Thanks for this thread, btw.
Also some really nice commentary in here- especially from the Colonel.

Dragon Issue 75: July 1983

part 1/2

100 pages. Its a devil special! The nine hells and their occupants get an extensive look over, courtesy of Ed Greenwood. This is nice. Another plane is now described enough to be playable. And because it's so big, they've cut it in half, so there's still plenty of unrelated stuff in this magazine. Sweet! I can't wait to get my fangs into this one. Should I have saved that joke for the halloween issue? Maybe. Eh, it matters not. There are plenty more where that came from.

In this issue:

Harn, rolemaster and middle earth are once again occupying both the inside front and back covers. That's quite the saturation of advertising. They must be shelling out a lot to get the premium positions every time.

Out on a limb: Two letters correcting some out of date and incorrect information in the PbM article a couple of issues ago. Its a fast changing world.
A letter criticizing the champions article and the way it handled it's rules changes. Frankly, my dear, you should be grateful for getting anything at all.
A letter praising the first ecology article, and asking for lots more, with more details about their lifecycles and dietary habits. Sounds good to me.
A letter asking how you use the cavalier with the attack priority system. They reply that you'll have to figure that out yourself. As most of the articles are unofficial and by different people, there are bound to be some that are incompatible.

Hmm. Looks like they're looking for a japanese translator. Does that mean Oriental adventures'll be along in a year or so? Does that mean it'll be properly researched?  We shall see.

The ecology of the mimic: The magazine finally starts producing homegrown articles for this series, instead of recycling them from Dragonlords. And it seems like Ed is quite taken with the concept, as this is the first of many that he'll contribute over the years. We get descriptions of the way mimic's internal structure produces various textures and colours, probably drawn from real life examples such as octopi. We also get some tactical ideas, including an amusing story of a mimic living in waterdeep disguised as a statue. Still feels a bit short, but it does manage to fit a good deal into a single page. Another article that's well up to his usual standard. Looks like the series is in safe hands.

From the sorceror's scroll gives us an extensive list of the dukes of hell, plus several other devils, including abishai and barbazu. As you would expect, they are rather scary, and have extensive lists of powers. A lot of information is given about exactly who is in charge of what. Which makes sense. It is the plane of lawful evil. Having a precise hierarchy to present your players with adds to the sense of solidity of the world. Of course, details may differ from source to source. Chalk it up to the devils lying. Wheels within wheels, muahahahahaha! Anyway, this is indeed a pretty useful article, although it feels a bit weird having Gary be the warm-up act for Ed. There is a bit of illegible scanning, but I think I can figure out roughly what's on it, since I have plenty of planar stuff from other sources. So lets not worry about that, and get to the main course.

The nine hells: Ed greenwood once again shows that when it comes to prose, there are few that can rival him in skill and attention to detail in this era. This first installment covers the first five layers, plus huge quantities of their inhabitants. Considerable amounts of research has gone into collating all the hints from various monster descriptions and providing a home for them, without any contradictions. And so far, he's done a great job. Hell under him is indeed pretty hellish, with each level having it's own distinctive flavour of environmental and social nastiness to negotiate your way through. Pity tha foo paladin that decides to just wade in and smite as much evil as he can. Chances are you won't even get a dignified death, instead being drowned in the eternal fetid swamp, enslaved, or starving, as everything is tainted. Lest we forget, lawful evil is not necessarily polite or negotiable with. If you're not useful, don't have the right permissions to be in a place, or are simply the "wrong kind of person", you can get summarily stomped. And if you're a living human, you can be sure you're breaking tons of regulations just by being there, unless you filled out the forms in triplicate and signed them in blood (yeah, like you really want to do that) before you even entered. If you're coming here, you'd better have a plan, a realistic goal, and several escape methods if you're to have any chance of coming out ahead. Or, given the power level of the princes, princesses and dukes as statted here, if you could gather a few hundred level 20+ characters, you could probably take down the entire devilish hierarchy in one fell swoop in the most epic endgame raid ever. (yes, badwrongfun, I know, but it does have a certain appeal, seeing level 20 characters having to fight to their limits, attacking swarms of pit fiends, dropping like flies and being rezzed (and possibly reincarnated if they run out of rez'es :evil: ) several times per battle by the clerics.) Anyway, I'm sure many of you had fun with this, and I hope some of you will in the future as well. Because it's definitely some pretty impressive work, and t'would be a shame if it just disappeared into history unused.

Dragon Issue 75: July 1983

part 2/2

Mutants, men? and machines: A load of gamma world monsters. All have rather silly names. Hydragen are fire breathing snakes. Raydiums are flying telekinetic manta rays. Cycloptrons are metal boned giants which shoot lasers from their eye. Cyber-netters are giant robot spiders. And nitrodjinn are atomic powered weather spirits. Yes, gamma world can be a silly game at times. Funny how you can accept these things in a fantasy world, but as soon as they stick pseudoscience explanations on, it rings false. Not the greatest monster article ever.

Beyond the rule book: More Gming advice from Lew Pulsipher. First he gives 10 guidelines that should be good for virtually everyone, whatever the game. Then he gives 10 that are slightly more specific, based upon his own style. While he does have a tendency towards the conservative, these are generally pretty solid too. Once again, he's played his part in making the magazine as good as it is.

Can seapoint be saved: Having already served us with a huge special feature, this month's module is only an 8 pager. But it is a pretty neat open-ended one as you figure out a way to protect a town from pirates. Will you wait for them to attack, set some bait, or hunt them down? A scenario that has plenty of opportunities for tactical thinking and roleplaying, its another example of the fun you can have with town and wilderness adventures that dungeoncrawling simply can't do. You need more DM effort to run these scenarios, but it's well worth it. And this gives you a good framework to start from.

