As a group we bought a lt of games, but Dragon was definitely a pass around- like a lot of the comics we bought.

Quote from: Aos;323090As a group we bought a lt of games, but Dragon was definitely a pass around- like a lot of the comics we bought.

That happened on occasion with my group, with me letting the others look at Dragon if something really caught my imagination or their interest had been piqued by something I'd mentioned. But that was pretty uncommon; I don't think they ever looked at more than a dozen or so issues the entire time we gamed together.

We had a pretty stable routine in the summer for several years. Gaming most days in the am and the early pm; swimming at the falls (King's Falls on the Deer River in extreeme Northern. NY state) after that; laying on the floor in the dusty shafts of sunlight at my friend Dave's house and reading comics and magazines, in the late afternnon; often finishing off the day with more gaming. Girls destroyed it all, of course, like Godzilla in Tokyo.

Quote from: Aos;323100We had a pretty stable routine in the summer for several years. Gaming most days in the am and the early pm; swimming at the falls (King's Falls on the Deer River in extreeme Northern. NY state) after that; laying on the floor in the dusty shafts of sunlight at my friend Dave's house and reading comics and magazines, in the late afternnon; often finishing off the day with more gaming. Girls destroyed it all, of course, like Godzilla in Tokyo.

Our routine was Sundays, from 11:30 AM until we decided to quit, usually no later than 4 PM, but occasionally a bit longer. The other two guys in the group (there was a three-person "core," but we often had a fourth and a fifth, and a few times upwards of a dozen) lived very close together, so they got together throughout the week and came up with reams of material on their own. A lot of that material was inspired by various books read or movies seen rather than Dragon. I came up with my own house rules, but rarely used them with that group - I ran my own group with my brother and a number of other guys from my neighborhood (none of whom read Dragon, by the way). This latter group didn't have a set routine; we played roughly weekly, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Girls did eventually cause the disintegration of the first group. The second group eventually dissolved away as many of my players were playing high school football. Eventually both groups sputtered to a stop by the early 90s, as everyone was out of high school by then, some had gone to college, and 2e AD&D did not go over well with members of either group. For some reason, 2e really caused these guys to walk away from D&D. I think we'd all grown tired of 1e and were looking for a change - not a whole new game (we'd tried more than a few), but a revamp of D&D itself. That's why we created so much in the way of house rules - the game was just not working for us anymore. Perhaps if 2e had been as far-reaching a revamp as 3e was, more of us would have continued playing.

I love this thread

Dragon Issue 90: October 1984

part 2/2

Plane facts on gladsheim: Another plane gets an extensive official profile. It's been too long since the last one. Was no-one sending them in, or were the submissions they got just not good enough? Anyway, welcome to Gladsheim. One of the most adventurable outer planes, as despite having good leanings, it's still a wild and untamed place full of monsters and warriors. Roger decides to focus on the Norse section of the plane, to the exclusion of everything else. This may not have been such a good idea, as he falls into one of the primary traps planar chroniclers have to deal with, making an infinite universe seem too small and stereotyped. They managed to avoid it with the astral and hellish articles, but this is a definite case of fail, I'm afraid. The incorporation of real world legends is handled way too literally, instead of making the effort to make them fit properly within D&D, they just seem tacked on with little consideration to the larger picture. Once again, they also suffer the problem of individually spelling out the changes in spells and magic items, rather than just giving general patterns. Only since the article isn't as long, this winds up taking more than half of it. In other words, I found this article a massive disappointment, that manages to take a thrilling subject, and make it seem hackneyed and dull. I'm very disappointed in you, Mr Moore. You're normally such a reliable student. D+. Must try harder.

 As with the astral article, we also get an official adventure set there, Aesirhammer. This is rather more fun, giving you the chance to meet some really high level creatures, negotiate with them, and possibly take their stuff. Of course, in the GM's advice they STRICTLY FORBID that you let the players keep the world shattering plot macguffin and actually use it themselves, or that you be permitted to mess up the status quo in any way. But if you ignore that, you have a neat sandbox with which to play, that could enable you to have all kinds of effects on the setting. After all, if you hit the reset button after every adventure, what's the point. High level play should be about making permanent changes to things, and having big friends and enemies. Step off the railroad, take your time, and set up a really great show.

Reviews: Chill is our only review this month, getting a pretty positive look at. Once again we see the advantage of boxed sets over single big books in making games quick to start and accessable, while allowing you to build plenty of depth into the setting. This simplicity does have it's costs in terms of setting depth, and there are a few silly elements. Still, it's not hard to houserule those, and then you have a streamlined yet versatile horror game. It already has 4 supplements, and looks like more may be along soon. If you like your horror a little less grim and weird than Call of Cthulhu, this could be a worthy addition to your collection.

