[review] Loviatar #13

I had an interesting day yesterday. Had to travel an hour north to a neighboring city for a court hearing that lasted less than 2 minutes. Then I was able to have lunch with my wife and two of our friends who happen to be NY Times Bestselling authors. (I don't have their permission to share stories and I don't want to drop any names.)

Then it was off to the podiatrist for a check-up on my second matrixectomy. (About a month ago I had an ingrown toenail partially removed. Then I learned the hard way that I'm in the 5% group that the healing process heals around a pocket of infection. Then I learned that I'm also the 1-in-20 that has the removed portion of the nail actually start to grow back. So I had to go a second time to have it removed. My doctor says that we treated it "aggressively" this time. It's meant much more pain, but he says it's healing nicely.)

And then I got home and found something in the mail that made the poking and prodding worth it all: Loviatar #13 and the latest edition of "A Letter from Los Angeles." Aside from the joy of receiving something other than bills in the mailbox, I now had something I could peruse while putting my feet up (literally) and recuperating from my day.

For those of you who haven't yet checked out Loviatar.... Really? Put aside the fact that this 'zine is why Mr. Christian Walker has been (arguably) responsible for the recent resurgence of the gaming 'zine. Put aside that the material inside each issue is geared toward numerous different game systems and usable in many more. Put aside the excellent artwork by Mr. Jay Penn. Put all of that aside for a moment:

Loviatar is just plain good. And old-fashioned good. It brings back a lot of memories to me from the 1980s.

Issue #13 is no difference. I will not pretend to say that I will ever have a chance to run a Lords of Creation game. Christian admits that the decision to write Lords of Creation material may be based upon a post-surgical drug-induced haze. But he still makes it work. There's humor: Kevin Sorbo surrounded by Amazons out-of-time; Jim Brass from CSI; and an alternate-Earth Mona Lisa hanging on the wall watching over the described festivities. While I'm also not likely to run a modern game any time soon, there's still plenty of material here that will feed into descriptions of a good D&D NPC.

(Case in point: I'm right now imagining an NPC bard who has made a name for himself "speaking for the Elven Gods" who finds himself surrounded in a tavern by a gaggle of Elves just waiting for him to say or do something they find blasphemous. Enter PCs. Hilarity ensues.)

In short, I'd highly recommend snagging a copy while they're hot, fresh, and available.

I'd also suggest checking out Christian's newest endeavor "A Letter from Los Angeles." This newsletter is also chock-full of gaming goodness and the fact that it's nearly all hand-written just adds to its uniqueness. This latest issue has a map on the back of a seemingly-deserted street from which your character or characters are attacked by an invisible assailant with questionable motives. Each of the newsletters have improved upon the previous ones and this one is no different. I keep waiting for the man to reach a plateau, but he just keeps getting better and better.

I should point out too that I am not receiving payment or reimbursement of any kind from Christan, other than the simple hope of continuing to receive his gaming materials in the mail.

What are you waiting for?! Go. Subscribe. Pick up copies now! For the money, it's gaming goodness at a terrific price!