2 GTM AUGUST 2007

COVER STORYCOVER STORYCOVER STORYCOVER STORY

Grande Melee! It’s “Last ‘Mech Standing” in the very publicvenue of the Solaris VII arena!

T a b l e o fCONTENTS

FEATURES

Monte Cook’s World of DarknessCity of Ruin! Explore the shatteredremnants of the Twin Cities — the setting for the post-apocalypticnightmare of Monte Cook’s World of Darkness.by White Wolf Publishing

An Interview withWOTC Star WarsBrand ManagersSarah Haines &Rachel Kirkmanby GTM

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PREVIEWS

GIVEAWAYA Killer Bunnies Card Cache from Playroom Entertainment!72

REVIEWSDronolan’s Tower — Legends of Kitholan

Volume 1 CD from Forever Young Music;Twisted Fish from McNeill Designs

for Brighter Mindsgame product reviews by Heather Barnhorst

GamingReport.com MidEvil II – Castle Chaos!

from Twilight Creationsreviewed by Marc Shayed58

PRE-ORDER SECTIONSGAMES

ANIME

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50

Dark Stalkers Designer Diary Chapter #3: Creative Processing

by David Freeman

Killer Bunnies: Ominous Onyx Booster DeckRascally Rabbits! The end is nigh for ‘The Quest’ in the

Ominous Onyx expansion for Killer Bunnies!by Elisa Jaeger

UFS - Designing the National and World Champion Cards

by David Freeman

The Knights of Myth Drannor Book II:Swords of Dragonfire

Heroes Wanted! A band of youthful adventurers heeds the call in this excerptfrom Ed Greenwood’s Forgotten Realms novel, Swords of Dragonfire!

by Ed Greenwood

The Downfall of PompeiiVesuvius Rising! There’s a whole lotta shakin’ goin’

on in Mayfair Games’ The Downfall of Pompeii!by Coleman Charlton

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MechWarrior: Solaris VIIAction Pack & Scenario

By Kelly Bonilla

PERSPECTIVESAnimal Magnetism

by Todd A. Kaylor70

Hordes: EvolutionKiller Instinct! The Praetorian Ferox and Nyss Raptors are spotlighted in this

snippet clawed from the pages of Hordes: Evolution.by Privateer Press

SAMPLE PAGES

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Next to mayflies, it’s common knowledge that Star Trek’s Red ShirtEnsigns and Star Wars’ Imperial Stormtroopers are the most easilyeradicated beings in the universe.

While these star-spanning properties are conceptually world’sapart, one universal question has stirred much-heated debateamong Star Wars fanatics and Trekkies alike:

“Who would survive in a cantina bar fight?” Here’s some pertinent tidbits to dwell upon while you’re pondering this galactic conundrum:

Red Shirt Ensigns:• Always set phasers to “Stun”• Are systematically bred with an innate sense of selflessness• Have been overcome by sentient fur-balls (“Tribbles”)• Are defined by Wikipedia as “stock characters whose sole purpose

is to die, often violently, soon after being introduced” — bummer!Imperial Stormtroopers:• Got their armored butts whipped by veritable teddy bears (“Ewoks”)• Often die in droves (like lemmings)• Have trouble remembering their names (and those of their 50-million

cloned siblings)• Aren’t as groovy as Boba FettUltimately, spurred on by Darth Vader’s ever-imposing presence literally breathing down

their necks and the promise of an agonizing demise at the hands of the Sith Lord if their beat-down sul-lied the Empire’s ruthless reputation, the Stormtrooper would blast the lowly Ensign into oblivion, hastily departing the scenebefore Captain Kirk ‘beamed’ down to resolve the matter diplomatically — or with his fists! Additionally, Stormtroopers aregenetically engineered for combat and potentially have access to cool ordinance like Tie-Fighters, AT-AT’s, and SpiderDroids…like the one’s you’ll discover in WizKids’ series of Star Wars PocketModels! — (note the gratuitous cover tie-in)

On a second gratuitous cover tie-in side-note, Halo’s Master Chief would kick both they’re sorry tushies, hand’s down! Game on!

Retailers: For wholesale inquiries, please contact Michael Webb at (410) 602-8000, or email mew@alliance-games.com

PUBLISHERAlliance Game

DistributorsEDITOR/ DIRECTOR

OF ADVERTISING Phyllis Opolko

MANAGING EDITOR/ ADVERTISING MANAGER

Andrew SmithART DIRECTOR

Matt BarhamPRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

Andrew RaymanCOPYWRITER

Todd A. KaylorADVERTISING ACCOUNT REPS

Phyllis Opolko, Andrew Smith

Submissions should be sent to Andrew Smith

All Submissions become the property of

Game Trade Magazine, unless areturn request is in writing,

including a self addressedstamped envelope.