The Ares section gets to have a colour cover for the first time. Manwhile, in the ares log, they use the space to provide a brief review of a book on the space program, and how you go about becoming a part of it. Those are certainly both developments. Guess the amount of trust (and money) they're getting for this section is increasing.

Skills for the super agent: Ahh, a persistent problem with supers games. How do you balance batman with superman? Much fun has been had with this debate in the past. Unfortunately, this completely ignores the generalities of this question, and goes into providing templates for trainees of the various organizations in the Champions game. With point costs of between 12 and 30, they don't show you how to make a really badass secret agent style character who can stand up to superbeings in a toe to toe fight by skill, grit and luck, either. I get the impression I may be thinking at cross-purposes with the author of this article. Not that it's a terrible article, but the way it's designed means it doesn't have much use to players of other games.

The superworld game, Expanded: And we get a second supers article in quick succession. Still not sure why they're lumping that in with the sci-fi stuff, but there you go, I'm not the editor on this magazine. Steve Perrin presents us with a grab-bag of new abilities and disadvantages for his game, making it better able to emulate the huge range of powers found in the genre. As he's the original creator, I'm guessing this is fairly balanced stuff, that made it into the next edition after a little tweaking. Plus it's interesting to see someone else who still gets talked about sometimes today show up in the magazine. Wonder if we'll see him again.

The mega-corporations: As promised last issue, we get write-ups for the various star frontiers megacorps. 16 of them are detailed, which means they don't get much depth each. They do tend to be a bit cliched, dividing themselves along obvious business lines, despite the theoretical ban on monopolies. I'm guessing this is probably diliberate, but it does feel a bit "white wolf splats in outer space, maaan" This is one article that could definitely have benefited from being quite a bit bigger.

Starquestions sets it's co-ordinates for Gamma world again. Penny takes the reins, to tell us about the game.
What's the difference between the original and revised editions of the game. (lotsa shiny new stuff, and an improved advancement system)
What issues of Dragon have gamma world stuff. (Several really old ones, and all the recent ones, with lots of big gaps in between)
Are there going to be any more supplements (No. You don't buy it enough to make that economical. )
Can you play old modulez using the new system ( Does a bee harvest flowers in the woods?)
How fast does a horse drawn wagon go. (Not much faster than walking. The real benefit is in the load you can carry )
Why isn't Canada on the map (Because Jim Ward's a big meanie who wanted to make Edward Greenwood cry. There there, Ed. Remember, the best revenge is success.)
Shouldn't plate armour be tougher than plastic armour (No. Plastic is awesome. Don't diss it like that. Metal may rust, but plastic is virtually impossible to get rid of. )
Can Gamma world races interbreed (Not usually. Course, with mutations being what they are, anything's possible. )
Can you disguise yourself as someone else with shapechange (no)
What happens to someone who travels to another plane (they're removed from play. Unless everyone goes, in which case convert them to the new universe's system.)
How do you get to the AD&D universe (Mad Science! It's indistinguishable from magic, so it can get you places you'd need magic to get to. )
Can you modify vehicles to run on different types of fuel (If you can scrounge up the parts. This may not be easy in postapocalyptic land)
Will sunglasses protect someone with dark dependency (no. You'll need a whole bodysuit to keep yourself from getting terminal sunburn)
Why doesn't being taller increase your hit points. (Because it doesn't. Size =/= resilience. Go beat up Jarvis Cocker. That'll be a good demonstration. )
How does a 1cm tall character attack. (poison and stealth. Just don't expect them to be useful in a pitched battle.)
Can I buy Metamorphosis alpha (Not unless you find a second hand copy somewhere. We're all out.)
Are there any Gamma world mini's (again, you aren't buying enough to make it worth our while. )
I need some help on making high level adventures (Tough. I can't provide you with any. Maybe Jim will be in a more generous mood.)

Wormy gets some REAL bait. Snarfquest has a random encounter. Which winds up a lot more random once he's through with it.

Paranoia! Buy this game! And play it! Are you happy now? Remember, happiness is mandatory. Playing other games is treasonous. Posession of this magazine is strong evidence that you play other games. Therefore you are treasonous and must be terminated. I hope your clone is happy and not treasonous, and has many long happy years playing Paranoia before it gets terminated.

Some serious disappointments in this issue, as they seem to be taking a definite step forward towards the more restrictive, preachy, railroading style of certain later adventures. I'm not happy to see those turning up this early, as I know they get a lot worse before they get better, and hope they won't grow too fast or show up up too often. We might have come a long way, but we've got far further to go still. And this issue is a foreshadowing that some of that journey is going to be rather challenging and unpleasant. Still, at least it shakes off the ennui, and gives me something to rant about. Can't be all sunny days and flowers, can it? If it never rained, we'd never see flowers, because they'd all dry up and die. Which I suppose proves the point.

