Quote from: (un)reason;310094The elven point of view: Ahh, D&D's longest lived PC race. How they contrast with the second longest lived one. The usual tropes such as seeming aloof and whimsical because they are aware of impermanence of other things, connection to nature, magical skill, you know the drill. I have no desire to regurgitate it again.

If only this lack of desire was more widely felt. "You know Lord the Rings? Do you want me to tell you about it for ten pages?"

Quote from: Age of Fable;310146I've read the theory that high-level thieves, or non-human leaders of a group of their own species, aren't 'main characters' in the same way that a high-level warrior or wizard is. They'll be important in one city, or 'off to one side' in the mountains or the deep forest, but they won't be very involved in the D&D world's version of 'international politics'. And, supposedly, Gary Gygax only wanted humans to be 'lords' in this way.

Yeah, I remember Gygax talking about wanting humans to be the focus of the game - he even repeated it in recent years at places like EN World. I vaguely recall the theory about thieves you cite, so thanks for jogging my memory and relating it clearly.

Quote from: Age of Fable;310146I've read the theory that high-level thieves, or non-human leaders of a group of their own species, aren't 'main characters' in the same way that a high-level warrior or wizard is. They'll be important in one city, or 'off to one side' in the mountains or the deep forest, but they won't be very involved in the D&D world's version of 'international politics'. And, supposedly, Gary Gygax only wanted humans to be 'lords' in this way.

Given AD&D 1/2/HM combat capabilities, your best elven combatants are thieves of high level 25th+... not fighters.

Given the 1/2 THAC0 advancement of thieves, vs 1/1 for fighters... a 16th level Halfling thief is as dangerous as an 8th level Halfling fighter. Better HP, even.

Dragon Issue 60: April 1982

part 2/2

Gaming magazine. This years april fool is presented as a generic alternative to Dragon. It's rather more sensible than the previous couple, with most of the content still useful for a game despite its flavour. No filking, either. Maybe next year.

Flight of the boodles: Another complete little game. While humorous in its visuals, this is a perfectly playable little game for one or two players. Yet another fun thing to try out if I get the chance.

The jester: Oh dear god no. Not another version of this class. Be very very afraid, because these ones are statistically legal, and really rather scary. I guess they have to be to survive, given the suboptimal tactics they have to use. Use one as the big bad if you want your players to enjoy beating them way too much.

Darmuids last jest: Heard the saying I died laughing. Well, now you can make it happen, with this optional special bard power. Not recommended for use in actual play.

Midgets in the earth: Ha. This month's generic parody characters, not based on real people or tv shows at all, no siree bob; are Idi Snitmin the kobold commando, Eubeen Hadd the halfling thief guildmaster, and Morc the orc. These guys are far less twinked than their serious offerings, which I find very ironic. Idi in particular is a good example of how even kobolds can be pretty terrifying if they have the right equipment and tactics. We'll be seeing that topic again several times, only taken seriously.

Artist of the month: Phil Foglio gets fulsome praise from Kim. Which is then immediately undermined. Nice to see they can still poke fun at their own reputations.

Dragon's bestiary: More cartoon creatures to give your players nightmares. The green giant, (who could be absolutely horrifying if played straight) Donald duck, Taz, Marvin the Martian, Baseball Bugbears, and the dreaded Werebeaver (with Wally) Most are just about statistically usable, as long as you can stand the things your players'll throw at you for inflicting them upon their characters.

Outfitting the new agent: Back to the serious stuff. Or is it? I can't be sure with Gary's writing. This could almost be a parody of the standard questions list you ask about your character, such as eye colour, hair, date of birth, etc. It is rather dry. This is the kind of stuff people should do automatically if they like roleplaying. And if they just play to kill stuff, they don't need to go to all the effort of thinking up details like this. Meh.

The trojan war: Glenn Rahman gives us a slew of variants for his new game. He is a busy bunny lately. More flexibility is often a good thing, and this is as well thought out as most of his offerings.

Pooka: Oh god. Speaking of bunnies. Not another unkillable pain in the ass trickster monster. If you're gonna give us these, you could at least stat them out fairly, not make them more powerful than most gods. And they bring time travel into it as well, which is also a massive pain in games. Make it go away.

Figuratively speaking gives us three dragons, plus a set of elementals, Orcs, lizard men, dwarves, and buildings. Nothing scores below 5 as usual, but they are generous enough to give out one 9 this month.

