The tradition of taking those original confusing books, throwing things in the air and re-writing was really strong and, as youвЂ™ve covered before, everyone felt they had the right to do it. Of course, the whole tradition of DnD was of a smorgasbord of plug in rules and additions, despite (or because of) GGвЂ™s one true wayism. So, rather than simply admitting they were wrong and moving to a better game like CnS, they tried to retrofit these complications. Not least because those of us playing those other games teased them mercilessly about the lack of вЂrealityвЂ™, and teenage boys took such things to heart. My memory (perhaps due to bias, not being a DnD player) was that DnDers were often a little defensive in the face of more simulationist games like RQ and (or course) the excellent Chivalry and Sorcery. The ruminations on attempts to make DND more complex/realistic really took me back. But that doesnвЂ™t account for the influence of vinegar. IвЂ™ve always been convinced that blue was salt and vinegar because even further back, salted crisps werenвЂ™t вЂreadyвЂ™ salted, they came with a little blue bag of salt for preparation at the table (which basically meant shaking the bag over the crisps so that only the top layer really got salted at all)вЂ“so salt was always blue. There are plenty of 80s music nostalgia pods, but none dedicated to crisps as far as I can see. I do agree with Blythy that a more general bobbins podcast would go down a stormвЂ“as you keep saying, youвЂ™re running out of your old school original games to talk about. The perfect mix of nostalgia and serious ruminations with excellent contributions all round. ThatвЂ™s the best episode since the Robin of Sherwood one, possibly since Storm GiantвЂ™s Kingdom. I had a few laugh out loud moments listening to this one, keeping up the quality, the contrived design of each episode is a nice change from a lot of gaming podcasts that are just some guys sitting down and talking about sh*t and stuff, and the interviews are excellent and always interesting. Sticking with Traveller, some criminal careers were available in Supplement 4 Citizens of the Imperium published before the article in White Dwarf #19, but I believe the White Dwarf version used the expanded character generation method (as in Book 4 Mercenary), it was a bit tongue in cheek, like the assignments included вЂњlaying lowвЂќ, a very memorable article for me. The remarks on character drug addiction reminded me of a great actual roleplay podcast called Close The Airlock, a Traveller game in which the party explored a planet where all life had evolved some form of anti-gravity and floated around, they butchered a hippo like creature and ate it unbeknownst the meat was horribly addictive, forced to stockpile the вЂњhover hippoвЂќ and then set about replicating it provided an background adventure theme of great hilarity. The bobbins contingent of this episode was well above par as the banter touched the very foundations of my heart, like the patriotic colour of a passport, the great crisp packet debate puts me firmly inside BlythyвЂ™s camp, where grand campaigns are planned further afield on Marathon and Starburst, and bigger Wagon Wheels, perhaps even a foray into Jif. So thatвЂ™s it I will now just write a load of random words in order to bring to mind some of my greatest hits-ДЄ Day in the Life (and A Night in the Death).ДЄnd finally, a personal one, Not Just Stamps. Loads of callbacks in the episode, too many to mention but IвЂ™ll just leave Starstone and Lewis Pulsipher right here вЂ“ your opinions are your own but you could also be dead wrong (And Monstermark wtf) (hope I donвЂ™t have to mention Halfway Station for loads more Andy Slack goodness.) Snowbird Mystery was excellent, really did take traveller out of the dry rulebooks. I know a got a load of back issues in a store in Reading but IвЂ™m definitely gonna have to dredge through the memory banks. In my head WD40 was my first issue bought on release though thinking hard it might have been a slightly earlier issue.

Fantastic podcast as always guys, takes me back a long way.

White dwarf magazine 2014