Quote from: (un)reason;320329Three cheers for beowulf: Like they did for bounty hunters, they make another attempt at reminding us the D&D isn't all one true way by presenting us with three different versions of his stats. While always a fighter with ridiculously high strength, his level and other stats vary in their twinkedness between incarnations. As ever, he has powers PC's can't match, and may overshadow them if included in a game. As a thought exercise, and a demonstration of how different writers can interpret the same material, this is quite interesting. As something that's useful for an actual game, not so much. Like so much of the GitE material, this winds up leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

I'd forgotten this article. Beowulf would appear at least once more, in the late 3.5 era of Dragon. I've always dug GitE-type articles. Not only are they useful as ready-made statblocks for major NPCs (with or without the serial numbers filed off), they are also useful (in my opinion) as illustrations of the strengths and weaknesses of the game system they're statted for. That is, they help demonstrate how versatile a given system is in modeling various character types.

If anything ever left a bad taste in my mouth after reading these articles, it's that the D&D system seemed pretty inadequate for modeling anything but D&D characters without extensive retooling, at least in some cases. Gygax's "Conan" article from way back is a great example. "Why can't I make characters like this?" I remember thinking then. We often tried to, using house rules, with varying results.

Dragon Issue 85: May 1984

part 2/2

The twofold talisman part two: Another 10 pages finish off this module. The dreadful humour becomes even broader and more irritating in this installment. The screwage also continues, with quite a few annoying tricks that automatically work with no chance to resist. And a poorly done wizard of oz ending. Ugh. Once again, I reiterate, do not put this into a regular campaign. Most players will hate you for it. Definitely not one of the magazines high points.

Ooh. New module submission guidelines. As with their general guidelines, these are a combination of the obvious, such as type it up properly, keep a copy for yourself, Spelling, punctuation, grammar are critical, stay in theme, don't rip off currently existing modules wholesale, and the specific, like don't send a module in to multiple companies at once, avoid railroading and deus ex machina (A rule you guys really ought to remember to stick to yourselves), keep the size between 8 and 16 pages, and stay out of Greyhawk. As ever, the details change, but the basic principles remain the same. Interesting that they are currently trying to avoid "unrealistic" and nonsensical dungeons. Also interesting is the avoidance of "family unfriendly" topics. They don't want to engage in any social commentary at all. Honestly, being controversial got you one of the biggest publicity boosts in your existence. Why would you want to avoid that? Still, I guess it leaves a big hole in the market open for White Wolf to exploit. And listening to media misrepresentation does get deeply tiresome.

Fiction: A stone's throw away by Roger Moore. Part two of our dragonlance teasers. Say hello to Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Bloody kender. If anything causes more irritation to both their friends and their enemies, I don't want to know about it. Especially when they have narrative protection as well as plenty of skill, so things always turn out all right for them. I mean, Demogorgon likes him. Admiral Crankypants himself. What chance do we have? As ever, Roger's writing is pretty good, even when it's subject matter and the implications it has for the game might not be. For now, they can keep their optimism.

Reviews: Warhammer FRP gets a fairly positive review from Ken. It is quite a bit better at presenting large scale fights than most RPG's on the market, and while the human scale stuff is rather simplistic, at least it's fast and easy to make new characters. They already have a supplement mill up and ready. It provides a nice middle ground between wargaming and full RPG's.
Reaper is the warhammer system's predecessor. Like OD&D, it requires substantial GM extrapolation and houseruling to make work. While it still has plenty of interesting elements, these days, it would probably be preferable to salvage the ideas and transplant them into a more robust system.
Lost worlds is a cleverly detailed combat system based around selecting maneuvers and going to the appropriate page on a little booklet. This does rather limit the range of character and creature types you can play within the system, and buying a booklet for each type will get expensive. This is the problem with that level of tactical detail. Every addition multiplies out the overall permutations and resulting complexity. But it does allow for an exceptional amount of transparency, ease of use and realism for the amount of detail covered.
Cry havoc is a fantasy wargame. Well presented, easy to learn, with plenty of interesting scenarios, it gets easily the most unreserved praise of the reviews here. Another of those cases where what gets good reviews at the time, and what survives longest bear little relation.
WHFRP also gets a second review by Katharine Kerr. This is rather less enthusiastic than the first one, calling out the absolutely terrible typing and editing. While the mass combat stuff may be a good game under the poor presentation, the human level stuff is lacking in basic abilities, and the random generation produces ridiculous results. In short, in her opinion it needs to seriously clean up it's act next edition if it wants to be a usable game on the individual scale. Like the fiend folio and call of cthulhu reviews, these varying perspectives are very interesting in hindsight. The different reviewers place different amounts of weight on the flaws of the product, and have different priorities in their gaming. Who's side are you on?

Are's section:

The federation guide to luna: Part two of our lunar series, and they turn their eye on the star trek universe. As this is pre TNG, (another instance where things seem very dated) this may not be compatible with future canon. As it's now pretty easy to get too and from (the waiting time at either end is way longer than the traveling time. ) and well settled, this is definitely not a place you boldly go where no man has gone before. More a place where you can engage in research and politicking without feeling in too much danger (at least, until someone accidentally destroys the universe again. ) Better than last issue's attempt (we already know the federation is a happy utopian culture, so there's no need to make a point of rubbing it in) this is still more than a little dull.  Could you try and put some more adventure hooks in next time please.

Gamma hazards: Three new weird and disturbing monsters for gamma world here. Fungimals are rather creepy. They take the form of a harmless little herbivore, and then when eaten, infect the eater and transform them into a giant puffball which then releases more little harmless tasty looking creatures. And the circle of life continues. Not a good way to go.
Humbugs are one of those creatures based off a bad pun. They transform into mundane objects, and create illusions to make people think that they work. Much irritation ensues.
Jungle lurkers are psychic insects that disguise themselvesas plants, and drain life energy while creating illusions as a decoy. The closest to a straight up combat encounter here, they're still gonna be a pain in the ass to catch and defeat.
All in all, an imaginative and entertaining set of creatures. Unlike the last set, back in issue 75, the humour doesn't get in the way of their usefulness. And their core ideas could be adapted for other games with great relish. I can see myself deriving quite a bit of sadistic use from these.

Preventing complacency in Traveler gaming: Another fairly unexceptional "the stats don't tell you everything about a thing article. We've had them for alignment. We've had them for class. We've had them for sex and race. Now we have them for planets. Flesh out your planets beyond the basic infoblock, include ideas that you can't get by simply rolling, remember that what the galactic guidebook says may not be accurate for whatever reason. We've read articles like this before. We'll probably read many more of them in the future, for all kinds of games. The basic principles remain the same, and are as valid as ever. Doesn't stop this one from feeling like filler material.

Coming soon, the marvel super heroes RPG by TSR. Which means that it'll get plenty of representation in this magazine if it's popular.

Lions, tigers and superheroes: Ahh, animal stats. If a game doesn't include them, people'll complain until they get them (and if they do, chances are, they'll complain about them being unrealistic, but hey ho. ) This tackles that little topic in the Champions system. Which means lots of crunch packed into a small article. Given the effect based build, these are pretty logical and easy to understand. Dunno why people couldn't just build their own. Still, it's just the kind of thing this section should be providing, crunchwise. It could be more impressive, but it could also be a lot worse. Roger Raupp contributes some rather poorly proportioned art. I guess that's genre appropriate

Starquestions: Or Sage advice goes Sci-fi. This month, they're tackling Star frontiers, but they also intend to cover their other sci-fi properties such as Gamma world. (guess Boot hill and Gangbusters' rules questions will go unresolved though. ) As ever, lets see what inanity people present Penny & co.
Who created star frontiers (Dave Cook & Lawrence Schick. Read the credits in the books. )
Will we ever get to see the prepublication version of the game. (Nah. We rewrote it because it sucked. You wouldn't enjoy it anyway. )
What's the difference between regular Star Frontiers and Alpha Dawn (Marketing. It makes you do crazy things sometimes.)
Can you play star frontiers with D&D (No. Our friendliness to crossovers is currently declining. We'd never approve something like expedition to the barrier peaks these days.)
Can we use the new aliens from the modules as PC's (We do not recommend it, as they are not balanced in the slightest. )
Can a dralasite split in two. (no)
Can a dralasite ooze under a door (no)
Can a dralasite roll (yes, but it isn't the most efficient way of moving)
Can a Vrusk carry someone on their back (Yes, but with lots of complaining)
Can the PC races interbreed (Ick. No. Not even by artificial insemination )
Can you create a genetic superman. (Only as an NPC. Again, game balance, yah boo. )
Why isn't psionics in Star Frontiers (We didn't feel it fit in properly. Not every game needs a magic equivalent.  )
How much do skills cost (new level x3, each level bought up individually. It's a bit more complicated than a level system, but you'll get used to it.)
Can I make a jack of all trades PSA ( :sigh: There's always one. Don't the current ones have enough versatility for you. )
Which cost is correct for the standard equipment pack (The cheaper one)
How do gas masks work for aliens (they need to have them specially made. This is particularly problematic for dralasites)
How much tornadium do you get for 50 credits (50 grams. The rest of the weight is protection. You don't want an explosive that unstable exposed to the air. )
Why don't grenades have masses. (because they're too light. You can carry as many as common sense dictates. Don't tell me you still haven't got some of that, when we've said you need it so many times.)
How do you handle vehicle mounted weapons ( Mechanically, fairly leniently. In terms of in game laws, expect trouble. )
What new modules are coming out (Not telling. Go to your local shop regularly, see what's in.)  

