Dragon Issue 69: January 1983

part 1/2

103 pages. Looks like Gary's recent outbursts have once again provoked a rash of critical responses. And once again, they proclaim their independence. The reason they're covering D&D more is because it's popularity relative to everything else has increased so much, so they're going where the money is. Which is a bit depressing in itself, but that's the nature of an expanding outlier. It takes a while for that success to trickle down to the rest of the industry, if it ever does. Economics sucks. Lets try and get back to the escapism.

In this issue:

Out on a limb:  A letter calling out the idiocy of making thieves cant an actual language, rather than a set of jargon, like it is in reality. Frankly, if you can accept the concept of alignment languages, you can accept the concept that thieves and druids have their own language that's the same all over the world. But of course so many people couldn't, which is why they got rid of them in 3e.
A letter saying that read illusionist magic contradicts earlier statements that illusionists don't need spells to read their books. They reply that yes, that was the case, but newest rules supercede earlier ones. It's their game, and they can change the rules any time they want. And then you have to change them too, otherwise you are no longer playing an Official AD&Dtm Game. So there.
Two more letter pointing out errors. Again, they reply. Some of them were indeed errors, but others were actual changes to the rules. But how can we be sure which is which, when it seems like every few issues, we have Gary apologizing for an error that was in a previous one.
A letter saying that Nystuls magic aura should be an illusionist spell, because, y'know, it makes an illusion. A valid point.
A letter engaging in lots of quibbling about the language articles a few issues ago, with a particular focus on the prevailance of literacy in D&D's world. Yes, not being able to read has quite a few drawbacks. But even now, there are big chunks of the world where a substantial percentage of the population can't read. Still, I suppose modern D&D is even more unrealistic in that respect.
Another letter quibbling about the amount of psychosomatic effect illusion spells can have. They quote real life examples of hypnotism and placebo effects. This can't end well. We also get yet more comments on the language articles. They really are proving surprisingly controversial.
And finally a bit of errata. Seems like David Megarry was left out of the credits for the Dungeon computer game. Guess he'll just have to settle for a mention here.

Runes: Ancient languages. Now there's a fitting topic for a D&D game. Lots of real world history, plus some advice on how to incorporate it into your game. Which mainly amounts to window dressing on the current system. Not the most spectacular starter feature ever. But it's to early in the morning for a whole new magic system anyway.

Runestones: Hello again Elminster. What are you talking about this time? Dethlek, the dwarven rune language. What a co-incidence. This is of course a good example of how to apply a real world idea to the game, changing it just enough that it doesn't feel like a total rip-off. Of course, he slips in more realms setting details along the way, and we get more of an idea of elminsters personal voice as contrasted with Ed's. Actually, the framing is more interesting than the subject. I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Oh well, it's more entertaining than the previous article anyway.

Fiction: Be Quest by Atanielle Annyn Noel. Vaguely connected to first two articles in   that it's set in a kinda scandinavian mileu, this is basically a little story of overcoming your own fears. No real supernatural element, very little setting, only two pages long. Feels a bit insubstantial really.

From the Sorceror's scroll: Anotther official class introduced this month. The thief-acrobat. Another proto-prestige class like the bard, this allows you to specialize in certain functions of your class at the expense of the others. Which is certainly a development. Albeit one with some precedent, in the illusionist. Now, if only they could apply that principle in an organized fashion to all the classes. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. This seems to be designed for people who want more cinematic, mobile combats. While certainly not at wuxia levels of jumping ability, they are substantially better than most characters. Course, someone buffed with fly and haste'll beat even that no trouble, just as knock beats any lockpicker. This certainly isn't as problematic as the barbarian, in any case. A fairly middle of the road article in terms of quality.

Ha. Despite economic downturns, TSR is hiring 160 new staff. Is that really wise? S'not a good idea to expand beyond your limits and get into debt.

Fiction: Everybody eats everybody on sunday's planet by Jeff Swycaffer. Yay. After a load of mediocre articles, we finally have a kickass bit of sci-fi, setting up a story, an ecology and a fairly convincing alien psychology and using it to make a sociopolitical point, all in three pages. Very nice indeed. And to think some authors would take multi-hundred page trilogy to get to the same point.

Deities and demigods of greyhawk: This month's addition to the pantheon are Istus and Obad-hai. Plus we get stats for time elementals, which are a lot smarter than regular elementals, and get time manipulation powers that make them a pain in the ass to deal with. Bow down and worship, because the alternative is not a good one.    No great surprises here.

Charting the classes: Roger Moore gets all statistical on us. Mmm. Just how I like it baby. He analyses relative power level at various XP levels. And we discover that druids and bards rock, monks suck, and illusionists are surprisingly well balanced. Gee, that's a surprise. He then suggests a bunch of stuff to fix these problems. He also turns his eye to Gary's new introductions, and is distinctly critical of them. He obviously put in rather more thought, particularly in terms of mathematical rigour, than the original writer. This is why it's good to have a mathematician on the team. If you don't the game you design will have substantial imbalances, no matter how hard you try. Okay, so it won't be perfect even with one, but you can get a lot closer.

Featured Creatures is still in a fungible mood, with the ustilagor and zygom. Psychic fungus that promotes paranoia, and parasitic fungus that grows inside you and takes you over. Both are pretty gross, and should make for interesting conflicts that go beyond straight-up battles. Especially when they turn PC's against one another. That's always fun.