Even orcish is logical: Another attempt to create a fictional language for D&D. Hmm. What would you say orcish sounds like? Functional, gutteral and ugly, with lots of words for weapons and hurting stuff. Makes sense. The rest of the article gives us a basic grammar and language list for an orcsh language that looks very much like Tolkien's. Well, it's easier to get people to accept it. It certainly shouldn't provoke the controversy that thieves cant did, anyway.

All games need names: We've had contributions from Gary, Ed and Lew. Now Katherine Kerr (who it also seems is one of the few writers smart enough to retain their own copyright on their articles.) takes her turn this month. We get more info on the proper construction of your own language, including the sounds you choose to make them up (bi-labial fricatives strike again) and avoiding unpronouncable or silly names in your settings. Gender descriptives, morphemes, agglutinative and fusional languages, and tons of other geeky details. I would enjoy that, but once again I am reminded how crap I am at playing with and within the rules of even one language, let alone other ones. I'll never be a Tolkien. I might be able to work up detailed physics, ethics, psychologies, societies, music, and statistical data for my worlds and stories, but languages? Sorry. I'll leave that to someone else.

Figure feature: This month's mini's are humans of all kinds, from medieval to futuristic. Oh, and a grim reaper. Good guys, bad guys, shoot you in the eye guys. Just buy em. Otherwise the companies'll go out of business, and we'll have to stop doing features on them.

Reviews: The runequest companion is a grab-bag of stuff for glorantha fans, from a whole load of different writers. Essentially, this replaces having a magazine, and they intend to publish further editions of it later. Which I suppose is one way to go about it. As long as consistency is maintained, and it sells well, there's nothing wrong with a good periodical, under whatever name you choose to call it.
The solomani rim is yet another traveller supplement. (the 10th official one) And we finally get to see the homeworld of humanity in the traveller universe. Once again, there is plenty of setting detail, as entire star systems and their histories are filled in.
Oh dear. And now we see some more of the D&D backlash. Mazes and Monsters by Rona Jaffe, and Hobgoblin by John Coyne are both novels where roleplaying is used as a symptom of an underlying personality problem in the characters. Because no normal, well adjusted person would ever do something as weird as that. Issues are examined, emotional dilemmas are had, and in both cases, they give it up in the end and become happy well adjusted adults. :rolleyes: Thank you for that, sensationalist hack writers.

UK revisited: games fair 83. Gary's back in the UK. And once again he has a pretty good time, as does his kid. Well, when you're guest of honour, it's relatively likely things'll go smoothly. Lets hope this continues next year.

What's new gets superheroic. Featuring gazebo boy! Wormy illustrates one of the more amusing aspects of dimensional travel, as well as the fact that dragons are smarter than cyclopses.

Snarfquest! Larry Elmore gets his own comic. Interesting. And this is before thundercats also used the name. Where did it come from? Looks like this is another largely humorous strip. Can snarf get enough treasure over the next year to become leader of his tribe. Will he fail. Will the plot drift until the original reason he left on his adventures becomes completely irrelevant. Keep reading and find out.

A very strong issue indeed, with not only the epic centerpiece, but plenty of other really good stuff in there as well. And the great thing is, next issue is almost guaranteed to have a load of stuff of the same quality. Which is reassuring. After all, you never know when things might go south because they're not getting any decent stuff in, or editorial policy changes for the worse. So lets enjoy what is definitely one of the classic runs of the magazine, that would still hold up today.

Dragon Issue 76: August 1983

part 1/2

100 pages. Lots of big features in this one, too. Our second big index, and the conclusion of the nine hells article. Unfortunately, they're stopping doing sci-fi stuff for the forseeable future, as they want to give Ares magazine some room and set different niches for the two. After all, they have to do something with all those SPI properties they have lying around. Which means while they may be devoting more space to it somewhere, I'm not going to get to see it. As ever, anyone else who wants to start a reading thread on that would be welcomed.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: Another letter saying the computer program they gave us doesn't work on their machine. Given how many variations on computer code there are running around at the moment, that's understandable. Maybe we ought to give this one up. It really doesn't seem worth the effort.
A letter criticizing their language articles. Real languages aren't remotely as logically derived (see, I told you so) from culture. Plus even 8 pages is nowhere near enough to make a language properly usable. The vocabulary just isn't there.
A letter by michael gray further following up on the PbP clarifications he received last issue. Correspondence has been sent. Misconceptions cleared up. Isn't that great.
Two letters criticizing the amount of advertising and promotional material in the magazine. Kim of course reminds them they need that stuff so they can afford to fill the rest of the pages with useful stuff, and the amount of that each issue is expanding as well. You'll have to tolerate the commercial considerations, because there's no getting away from them. We are not a charity.

The ecology of the beholder: Now here's a monster that certainly needs some rationalizing. And as it's such a big task, both Ed and Roger contribute to it. The results are not as impressive as you'd think, they obviously were not very inspired when they wrote this one. Oh well. You can't hit a home run every time. It's still fairly solid as a piece of fiction. And the amount of actual ecology is increasing as well, with dietary, reproductive, and tactical considerations mentioned. Because if any creature will slaughter a bunch of adventurers that just wade in with swords swinging and spells blasting, it's a beholder. You want lots of hirelings with ranged attacks to take the brunt of those rays. You need to take advantage of your superior speed. You need to surround them so they can't anti-magic everyone. Etc etc. And you should still expect to lose quite a few people in the battle. Just be thankful there aren't any social beholder variants like the ones that'll turn up in spelljammer yet.

Leomund's tiny hut: Len gives us a new NPC class, the death master. Necromancy specialists, and all that goes with it, plus some amusing experience tables (gaining xp for digging graves and embalming bodies, fnarr.) For all his exhortations about never allowing it as a PC, it's probably actually less powerful than a regular wizard or druid. But then, this isn't about power, it's about morals. Len seems to be part of the brigade that thinks PC's should never be evil, and assassins shouldn't be allowed as a PC class. Which surprises me less than you might think. My love of PvP is pretty public, so this is one thing I'll probably have to complain about quite a bit, particularly when the morals brigade really take over around the 2nd ed changeover. But then, they did a lot of stupid things then. Thankfully I can pick the bits I like and ignore the ones I don't.