Dragon Issue 91: November 1984

part 1/2

116 pages. So here we are, pretty much at the zenith of their popularity. With a circulation of 120,000, they're certainly a pretty significant force to be reckoned with. This is their biggest issue yet, and they seem to be making an extra effort for this one, with a load of format changes and special features. They probably should have held back for christmas but they just couldn't wait. So I won't bore you with pretentious preamble either.

In this issue:

Out on a limb loses it's vaguely amusing name, and becomes simply Letters. Seems a slightly pointless change to me. Eh, if they feel it'll make us take them more seriously. :shrug: Anyway, lets see what people are actually saying.
A letter praising Katharine Kerr's recent articles, and offering some supplemental advice. Kim gives an unnecceceraly large reply justifying an argument against such a minor quibble.
Three letters complaining about the rust monster ecology and asking further questions. Kim once again reminds them that a creature's description is not something to be stuck too slavishly. We're willing to give Ed plenty of leeway because the things he comes up with are cool. Whining whenever things aren't just so, on the other hand, is the epitome of uncool, and will not endear you to anyone.
Four letters about the details of various magical items they recently published. Once again I yawn. Just make it up for your own campaign. Is that really that hard?

The forum also gets it's header improved. This is nice.
Scott Hicks is not pleased at Katharine Kerr's denunciation of evil characters. Evil =/= stupid. The pragmatic bastard approach to adventuring can be very effective indeed. The success of many corporations in the real world is not hindered by their ethically suspect actions, quite the opposite in fact.
Steve Null also attacks Katharine, along a different tack. If even fantasizing about committing evil acts was mentally unhealthy, them all the GM's in the world would be on the fast track to breakdowns and depraved real life behaviour. This is obviously not the case. Your logic is deeply faulty.
Eric Herman worries about demihuman lifespans and the levels they would acquire in that time. Surely an elf is far more likely to advance to obscene levels than a human, particularly if they take thief, which is unlimited. Probably true, but for any race, levels will be an exponential curve. There is no proper age/level progression. Becoming high level is like becoming a millionaire. Some people manage it before they hit 20, but most will never do it, no matter how long or hard they try. Even long-lived races only have a low percentage of name+ level characters.
David N Moolten sticks his two cents in on the matter of falling damage. So much of it is dependent on what material you're hitting. This ought to be taken account of in the rules. Ha. No chance.
Finally, Alan Zumwalt sneers at Kevin Lawless' criticism of dragon clerics. It's perfectly normal for people to worship gods of different alignments if they have a desirable portfolio. Awareness of alignment is not constantly on creature's minds.

From the sorceror's scroll. Prreeeesenting! The Dukes of Demonic Destruction! The Squishers of Spinagons and Smashers of Structures! The Tanks of the Tanar'ri! The Goristro! Quail in terror, puny mortals! RAAAAARRGG! Particularly Gary's editor. You are most incompetent and must suffer for all the mistakes you introduced to my perfect work. A particularly amusing article that is a classic of Gary's writing style. Unlike last issue, which felt rather tentative, he's now back and firing on all cylinders. It's good to see him in the driving seat again. Long may he continue to entertain and confound us (from a safe distance, preferably.)

Realistic vital statistics: Ahh, Stephen Innis again. He's becoming another regular of recent issues. This is another reiteration of the Square-Cube law, and the problems it presents when dealing with giants and other proportionally weird D&D creatures. A dwarf the height of a human would weigh around 500 pounds. There is no way cloud and storm giants could function without magical support or being way less dense than humans. (which is why they are partially composed of clouds, I suppose. ) This is one of those articles that falls into the competent but dull category. I already know this, don't particularly care at the moment, and would rather concentrate on figuring out how to make games fun than realistic. So much for all that hard mathematical work.

The ecology of the leucrotta: Now here's a bastard of a monster, made even more bastardly by a well written Ed Greenwood article. Leucrotta may not have genius intelligence or an array of magical powers, but they're still smart enough to trick humans, and cause quite considerable amounts of harm and paranoia with their mimicry and depredations. Kinda like the peryton in that respect. Are they from the same mythological sources? In any case, this is also another good reminder that even fairly mundane monsters become a lot scarier when you start applying basic tactics and not just jumping out and fighting the adventurers on straight terms. Once again, both the fluff and the extra crunch are entertainingly written, and you get a real feel for the creatures and how they live their lives. If only it were a little longer, as I could definitely stand to hear a little more about this kind of topic.