Quote from: (un)reason;312992

Thrills and chills: Ooh. This is cool. (literally) Adventuring in the ice age. A rather harsher environment than usual, given that getting hold of enough food is trickier, and there are huge swathes of technology that haven't been developed yet. Just surviving is an adventure in itself, given the creatures out there in a D&D world. The author really does play up the degree of hardship involved, expanding on the cold rules, and giving us a whole new set of encounter tables. If you liked dark sun, and gritty survivalist fantasy in general, this should be fun to play with.

This article is one of my favorites and is one of the three things from Dragon that I can really remember- the other two being the Crimefighters RPG which we played the hell out of, and an article on transcontinental subways in Gamma World.
I have Crimefighters, but I'm going to have to find a way to get my hands on the other two. I have no idea which issue the Gamma World thingy is in.

Quote from: (un)reason;312992Dragon Issue 68: December 1982

As ever, you've got to seriously filter lens output for the useful bits, because big chunks of it are not, and some are actively detrimental to your fun quotient.

.

I know a lot of folks will disagree with me , but This seemed to me, at the time, to be a common problem with the game in and out of the magazine. There semed to be a concerted push from TSR to nail things down and limit things so the fun didn't get out of hand. It's what drove me away from the game, really.

Quote from: Aos;313367I know a lot of folks will disagree with me , but This seemed to me, at the time, to be a common problem with the game in and out of the magazine. There semed to be a concerted push from TSR to nail things down and limit things so the fun didn't get out of hand. It's what drove me away from the game, really.

That's a really cogent point. I hadn't quite thought about it that way before. It did seem that as time went along, D&D became more and more insular, drawing more and more upon itself rather than outside influences. It created its own canon, and eschewed all others.

Even when it finally began to draw from other sources, it went to history, straight up, with little or no embellishment. The green Historical Reference series, while very well done, and one of my favorite D&D supplement series, was pretty underwhelming in making the various eras of history it dealt with fun to play in.

Say what you want about Gygax, at least he did provide some over-the-top nuttiness that the game needed to be fun. The Barbarian class is a good example. After his ouster, we saw 2e come along and get rid of the Barbarian, rather than revising it. When the class finally reappeared in its own "Complete" book, towards the end of 2e's run (and TSR's existence), it had been broken up into a number of different classes or kits, all of them uninspiring. 2e, as originally presented in its core books, was a rather dull iteration. The potential for fun as hinted at by the Barbarian or Unearthed Arcana in general dissipated. Oriental Adventures was another bright spot, but it, too, was neutered later in 2e's "Complete" series.

It does seem like TSR's design team began to see problems in the offing and tried some new stuff late in the 2e era, ranging from the Player's Option books to interesting settings like Dark Sun (which I didn't like much, but I recognized it was different), Birthright (one of my favorite D&D settings), or the sublime Al-Qadim. Still, it seemed it was all too little, too late. However, a lot of those guys went on to deign 3e, which actually gave the game a jolt of fun it had been missing for years.

Even so, even 3e showed a markedly conservative side in some instances. The Epic Level Handbook is my favorite example. It's not as bad as some have made it out, but the problem with it is that the designers erred on the side of conservatism, rendering a lot of the book bland. After reading the way characters advanced after 20th level, my reaction was "that's it?" It almost seemed as though characters got less interesting in the epic range. The occasional glimmer of "wahoo" ("Nailed to the Sky") was far outnumbered by simple, and very blah, +1's to various things.

Dragon went through what I felt was a "lost era" during the late 1e/most of 2e era. I never stopped buying the mag, but it never again came close to being as fun as in its earlier era during Gygax's tenure at TSR. With Gygax gone, also gone was the potential of seeing fiery diatribes from him, or rambling additions to the game. Say what you want, I found that potential to be fun.

Dragon did have some fun articles during the 3e era, but even during that time, I never expected it be as fun or to have something unexpected in it. Which is sad.

I see where you're coming from. It almost seems though that the design choices were guided by a split personality of conflicting "wahoo" and control freak tendencies. For me it seems like this split was personified by EGG. It's your game do what you want... but do it our way or you're not playing AD&D...
I didn't make it to 2e.

Quote from: Aos;313364This article is one of my favorites and is one of the three things from Dragon that I can really remember- the other two being the Crimefighters RPG which we played the hell out of, and an article on transcontinental subways in Gamma World.
I have Crimefighters, but I'm going to have to find a way to get my hands on the other two. I have no idea which issue the Gamma World thingy is in.

Issue 52.

Quote from: Aos;313394I see where you're coming from. It almost seems though that the design choices were guided by a split personality of conflicting "wahoo" and control freak tendencies. For me it seems like this split was personified by EGG. It's your game do what you want... but do it our way or you're not playing AD&D...
I didn't make it to 2e.

It is very interesting to see how his opinions change from article to article. I do wonder how much of it was his genuine feelings, how much was just him being a mouthpiece for company decisions, particularly in the later bits where the Blumes were exerting their power; and how much was him playing to the crowd, being diliberately contentious to provoke debate and get publicity.

Dragon Issue 69: January 1983

part 2/2

Caped crusaders and masked Marvels: More analytical stuff from Roger. He turns his attention to the superhero genre and the innate problems that making a game for them presents. Killing is not de rigeur and the rules need to support this, because damage systems where characters are fragile (yes, you aberrant) will result in people dying a lot even if you try and play nice. Physics are exceedingly loose, and the range of powers characters can have very wide. Keeping a team together and following the adventure you had planned may be a problem. All of which are surmountable problems, but it does mean the games are easier to break than D&D. While this points out the problems, it doesn't do a lot to solve them, particularly on the mechanical side. You'll still have to convince your players to play along with the genre conventions, which might not be easy. This is definitely an area that needs improving.  

