It has never ceased to amaze me that virtually all board wargames are of American origin. Certainly the demand per head of population is relatively the same on both sides of the Atlantic and whilst the American manufacturers include, amongst others, Avalon Hill and SPI, Britain can only boast one manufacturer - Philmar who produce Kingmaker - to compete. The only section of the wargaming hobby where Britain still leads is that of wargames rules for table-topping and this is probably due to the 50 year start given to us by H. G. Wells and his book Little Wars.
In the case of SF/F games and rules the situation is quite hopeless with respect to products from British manufacturers. Admittedly the States got off to a flying start with TSR producing Dungeons Dragons, but since then other companies such as FGU, The Chaosium, Metagaming Concepts and others have emerged with excellent games over the past three years whilst almost nothing has come out of Britain. Surely the existing Lord of the Rings following and the impending Star Wars mania would have inspired someone, somewhere...
Miniature figures is another section of the hobby where British manufacturers are beginning to lose their superiority after being years in front. There are now several manufacturers in America Ral Partha, Grenadier, Archive, McEwan, Old Guard, Heritage to name but a few who are now producing wargame and SF/F figures equal to, and in many cases better than,. those produced in Britain.
This is, indeed, a sad state of affairs and one which we can only hope will be rectified before it is too late. British people must by now be fed up with having to purchase imported products which have originated from British ideas.
In the meantime, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Ian Livingston
Table of Contents
ALICE IN DUNGEONLAND - 4
A Carrollian dungeon adventure by Don Turnbull
D&D CAMPAIGNS - 8
Part II: Mechanics by Lewis Pulsipher
HYBORIA - 10
history by Tony Bath
NEWS - 11
Whats happening the SF/F world
OPEN BOX - 12
SF/F games reviewed
MONSTERS MILD & MALIGN - 15
Friends of the DM by Don Turnbull
TREASURE CHEST - 17
A miscellany of D&D additions
COMPETlTlVE D&D - 20
The fifth level, summary and conclusions Fred Hemmings
LETTERS, CLASSIFIEDS & HELP - 22
