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Sam

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1 Call of CthulhuTh 6 The Rocket's Red Glare

At last-the long-awaited winner of the Twilight scenario contest1 By George William He&&

54 EvU of the Centurtes In a scenario lnvohrlng a mummy, players generally assurnet hey are to be chased by a bandage- swathed monster. H only Me--and d e a t h e r e that simple. By J.B. Hill

1 I Giernwrn Combat Equipment tight weapons and personal gear fielded by German forces in the war, By Hans-Christian Vortisnh

Space: 1 88qrM 58 Cl ty of Tomorrow

Wet, exhausted and chllled to the bone, the P a re& the rhwe of the island and eollapw on the beach. They me no sign of Me. By James L CamMs

14 Shorl Nap PC3 aweken from oold berths to find thernsdvas he!d pdwner by raiders in the Wilds. By Mkhael R Mesh

20 Clarlssa Nolr Thera's mom going on wlh this corporate liaison than meets the eye. By Greg Vdeli 62 P r York Clty Subwa~,

2 w u 4 It's dark, nolsy, foul smelling, dan- g e r o u ~ l l that and more. But it's a part ol the city that you'd better know about. By Ma& R Gutis

22 Notes on Collapslr?g Worlds The official procedure far oonvert- img old data to the new standards. By Mark '%eon Gelinas .

Star Wars@

A burned-otn bulk freighter with soma large holes in its hull lazlty floats across the transparesfeel viewport of lhe character's ship. What seerefs Iie inside? By Peter Rausch

32 Welcometo...uh...theTown A guide to creating pka names. By Cheryl mwns

1 Lost SoulsTM

37 Brlde of Baron Samedl The woman lwked strange. It wasn't until I helped her to a hair that I figured out what was wrong with her. She was still warm. By Kathleen W ~ m s and& WR&ams

72 Gene-SpIlces I could see their eyes--red with bbod lust. Rngers held c l o d on their triggers. Mouths open and shining, sharpened canine tedh. They hall yelled and hatl howled in horrible bld-stained benerker delight. By Marc Janssen

1 Dark Conspira~y'~~ 40 The Beast Under the Bed

It's a time for worry, a tlme for dread. That scratching's not your imagination; Is not In your head. It's the beast under the bed. By Michael C, Lahssiere Opinion ................... .. ..........l...... .,..4 ........ W i o n Information N W r k 30

Submission Guidatines ................ 49 Conventbns .....................,............ 75 TechniFal Assessment Database ..,.76 R ~ V ~ W S ..l...............l.................l ,.,.a0 Ask Commodore Bwma ................ 84 ................. Feedback F o ~ e s u t t s 85 Pmd&t Distributibn ...................... ..85

.............................. CtaSsMs ,.,... 06 ............................. Next lssue ..... 88

50 Black Market Explore the black markds, where anything banned or restricted by the government can be found, and profit is always the prime concern. By Justin Schmid

2 Cha

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Challenge ts6ue77

MANAGING MITR Michelle Sturgeon

ART M R m R Julie Callahan

CONSULTLNO mI3s Frank Chadwick

Loren U Wiseman

INTERIOR ARTETS Tlm Holtrop

Bradley K. McDevitt James M m Jason Panoke Tom Roberts Jason Waftrip David Wilcox

ABOUT THE COVER "Running Short" by John Zeternh, the aver painting for an upcoming Shadowrun@ adventure which will be released later this year by FASA Shadowrun enthusiastsshould see page 82 for this issue's Shadowrun feature, "New York City Subways: 2054." Can you swre a token, Chummer?

t b m ( w h c m U S u d k n a d q b u r # t m R ; W w m a d d m w ) b y ~ ~ a m ~ p e r ~ i x ' l s n a a P l e s s e ~ PupaymemshUSIW~onaUSbark

TrriUgM: 2000, Tnvrk , bark hnsmy, 23W AD andspuefeeOareellIrademalllsoiGMY.CldlDrnL D l n o v t n m B u s e d r t l r d e r h . ~ P t h B l ~ ~ ~ m m 4 m t r a d e m a r l s P r A e ~ ~ ~ h ~ ~ P(a~lpkhntlyaprPduetmmmarreduponInthis m p z l n e h h o d d m t b e ~ r u e d a r I m p l & t h e ~ r - ~ d I h s ~ ~ h P W w , r o r , ~ ~ , * u l d ~ d t b n a m s o l a n y p r o d u a w k h o u m m x i o n o l ~ ~ bs~onstruedasachahgelo~3laun.

