Hmmm... How am I going to do this?

In order to protest the growing problem of rainforest clearcutting, I will be resigning as the editor of SHADIS Magazine, instead juggling cats in order to draw attention to the.... No.

I have been offered a chance to fulfill my life-long dream. I will resign as the editor of SHADIS Magazine tO tour with Greg Stolze and our arcanopunk band, Skin Integrity.... Nah. Can't play the bass well enough.

I regret to inform the gaming community that I have been fired, for cause, from AEG. Apparently the word "h_", inserted in the proof stage of issue #33, managed tO sneak through tO the printed version, and reliable reports indicate that a 14-year-old in Dubuque was exposed tO the word in question. As the editor, the responsibility for this heinous.... Not that, either. Everybody knows you can't get SHADIS in Iowa.

I just don't have an exciting, world-shaking cause to go along with my announcement. Now that AEG is beginning to publish role-playing games, we need an editor for them, and you can't edit a magazine and an RPG line at the same time unless you're twins. Accordingly, I'm going to hand the reins over to Rob Vaux, the current Assistant Editor, and go off into the RPG trenches. Expect to see the Legend of the Five Rings RPG in April, supplements periodically thereafter. We won't be reviewing them of course: our Declaration of Independence still holds, and covcrage will be limited to the number of pages it allows us.

Unlike SHADIS's last editorial transfer of power, I'll ke staying at the company, and will in fact still be around at the magazine in an emeritus capacity. I'll have a little influence on SHADIS' contents, but mostly I'll stare off into space and lecture incomprehensibly at freshmen. I might even occasionally have the time to write an article for Rob's SHADIS.

The change will not be showing up on most people's mental radar. Rob and I have pretty similar tastes in articles, and-in the way that is swiftly becoming a tradition here at SHADIS--he's been assuming more and more creative control (and workload) over the last few months. When Jolly handed things over to me in issue #21's editorial, he pointed out that I'd pulled together much of the previous three issues on my own. Rob's done the same thing here at the end of my watch. Therefore, the 75% of our readership that doesn't bother with editorials will probably never notice the change on the masthead, and this state of affairs is just fine with us.

So you don't have to worry about a big change in the magazine's philosophy. There are some other sorts of changes afoot, however; next issue, we change paper. Brace yourselves, folks: next month -- during the Armageddon issue -- SHADIS goes gloss. Yes, it truly is the end of the world. SHADIS not being printed on newsprint was in fact mentioned in the first draft of Revelations, but was cut when the editors deemed it too ludicrous ever to come to pass.

"Wow, gloss paper! But what's the Armageddon issue? Well, for Rob's maiden effort as editor, he's come up with a theme issue about the end of the world. It seems only appropriate that it should coincide with the Big Gloss Upheaval. And for those of you who have been around since the beginning: relax. Just because we're printing on gloss doesn't mean that we can't continue to be the best gaming magazine in the industry. We'll still be printing the useful articles and informative news and reviews you love.

I have to go now. The RPG rulebook's siren song beckons me, and I must heed its call. Anyway, Rob's looking speculatively at my captain's chair again.

Be seeing you.