Figure feature gives us a titan, elves riding bumblebees, a bard, an assassin, a magic-user, a barbarian riding a giant owl, and a demon rising from a well this month. You'll be unlikely to get to use those in a game too often, unless you skew the encounter tables a bit.

The nine hells: Layers 6-9 get the spotlight upon them in the second part of this feature. Once again, Ed's descriptions of both the landscape and denizens are exemplary, giving us a great picture of just how unpleasant an afterlife there is for pretty much everyone, even the high-ups. As these are the lower levels, there is less focus on the tormenting of damned souls, and more on the devilish inhabitants, and the way they treat one-another here. Everyone is subject to seemingly arbitrary shit in the name of various schemes, or sometimes just out of general sadism. There is also a surprising amount of sexism, as all the Lords are male, and have female consorts. (all statted out, yay, but relatively weak for the political power they wield, hmm.) I guess that's what they consider the proper order of things, since gender for beings like that is interchangeable as part of their promotions and demotions anyway. And you know they're big on order. Discipline me now mistress.
It ends with spells in the hells, another tedious list of how magic spells, items, character abilities, etc etc are changed while you're there. So it's still not perfect, being very much a product of its times. But it is a fascinating read, that is in many ways better than the Baator book in Planes of Law. This is definitely stuff I'd use in game, as it provides the rich cast that a place full of scheming politickers with a web of alegences and grudges between them needs. Can you figure out how to take advantage of their personal quirks and come out ahead? Have fun trying, and don't take it too hard if your characters get sent to eternal torment. It's just a game, and you can't win all the time.

The dragon index gets it's second epic outing, filling up the middle of the issue. They've altered the format a bit to keep it from getting too large, but there's still several different ways you can find each thing. And it looks nice as well. That should come in handy.

The palladium fantasy roleplaying game. Over 20 classes, 290 spells, 13 races, etc etc. Only their second advert, and they're already pretty close to the style and layout that they use to this day. Some things just never change. Kinda reassuring, really.  

Saved by the cavalry!: Even having excised the sci-fi stuff, at least they still fit some non D&D bits in the magazine, thankfully. We get info on the cavalry and other soldiers for boot hill, in case lone cowboys are getting boring. This includes rules for making them available as PC's, who have both advantages and disadvantages compared to regular PC's. Not sure if they balance out, and the social restrictions of being under command by high ranking NPC's may cause problems, but it's a good idea anyway. After all, who doesn't love leading a bunch of fight, er, soldiers, to kill some marauding orcs, er, indians

Sage advice is also pretty lengthy this month: Who was Baba yaga (A cannibal ogre-witch from russia. Pretty darn badass. You'll be seeing her again in the future.)
Can a dungeon master change magic items after giving them to players (that would be cheating, unless you have an in-game rationale. We don't recommend it, as pissed off players often result. )
What are mithral and admantite(super badass extra valuable metals for when gold and steel just aren't good enough.)
Can a player character become a free-willed vampire (Hell no. We still think all devil leaders should be male. There's no way we're gonna be enlightened enough to let you play undead. And it would break the game anyway. )
Why can't rangers be in groups larger than 3. Tolkien's rangers don't have that restriction (D&D is not LotR. We can do what we want, so ner.)
How much XP should you get for solving problems and being clever (10-100, depending on how cool they were. Yes, killing is the quicker way to power than being clever and solving a situation without fighting.)
Can characters take over a dungeon after clearing it out? (Sure, why not. Don't expect it to be cheap, as they take lots of upkeep. And now you're the ones who have to deal with pesky monsters and adventurers coming in trying to kill you and take your stuff. Turning things around like that could be fun.)
Why do some GitE characters have percentile scores in ability scores they shouldn't (more differentiation in the upper scales of badass)
What is knucklebones (see appendix F of the DMG)
Which version of a person or monster is correct when there are multiple ones published in different issues(whichever one your DM chooses, or one of their own creation)
Is everything in Dragon official (no.)
Why do BD&D and AD&D contradict each other (because they are different games. Don't mix them up)
What happens if a D&D character is hit by gamma world's de-evolution (they lose levels, no save. Be afraid)
Can a paralyzed character speak or use psionics (no and yes, as psionics don't require movement)
What does " mean (each inch translates to 10 foot inside, or 10 yards outside)
What's the difference between a secret and a concealed door (duh. Ones secret, the other's concealed)
Are constitution bonus' per hit die, or per level (per hit die. Tough rangers have it good, don't they.)
How do you handle pregnancy (we'll leave that up to individual DM's)
What does CO stand for? (Comeliness. It's a new stat. See issue 67.)
How can a human have more hit points than a dragon (hit points don't just represent straight toughness, but also luck and skill. Don't you get that yet?)
Can half ogres be barbarians? (they can certainly be barbaric, but they can't join the barbarian class)
Why do half ogres have such low charisma's (because they're uuuugleeeee. And uncouth, and doodyheads, and smell.)
What do half-ogres think about other races. (depends which side raised them, and how they were treated as kids.)
Do rangers get benefits against half-ogres(no)
Why do half-ogres roll different dice for their ability scores (because we say so. Their ranges are too different for just pluses or negatives to the dice to reflect properly without negative scores appearing and breaking the game.)

When did Ares become a section of Dragon? It didn't last long, as I recall, and to be honest, while I enjoyed scifi in Dragon, the Ares section was pretty uninspiring while it lasted.

Dragon Issue 76: August 1983

part 2/2

We also get another extensive Q&A, on the proper format for submissions to the magazine. Write up submissions neatly, include SASE if you want a reply, what we want right now (more sci-fi stuff please) be persistent, keep trying. Nothing much has changed here since last time.

