The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Disclaimer This (free to me) issue of Valkyrie favourably reviews a product I wrote part of (though it slights my story, swines) and a review I wrote may feature in Valkyrie 20.

Valkyrie is a long running but infrequent British Role-playing Magazine. Issue 19 is a glossy mag printed on thick, good quality paper with ink that doesn't come off to the touch. The all important first flip through gives the appearance of a relatively well produced and laid out piece of work, although one page was cut into the very edge of the text.

After the editorial column there are six and a half pages of reviews, some articles including an insight into games editing from RPG.net's Sandy Antunes (named 39th most influential person in the RPG industry in a silly article in the new Games Unplugged magazine), a NPC for the new Glorantha game "Hero Wars", How to be a Euro-skinhead for the "Feng Shui" RPG and the inevitable (for Valkyrie) SLA Industries column amongst others.

Looking more closely, three things become apparent 1. The font, although clear, is not consistent in its point size. Obviously smaller in some places to cram more text on the page, larger in others to eke out the text to fill out the page. In some cases, such as the news pages, this cramming in makes it almost too small to read. 2. The editors/layout types have fallen for the horribly fashionable idea that black text on a white background is not enough, it must have a picture or pattern as a background. This is a hideous idea that I wish magazines would give up, no matter how good it looks on screen it never quite works when printed. This is especially true for the colour background to an interview with the producer of the new RPG "Suzerain" 3. The initial articles are not, all, original but adaptations of articles culled from the World Wide Web. Although these are reasonably interesting articles by "noted industry figures", how acceptable this would be to you would depend on your access to the Internet.

This internet link is apparent not only in the mention of some games related webzines on the editorial page, but in the copious amount of news items which seem mainly culled from company press releases of the sorts posted across newsgroups.

The "original" columns and reviews are the typical mixed bag for this magazine, but as well as these Valkyrie has gained a figure column, which I haven't seen in the magazine for the eight or so issues that I own and a F/SF miniature wargaming column, all with a generally reasonable standard of writing, The reviews are either half page or full page and, for those products I am familiar with, they seemed fair and useful. However if the editor dumped the template for layout, which steals over an inch of border at the on the outside edges and the overlarge bubble caption or the title then more review could be fitted in. I think the reviewer of "England Invaded", a set of small unit rules set in the 1890s with German Zeppelins making an early appearance to start the first world war early miscast these rules as "Steampunk" which explains why he didn't feel they did a great job, by they sound of it the setting is an older form as typified by Saki's "When William Came" or the first Michael Moorcock Oswald Bastable story. In fact "England Invaded" was the title of an anthology that included the Saki story and that was edited by Moorcock.

There are two scenarios, part one of a Star Wars adventure and one for Ars Magica . Well, two RPG scenarios and a scenario for a boardgame called "Trash Tokyo". I suspect I'm not alone in being unfamiliar with this game and would have appreciated a stand alone mini game a lot more than this. The RPG scenarios are adequate, actually the Ars Magica one, even though I'm not an Ars Magica fan, strikes me as being the better of the two, even though both are light on actual numbers and require a GM to fill in some of the details themselves. The Star Wars scenario is set not long after the collapse of the old Republic but could easily be used as an introductory scenario to a campaign set even into the days of the New Republic from what is presented. The Ars Magica scenario could, with some work by the GM, be shoehorned into a Chivalry and Sorcery or WHFRPG game without a horrendous amount of difficulty though of course it would play differently.

The use of artwork in the magazine, save when used as a background, is good and either illustrative or scene enhancing, such as woodcuts for the Ars Magica scenario, but the proof-reading of the text leaves some glaring typo-graphical errors here and there.

The editor has stated that he thinks typos are kept within acceptable limits. There I have to disagree with him, I think there are still a few to many. If Partizan is releasing Valkyrie as a professional magazine then they should accept this criticism and ensure the finishing touches that mark the professional product. I wince when stuff I write goes out with typos and resolve to do better next time, so should Partizan.

The cartoon strip "Alcott Squad" had adequate artwork but what exists of the story line is confused and uninteresting. I think they should quietly kill this and pretend it never happened.

All in all Valkyrie 19 is not a bad magazine, though my appreciation of it is perhaps enhanced as I have an inkling of what a shoe-string operation it is. It declares that it is "Suggested for Mature Readers" and some of the humour, like the tongue in cheek "Feng Shui Bovver boy" article reflect this, but I think it could be improved by trying not to be "dark and hard", but concentrate more on catering to a wider range of games players than just SLA, White Wolf and Star Wars types.

