Alan offers two of his games for review. The first used the Rifts game system, a Palladium Medaverse Game. This game began in October, 1989. At the time of his report, there had been two full turns, 12 rounds in each turn. The party consisted of five current players, one character per player: a Mystic, a Dragon, a "Crazy" (a boosted human), a Scout, and an Operator (a technician).

A Dragon Hatchling, a Mystic, a Scout, and a Psi-stalker gathered with a group of others to stop a powerful armored character from taking over a village. After considerable planning, they lured the armored person into a trap and captured him by dropping a mountain on him. The four then decided to remain together, and joined the local militia in the nearest large city. Along with the "Crazy," they set out to repel an invasion from a more powerful and aggressive neighboring land. Using one half of the commando unit, they fought off a larger unit of the enemy. When the battle was won, the other side retreated to reconsider. The unit broke up, losing the Psi-stalker. An Operator has just joined, and the group is preparing to explore a Rift, a gateway to another dimension.

Alan states that the largest problem he had was getting the players to respond on time.

"There has been no real solution, only patience. The players are rather independent; getting them to stay together is the hardest problem. I have had to resolve most issues in favor of the majority, but sometimes a single, stubborn individual has been able to redirect the whole group."

Alan's second game is a variant game set in a gameworld created using Chaosium's Stormbringer and Runequest. The world is mostly late Bronze Age, and is equivalent to the Eurasia-Africa complex. The scenario is called "The Enchanted Tower," and was begun on April 7, 1991, with 12 turns completed to date. Alan started this game with six players: two more were added, two PCs died, and more was mislaid. One player will rejoin the game with a new character. The party consists of a Wizard, a Merchant, a Sailor, a former Wizard who is now a Shaman, and a Warrior. There is also a NPC Sorcerer.

The Sorcerer followed the Wizard to the inn where she was staying, and invited her and her Ogre bodyguard to help him on a quest. The Sorcerer also hired a ship, and invited a pair of elves and a female warrior, who were also in the bar, to help in the quest. On the way to the ship, the party picked up a pair of dwarves. The group then fended off a storm and a pirate ship before reaching their island destination. Once there they had to make peace with the natives, find the tower, and dig up an entrance. Inside the tower, the ancient enchantments caused them some trouble. Finally they reached the plane where the object of the quest was found through a magic gate in the tower. On that plane they had to find their way past the guardians of the current owner. They are now on the way home, only to find the world changed during their absence.

Some players were dissatisfied when they discovered all races are, in fact, equal (each advantage is balanced by an equal, though not always opposite, disadvantage). Two players had an argument and are not on writing terms, though they can work together for the party. The player most dissatisfied with his character left the game; his PC is dead beyond retrieval. The party lost one member to character dissatisfaction, another, who liked this "lost" character, left as well. One character died in combat - he'd had a long-standing conflict with another.

"There was no real solution, all the players were playing strongly in character, and let their PCs' preferences interfere with group performance. Since the troublesome characters have departed, the situation should not arise again. Not an ideal solution, but it should do."

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