Off the shelf: Talbot Mundy, Messenger of destiny, compiled by D M Grant, is a combination of biography and bibliography, with plenty of commentary as well. It offers plenty of detail in a well designed package.
A field guide to dinosaurs is exactly that, giving plenty of information about the creatures, when they are from, and also museum listings so you can go see them in person (although those'll be long out of date by now.)  
Invasion: Earth by Harry Harrison tells the story of an earth caught between two warring alien species, with vietnam parallels being drawn. Fast-paced and with a twist at the end, it's up to his usual standard.
Tea with the black dragon by R A MacAvoy is an action-adventure/romance with two amusingly contrasting protagonists. The supernatural side is fairly light, but that just means things can stay mysterious at the end.
Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster is a rather puerile comedy/epic fantasy. While that is not an inherently bad thing, it certainly doesn't blend them as well as say, discworld. Sounds like it would be perfect for a movie adaption starring Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler
Set of wheels by Robert Thurston is a bleak dystopian future from a battlestar galactica writer. Whoda thought that could happen The protagonist just wants to get away from all that, and blast off down the open highway, and the book follows his attempts to do so. The writer then has fun putting him through the wringer.
Transformer by M A Foster has nothing to do with the soon to be released cartoon about robots in disguise. It does involve a shapeshifting creature though. And the stupid humans try and kill it, as they will do, which ends up causing just the problems they were trying to prevent in the first place. We once again learn about human nature by seeing it reflected through something else.
Against Infinity by Gregory Benford is set on Ganymede, and follows human attempts to terraform it, plus the strange things they find there. They have to struggle against both the environment and each other, but of course, that's what generates the interest.
Khi to freedom by Ardath Mayhar gets a rather sarcastic review. Apart from it's purely first person narration, it has little to distinguish it, being a melange of stock ideas, and weird aliens with unpronouncable names and stereotyped personalities. Could definitely do better.
Storm season, edited by Robert Lynn Asprin is the fourth thieves world compilation.   As before, they've got hold of a solid collection of writers for the various stories. And as often happens after several books in a series they seem to be focussing more on the same cast of characters, and making things darker and more metaplot driven. If that's a good thing, it's hard to say. It certainly makes things less newbie friendly. Lets see where the next book takes them.
Yearwood by Paul Hazel is the start of another fantasy saga. It's epicness is both a strength and a weakness, as it's characters feel more like archetypes than real well rounded people, particularly the women. Guess you'll have to tune in for the plot rather than the characterization then.
Forbidden sanctuary by Richard Bowker tells a story of catholicism and aliens with a parallel religion, and what happens when the two collide. Which means there's plenty of philosophical and political thought to drive the plot along. You don't have to be a Christian to enjoy it.

Reviews: Gangbusters is of course a TSR game, so the objectivity of a review here is in question. The reviewer does a good job of pointing exactly how the game makes itself fast and furious, and handles the various social aspects of city life and crimefighting. You can't just hack and slash your way through this one. And keeping the party together all the time is not really an option, making it better for small groups. But it is well organized, and includes plenty of material to get your game up and running quickly, so it's still probably more newbie friendly than many modern games.
Borderlands (don't we already have something by that name :checks: yup. Issue 68. Damn name recycling. There oughta be a law ) is a wargame. Get resources, fight enemies, control territories. You ought to know the drill. Simple rules result in complex emergent strategies, and plenty of fun with webs of politics and trading if you play with 3 or more players. For those of you who prefer a little more depth in your world conquering than risk offers.
Cities is a system free game supplement for any fantasy game, helping you both build and populate cities, and create encounters for existing ones. Whether you want realistic economics or high fantasy weirdness, it has some stuff to help you out. As long as you don't mind rolling on lots of tables, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.
Judge Dredd's new boardgame also gets a review. Frag those perps before the other judges do, and get the highest score to win. Good, vindictive fun that isn't too taxing on the brain. A good emulation of the source material then
Federation space is a star trek game of future war. Designed to contrast with and complement Star Fleet battles, it serves as the large scale strategic counterpart to the former's ship level tactical wargame. Travel between systems, form and break alliances, spend money, capture stuff. Doesn't sound very star treky to me. But I suppose making money is more important than upholding starfleet's peaceful ideals. You need to make sacrifices for the sake of playability.
Dragonmaster gets a second review in here. This is actually more like a promotional piece and rebuttal than an actual review, and if it were not for its length, should really have gone in the letters column with all the other rebuttals. Still, it includes plenty of actual details about the game, so it's still useful in deciding if you want to buy or not.

Wormy gets back to the snooker and jokes after the high drama. Snarfquest faces it's first challenge. What's new welcomes you to shamcon V. Business as usual in dragonmirth.

Another rocking issue, if not quite up to the standards of it's predecessor. But then, that set a high standard. This one seems more concerned with looking back and outwards, with reviews, indexing and answering questions playing such a large part. Will they have another stroke of innovation any time soon. I'm not sure. Given the form of some of their writers, it doesn't seem that unlikely. Onward! No time to sit around mulling over the past if I want to catch up with the present.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;316072When did Ares become a section of Dragon? It didn't last long, as I recall, and to be honest, while I enjoyed scifi in Dragon, the Ares section was pretty uninspiring while it lasted.

Issues 84 to 111. Not that far away.

Quote from: (un)reason;316188Issues 84 to 111. Not that far away.

Ah, OK.

I was a bit surprised to see that a book about Talbot Mundy was reviewed in "Off the Shelf." Mundy was an obvious influence on Gygax (see the reading list appendix in the 1e DMG), but he seems to have been largely ignored by many gamers. While his "Tros" books are the more obviously relevant books to gamers, books like "King, of the Khyber Rifles" and "OM: The Secret of Ahbor Valley" are grand adventures. They could easily serve as inspiration for any number of games, from D&D to Call of Cthulhu, despite the two I mentioned being set in the British Raj in India of the 1920s. Well worth looking for.

