Valkyrie Quarterly 22
Partizan Press – www.caliverbooks.demon.co.uk
64 Pages 8 pages adverts - £3.75 US$7.50
[Disclaimer - Just so you know, I've written for Valkyrie once in the
past and I may do again and they give a product I was involved with a
reasonable review]
This month's Valkyrie, the first to boldly announce its shift to
Quarterly on the cover, continues with another themed issue. The theme for
this one is 2001: A Space Oddysey but rather than looking at hard SF it
does this by focussing on powerful inhuman intelligences, whether
Artificial Intelligence or "God Like Aliens", the sort of creatures typified
by the free intelligences of E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Skylark" series,
Babylon 5 "First One's" or those annoying self-righteous beings that used
to have Kirk and Co fighting alongside Abraham Lincoln or re-enacting
the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
I have a list of "standard niggles" with Valk and I'd like to just get
them out of the way. The printing of pictures behind articles makies
them hard to read, not in every article but it is especially irritating
in at least one instance. The reviews have an inch thick border that
could be translated into a few more words, the monthly column dedicated
to SLA Industries for no reason supported, as far as I know, by market
share and it retains the awful and unfunny Yamara cartoon.
They also have there usual quota of "new to us" columns, and Dork Tower
cartoon, from the Internet and news that is slightly out of date (I
know a press release in there was put out by me in February). However much
of this will be new to the reader, as it was to me, and who has time to
read every web-zine.
OK on to the rest of the mag, which is actually rather good.
Because I'm not limited to space here I might as well give a rundown of
the contents. After the afore-mentioned news and the results of an
on-line poll, there are scenarios for Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, Babylon5
Wars and Caveman RPG Og, articles on the pitfalls of cross-species
romance, Artificial
Intelligence and mad robots, Intelligent Octopoids, God-like Aliens in
SF ( this is the one that really suffers from back-printing) as well
as another on adopting Babylon5's version of the GLAs and reviews of
games and figures.
The Og scenario is more of a set of campaign ideas, based on what could
happen when an impatient black monolith meets a tribe of comedy
cavemen. The suggestions parody other games and genres and the humour is just
pitched right. Who could fail to warm to the idea of a Paleolithic Dr.
No, resplendent in pterodactly cape, plotting o overthrough the world
with his arsenal of Interconintental Ballistick Pointed Tree Trunks (Gig
stick go far, bang ouch)., being foiled a suave adversaly, armed only
with a folding multi-purpose stick and that most sexy of advantages, a
Scottish accent. Although, as with many Valkyrie scenarios, the GM will
have to add their own numbers it's not as if Og is overburdened with
them.
Artificial Intelligence gets two outings, firstly in a general article
with scenario ideas and a scenario for the venerable, if out of print,
Paranoia. The A.I. article is flawed, partly due to a lack of
understanding of computing technology and partly through not thinking things
through properly. To give a couple of examples of bad tech, they trot out
the old chestnut about computers only 'understanding' two state logic
(Yes/No, Blue/Not Blue) and use this to limit the decisions a computer
could make, say, on a judgement of a sentence of guilt without
understanding mitigating circumstances. This is not true. What the authors have
confused is the on/off logic of the chips with decisions made by the
programming.. Computer programs are capable of dealing with multiple
states if they are programmed that way, an infamous case a few years ago
being a program for hospitals to decide whether or not to administer or
withhold treatment to patients.
However that decision tree was human in origin, the result would not
only depend on the parameters given but also the foresight and prejudices
of the designers in what parameters could be set. Where this could get
interesting would be what are the priorities of a self-programming A.I.
as opposed to one set by humans but either way it is beyond the 1 or 0
value in a circuit on a chip.
Fuzzy (multi-state) logic is mentioned, but as the presentation of
two state logic is flawed the bringing of fuzzy-logic is not
particularly helpful.
Another technical flaw is the confusion of neural networks and dual
processors. Chaps, a machine with dual processors is not the herald of
neural network machines, it is just a run-of-the mill machine that can do
calculations faster with 2 processing units. There are multiple
processor machines used in A.I. and neural network research nut they are
called
"Parallel Processors" and this kind of machine is generally (rightly or
wrongly)seen as a dead end in that field. They are used by enthusiasts
to build machines for specific tasks such as code breaking and to a
certain extent many modern Servers are parallel.
Very much on the plus side of the article are the suggestions for use
in gaming. From mourning A.I.s doing the robotic version of "Greyfriars
Bobby" through discovering that you might not be the flesh and blood
being you thought you were and the rather intriguing idea that the
spirit you are contacting with the Ouija board might be something different,
the article has many good ideas for both campaign tech and scenarios.
Paranoia is a game that hasn't been published for a while, and the last
version was not the best, but has many warm memories for G.M.s and
infuriating ones for players I don't want to give anything away about the
scenario but the author, who used to run Paranoia games that I played in
when he lived in Scotland, is as much of an evil twisted swine as he
ever was. It is that good.
The Cephali (Intelligent Octopuses) are a nice example of an
intelligent creature whose environment is alien to humans but who might be
encountered in exploration, perhaps after human settlement for some years on
land. Society, technology and peculiarities of evolution are
discussed, for example vehicles disigned by these creatures may be biological
and crawlspaces would be very narrow if Earth octopuses are a guide.
Of all the systems discussed I was surprised not to see Call of
Cthulhu mentioned especially right before a one off SF Cthulhu scenario. This
is a nice example of a slasher-flick in space à lá "Aliens" and could
be converted to other SFRPG systems for fun and frolics. It was
designed as a tournament scenario so stats are given for characters but no
marking scheme is provided.
The God-like Aliens themselves are addressed in a trio of articles, a
general discussion of the topic, an article on Babylon5's version and a
scenario for the "Babylon5 Wars" board wargame. The discussion presents
SF Book/Film/TV origins of Big God-like life in a narrative form but
although an interesting history it draws no particular conclusions
leaving it up to the reader to plunder to their heart's content. Similarly
the Babylon5 article is perhaps of more use for adaptation than strict
numbers and stats, however as these aliens ARE supposed to be God-like
one should assume that they are so much more powerful than player
characters that mere numbers are unnecessary. Each of the "First Ones" is
given a unique set of motivations and history so that encountering one
will not give you the key to dealing with the others.
The figure review column is decent enough which, skipping lightly over
the Yamara cartoon strip, is a statement that can be applied to all the
product reviews in the magazine. The review items cover a variety of
genres and styles, e.g. "Battle Cattle ", L5R, "Chivalry and Sorcery",
Vampire to name but a few, and include an overview of the recent raft of
third party D&D 3e products. There are no grades or percentages awarded
but sufficient information is provided to serve as a guide for the
prospective purchaser as to whether or not it is "their thing".
Surprisingly, however, prices and page counts have been omitted.
The editor has suggested that the if the borders in the review section
were diminished then the text would be "unbalanced" but the Blue Planet
review has narrow borders with no ill effect.
Anyone suggesting that the shift of the recent issues to being
quarterly is merely to allow Valk to be officially less late will no doubt earn
the ire of Valk's editor who continues to refine his technique with a
small stable of established writers. The magazine continues to be a
credible and useful multi-RPG magazine, the only English Language one of
its type (*) and is well worth buying.
Colin D. Speirs
(*) Games Unplugged is News, features and Reviews, Warpstone is for WHFRPG and the Excellent Prismatic Spray is for "The Dying Earth"
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