Huh. TSR and GAMA have kissed and made up. What heart warming news. Now the whole hobby can work together to make better conventions. Whatever happened to GAMA, anyway. You never hear people talk about it anymore. Does it exist? Do the various companies still bother to pay dues. Or has it joined the great dustbin of history.

Wormy goes off on a random tangent again. Talanalan has some railroady GM'ing. Snarfquest blows stuff up and gets away.

Although they've had longer issues in terms of page count, this is possibly their biggest yet in terms of actual game content. Or at least, due to the proliferation of small articles, it's resulted in my longest review yet. I have to wonder just how I'll deal with their peak size 90's issues. My writing style's already changed quite a bit. Just what will several hundred more issues do to it? But I shouldn't digress. This is certainly not a bad issue overall, but it does have some annoying bits. At least the Ares section is a definite improvement on the first one, and it's not overloaded with adverts. But it doesn't have any real classic standout articles either. I guess we'll have to file this one under average.

Quote from: (un)reason;320564Whatever happened to GAMA, anyway. You never hear people talk about it anymore. Does it exist? Do the various companies still bother to pay dues. Or has it joined the great dustbin of history.

I wasn't sure if you were serious or not with your questions here (it struck me as though it could be commentary on GAMA), but yeah, GAMA is still around. Look here. It organizes Origins and an annual Vegas show.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;320604I wasn't sure if you were serious or not with your questions here (it struck me as though it could be commentary on GAMA), but yeah, GAMA is still around. Look here. It organizes Origins and an annual Vegas show.

I was being serious at the time I wrote that, curiously. (although I did check afterwards) I guess it shows how smoothly it's running these days, if it hasn't generated noticeable forum controversy in the decade or so I've been online.

GAMA also is apparently the source of those 3-letter codes used in product codes.

Dragon Issue 86: June 1984

part 1/2

100 pages. Welcome to their 8th birthday. Too old for every one to feel significant, but not a big round number like 10 yet. They're still trying something special, with a full-on cut-out cardboard castle for you to construct yourself. Which is pretty ambitious, really. Plenty of other stuff too. They certainly won't run out of ideas any time soon. But the important question is, is it good? Very good question. As ever, gentle readers, I shall attempt to inform and entertain you.  

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter asking if familiars can be raised (not easily)
A letter asking if lycanthropy caused by magical items is contagious (not normally ) These two feel more like sage advice questions than letter ones. What's up with that.
Now this is more like it. Eric Field points out a mistake in the poison article in issue 81, and then asks if they ever plan to do a listing of gamers again. They reply that with circulation in the hundreds of thousands, if they tried that these days it'd take up a whole issue. Not feasable or desirable.
A letter engaging in generalized complaints about how the magazine has gone downhill in the past year. Too many cartoons, too many adverts, not enough stuff from Gary & Len, etc etc. Kim replies, but doesn't seem very enthusiastic about it.
Some nitpicking on the nature of gemstones.
A letter asking how you get special rates for conventions. This of course varies considerably from convention to convention.

The forum: Mike Beeman has great difficulty comprehending the concept of multidimensional space. A universe can be unlimited in size in multiple dimensions, but still bounded in the others. And via the miracle of four dimensional folding, it can be infinite, but still have sections which border on other infinities. Is that so hard to comprehend. All it takes is a little advanced geometry knowledge. That you're finding it hard to understand does not make it inherently incomprehensible, merely that you haven't built the right mental model yet.
Jennifer Walker offers a possible rebuttal as to why Dragon doesn't promote Gen Con more.
Russell Thorp has some optional rules from keeping players from combining every herb at once to make a super-healing poltice. Can't have the nonmagical options overtaking the magical ones.
Jeff de Remer has some thoughts on alignment and the nature of paladinhood. Because the 9 alignments are equal, it ought to be no harder to follow any one than the others. But exemplars of an alignment still need to be held to higher standards than anyone else.
And finally, Kirk Everist thinks that the forum is a good idea, and the two types of letters sent to the magazine should stay separated. Well, of course you'd print one of those.

The ecology of the slithering tracker: It was born in the strategic review. Now it's back in the magazine, courtesy of Ed Greenwood. It may not seem like the most threatening of creatures, but then, the really nasty ones rarely do. Before you know it you're turning into a giant puffball, being sucked dry of all your moisture, desperately trying to get that little squirming thing out of your urethra, or having your brain eaten from the inside because you listened at a door without using protection. The slithering tracker is unusual among oozes because it's really rather clever. Which is good for it, because otherwise it'd be doomed, as it doesn't have effective combat attacks, or proper manipulators. In a way, it's so helpless in the face of most other dungeon inhabitants that like kobolds, you're almost rooting for it to succeed despite the odds. As it is, it's the kind of monster that kills silently and unexpectedly, which rarely makes players happy. Because they're intelligent, you can invent all manner of tricks to lure the players into a false sense of security. Ed is his usual loquacious self in matters of their physiology and behavioral habits, inventing a whole bunch of cool little details beyond the basic monster description, most of which will be relevant in actual play. So it's just another masterful contribution from the king of setting depth then.

Familiars with a special use: Stephen Inniss returns to the topic he covered in issue 84, albeit with a different slant. Last time, he examined the natural animals. This time he focusses on the magical creatures wizards can persuade to bond with them. Firstly, he asks why should lawful and chaotic evil wizards get the cool extraplanar servants, and provides analogous creatures for the other 7 alignments.  Then he adds three more little magical beasties for those of you who would prefer more options in the pseudodragon mould. Obviously, there's a lot more new crunch in here than the last one, which means you're more likely to want to refer back to it in play. As with imps and quasits, these guys are substantially more powerful than their masters at low levels, and should be treated accordingly. Exercise caution with letting a 1st level PC get one. But they're no more broken than the existing examples (yeah, everyone loves instadeath poison), so I don't have a problem with them in the larger sense, and can happily add them to my list of cool things I'd like to use in a game sometime.

The warrior alternative: Dragonquest gets another article. They may have virtually stopped coverage on non-rpg's, but somehow this little fella has slipped through the cracks. At the moment, not taking a magical course makes you a strictly sub-optimal character, as there's nothing else for you to spend that time on. It's a persistent problem, wizards being more badass than everyone else. So why not allow the characters to train in nonmagical skills with that time and money. It still probably won't make you quite as scary as a high power wizard, but at least it's something. And bringing a game closer to being balanced is usually to be lauded. I quite approve.

Five new enchanted objects: One of those articles that does exactly what it says on the tin.
The staff of the coatl lets you summon one of the aforementioned goody goody snakey snakes, and gives you a bunch of their other powers if you're of an appropriate alignment.
The scepter of defense gives you L337 parrying skillz. This is of course only useful against the kind of attacks you can parry. So pick your enemies wisely. Or give it to a Duelist, and watch them win battles like no-ones business.
Rust dust also does what it says on the tin, affecting anything sprinkled with it as if it'd been hit by a rust monster. Which means you can ruin enemy stuff without having to constantly worry about the thing turning on you and trying to eat yours, barring sudden gusts of wind. Muahahahahaha, etc.
The necklace of alteration is one of those weird items that offers a random amount of benefit each time you activate it. This can be rather amusing, particularly if you're turned into salt.
And finally, Dragonhelms give you a load of dragon related bonuses, at the cost of starting to think like a dragon, and sucking up to them if you actually meet one. A clever example of an item with both benefits and drawbacks, where you'll have to make a genuine choice if it's worth it or not. A strong selection of items all round.

The suel pantheon: Len Lakofka gives us more greyhawk stuff, officially sanctioned by Gary. Lendor, god of time (and tedium, oh my sides are splitting) and Norebo, god of gambling. (and Wee Jas' lover, at that time. An episode of her history I suspect she'd rather retcon.) More to come in future months. I'd say I'd missed you, but unfortunately I haven't. There's still something about Len's writing style that I find rather unappealing. They're still refining the rules to distinguish speciality clerics while keeping them balanced overall though, which is good.

Dragons and their deities: Another godly article by another regular writer. Alan Zumwalt. How do you make dragons even scarier? By letting them gain clerical levels from worshipping their gods. Muahaha and all that. Well, they had to have something dragon related for their birthday as usual. Since they can't get that high a level as clerics, and dragons are already pretty scary combat wise, it's best to channel these extra spells into increasing their versatility, healing and utility powers. Another option for when you have players who are starting to take things for granted and need surprising by putting a different slant on a familiar creature. Secondary options are useful, even when they might be suboptimal, simply because you can confound people who plan around the tactically optimum path all the bloody time. You can't do that when you only have 2 or 3 power options.