Dragon Issue 77: September 1983

part 1/2

86 pages

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter questioning why Ed greenwood referred to Sekolah as female. They reply that was because sahuagin are female dominated, so it makes more sense if their god is female as well. This is of course an entirely unofficial alteration.
A letter from someone who sent in a module, and then found one with a similar name on the gen con list of events, asking if it is his. They reply that no, they would have told him. Plaglarism is bad, but there are only so many monsters and scenarios, so unless you get all abstract and whimsical, chances are someone else'll do similar things at some point.
A letter from David Axler replying to the comments about his weather system article.   Some are valid, some aren't, all will be useful in refining it for next time, you know the drill.
A letter criticizing Roger's all teamwork, all the time soapbox piece in issue 73. Another case where I say bloody well right too.
A letter from a person who's realized that the map of Launewt is actually Brittany rotated. Well spotted. As they've said before, judicious stealing creates far better verisimilitude than even the most careful wholecloth creation.
One of many letters they've received asking for the address of Starblaze editions Books. This is duly provided.

Tarot of many things: Random stuff. Muahahahaha!!! I do so love these articles. This brings an extra tactile edge compared to a regular deck of many things, because you can draw from a real deck to determine the results. And what fun they are. You character could be permanently enhanced or horribly debilitated based upon what they draw. Do you dare brave it? Some people would jump right in, while others would rather face a horde of energy draining undead led by a beholder. As this has to cover 78 cards, each with two effects, it spans 16 pages, effectively making it a full special feature in itself. The powers are split fairly evenly between good, bad and mixed blessings, although most are definitely more one or the other. As with any of these gambling things, the trick to them is to know when to quit, because if you keep on drawing, you will lose eventually. (Or cheat. Wild mages kicked ass pre 3rd edition. With an item like this, they could god mod themselves quite a bit. )Anyway, this is definitely a good way to kick off the issue, and another thing I would delight in using at some point.

The ecology of the unicorn: They really are pretty enthusiastic about this series, aren't they. Roger Moore asks PETA girl (who is a dryad, so the nature loving is to be expected. (great, now I want to put an urbanized dryad who's tree is in the middle of a city market square in a game)) about the unicorn, and gets a reply which turns into rather a love-in. Well, they are the insufferably pure mary-sues of the natural world, lusted after by many, but only accessable to virgins. (so most gaming groups are in with a pretty good shot ) What's not to hate? Not that the article is badly written, but it is too flowers and skippy-happy for my tastes. This starts the habit of putting game material in the appendix, although they still haven't started using footnotes yet. Still, good to see this series being developed and refined. Hopefully next time they'll pick a less twee creature to tackle.

Curses!: Ed contributes only a little article this month. A new selection of curses, slightly less brutal than the standard ones given for cursed scrolls and flasks, so low level adventurers have a decent chance of surviving if they find one in a pile. Which still means unpleasant and humiliating stuff happening to you when you least want it too. All part of the fun of old skool dungeoneering. One of those articles you can drop in pretty much any time, given it's modularity and lack of setting.

Nasty additions to a DM's arsenal: More items that are mostly pains in the ass, but can also be turned to useful ends by clever characters. Fun fun fun. We have the helm of enemy nondetection, which is basically a hitchikers guide joke transplanted to D&D. The ring of hypochondria, and arrows of conscientious objection, which do exactly what they say on the tin. The ring of gaseous form, which is very useful as long as you have someone around to help you get it off. The dagger of monster calling, which is just amusing. And the medallion of protection from thieves, which is incredibly useful as long as you're not in a situation where your group needs those abilities. Depending on the type of dungeon, that may not be a problem, particularly if you have spellcasters who can make a rogue redundant in any case. It's good to have peace of mind about the safety of your equipment. Another neat little article that you can drop in stuff from any time.

Elemental gods: Sometimes you don't want to populate your world with hundreds of deities for every concept under the sun, plus the sun itself. If you want to maintain a strong sense of theme, it can be better to have a limited cast of gods covering everything, worshipped under different names for different cultures and aspects. As an example, 4 elemental ones is a good place to start, as you can fit associations to most aspects of life easily enough under their umbrellas. And then you can start building your own. Try not to end up with the krynnish pantheon, as embarrassment and railroading may result. Remember, your job is to help the players make a story, not tell a story and drag them along as spectators. Even if your deities are active agents who's actions regularly impact upon the world, they still shouldn't overshadow the PC's. Anyway, this is a pretty solid worldbuilding article that is useful regardless of system. After all, very few worlds make religion completely irrelevant, even if they don't have D&D style granted spellcasting.

Dragon Issue 77: September 1983

part 2/2

A new game with a familiar name: Frank Mentzer talks about the new edition of the basic and expert sets (again? That's the third new edition in 4 years. And we complain now that 5 years between editions is too soon) and how much of an improvement it is over the last ones, particularly for complete n00bs, with it's introductory adventure teaching you the rules as you go. (remember, it's easier to get people to learn things if they don't view it as work. ) Better artwork, better editing, better initial adventure, better all round. Meanwhile in the expert set, we see the start of Mystara, as they expand outwards from the map in X1. YAY! Another classic setting starts here. All the old D&D modules now have locations on the map there, plus you have a proper hometown in karimekos. This is awesome, and hopefully we'll be seeing articles expanding on my own personal favourite of the generic D&D fantasy campaign worlds soon. The companion set also gets it's first mention, and it and the master set are coming soon. (For a generous value of soon ) Yeah, this is a pretty significant article, even if it does fall a little into the trap of selling the new stuff by saying the old stuff was crap. It also once again shows up the differences in tone between D&D and AD&D, with the greater emphasis on evolving playstyles, and the PC's coming to have important social positions within the world, making big changes to the setting instead of just wandering from one adventure to the next getting tougher, but still doing basically the same thing. Funny how that worked out. You might start out smaller, but you have a clearly defined path which leads to bigger and better things. It's a shame they've pretty much dropped that aspect from the newer games.