Of course there is some themed advertising adjacent to the above article.

Arakhar's Wand: Another complete boardgame. We are building up quite a substantial selection of these. The good guys hunt for the wand before the evil side can amass enough monsters to take over the world (Muahahahaha!) Some very dry point by point rules make the system pretty clear, but feel rather mechanical to read. The number of variations it has should make for a reasonable amount of replay value. Another solid bit of design.

We get another food fight illustration, apropos of nothing.

Leomund's tiny hut: Len gives us another unofficial class, the Entertainer. Are bards and jesters not enough for you? This seems to be designed to make their progression a whole new gamestyle in itself, with an incredibly idiosyncratic advancement structure with multiple forking advanced class paths. Given their variety, I could easily imagine a whole party comprised mainly of entertainers working as a troupe. This is almost as big a departure from the original milieu as the attempt to twist D&D into boys own adventure in the professor ludlow module. I have to applaud him for the bravery of his attempt. On the other hand, I have no idea how well these guys would work out in actual play with a normal team. Does anyone have any actual play experiences to supply, because I'm really rather curious. This doesn't quite top carnivorous flying squirrels for sheer entertainment, but it comes pretty close. I guess they'll have to train some and use them in their act if they want to reach that elusive 12th level.

Ready for anything: Lew reminds us that you should be prepared for anything when dungeoneering. Which of course means big heavy packs full of just in case shit like wolfsbane, holy water, and climbing equipment. They don't have those encumbrance rules for nothing, you know. This is solid advice for anyone engaged in old skool dungeoneering, because you know the DM won't pull punches, and if you forgot to pack something, chances are you'll wind up wishing you had it. Another solid article from him, that's still useful today. Hell, the basic principles are applicable to real life, if you change the specifics. Fill your jacket or handbag with things you've needed in the past, and probably will again in the future, and you'll avoid so many crises and become the envy of all your friends. (Which means they'll be constantly coming to you for help, but that's a price I'm willing to pay. )

Buy the Fantasia strategy game now! No comment needed.

More pages from the mages: Ha. We get the first hint as to the extent of Elminsters wizardry (and letchery) skills. Well, he is capable of interplanar travel fairly easily, so he can't be a slouch at magical knowledge. We get four spellbooks, and seven new spells, six of them named, plus 16 poisons, 4 new glyphs of warding, and tons of realms tidbits. We're starting to see place names and people show up more than once. It still isn't nearly enough to piece the world behind the hints together, but it is more than enough to intrigue. Before you know it, people'll be bombarding him with questions, and he'll have to reveal ever more. It's a nice way to build a world really. Make up whatever stuff seems fun at the time, and then figure out how to piece it together afterwards. He's certainly doing a better job of it than Gary at the moment.

Words of wisdom about weapon statistics: This is actually a spy's advice under different name. Because lots of people have questions about weapons. Remember folks, know what your weapons can do. They could save someone's life.
Why aren't official guns stats calculated using the formulas in the gun design section. (Lots of reasons. But mainly because we know better than to follow the rules we impose on you. Plus custom guns are designed by amateurs, not pros.)
How are range modifiers designed (more complicated formulae based on examination of real world guns, then modified as we choose)
How did you choose which weapons to include in the book. (we cut ones that were too vaguely described, or statistically too similar to other ones, so you had good choices. Here's some of the ones that were cut)

The reviews section has dropped it's header. Well, it's a new year, they've got to change the format somehow. Anyway, this month's reviews AAAAaaaaare.....
United nations is a game of global politics. Which power bloc will TAKE OVER THE WORLD! first? It seems simple at first, but there's plenty of strategy to be found in it's rules.
Jasmine, battle for the mid-realm takes the characters and world from the story, and lets you resolve the conflict yourself with a strategy card game. After all, they never did get a chance to finish it in the magazine. It has plenty of depth and some  features that make it not just about luck and tactics, but also your own skills at negotiating with other players. And obviously the art is pretty good. Someone put a lot of care and attention into this. So the reviewer likes it then

The role of books: Lew continues to gives us books that will help us with our worldbuilding. Cities, castles, other cultures. You'll be able to build better ones in your game if you know how the real ones work. Plus some advice on how to get hold of rare and out of print books. This isn't that interesting, but hopefully the things it points you too will be.

What's new tackles what to do with your christmas presents, Wormy finally gets to the fighting. Dragonmirth is hungover from the christmas celebrations and doesn't get there in time.

Lots and lots of adverts, including a clearance sale of some out of print OD&D stuff. That'll be worth a good deal more in a few years time.

Not a very good issue to start the year off with, with tons of dull stuff, particularly near the beginning where it's most crucial to make a good impression. Looks like the slide in quality control is continuing, and however much they may protest that they are not a house organ, they do seem very much beholden to their masters whims at this point. They really could be doing better.

Quote from: (un)reason;313429It is very interesting to see how his opinions change from article to article. I do wonder how much of it was his genuine feelings, how much was just him being a mouthpiece for company decisions, particularly in the later bits where the Blumes were exerting their power; and how much was him playing to the crowd, being diliberately contentious to provoke debate and get publicity.