Nine hells revisited: Ed also gives us another 16 pages of cool stuff on the nine hells. Well, since Roger messed it up, I guess it's up to him to remind us how it's really done. Which means if my math is right, this plane currently has more concrete stuff about it than all the others put together. People do so love conceiving of unpleasant people and things.
Since the basic layout and hierarchy is well covered, it's time to diversify. Any place with any kind of law will have outcasts, so we get 8 new unique devils for you to fight, deal with, and probably get screwed over by, because even if they're no longer welcome in polite society, they're still devils. They may help you in a scheme against the established power base, but only so they can get revenge and/or back into it, by trickery and treachery. They have a huge range of personality quirks and powers, reminding us that alignment is hardly a straitjacket, even for it's exemplars. And because all the outcasts live on the first level, that means they're relatively accessable. This is the kind of stuff that's both entertaining to read and incredibly useful in actual play, as it'd take months to whip up a cast of this size and diversity yourself.
Next we have treasure in the hells. After all, if you're going to kill devils, you're probably going to want to take their stuff as well. They get increasingly rich as you go down the levels, with tons of different types of gems just waiting to be mined and used. They're certainly not short on stuff to trade or hoard. Just remember, the wages of sin may be a bad influence on you, and finance can do things as impressive as any magic when it comes to gaining influence over a nation.
This neatly segues into a discussion of devilish agents on the prime material plane.    If you believe them, they're all over the place, the ultimate illuminati, pulling strings  and manipulating the fate of worlds. They're probably not as good as they think they are, but if it weren't for adventurers foiling them on a regular basis, who knows how bad things could get. As with the GDQ series, use of devils as behind the scenes manipulators is a great way to gradually build up to an epic multiverse spanning campaign, which is great fun as long as it doesn't happen every game.  
And finally, we get a trio of short sections. Talk on the devilish hierarchy & promotion process. Some talk about the river styx and securing passage to places via it's treacherous boatmen. And finally, one of those tedious exhortations not to allow players to kill archdevils and otherwise make significant changes to the universe. That privilege is reserved for the game designers alone. That standard disclaimer aside, this is another demonstration that there's no-one on the team who can match up to Ed in terms of all round writing skills. When he's on, he's on. And this month, that is definitely the case.

Eight devilish questions: And just when you thought it was over, Ed is playing sage advice as well. That brings his contribution this month up to 22 pages. Man, he's prolific. Where does he find the time? Well, if he's being paid enough to live on now, he's got to keep his output up, or it's back to a boring day job. That can be a pretty strong incentive.
How big is an army of devils (normally organized in tiers of 10, so you get stuff like 300 grunts, 30 sargants and 3 sub-commanders. Yes, this is an excuse to make them 666 big as often as possible. )
How do Titivius and Malphas confuse words. (Better than any mortal lawyer, bitch. Watch Ally Mcbeal, and then do the exact opposite. (although making your "clients" and opposing council see illusory dancing babies never hurts) Reading minds so you can avoid contradicting what they already know, figure out how your lies are being recieved and adjust your behaviour accordingly is a very good idea as well. )
Is Arioch the same Arioch that appears in Michael Moorcock's novels (No. More than one person can have the same name. It's be a rather awkward universe if they couldn't)
What stops Archdevils from simply killing each other and taking their stuff (Politics. No-one can take on everyone else and win, and if they tried it, they'd be the ones that died. Plus, too much infighting would keep them from advancing the cause of law and evil through the multiverse. They are not stupid. )
How many HD do archdevils have. (divide their hp by 4.5. This will produce nicely badass results for attack probabilities and saves. )
Where does rope trick go exactly in the hells? (an adjacent layer, either above or below. This can be exploited, but is not reliable by any means, certainly not as a method of storage. And if you use it for escape, the words frying pan and fire seem singularly appropriate. )
What are the limitations of fiendish teleport without error (Any solid surface in hell that isn't warded. They can take stuff with them, but can't send it elsewhere without going. This is a very important power, because more than any other, it liberates their logistical processes from a huge number of the hassles humans face, and shapes their view of the world accordingly. Use it cleverly. )
What are the statistics of the greatest pit fiend at all. (Duh. standard pit fiend, maximum hit points, extra cool magic weapon. Nothing spectacular in the greater scheme of things. He just has a good publicist.)

TSR is having a 10th anniversary sale! Snap up this stuff while it's cheap, because it'll be a collectors item soon.