A view of the nine philosophies: Is it that time again? Yes, it is. What time is it? It's chico:bang!: You die now! :sound of record player being smashed, crickets chirping:
Sorry. Where was I? Oh yeah. It's alignment debate time. This is the one that delineates the Good-evil axis as the moral one, and the law-chaos one as the ethical one. Which I guess is fairly significant. This is a fairly non controversial article as they go. It's most controversial point is probably that specific laws are not neccacarily Lawful, (and indeed, a badly designed legal system can actively result in a chaotic society) and breaking external laws is therefore not neccacarily chaotic. It also subscribes more toward the neutral as balance seeking rather than neutral as disinterest in moral matters or self-interest. But it does not view alignment as a straightjacket, and actively promotes the idea that most people are not going to perfectly fit into one. It's a measurement of the sum of their actions, not a set of sides people actively choose. I don't have a problem with this.

The dragon's augury: Spawn of fashan! Oh boy, this is a doozy of a review that I remember seeing reprinted elsewhere. The reviewer winds up concluding that this game is a diliberate parody of RPG's, as that's the only way it could make any sense. Reading the actual play is far more fun than actually trying to play the game.  Comedy gold, if not in the same league as F.A.T.A.L. (but then again, Darren's review would eat up a whole issue. I don't think they'd allow that.)

Wormy once again goes off on a completely insane tangent. What's new summons cthulhu. Dragonmirth is missing, but not missed as they have more than enough jokes in the rest of the magazine, thank you very much.

A slightly understated issue compared to some april fools ones. But it does have some genuinely funny stuff, such as the fiction and the review. Plus more official stuff that would continue to be used in many books to come. It's certainly not a bad one for the period.

Quote from: aramis;310228Given AD&D 1/2/HM combat capabilities, your best elven combatants are thieves of high level 25th+... not fighters.

Given the 1/2 THAC0 advancement of thieves, vs 1/1 for fighters... a 16th level Halfling thief is as dangerous as an 8th level Halfling fighter. Better HP, even.

Depends if you allow unlimited scaling of the combat tables. The 1st ed ones had some kinks in them, and stopped between 17-21st level, depending on the class. Still, even with that caveat, the fact that thieves had easily the lowest XP requirements meant they'd actually have a bit better than 1/2 the bonus of a fighter of the same XP.

Another interesting factoid I've unearthed recently is that in the 1st ed PHB, it takes pains to point out that even when you've maxed out a class, an equal fraction of your XP is still being put into it, so if you are a multiclassed demihuman thief, you'll be advancing at 1/2 or 1/3 the rate a single classed one would at high levels. That makes it a tricky choice between whether you want to be more effective in the early or later stages of the game.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;310223Yeah, I remember Gygax talking about wanting humans to be the focus of the game - he even repeated it in recent years at places like EN World. I vaguely recall the theory about thieves you cite, so thanks for jogging my memory and relating it clearly.

No worries. It seems like there was an ongoing issue of Gary Gygax wanting a far more human-centred world than most players did.

Quote from: Age of Fable;310292No worries. It seems like there was an ongoing issue of Gary Gygax wanting a far more human-centred world than most players did.

Yep, I think that was one of the disconnects people often had with Gygax. He assumed a humanocentric world, so he made humans "better" in the long run, while others wanted all the races to be equal, in a game mechanic sense. As much as I liked most of the stuff he did for D&D, I have to admit that this was always one of the things I was always disappointed by - I'd have liked to see what he could have come up with as an alternative to level limits to keep humans a viable race in the game.

EDIT: To get this back on topic, I'd like to say that run of Dragon from the 50s through the 70s was what I considered to be Dragon's "Golden Age." The "point of view" articles were some of my very favorites, and Gygax's rules tweaks and additions were really giving my game group shots of energy, with stuff like the introduction of the barbarian in issue 63 hitting like a bolt of lightning.

In my opinion, Gygax's almost constant presence in Dragon in this era was what drew me to the mag the most; after his ouster at TSR, the magazine began to decline - in my opinion, I must stress. Regardless, the material Gygax was introducing in this run of Dragon, and which eventually ended up in Unearthed Arcana, was some of my favorite stuff in the magazine.

