White Dwarf #18, Citadel and the TMP game

I'd actually planned on covering this in a few weeks once I had wrapped up my series on Heritage's Trek game, but the item in question just came up on eBay and it's rare, so this will double as Auction of the Week (link to eBay listing for White Dwarf #18, left).

White Dwarf is the insanely old UK magazine dedicated to science fiction and fantasy wargames, miniatures and role-playing games. It started its run in 1977 and is still going today, although its focus has been almost exclusively on publisher Games Workshop's own gaming products since the mid-80s.

In early 1979, GW helped form the spinoff company Citadel Miniatures, which itself partnered with Ral Partha miniatures here in the States for manufacturing and distribution. Citadel released miniatures based on a number of licensed properties including games such as Traveller, D&D and RuneQuest, and other media properties such as my beloved Doctor Who, Judge Dredd and, in 1980, Star Trek. Specifically, miniatures based on the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture. As I have with the Heritage, FASA and other Trek minis, I'll be covering that range in more detail soon.

In a move somewhat similar to that of Heritage, White Dwarf published a 4-page article in its April/May 1980 issue (#18) called "Star Trek The Motion Picture - Rules for Adventures in the Final Frontier" by GW/WD regulars Tony Yates (artist, AD&D Field Folio) and Steve Jackson (no, not that one, but rather the WD Editor and co-founder of GW, who probably is long tired of disclaimers like this after his name). The article consisted of about a page-and-a-half of actual rules, a game scenario, a map of the Enterprise Main Bridge (TOS version) that was obviously traced directly from Franz Joseph's Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, and a one page "Alien Descriptions & Painting Guide".

As you've probably guessed, the article is not so much a detailed game as it is an incentive to run out and purchase the Citadel miniatures. "These are an introductory set of adventure rules for Star Trek games," the article begins. "They serve as a basis for conducting role-playing games and tabletop battles with miniature figures. Two people may normally play, one playing Admiral Kirk and the Enterprise crew, the other playing the enemy." It encourages readers to expand upon the rules and submit their ideas and further scenarios to White Dwarf, but I'm not aware that anything further was published.

The game requires three 6-sided dice and a pair of 20-sided percentage dice (in those days, 20-sided dice usually numbered 0-9, twice), and a ruler to determine movement, range, line-of-sight and so on. Each character has two stats: Ability Factor and Combat Factor of 3-18, checked by rolling under using a D20 and a D6 (the D6 is used to determine whether to add "10" to the result of the D20, i.e. was the result a "4" or a "14"). AF is used to determine success on pretty much any plausible action that is not combat, such as a repair, a translation or an alien special power. For the sake of comparison:

Admiral Kirk: AF 18, CF 17
Mr. Spock: AF 17, CF 18
Rand: AF 14, CF 11
Klingon Leader: AF 16, CF 16

Ah, and to think that I used to admire The Fantasy Trip for getting away with 3 stats!

Other rules detail the Turn Sequence, Movement, Combat ("Remember that Starfleet Regulations also require that all phasers carried by Strfleet personnel must be set to stun only at all times except in extreme circumstances or when firing at inanimate objects"), Close Combat and the Hero's Roll (basically a saving roll against death for elite characters, which apparently does not include Chekov).

The scenario, "A Guided Tour" has the Enterprise crew in drydock, giving a tour to the wide variety of alien miniatures available from your local Citadel dealer. While on the bridge, the Klingon representative gets a little too nosy about the computer system, is confronted, pulls a weapon, and action/hilarity ensues. Some aliens will ally with the Federation, some with the Klingons, and others will be neutral unless a dice roll says they're not. The Klingons win when they kill Kirk, Decker or Spock, thus changing history and preventing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

The article closes with a list of the miniatures, their game stats and a very simple painting guide that has as about much detail as the game itself. In short, it's not much of a miniatures game, and even less of a role-playing game (even for the time), but it probably squeezes about one evening of fun into its 4 pages. The highlight of the issue is actually a cool 6-page D&D adventure, "The Halls of Tizun Thane" by Albie Fiore that's much better than the Trek game.

If you collect or intend to collect the Citadel miniatures, the magazine is a worthy companion to your collection, especially if you can nab it in the Auction of the Week for $3 plus shipping. If nothing else, magazines from this time period are a great trip down memory lane, sometimes just for the advertisements and new game announcements (like TSR's Top Secret) and reviews.

There is also a full page ad for Citadel Miniatures Ltd near the front of the magazine, prominently featuring an advertisement for the STTMP 25mm miniatures range, and listing the figures (noting that each pack was 50p, and contained two different poses/figures even though Kirk actually had a 3rd variant):

ST1 Captain Kirk
ST2 Mr. Spock (right, painted by Mark Dixon)
ST3 Dr. "Bones" Mccoy
ST4 Scotty & Chekov
ST5 Sulu & Willard Decker
ST6 Uhura & Christine Chapel
ST7 Ilia & Janice Rand
ST8 Enterprise Crew
ST9 Security Guards
ST10 Vulcans
ST11 Deltans
ST12 Klingons
ST13 Aaamazzarites
ST14 Kazarites
ST15 Betalgeusians
ST16 Arcturians
ST17 Zaranites
ST18 K'normians
ST19 Rigellians
ST20 Rhaandrites
ST21 Shamin Priests
ST22 Megarites
ST23 Saurians
ST24 Andoreans

Note - It does not list the four 54mm miniatures that were released in 1980, which I include here just for reference:

ST5401 Captain Kirk Seated at Helm
ST5402 Mister Spock
ST5403 Ilia in Deltan Leisure Dress
ST5404 Klingon raider with Laser Pistol

Again, I'll be covering as many of the figures as I can at a later date. In the meantime, you can check out the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki for a nearly complete reference on the range.