Vecna's Eye

by Tim Morgan

This month's installment of Vecna's Eye is going to be a bit fragmented. I want to announce a few things about the magazine, talk about some roleplaying game products that I'm excited about and make a retraction from a previous issue. So without further ado . . .

Let's start with the retraction. In the January, 2000 issue, I was talking about the future of gaming and said:

While Hasbro has yet to re-release any of Avalon Hill's old games, two are expected to come out in January, Diplomacy and Acquire. These has originally been announced to be released at Gen Con back in September, but have run late. The good news though is the quality and the price. The most recent AH edition of Diplomacy had plastic pieces and cost $30. The new version will have metal pieces and cost only $19.95! Similarly, Acquire was $30 with cardboard pieces while the new one will be $21.95 with plastic pieces. This is a trend I like - Better quality, Lower prices.

Well, I guess I gave Hasbro a little too much credit. I've finally seen a copy of Diplomacy (Acquire still hasn't made it out) and I wouldn't buy it. Period. White the board looks nice, the pieces are downright UGLY. The navy counters are little stylized, metal battleships that aren't realistic looking at all. The army counters are strange little artillery pieces. While these might be fine in a game like Risk, where you have lots of pieces and they shape of the piece gets lost in the cluster of pieces, Diplomacy is such a minimalist game. You have to stare at the board and see these terrible pieces staring back at you. Even the Avalon Hill plastic anchors and stars are better than this.

And the price!?! Hasbro had originally been quoting about $22.00 for the game. This turns out to be the wholesale price for Diplomacy. Expect to see it in your local game store for $40 - $45.

My advice to anyone who is thinking about owning this classic game is to find an old copy of the game with wooden pieces (or a copy of Deluxe Diplomacy, by AH. I think there are still a few floating around). A used one should cost about the same as the Hasbro edition, but will look so much better. They're up on eBay all the time. It's worth the time and trouble.

A thing or two about the magazine. First off, I'd like to thank all of our readers and contributors who have really made this and enjoyable experience. You seem to be having a great time reading the magazine, and we're loving putting it together. You keep it up and so will we.

I'd like to announce a few small changes: We're making some changes to the way back issues are browsed to make them easier to read and find. Also, I've had a complaint or two about links that don't work. I've searched all over and have fixed any that I've found. If you see any, please let me know and we'll get them fixed right up.

Also, starting this month, we're putting together a mailing list for people who'd like to get a message each month when a new issue comes out. Just a friendly reminder to let you know that we're still around . . .

There are also a few new roleplaying games on the horizon that I'm very excited about that I want to share with you.

In the next six to eight weeks Jolly Roger Games is publishing Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a collection of essays by game designers, about the art of designing games. Contributors will include Richard Garfield, Marc Miller and Gary Gygax. A must for any would-be game designer and an interesting read for any gamer!

And speaking of Marc Miller, Far Future Enterprises, has just released Books 0 - 8 The Classic Traveller Books. This one book reprints the old GDW Traveller books and gives a brief history of the Traveller game and a list of the the "official" Traveller publications.

And that should probably be enough from me this month. Remember that next month's issue will have Conspiracies for it's theme, and will hopefully be filled will all sorts of eye-opening articles. So if you've got any, send 'em in. We'd love to include them.

--Tim Morgan

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