Hate mail.

Do you ever get any in your mail box?

You know the sort of thing. From the in-yer-face

"I am a role player but also I am a former FORCE RECONNAISSANCE
marine and served 9 years in the beloved United States Marine Corps and
would love to have a single one of you dushbags come to me and tell me that to my face "especialy you religious morons."

Via the rather confused

"Ayways ive spent enouigh time speaking my mind on how i think you are
completeky wrong. And most of my friends agree with me......so just
remember....just because you say soemthign is right it doesnt mean it is."

To the incomprehensible

"And i've played various games also. Like Shadow run
and Gamma world. And on and on and on. i've even sarted to create a new game for myself.
As i siad for myself and not satan. I remember when i was a kid and people said that d&d is
satan. And i do to you now what i did to them then.
And that is to stick my tongue out at you."


I love this kind of thing. It means we've arrived. We've got an article that has such controversial views, that has so incensed someone, has so shaken their worldview, that they have spent at least 5 minutes of their precious time insulting a complete stranger.

We don't actually get very many of these. As a proportion of our mail they account for just over 1%. They never say to which article they are referring and even though I write back they never get in touch again.

They are mostly from disgruntled players of one of the various editions of Dungeons & Dragons concerned at our lack of respect for such a fine game.

Now I would love for one of these guys, or anyone else for that matter, to write in and tell us why 3e is the best thing since sliced elf but I don't suppose that's going to happen.

So here, for all those people who feel hard done by us, is a special treat.

Drum roll please!

It's the very first recorded instance on Usenet of someone saying AD&D sucks. Ta-da! Right, back to our regular programme.

In the last issue we had a competition to win a free copy of Terra Incognita: The NAGS Society Handbook from Grey Ghost Press. We had 14 entries including two with submissions that we've put in our latest issue. These received special consideration from the judging panel and we are please to announce that the lucky winner, using the time honoured dice method is: Jack Spencer Jr.

The prize will be winging its way to wherever you live shortly.

For those of you who didn't win a cheer of commiseration and you are quite welcome to enter our new competition on the front page. We are actually asking a question this time!

In this fine issue we have the usual mix of ingredients. We have the spice of Alex Loke doing his bit for Roleplaying Advocacy and the aforementioned Jack Spencer Jr laying into what he sees as lazy roleplaying design.

Further on some bloke called Steve Darlington dissects what makes a good Star Wars game. Finally, we bring you explore a rich Russian fantasy setting in the tale of Dazhdbog's Tomb.

On to a difficult topic, editorial laxity. When Steve Darlington was in charge, come rain, shine or plague of cane toads, there was a new issue every two months(-ish). Since I've been at the helm this has slipped somewhat and we've only managed three issues so far this year. The upshot is that I'm going to buck my ideas up and try to get back closer to our previous publishing schedule.

Of course, the more submissions we have the easier this becomes. So put finger to keyboard and send us that 12 part analysis of Jungian Archetypes in Anime Roleplaying that you've always been meaning to write, or even that one page rant at the smarminess of fanzine editors.

Remember, it's not just our magazine, it's yours too.