TABLE OF CONTENTS Meet and Greet d20 Product Reviews (continued) Game / Product Reviews Reaper Miniatures 3 Reaper Miniatures Fast Forward Games / Fanpro / WK Games www.reapermini.com www.reapermini.com www.fastforwardgames.com Written by Mark Theurer and The Eldest Son 35 Classic Battletech 51 J. Michael Tisdel Review by Mark Theurer Review by J. Michael Tisdel RPG Objects Classic Battletech Miniature Rules 52 Miniature Reviews www.rpgobjects.com Review by J. Michael Tisdel 100 Kingdoms 6 GM Mastery, Volume 1 37 I-Kore www.100kingdoms.com Review by Mark Theurer www.i-kore.com Review by Mark Theurer Dream Pod 9 Void 1.1 Junkers Army Book 52 Excelsior Entertainment 9 www.dp9.com Review by Mark Theurer www.excelsiorgames.info d20 Mecha Compendium 37 Ghazpork Industrial Review by Mark Theurer Review by Mark Theurer www.ghazporkindustrial.com Reaper Miniatures 10 Bastion Press Dying Lights 53 www.reapermini.com www.bastionpress.com Review by John Robertson Reviews by J. Michael Tisdel and Airships 38 Privateer Press Mark Theurer Review by J. Michael Tisdel www.privateerpress.com Privateer Press 17 Faeries 38 IK: Warmachine Prime 54 www.ikwarmachine.com Review by Graham Platt Review by Mark Theurer Review by Mark Theurer Friends & Familiars 39 Pinnacle Entertainment Group I-Kore 18 Review by Mark Theurer Savage Worlds 55 www.i-kore.com United Playtest Review by J. Michael Tisdel Review by Mark Theurer and www.unitedplaytest.com Charon Productions J. Michael Tisdel Gaming Frontiers 4 39 www.battlepack2001.com Mithril 20 Review by Mark Theurer Skirmishpack 56 www.mithril.ie Mystic Eye Games Review by J. Michael Tisdel Review by J. Michael Tisdel www.mysticeyegames.com Dark Age Games Cobalt-1 23 Vigilance 40 www.dark-age.com www.oldgloryminiatures.com Review by Adam Brooks Dark Age 57 Review by Mark Theurer Guilds & Adventurers 40 Review by Darrel Rodger Rackham 24 Review by Mark Theurer Fast Forward Games / Fanpro / WK Games www.rackham.fr Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns 41 www.fastforwardgames.com Review by Mark Theurer Review by Mark Theurer Magic in the Shadows 58 Tarot Magic 42 Review by Adam Brooks Game Preview Review by J. Michael Tisdel Devil Dog Design Dry Land: Empire of the Dragon Sand 42 Free Game www.devildogdesign.com Review by J. Michael Tisdel Golem Races 59 Dogs of War 27 Dark Portal Games Written by Alexander Hernandez Written by Jeff Valent www.darkportalgames.biz with Iris Aguilera and Arturo Sanchez White Robes, Black Hearts 43 d20 Product Reviews Review by Clay Richmond d20 Adventure Auran d20 Living Imagination Call of Cthulhu www.auran.com/d20 www.livingimagination.com Order of the Stone 61 Sanctuary 28 Streets of Silver 44 Written by J. Michael Tisdel Review by Graham Platt Review by Clay Richmond Pinnacle Entertainment Group Spellbound 44 20 Questions www.peginc.com Review by J. Michael Tisdel Excelsior Entertainment Horrors of Weird War II 29 Perpetrated Press www.excelsiorgames.info Review by Mark Theurer www.perpetrated.com Ultimate Warzone 66 Epitaph 4 29 Factory 46 Written by Mark Theurer Review by Mark Theurer Review by Mark Theurer and Thom Talamini Green Ronin Publishing Mongoose Publishing www.greenronin.com www.mongoosepublishing.com Battle Report The Avatar’s Handbook 30 Total War 2089 47 CAV 68 Review by Christopher Carr Review by Mark Theurer www.reapermini.com Mutants & Masterminds GM Screen 30 Written/Played by J. Michael Tisdel Review by Mark Theurer Game Update and Brian Ahrens Pocket Magica 31 Excelsior Entertainment Review by Michael Conrad www.excelsiorgames.info Tactics Manual Freedom City 31 Chronopia 48 Confrontation Review by Mark Theurer Written by Mark Theurer and the www.rackham.fr Cartographica 32 Excelsior Entertainment Staff Lions of Alahan 74 Review by Mark Theurer Written by Christopher Carr Time of Crisis 33 Press Releases Review by Mark Theurer Fast Forward Games 49 Bastards and Bloodlines 33 www.fastforwardgames.com Review by Mark Theurer Written by John Danovich and Fast Forward Entertainment Rene Chambers www.fastforwardgames.com Games Unplugged 49 Complete Monstrous Fighter’s Comp. 34 www.gamesunplugged.com Review by Brian Ahrens Written by John Danovich Crypts & Tombs 34 Pinnacle Entertainment Group 50 Review by J. Michael Tisdel www.peginc.com Campaign & Games Unplugged 35 Written by C. David Ross Review by Mark Theurer 1 FROM THE EDITOR ADVERTISERS INDEX Welcome everyone to the June 2003 edition of Fictional Reality. Right away Great Canadian Miniatures IFC and 60 you’ll notice a small difference in the magazine