Plus, Dragon still had a wide variety of articles, from reviews to the bizarre April Fool's material (which I usually liked, because it was a shot of self-deprecation that made the mag and the game even more endearing). Book, game, and mini reviews were much appreciated by me at that time, since i didn't really have a local game shop then, and the only bookstores of note nearby were Waldenbooks, and there weren't many places to get info about what was worthwhile and what was not. A good, solid run of a good, solid magazine that cemented Dragon's place on my "must buy" list until it ceased paper publication.

Dragon Issue 61: May 1982

84 pages

part 1/2

In this issue:

Dragon Rumbles: Oh dear. SPI is in trouble. TSR is buying them out. Jake also comments on the purchase of AMAZING magazine. Looks like they're expanding their properties in more ways than one. But can they make any profit out of these, or will it just be throwing good money after bad? I'm sure we'll get more news on this as it happens.

Out on a limb: A letter on Spellbinders by a rival manufacturer, refuting both their originality and their profitability. Which sucks a little. Not every experiment can be a success.
A letter commenting on Jake's KILLER editorials. Yeah. People ought to try and avoid doing things that give roleplaying a bad name, particularly when they involve bystanders. Avoiding the worried parent brigade is a good idea.
Another letter engaging in archery quibbles, and asking for a full book devoted to weapons and optional weapon rules. Eeek. Well, I suppose it'll make some people happy.
A letter asking all those people who dislike high level play, if the game wasn't intended for it, why did they give rules for it in the first place? What's wrong with playing the game until you become a god?
A letter of generalized praise, apart from a few more stupid archery quibbles.
A letter griping about the new cleric spells len gave us in issue 58, saying that many of them are useless to adventurers. Len quite rightly rebutts this. Not all clerics are adventurers, and even the ones that are won't neccacarily want to memorize all combat spells, all the time. Some players have in-game romances between characters and stuff, y'know, actual roleplaying.

From the sorcerors scroll: Gary moves on to illusionist cantrips. This is considerably shorter than the wizard one, as illusionist spells are more versatile, but less useful in a lot of ways. This is pretty much as you'd expect it to be. I think we've exhausted this avenue of expansion for now.

Giants in the earth: This month's characters with percentile ability scores where they shouldn't be are C.J Cutliffe Hyne's Deucalion, John Norman's Tarl Cabot, and Charles R Saunders' Dossouye. Nothing unusual here either.

Without any weapons: Ha. Someone's unhappy with the way unarmed combat is so much more complex than armed, for less effect. So they're trying to streamline it. But it's still way more complex, especially if you don't precalculate all these modifiers. Most adventurers'll still just go for the kill, even if it might be more advantageous to subdue the enemy. That wasn't much help.

Or with a weird one: And here's the other side of the coin. Funny foreign weaponry. Tiger claws, Boomerangs, bullwhips (which paladins are forbidden to use ), caltrops. The mancatcher! ( now that's a far more efficient way of subduing an enemy than unarmed combat.) We'll be seeing quite a few of these again in official supplements. There is a certain amount of special effects creep here, but thankfully damage creep has been avoided. It would be bad for verisimilitude if all the indigenous cultures had better weaponry than the european analogues. (although if you're playing D&D, that should be the least of your worries) I'm sure some of you had lots of fun with these little babies.

The gnomish point of view: And so we reach the last of the common PC races. Quite a bit of attention is put on their tendency to be practical jokers. This may not have been the wisest decision, in hindsight. They also hate kobolds. Apart from that, they do seem to struggle to find a strong identity, having a bit of elves nature love, dwarves skill at crafting and underground stuff, and halflings sneakiness and love of community and food. They are pretty adaptable little creatures. But that's not good enough to get them in the A list, is it. You need a proper archetype. They should have given this to Ed instead of Roger. He'd (make a plan and he'd follow through, that's what Edward Greenwood would do) have figured something out.

The gods of the gnomes: And after the racial description, come the extra gods. Baervan wildwanderer, Sejolan earthcaller, Flandal Steelskin, All faced up against the crawler below, Urdlen. Well, the gnome deities are considerably more interesting than the halfling ones anyway, with their spread of portfolios,  companions, and rather distinctive evil god. They certainly serve to flesh out what gnomes are and the ingredients that go into making them better than the previous article did. But will people take in that implied setting stuff? Hard to say. Probably not enough, considering the way they've been treated in 3rd and 4th edition. Which is a shame, really.