After reading his various online postings in recent years, and engaging him directly on sites like EN World and Dragonsfoot, I would discount the latter two motivations. He was certainly contentious, but this seemed much more like he just had a very definite, strong opinion about...well, just about everything, and wasn't shy about stating that opinion. My impression was that he was like that in his personal life, but I'm sure there are people on this site right now who could tell us for sure, having dealt with him in person.

Actually, I'll take part of that back. He definitely played to the crowd, but I don't think he was insincere in anything he said concerning these subjects. He just happened to have some contradictory opinions about some things, or at least they may seem contradictory to others. For example, he still was discussing the seeming dichotomy of "your game, your call" and "you're either playing AD&D as written, or you're not playing AD&D" pretty recently online. His opinions seemed pretty consistent with what he'd said back during the era of Dragon we're discussing, and this was long after he had any stake in anything related to D&D.

He did say a couple of things online that surprised me in recent years. One was that he seemed...unhappy with Unearthed Arcana, and said it had been done in a rush to infuse TSR with some needed cash. I'd heard such rumors throughout the years, but it surprised me to see him discussing it. If anyone else remembers those discussions (or knows where to look in the various archived message board "Ask Gygax" threads at EN World), and can correct me if I'm misremembering, I'd appreciate it. The other thing that surprised me was that he was now a fan of rules-light RPGs, and really didn't play AD&D anymore. His taste had changed over the years, which is not surprising, but what was surprising is that he apparently wasn't playing the game as written back in the day, either! He specifically said how he never used Weapon Speed Factors, and had written them as a "sop" to war gamers who'd been clamoring for such stuff. It makes me wonder exactly what he had in mind when he was delivering broadsides about what was and wasn't AD&D.

I remember that thread, Hardisson... much linking to it ensued.

Dragon Issue 70: February 1983

part 1/2

84 pages

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter complementing them on the weather article, and also providing some minor errata.
A letter asking them to cover other games more. They reply that they would if they were more popular. But they aren't. So there. This is the magazine for the cool geeks.
A letter asking them to use a better form of binding than staples. But then how could people remove the adventures in the center? Plus it'd cost more. They don't want to raise prices.
Another article pointing out the flaws in their thieves cant article. Using so many sibilants would not be a good idea when trying to communicate quietly in a dangerous area, as they're incredibly noticable to anyone who might be listening, even at very low levels. A very valid point indeed. You should pay more attention to the specific sounds that make up a language and their voicing qualities when designing them. If only people did that in real life. Then maybe we wouldn't get languages that you need several pounds of phlegm in your throat to pronounce properly.

The smith: Another NPC class for you to ponder the use of. Well, I guess it'll make players thing twice about killing NPC's instead of paying for new stuff. This is another example of new experiments in class design, giving them unique benefits when combined with PC classes. Since their XP costs are pretty low, this might actually be viable for a PC. One of the better examples of profession classes we've seen.

The hull truth about speed: A big correction here. For whatever reason, the people designing the ship rules in the DMG made larger ships slower than small ones. This is rubbish! Though they may have higher inertia, in reality, the longer a ship is, the faster it can go. It'll just take a while to start, stop or turn. Glad that's sorted out then. Now, will they remember this when designing the rules for the next edition? Previous experience points to unlikely.

From the sorceror's scroll: Oh boy, social status. One of those annoying things that crops up every now and then. Since these are Official AD&Dtm Tables, I assume they apply to greyhawk. So lets see what they reveal about the setting assumptions. If characters are too low in status, they can't get the training to qualify for many classes. There is a quite substantial middle class, and adventurers often hail from it. Most people still go in for official weddings. Half-orcs have about a 1 in 20 chance of being from a stable loving family. First and second children either die a lot, or are discouraged from becoming adventurers, as they are less common as adventurers than 3rd-6th children.  (also, orcs apparently don't go for virgins, because a half-orc PC generated by these tables has no chance of being a first child. That generates interesting quips. ) Hmm. I get the impression that these may not have been thought through too well, as they fail to build a cohesive picture. But then, when has D&D's socioeconomic structure ever made sense? Depressing to realize that's par for the course.

A caste of realistic characters: Frank Mentzer gives his own contributions on the topic. Thinking about social classes in your game is another important part of worldbuilding. And that's something you shouldn't skimp on, unless you like endless one dimensional dungeon crawls. Relationships between people and monsters (not that sort, this isn't third edition) are important, and you ought to think about them. Yeah, we get it already. Tell us something new.

Falling damage: Belated errata, what an annoying phrase. Belated errata, aint no passing craze. It means the rules suck, and you'll have to cut out this page. Its the rarely seen, revisioning. Belated errata. When I was a young games player. (When he was a young games PLAYER!) I thought that for things to ever be published, they'd be examined until they were perfect. But no, when I grew up you shattered my dreams. And the fall was much more painful than you might think. From linear to geometric, we must put a harsher yardstick. To make things more realistic. So even high level characters fear the reaper, turning them into pizza when they jump off a rooftop with no magic to stop them going SPLAT! :extended silence: Another Official AD&Dtm Rules Correction that most of you probably ignored.

