Wars novel, X-Wing: The Krytos Trap,
from Bantam, hits stores in September.

Byzantium, the new novel from
Stephen R. Lawhead, is a $24 Harper-
Prism hardcover due in September.

The Ultimate Haunted House,
a $15 trade paperback due September,
is based on Microsoft's CD-ROM game.
Nancy A. Collins, T.E.D. Klein and car-
toonist Gahan Wilson contribute.

Three collections based on "The
Outer Limits" will have short stories
and novellas relating to the spooky spec-
ulative fiction TV anthology series. The
first $12 volume, including a Harlan Elli-
son story, is available from Prima Pub-
lishing in September.

Prima Publishing has several licensed
books due in late '96, including Lois &
Clark: A Superman Novel by science fic-
tion scribe C.J. Cherryh, a Wonder
Woman novel, a Castle Falkenstein
novel and various computer game strat-
egy guides.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hick-
man's latest novel, Starshield Sentinels,
is a $24 hardcover due from Del Rey this
November.

Recent HarperPrism books include
the nonfiction X-Files Book of the Unex-
plained Vol. 1; The Sandman: Book of
Dreams, a prose anthology based on the
Neil Gaiman DC comic series; and The
Shimmering Door, an anthology of stories
about magic.

• Companion Games' latest, out
now, is a board game called Trial of
the Century. Acting as the defense and
prosecution, players re-enact famous his-
torical trials. It's available in a boxed set
for $24.95. Expansion Great Trials decks
cost $9.95 each.

• The Sci-Fi Channel Trivia
Game, published by Byron Preiss on
behalf of the cable network, tests players'
knowledge of movies, TV, comics and
books. The $19.95 Windows CD-ROM is
available now, or you can try the game
at http://www.scifi.com.

• Gold Rush Games' Bubblegum
Crisis roleplaying game, due October,
will use a new rules system called Fuzion.
Fuzion combines Hero Games' Hero Sys-
tem and R. Talsorian Games' Interlock.

Champions 2000: The New Mil-
lenium, the new edition of the classic
superhero RPG from Hero Games, will
also use the new Fuzion system. It'll be out
next December or January.

DEXCON Hosts
Dragon Dice Nationals

Mark A. Wiker of Lancaster, Pa., charged to the Dragon
Dice national championship with magic-using dwarf and
lava elf cavalry.

Wiker, whose prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to
the 1996 Gen Con Game Fair and a spot in the world
Dragon Dice competition there (see page 15), was one
of several champions crowned at the five-day DEXCON
5 convention last July in Somerset, N.J.

Paul Nelson was named the Star Wars roleplaying game
national champion after playing three scenarios set before
the "Empire Strikes Back" movie. Nelson will get a free
copy of every West End Games product for a full year.

Cosmic Encounter, Blood Bowl, Talisman and Othello
championships were among those decided at the con.

In one unofficial tourney, 16 players tossed their
Dragon Dice into a pool and dove to check the results!

DEXCON also had what was described as the world's
largest convention wargaming field, the 50-by-20-foot
Arena. Additional attractions were improvisational com-
edy and pun competitions, a game of water-gun tag
that spanned the 16-acre park around the Doubletree
Hotel Somerset, and SugarFest, a bacchanal of free sweets,
including over 25,000 Pixy Stix and chocolate fondue.

DEXCON 6 is slated for mid-August 1997.

- Jason Schneiderman

MAGIC
UPDATES

• Ruling: If several effects are triggered by the same event, they're
all resolved in the same "timing bubble." If while resolving them something
triggers another effect, that is handled in a new timing bubble "nested" inside
the current one. Stop resolving the original set of effects, resolve the new
bubble, and then continue with the original set.

Let's say the only two creatures in play are a Clone and a Kjledoran Dead;
both belong to you and are enchanted with False Demise. If someone casts Wrath
of God, the two creatures go to the graveyard, triggering the "return to play" effect.
You can resolve those effects in any order, but when the Kjeldoran Dead returns
to play it triggers the requirement of the sacrifice of a creature. The "nesting" rule
requires you to resolve this immediately, meaning you must sacrifice the Dead
itself since it's the only creature on the board. Then you return to the remaining
original triggered effect, returning the Clone to play. Unfortunately, it needs
something else in play to copy, so it fizzles. Before the nesting rule was imple-
mented, you could return both creatures to play and then sacrifice one.

• Ruling: Various Alliances lands require a sacrifice of a certain land type or
must themselves be buried when they come into play. If you choose to bury it, you
enter a damage-prevention step. Interrupts are legal at this time, so you can tap
the land being buried for mana before it hits the graveyard. If you're burying
Lake of the Dead, you can even tap it and sacrifice a Swamp to get four mana.

- Beth Moursund