The "Funky Foreign Weaponry" had been a staple of T&T for some time by 1982; my copy of T&T 5th ed (©1979) has well over a dozen strange weapons. That article was just TSR "keeping up with FBI"... not that they'd ever admit it.

Runequest also had some odd weapons.

Dragon Issue 61: May 1982

part 2/2

Quest for the midas orb: The third place module in the IDDC competition is only a 10 pager. Another location based adventure, this is actually fairly nice as adventures from that period go, with only a couple of arbitrary screwage attacks and boss monsters way above the average challenge rating. And the screwage is predictable enough that you could probably work out how to avoid it. In any case, the writing style is quite good. All in all, I quite enjoyed reading it, and wouldn't mind using it.

Dragon's bestiary: Firetails are unpredictable little snaky things from the elemental plane. They could be friendly, or they could curse you and burn your stuff up. Best to banish them home to be sure.
Umbrae are shadows that attack your shadow. To beat them, you'll have to get used to the idea of attacking them with your own shadow. Or just turn the lights out, so you don't have a shadow for them to attack. Just don't mistake them for undead shadows.
Light worms take the hypnotic legends of snakes and take them literally, as they generate glowing mesmerizing patterns of light.
Tybor are exeedingly badass magical birds that have quite a bit in common with ki-rin, of all things. You probably don't want to provoke them.  

Monster cards: Another innovation that'll show up quite a few times through the years. Condense monster stats onto little cards, and it can speed up play quite a bit. Buy them now! Get all the sets! Speed up the time when collectible card games will become a genre in their own right, and play a big part in RPG's mid-90's decline. Or something. I don't really have much of an opinion on this one.

Rules for aging in Ringside: My god, an article for this after all this time. And not by the original author either. I'm vaguely surprised. As you might expect from rules for aging, this is pretty brutal stuff, that'll take all but the best fighters out son after they hit 30. Which is realistic, I guess, but depressing. Hey, it's only a game. At least you can start a new character, which is more than you can say for real life.

Jo-ga-oh: Ooh. Native american myths. Fae/ nature spirit analogues get everywhere, don't they. Only the names and specific powers and taboos change. These are some of the more benevolent examples of this group, and will only be a problem if you provoke them. Of course if your adventurers are foreigners who just blunder in killing things and taking stuff, they deserve what they get.

Special knowledge and a bureau for infiltrators: Gary gives us a new class and skills for Top Secret. Do you want to go into deep cover and spend months or years trying to get close to your enemies so they can be taken. This is the bureau for you then. They might not play well with a regular group, unless they're actually an agent from another country in deep cover amongst them. Pretty solid stuff ruleswise. Whether it's actually good for making the game more fun, I'm not so sure.

The dragon's augury: Call of Cthulhu gets a pretty negative review. There are substantial flaws and holes in the rules, and the setting book just sucks. Interesting. While not quite an outright slating, this is definitely a lot harsher than most reviews in this magazine. I get the impression the reviewer is big lovecraft fan, and is judging things on that basis. They definitely don't know the game'll go on far longer than most of the things appearing here.
Hitlers war is, you've guessed it, another WWII wargame. The reviewer compares it quite heavily to third reich. But it is a somewhat shorter and more tactically zoomed out game than that one. Still, it seems to be worth it's price, with several different levels of complexity to choose from, depending on how long you want to play.

Off the shelf has a particularly high quotient of genuinely famous authors this month: Fall into darkness by Nicholas Yermakov Berkley puts a russian spin on the humans in space trope, which puts both american and russian tropes and politics into relief.
The deadliest show in town by Mike McQuay is another futuristic detective novel.
The claw of the conciliator by Gene Wolfe is another time and space spanning epic in the new sun series.
The restaraunt at the end of the universe by Douglas Adams is immediately recognized as an absolute classic, even more entertaining than the first book in this reviewers opinion. But I think most of you already have your own opinions on Mr Adams' work, so you don't need telling that.
The book of philip jose farmer is a well done compilation of his stories, with introductions to the stories, plus several new ones, and a great cover. Snap it up before it goes out of print.
Durandal by Harold lamb is a pseudohistorical epic, telling the story of what happened to Roland's sword after he died. Much bloodyness and intrigue happens.
Beneath an opal moon by Eric van Lustbader is as predictably unpredictable and full of depth as most of his work.

