Editorial

So here we are again, late as usual despite assurances in the last issue. It's a good job this is free!

So what do we have in this issue?

For a start, there's the longest single article we've ever published, the page count alone in Word was thirteen. It's a GenCon US review piece from Steve Darlington, the Wandering Aussie. It shows, with many colour pictures, what a great time he was having in the US whilst I was stuck here in Blighty doing the last issue.

It wasn't all doom and gloom though because we also had a GenCon in the UK and this one is reviewed by a new face here, Claire. Claire has all the enthusiasm of somebody relatively recently introduced to the hobby but she's taken a pretty good view of the economics of GenCon in the U.K. and why there is need for change.

Talking of conventions, the end of year showpiece of the British convention season is Dragonmeet and this year was no exception. Hot on the sad news that Hogshead is folding through boredom, the British roleplaying scene came together for an extravaganza.

Even the RPGA were there, hidden away in the cellar in the guise of Raven. In another dark corner the Game in a Day cabal were beavering away industriously at Incarnate, the first ever RPG to be created in a day, with our very own Steve Darlington taking the captain's armband for the second half. With a Dying Earth cabalistic LARP written by yours truly, John Kovalic running a cake stand and the Mongoose town cryer announcing Conan and Lone Wolf, it was all starting to sound like the mayhem and chaos that is (or was) Middenheim. The evening ended in time honoured fashion with James Wallis removing his T-shirt.

Is this bare-breast the last we'll see of Mr Wallis? I imagine not, there are still plenty of Cons willing to pay for his flight, to be entertained by anecdotes from the gaming coal-face.

But back to this issue.

We the now regular satirical piece from Alex Loke who muses on what would happen if roleplayers were in charge. Finally Nick utters a Kyoto-like plea for rpg-diversity, difference is good.

Looking back to the last issue, there's one thing outstanding. The first is our competition. Everybody who wrote in, and there were considerably more this time than for the NAGS give-away in the issue before, knew that the correct answer was of course Drones, the spiffing game of Toffs.

So, without further ado, the winner drawn from the Sorting Hat is

David Plank.

Congratulations and commiserations to everyone else who tried their hand.

Given the rising popularity of this idea, I thought I'd go back through my voluminous collection and find something worthy of our readers for a free gift for this issue. I mused on old Cthulhu tomes, slightly crinkled but full of horrible goodness. Then something strange occurred. At Dragonmeet I had a 'box of stuff' to give away to worthy causes in my guise of MiB (that's a Steve Jackson Games demonstrator). By a process I can only imagine to be spontaneous generation, a squamous and non-Euclidean item appeared in my box and it is this I'm giving away: a John Kovalic signed copy of Pokéthulhu. (You don't know what I'm talking about do you? Well surf on over here and decry your innocence.)

So what do you have to do to get your hands on this awful masterpiece?

Simple, just write and suggest a name for a pokéthulhu. The one that makes Steve Darlington cry will be declared the winner.

Finally, here's an initiative I applaud. Eden Studios have got together with the BBC no less. The BBC's Cult TV webpages now sport light rules to the game and an introductory scenario. It's even available in a printer- friendly format. Scoot on over here for a satisfying dose of Buffage.