Dragon Issue 86: June 1984

part 2/2

Great stoney: This month's centrepiece is certainly an interesting departure from their usual servings. A full-on cardboard castle, this must have added quite a bit to the production costs of this issue. (I wouldn't be surprised if they actually made a loss on this one, like they did with some of the later boxed sets) At 8 storeys tall, it would certainly make an impressive adventuring ground, which you could fill with all kinds of challenges. Like most of the more physical extras, this is of course a bit of a nuisance in .pdf format, but still, I can see what they were doing here, and I'm quite impressed by their ambition. If TSR was run by bean counters and lawyers, this would never have been approved. Yes, it may have got them into trouble, and eventually killed them, but that's the risk an adventurer takes. At least they're living with style and producing extravagant stuff like this along the way.

Chill! Another classic game is about to be released, and gets advertised here. Neat.

Fiction: Mzee by Charles R Saunders. Life is hard for a young orphan. Bullied by other kids, looked down upon by the adults, getting the last share of any stuff the tribe has, and generally having a pretty sucky life. The question is, will that adversity break you, or make you strong? Everyone loves a good coming of age drama. Seems like half the stories (all of them if you believe Joseph Campbell ) are based around that theme. (and the others are romances.) Another likable but not particularly exceptional or original bit of fiction to fill out the pages with.

Reviews: Battlesuit is a wargame set in the same world as the OGRE game, focussing on infantry battles. This is only slightly more revealing about it's ruleset than saying that Mario Kart and Paper Mario are set in the same universe. It's more a marketing decision. But that doesn't stop it from being a fun game, as long as you like wargaming that has no pretensions towards realism, you should get along fine with it.
Phantasy Conclave is almost the definition of a fantasy heartbreaker, (only with a ph, which like using vampyre, faerie, deamon, or khaiyne, automatically marks it as pretentious as well as insipid) essentially a bunch of someone's AD&D houserules turned into a game of it's own. And it is very badly done indeed. The writing is badly done, there's tons or errata, the illustrations even worse, and there are huge amounts of basic detail like character sheets, weapon ranges, movement rates, and general worldbuilding just missing. If you don't want your heart broken and your money wasted, avoid it like the plague.

Ares section:

Know your enemy: An article on constructing supervillain groups. Why they exist, how they survive, and what you do with them. A topic that could be a lot of fun in the right hands. Unfortunately, this particular attempt misses the mark, being too concerned with realistic worldbuilding, and not enough with the creation of a fun story. Trying to force superheroic worlds to be consistent is even harder than trying to get fantasy worlds to be coherent, well-structured and have decent continuity. You'll have to try a hell of a lot harder than this to marry the two goals of worldbuilding and fun gaming, with all the genre conventions keeping them apart. Plus the article feels way too short. Once again we see the problems inherent with only having 16 pages to play with. You just don't have the room to create the depth a topic like this needs.

A world gone mad: This month's examination of the moon goes to the Gamma World universe. The lunar outposts have been taken over by mutant plants, and gigantic single celled organisms. (gross) Now it's a jungle up there. Can the PC's reclaim it and get hold of some kickass technology on the way? Or will they find this a leap too big for mankind. In just a couple of pages, Jim opens up a whole new avenue for adventure that could become the basis of an entire campaign. Just like going extraplanar in D&D, once you have space travel, it's never going to be quite the same game again. Unfortunately, like the planar stuff, it's still pretty sketchy, with vast areas given the most superficial of examination. Better get to work then. Those moonbases aren't going to draw themselves.

Fast and deadly: A short but sweet article introducing a bunch of new ships to the star frontiers game, and then giving us three new sample scenarios employing them so you can get the hang of them before developing your own. See, this is how you make a short article worthwhile. You've got to cut out all the extraneous bits and get right to the point. With proper editing, you can fit in far more than you'd expect. It's a skill that any creative medium, be it movies, books, music or whatever, can benefit from.

Interstellar athletes: Ahh joy, another traveler variant. We used to get quite a few of those before they got rid of sci-fi stuff in here. Good to see them return. Don't want to have a past in the military? Be a professional athlete instead. There's probably more money in it, and less chance of being horribly killed before you retire. Unless your chosen sport is slaughtersphere. And given the age most professional athletes retire, a second career as an adventurer is a pretty decent option. So this is a handy little article that you can easily slot into your game. They're definitely getting the hang of this.

Starquestions is handled by Jim Ward on his own this month. Well, he did invent Gamma world, so of course he's the ultimate authority on it's rules. He doesn't need the help of Penny or Will or Jean this time round.
Can cyborgs be mutated. (their organic parts certainly can)
It should be obvious how a gun works, you shouldn't have to work it out (Ha. Try shooting a bow or lighting a fire with a pair of rocks while we watch you and laugh (from a safe distance) for a few hours. Then say that all modern appliances are utterly self-explanatory in their use.)
Why do you get automatically hit when surprised (to encourage you to be more cautious.)
My ref isn't checking for reactions, but just making the NPC's act the way she chooses (That is entirely within her perogative. The dice do not rule personality.)
I want stats for more weapons (Kill kill kill. That's all you people ever think about. Look, bikini's! That'll distract 'em. Or maybe not. Great. Now they're homicidal, fetishistic, and have dreadful taste in music. )
I haz 10 questions on mutations. Pls ansewer them. (longlist is looooooong. Jim hopes people don't get into the habit of doing this. )
Aren't swords and arrows a bit weak. (well, we had to make modern weapons more badass, or what was all that technological advancement for.)
When is gamma world set. (1st edition is in 2471, 2nd is in 2450. Not sure why we went backwards. New editions usually advance the timeline of a game. )
What happens to characters caught by cyber-netters (use the most sick and twisted part of your imagination. )
Can you crossover Gamma world and Metamorphosis alpha ( Effortlessly, my dear Watson. They use pretty similar rules and themes. They could be part of the same universe without either being compromised in the slightest. )

Wormy goes fishing. Watch out, because the fish'll eat you. Talanalan faces sudden death from the skies. Snarfquest has wishes go wrong, as usual.

Bug eyed monsters. The new game of alien abduction from greg costikyan. Looks like fun.  

A fairly strong issue, with plenty of gameable material. (although I'd prefer more birthday stuff) The ares section in particular is definitely a substantial improvement on the first two, as they get the hang of the format, and figure out how to get the most into it. Looks like the turmoil of the first few months is over, and we can look forward to another year or so of the format staying stable before the next revamp. And that's not a bad thing, as they seem to have a pretty sweet gig going on here. It's risky to mess with a working formula.

Dragon Issue 87: July 1984

part 1/2

100 pages. A rather amusing cover this issue. Don't let the cutesy art style fool you about the seriousness of their predicament. Those are some scary plant creatures. Meanwhile, the editor would like to assure you that Dragon itself is in no danger whatsoever from the Tolkien estate. Unfortunately, TSR is now big enough that the left hand doesn't neccecarily know what the right hand is doing. We can't say with certainty what's going to be out when, or why changes have to be made sometimes. Sorry about that. Maybe if we had leaders who weren't bickering over control of the company, y'know. Anyway, enough with the inept rumour-quashing that'll just create more speculation, and on with the show.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: The vice-president of empire games writes a letter direct to Michael Gray, saying that the problems he mentioned in his PbP article have now been fixed. Please don't judge us on what happened in the past. Your money is safe with us.
A letter saying Kim's rulings on healing magic are inaccurate. Kim decides to defer. On consideration, nerfing healing magic's ability to help convalescing characters too much is a bad idea.
A letter praising them for printing dragonquest stuff, and asking for more ASAP. They say they'll do what they can.
Two letters complaining about inconsistencies between the ecology articles and their original monster entries. They reply that it matters not. You can pick and choose the fluff for your monsters, or even throw out the canon one and make your own. Don't sweat about it so much. The canon police aren't going to break down your door for changing things....... yet.

The forum: David W Sisk is still not happy with the way disbelief on illusions works. Other GM's in the area disagree with his rulings. You badly need to spell this out to us better.
Scott D Hoffrage gets a second letter published. In it he introduces us to set theory, the idea of different sizes of infinity, the balance of the universe, and lots of other cool conceptual stuff. You can make the other planes fantasticly alien, yet still functional, by correct application of advanced mathematics and imagination. Sounds to me that you ought to be sending in a proper article on this, instead of just  pontificating in the forum.  
David F Godwin thinks that given the standard amounts of treasure given in modules and random tables, it is pretty probable that characters will have a selection of items which give them a decent chance of taking down gods by the time they get to their upper teens, even without actively twinking. And they are unlikely to be happy about being forced to retire. The game's breaking at high levels is inherent to the system, not a result of bad players, and they shouldn't get all the flak for it.
Edward R Masters is another returning forumite, and he still thinks the planes don't really make sense as written. How can planets orbit through earth? How do you negate pressure in an infinite solid expanse with a defined down. It's too much hassle to fix, so I'm never going to let my players go there. Dear oh dear. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to side with Scott.