Giants can be awful or awe-full: Nothing to do with actual giants, this is about using characters from the Giants in the Earth series in your own game. Putting the characters in as they are may provoke a certain amount of protest and incredulity from your players, particularly if they've actually read the magazine and know what they're up against. You may want to adapt them to your campaign, changing their statistics, or filing the serial numbers off and using their stats for a different character. Along with the advice we get an index of all the fictional characters statted in the magazine, including those under different titles. A nice way to cap off the series, before it takes an extended break. Actually, they have stopped quite a few of their old regulars over the past year or so. What's up with that?

Deities and demigods of greyhawk: This month's objects of worship are Boccob the uncaring and his servant Zagyg (nudge nudge wink wink), and Olidammara the laughing rogue. (so if you need a healer for your all entertainer party, he'll be the guy for the job.) More ones that continued on to 3rd edition. Their cleric's special powers are fairly muted this issue, so the game will not be broken by permitting them.

Figure feature: Once again they've changed the title and format of the mini's column. Proper categorized grading is out. This is totally dumbing down. I disapprove. All the minis this issue have a knightly theme. Well, it's a good staple. How will they meddle with this next?

Dragon Issue 70: February 1983

part 2/2

Dwarves in Space: Ahem, surely you mean DWARVES IN SPAAAAAACE!!!!!, Mr Moore. This is crossover advice on how to put D&D stuff in a sci-fi setting, with a particular focus on Traveller. Just how liberal are you prepared to be with the laws of physics? In any case, it's not that hard, unless you want to make them available as PC's. In which case you need to build career and aging stuff. Thankfully he does just that. And the tables seem pretty decent. Not bad at all.

A second Volley: Ed Greenwood returns to the idea of putting firearms in D&D. Having done cannons and muskets last time, this time it's handgun's turn. Remember, old guns sucked. It took several minutes to reload, and there was a substantial risk of hurting yourself if you loaded it wrong. Still, at this point wizards took 10 minutes per level of the spell to memorize each one. (yeah, like any of you really enforced that one) A fireball represents 30 minutes work in the morning. Comparing damage outputs by that metric, they don't seem that unbalanced. As ever, Ed does a sterling job of both research and writing the piece.

Mehica: Another module that takes AD&D to new places, this time mesoamerican jungle. Which means step pyramids, human sacrifice, werejaguars, and lots of stuff to loot. Sound like fun to you? A 12 pager, this still finds the space to introduce a variant character class ( a neutral ranger type) and plenty of twisted setting detail. As is often the case in this era, there are several challenges that are way out of the league of the stated party level, that the group is expected to avoid rather than fight. (what 7th level group would have a chance against a 26th level cleric?) A pretty solid module that shows once again, dungeoncrawling does not have to involve literal dungeons, and humans can be just as monstrous as any actual monster.

How to make the most out of FRP tournaments: Hmm. Seems like we have a returning article theme. How do you do well in tournament games? Since it's been a few years, this has evolved a bit. A very long article (11 pages, although after removing ads, probably only 8 pages of writing.) this goes into quite a lot of detail on the process of preparation for a game and advantageous ways to behave during play. Learn the rules, figure out what kind of GM and module you're up against and adapt your play accordingly. Sort out who's boss in the team and work together efficiently. Keep things moving because you only have a limited amount of time. Don't walk into obvious traps. And try to have fun through all this. Not an easy task, by any metric. Seems like playing to win that hard would suck the fun out of gaming. You certainly won't get the chance to do much roleplaying in any case.

The game within a game: Ahh, another perennial question. How do you represent skill in something in game without bringing player skill into the equasion but also allow for some measure of personal choice. Skill rolls modified with rock/paper/scissors general strategy list selections isn't a bad way to go about it. Now, if only AD&D had a proper skill system. But that's not the fault of this article is it? They're doing the best with what they have.

Off the shelf: The book of the dun cow by Walter Wangerin Jr is a story involving speaking animals. Thankfully, they aren't disneyfied talking animals, as that would be a bit crap.
Special Deliverance by Cliford D Simak is a supernatural mystery story. Can the protagonists survive and solve it? Read it and see.
The man who had no idea by Thomas M Disch is a collection of his short stories. Both comedy and horror are well catered for, and none of them outstay their welcome.
Magician by Raymond Feist is a novel by a gamer. But that does not make it bad by any means. Quite the opposite. The reviewer hails it as a classic, putting together an intricate and epic plot and resolving it nicely, but still leaving the world open for further books.
The odds are murder by Mike McQuay is another featuring his future-noir detective, Matthew Swain. Having hit rock bottom, and lost his license, he's got to claw his way back up again, and take out the people who put him down there. The author convincingly captures the emotional journey he goes through using real life study.
The secret, (by an entire writing team) is both a book about fae stuff and a competition. Hidden in the book are clues to 12 treasures, buried somewhere in America. Can you figure out where the hell they are before anyone else does. No chance by now, given how long it's been. There've been several books like this since then, because I remember seeing this gimmick used a few times. Anyone remember how this turned out?
The venetian court by Charles L Harness is rather simplistic, with 2 dimensional characters, and fails to please the reviewer.
Manshape by John Brunner is another tale of sci-fi drama and confusion, with a well developed setting and characters.

Reviews: Citybook I is a generic RPG supplement to help you build your own urban areas. Obviously you'll have to do quite a bit of adapting to the quirks of your own campaign, but it'd probably still be quicker than creating everything wholecloth. The reviewer is as usual, pretty positive about this.
Civilization is a boardgame that does pretty much what the computer game would later do. Develop your technology, grow your population, and beat all the other players to become the ultimate empire in the world. It goes surprisingly quickly given its scope, and would make a good way to spend an evening for the whole family.
Daredevils is of course a 30's pulp adventure game. This of course means it's in direct competition with TSR's Gangbusters. The reviewer finds the level of crunch in it rather impenetrable, and therefore it's only recommended to hardcore gamers. Reservations aside, it is one of the most comprehensive modern games out there, with interesting mechanics for things beyond just combat. If you want to run an investigation centered game, this could be one for you.