Chronicles - A novel idea: The dragonlance modules are in full steam. You want more? Well you're in luck, because the first novel is out soon. Fear not though. We've made sure the books and modules are different enough that you won't be completely spoiled by reading them, and can still wind up doing different things. The world is a lot bigger than just the epic adventure you're going through. We've done great oodles of setting construction that you won't get to see for a while. As you may have guessed, this is a fairly blatant promotional piece, bringing more attention to their game world and trying to sell it to the masses. Something I have no objection too, but at the same time, am not particularly enthralled by. Once again, we see that their salesman techniques definitely need a bit of refining. Come on guys, do the work, make me quiver in antici

I didn't realize how early on that Dragon started to become a blur to me. This issue I cannot even vaguely recall.

I guess in this specific case it has to do with Greenwood having quite a bit of material in this issue. As I've mentioned before, his material (besides, again, Pages from the Mages and the sword articles) usually makes my eyes glaze over. As time went along, I began to skip his articles altogether, especially once the Realms became official.

Gygax's ouster is not too far over the horizon at this point. His output has been increasingly sketchy and unsatisfying, not just in Dragon but also in regards to modules. I recall wondering what was going on - I had no conduit to the inner workings of the game industry, as at the time of this run of Dragon, there were no nearby game shops, and most of my game stuff came from Waldenbooks or Kay-Bee toys. So even rumors were few and far between. As his presence decreased, my interest in the magazine began to wane. I actually kept buying it uninterrupted until it ceased as a print magazine, but for the most part the stuff I really remember has already come and gone, and it won't be until late in the 2e era and the 3e era that Dragon came back into its own, in my opinion.

Dragon Issue 91: November 1984

part 2/2

Treasure trove: pation. Ahh, this is another pleasing returnee. Bazaar of the bizarre hasn't been around all year, but like the dragon's bestiary, they've decided to make up for that with a compendium of 47 new magical items as a second special feature this month. As if the new 9 hells stuff wasn't enough. Ed and Roger contribute many of the items in this section as well, with Richard Lucas, Michael Persinger and David Baldwin also making significant contributions. There's way too many for me to tackle each of them individually, but my favourites here are the ring of the grasshopper (of all the animals to choose, what wizard would think of that?) The girdle of loins (er, lions. ) The necklace of bad taste (genius, simply genius. A flavourful way of providing a substantial combat advantage, and a social commentary on gamers as well) and the cursed everstriking sword. (now that would be perfect for an iron heroes game) A great example of just how quirky and interesting magic items were back then, compared to more recent editions. You never know what you're gonna find in your loot, and figuring out how to put it to best use also takes quite a bit of effort and research. If they just do one thing, and do so completely reliably, it's no surprise if people get blase about their items. How many of you have looked at your video recorder manual and suddenly realized you never knew it could do half the things it can. If you apply the same principle to items you give your players, they'll pay a lot more attention to the things they have. Which is definitely a good thing, in my book.

Spies' Advice: Penny escapes the Ares section to tackle Top Secret again. She is proving pretty versatile. Not like Jean "I do not feel qualified to do so" Wells.
Do assassins have a license to kill (Yes, but it doesn't count for much. If you mess up, you're on your own.)
Why do you say no PC can be super (They can, just not at starting level. We've got to give you something to aspire to. )
Why are there no damage modifiers for rifles ( Good question. I'll guess abstraction for 5 alex)
How much damage does a flamethrower do. (Quite a lot, especially if they don't drop and roll. )
How much do arrows and crossbows cost (lots. They aren't produced much anymore.
What is the .22 Galil. Why is it so accurate? (It's a kickass israeli assault rifle. We think so, anyway. Have desert eagles been invented yet? We may shift our loyalty to them if they have )
How fast can the M3 shoot (4 shots/second. )
I want stats for more military gear. (Tough. This is a spy game, not a war one. You are not cleared to use that kind of ordinance, so we will not stat it out. At least, for a couple of years, anyway.)
It's too hard for my assassin to kill people in one shot. (You'll be thankful of that when you're the one getting sniped from cover by some bastard. And really, bullets aren't as deadly as some movies seem to think. Some people survive repeated headshots. Maybe you should be using explosives or poison more.)
You seem to think all improvised weapons do the same amount of damage. This is rubbish! (I blame Merle. He messed up the rules revision, not me! )
Can a dumb agent learn hand signals (Probably. He won't be very erudite with them though. Mind you, everyone understands the gesture for THOG SMASH!)
Can agents be ambidextrous (if you roll a 00 on a D% Not likely, in other words)
If you have identical speeds, who attacks first (Resolve simultaneously. You could both kill each other. How very dramatic. )
How does an unarmed person defend themselves against a sword (run away! )
If you kill someone on a mission you weren't supposed to, do you get XP ( Generally. It is a learning experience, after all)
Can you use untrained combat without any skill levels (yes)
 Some of the Sprechaltenstalle pregens are more powerful than any legal 1st level PC. (That was intentional. Remember that you're supposed to be forced to choose blind. Random screwage is still pretty popular y'know.)  

