We regret to announce that something is not here: the promised article on the changes from CWCI to CWC2. They will be in the next issue of ADQ. The author of that article had a family emergency that had to take precedence (yes, ADQ staffers are human too).
Each book has 120 pages of the essential blank forms to construct any Car Wars vehicle, from motorcycle to semi. Each sheet has the appropriate Crash Table printed on the back. Add eight Vehicle Check Lists and the new five-phase movement chart, extended up to 300 mph, and you have the ingredients for constructive mayhem with no wait at the copier!
Car Wars Vehicle Guide 3 is the first vehicle guide in large-page format; look for the big, blue book with the big, black AADA logo. VC 3 has 78 rip-roaring, ready-to-ride duelling and racing machines.
Car Wars Compendium, Second Edition. The first edition is sold out! Now it's time for the all-new, all-singing, all-dancing Second Edition. Material has been reorganized for easier access, obscurities clarified, omissions inserted, and mistakes (yes, there were mistakes) corrected. All the rules, all the cars, all the guns, and all in one place!
Here are a few of the commonly-encountered faults that keep a lot of what we receive off the pages of the magazine.
(1) Stories and articles must be written in English! We do count spelling, punctuation, grammar and legibility when assessing any submission. Also, in kindness to an editorial staff whose average of visual acuity approaches legal blindness, please type or use a printer, and please use a legible ribbon! A copy of the SJG writer's guidelines is available for an SASE.
(2) A story must have a plot and an article must have a subject! A random collection of observations is a letter, not a magazine submission. Both stories and articles must have a logical progression of ideas.
(3) Inaccuracy is intolerable! If an editor can find errors of fact, such as wrong dates, numbers, names (including the correct spelling of the names of actual people, places and things) in one casual reading, it makes him doubt the accuracy of the entire item. If the editor has to check the accuracy of every statement, he might as well write the piece himself.
(4) Profanity, scatology and obscenity do not turn a dull story into an exciting one nor a juvenile story into an adult one.
(5) Painfully phonetic renderings of accent and dialect contribute nothing of value to a story. An occasional turn of phrase is enough to give individuality to the speech of a character.
(6) 0. Henry built an entire career on surprise endings. He's dead.
(7) The pages of this magazine are not a repository for venomous outbursts of personal spite! If you don't agree with someone's position, say so, and give your reasons. If you want to insult someone, do it on your own time.
(8) Original means new! It does not mean with the name respelled and the color of the shirt changed.
(9) The name of the game is Car Wars! Submissions are much more likely to be accepted if this is central to the story or article. That does not mean that there is no room for speculation. We have published stories and scenarios with mutant superbeings, dragons, werewolves and androids, but all these were directly related to blazing guns and squealing tires.
(10) The Car Wars universe is violent; people are hurt and killed and property is destroyed. These are givens which we all accept. Don't linger over the exquisite details of death and mutilation; if that really turns you on, get a job at a slaughterhouse (or watch the evening news).
-- Michael Hurst