Figure feature: This month features a slightly more unusual set of minis, with superheroes, civil war, 20's (plus cthulhoid monster), star trek (khaaaaan!), and swashbucklers catered for. Do your games need any of those?

Spy's advice: What are the effects of being exposed to a cubic inch of uranium (how should I know, am I a physicist?(answer, not a lot, unless it's purified U235, as U238 is actually pretty stable, with a half-life of billions of years. A cubic inch won't be a problem unless you make it into a ring and wear it for years. ))
How much does thermite cost. What can it burn through ( $30 per bomb or 12 oz tube. Most things, apart from brick and concrete, which are just too damn absorbent.)
How long does a flash grenade blind you (1-100 minutes)
Can tripods or Two weapon stances increase your hit odds. (yes, by +10)
Why are my characters so much tougher than the NPC's (you're forgetting to divide by 10)
What are the odds of failing a parachute jump. (1 in 500 for round chutes, 3 in 10,000 for square ones)  
When you gain knowledge points, do your AOK's go up (yes)
Is there a limit to AOK's (150)
Can you get more superior AOK's (only by buying them up the hard way)
Can NPC's have fame and fortune points (only if they were once PC's)
Does drinking too much alcohol kill you (yes)
How do I keep players from finding out each other's objectives in a PvP campaign. (note passing and leaving the relevant parts of their sheet blank so they can't find out just by peeping.
Are the prices for the other weapon charts correct (yes)

King of the tabletop: Hello again, Mr Wham. You have another game for us? How interesting. Let's see what it entails this time. Looks like he's getting all meta on us for a second time. Having covered the game development process, he now lampoons roleplaying itself. And wargaming, and economics. And still finds the time to make a workable game underneath the humour. He does have an interesting brain. The rules continue to increase in complexity, to the point where I really can't tell how the game will play without trying it. Lets hope that's a good thing, and the crunch creep hasn't reached the point where it gets in the way.

Valley of the pharaohs. Palladium once again expands their repetoire. Don't remember this one. Did it use the same rules as all their other stuff?

Wouldya like to take another survey? It has been over a year. Surely it isn't asking that much of you to fill it out and send it in? We want to know what's changed, so we can change in response. Is that so wrong?

Reviews: Harn is another thing that has been advertised for ages, and finally gets a review. A pretty positive one, too. Seems the designers already have a pretty solid idea of what their setting is like already, with plenty of geographical, sociological, and economic details, all well organized and indexed. It does get a bit of flak for being so blatantly based on middle-earth, but that's more a taste thing. It also has the problem that since it's all so tightly integrated, it may be tricky to change bits without messing up the game. I guess it depends if you like the idea of playing in someone else gameworld as written or not. Which is the same issue tekumel ran into. What makes good stories and worlds does not always make for good gaming.  
Plague of terror is a generic adventure module. It gets a very critical review by Roger, who thinks it has too much plot detail and graphic content. Which, y'know, sound like pluses to me. I guess child abuse, torture and stuff is a matter of taste, and TSR prefer to tread a more family friendly line; plus what makes for good plots may make for railroady adventures, which would be particularly jarring when most modules at this point are location based rather than plot based. Can I get a second opinion on this one, as this review actually makes it seem perversely tempting.

What's new covers death in D&D. Fineous Fingers makes a cameo from ohio, calling out to all the pretty ladies around the world. Snarfquest features comical combat. Wormy goes back to the trolls plotline. Once again we are reminded just how slow time passes when you only have a strip per month to work with. The entire 10 year run is only about 3-4 days of events in setting. Dragonmirth is missing.

Rather a scattershot issue here, with lots of cool stuff, but very little theme, apart from random effects playing a strong part. I think they're doing it diliberately, to provide a nice contrast with the last few and keep us interested. Because they still seem to have a good idea what they're doing. And hopefully the info they get in the survey will help make it even better. (assuming what the public says it wants is also what I want, which they have a spotty record on at best. ) Eh, still time for tons of ups and downs before it's over. Why worry too much.

ISTR valley isn't the same system. It used to be a free D/L from Palladium Books.

Quote from: (un)reason;316589Valley of the pharaohs. Palladium once again expands their repetoire. Don't remember this one. Did it use the same rules as all their other stuff?

I've owned this game for years, never played it. Looks to me like it uses the same Palladium system, but it's been so long since I looked at it or any other Palladium game, so I couldn't tell you how it might differ. It sticks out to me because it has a number of odd-sized maps of Egypt.

Then I saw aramis post this:

Quote from: aramis;316593ISTR valley isn't the same system. It used to be a free D/L from Palladium Books.

Then my memory must be faulty. It's been 15-20 years since I last looked at a Rifts book, at least enough to get a feel for the system. How different is Valley of the Pharaohs? Is it completely different?

September 1983. I think this is where I become a gamer.

Seanchai

Dragon Issue 78: October 1983


part 1/2

100 pages. The request for psionic stuff half a year ago finally yields dividends in one of the more impressive themed issues in some time. Eight, count em, articles getting in on the act. That's even better than the Traveller special with the milk bottles managed. Hopefully none of these'll feel like they were whipped up and crammed in at the last minute just to make up the numbers. We also have another full size module, and several unconnected articles. Well, they have to have a few, otherwise complaints would be guaranteed. This should be pretty sweet.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter asking what will happen to games that are neither sci-fi or fantasy after the Ares split. The hobby is getting ever more fragmented, and they don't like it. Kim apologizes at length, saying that roleplaying as a hobby is now too big for one magazine to do it justice. (so buy both ) They can't please everyone, so they're not going to try anymore.  
A letter asking for a proper official ruling on phantasmal force.
A letter pointing out the errors in their last index. There's always something, isn't there.
A letter asking about modules based off other properties, and how EX1&2 got past that. They reply that if it's in public domain, it's fair game, but if the author's still here, steer well clear.
A letter praising them on the well targeted nature of their adverts. No booze, cigarettes or porn here. Kim remains silent on this, and I suspect this may be simply because none of them pay to advertise here. We're not an important enough demographic for those ugly corporations to focus their beady little eyes on.
A letter correcting details on 19th century guns for boot hill.
A letter asking what the new monsters mentioned but not printed in the nine hells article were. They reply that they're found in the monster manual II. Out in all good hobby stores now! :teeth ting:
A letter asking them why they don't do an art book compiling issue covers. They reply that in most cases, they only purchased them for a single time use, and so this  is not an easy option.
Plus some Q&A for king of the tabletop. Not big enough to give it its own page, so they put it here.