Beyond the dungeon part 1: Katharine Kerr starts really earning her keep around here, with one of those articles that tries to push people out of their comfort zone, and into new vistas. Wilderness adventures may be well established amongst the TSR cognoscenti by now, but there are still substantial holdouts of grognardia that haven't seen the sun in years. Ironic that the dungeon could wind up being considered safer than the wilderness for many people. The basic and expert sets have a lot to answer for.
 For a start, moving around on different terrains dramatically impacts your movement rate. This requires an exception based new susbsystem that only works for humanoids! And lots more rules tinkering, all over the shop. While the goal is laudable, and the ideas interesting, the execution of the crunch isn't that well integrated. She's right though that D&D really needs a perception stat rather than having flat chances to surprise that a few class and race abilities modify in arbitrary ways. But then this would involve overhauling the entire system.  A good article, that tries hard, but is just lacking that final push to get it into the classic domain, in my opinion. Lets hope part two can pull something really cool out of the hat next month.

The ecology of the dryad: Ahh, another of the popular sylvan creatures. How many people have fantasized about being charmed by one and lured off to be their love slaves for a few years. And how many adventurers have found them an almighty pain in the ass. All we wanted to do was cut down a few trees to make a fire with, and cook the animals we just killed for our dinner. Plenty of detail is gone into on their lifecycle, and a few new words are invented as well. They finally manage to strike a decent balance between fiction and footnotes in this one as well. If they'd included a little more action, rather than the fiction just being a load of sagely pontification, it would have been perfect. There's always some little nitpick, isn't there. Keep trying guys.

Gods of the suel pantheon: Len continues his elaboration on greyhawk gods, with Kord the brawler (now there's a familiar name) and his son Phaulkon, god of the open air. Seems like he's quite the Zeus figure, with tons of kids all over the place, more than a few of which become demigods. Your PC can become one too if they can roll 2 18's for their stats. Shades of Synnibarr here, as they reward arbitrary luck with even greater fortune. Once again a whole page is used up recycling the generic god abilities as well. In short, this is a rather poorly thought out piece, that I would recommend you keep in the Lendore isles where it belongs. There is an excellent reason why this style of game design has been largely abandoned. If you try it, you'll find out why pretty soon, when all the other players start complaining.

The legacy of hortus: A load of botanical fluff about a wizard who transferred his lifeforce into the plants he created. Lots of very very bad pun names are used as the basis for animal/plant hybrids of various kinds. It all gets rather silly. And they don't even make stats for them either. I strongly disapprove. At least when Jim gets silly with his mutants he does so inventively, and with decent crunch. I'm sorry, but dedicating the article to a dead person doesn't get you a pass on quality judgements, and I pronounce this article very much wanting.

Reviews: Stalking the night fantastic combines modern day occult, and the spy genre, like an early X-files. Unfortunately, the cool premise and setting is ruined by seriously clunky, poorly organized and overcomplicated rules. Steal from it and convert to conspiracy X or something.
The forever war (another product they've been advertising in here for a while.) is a wargame loosely based off one of the scenarios in the book. Again, the potential offered by the book is left unfulfilled, with big chunks missing or not very well modeled. While not a terrible game in it's own right, it does seem like rather a waste of a license. The review is notewothy for being the first mention of "beer and pretzels" gaming in the magazine though. Guess I get to pinpoint the popularization of another catchphrase, which pleases me.

Dragon Issue 87: July 1984

part 2/2

Whiteout: A 16 page top secret adventure. Head to the antarctic to figure out what the hell the Children Of Neptune (not literally, we aren't straying into crossover land here.) are up to. The previous adventures that appeared in the magazine were all part of a larger plot by a villainous mastermind! Can you foil their plan? The fate of the world rests in the balance. Looks like an open ended and rather tricky mission designed to be a climactic part of an extended campaign. The PC's have chance to make a real difference in the world with this one. That certainly makes a change from all the completely disconnected D&D modules. (particularly the railroaded metaplot ones where the difference you're gonna make is predetermined, no matter what the players do.) I very much approve, apart from the continued tendency towards silly names. Top secret has definitely come quite a way in the last few years from pseudo dungeon crawls in Sprechenhaltestelle.

Fiction: Simon Sidekick by John E Stith. Sci-fi manages to stray out of the Ares section in this fairly long piece about, oohh, yet another little boy learning how to come of age, and the people and things that help him through the experience. Angst is felt, the plot is nicely telegraphed and twists where it ought to, and the end is bittersweet. No great surprises here. File under solid but unexceptional.

Dragonriders of pern game and calendar available now! Buy it! Hee.

Freeze! Star law!: It's not easy enforcing the law properly out in Star Frontiers land. With such a huge area to cover, and much of the power in the hands of huge corporations who essentially are the government on many planets, a star law ranger's gotta be a pretty badass character, who can track a fugitive down over the light years, and get the job done by underhanded means and compromises if neccecary. Now that's a job custom suited for adventurer types, who even if they claim noble ends, often wind up using the most sociopathic of means to achieve them, and care nothing for collateral damage. You can even have a whole team of PC's working as a posse, and they actively encourage that, as well as drawing fun old west parallels in other ways. This is almost a textbook example of how to open up a new mileu of play and make it seem fun and inviting. (unless you don't like space exploration and cowboys, in which case you are dead to me ) The bureaucratic rules are handled with a light touch, and you have plenty of leeway to be a maverick and push their limits without being kicked out. I love this idea, and would very much like to play something in this style at some point.

Luna, a travellers guide: As the pun name suggests, welcome to the moon in the Traveller system. As Traveller is set waaaaaaay in the future, the moon has a history of habitation stretching back thousands of years, and a population of 8 million. It's a fairly decent place to live, but there is a substantial minority of Solomani extremists, and plenty of other things going on to keep it interesting for PC's. Marc Miller personally oversees this, turning in a well integrated and thought out piece that makes it feel like a real place with plenty of built up cultural quirkiness of it's own. Seems like the entries in this series are continuing to improve as they go along, which is definitely promising. If they can keep this going for a year or so, we should get some pretty cool variations by the end of it.

A field guide to lunar mutants: Jim follows up on last month's lunar article, as he promised. We get three examples of each of the two big competing genera, macrobes and plants. That should get your evil imaginations started.
Sword macrobes are giant amoeba with a vibrablade tentacle. Now you can have lightsaber battles with amorphous monsters on the moon. That's a pretty cool image. What more could a cinematic adventurer want.
Ball Macrobes look like a certain brightly coloured kids toy, and throw exploding stink balls at you. Such a humiliating way to go.
Eye Macrobes look like giant disembodied eyes sitting on a wall, duh. They're the brains of the single celled organisms, using their psychic powers to organize and direct all the bacteria in the area. If you spot one, expect trouble to follow soon after. On the plus side, if they're intelligent, you have a shot of negotiating. Hmm. What does a giant psychic eye want?
Coners are mutant pine trees. Not only do they shoot their cones, but they can plug themselves into a socket and use that power as a weapon.
Rosoid are ambulatory roses. Yeah, it's as silly as it sounds, but remember, roses have sharp thorns. And when they're 3 meters tall, you don't laugh at them for being froofy unless you want a fistful of thorns in the face.
Shooters are mutant dandelions that shoot their flowerheads like giant shuriken. Ouch. And if you don't dig them out fast, they'll start to grow a new flower inside your body. The old tricks are the best, eh.
As ever, the gamma world contributions are often rather gonzo and silly. That certainly hasn't changed. In a way, the game is already starting to seem outdated compared to the new more sophisticated settings. Still, it is funny and inventive. And it's certainly not generic in any way, despite allowing a pretty kitchen sink selection of add-ons. Jim really knows how to switch things up, and would probably be great fun as a GM. I'm sure these guys would make for a fascinating game in actual play.

Star questions is headed by Roger Moore this month, and is tackling the Universe game, one of the properties TSR snaffled up when they bought SPI. So while they may not have designed it, anything he says is Official Material now.
What new stuff are you making for the game. (lotsa new articles in various magazines. We shall remain curiously silent about any bigger stuff. )
What unpublished stuff do you have for the games. (lots more articles, some quite big. Write lotsa letters and we'll consider putting them in the magazine. )
What do the interiors of starships look like. (You tell us. We're all agog and fascinated to find out as well.)
I want more info on star systems. (You can get more info on stars in any good astronomy books. Star systems in the game, on the other hand, are all made up, because our telescopes just aren't good enough.)
Why do many stars have such silly names (Because there's a lot of stars, and a lot of bored astronomers trying to name them. Strings of numbers are hard to remember, and they ran out of sensible god names ages ago.)
Hw do you get a meteor storm in outer space. (When a comet falls apart, it can make space hazardous over quite an area. especially when you're traveling through at high speeds. Pinprick punctures are a pain in the ass. )

Wormy is still on a fishing trip. Talanalan gets metagame. Snarfquest is off on another mission.

Apart from the saggy bit in the middle, this has been a pretty impressive issue. The Ares section continues to gather steam, and the forum is finally starting to have recurring writers. We're seeing an interesting mix of new and old style articles, as they might be moving away from the game's roots, but there are still quite a few people writing and playing games like that. Still, as that results in an interesting variety of articles, it keeps things interesting for me. I can definitely see why this can be considered a classic era for the magazine.

