Not that I was doubting where I'd end up after a buffet of D&D clone sampling, but I've pounded down my iron spike in the Labyrinth Lord camp. My old-skool allegiance is shown in the right-hand column, with a big advertisement, stolen (ironically) from the pages of KNOCKSPELL. Really, I just liked the ingenious art by Mr. Mullen; porcine orcs and gaunt trolls can't be beat (please don't send the 10HD Lawyers). Excusing my slight bias towards alliterative titles, I didn't pick Swords & Wizardry because of some stated rules therein, like attribute bonuses that only stretch to +1. Some other products, like Castles & Crusades, could not compete with the free core rules the aforementioned offer. There has to be fine silver and lots of dessert on the buffet table if a publisher wants me to buy re-edited D&D in only a "dead tree" format.

Lastly, a deciding element was the OTHER product Goblinoid Games has released alongside LL. Publishers like Paizo and Wizards have lots of traditional companion tomes reinforcing their rulebooks, various bestiaries and campaign settings. However, do you see these giants ever gut their wordy systems and release something so bizarre that it seems spilled from the wells of adolescent gaming fervor? Why blab on and on about colors of dragons and Elf shit when your Mountain Dew-laced brain can bring forth Spidergoats and Laser-shooting Replicants? Goblinoid dispenses with the dusty library approach and jumps back in time to when all these dice, weapons, maps and monsters were a toy box for numerous game genres, like a MUTANT FUTURE! They trust that you can handle the details, without 50 pages of lore and drawings by Wayne Reynolds. Furthermore, you can get a Labyrinth Lord Society membership certificate, no proofs of purchase or box tops required.