Untitled IFW monthly zine, Vol. 1 No. 7 (November 1968)

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Title: Untitled IFW monthly zine, Vol. 1 No. 7, November 1968
Type: Wargaming Club zine
Copyright: n/a
Place of Publication: n/a
Printer: n/a
Cover Price: n/a
Mass: ??
Dimensions: Height 27.9cm, Width 21.6cm, Depth .1cm
Format: Full sized, 22 pages printed front and back. 1 staple. Folded once lengthwise for mailing, sealed in that fold by two staples which must be excised to read the newsletter.

Contents:
Editorial (Phil Pritchard)
The Spartan Wargamers Convention (Phil Pritchard)
Armor, a Review (Henry Krigsman)
Naval Wargames Design Contest (uncredited)
Ardenex III (uncredited)
The Small Solution (Lewis Ritter)
An Essay on the Contradistinct Theories of Literal and Realistic Rules Interpretation on Dipomacy with some Comments on the Reconciliation of the Schools… (Conrad von Metzke)
Phillies versus Norris (George Phillies)
Game Survey Results, Part III (Gary Gygax)
Game Survey Results, Part IV (Gary Gygax)
Super-real Sports Games!!! (Scott Duncan)
The Galactic Federation (Scott Duncan)
Modern Miniatures – An Introduction (Mike Reese)
IFW Products
Societies
Proposed New IFW Service By-Laws for: Rating System and Game Reporting (John Urbas)
Constitution: Ratification, Changes and Amendments (Lenard Lakofka)
Additions to Membership; Address Changes; Corrections
Campaign ’68: The Impending Failure of Democracy
WGIG Revamping at Hand (Gary Gygax)



Inky’s inklings:

Apparently, a newsletter does not require a name as such. Debate about a title resumes in the next issue.

This edition is chock full of characteristic angst about the sluggish democratic process of the IFW. The officers never seemed to come to terms with the fact that their membership was more interested in wargaming than in the oversight of a cumbersome bureaucratic organization.

Gygax’s game surveys suggest a moderate interest in “heroic fantasy” as an arena of game design. Wargamers surveyed expressed more interest, however, in Austerlitz, Korea, and France 1940.

Gygax also proposes in this issue that the WGIG merge with the IFW; there is even an attached voting ballot which WGIG members (75% of whom belonged to the IFW) might return for tally. Gygax stresses that this shift would be beneficial because the founders of the WGIG, Noble and Lyons, are currently inactive.

This may in some part explain Gygax’s appropriation of design responsibilities for Arbela. Arbela is listed as a product available through the IFW, though at this date it is credited solely to Dane Lyons.

Finally, the back cover scan contains an interesting request from Gygax for information on “a Hobbit variant of Diplomacy.” This is of course before the founding of IFW Diplomacy variant ‘zine Thangorodrim, which would run a number of such variants when it appeared in mid-1969.