From: [n--kl--n] at [perth.DIALix.oz.au] (Nick Leaning) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives Subject: REFERENCE: Australian Realms Magazine Date: 6 Mar 1995 17:36:16 -0500 AUSTRALIAN REALMS MAGAZINE BACKLIST INDEX A couple of weeks ago I posted a message to the newsgroup - rec.games.frp.announce - to the effect that Australian Realms magazine is now available in the United States. Then someone suggested it would be a good idea to post a complete backlist of the articles that have appeared in Australian Realms issues 1 to 21. Great idea, we said... and here it is. This Index is offered as a service to all role-players, it can be freely distributed as long as it is kept complete and includes the Australian Realms address as shown at the bottom of the document. INTRODUCTION Australian Realms was launched as a monthly magazine in 1988. The first five issues were published very much in the spirit of the early Dragon, White Dwarf and Imagine magazines. These pioneering issues placed heavy emphasis on the games popular at that time, namely Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Runequest, and Warhammer 40,000. Most of the early articles were written about those games offering interesting rules variants, adventure ideas, new monsters and the like. There were also a few articles offering generic role-playing "how to" advice for referees and players. Reading through these old back issues you can recapture some of the naivete of the mid 1980s role-playing scene (before the slick commercialism of the current era). These first five issues of Australian Realms are valuable to collectors and to all role-players with an interest in the history of the hobby. This Index excludes an issue by issue description of the regular columns - Editorial, News, Letters, and The Monster Gallery etc. The feature articles *are* listed by title (capitalised) in the order which they appear in the issue, and each is followed by a short description of the contents of the article. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 1 PUBLISHED June 1988 THE DARK KNIGHTS - Undead Knights described for the popular Dragonlance setting for the AD&D game. AUSTRALIA, GAMMA STYLE - Adapting the Gamma World 3rd Edition game to Australia. This game from TSR deserved more success. THE WHITE ROSE - A fantasy adventure involving undead minions and anti-paladins (written for AD&D). CRIME FILE - Playing low powered super-heroes. A CAVALIER ATTITUDE - The barbarian and the cavalier character classes from "Unearthed Arcana" examined. VOSTOK 3 - Sci-fi short fiction. Appalling, but worth a laugh. ROLEPLAYING - Some inhouse opinions on how it should be done. EXPERIENCE WANTED - Advice on awarding experience points. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 2 PUBLISHED July 1988 AD&D, THE NEXT DIMENSION - Simple campaign army creation rules for use in fantasy role-playing games. A great time- saver for referees wanting to simulate massed combats in without having to go to the table-top. Recommended. ARTIFACTS OF THE ELVES - Some new magical items. HEAVEN HELP US! - The Clergy in the Call of Cthulhu. THE PROPHECY OF THE MUMMY'S CURSE - An AD&D scenario for 3 to 6 characters of level 4 to 6. CORRUPTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD - A neat little "how to" article on adding depth to the role of the fantasy RPG priest. DRUIDS IN AD&D - All about role-playing druids. A CORPORATE HERO - The role of corps in Superhero games. THE SILENT ROOM - Horror short fiction. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 3 PUBLISHED August 1988 THE MASTER - NPC monk subclass. These were the days before 2nd Edition and kits... everyone had their own NPC class which inevitably became a player character class! ROLEPLAYING! WHAT IS IT? - Nuff said. (This article spent a lot of time on an Australian bulletin board and gradually was circulated world-wide). BLOOD ON THE ROSE - Scenario. The sequel to White Rose adventure of issue number 1. The climactic encounter is a classic. AUSTRALIA, GAMMA STYLE, Part 2 - Follow-up article. THE FINAL MEASURE - War Trolls in Warhammer 40,000. SPACE RATS - Our favourite bad-critter, the skaven adapted for play in Warhammer 40,000. MASTERING ROLEMASTER - A guide for gamemasters of this difficult (read: insanely complex) RPG system. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 4 PUBLISHED October 1988 STOP THIEF! - An examination of concept of the "Thieves Guild" in fantasy role-playing. THUMP, CRUNCH, SPIT - A Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario, Orcs versus Dwarves and the title says it all. WHAT DO YOU MEAN? THE INQUISITION? - More Warhammer 40,000. A look at the nice people in charge of Imperial purity. THRILLS FROM NEW SKILLS - Expanded non-weapon proficiencies. Before 2nd Edition AD&D people were tinkering with the rules in their home-grown campaigns. Here is an article listing over 200 skills for the 1st Edition game. A FISTFUL OF CREDITS - Traveller Scenario. A mercenary commando mission centred on Magen in the Pax Rulin subsector. ERKONOMICS - A look at economics in fantasy RPGs. Includes a calculator for working out how much your the holdings of your high level characters will earn. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 5 PUBLISHED November 1988 TRICKS AND TRAPS - Handy hints for referees and players. Definitely in the tradition of "dungeon bashing". THE DIVINIST - New AD&D unofficial NPC class. Actually offered as a subclass of the cleric and complete with spell lists and a few new spells. SHADOW OF THE WOLF - Runequest werewolves. Lycanthropy before the sophisticated punk-art of White Wolf. PSYKERS! - Expanded psionics in WH40K. New powers. A REBEL WITH A CAUSE - The function and place of a freedom cell in science fiction role-playing games. DEMON BLADES OF CASSANDRA - Adding personality and colour to magic weapons with examples for AD&D & Runequest. DEVICES FOR LOYAL CITIZENS - Innovative experimental devices from the fun-loving guys at R&D. For Paranoia. LEADING LEAD - Advice on painting miniatures. A SHORT HAITUS After Issue Number 5 publication of Australian Realms was suspended. The editor/owner of the time went in search of employment elsewhere in the industry, including a visit to Games Workshop just at the time they were also suspending support of his favourite game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay line (so much for those ambitions, althouhg recent developments might restore his hope and faith). In 1992, the current management took over the Australian Realms masthead and relaunched the magazine as a bimonthly. Again, initially the first "comeback" issues followed the format of the original magazine by focusing on "game specific" articles - offering innovative refereeing and playing tips and advice, new rules, scenarios and ideas for the currently popular games. Over time, as we listened to the feedback of our readers and came to better understand the current trends of the hobby, this format evolved into the wider, more generic coverage of the past year or so. The editorial team now produces a bi-monthly role-playing resource, full of useable material that is entertaining, enthusiatic for the subject matter and rich in ideas and inspiration for ALL role-players. The current issues have a number of regular columns - EDITORIAL, LETTERS PAGE, REVIEWS, NEWS, DICE ARE DEAD (a PBM column), ANALYTICAL ENGINE (book reviews that bite), and THE ADVENTURES OF THE A-TEAM (the funniest rpg comic strip of all time). To conserve space we have not listed these against each issue. Feature articles *are* listed with a brief description of what they contain. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 6 PUBLISHED FOR Jul/Aug 1992 WILD AT HEART - When the 2nd Edition of AD&D arrived, the barbarian had gone missing... here the barbarian sub-class is allowed to return from its sojourn in the gaming wilderness. FROM THE COCKPIT - A short essay on the evolution of all those popular Mecha-style games from their origins in Manga. AN AD&D GUIDE TO NARNIA - Alternative campaign setting for AD&D. Marsh Wiggles unite!! SHADOWRUN IN AUSTRALIA - The first of a very popular series, so popular, in fact, that FASA bought the manuscript for the Shadowrun Australia sourcebook. BUCKETS OF BLOOD - WH40K Short Fiction. Bogrot's Orks versus Imperial Troopers in a godawful battle of trench warfare featuring Goff Orks and Pa's beloved kamikaze Snotlings. CLAN WOLF TACTICS - BattleTech combat tips form Mechwarrior Brewer, a veteran of Clan warfare. ADVENTURES OF THE A-TEAM - Serialised comic short fiction follows the misadventures of the world's worst adventuring party. This is where the luncay and laughs all started; their very first appearance in this text-only classic! (We'll post this series on the net SOON). AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 7 PUBLISHED FOR Sep/Oct 1992 THAT'S MY BOY - AD&D scenario set in the Astral Plane. Before Planescape, Realms brought you the githyanki spelljammer - the Ramjammer! NIVEN & BARNES - Realms talks to the authors of the DreamPark novels, inspiration for R Talsorian's great off-the-wall