Mind games: We start off with a basic discussion of what psionics is, and what it's ramifications are. While magic comes from an external source, psionics is purely internal. Which means most people have untapped depths of power in their minds. But with no formalized system of training, development of those powers will of course be haphazard and unreliable. (until now, of course) It then goes into a reiteration of the rules quirks, trying to understand and justify them, and failing, in some cases. Yet another instance where the AD&D rules are examined and found wanting, with many contradictions pointed out and thought about. Having done that, it's time to think about cleaning them up, and fixing them. But that's a matter for another article. Because otherwise this would be one huge screed with no dividers. Still, this has been a solid lead-in, that hopefully helped assuage people's trepidation about using psionics in their own games.

Sage advice: When do you check for psionic powers (when first created, and if your appropriate ability scores change)
Can you lose psionic powers if you suffer ability drain (yes)
How do you quickly assess if NPC's have psionics (roll D%. On a 00, they have psionics)
Which races can have psionics (humans, dwarves and halflings definitely can. Elves possibly can, depending which rules version you use. gnomes and half-orcs definitely can't)
Can a wish spell make you immune to psionic attacks (one wish will make you immune to one attack mode. You'd need 5 to become immune to them all.)
If you're surprised, can you still put up defense modes (yes)
Why aren't psionic attacks and defenses by high level creatures more powerful (for the same reason that regular weapons do the same amount of damage regardless of the wielders level. Not everything scales with level.)
Can you cast spells and use psionics at the same time ( You can have a thought shield up and cast spells as well, but otherwise no. They both require too much concentration to be compatible.)
Do successful psionic attacks disrupt spells. (only if they do real damage, or fully penetrate your shielding)
Can you raise a character killed by psychic crush (yes, but they lose all their psionic powers permanently. If they were an integral part of your character concept, it sucks to be you.)
Doesn't the players handbook say that thought shield is the only defense against psychic crush? (no, it says that's the only defense you can use while also using psychic crush. Read it more carefully.)
What does it mean when it says thought shield can be kept up at all times (exactly that. It's the only one you can use while fighting, spellcasting or otherwise being active. )
What happens to the points transferred back and forth in psionic operations. (they're expended. You'll have to recover them with rest as normal. )
What does page 77 mean. (if an attack reduces you to 0 psionic points, you start taking real hit point damage instead. Brain go splodey. )
Can psionic creatures sense other psionic creatures (only if they're actually using their powers at the time. If they're mentally shielded, not even then.)
If you switch classes, do you lose powers forbidden to your new class (yes, very much so.)
Can animal telepathy communicate with humans (no. They do not count as animals for the purposes of this power.)
Does cell adjustment let you know exactly how many hit points a character has (that depends on if you want the metagame and physics to be that closely connected. We'll leave this one to you.)
Can energy control negate any spell, even wishes. ((if you have the appropriate amount of power points to spend)  
Does the table on page 60 apply to psionic invisibility (no. They're invisible because you're being mind controlled to ignore them, so no matter how good your other senses are, you won't pick up the clues.)
Can you attack someone and remain psionically invisible (no)
Can you use mollecular agitation through scrying (no. Line of sight means your actual, unenhanced sight)
Can you levitate yourself with telekinesis (no. That would make the other power redundant. )
Do magical protective items affect saves vs psionics (only if they boost all your saves, or specifically say so)
Do you gain XP just for using a power (getoutahere ya powergrubbing varmint. )
Do you gain XP for killing a creature with psionic blast (only if it was a threat, as with any other fight. Rigged games don't count. )

Ravenloft! What a way to mark this haloween. This is certainly one a lot of people remember fondly, and of course went on to get several remakes and be the centre of an entire campaign world. Let the gothic horror commence.

Overhauling the system: Back to the prose. Lets see what their suggestions for fixing this poorly designed and integrated subsystem are. 1: Proper progression, instead of starting almost as badass as you're ever going to be. An excelent idea. 2: use it or lose it. Not such a good idea. It conflicts with the general D&D design philosophy, and is way too likely to cause player/DM conflict. 3: Prevent low level characters from knowing the extents of their powers. Another not so good method that only works with novice players. Hmm. That's not a very good strike rate. Methinks this designer has a lot to learn about what makes for good game design. Not recommended, for annoying arguments may result.

Dragon Issue 78: October 1983

part 1/2

And now, the psionicist: Hmm. Now this is very interesting. We now have a class specifically devoted to psionics. And it has the same name that the 2nd ed version would. That automatically makes this a pretty influential article. Lets see what they changed in the meantime. These do have quite a few weird 1st editionisms, such as different hit dice at different levels, level titles (which overlap with other classes thanks to insufficiently sized theasauri) and basic details such as armor/weapons/money are different. Despite adding a bunch of extra powers, they still have a rather limited selection compared to the spellcasting classes. If the ability to access the ones they know in any order as long as they have the points to spend will balance that out I'm not sure. Given that even 2nd edition psionics was horribly breakable, I suspect that these guys may also be if you select your powers right. (Yes, I am aware of the contradictions there. Could they be simultaneously under and overpowered? Possibly. ) Still, even if it needs a few rounds of playtesting and fine-tuning, this is a pretty neat article, that opens up new character avenues nicely.  And since AD&D classes were never that well balanced anyway, what does it matter if they're unbalanced as long as they have niche protection. Another cool thing to add to the massive list of things I want to try out.