as we’ve gone to a slightly (and it is really just slightly) smaller font size. We did this to reduce the 100 Kingdoms 2 and 8 page count and file size to make Fictional Reality easier for you to get your hands on. We printed out some test pages and found that they were still very Warzone GTS 5, 17, 56, and 71 readable. If you are reading Fictional Reality on your monitor instead of printing it out and want a larger font size it should be no problem for you to just up the zoom a little bit. Either way, if you’d rather us go back to the font Reaper Miniatures 12 and 72 size that’s just a bit bigger than this please let us know and we’ll take care of it for the very next issue. After all, we’re here to put out a ‘zine that you Jeff Valent Studios 16 want to read. Also, along the same lines, if there is something that you’d like to see more of in Fictional Reality please drop us a line and let us know. The Brok’s Armory 19 other change is in the Table of Contents. We’ve listed the article in question, the manufacturers website, and the author of the article all on the same page. Zombiesmith 21 Well, our convention plans are past the decision stage and into some actual planning. If everything goes according to plan we’ll be able to meet and Excelsior Entertainment 22, 45, and 65 hopefully throw some dice with a bunch of you at GenCon when it’s held in Southern California in December. Hope to see you there! Fantization 24 and 69 Ok, so what have we been up to lately? Well, on the non-Fictional Reality Devil Dog Design 26 and 73 side we’ve been continuing with our rotating role-playing games. Feng Shui has turned out to be a very enjoyable game and is well worth checking out if Thane’s Games 32 you’re into the kung-fu action movie kicking ass kind of thing. We’re about to start up Mutants & Masterminds and also a one-shot Call of Cthulhu adventure which will likely end up with us dead or insane, but somebody has Pinnacle Entertainment Group 36 to keep the body-bag and straight-jacket manufacturers in business, right? RPG Objects 41 and 53 On the miniatures side of things we’re still eagerly awaiting new cool miniatures for Warmachine Prime and I’m having a Pavlovian-type reaction Privateer Press 44 any time I hear something new about Ultimate Warzone. I’m toying with the idea of building a 28mm scale version of the intersection of Hollywood & Dark Basement Miniatures 50 Vine and fighting it out with a ton of figures using the d20 Modern rules, feats, skills, classes and all. Ok, where’s my straight-jacket again? Charon Productions 51 So, what are we looking forward to? Well, personally I’m on the lookout for the Shadowrun action figure game. I didn’t like Mage Knight too much at Bring Your Miniatures to Life 58 all, but did have quite a bit of fun with Mech Warrior: Dark Age. I’m figuring that I have at least a 50/50 chance of liking it and the large scale Excalibur Miniaturen 76 figures and ability to kit out your fighters with different weapons really interests me, along with the fact that I can use my living room as a battlefield. Also, Dogs of War is piquing my interests and you’ll see a battle report in the September issue of Fictional Reality. Speaking of my interests increasing, Warlord, Reaper Miniatures upcoming skirmish fantasy game definitely has my attention and it hasn’t even come out yet. I haven’t seen one bad figure in the releases so far and from what we’ve heard from the guys at Reaper it should allow you to use any figures that you might have collected over the years. For more insight into Reaper Miniatures be sure to read the Meet and Greet articles that starts off this issue. On the role-playing side I’m looking forward to playing some Savage Worlds. It looks like a very open system and could be a lot of fun. Check out Michael’s review of the game later in this issue. Also, Armageddon 2089 looks like it could be a lot of war-torn fun in the not too distant future of a world not far off from ours. Well, hope you all have a great Summer and we’ll see you back here in September for another installment of Fictional Reality. What are you waiting for? Turn the stinkin’ page and start reading. Mark Theurer and J. Michael Tisdel 2 On a recent Saturday morning we (myself, my oldest son Bradley and co- Editor J. Michael Tisdel) made the 45-minute trek to the home of the second largest miniature company in the world, Reaper Miniatures. We had been invited by Ed Pugh, Reaper head honcho, to come down and ask question, take pictures and hopefully not make too much of pests of ourselves.