~ m s Y s h o u l d b s ~ # C ~ , P O B p x I w B k P m . ~ h k 6 1 7 @ - I W B U S A Inqukbpb~hehrdeeSASE. Foreign [OW-) Inel* an b r - n s l o n a l R e p l y ~ . B O I O l O & i & Q ~ p l w send a SASE fof ow ssrknission guMellnes. -IS, leflers. l- ccllwdona Cmri 8nd aenerel m

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Ither (N<YT to be confused with "Wither") TmveMer? An Editodd Excursion by Some Long-Wnded GDW Guy

Rather than a separate editorial and 6) Other imporlant worlds. and of itself, on its own home turf, with letters column, the editorial forthis issue Not to be completely negative, the UWP information, subsector and sector will consist of a letter and my response to Hiver section was quite good (although maps of their home space, etc. In addi- it. I received this letter a couple weeks lacking the above info). Charactergen- tion, rather than concentrating on the ago, and in answering itsconcerns, real- eralion will help me get a better grip on dynamic instabilities that exist within a ized that I was talking about crucial this very alien race. The lthklur section society and between the alien society underlying principles of Traveller: The was horrible. I cannot believe you have and the neighboring Imperium, these New Era. Because this would interest a thefirstblissfulwarriornamedSan*klaass supplements usually presented alien larger audience than just the lener's au- (Santa Claus). societies as the socio-political equiva- thor, I decided to put it into Challenge. I ComeOn!@rittentwo lines highinorigi- lents of a steady-state ecological climax also realized that I had to somehow nal, reduced for reasons of format-4.) community. recoup the large amount of time that I andthewearingofaredcapwithwhite Because players naturally use what had spent on my response, so I turned fur and a pompon, you give them, the combination of well- this into the editorial and struck that task (profanity, scrawled two lines high, detailed alien home space and the lack from my to-do book, then added a little deleted)! of clear hooks to pull these alien races more to the letter. Old Mother Necessity I like humorous slants to RPGs, but into the larger Imperial storyline encour- has many legitimate and illegitimate chil- this was way over the line. Please do aged Traveller groups to jump their dren, one of which is the multiple-bird- betternext time, PLEASE! campaigns from one unrelated corner of killing stone. A loyalcustomer? space to another to follow the latest

I havewritten ortalked toagreat many Ed Tumber published material. WhentheAslan book people about the evolution of TNEand its Clearwater, Florida came out, groups started an Aslan cam- assumptions, intentions and goals. I have paign in orderto use the cool information. done this so often (as has Frank) that I Dear Ed, When the K'kree book came out, groups feel like everyone in the world must cer- First of all, don't blame theentireGDW jumped their campaigns over to K'kree tainly know all the philosophical staff for what you dislike about Hivers space, followed by further abrupt cam- underpinnings of this game. But when I and Ithklur. I thought the credits were paign shifts when Vargr, Zhodani, Hiver, thinkabout it, it isobviousthat noone has clear that those who disliked the book etc., books came out. This tendency heard all of it, and the vast majority of were supposed to blame me (via divine undermined the ability to present a cam- Traveller players have heard none of it. intermediation, of course), but Frank of- paign in which the Imperium, or later, the It's meaningful to think that everyone ten pointsoutthat I am toosubtle. Maybe "Rebellion,"could be experienced in any who has bought a piece of the Traveller I'll listen to him one of thesedays. By the kind of coherent way. (For example, the system is in some spiritual (but not le- way, so you don't have to skip down to only way DGP was able totie this dispar- gally binding, let me get that out of the the end of my letter, my name is Dave. ate material together was to bodily haul way right now) way a kind of "part owner" Ed, Dave; Dave, Ed. their Travellers'Digestcampaign around of Traveller. When you spend years of First, I want to thank you for your the entire lmperium, an unusualsolution your life with yourfriends carefully crafi- support of Traveller and TNE for the that is unsuited to most existing cam- ing yourowncampaign,it'simpossibleto pastfourtosix years. Weworkvery hard paigns.) And because much of not have a sense of connection to the on this stuff, and your happiness means MegaTravellerwasaboutthe Rebellion, game that represents so much work, so a lot to us. We also pay attention to all of this lack of focus was a problem, per- muchfun, so many memories. With that the comments we receive about any haps even a fatal flaw. When a unified understanding, the comments inspired dissatisfactions you might have. campaign background isfragmentedinto by the following letter belong to all Trav- Having cunningly segued to the dis- a number of separate neighborhoods, it eller players, and this is a good place to satisfactionthing, IwiII now addressyours becomes impossible to give all the play- make them widely available (especially in order: what I left out and what I in- ers the campaign support they want. An seeing as how it also gets this editorial cluded. Aslan campaign book does not meet the out of the way). Everything I left out in comparison to needs of the Vargr, K'kree, Zhodani or