Coming attractions: Just in time for christmas, we get another attempt to let us know about all the stuff they have for sale. They really should do this more regularly. I guess they still don't spend enough time on the supplement treadmill to make this worthwhile every month yet.
For the indiana jones rpg, we have module IJ3: Crystal death. Requires use of the Magic Viewer. Ahh yes, I remember that little gimmick from the transformers toys.
Star frontiers gets module SFKH, 2001 a space odyssey. Now your characters can play the events of the film and book. Sounds interminably tedious to me. I hope they remembered to license it properly this time.  
For the marvel super heroes game, we have module MH4: Lone wolves. Or how to force a team of Mr Broody McAngstinthepants to work together to deal with a common foe.
D&D gets module CM3: Sabre river. You may have got yourselves domains, but that doesn't mean you can't go dungeon-crawling. This time though, even the dungeons are bigger and badder. You'd better come prepared.
AD&D, as usual, gets the lions share of products. Dragonlance is already up to it's 5th module, Dragons of mystery, and is getting mini's of the main characters as well. And Conan is fighting against darkness in CB2. Beware Thoth-Amon.

ARES Log: Eratta, eratta, what bettah place to put ya than in the edita's section.  Bleh. Anyway, problems aside, it seems the the marvel-phile is easily the most popular part of the section. They have taken note of this and intend to keep it showing up regularly. More evidence that pure sci-fi isn't that popular. A bit awkward, really, and a sign that this section isn't going to last forever. Not that anything does. It's just a question of how long it will last, and enjoying it while you can.

Does anyone here speak Aslan?: Languages are a pain in the ass. They're one of the areas that gets most consistently fudged or worked around by some handwavium power in game settings, simply because the alternative is so much hassle to deal with, and constantly having to learn new ones wherever you go is bad for smooth and fun adventuring. Thankfully Traveller has never been known for it's cinematicness, so even with a certain amount of linguistic homogenization caused by concious governmental attempts, you still have thousands of the bastards out there, more than any one person could learn. This article covers the rules for learning new languages in a reasonable, but not excessive amount of detail, and somehow manages to keep the idea a likable one. A bit of grit never hurt anyone, (Yeah, I know, so not true, especially if you get it in the eye) and dealing with language barriers opens up almost as many plot avenues as it closes. If you want a more gritty realistic game, this is definitely an option to consider.  

Day of the Juggernaut: A quick star frontiers scenario squashed between two longer articles, and with a slightly odd layout, this has a definite feel of something used to fill up space. Better that than more adverts, I guess. Like OGRE, this is a one big ship vs lots of smaller ships engagement, where you have to figure out how to stop the thing before it causes huge amounts of devastation. Perfectly serviceable, but not particularly exceptional.

The marvel-phile: Ahh, here we go. The marvel-phile tackles several interesting things this time round. We have stats for Cloak and Dagger (oh my aching sides.) Transformed by a mob experiment that went horribly wrong, they now target drug dealers and cure addicts. Here we see the conflict between the desire to tackle serious social issues, and the constriction of the comics code, forcing them to represent drug-taking as seriously wrong and detrimental to your karma, no matter what, no greys or excuses. (5 karma per glass of booze? Man that's harsh) How dated that all seems now. As with the U.N.C.L.E conversion, this is a great reminder that there are plenty of sillier things than rpg's out there in media land, and also that Dragon is horribly bowdlerised by it's editorial policy most of the time. You don't notice some things are missing until you see them, and them you're amazed that you didn't notice before. And frankly, I think I could handle a bit more sex and social issues, if you would be so kind.

Careers in Star Law: Yes, it's more detail on these guys. Having had a great idea opened up to us, now someone else weighs in on the crunch behind the idea. And instantly starts introducing restrictions and requirements that close plot ideas off again. This sucks. Every bit of inspiration requires a lot of perspiration to turn into a fully realized product, and maintaining momentum at every stage is nearly impossible. But still, this could definitely have been handled better. Very disappointing.

Don't leave home without 'em!: A nice little counterpart to the D&D treasure trove, they've also decided to give us a load of cool /magic/ technological items for gamma world. Anti-grav packs, energy shackles, /admantine/ duralloy war claws, this is definitely a step in a gonzo direction. Not that there's anything remotely unusual about that in gamma world. So you can slot them straight in, or file the technobabble off and convert them to D&D magical items with a minimum of fuss. Another bit with a good word count to fun had in actual play ratio.