It is nice to see that there are more writers involved than in earlier issues, which seemed to have been assembled by three or four writers only, and I hope that they can spread the appeal of this magazine to a wider audience. If they can do so then I can see Partizan building on the potential of Valkyrie 19 and producing a damned good magazine. Until then you might want to flip though a copy first to see if a particular issue suits your tastes.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Valkyrie (#19)
Author: many Category: magazine Company/Publisher: Partizan Press Line: n/a Cost: £3.50 Page count: 58 Capsule Review by Colin D. Speirs on 07/26/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Science fiction Modern day Historical Horror Far Future Space Comedy Conspiracy Post-apocalypse Old West Vampire Gothic	Disclaimer This (free to me) issue of Valkyrie favourably reviews a product I wrote part of (though it slights my story, swines) and a review I wrote may feature in Valkyrie 20. Valkyrie is a long running but infrequent British Role-playing Magazine. Issue 19 is a glossy mag printed on thick, good quality paper with ink that doesn't come off to the touch. The all important first flip through gives the appearance of a relatively well produced and laid out piece of work, although one page was cut into the very edge of the text. After the editorial column there are six and a half pages of reviews, some articles including an insight into games editing from RPG.net's Sandy Antunes (named 39th most influential person in the RPG industry in a silly article in the new Games Unplugged magazine), a NPC for the new Glorantha game "Hero Wars", How to be a Euro-skinhead for the "Feng Shui" RPG and the inevitable (for Valkyrie) SLA Industries column amongst others. Looking more closely, three things become apparent 1. The font, although clear, is not consistent in its point size. Obviously smaller in some places to cram more text on the page, larger in others to eke out the text to fill out the page. In some cases, such as the news pages, this cramming in makes it almost too small to read. 2. The editors/layout types have fallen for the horribly fashionable idea that black text on a white background is not enough, it must have a picture or pattern as a background. This is a hideous idea that I wish magazines would give up, no matter how good it looks on screen it never quite works when printed. This is especially true for the colour background to an interview with the producer of the new RPG "Suzerain" 3. The initial articles are not, all, original but adaptations of articles culled from the World Wide Web. Although these are reasonably interesting articles by "noted industry figures", how acceptable this would be to you would depend on your access to the Internet. This internet link is apparent not only in the mention of some games related webzines on the editorial page, but in the copious amount of news items which seem mainly culled from company press releases of the sorts posted across newsgroups. The "original" columns and reviews are the typical mixed bag for this magazine, but as well as these Valkyrie has gained a figure column, which I haven't seen in the magazine for the eight or so issues that I own and a F/SF miniature wargaming column, all with a generally reasonable standard of writing, The reviews are either half page or full page and, for those products I am familiar with, they seemed fair and useful. However if the editor dumped the template for layout, which steals over an inch of border at the on the outside edges and the overlarge bubble caption or the title then more review could be fitted in. I think the reviewer of "England Invaded", a set of small unit rules set in the 1890s with German Zeppelins making an early appearance to start the first world war early miscast these rules as "Steampunk" which explains why he didn't feel they did a great job, by they sound of it the setting is an older form as typified by Saki's "When William Came" or the first Michael Moorcock Oswald Bastable story. In fact "England Invaded" was the title of an anthology that included the Saki story and that was edited by Moorcock. There are two scenarios, part one of a Star Wars adventure and one for Ars Magica . Well, two RPG scenarios and a scenario for a boardgame called "Trash Tokyo". I suspect I'm not alone in being unfamiliar with this game and would have appreciated a stand alone mini game a lot more than this. The RPG scenarios are adequate, actually the Ars Magica one, even though I'm not an Ars Magica fan, strikes me as being the better of the two, even though both are light on actual numbers and require a GM to fill in some of the details themselves. The Star Wars scenario is set not long after the collapse of the old Republic but could easily be used as an introductory scenario to a campaign set even into the days of the New Republic from what is presented. The Ars Magica scenario could, with some work by the GM, be shoehorned into a Chivalry and Sorcery or WHFRPG game without a horrendous amount of difficulty though of course it would play differently. The use of artwork in the magazine, save when used as a background, is good and either illustrative or scene enhancing, such as woodcuts for the Ars Magica scenario, but the proof-reading of the text leaves some glaring typo-graphical errors here and there. The editor has stated that he thinks typos are kept within acceptable limits. There I have to disagree with him, I think there are still a few to many. If Partizan is releasing Valkyrie as a professional magazine then they should accept this criticism and ensure the finishing touches that mark the professional product. I wince when stuff I write goes out with typos and resolve to do better next time, so should Partizan. The cartoon strip "Alcott Squad" had adequate artwork but what exists of the story line is confused and uninteresting. I think they should quietly kill this and pretend it never happened. All in all Valkyrie 19 is not a bad magazine, though my appreciation of it is perhaps enhanced as I have an inkling of what a shoe-string operation it is. It declares that it is "Suggested for Mature Readers" and some of the humour, like the tongue in cheek "Feng Shui Bovver boy" article reflect this, but I think it could be improved by trying not to be "dark and hard", but concentrate more on catering to a wider range of games players than just SLA, White Wolf and Star Wars types. It is nice to see that there are more writers involved than in earlier issues, which seemed to have been assembled by three or four writers only, and I hope that they can spread the appeal of this magazine to a wider audience. If they can do so then I can see Partizan building on the potential of Valkyrie 19 and producing a damned good magazine. Until then you might want to flip though a copy first to see if a particular issue suits your tastes. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Valkyrie (#19)