So anyway: the DGP books I left out fora reason, and Hiver players, and vice versa. Further- this goes back to the basic concept be- more, human-centered Imperial or

Dear GDW Staff, hind Traveller: The New Era. Where Rebellion material answers the needs of I've been a loyalcustomer ofyours for MegaTraveller presented a smorgas- none of the alien campaigns.

about four years now (okay, maybe six) bard of space which could not be Nevertheless, some Traveller fans and IrecentlyboughtyourAliens of fhe effectively tied together into a unified aren't bothered by the difficulty of tying Rim Volume I : Nivers and Ithklur. Up whole, TNE is intended to present a together unrelated campaignfragrnents, until that supplement, I've been very coherent story. The same way that a as they just like all the cool background happy with Traveller: TheNewEra, but novel or movie has to introduce new material. This raises another important Aliens of the Rim brought that happi- characters, plot developments, etc., in a point: There are at least two constituen- ness toa screechinghalt. When DGPdid planned way so that they develop rather cies of Traveller fans, which I will call the two alien sourcebooks for your than dilute the storyline, TNE's releases "players"and"collectors."Naturally there MegaTraveller setting, they were awe- haveasequencing andcontent intended is extensive overlap between these two some, but your sourcebook fell shon to advance the story we are trying to tell. groups, so the division is perhaps best

You left out some of the neat features This is actually quite adeparturefromthe thought of as two poles of interest, be- of the old alien books, such as: philosophy behind the earlier avatars of tween which all garners are stretched to

I ) Thesectormaps oftherace's area Traveller, so please indulge me while I varyingdegreesof agony.TraveIlerfans of space. explain. who gravitate more toward the player

2) Thesectormap ofone oftheirmost From the TNE point of view, the main poleenjoyTraveller primarily asameans populous sectors. problem with the DGP sourcebooks is toplay ascience-fiction roleplayinggarne

3) A sampling of the race's robors and one that was shared with the alien mod- in a broad, detailed, diverse and rela- vehicles. ules from original Traveller: They tively "hard-science" setting. Those who

4) The race's spacecraft. presented aliens as a sort of Alien of the gravitate toward the collector pole get 5) Worldinformation ofrheirhome, and: Month Club. Each race was complete in their primary enjoyment out of being

4 Challenge 77

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~mmereedhrthe~massoflrrterest- IW p w d w d t y swm material. ms k t h e a a t n e e n ~ t h 8 t ~ l o v a m g e s w t d ~ r l c d ~ ~ S r a r T - farm g6t out d d tha

*fMf% - fllgM ahmnologlas, md technical manuah a d ToMn fans get from T m gbswks, W l e Earth maps, eivenpaetry, and ChtWopher7MFeh'a ~ ~ a B h l s f a ~ rotesand U M M mtlkmlpla 7teveller wi- lectosgatmogtdtheEren)oymmhwn what Marc Uller called WaJre~wE W4esQdng stamhtpe and v e h k k , m n g mltfw Hmdes, or dmply havtq fun mdhg all the cool SW. BeEauseTrmbrlr 18 y e m d d , ma e ( & S m m h ~ h a r r e & r n c . * ~ ~ k h tshsrdrnfil

nlspLylnp%msmenhmUud, m d n g w d A m l f I ~ M~WS, halr ~ a r a ~ ~ n r a r e t h e ~ Inclined to mow lmmi 'Eho mlllalrel c o l ~ j m t e .