Dragon Issue 88: August 1984

part 1/2

103 pages. Oh man, more litigious crap. This is what happens when companies pick similar names. Avalon Hill has been sued by Monarch Avalon, whoever the hell they were. And the settlement they've come too looks bloody stupid. I do not approve. And to top it off they use this as an excuse to remind us that they'll sue our asses as well if they think we're getting too fresh with their intellectual property. It's a hard life, being a big company. You've got to keep people on your side without them thinking you're a pushover, or they'll just take and take until you've got nothing left. So what are we getting for our money this time?

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter asking if the people from TSR would really send an unsigned personal reply on normal paper. Kim replies that the answer to that is hell no, someone's trying to trick you. You were quite right to be suspicious.
Some nitpicks about the unarmed fighting system in issue 83. It's supposed to be a simpler variant. Putting extensive lists in it would spoil that.
A letter complaining about the lack of stats in the legacy of hortus article. I quite understand.
Some more questions, this time on the new magic items from issue 86
A question about dragon deities. Who the hell do neutral dragons worship? Kim encourages you to fill out the dragon pantheon yourself. The AD&D multiverse is a big place, and there's still huge wodges of it that need filling in.
And finally a question on if stuff in the magazine is official. Yes, most of it isn't, but what about all the stuff Gary trumpets as Official AD&D Material™. Kim replies that while it may be more official than other stuff in the magazine, even that isn't truly tournament official stuff. You're still restricted to the three corebooks if you go to a convention and play a game there, which keeps everyone on a level playing field, no matter how much they've spent. )

The forum: Sam Chupp doesn't have a problem with high level characters. Once you get to that stage, you have to really start individualizing them, and creating plots and challenges customized to the character, instead of endlessly throwing bigger and badder dungeons at them. It's a big world out there, and you've gotta expand your scope to deal with it.
Kevin Deevey & Richard Emerich have some extensive thoughts on the nature of illusions and how to handle disbelief. This topic isn't going away any time soon, is it.
Adam Zar is entirely in favor of high level adventures where you take on gods and arch demons and things. Saying that you can't kill them because it'll upset the cosmic balance is like saying monsters don't exist to be overcome by the heroes. It's like saying the universe ought to suck, and you shouldn't even try and change that. Which frankly is both pessimistic and unambitious. These things were given stats so they could be beaten. So let's go and do epic heroey things. Hurrah!
Brian M Oglivie explains how the planes can work in simple terms, using some classic books as his sources. Expand your mind and get cosmic, man. Or better still, take it logically, and even the impossible can be rationalized. It's a tremendously useful human ability, (abeit one responsible for lots of stupid religious dogma. ) and so it should be used.
Chris Wayne puts his own spin on the Star law police force for his game. Any setting can be customized, and that does not imply that the canon setting is deficient.
James Brewer is shocked that the RPGA puts so little emphasis on the actual fun had when it comes to scoring tournament play. After all, it it's not fun, why play? It's not as if there are big cash prizes for winning AD&D tournaments.
Kevin Lawless thinks that the idea of dragon clerics, particularly worshipping beings as weedy as Bahamut and Tiamat, is a totally stupid idea. Both the idea of tithing and parishes are grossly inappropriate to their nature, and that's not even getting into the alignment problems with chaotic creatures worshipping lawful gods.    Take that, Alan Zumwalt. Now someone hurry up and make a proper dragon pantheon, with gods you can really believe in.

Gods of the suel pantheon gives us Syrul, Fortubo and Wee Jas this month. Two long forgotten, one much less so. Syrul is the hag goddess of deceit, and a thoroughly nasty piece of work in general. She's certainly a good target for high level characters who want to try a little godslaying. Fortubo is essentially the lendore isle's dwarf god, as his portfolio covers mountains and metal. He's a bit dull really, being exactly what you would expect of someone with his portfolio to be. Wee Jas, of course, is another kettle of fish altogether. Somehow she manages to have not just one, but two really powerful portfolios, plus a bunch of minor associations as well. Ruthless, but not outright evil, clever but still beautiful, highly disciplined but with her chaotic bit on the side lover who she'd really rather wasn't mentioned in polite company, and with an interesting special benefit for her clerics, it's easy to see why she became so popular amongst a wide section of the population, both in and out of the game. She's far more three-dimensional than the majority of D&D gods, and in a pleasing way. And so we get to see D&D's implied setting build itself up some more, in it's slow and haphazard way. Take the best, leave the rest behind.

Physics and falling damage: Oh great. Not this annoying issue again. Have we not established that trying to make D&D realistic is like trying to fit an elephant into a mini. Neither side ends up very happy, and even if you do somehow find a way to do it, the thing runs so slowly you might as well not have bothered. Give it up, embrace the gamism. Anyway, we get a detailed analysis of acceleration rates vs air resistance, and the curve that follows to get us to terminal velocity in the real world. And then the author introduces an enormous fudge factor so as not to change the game too much after all that. Which satisfies neither my gamist or my simulationist side. Bored now. Next please.

Kinetic energy is the key: Great. More falling physics pontification. Bzzzt. Epic fail. I said next please.

The ecology of the rust monster: Ahh, this is more like it. Now if ever a monster deserved an entry in this series, it's this one. The rust monster has been a D&D staple almost from the very beginning, and remains one of it's most iconic monsters. In fact, specifically because of it's treatment in 4e, it's become the symbol for a certain kind of playstyle that the current designers no longer support, but many people still hanker for. Ed proves once again that he really likes his footnotes, providing us with a bunch of optional rules that clarify lots of points and make the creature even more scary in some ways. Crucially, it answers the questions, can you train them, and can you extract their rust inflicting power to use for your own ends. (yes, but not easily for both.) That'll make a lot of adventurers happy. Now they can put the screwage boot on the other foot. I certainly intend to make use of this article at some point, be it as player or GM. Like antipaladins, there was probably substantial prior demand for this article, and I hope you found it satisfying. I certainly have.

Off the shelf: The chaos weapon by Colin Kapp is a very epic bit of science fantasy, with disgustingly powerful heroes facing off against even more disgustingly powerful villains. It may not be that deep, but it's a fun story.
The paradoxicon by Nicholas Falletta is an examination of paradoxes in all their forms. How they work, why they are so annoyingly intractable, and the people who have struggled with them throughout history. It should give you plenty of inspiration on how to puzzle and frustrate your players.
The sword and the chain by Joel Rosenberg is the second book in the guardians of the flame series. Since it looks like they're stuck in a fantasy universe for the long haul, (or at least a trilogy) it's time for them to really find out what makes their characters work, and set goals for themselves. The meta conceits do not detract from the drama of the story.
Across the sea of suns by Gregory Benford gets a fairly negative review, as the primary narrative device of delayed lightspeed communications results in a confusing plot that gets bogged down by symbolism.
Salvage and destroy by Edward Llewellyn, on the other hand gets a very positive review. While there is a certain amount of the usual examination of humanities stupidity there is far more celebration of our positive aspects, and our ability to survive in the face of great odds. The aliens get a pretty cool treatment as well.
Neuromancer by William Gibson is of course the classic that was a huge inspiration on the cyberpunk genre. What seems like a techno-thriller at first turns into an almighty headfuck with a downer ending. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Dragon Issue 88: August 1984

part 2/2

Beyond the dungeon part two:  So, how do you make an exciting wilderness adventure, Mrs Kerr? It's not as if the great outdoors is short on features that are a real challenge to get through. You've just got to figure out how to fit it into the framework of the game. Once again, the need for a proper skill system becomes apparent, as stuff has to be handled with a combination of attribute checks and ad hoc bonuses based on what skills they ought to have. Which means difficulties will vary wildly from group to group, and the skill of the DM becomes paramount in judging how to run a situation. Game design has a long way to go in these respects.
Of course it's not all wilderness out there. Towns, fortresses and ruins also receive the attention of her expert eye. Once you get out of the dungeon, you have to pay more attention to how your locations are structured, and the relationships of the people and creatures living there. Once again, this advice may be familiar now, but it's never been covered in this much detail around here before. If it seems unimpressive at times in retrospect, it's simply because the lessons here have been taken on board and developed upon so much since then. That's the thing about progress. It makes things look dated. We'd really miss this stuff if it wasn't there.

Games workshop gives us a big full colour ad for warhammer minis. It looks pretty good.

The indiana jones RPG. Another big licence to coincide with the new movie. I wonder how this one'll be handled in the magazine, as it's another TSR game. We shall see.

Limited edition 10th anniversary D&D collectors set. Pop it while its hot, pop it while it's hot. Get it while it's cheap, cos it'll be worth more later.

Elefant hunt: Another Tom Wham game. My, they are adding up over the years. How does he keep his imagination fresh? Well, in this case by stealing a real life situation wholesale and putting his own spin on it. Like the name says, you hunt elefants and other afercan game. If you're lucky you'll find their graveyard and can loot tons of ivory. A game that is fairly high on randomness, but still has more than enough tactical choices for you to consider, you're unlikely to see a consistent winner on this one. Still, it looks a good deal of fun, and by changing the score needed to win you can easily make this a long or short game, as you choose. It may not be very politically correct, but hey, this is a magazine where killing things and taking their stuff comes as standard. There's nothing wrong with enjoying imagining doing things you'd never consider doing in real life, right?

Jorune! Another familiar name gets it's first advert here. We are getting some interesting adverts this month.