The Deryni: Ooh, a conversion with official author sanction. It's been rather too long since we saw one of those. And since we got a FUDGE deryni game recently, that probably means she's actually a gamer herself and not just licensing it out for the money. Anyway, lets look at the actual merits of the article. As you might expect, they do run into the problem of trying to fit them into the D&D rules framework, but they take away options as much as they grant them, which means they aren't as annoying as some other contributions we've seen :cough:gypsies:cough: Overall, this is a pretty decent article, and they don't have to mutilate them too much to get them to work with D&D. I wonder if we'll see them again in here.

Heroes and villains of the deryni: Arthur Collins' final contribution this month allows him to put all the ingredients he's introduced so far into a nice package as he details characters from the books. Which is nice, as normally, you don't get to see  the optional rules in these issues actually applied. We get 8 characters, most of which are multiclass psionicists. There is the usual tendency towards massive attribute bloat that we see in most of these articles. You ought to know by now I disapprove of that unless it really does accurately reflect the characters all-round capabilities as shown in the novel (in which case it's the author who'll get the mild disapproval if their writing isn't good enough to justify the characters all-round brilliance ) so I shall simply shrug and sigh at this.  Giants in the earth may be gone, but it's influence is still seen, making people think creating characters with stats like this is normal behaviour. So I have decidedly mixed feelings about the final results.  

Citadel by the sea: A 16 page module for low level characters. It does have some fairly specific character requirements, due to the mission and setting, and requires quite a bit of roleplaying. But once you get past that it's a regular, if pretty large dungeoncrawl. Like keep on the borderlands, this is one you can approach in a number of ways, and if you fail to clear it out first time (likely, unless you have a big, well henched party) they should react and adapt to your encroachment. So another useful little piece of kit that you can drop in easily enough to your games. They strike a decent balance between putting roleplaying stuff in and allowing the players plenty of freedom in how to solve the problem.

Figure feature: Lots of different monsters this month. Mermen, demons, trolls, hydra, dragons, plus a couple of mounted humans. But at least they're evil humans, so you can kill them without feeling guilty as well.

Be thy die ill-wrought?: Standard deviation. One of the more useful pieces of statistical math. In this case it's used to test if a die really is loaded, or your mind is just seeing patterns where there are none. For those of you who can't wrap your brains around the math involved, they also include a BASIC program which can do the heavy lifting for you. Its always nice when they put in something that'll expand people's general knowledge. I haven't done these kind of maths since I left school, and it's nice to be reminded of them.

The ecology of the mind flayer: Looks like they're getting in on the psionic theme as well, with the story of the ilithids, as told by a githyanki. And as they should know, you don't fuck with them unprepared, and you don't rely on magic to get them. Use psionics liberally, watch your companions for signs of being taken over, and generally make sure you have lots of failsafes and backup plans. Because they'll definitely learn from your mistakes and get revenge if you fail. The drama is strong in this one, as the protagonists learn just how scary it is dealing with someone who's reading your mind the whole time. Still, better they learn that now than in pitched battle where the enemy counters their every tactic and then eats their brains. Also interesting to note is that mind flayers don't have a god yet. Illsenine and whats-his-name who got killed by Orcus are still just motes in some writers mind. Also missing is the whole implantation schtick. In fact, details on their reproductive cycle are completely missing. On the other hand, they do get plenty of info which would be useful in actual encounters, such as the type of creatures that they associate with, and how they build their cities. Not a perfect article, but still an exceedingly entertaining one. Monsters like this are why you should treat dungeoneering as a carefully planned military mission. When you're going into a city filled with thousands of high power monsters, you've got to be prepared.

Spells can be psionic too: Kim finishes off the psionic stuff with some dull comparison between spells and powers that do roughly the same thing. While it does reveal some little details about the D&D universe metaphysics, this definitely has the feel of a filler article. I'm really not in the mood for this kind of piece by piece  examination at the moment, and I think we can safely skip this one. The last of 8 articles in a theme is rarely that good.

Pop the clutch and roll: Chases! A situation full of drama that the vast majority of RPG's handle very badly indeed, with their flat movement rates, and awkward integration of attack and movement options. Vehicle chases are particularly problematic. Lets see what this set of rules for Top Secret is like, and if they work.
Hmm. Recording maneuvers for each turn in secret, then revealing them simultaneously. That's a pretty good way of going about it, as it allows both luck and skill to play a part in catching or losing your opponent. Obviously, there is a certain amount of crunch involved as you compare options, but at only 5 pages, I think you can handle it. And it's good that they're not neglecting their other games as well.

The thrill of the hunt: Dragonquest also gets an article this month. Rules for hunting food. Now there's a good idea. Unless you're in another plane of existance or something similarly problematic, you shouldn't have to rely entirely on food you packed beforehand. A simple and effective little table is provided allowing you to determine your odds of success in various environments. Obviously this does increase the power of the characters a little, but as it also takes up plenty of time and XP to develop and use, I think it balances out. Time spent hunting is not spent completing your primary quest. But if you die of starvation, you're not going to complete anything. I quite approve. It adds realism without getting in the way.

What's new sets us some puzzles. Wormy engages in some recounting. Snarfquest solves the predicament by mad luck.

Well, that was a rather harder issue to get through than I expected. Goes to show. First impressions from looking at the table of contents are not always accurate. Not that it's a bad one in terms of writing or design, but the degree of hard-to-digest crunch is definitely quite high in this one, making it less enjoyable that the last few. I guess it's good exercise for my brain, reading this much this fast. No pain, no gain. I wonder how much'll actually have been retained once it's all over. Maybe | should take a test. Eh. Long way to go. No time for angst. We can save that for the 90's.