By Chris W. McCubbin
Here it is, my first anniversary issue as editor. I guess this
means that you guys can stop writing "(or current
editor)" after my name when you write in.
It's been an interesting year . . . "interesting" in
the sense of the old Chinese curse, "May you live in
interesting times."
Still, I come out of 1990 with a lot of optimism for Car
Wars and Steve Jackson Games, and with a feeling of
accomplishment. Thanks to a lot of hard work and a lot of help
from our friends, we survived last year's financial crisis
following the Secret Service debacle. And things are looking
particularly bright for Car Wars, with last year's
onetwo punch of Car Wars in the small box, plus Car
Wars Tanks and Aeroduel. "Car
Wars Classic" reopened the autoduelling
hobby to newer, younger gamers who might have felt intimidated by
the price tag of the Deluxe Edition and the
multitudinous rules of the Car Wars Compendium,
meanwhile Tanks and Aeroduel present
allnew and exciting gaming possibilities to the experienced
duellist. In short, Car Wars is now bigger and
better, yet more accessible than ever before.
Candidly, the AADA was nearly a casualty of last year's Time
of Troubles, as our skeleton staff had to put all its efforts
into making enough money to keep us alive, and that took
attention away from support efforts like the AADA. Now, however,
due mostly to the superlative job our direct mail manager, Mike
Hand, is doing, these problem have been completely solved.
Orders, subscriptions and charter applications are now being
fulfilled with speed and efficiency far beyond the call of duty.
If you've been waiting to subscribe or charter your AADA chapter,
the time to wait is past. Go for it
So I'm going to stick around for awhile. You stick around,
too.
The first issue (Winter, 1991) of Driving Tigers Magazine is
out, and a promised, here's the lowdown.
The issue consists of four fine stories and some art. There
are two Car Wars stories by ADQ
veterans Christopher Burke and Robert Gariua, an offbeat horror
piece by newcomer Ben Carter, and the first part of "The
Year the Indy Died," by professional writer P.M. Fergusson.
The last story is reprinted from the venerable pages of Analog
magazine. There's also a few pieces of spot car Robert
Garnet's cover and single interior piece stand out. Though
plagued by the technical and proofreading glitches endemic to
young fanzines, the quality of the fiction is excellent, and I
have no reservations about recommending DTM to all
duellists, everywhere.
To obtain your copy of DTM, send $2.50 for one issue,
or $10 for a fourissue subscription to Driving Tigers,
c/o Chris Burke, 127 Bay 23 St., Brooklyn, NY 11214. Make checks
or money orders payable to Driving Tigers. Writer's guidelines
are also available.
Last fall SJG donated hundreds of games to U.S. troops in the
Persian Gulf, to help them pass the long wait until Desert Shield
erupted into Desert Storm. Since then we've received several
notes of thanks from U.S. soldiers, all of whom say that Car
Wars games, particularly Car Wars: The Card Game,
were favorites with the troops.
As I write this, Iraqi troops are moving out of Kuwait, and
God willing, the troops will be doing their duelling back home
soon. Great job, guys. Come back soon.
This issue's packed with more goodies than a Snickers bar.
Start with the gorgeous cover illustration by Car Warriors
artist Steve Dillon. Look for the first issue of Car Warriors
to appear any minute from Marvel/Epic comics. For all the
details, see the feature by ace comic-book journalist Darwin
McPherson on p. 14.
All duellists will want to take a look at the new, official
rules for jump jets in AADA News. Also new and official are the
AADA tournament rules beginning on P. 8, In fact, this issue is
sort of a tournament special, with the rules for the 2041 World
Championships, and a piece by former world champion Tim Ray on
his secrets of successful tournament vehicle design. You my
remember that Tim did a similar piece a couple years ago, but
that was before the Car Wars Compendium, Second Edition,
which radically changed the dynamics of vehicle design.
The issue is rounded out by an article torn from today's
headlines "Cruisin': Cruise Missiles in Car Wars,"
and something completely different: "Meeting The
InLaws," hilarious, slambang fiction by Andrew Metzger
(no relation, believe it or not, to Andreas Metzger, who wrote
"The Return of the Bear" a couple of issues ago).
You might notice the absence of "Blasts from the Past.
" Why no chronology? Because I don't have any! (Actually, I
have one good me from Tim Jacques, but it goes with a feature
story and I didn't want to break up the set.) The moral is simple
... Write more chronologies!
As this issue goes to print, The Complete Uncle Al's
catalog remains the only Car Wars product firmly on the
schedule, Look for it in late 1991.
However, we have numerous excellent proposals for new Car
Wars products on the table, and it's only a matter
of picking which ones get a spot on the schedule this year.
One really big change to an old friend: The old rulebook in Deluxe
Car Wars has been replaced. The new rulebook is
... the Car Wars Compendium, Second Edition.
That's right, you now get a Compendium with every Deluxe
Car Wars box plus (in an effort to clear out
our warehouse) we're including two additional Car Wars
products hardtofind supplements, Vehicle Design
Sheets and back issues of ADQ, worth at last $10.
All the other great staff from Deluxe Car Wars
is still there, of course. And the price has only gone up ...
not at all. It's still $24.95. This is a limitedtime offer, so
if you've turned on to the smallbox Car Wars and
you're considering upgrading to Deluxe Car Wars,
this is the time for it.
Roleplayers, meanwhile, can look forward to GURPS Vehicles. This book will be the long-needed, longawaited comprehensive vehicle design system for the Generic Universal Role Playing System, and the necessary first step leading to GURPS Aeroduel, Second Edition. GURPS Vehicles is written by GURPS UteraTech and GURPS Psionics author David Pulver. Look for it this fall.