Fiction: Key to Ramali by Ardath Mayhar. What, after your last three novels got viciously slated here, you send in some fiction to Dragon? Now that's gotta take some balls. I have to applaud that. Now I can see if your writing's really as bad as Chris Henderson says without having to spend any money.
And the answer is ......... meh. I've seen much worse. She does have a tendency towards florid prose and silliness. But it's certainly not as bad as, say, the Gord stuff.  I can live with this.

Reviews: Rolemaster and it's supplements get a good looking over this issue. Well, I say supplements, but really, all 5 of these are needed to get the full rules for playing the game. And we complain that 3 books is too many for D&D.
Character law, despite being the most critical for actually playing a game, was the last part of the system produced. Characters start off with a certain level of baseline competence in the stats needed for their class, no matter how badly they rolled. There are a whole bunch of clever little ideas in the rules, some of which are good, some of which are clunky, and many of which have since been stolen and refined by other systems. Many of it's innovations seem obvious in retrospect, as really good inventions often do.
Spell law features spells up to 50th level, neatly arranged in themed spell lists. This gives them loads of room to put everything they can imagine, while making sure that spells for a particular level are fairly balanced. With lots of room for differentiation amongst the low power effects, it doesn't get out of hand as quickly as D&D spells do. There's also plenty of different varieties of spellcasters. As long as you're good at table flipping, it goes surprisingly smoothly. At least, the reviewer thinks so. If you're not keen on crunch, you may disagree with him.
Arms law, aka the big book of really gruesome critical hits, gives you the rules for weapons. Consult a different chart for each one, allowing them a tremendous amount of mechanical differentiation while still being able to resolve each round with a single roll.
Claw law does basically the same thing for animals. It focusses on their weaponry to the exclusion of any fluff. It also provides rules for martial arts, and generally seems like the least essential of the books.
Campaign law provides both plenty of world-building advice, and the start of a sample world, Vog mur. As ever, the economics has holes picked in it, as does the "realism".  The density of crunch makes it rather tricky to houserule the game. (oh, you aint seen nothing yet) But still, as a primer on how to build good games, regardless of system, it's pretty helpful. Once again we see how things that seem obvious in retrospect really need to be taught.

Before the dark years: Oooh. Jim ward finally decides to reveal the timeline of gamma world (and metamorphosis alpha, as he decides to officially make them occupy the same universe.) How did we get from the modern world to a postapocalyptic mess. As with a lot of timelines from a few decades ago, it already seems rather dated, as their predictions were wildly out. (Although it'd be rather more surprising and worrying if gamma world of all things did turn out to be prescient, but there you go. ) It also suffers from the "reality is rarely as cool as your imagination" problem. Sometimes the game works better if things are kept mysterious, at least from the players. Just look at dark sun. Are we any happier knowing that the reason Athas is so fucked up is because Rajaat was an angsty emo boy that nobody liked, so he had to get revenge on the world. Do not ask, for you may get answers. In other words, not only did we not need this article, but we were probably better off without it. I guess you can't know until its too late. Some things, you can't imagine being without once you know them, others you just wish you'd never seen. Such is life. Not much I can do about it now.

The marvel-phile: Ooh. Now this is a series I remember still being active when I started reading. I guess this means the marvel superheroes game'll be getting consistent coverage for quite a long time. Neat. Hello also to Jeff Grubb, another familiar name who's going to be doing a lot of great stuff in the future. We start off with stats for Thor, Loki and Ulik. Each has their powers packed into a remarkably small and self-explanatory package. Any superhero game has to be able to handle a ridiculous range of power and versatility in it's characters without breaking, and if FASERIP can handle god level creatures as smoothly as this, then that bodes well for it. Like the ecologies, I'm very pleased to see this series arrive, and look forward to seeing how it develops over the years.

The battle at ebony eyes: Star frontiers gets some more love with a new scenario. Fight the sathar around a pair of twin black holes. This means there are serious risks of falling in, and weird space-time distortions which add quite a lot of bookkeeping. So don't use this one unless you're already fairly good with the rules, and need a new challenge to keep you interested.

Yachts and privateers return: And we get another quick add-on for star frontiers in the form of 11 new ships. A single page packed full of easy to insert crunch. That's always welcome.

StarQuestions is passed back to Penny and looks at star frontiers again. Quite the round robin going on here.
How high can ability scores go (100. Higher breaks the system)
I want more info on van neumann machines and their creators. (They're not as good as you think. But as long as they're only facing animals and plants, they don't have to be. )
The planet Gollywog (no kidding) has Waaaaaaaay too much carbon dioxide for humans to survive there. (Oops. Errata time. )
You forgot to paint the outer reach counters properly (Once again, oops. You can paint them like that if you like. )
You also forgot to name the planets inside the sunbursts (So we did. Once again, I apologize profusely, and encourage you to fix the errors we made. )

Talanalan alliterates excessively. Wormy finally gets to do some wargaming. We finally find out what species snarf is.

Yet more signs that the hobby as a whole is changing in this one. So many new people pouring into the hobby, bringing their unique perspectives in with them. For some this is a great thing, while for others, this means gaming is stuck in an eternal september.
I've found this one of the less captivating issues of late. While technically, they're as good as ever, it has had more than it's fair share of seriously irritating articles. I guess that'll happen once in a while when they're covering a wide range of topics. Lets hope next issue's contents are more to my taste.

Dragon Issue 89: September 1984

part 1/2

96 pages. There really should be 20 more, but the absence of the creature catalog from the dragon magazine archive is well documented. If anyone could direct me to somewhere I could download the missing pages, I would be very grateful. Still, plenty more stuff I can tackle right now. Lets hope we can sort out these little omissions later.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: Another letter asking for a collection of covers, which they have to sadly deny, for legal reasons.
A letter from Merle Rasmussen talking about Operation Whiteout and the people who won it when it was used as a tournament adventure, plus lots of other cool tidbits.
Some questions on the rakshasa article in issue 84. They're a funny bunch. Not really prime material or outsiders, they're actually able to fit in all over the place.
An letter brutally picking apart the recent dragonquest article. This gets an exceedingly lengthy reply from it's original author defending it. Who do you believe? Are non-spellcasters inferior or not?
A question on how paladins handle dragonhelms. They're perceptive enough to realize they're being fucked with.
A letter asking for more scientific detail in the ecologies. Kim reminds them that they have to strike a balance between detail and not overdoing things. Balance balance, always with the balance. Go to the extreme for a change, it's much more interesting.

The forum: Bob Kindel thinks that high level campaigns aren't as much fun, and you ought to slow down advancement to keep players at the manageable stage. Also, anyone using deities powers cleverly ought to be able to beat even really high level characters. Those campaigns where god-killing happens are Doing It Wrong™.
Edgar W Francis IV (Oh, I say, old chap) also has thoughts on how to handle high level games, and transitioning from the old characters to some new ones. Just because you retire individual characters, doesn't mean the saga can't continue.
Katharine Kerr has a tremendously lengthy contribution on the idea of playing evil characters. Group pressure can lead to people doing horrifying things they'd never consider individually. It ends with the conclusion that even fantasizing about committing evil acts is mentally unhealthy. Great, another writer joins the morals brigade. There may have been good things about 2nd ed, but it's already clear who the drivers of the bad points are going to be.
David F Nalle finishes off this month's forum by talking about Ken Rolston, and his reviewing process. The things he calls out as flaws are sometimes intentional design choices, be it for aesthetic or financial reasons. You can't please everyone, I guess.

Survival is a group effort: Another bit of sociological pontification by Stephen Innis. This is pretty cool, going into population growth, and how creatures with short lifespans can out-survive ones with longer lifespans, but also longer times to reach  maturity. Immortality is good from an individual perspective, but actually not that good in the long run for for a species. This is why elves and dwarves can wind up dying races against the goblinoids, despite massive individual superiority. He then gets even cooler, tackling the problems inherent in spawning undead and lycanthropes. What logical reason could there be for them not having overrun the game world already? Do they diliberately hold back to make sure they have prey in the future. Are they dumb enough that they prefer to kill rather than infect. Maybe there is none, and these creatures are new additions to the world that you'd better do something about or face extinction in a few generations. One of those cool articles that helps you build your own world better by gently stimulating your brain and directing your imagination. A strong start that definitely goes on my worldbuilder checklist.

Six very special shields: You can probably figure out just from the name that this is one of Ed's Elminster articles, wherein he pontificates on a bunch of magical items from the Realms. Reptar's wall. Thurbrand's protector. Hawkstone's bulwark. Dzance's guardian. Shoon's buckler. Grimjaw. (Guess Ed's theasaurus ran out of synonyms for shield ) All have some surprising special ability beyond just deflecting blows, and most of them have a sting in the tail to their powers that can be inconvenient if you don't know how to operate them properly. (gee, what are the odds if you just find them on a treasure pile or take them from a dead enemy) By now I'm used enough to Ed's style that this doesn't have quite the impact it used too, but this is still a pretty cool article, that makes it's magical items seem properly magical, rather than just extra good utility items. As with the last article, this is showing you the way to build your stuff properly. Idiosyncracies are good. Nothing is identical in real life, and only abstraction and convenience makes it so in games.