What's new is contracturaly obliged to put off sex in D&D for another month while they tackle actual new games. Incidentally, did Ed Greenwood and Bryce Knorr really look anything like that? Wormy gets three whole pages, plus a cameo in what's new. Pretty decent.

One of the less interesting issues of this period. Apart from the gnomes and the reviews, not much has stuck in my mind. They can definitely do better than this.

Dragon Issue 62: June 1982

part 1/2

84 pages Another birthday issue, more stuff on dragons old and new. Plus regular features, new games, and a certain amount of recycled ideas. Hey, Originality aint easy. They need something to go between the big ideas.

In this issue:

Dragon rumbles: Ooh. We have the results from their recent survey in. 95% male, average age of 16 and a half, no great surprises there. What is more interesting is how small the proportion of games are that play using the rules as written. They really ought to do something about that.

Out on a limb: A letter praising the second best of, and asking for more classes, as they're getting bored with playing the same old bunch. Kim responds by saying that the current game is not imbalanced, and so doesn't need any more classes, (ha) so they want to keep any further ones they introduce strictly optional.
A letter engaging in some eyerolling at the science article in issue 60, saying such over literal application of real world physics shouldn't be used in a game.

As ever in anniversary issues, they put dragon related stuff in. This time, that is three new dragon types. Faerie dragons are the same type that made it into future editions, with euphoria gas, and quite considerable spell-casting abilities. Grey and steel dragons, on the other hand, are not. A unique named pair of twins, they are opposites in terms of behaviour in nearly every way. But curiously enough, they're not hugely powerful. Interesting. They'd certainly make a good mid-level plot for your players to deal with.

Bazaar of the bizarre: Dragonscale armour. Harvesting body parts for magical components. What a lucrative trade. And dragons are one of the biggest monsters so of course they get special attention here. You'd think the results would be more powerful, given how hard it is to get hold of. And indeed, later versions of it would be. I'm curious as to why roger made it so weak and hard to make. Rather disappointing, really.

Gangbusters: Designers notes on one of the less well remembered games of that era. The pulp crimehunting game which takes the cops and robbers analogy so often used to describe RPG's to its logical conclusion, with rules for public opinion, finance, investigation, and fast and furious action. Or so they say. Did it flop deservedly, or simply because both the pulp era and non-supernatural games tend not to sell very well? I wonder if we'll see any more articles on it in here?  

From the sorceror's scroll: Spell books! An important item for every wizard (they'd be impotent without it ) Gary fills in a load more of D&D's implied setting. What they look like, (chunky) how much they cost (loads) How much spell casters charge to cast spells for hire (again, loads). Becoming a wizard is not cheap or easy, and with these costs, they could never be common. You'd have to do quite a bit of monkeying around to get a genuinely high fantasy game out of D&D as written at this point.

Pages from the mages: Well well. Looks like the start of another classic series, one of those that went a long way towards cementing Elminsters place in the D&D mythology. We get several new spells, including nulathoes ninimen, (which I'm sure some people have been wondering about for a good 2 and a half years now) but that's not as important as the tons of weird little details he puts in, from histories of the wizards that made the spellbooks, to the ingredients used to make the ink that inscribes the spells. This really is rather fascinating, as no-one else is writing anything like this stuff. He seems to be capturing the tolkienesque spirit of putting details on everything from languages to cooking as part of his worldbuilding, far better than fantasy certain novels that just imitate the obvious tropes of the LotR and completely miss the point. This is indeed the kind of article that would change a young person's perspective on gaming and I look forward to seeing more in the series.

Scribes? Again?! Jesus H, what is with these people? Scribes are not interesting. Oh well, I guess even Ed has his off articles. We really do not need to know exactly how noncombatant NPC classes earn their xp in this much detail. It does not make our world richer, as the players will never get to see it.

