In my first day on the job at AEG the boss handed me a letter from a disgruntled writer. His file had been misplaced in the last editorial shakedown some six months before, and he was speaking in tongues and vomiting pea soup by the time he got to me. "Make this guy happy," the boss said, then promptly left me to stare at this venom-dripping piece of paper.

Four weeks ago, then-editor D.J. Trindle was booted upstairs to oversee the new role-playing game. He handed the reins of SHADIS over to me, putting the continued satisfaction of some ten thousand-odd gamers in my quivering hands. "Make these people happy," he said, then promptly left me to stare at this vast, empty computer screen.

In the games industry, we call this "promotion."

Changes

Through a series of happy coincidences, my first effort at the helm has included a few changes. First of all, you'll notice that the high quality SHADIS articles no longer come off on your fingers. That's because we've finally made the great evolutionary leap from newsprint to glossy. Drastic fommat changes have been outlawed at SHADIS ever since an intern was cuushed by flying debris during our last overhaul, so the material we put on our new paper won't be that much different.

Even so, the change represents a big step for us, and we hope you approve. At the very least you won't have to keep a bar of Lava soap handy every time you want to read the may.

To commemorate this drastic upheaval, we've decided to dedicate our first glossy issue to the end of the world. As the millenium approaches, the apocalypse has become very hip (look at the box office retums from Independence Day if you don't believe me), and where better to celebrate Our Impending Doom than through role-playing?

All of the articles here (with the modest exception of Hunters Inc.) are based around apocalyptic themes or have some post-holocaust tang to them. From post-nuclear vampires to morality plays in The End, there's nothing here that doesn't dance merrily on the world's grave. We're very happy with the results our writers have produced, and hope you'll be too. If it all comes off as too gloomy, don't worry. Security measures are in place to insure that we do not turn into Inphobia.

This "End of the World" issue is actually the offshoot of SHADIS Presents, a series of theme based issues which we used to do every other month. We've got similar thematic issues planned in the near future: not every month, but often enough to add a little spice to our usual menu.

We've also undergone a few personnel changes since you last cracked our shiny covers. In the shuffle, we've lost a valued colleague from the SHADIS ranks. I'm not talking about D.J., he's still around, snarling like a caged mongoose and frightening the tourists who flock to AEG World Headquarters daily. While the challenges of the role-playing game keep him busy, he still sets aside a special moment every day to smack me with a whiffle bat and scream incoherently at the computer.

No, the loss to SHADIS is Matt Wilson, our former Art Director who's grabbed the brass ring and landed a job at Wizards of the Coast. Matt made sure that the mag wasn't one big blob of text every month, and did it in such a professional and efficient manner, that we almost didn't notice how hard he was working at it. Matt's up in the big leagues now, so it's hard to feel sorry for him, but we're going to miss his touch around here.

New Faces

To pick up the slack, we've got some new faces around the office. Steve Hough, our beloved scan. monkey, will be pulling the front cover together for us every month. He's handled the last two, and is rapidly becoming an old pro at it.

Cris Dornaus is the second half of the tag team, taking up the mantle of Art Director. She'll be helping with layout, prizing pictures from our shifty band of artists and making sure that everything in SHADIS stays fresh and crispy. If you need a sampling of Gis' talent, check out her new comic, The Stew. We think it's pretty cool.

But even with all this help, I still find myself staring out at our readership through the neon cube of my Mac. SHADIS has always been about gamers, and you guys are still the reason we put this out. If there's something you'd like to see, or if there's something you have seen that you never want to see again, let us know. We live to serve. I've inherited a big job from D.J., and keeping this little dog and pony show running is a lot of work. I'm quickly learning the value of all night chicken take-out. But for those of you who started this trip with Jolly, or continued it with D.J., I'd be delighted if you rode along with me for a bit. I'll do my best to make sure it's worth it.