role-playing game. SHADOWRUN IN AUSTRALIA, Part II - Dreamtime Magic. ORCS OF UNAE - The very first UNAE article, discussing the orcs of Ungria, cleaning up the image of these supposed dumb monsters. Unae is one of the most exciting parts of Australian Realms, and already very popular with our established readership. Unae is a complete fantasy campaign world that we've presented in a series of source articles and adventure scenarios. Intelligent, dynamic, dark, grim and gritty - Unae is THE alternative campaign setting for all fantasy RPGs. SEA ELVES IN WARHAMMER FANTASY - Background material, and class information for the Sea Elf character race. Even Games Workshop said they liked this treatment. THE MONASTERY - A short scenario setting for AD&D Dark Sun. PSYKERS II - Expanding the talents available to psionicists in Warhammer 40,000. A sequel to the issue 5 article. HE WHO FIRES FIRST... - BattleTech rules variants - alternative Initiative Sequence & Targeting computers. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 8 PUBLISHED FOR Nov/Dec 1992 THE FOREST - The first Unae scenario, set in an old and undisturbed forest in the colony of Burvoy. But someone wants a road built through the forest, so the characters are sent to survey a route... and discover why The Forest were best left undisturbed. My favourite Unae adventure. Suitable for all fantasy RPG systems. GREG STAFFORD INTERVIEW - The creator of Runequest talks about Chaosium and other things. Greg on the release of Dangerous Journeys - "The best game of 1978!". THE ART OF STAYING ALIVE - Combat How To... for the Runequest game by Mark Morrison. SHADOWRUN IN AUSTRALIA, Part III - The Australian nation 2050AD. Urban Australia is under siege as the Dreamtime reclaims the blood-soaked soil of the sunburnt continent. THINKING MAN'S MONSTER - An essay on how to referee monsters - but not stupidly. The writer, Alan Ogden has established himself as the resident Realms expert in role-playing advice. PURE AT HEART - The Unae campaign returns to the embattled colony nation to examine the Paladins of Burvoy. WARHAMMER 40,000 ROLE-PLAY - We have waited for a long time for a role-playing version of Warhammer 40,000...Realms staffers got fed up waiting and devised these conversion rules. THE ULTIMATE DREAM PARK - Describing the behind the scenes work going on to bring the Dream Park vision to reality. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 9 PUBLISHED FOR Jan/Feb 1993 DEATH IN THVATTA - Solo Unae adventure set in Burvoy's infamous prison, Thvatta. Great low-level adventure for assassin or thief players. GARY GYGAX INTERVIEW - A fireside chat with the role-playing deity, and co-inventor of Dungeons & Dragons. SHADOWRUN IN AUSTRALIA, Part IV - Australian locations described in greater detail for Shadowrun. DEEP DARK DUNGEONS - Alan Ogden talks about how to best breathe life into Ye Olde Dungeon scenario. WARHAMMER 40,000 ROLE-PLAY, Part II - The unofficial conversion completed. BRANCHES OF BLOOD - Suggested plotlines for the White Wolf Vampire: The Masquerade storyteller game. The times and the labels, they are a-changing. WOAD FOR WARRIORS - Protective body paint for AD&D. THE DREAMING STREETS - An Australian Shadowrun scenario. AUSTRALIAN REALMS ISSUE NUMBER 10 PUBLISHED March/April 1993 TESSA, THE WINDS OF CHANGE - First of a two-part Unae mini- campaign set in the Kramer Confederation. An peaceful island setting is about to be torn apart by forces of greed. GOOD FELLOWS ALL - Gary Gygax speaks out on topics from his leaving TSR Inc, the Second Edition of AD&D to Dangerous Journeys and all stops between. HITTING THE HARDCORE - Shadowrun Info overload. FEMME FATALES - Women in BloodBowl.. one of the more controversial articles we've ever run, with overly-sensitive politically correct readers giving us heaps of flak. This was meant to be tongue in cheek, but we ended up chewing on our toes! PARTYING UNDER THE SUN - Dark Sun party kits. Giving members of an adventuring group enough in common to assure party coherence. Enlarging on the idea of AD&D character kits, why not have adventuring party kits? LOVE WILL TEAR US APART - Vampire: The Masquerade mini-scenario. X MARKS THE SPOT - Alan Ogden explains how to place treasure effectively - with malice aforethought. SUDDEN DEATH BATTLETECH - Rules variants designed to speed up play. For those wargamers without patience. URBAN MECHS - A how to lecture for BattleTech cadets. To contact us... Fax: +619 275 2828 Email: [n--kl--n] at [perth.dialix.oz.au] Snailmail: PO Box 220, Morley, Western Australia, 6943.