Sage advice is also focussing upon spellcasting this month. The answers are exceedingly verbose as well. Hopefully I can compress them without losing too much:
Can clone restore you to life. How many times can a character be cloned. (As long as the tissue sample was taken while you were alive.  Remember, the clone only has the memories from when the sample was taken. Whether it's actually you or not is a complicated debate for metaphysicians. You can make lots of clones, but bad things tend to happen, as they go insane and try to kill you and each other. Someone ought to work on an upgraded version of the spell. )
Why can you teleport into gas or liquid but not solids. Can you teleport your weapon into another creature (because gasses and liquids can displace easily. Solids cant, so kablooey stuff happens. No, you can't dilliberately teleport items into others, because the spell isn't that precise. )
Affect normal fires doesn't seem to make sense if you use it to try and increase blazes brighter than a torch. (nope, you can't. It just isn't strong enough to make them brighter than that. )
What happens if you bring an object enchanted with continual light into an area of magical darkness? ( they cancel each other out as long as they are in the same area, then both come into play again after moving out. You need to cast the opposing spell directly at the other one to cancel it permanently.
Can you talk while Held (no. )
If you're energy drained and get back the experience, can restoration restore you to an even higher level (no)

Dragon Issue 62: June 1982

part 2/2

Half-orcs: Ahh, the other second stringer PC race. Good to see them getting the spotlight as well. This is as much about orcs as it is about half-orcs. Their culture, their likely upbringing, the predjudices they have to face. They don't have an easy life. Is is any wonder they resent elves so much? This article completely glosses over the rape issue, but goes into considerable detail about the inherent sexism in orc society. (Because it's perfectly fine to depict your villains as sexist, and casual killers, but as rapists? That's going too far :rolleyes: ) It also goes into a quite good explanation of why they are suited to certain classes and not others. All, in all, it is probably an above average installment of this series. Unlike halflings and gnomes, they seem perfectly comfortable inventing all kinds of little details. But then, it is easier to tell interesting stories about bad guys than good guys.

The gods of the orcs: :groans: Dear oh dear. Slipping a sly muppets porn reference in? You get two demerits for that, Roger. The rest of the pantheon is serious enough. Luthic, Bahgtru, Ilneval, Shargaas and Yurtrus. A lovely family and bunch of hangers-on. You really really don't want to go if they invite you for dinner. Once again, this article is considerably more useful and entertaining than the halfling or gnomish one.

The jaded temple: A 14 page Top Secret module is this month's centerpiece. Spy movie, meet martial arts movie. Includes special rules for making expert martial artists more badass, plus a pretty decent bit of starting fiction, plus campaign rules make this a very ambitious module that is almost a full-on supplement. Apart from the usual slightly dodgy names for the bad guys, I'm very impressed by this one.

Fiction: The feline phantom by Gordon Linzer. Tigers can astrally project too. An amusing little tale, if not as striking as some of the recent ones. Still, it's a pretty solid addition to the list, with a protagonist I wouldn't mind seeing again sometime.

Leomund's tiny hut: Len goes goes into some detail on the mercantile guilds, and the precautions they go too to avoid being robbed in a world full of untrustworthy adventurers and monsters. A lot of this involves low level spells, which they seem to be able to pick up with considerably less time and expense than PC magic-users (and of course, their spells are in a different secret language, so if PC's kill them and take their stuff they won't be able to use them) This assumes a rather more high (or at least common) magic setting than Gary's article above, which is interesting to note in itself.  I'd think very carefully about using this in a game, but as  a historical footnote, this is interesting and informative.

Zadron's pouch of wonders: Oooh. A random item producing magic item. One of those things that are great fun, but virtually impossible to balance in XP/Challenge terms, precisely because they're so unpredictable. Will you get something badass, something quirky but useful if you're clever, or something that's a pain in the ass? Anyway, I'm sure you'll have hours of fun with this, particularly as it is one of the more lenient examples of its kind, with well over half of its products being useful ones. Will it save you in a tight spot, or just make everyone groan in exasperation when you get the rabbit in an egg again. (don't ask)

The mount st helens dragon, who's goal is to burn up all the pollution threatening earths atmosphere?! :rolleyes: That's rather captain planet, isn't it. Leave it out. It's too early for this eco-crap.

The dragon's augury: Fifth frontier war is a largescale wargame set in the traveller universe. Can the zhodani conquer the spinward marches? It'll certainly be an epic conflict, whichever side wins. Question is, will you enjoy it enough to play it all the way to it's conclusion? And will you lose a load of the 720 pieces after playing it a few times? That's the problem with epics, they do take quite a bit of effort to get through.
The free city of haven is a city for Thieves Guild. Well, a third of a city, as they plan to come out with two more volumes on it. This pisses off the reviewer, especially as the fact that it is incomplete isn't clear on the cover, so you're suckered into buying the others to get the full picture. However it is good enough that that is a real temptation. While it might not be a Ptolus, it is certainly one of the most detailed fantasy cities yet made.