Meither pole, nor d m , f better or- than tlpe othst. However, material mgated mwe toward one pole thanthedherwtllmkkwholly satbf- twy la the untargeted grwp. W t e a coilector wnts the 'Ctavallw qulvalont at the Ek@qxda Bdhwdm, Jmes

The Bible, Duneand fhe

players am boltwswvdby &amre- &wtd rnMal! l"h paa is pmbgw; ~ e m u s ~ m I

A n ~ n t e x a m p l e o f ~ d s f f a r - ence In rreods and 9njoyrneM bemm t h e ~ ~ U w p l a y ~ ~ I s t h d r a p proach @ W r d a t a CoWwfs warn to be abh to see all of Charted Spaae, d clamor for m e and m n w r daa& 7he leading ~esponw to the pubHmdon In lW4 d Aths of tlw ImpetWm (bng ~ ~ w t a t p t l n t ~ w a s , w k a y , s 3 n a w $w =all tfie lMFPkm Player$ or more pRrhmyreferees, on the other hand, krowwhatat@3k)t&todeteile more ~ s e c b w t o ~ ~ r e q u l r e d f o r m t e

TheyrEkntwant rnmamm- they wad help In breethIng me Into the Worhtheyslmdy have.

*m8ktos@sfybeehmswith wr lblE mawtal, b t kls had to walk a flnellrrcr t)etween bno d M n g goals,

~ w e ~ t o m a n o n e ad'n% ~fdem the other. SowhtchsMe? W h t do we make, A t b of the I m p rhrm ar Tarsus?

In ordar to i r w thls &!Ion, we hvetolmd&&wh&tthepurposeand mil Ofw game i%

~ n a ! ~ W ~ mti~mdedto b e o o m e s ~ ~ , l t w a s a k o 9 e , w d f r a m e w s r k i r r r ahigasl ad- @ty of &wm-M~sr adventure, But as hs~britygrevv,hevnhred,afleeeat adms,lntoasystemtha hadnaben e n v l ~ w h n i t w a a f i t g t ~ .

In h e , ayswmhrmd wt to be too shW,WlEhanmnlpDtent tmperlum

Wmax c o m m u n ~ of dm, Om L l C mnmm cab

#is kkgnwnd "atdlners In space," In W h yw mked up freqmntflyer mtlm gdnglmmonedvltlredwwldto#mnea Wb thls Is an exaggeration, it Is true thsltmny,pemwmorff,WorsMto create opporhrrddsm fw rsdvemuw by breakIngtheMwilmperlellaw, then keal law,- lmperfal IdJ=-Mm appmchpohmmNkaetual m- apdcontOmpof local . d w , which Led to bb of campaigns ttlled wIth bank robbed-, jail break, amlm mmhlp, r o b W r ~ g w a p o n s d ~ f o r b ~ d r e s s , dwdfqun~CITdcaMkcalsandstay- hgo~swpaheadofthe IN.

At the dsk d sounding otd-f~sbned, IflnditWllngtotHnkofa~pemeIn W h t b mb to & anythtng 1irts;- estfng I8 b hrqk the law (qjdn, an e#aggdbn, butg&@rrtruth). So, rpparendy, dld the. Wces4br Wct lc Clarrnonyre~at 1-7, w t r o ~ s d t o o p e n u p t h o ~ I t e r bs$& SO tkl ply818 cc~ld UP hash mayhem - (Cmtderlnpthe success of ths mllltamtly anarchlc ~nkgenm,It lslmIWngmspwu- l ~ t h e t ~ R a Y e l k l w a i S a l l e a b d Its the, kn ?hat's watsr wet the dam.)

The reauk was Megalhwlkr and the W l I o n . Brealdng t)le lmperlum Into chum broke the omnlporence of the Irnmum and Jbwed adventuresto be more WheeEng, Albwtng cettaln d thew chunk %a be homlnlly good or evil allwved phyanto engage In grerrtw amounthi at spWy combat, and In the name QO what passd for a good caum

Hwem, there was c o W n over whether the Rebetaon wae a means n an end or an end in Itself, and Megn= l h w f k wwnd up wlfh faet phnted In both ~mps.Thbwas n o t ~ f o r T h v - elkr fans. Players who wanted to sm the RebeHlon uhld were d l -d , & W m ~ h ~ b l m p l r wanted to-- ~ b a m m @ g n w f t h m a n y $ # t e lmperlai~ot~theoneresl lyblg one.#~samedme#mUMnrawere *awm4bytbwof- matethl on the Angle mogt lmppnan! hisWa1 evm% In 1100 years. M e p l I w u l k e r ' s g e a W stwy, #la M l l o t V CMI W-nd War, was k#t esserrtlalty unto Id.

