Mini Review - AFS Magazine Issue #2

Not that I ever got around to reviewing AFS #1(my bad) which was nice, but AFS #2 ($6.00) shows a maturing of the format. Gone are the single sided pages - now we have double sided pages. The page count jumps from 38 (I think - not numbered) to 44 (numbered). Also, the front and back covers are now printed on heavier paper - you can feel the difference (and it should be able to survive normal reading abuse now).

There's an article by Rob Kuntz to start things off. Interesting article on some early gaming history. Still, another "Old School Cred" article, and I've already read one by Rob in Gygax recently (and other places prior). Enjoyable none the less.

The next piece is a short story. Didn't read it. I'm not much of a reader of short fiction. Hey, at least I'm honest ;)  BTW, different typset from the previous article, so you get a real feeling of an 70s / 80s print only zine.

Cliff Warrens of the Corvid Bird Men - and adventure for characters level 2-4.complete with hand drawn map - not a work of art but serviceable. It's a short adventure, more of an extended encounter in length. If nothing else, it introduces a new monster, but if you only have 2 hours or so to play, this may very well fill your needs.

This is followed by 2 new monsters: The Zombastadon and Leiber Ghuls.

Next up is The Big Table of Semi-mundane Items (100) - I love me some random tables. The font here is small - small enough that my now aging eyes find it slightly hard to read. Well worth the effort to read and use tho'.

We get a new class for AS&SH, the Cryomancer written by Jeff Talanian himself. Complete with it's own spell list, this sizable article is probably considered semi-official for AS&SH. Pretty damn cool. I may need to pull AS&SH off my shelf and give it a fuller reading. So much to read, so little time to do so.

Another article from Rob Kuntz, this time a Mythos Monster from the Lake Geneva Original Campaign. See, this is how you establish your old school cred, by giving us old school stuff to game with ;)

The Big Table of Minor Magic Items is thankfully at a readable font size. Did I already mention I love random tables?

The Templar Class is next in line. I'm guessing it's for B/X . Possibly a very powerful class, but with a 1 in 20 chance of nearly self destructing whenever using it's divine intervention power. I don't think I'd use the class as written.

Overall, a very satisfying issue. I'm looking forward to Issue #3 of AFS already.