Off the shelf: Revenge of the horseclans by Robert Adams is another strong adventure in this series, which seems to be a reviewer favourite.
Rite of passage by Alexi Panshin is a coming-of-age story, albeit set on another world in the far future. While some things may change, human nature remains the same wherever you put it.
War of omission by Kevin O'Donnel. Ahh, bureaucracy. Ghastly stuff. Now there's something I can get behind a war on. Combine that with a good bit of speculative sci-fi, and I think we have a winner on our hands. Congratulations. You get the first distinction of first review that really makes me seriously want to buy the book reviewed.
The gray prince by Jack Vance may be a reprint from quite a while ago (what, can't even authors as well known as him keep their books in print consistently) but it still outclasses more recent books in terms of plot and characterisation.
The napoleons of eridanus by Pierre Barbet puts an amusing spin on the alien abduction trope, with several twists along the way.
The warlock unlocked by Christopher Stasheff Shows what happens when a real wizard starts gaining powers on a planet founded by the SCA. If that's as amusing as the premise, I'm not sure, but it certainly sounds interesting.

Wormy doesn't have the patience to play Expanded Grottos and Goblins properly. Once again we see how odd it is dealing with sentient creatures of different sizes and shapes. What's new reminds us just how much physical exertion actual adventuring would be. Dragonmirth has the usual punnery and witticism.

In general, this has been quite a good issue. Both entertaining and informative, it has once again revealed a bit more of the TSR staff's conception of D&D, and some of the context surrounding it. Maybe not quite a full birthday spectacular, but they can't have one every year, especially now they're past 5. They can save that for the big numbers.

As I recall, Gygax wrote a letter (or maybe op-ed piece would be a better term) criticizing the article about dragonscale armor. To this day, I don't know why that would have been something to motivate him to write critical letter. I can't recall him ever doing so again.

By the way, the next issue in the queue, 63, is another of my all-time favorites, specifically because of the first appearance of the Barbarian class. It blew my mind, even though I could see the problems with it as presented then. Still, it sticks out in my memory as one of the high points of D&D for me. I still think it would be interesting to try and update that class into 3e or 4e. Matter of fact, it could very well work in 4e, with the de-emphasis on magic items. Anyway, I treasured issue 63 for years, even after Unearthed Arcana. Gygax would write an article in a couple issues hence correcting and clarifying a few things, but I don't recall which issue (65? 66?).

Dragon Issue 63: July 1982

part 1/2

84 pages

In this issue:

Dragon rumbles: Ha. We get a lecture on copyright and trademark issues, prompted by a recent lawsuit which GDW won against a computer game company. They must proclaim their ownership of these registered trademarks loud and proud, or they could lose them to any upstart who thinks they would also make a cool name for their product. I am thoroughly amused.

Out on a limb: A letter expressing horror at Ed Greenwood's firearms article, saying it would destroy both the balance and the spirit of the game. Guns have no place in D&D. (oh noes)
A letter about errors they spotted in flight of the boodles. These are admitted too and corrections given.
A letter very strongly complaining about the characterisation of Tarl Cabot of the Gor books, saying he isn't evil. Just because he's presented fairly unambigously as the hero by the author, doesn't mean his morals aren't utterly wrong by the standards of many readers. This is Gor we're talking about.
A letter desiring a system to represent the sixth sense that many characters have in fantasy books. You may want to start with a more simulationist system in the first place, instead of trying to adapt D&D.
A letter of generalized praise. Again.

Featured creatures: Gary decides he's too important to put his monsters in the dragon's bestiary with everyone else's. No, these are Official AD&Dtm Monsters, approved for use in Official AD&Dtm Games. Anyway. He's finally got round to filing the serial numbers off angels to his own satisfaction, (lest we forget, he forbade putting actual angels in D&D while allowing devils because he knew if you give something stats, players will kill it, and he didn't like the idea of people even imagining killing angels.) and gives us the astral, movanic and monadic devas, winged servants of good throughout the universe. All are pretty powerful for their hit dice, with a ridiculous array of spell-like abilities, other powers, and immunities that take up most of their descriptions, and virtually no ecological or roleplaying stuff. I am not impressed.