What's new posits the future when gamers are grown up. Reality is less impressive. Wormy uses up his breath weapon.

Another issue that starts off annoyingly and then improves as it goes along. Still, at least they can justify the changes they're making at the moment, even if I might not agree with them. You do have to do a certain amount of dumbing down to maximize popular appeal. But not too much, otherwise people feel patronized, and it doesn't work. Come on, we need a new editorial policy. I'm getting tired of this one.

Dragon Issue 71: March 1983

part 1/2

84 pages Ha. We get one of the reminders that behind the scenes, there is legal crap going on. Gary Gygax might be the creator of AD&D, but he's only the CO-creator of D&D. We apologize for implying otherwise. Please don't sue us again Dave. That little gem aside, there's plenty more official stuff in this issue, plus a few unofficial bits. Once again, it's nearly all AD&D, and that doesn't look like changing. I guess I'll have to stop complaining.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter asking for articles on psionics, as it is currently grossly underrepresented. They reply that as with most things of this sort, that's up to you freelancers (hint hint)
A letter decrying the inaccuracy of Mazes and Monsters, afraid that it'll give gamers a bad reputation. Hey, at least they're acknowledging your existence.
A letter asking for more photos of mini's especially painted ones.

From the sorceror's scroll delivers some more spells. This month, It's druids turn again. Such useful staples as flame blade, goodberry, spike stones and changestaff. Plus, temple of elemental evil is considerably nearer completion, (ha) we have french translators hard at work now, and our sales are up 70% on last year. We expect to gross 30 million dollars. Pay no attention to the naysayers. He's certainly as confident as ever. For now, anyway. Never trust disco stu's financial projections.

Fiction: The blink of a wizard's eye by Joel Rosenberg. Another interesting little story. Two wizards can overcome the problems that one can't, if they could just work together long enough to figure it out. But what are the odds of that? Not great, but in an infinite universe, everything happens eventually. A fairly entertaining little tale, but not a classic one.

Mind of the monster: A treatise on monster intelligence, encouraging you to play your monsters as intelligently as their statistics say they are. Even animals can pull off some basic tactics. Orcs and things should at least know about ambushes, traps, flanking and when retreating would be a good idea. And it only gets better from there. Things with genius intelligence and lots of special powers like mind flayers and greater demons ought to have all manner of tricks prepared to take you down. And remember that they ought to have personalities as well. Members of a race are not just a hivemind monoculture. Lots of solid advice here. Just remember not to make them too infallible, or the players will die all the time, while the survivors give up adventuring or turn into ultracautious tacticians. And that playstyle isn't fun for everyone.

Greyhawk's world: Stats for some of the guys who's names fill the spell and magic item lists of the D&D books. Heward, (bard 20, Magic-user10, Illusionist10) Keoghtom (bard 20, Magic-user 18, Illusionist 16, Cleric 14, monk 10) Murlyand (paladin 12, magic-user 12, illusionist 12, plus six-shooters and techie skills) and Kelanen (fighter 20, Thief-acrobat 10, Magic-user 5, Illusionist 5) So yeah, you won't be beating these guys in a fight any time soon, unless you're willing to break the rules as much as they do. They also have quite a high level of scientific knowledge, more reminders that there were plenty of modern and futuristic crossovers in Gary's original games. So like Elminster, don't be surprised if they start dropping modern cultural references.

Who gets the first swing?: A new, more realistic initiative system? :rolleyes: Here we go again. 12 pages of experimental rules and modifiers. Well, it's definitely more realistic, and adds more tactical options for fighters, which is to be lauded. The quantity of tables on the other hand, is not, and despite what they say, using this does look like it would slow down play. I really don't think I can be bothered to test it, and see if it does work out in actual play. Any feedback from actual experiences with this would as ever, be welcomed.

The taming of brimstone is this month's adventure, A boot hill (it's been a while since we saw anything for that in here) 12 pager, (although 2 of those are left blank so you can cut out the map) It's your job to become the law in a frontier town, and make it safe for peaceful folks.  (Why would you want to do that? That's destroying your source of adventure hooks. ) Certainly an interesting change of pace from dungeoncrawling, this forces players on the defensive, waiting for trouble and then reacting to it as fast as possible. There's also tons of opportunity for roleplaying, as just shooting anyone who you suspect of being a troublemaker is not the way to make a safe neigbourhood, and there's always some detective work that needs doing. This actually seems pretty nice, and it's definitely good to see them trying new things. And the only railroading involved is the literal kind, which is especially pleasing, since so many roleplay heavy adventures fall into that trap. Thumbs up.