Heroes Unlimited! The most comprehensive hero game on the market! By Kevin Siembida! Buy it now! Looks like the war for best superhero game is very much on. Bring it! We can handle it.

Gods of the suel pantheon: Len continues to provide a channel for Gary to get his material into the magazine during his unwilling exile. This month he's filling in the villainous side of the suel pantheon some more. Not even the sophisticated kind, but the ones that lurk in grotty places in the wilderness and'll get you you serious trouble if you're found worshipping them. Pyremius, Beltar, and Llerg. A fine bunch of reprobates to make your players lives miserable with. They shapeshift. They plot. They rage. They only grant mediocre special abilities to their clerics, including one clever little false benefit that makes suckers out of it's recipients. Once again, they also have to deal with errata. Gods are such a complication. And once again, this fails to enthrall me. So it goes.

Dragonlance, the epic novel trilogy, to tie in with the 12 part adventure series. Hello, Mr railroad, how will you force us to follow you, to get from the beginning to the end, without any choice of routes. Infinite draconians? What a wonderful idea. Where do they come from? Neveryoumind.

The many types of magic: Ah, yes, quibbling over exactly what the different schools of magic mean, and why certain spells are in one and not another. I knew this would come up at some point. And in many cases these are quite valid points. Why the hell is comprehend languages an alteration, or fear an illusion, when common sense would say they're a divination and a charm effect. What was their writer smoking at the time. Why is alteration used as a catchall. Why are there so few invocation effects, and what's the difference between an invocation and an evocation. Why does necromancy affect living things as well as dead ones. Why does magic jar get a category of it's own? Lots of questions are raised, and not nearly as many are answered. Lets hope that someone in the staff is paying attention and takes this stuff into account come next edition. Yet more evidence that despite their initial belief that AD&D was this great and perfect work that would need no change, an overhaul, or at least revision, is increasingly needed. A little cruft shedding never did any harm, and often makes you feel a lot better.

Time life books takes out a rather pretty full colour double page spread. Enter the magical world of myth and legend. Subscribe now! Oh, the cheese.

The role of books: Looks like they've decided to play around with their formats again. Lew is giving us another set of non-fiction reviews to help us in our worldbuilding. This time he's concentrating on the heart of the medieval experience, castles, and fighting. Two things adventurers love. And two things you can definitely do right or wrong, unlike all the fantastical elements. So what's hot and what's not in Pulsipher land?
The art of war in the middle ages by Charles W C Oman is one of the great old books on this subject. Originally published way back in 1898, it has gone through a number of revisions since then. It covers developments over more than a millenium in exhaustive detail, far more than you could ever need. The kind of thing you go to a reference library to look things up from, rather than buy.
Warfare in feudal europe by John Beeler covers a smaller period in less detail, but is far more accessable to the layman reader, with clear organisation, good synopses, and lots of analysis of the facts. If you want to get usable detail for your games without spending days poring over academic minutinae, get this one instead.
Medieval warfare by H W Koch gets a rather poor review. With poor writing and organization, this is one to avoid.
A history of fortification from 3000 BC to AD 1700 by Sydney Toy has tons of floor plans and photographs of various places that you can steal liberally, and adapt for your game, as well as plenty of detail about how they were built, lived in and developed over time. Another one you'll probably have to go to the reference libraries to find, and then photocopy bits from. Some things, the internet still doesn't really provide, at least not for free.
The medieval castle: Life in a fortress in peace and war by Philip Warner also covers castles, burt is focussed more on the people who lived in them, and how they changed their tactics based on new innovations in technology and attack styles. Why things developed the way they did is as important as the simple facts, and this fills that gap admirably.

Dragon Issue 89: September 1984

part 2/2

A reversible hooded cape? Odd thing to advertise in here. Well, I suppose it is nearly halloween. Grim reaper is always a good costume choice.

Halt! Who goes there: Hmm. This is a class I don't remember anyone talking about. The sentinel, guardian of people and places against assassins and thieves. Of course, in D&D, magic can render those abilities redundant with depressing ease. And while they can foil invisibility and stealth, other tricks like ethereality, remote scrying and mind control are still going to bypass them. Still, they have lower XP requirements than fighters, and more special abilities, so their power problems are more those that all the fighting classes face when compared to the spellcasters than actual underpoweredness. Having one of these guys along would certainly be useful as a backup for your thief, not to mention a failsafe for if you can't trust him, and suspect he's conning the rest of the party. I quite like this, as they fill a niche that the regular classes don't, rather than just being a hybrid. There are a few silly OD&Disms, like forced alignment change, but those just add to the flavour of the whole package. This is definitely an underappreciated gem that I'm pleased to have unearthed and would like to put in a future game.

Beefing up the bureaus: Oh noes. Top secret isn't dramatic or cinematic enough. We must fix this. This is one of the most audaciously blatant power-ups I've seen. So much so that I can't really give my usual complaint about power creep, as there's nothing subtle about it. Which is cool, in a way. If your GM allows it, he knows exactly what he's getting himself into. I guess this is the kind of thing that would lead them to completely retool the game in Top Secret SI. In any case, it's a short article that gets right to the point, so I didn't have time to get bored either.

Learn magic by the month: Dragonquest continues to get a surprising amount of coverage. This time, they cover the topic of learning a new college of magic in play. How do you keep it balanced with other training options, while still allowing for interesting adventuring. The solution is to allow you to break up your training times, and fit them around your adventuring. The rest of the article is comprised of crunch that looks pretty solid to my untrained eye, not making things too easy or hard, and having a number of quirks that emulate the real world education process. Again, I quite approve. It's nice to see they're putting plenty of non-D&D stuff outside the ares section as well.

What is a monster worth: Ho hum. Another attempt to standardize the amount of XP different special powers are worth for monsters. The current rules don't differentiate between things like 5% and 100% magic resistance, and people may disagree about what counts as a significant special power. This needs fixing. How can we do this? For a start, everything not combat related is irrelevant. Hmm. Where will we hear that again? Snark aside, we get to see another bit of behind the scenes work, as they attempt to refine their design technology. One of those things which would definitely pay off in subsequent editions. But not particularly interesting to read about. Lists alone do not a fun article make, particularly when they remind you of what you're missing.

Fiction: Dunkle Zee by Troy Denning: Hey, what's Minnie Driver doing in the artwork. This is way before she got famous. Anyway. Hmm. Looks like another writer who would go on to write plenty of books for D&D makes their first appearance here. This feels like an excerpt from a larger novel, as it refers to lots of terms that it doesn't properly explain, and then cuts itself off in an unsatisfactory way, leaving the plot hanging. I wouldn't mind, but it is well enough written that I really do want more. Which I suppose means he's done his job well. Is this expanded upon anywhere? He has my interest now, and If there is anything, I'd like to read it.

The mighty Mega-Corporations: Star frontiers continues to get plenty of setting detail. The corporation system, and how it first drove galactic expansion, before being torn apart due to corruption, resulting in corporate wars that left the human civilizations vulnerable to the sathar. An all too plausible situation, given the reprehensible behaviour of many big companies in the real world. The pursuit of profit can lead to shocking amounts of misery and death. But it also leads to lots of cool adventure opportunities in a game like this, so that's alright. It ends with a promise to follow up on this next month, talking about the specific megacorps some more. Seems like they're doing that quite frequently in the ares section. I guess with limited page count each month, they need to do this to get the compromise between depth and variety right. I suppose it's making the best of the situation. Works for me, anyway.

Luna, the empire and the stars: Our moon series turns it's eye to the Other Suns game in it's 6th installment. Once again, history has advanced to the point where the timeline in here seems a bit silly. (or depressing, given how many of us thought moonbases would be well established by now. ) Similarly, the long term deadliness of nuclear weapons is much exaggerated, given what we know now. But hey, artistic license is needed to make a good story. Worse things happen on TV.

Of grizzly bears and chimpanzees: Gamma world gets another little expansion this month. Mutant animals as currently written require a lot of GM fiat in determining stats. So here's a little bit of help to get everyone on the same page, at least. We recommend that you not allow characters to select their species after determining what mutations they have, as this makes twinking relatively easy. Despite it's old skoolness, this is another useful little resource for gamma world GM's to keep their players in check with. If that's a good thing or not depends on your opinion. I can't muster a strong one on this either way.

The marvel-phile: The marvel-phile proves itself admirably adept at alliteration. And then turns it's attention on Namor, the sub-mariner, and his enemy, Tiger shark. Some rather beefcakey photos here (Look at those eyebrows, hee. I bet he plucks them.) of our aquatic protagonists, and the usual potted history of their times and trials, divested of all the filler episodes. (of which I'm sure there were many, since this is comics we're talking about) Once again Jeff delivers a solid, noncontroversial entry that doesn't leave me with much to say about it.

A monster crossword. That's a new one for this magazine. Cool. That looks like a good time waster.

Dragonmirth gets limerickal. Talanalan goes all las vegas. Wormy catches a big one. Snarfquest fights the planetary cultural divide, with hilarious results.