All titles and artwork are trademarked and copyrighted of their respective owners

GTM1966 Greenspring Dr., Suite 300 Timonium, MD 21093 Phone 410.560.7100Fax 410.560.7589SAndrew@diamondcomics.comWWW.GAMETRADEMAGAZINE.COM

Call for advertising Info: 410.560.7100

© 2007 Alliance Game Distributors and respective copyright holders. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of Alliance Game DistributorsAll rights reserved.

Printed in Canada.

FOREword

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The pursuit for eternal honor and glory hasdrawn many MechWarriors to the SolarisVII arenas. In it’s gladiatorial splendor,Solaris VII offers immortality through fameand bravado. Legends like Danai Liao-Centrella and Yulri Wolf earned their noto-riety by competing and conquering in theno-holds-barred, ’Mech-on-’Mech duels ofthe planet’s combative environment.

The MechWarrior: Solaris VII Action Packs feature newrules to handle the nuances of ’Mech-on-’Mech combat. Thesecompanion rules to the MechWarrior: Age of Destructionrules create Inner Sphere combat in its most elemental form.Many of these rules will be familiar, but they produce a quick-er game experience as well as rewards for those who riskpushing a ’Mech toward its limits. Solaris VII offers many surprises for MechWarrior fans including features never seen before in theMechWarrior game universe!

Players can find MechWarrior: Solaris VII rules, map and target tokens at www.wizkidsgames.com/solarisvii. The “Grand Melee” scenario shows players how the gladiatorial combat of Solaris VII can well suit multiplayer games.

GRAND MELEE FREE FOR ALLIt’s not all one-on-one on the infamous game planet. A real

crowd-pleaser pits multiple combatants against each other in a contest of will, strength, potential deals, and backstabbing—all donein the very public venue of Solaris VII. Welcome to the grand melee!

Objective: Be the best pilot and last ’Mech™ standing out of a fieldof eight combatants.

Match Setup/Combatant Size: Eight-player match; 210-point (lightweight) build total.

Rules Set: MechWarrior: Solaris VII.

Time Limit: 50 minutes, or until only one player has a unit in the arena.

Preparing the Arena: Assemble the grand melee arena from thefour arenas included in the MechWarrior: Solaris VII light, medium,heavy, and assault packs. Before beginning the match, the first playerand the three players to that player’s left each place a Target tokenin the arena, using the placement rules described in “ReplacingTarget Tokens.” Each player starts from a different corner of thearena and rolls 2d6, rerolling results of 12. Beginning from their chosen corners of the arena, the players count hexes equal to theresult along the width of the arena. The players then roll 3d6,

rerolling results of 16–18. The players then count a number of hexesequal to the result along the length of the arena and place their chosen Target token face up in the resulting hex. If a Target tokenwould placed so that it can’t be attacked, reroll the 3d6 for lengthplacement until the result places the token so that it can be attacked.

SPECIAL RULESTarget-Rich Environment: At the end of the clean-up phase, if there

are fewer than four Target tokens in the arena, place one additionalTarget token in the arena per the rules in “Replacing Target Tokens.”

Stolen Kill!: Using pencil and paper, during the match playerskeep track of which units they have dealt damage to. If a playereliminates a unit that he or she has not previously dealt damage to,he or she gains 35 or 40 reputation points instead of 70 or 80 reputation points.

ENDING THE MATCHUse MechWarrior: Solaris VII victory conditions and the

exception outlined in special rule 2, above.✲✲✲

Kelly Bonilla is the current game design shepherdess for WizKids’sHorrorClix and MechWarrior game lines.

GTM AUGUST 2007 7

WIZ 2313 ....................$29.99 Available August 2007!

SOLARIS VII: LIGHT-CLASS ACTION PACK

WIZ 2315 ....................$29.99 Available August 2007!

SOLARIS VII: MEDIUM-CLASS ACTION PACK

WIZ 2317 ....................$29.99 Available August 2007!

SOLARIS VII: HEAVY-CLASS ACTION PACK

WIZ 2319 ....................$29.99 Available August 2007!

SOLARIS VII: ASSAULT-CLASS ACTION PACK

COVER STORYCOVER STORYCOVER STORYCOVER STORYBy Kelly Bonilla

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