Dragon Issue 71: March 1983

part 2/2

Sage advice is following up on the astral plane article 3 months ago. The information given just raised more questions, as there's no way you could satisfy everyone in 13 pages, and you couldn't anticipate what holes they'll pick in it anyway. So lets see what else we find out here.
Does the astral plane connect with the elemental ones (not usually. You'll have to create a relay or use powerful gating effects)
How do you drink potions in a weightless environment. (use a straw, squeezable bottle, or some other inventive means. There are plenty of tricks to solve this one)  
Why can creatures drown if they don't need to breathe there (because it blocks the astral "air" from getting to their system. (I know they changed that one later. because they had the whole astral ocean thing in planescape.))
Can you talk normally while astral (yes)
How are psionics changed while astral (here's the list)
What races are the wizards traveling the astral (nearly all human. Other races just can't get high enough to learn the magic, apart from by using scrolls.)
What's this about creatures going insane when lost in the astral (Exactly that. Stranded creatures may be of dubious sanity, due to sensory deprivation and the strangeness of not needing to eat, sleep, and stuff. Watch out.)
How do lycanthropes cope (they can't change while astral, because there's no moon, no night, and virtually no time. I doubt they'd spend much time there unless they were an unwilling one looking to get away from their curse.)
Can a cleric bring their holy symbol along with them (If they enchant it somehow. A simple light spell should be enough.)
Can astral travelers adjacent to another plane be seen by creatures further into the plane (yes, with some caveats)
How fast can a magic-user's familiar move (if within 12" of its master, it can use it's master's intelligence, if not, it uses it's own)
Do you automatically heal any damage your astral form has when you return to your real body (no)
I don't like the rules for adapting to missile fire in weightless conditions (that is not a question. You can houserule it if you like)
Why aren't the missile ranges infinity if there's no friction (because it still gets harder to hit further away targets. After a while it's just ridiculously improbable.)
Since you move by thought, can't you just dodge by thinking yourself out the way (Reaction times still depend on dexterity. Stop trying to break the system)
Why is grappling allowed, but overbearing isn't (because there's no surface to push you onto)
Can intelligent magic items move while astral? (theoretically, but they won't think of it on their own as they're used to being passive partners. Plus, they have no senses apart from the magic ones they're specifically given unless being held, in which case they share yours. They're unlikely to wander off.)
Do magical items from other planes lose power on the prime material (yes)
Do swords of life stealing lose their special power when astral (only if their plusses are reduced to zero)
How long does it take spellcasters to recover spells (the usual. Even if they don't sleep, they still have to spend 8 hours doing nothing before studying. And they can only do so once per journey, unless their god lives on the astral plane, or they're a native. (now that's another bit they would later drop))
Man, that's a lot of questions. And it's not over yet, as they expand on the spell changes as well. This has certainly been informative (and a lot of typing)

Deities and demigods of greyhawk: This month's creatures that you may choose to worship are Erythnul, Incabulos, Nerull, Ralishaz and Wastri. A pretty unpleasant lot, running the gamut of evil alignments and goals, from human supremacy to slaughtering everything. (funny just how much of nerull's portfolio vecna stole in 3rd edition. You'd think they'd conflict more.) Weirdly enough, more attention seems to be paid to balance their cleric's powers with each other. Either gary's getting more practiced now, or they're making sure all the players don't defect to the side with the better toys.

The dragon subscription page is particularly amusing this issue, thanks to tom wham.

Reviews: Swordbearer is a fantasy RPG. With an abstracted wealth system rather than coin-counting, an interesting magic system, and skill development rather than rigid classes, it's certainly a step upwards in overall design sophistication. Can it survive against the current harsh competition for any amount of time though? Our reviewer is not optimistic. It may be too sophisticated ( ie, complex) for the proletariat. Plus it's silly to try to get into an already occupied niche.
Dunzhin is a text based adventure game. Explore, kill beasties, find treasure, hope your stuff doesn't run out at a bad moment, wrestle with the simplistic parsing system; unless you're too young, you'll remember the drill. Thankfully, it's all randomly generated dungeons, so there's plenty of replay value, and you don't have to worry about trying to hold conversations with NPC's  And if you manage to finish this one, you can buy more games in the series, and transfer your leveled up character between them. Isn't that nice.

An advert for plattermania is on the same page. How many spinning plates can you keep up for how long? Sounds like an interesting little computer game. Definitely not worth $39.95 on its own though. That'd be a single minigame on one of the modern wii party games. (actually, is there one, as that seems like it would be very well suited to the controller system. )

What's new covers lycanthropes. Dave Sim approves. Wormy features holy mackerel (sorta) Dragonmirth has a million reindeer. It'll make more sense if you actually read it.

A very fast-paced issue, with relatively few articles, none of which held me up. This is a definite improvement over the last couple of issues. Lets hope that's a trend,  not a fluke.

Dragon Issue 72: April 1983

part 1/2

88 pages. Yet another dragon on the cover of this one. At least this time the female adventurers are sensibly dressed. And that's not an april fool. But they haven't skimped on that stuff inside. We have both ridiculous stuff, and things that are humorous but still useful. And they've got some pretty big changes in store, like bringing in drag-racing to the magazine. I hope you'll enjoy their new direction.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter complementing them on the chess article, and suggesting some ways it could be further added too.
A letter critisizing the erratad version of falling damage, saying the normal version is both more realistic and better for the game, as while the distance fallen in a time may increase geometrically, the speed you are falling at increases linearly.
A letter engaging in much quibbling about maximum speeds for ships and boats.
Five letters asking for more/less inclusion of games other than D&D, which the editor uses to illustrate the impossible line they have to walk in terms of meeting demand and pleasing everyone.
A letter complementing them on using the original version of historical names rather than modernized ones. Kim comments that he likes to get this right, because so many people falsely assume about his gender. (cue That's not my name)
A letter complaining that the magazine is so expensive.  

