ffilz]

Here's an index and another.

Here's a sampling:

Monstermark is in issues 1-3 (with some corrections in later issues)
Lewis Pulsipher articles on campaigning in issues 1,3,4,5
Competitive D&D issues 1,2
Puzzles issue 1
Monsters issue 2
Monsters Mild & Malign (predecessor to Fiend Factory) issues 4, 5
Fiend Factory issue (many of these appeared in the Fiend Folio) 6, 7
Solo Dungeon Mapping issue 3
Lair of the Demon Queen - early dungeon section, not a complete module issue 7
Gygax article on proliferation of treasure - issue 7 (I think this was also printed in The Dragon)
Barbarian issues 4, 12

[Zulgyan]

Thanks! ;D I really appreciate the help!

Gotta catch them all!!







What have I just said

[ffilz]

One thing to add, Issue #13 featured the AD&D combat and saving throw tables. For those who are actually interested in such, this is a better layout than the same in the Dragon. I think I used photocopies of these to make my AD&D DM screen.

Frank

[Finarvyn]

I would be curious to know what material from White Dwarf is the BEST stuff. (I have the CD archive, but haven't taken much time to look through the PDFs.)

Also, to duplicate a question often asked about Dragon magazine, does anyone know at which issue WD switched over from OD&D to AD&D (also which issue WD switched over to GW stuff...).

[badger2305]

admin said:

I would be curious to know what material from White Dwarf is the BEST stuff. (I have the CD archive, but haven't taken much time to look through the PDFs.)

Also, to duplicate a question often asked about Dragon magazine, does anyone know at which issue WD switched over from OD&D to AD&D (also which issue WD switched over to GW stuff...).

There was a CD archive of White Dwarf? I missed that. Is it still available?

[foster1941]

From the index posted upthread it looks like WD made the switch from OD&D to AD&D gradually, but was pretty much all-AD&D by around issue #20 (which means WD actually supported OD&D through 1980, which is about a year longer than The Dragon did). WD started heavily favoring their own games (which at the time included US-based games that they sub-published in the UK such as Paranoia, RuneQuest, Stormbringer, and Call of Cthulhu as well as their home-grown Judge Dredd and WFRP, so although it was becoming increasingly a house organ it was still pretty diverse) from about issue #80 on; the last AD&D article apperared in issue #93; from issue #100 the magazine changed its focus, becoming all-GW and much more heavily Warhammer/minis focused and (at least from my perspective) no longer worth reading.

[Finarvyn]

badger2305 said:

There was a CD archive of White Dwarf? I missed that. Is it still available?

It was a limited run, and I forget where I got mine. I know there was a guy on DF that had a few copies, but that was a year or so ago and I'm pretty sure they're all gone.

It had something like 10 years of magazines on DVD, but not in a copy-paste format so it wasn't as neat as the Dragon archive. I also picked up an Ares archive (old SPI wargame magazine) and White Wolf's Vampire rulebook archive and I think both had the same problems where you could look but not copy-paste. Very annoying.

[ffilz]

Hmm, best stuff from White Dwarf? In the end I didn't use a whole lot from there, but a few gems (now that I'm home and have my handwritten index):

While I have yet to actually make use of it, I think the Monstermark articles are are really well worth the read. (issues 1-3, plus corrections in #4 and/or #5)

The Lichway in issue #9, this is just a nice little dungeon and inspired the first level of one of the few dungeons I still have from my high school gaming days.

Lair of the White Wyrm (#14), a cool RuneQuest module.

Halls of Tizun Thane (#18) I don't think I ever did much to run this module, but it has some cool aspects to it.

Solo Dungeon Mapping (#3) An interesting idea. You make up little dungeon tiles with a few rooms and passages on them. Then you roll a random tile, and a random entrance to that tile. You explore as much of that tile as you like. If you come back to passages/door/rooms that you didn't explore on that tile, you roll a new tile to continue.

Barbarian character class (#4, #12)

Lewis Pulsipher's D&D Campaign article series (#1, #3, #4, #5)

Dungeon Architecht (#25, #26, #27)

White Dwarf, especially the early issues, is an interesting read. The British took a somewhat different path to gaming. I remember reading one letter to the editor, or perhaps it was an article, talking about a capaign where after several years of play, the characters were like 4th level, and ooh, one guy had a +1 sword, and another had managed to acquire a couple potions.

Frank

[Zulgyan]

Barbarian character class (#4, #12)

What's this like? Intrigued.

[ffilz]

It's similar to the UA one in some aspects, but I think a little cleaner. It is at least as complex as the ranger though (except no spells). I'd have to go dig out the issues to give you more.

Frank

[ffilz]

Ok, dug out the issues for the Barbarian, here's a summary:

Prime requisite = constitution
Save as cleric, 4 levels higher
For full abilities, requires strength 13+, dexterity 13+, intelligence 9+, wisdom 14+
2x resistant to disease
Armor limited by level, 1-5 shield only, 6-10 leather+shield, 11+ chain+shield, but AC is always 1 class better
XP 1500, 3000, 6000, 12000, 24000, 48000, 96000, 200000, 325000, +125000
Hit dice at level N = N+1 to 10 hd, then +1 per level after
Weapons hand axe, spear, sword, for each point of dexterity above 12 an additional weapon, strength 13+ can use battle axe
Track similar to ranger
Hear noise similar to thief
Climb similar to thief
Other abilities: sign language (can communicate w/intelligent creatures with a % chance w/level), sense danger (d6 skill w/level), catch missile (% chance w/level)
First attack ferocity: strength 10+ +1 to hit, strength 13+ dexterity average+ gain 1st attack at +2 with 2x damage level 1-4, 3x 5-8, 4x 9+
illiterate unless wisdom 14+
can use magic items as fighter or thief as long as item isn't otherwise prohibited (such as weapon or armor)

Issue 12 added some stuff:
hide in shadows similar to thief
hit dice become d8 (this is to fit AD&D)

The sign language ability is kind of weird. Why should a barbarian be able to talk to joe random human with sign language, but joe random human can't use sign language with jane random human...

first attack ferocity is a slightly clunky mechanic (you had to roll % dice to get it, issue 12 complicated the % dice roll)

Limiting armor by level is odd.

Frank

[grodog]

WD's Best of Articles and Best of Adventures collections were, like the Best of Dragons, pretty spot-on, especially given the much-lower content/page count of the WD issues to begin with.

The CD archive was something put together by WD Autstralia, and sold for a very limited time before being killed by the home office. One of the guys on the Acaeum and DF bought a bunch, and sold them to members; IIRC, they were about $70 or so??

The WD archive covers issues 1-90, and I don't know when the OD&D to AD&D to WD-only transition points were, offhand.