From the sorceror's scroll: Barbarians! This month, Gary also introduces a new Official AD&Dtm Character Class. And dear god they are twinked. Best 3 of 9d6 for strength rolls?! Hiding as a thief of their level+3? Save bonuses up the wazoo. This is very definite power creep. Plus their refusal to use magic items, or even associate with wizards means they'll be useless in some encounters (well, I guess that makes it alright then) and may not play nice with many parties. What was he thinking? How in the world these guys ever got past the editors and playtesters I'll never know. (unless someone involved enlightens me) Were the UA version an improvement from this mess?

Smile! You're on fantasy camera: Another little artist profile. Darlene Blanchard engages in miniature photography. With filters, a little dry ice, and some backdrops, you can achieve surprisingly effective results on a limited budget. Just goes to show, just how many ways you can express your creative and artistic impulses.

Where the bandits are: A little one-pager giving us the borders of the various teritories in the Bandit kingdoms and who's in charge of them. So if your players want to clear out this place, you know how much they have to face (usually in the hundreds. ) It's going to take more than just storming in, swords swinging to sort this lot out.

Greyhawk's world: More political machinations, focussed upon the southeast, and Ivid the overkings plots. At the moment, he rather seems to be winning, bringing even people who should know better under his power. Looks like it's up to the PC's to sort things out again, because the NPC's have no chance.

Pirates & Plunder! (now there's an obvious rip-off name) Swashbuckling on the high seas. Buy it now! Interesting advert. Anyone remember this one?

Leomund's tiny hut: Len turns his attention to what was definitely the dump stat pre 3rd edition. Charisma. So often, people just ignored the henchman stuff, and purely roleplayed any interactions with NPC's, making it useless in play. Shock, horror, this will not do, etc, etc. We need more subsystems! We must define exactly how your charisma is expressed! Once again, I yawn. Nothing much to see here.

Bandits: Speaking of bandits, looks like we have another new class for you to try out this month. Another wilderness focussed fighter/thief hybrid, (which means they have a lot in common with their logical enemy, the bounty hunter ) they aren't particularly over or underpowered, but also don't have any particularly imaginative new abilities. So they're merely a bit meh, as compared with the utter embaressment that are barbarians.

The guns of navarone adventure from FASA. Hmm. Interesting.

... But not least: Roger finishes off the races series with a grab-bag of short articles on the common humanoids. Kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls each get a few paragraphs plus a new god. (one of which I've never seen before, and so must have not gone into common use. ) The shorter word count means he gets to the point, really focussing on what makes the various humanoid races different from one another apart from hit dice and power level. Kobolds are cowardly gang fighters and trappers. Goblins are bootlickers and users of other races to get what they want. Hobgoblins are status obsessed stoic disciplinarians, while gnolls are lazy scavengers. Which is nice. All in all, a good way to end what has been a pretty informative series that's influence is still seen today.

Quote from: (un)reason;311014From the sorceror's scroll: Barbarians! This month, Gary also introduces a new Official AD&Dtm Character Class. And dear god they are twinked. Best 3 of 9d6 for strength rolls?! Hiding as a thief of their level+3? Save bonuses up the wazoo. This is very definite power creep. Plus their refusal to use magic items, or even associate with wizards means they'll be useless in some encounters (well, I guess that makes it alright then) and may not play nice with many parties. What was he thinking? How in the world these guys ever got past the editors and playtesters I'll never know. (unless someone involved enlightens me) Were the UA version an improvement from this mess?

The UA version was pretty similar, with the magic item prohibition worked around a bit with some tweaks that Gary introduced in the next couple of issues of Dragon.

All in all, the class always struck me as intending to be a lone wolf, which, given the attention focused on "solo dungeons" in earlier eras of D&D (see the appendix on random dungeon generation in the 1e DMG) seems like something Gary had some interest in. Given D&D's emphasis on teamwork, though, the class stuck out like a sore thumb. It seems like something from a much later era that hadn't been playtested thoroughly yet. I found it to not be all that powerful in play; a lot of the various gewgaws it had - "spidey sense," jumping - was stuff we'd always kinda handwaved before for any character, so they didn't add much to the game, for us. In general, I found a general apathy towards the class in the groups I gamed with back then. While I loved its potential, I eventually gave up on it after a fairly short time.

I'm tempted to say this class hadn't really been playtested, but I'm sure someone will correct me on that.