From the sorceror's scroll: Ahh, the cavalier. One of the more hated second wavers of 1st edition AD&D. What was Gary thinking when we already have the paladin? Roughly the same thing as when he made the barbarian, probably. Lets make up some cool stuff, and worry how it fits in with everything else later. And although they occupy the same thematic niche as the paladin, that of the chivalrous mounted fighter, the specifics of their powers are quite different. They really do push the mounted warrior schtick, which of course may cause some problems when dungeoneering. So like the barbarian, they are exceedingly powerful when dealing with problems suited to their powerset and mentality, and a pain in the ass outside them. This probably is not conducive to a good gaming experience, and their failure to make it to 2nd edition seems pretty reasonable, considering.

The ecology of the piercer: Woooo! This series has finally started. This makes me very happy. We've been having too few developments that I can be unreservedly positive about. We start with a monster that really needs it, D&D's ceiling hanging gastropods of dooooom. The fiction part isn't as good as most of the later installments, but it includes a very nice full page diagram of their internal structure. Overall, it's definitely a solid start to a series that will give us lots of inspiration over the years. I look forward to seeing what they cover next.

Gems Galore: Now this is something that's all too easy to ignore. Gems and jewelery turn up in a lot of treasure hordes, and often get viewed as just more money with less encumbrance worries. Given the variety they come in, and how tricky it can be to value them and sell them, getting maximum profit from your hauls could become an adventure in itself. As usual, Ed has both done his homework, and not been afraid to add things that he found cool. We get plenty of realmsian setting detail worked in, much of it pure fluff. Even if it's not that useful, it's very interesting to see what superstitions the members of a imaginary world have. Some may find it too much detail, but I'm still hungry. It's going to take till the mid-90's to satiate my hunger for more and more little world details.  

The real barbarians: Ahh, the old misrepresentation of the natives screed. We had it with druids, and now we have it with barbarians. Honor, adherance to taboos, actually more sexually progressive than the so-called civilized people, rich oral tradition, blah blah blah, wake me when it's over. This stereotype and overgeneralization does no more favours to them than the other one.

The PbM scene: Another long article, this is an overview of the Play by mail games that are currently big, with quite well thought out descriptions of all the major games, and the differences between them. If you did want to pour you money into that stuff, at least you're now a good deal better equipped to choose ones that you'll like. I'm still not convinced enough to try one, (not that I could now) but I'm not going to knock the skill of it's advocate.

File 13: Tom Wham gets all meta on us, giving us a game about the process games go after being written to get to being a completed project. And like movies, computer games, or anything else creative, once it goes into committee process, everyone wants to monkey around with it. Which a lot of the time, doesn't help. One wonders how much editing work went into the game's design You can play this one solo, or compete against others. Not that it matters, because victory and defeat is mostly a matter of luck. Just like real life soliciting Seems like a pretty quick game that you could play a few rounds of between other things, but not the most amazing thing he's ever come up with.

Figure feature gives us 4 different dragon mini's to peruse this month. Nothing particularly unusual here.

The true story of file 13: And most of my questions from the game are answered. Kim gives us a rather funny recounting of his part in the game's production. They've got to make sure it's all suitable for a family magazine. As is often the case, I'm not sure how much of this is true and how much is invented for comedic effect. But it makes for an amusing read anyway, which seems to have been their primary intention anyway. And if they can make their april fool section useful as well as funny, that's all to the good.

Valley elves get filked. They like, so deserve it. I mean, they think they're cool, but they're totaly not. Plus they're, like, old. They might look young, but they're totally older than your mom. I mean how eww would that be, going out with one, and then they start talking about your grandparents. Grody.

Duh Jock: Ahh, mocking the popular crowd. Now there's something we've seen before. We get another joke class, with maximums to many ability scores. Just about legal, they probably won't be functional in a dungeonering game, because so many of their powers are non-combat based (oh, the irony) Unless you want to play a highschool drama game (not beyond the bounds of possibility), you should give this one a miss. Or you derive some sadistic pleasure from throwing a team of jocks against D&D monsters and seeing how long it takes them to all die horribly. I can see how that would appeal to some people.

Spells for everyone: Oh, this joke again as well. Nonmagical "spells" with obvious material components. Like throwing a dead slug at someone for taunt (oh, wait ) They diliberately mess up the format, just to confuse us. Come on, the joke articles should at least be as imaginative as the normal stuff. You only have to fill this once a year. You shouldn't be recycling themes yet.

Ha. We get a sex in AD&D article this year. What's new must be kicking themselves that someone else beat them too it. Roger Moore covers the mating habits of woodland creatures, sphinxes, succubi, minotaurs, and almost hydras ( yeah, like they're really going to let tentacle rape into the magazine. ) Then it all goes downhill and they have to drag him away from the typewriter. I suppose it's a better way than most to finish off our joke section. I'm certainly amused, anyway.

Quote from: (un)reason;314826Ha. We get a sex in AD&D article this year. What's new must be kicking themselves that someone else beat them too it. Roger Moore covers the mating habits of woodland creatures, sphinxes, succubi, minotaurs, and almost hydras ( yeah, like they're really going to let tentacle rape into the magazine. ) Then it all goes downhill and they have to drag him away from the typewriter. I suppose it's a better way than most to finish off our joke section. I'm certainly amused, anyway.

Apparently the future authors of the Book of Erotic Fantasy didn't get the joke.