So wit's late 1991, adwehdto Agure out hwv b app& IhGater: Trke3. Inthelnterestofmaklog mr, h e r mrstakm insmd &lust rap-ng &I ones, we attempted to barn the les-

ewtsmllne w b t charadeiistlcs lhe new ~ n ~ t d have. Ammg these were:

4 n ~ ~ r r r u n d t h b F t a l k r m ~ wheeling adwmrewhhwthavlngto kokweryoursh ldwfwthahph l Fun Poke.

*A background that allwvs ewra- W hmdtotsethatthemIy1~~9~nior I d I n g on a planel h Tfeveltetwkhwt W n g in a&- what tt was like was h a u s e you for@ol to Iwk h up.

*Abwkgr#lndwMch~~~~W SdIIdW

areas fw hlgMy We- Idgh-wh- mkgys&de% a badqpwdthat f o h f t o m , and

Is cornistent Mth, prevbsly p u w 7?amUer mafwfal.

*A kkgr#md wHch Mms & In wmm rnWngM way. A m h One b W& ih a t a w ~ game, dealng a8

damvtolontcwmEd,Monedo Z h W r n e M m n h t e d . w h y ? ~ methiqsarepittphln -darn*

~ A b & g m d w M & c l e a r ~ a l ~ o n , ~ t a r u l a n m a t t e m p t t o ~ evefythlng at cme.

mAbaclrgrourrdwithaatmytobk o~naI~mtb$'$ateedy4m satat- I e s w s r s u n ~ U f e h d y n - CerMnpmanareaW4yswanlngvffrlte ottwrsw. Hlsbry Ls-the mnmnt r e a d j u s t m e n W d ~ n g b p l ? h WdnrlseaepaMm and an adventun rbleplayfng game must be espudally $0.

*Ab8ckgrwrtdthatanPmtroomfor ~mwllorimstendedtobcrdoo rdudodsr, rnammf-fad, m well- defined. it k dmlnal to take r mqmlgn b&&grmdmhrQeairChsrtPd§paw and alkw kt0 h e o m too ownprahon- ~ , 1 1 3 0 ~ ~ ~ d u 1 1 ~ ~ should be larger than Me. I ltwcleeuthsrtaax#nmpddalngths

a b v e polmwould rqcrlre anotherwe &shed event in the wnpalgn $Wyllne.

4COnsiden'ng the wmss of the mi& tandy anamhic *punk genre, it Is interesting to spmlate that perh- 7 r a v a W m M o f i & tTme, but W s water ov8r the m.' - ~tleBrsf#Ingwastogetah~~fmth W l f o n . Itmatrmdym hteb prop erly handblelheWaWngottheRetMon, and to satisfy ~ ' R m l ~ ptayerswho were pulling for thelrfewrdtefaabm In addstlon, I fwnd !he whk R d M o n mmpttobomrmore#mlyr;8prg- nant as tlm went by. I wa8 de~ermlnad that this as-yet-mspdhd watershed event would not remotely mttOm8ze the ~ d k e R e b e l l t o n , ~ w w # megowly repudlatgmom . what's the event7 Frank h d srl- W y M e d ke klea d a wmputw ~ I ~ s a n d S t w Wngawho~etoprck upthe@-, a n d w e ~ v l ~ f t . W h e n Frank had first mentf;oned the Idea at some m, the re- was. mats ImpwslMe. We have VINB promtion mfWmw,ianovtwscw!deverkrst up the Imperlum.'

MyWmadonBthatwmanlmr- tfarlaEeapulter,"lfmanweremwtofly, he'd hwe wlngk* Trdns will never k abletogofasrerthan50n@beesuwed the alrmld get swkd out dmwn d t h e p a s s s ~ ~ ~ . * 7 h e ~ l s d n k a b l e ~ 7 h e Maglnot Une

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