Fiction: The rune and the dragon by Lawrence Watt-Evans. So you took something from a dragon, and now it's following you, trying to get it back. Why would it hold back, instead of tearing you to shreds like the impertinent little mammal you are? A very good question, and one I won't spoil you on the answer to, other than to say that while this may be a one-joke piece, it's a good joke. Another cool little bit of fiction.

Reviews: Shogun is this month's bumper sized review. A card game with substantial similarities to five stud poker, it's a license of the book and tv series by James Clavell. Thankfully, it's not as long-winded as the book, with good production values and a design that makes it simple to learn, but tremendously varied in play, due to the number of special cards and combination of luck and skill required to win it. Seems interesting. Anyone know how this one did sales-wise back in the day?
 Mercenaries, Spies & Private eyes gets a rather mediocre review from Ken. It's fast paced simple style does not seem to appeal to him, and he is left unsatisfied by it's lack of depth. What does it have to distinguish itself from the other modern action games like Top secret, Gangbusters and Daredevils? He certainly doesn't see anything special in it.
Death in dunwich is a call of cthuhu adventure. Already the game is rising to a popularity that belies it's humble origins as a license of an obscure author, with a strong emphasis on the PC's suffering horribly. This is a good adventure, but not the best organized ever. It has some serious errata, and no overview, forcing you to read it carefully before you can play it. If you do it wrong, it'll be as much a mystery to the GM as to the players. One for an experienced group.
The vanishing investigator is a Gangbusters adventure. Unlike our last foray into the lands of mystery, this does have a proper index and chronology, making it easy to run. With strong characters, plenty of settling detail, good illustrations and an action packed plot, this gets his top rating for this month.  
In addition, we have a whole bunch of capsule reviews. Dragons of dispair, the marvel superheroes game, The mountain environment and Bree and the barrow downs all get under 200 word summaries of their style and contents. None get particularly spectacularly praised or slated.

Wormy shoots Irving. Snarfquest goes to the big city. Dragonmirth is oh so wrong in it's implications.

With it's big size, format changes, and multiple classic articles, this is definitely another high water mark for the magazine as a whole. They may have their ups and downs, and things'll never change as fast as they did in the first few years again, but they're still learning and growing. Let's hope this isn't their artistic zenith as well as their commercial one, and we'll get some more amazing issues in the near future. Don't save it all for issue 100. Lets finish this year off in style as well.

Dragon Issue 92: December 1984

part 1/2

100 pages. A second cleric special in the same year? How odd. And without even focussing on the other classes in between. Someone on the editorial team must really like clerics. They've been getting extra crunch in the form of new gods with distinctive special powers the whole time, while the other classes have been getting very little. And yet they're still probably the least popular of the core 4. Seems like a definite case of Shilling the Wesley to me. Ho hum. What are we to do about this? Keep reading, see if it changes in future issues, I guess.

In this issue:

Letters: We get more physics talk and formulae, as they further refine the calculations for realistic falling damage. They get more and more complicated as you factor in initial speed before falling, height of the creature throwing you, and other edge case modifiers. More stuff to put in the really not worth it files.
A letter asking why Ed's new bats have infravision when real bats are blind. A good question, albeit one that has since been discredited. They give the usual noncommittal "the rules am what they am, like popeye the sailor man" answer. So much for physics.
And finally we have three more letters asking about various details of gladsheim. Some are obvious, some obscure, and one potentially litigious. Damn you Tolkien's estate :shakes fist:

The forum: Katharine Kerr continues to be surprisingly controversial, with Cristopher R Kopec and Greg Meier providing their own opinions on her condemnation of evil PC's and the people who play them. One is in favour, and one is against, as is often their wont. Meanwhile, Mark Herman is unhappy about the way falling damage survivability interacts with level. Since level is all about combat training, the lethality of falling damage ought to remain about the same. That ..... would involve substantial system redesigns. Once again we see how some topics get raked over endlessly while others are ignored, in most amusing fashion.

From the sorceror's scroll: Gary puts his Official AD&Dtm Stamp Of Approval on the idea that clerics and druids of particular gods should have their spell lists restricted as well as gaining special powers. Balance must be Maintained! If they automatically had access to every cleric spell introduced in every available supplement they would be far more powerful than magic users, with their need to research spells themselves. A perfectly reasonable proposition, made more interesting by being explained in his usual florid manner filled with Excess Capitalization, and illustrated by a Most Excellent Example. I'm sure that these days he's writing like that to play to the crowd, because his mannerisms were nowhere near as exaggerated in the early years. Still, it makes for an interesting article where this could easily have seemed like a dull nerfing, and is more evidence that the sphere system of 2nd edition didn't come out of nowhere. Maybe it would have been handled differently if he'd still been in charge, but the basic direction would have been the same. That's definitely one for the historical footnotes.