Once again, I am left vaguely unsatisfied by this issue, despite there being plenty of good articles in it. Maybe I'm doing this too fast, and need a break. Maybe I'm just jaded. No matter how good things get, humans can adapt to it and wind up taking it for granted. Life is a funny thing. Instead of a conclusion, I'll leave you with a question. How do you think the history of the magazine and D&D would have been different if instead of increasing their page count in 1979, they had instead decided to go fortnightly, and eventually weekly. What effect would producing lots of short issues, instead of long monthly ones have had on their style, and our perspective of the magazine? Would this have been a good or bad thing overall to do.

Dragon Issue 90: October 1984

part 1/2

100 pages. So we've finally reached the quarter point of this insanely epic journey. A pretty significant point for me, as it shows that this is not an insurmountable task, merely a very long and exhausting one. Not that they knew that at the time. They're busy planning for issue 100, trying to figure out how to make that nicely spectacular instead. Still, there's tons of stuff in here, as is standard, including several things we haven't seen in quite some time. This certainly seems promising.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: We have a letter asking how you advance your NPC's. You don't have to play out all their adventures manually, that would be several steps toward realism too far. Just look at their XP table, figure out how active they are compared to the players, and progress them appropriately. Honestly, the things some people ask.
Two letters saying the gods are statistically inaccurate. They're gods dear. Breaking the rules is what they do. You should know that by now.
A letter asking what the real relationship between Norebo and Wee Jas is, since their descriptions contradict. :giggles: And the editor said let there be retcon, for he does not want to be smitten. Whether they are or aren't doing it doesn't matter. Unlike celebrities, gods tend to get revenge against people saying things they don't want personally, and with great irony.
A letter complaining that their store got copies of the magazine before their subscription arrived. Oh woe. We do send them out a day earlier. If they don't arrive earlier, it's the post office's fault, not ours. That extra day or two won't kill you. Now, if your copy gets lost in the post, that's a different matter altogether, and you are quite entitled to complain.
A pair of complaints about baba yaga, and the contradictions in her description. Have we not established now that they change these things on purpose to make clear that there is no true canon, and all stats are malleable. You, sirs, are being more pedantic than the original writers. I mock your pedantry. Mock, mock, mock.

The forum is unusually homogenous this month. Jeff Martin, Jim Tuttle, Jay D Glithero, Jonathan Heiles (all the J's, for some reason) and Ted van Horn all have a problem with the physics and falling damage article. Ouch. Rough, man. Poor Arn. First they get your gender wrong, now this unanimous slating. Hope it didn't crush his spirit too much. Jim Parks is the only dissenting voice, and he is more concerned with the long running debate about high powered characters and what to do with them. Surely the editors could pick out a better variety of letters to publish than this.

The enchanting incantrix: Hmm, said Edward Greenwood. My players are taking magic for granted, treating it like just another form of artillery. This is most crass and not conductive to good stories. That makes me do my sad face What can I do about that? I know! What I need is a new kind of spellcaster with abilities ordinary wizards can't duplicate! That'll confound and delight them! And then I'll make it based upon mysterious forces of destiny, so they can't join the class after encountering it, even if they want too. That way, it'll stay mysterious, plus I don't have to worry about balancing it with other classes. And then I can write books about the 7 special women who can wield it, and Elminster can score with them all like the ultimate mack daddy he is. Happy days are here again!
Um, yeah. This has been a very tricky article to review. On one hand, it's brimming with his usual cool ideas, with loads of neat tricks and new spells, and evocative writing. It goes quite a way towards putting the mystery back in magic, by creating a class that's light on the blasty abilities, but has lots of neat tricks up their sleeve. On the other, this is a definite hint towards the excesses he would slip into in later forgotten realms books, with spellfire, the seven sisters, mary-sue twatery, and all the problems that came with it. The irony, of course is that for all his insistence that these girls should be kept rare, and under no circumstances should a PC be allowed to be one; like the death master, they're not actually that overpowered really. No more than standard spellcasters who have a wide range of supplements to pick their spells from, anyway. Oh, Edward, Edward, Edward. Don't believe your own hype.

Palladium's weapon series is now up to 5 books. And I'm guesing that's Maryann Siembiedas maiden name on the book of contemporary weapons.

From the Sorceror's scroll: Gary returns to our pages for a running visit. Firstly, we have an expanded list of what exactly counts as a person for the purpose of charm and hold spells. Fair enough. I can see that many people would want that kind of thing. Then, it's time to inform us what he been up to during his absence from these pages. The D&D cartoon is getting renewed for another season. (Surprised we haven't seen that mentioned more, whether in praise or mockery. It's like they're diliberately avoiding discussing it. ) We have two film scripts ready. (but no-one wants to buy them. Whatever happened to these. Is there any chance we could get hold of them?) The Master set is nearly done. Temple of elemental evil is finally written.( now it's just up to poor little Frank Mentzer to edit it into a publishable form) We will revise the game sometime after that. But don't stop buying folks! Your company needs you! Complain to your local shop if you can't find our products to buy! And then he's off again. Busy busy busy. No time to waste. Those cocaine fueled all night orgies/writing sessions won't hold themselves, you know.

Bats that do more than bite: Ed also delivers one of his more quirky articles this month, courtesy of Elminster's rambling mind. Swords, shields, spellbooks ...... Bats? WTF! Thankfully, what seemed like madness is rapidly revealed to actually be genius, as we get an incredibly cool and varied set of new monsters that take the basic idea of bat, and run with it in all sorts of different directions. Azmyths are adorable little magical bats with stinger tails. If you can get one of these as a companion, DO IT! They'll pay for themselves many times over. Sinisters aren't quite as nice, but they also have a quirky set of powers, likes and dislikes that make them more than just another combat encounter. Gloomwings are the bad boys of the sentient bat world, serving both as steeds to powerful evil creatures, and plotters in their own right. Night hunters and Hundars are less interesting in terms of abilities, but still get plenty of interesting notes on their lifecycle and behaviour. And finally werebats are what you would expect. Infected by another werebat, their bloodthirst forces them to change shape at night and go on the hunt, yet unlike infected werewolves, they retain full awareness of what they are doing, and consequently, are filled with AAAangst. Just like actual vampires then. A great collection of nasties and potential allies that would make it into future forgotten realms books, and can be used to all kinds of cool ends. Me likey.

Gods of the suel pantheon: This month's deities detailed are Phyton, god of beauty and nature (the kind of portfolio you'd normally expect from a goddess, hmm. ) Xerbo, god of the sea, money and business (which is almost as annoying a portfolio as wee jas.) and Osprem, goddess of water voyages. Rather nuanced portfolios here, which I find interesting. They're definitely improving on the trick of balancing the bonus powers with appropriate restrictions and XP surcharges as well. They really should have kept that up in 2nd edition, instead of making many god's priests definitely more powerful than others.

Thieves guild 2nd edition. Woo. Buy it now, etc etc.

Playing the political game: In one of their bursts of appropriate positioning, they put this immediately after an advert for the Companion set. You don't have to do dungeon crawls all the time. Bringing politics into it can really spice things up, especially once a game's been running for a while, and you've built up a proper cast of NPC's. Suddenly, it's not all good guys and bad guys, and you kill the bad guys first chance you get anymore. You have to deal with resource management, alliances, treachery, territorial expansion, and all sorts of fun stuff that a single person, no matter how powerful, can't solve on their own. This can, of course be a daunting task to create scenarios for. So here's a nice bit of advice on the topic, including a couple of examples of actual play. You thought saving the world was tricky. Maintaining it's a lot harder. If you find you can't challenge your players by conventional means anymore, this is definitely a good way to go. Sure, they can make enough food to feed hundreds of people a day, and defeat a demon prince, but what happens when thousands all over the country are starving, and they have to choose who gets saved, or lycanthropy is spreading amongst the population faster than it can be cured. If you run it right, a truly epic adventure, that's what. As ever, I am very much in support of this playstyle.

Quote from: (un)reason;322701How do you think the history of the magazine and D&D would have been different if instead of increasing their page count in 1979, they had instead decided to go fortnightly, and eventually weekly. What effect would producing lots of short issues, instead of long monthly ones have had on their style, and our perspective of the magazine? Would this have been a good or bad thing overall to do.

I suspect Dragon would have folded if it had gone weekly or bi-weekly. I think it would have lost readers who dropped after they missed a few issues here and there. Plus, during this time, it was difficult enough to get gamers to shell out money for the actual game books, let alone any peripherals. Sure, D&D was selling really well then, but I was told by more than one merchant that shoplifting of RPG stuff was rampant. That's why so many of these merchants began putting RPG stuff in cases, and this included Dragon magazine.

On top of that was the phenomenon, which still persists to this day, of gamers who refuse to buy the book or books for the game they actually play. Looking back, I'm not surprised I was the only gamer I knew who bought Dragon monthly. For that matter, I was the only gamer I knew who bought Dragon at all for a while, and I knew, or knew of, a few different groups. None of the gamers I knew seemed all that enthused about Dragon. Increasing the number of issues in a month would have driven away someone like me, who would have gotten buyer's fatigue pretty quickly. Speaking only for myself, I'm not a fan of weekly magazines. Bi-weekly isn't much better; it's still too easy to miss an issue.