First, spread the faith: Roleplaying advice. Whaat! Are people still playing clerics badly? Do they not feel they have enough role models for them in fiction? Did they miss the great fanboy rant about Archbishop Turpin a couple of years ago? Jesus? (and every other bibilical guy who God interceded for at various points in the book) Friar Tuck? Every pretentious shaman who ever went into a trance and gave cryptic advice in bad fantasy? This is primarily an encouragement for you to develop your cleric's god further, and make sure your cleric sticks to those tenants. Which of course includes trying to ensure the rest of the party doesn't violate them too much. Which if done wrong causes almost as many problems as the thief who steals from the other party members and the lawful dick paladin. There are plenty of ways that this stuff could hurt party unity. You've just got to make solving them part of the fun rather than an obstacle to it. Once again they provide advice that in hindsight is somewhere between obvious and discredited. This is not a good way to fill a feature.

The more, the merrier: Following straight on from the last article is the concept of introducing a mechanical system to the process of converting people to your religion. Charisma, Alignment, class, time spent trying, all sorts of stuff factors in. And if you do so successfully, you get XP. This could indeed be used to make a fun single player game, although a few mechanical kinks mean it's not as dramatic or versatile as it could be. Social mechanics are a controversial thing, and it's interesting seeing them show up like this. Another thing I'd rather like to test, see how it pans out in actual play. Could be cool, could be annoying, I don't really feel I can pass judgement just from reading. Anyone have any experiences with them to recount?

A better open, it figures: Once again the expansion of the hobby has resulted in more people entering the competitions at conventions, and a higher overall standard of entries. Judy Brown and Mike Jaecks show up again, each being highly placed in multiple categories. In addition, Larry Peters and Matthew Sturm make names for themselves this year. All the photos are very red and brown, and not that brilliantly done though. You really could be better presenting them to us.

Coming attractions turns up two months in a row, albeit with fewer products to plug this time. We get new mini's for the indiana jones game, and 2010 - Odyssey 2. The endless quest series gets two new installments, Blade of the young samurai and Trouble on Artule. And the marvel super heroes RPG gets it's own modulicious version of the secret wars plot arc. Now if anyones a railroader it's the beyonder. He seriously needs to suffer for this. No D&D stuff though. Goes to show, they were hardly a one product company.

Gods of the suel pantheon reaches it's end. It finishes off with a fairly pleasant bunch of gods. Lydia, goddess of music, light and daylight. Bralm, Goddess of insects and industry. Jascar, god of hills and mountains. Even as lesser gods, they all have tremendously impressive screwage attacks that'll inconvenience even high level adventurers trying to deal with them. Len also continues to hone his clerical designs, to the point where they seem pretty slick. Put them all together and you have a pantheon that is fairly varied and not archetypical. I may not always have liked them, but he does deserve credit for doing this stuff, and influencing future generations of game designers. And that's the end of the priestly portion of this magazine.

Let the horse buyer beware: A single page article elaborating on the horse buying process and reducing the randomness in the D&D system. Surely characters should be able to tell roughly how good a horse they're getting, because the sellers would, and adjust their prices accordingly. Gary would probably say that you're defiling the Sacred Balance of the Official AD&Dtm Game at this point, but I don't think you care about that. Interesting in that it points out a problem that would become more focussed upon in later editions, that a mount's power doesn't scale with the rider, so they become increasingly a liability in combat unless you trade up for rocs and dragons and stuff. While it doesn't solve the problem, now at least we know it's a commonly known one. Hopefully soon we'll have a beastmaster class along to try and fix that.

The ecology of the ettin: Ahh, ettins. Such delightful creatures. Despite having two heads, they most definitely are not very good at thinking. Or much else besides smashing stuff up and being incredibly stubborn even against mind affecting magic. Their slovenliness would give even the most odious chavs pause, and any treasure they may have is best left where it is, for having rot grubs crawling in through your hands and up your arms is exceedingly gross. Ed is relatively light on the footnotes this time, with the most significant entry being on how they handle losing one of their heads. (pretty well, considering) Certainly no great fresh perspectives provided this time. If they gave a damn, they would complain about being defamed by this article. He must be a bit worn out from last month's spectacular.

Pages from the mages III: Or maybe not. Once again Ed proves his prolificness with a little help from his friends, as Elminster reveals some more stuff about other wizards of the realms, the cheeky monkey. We get 4 new spellbooks, and 9 new spells, 4 of which can be traced to specific authors. They're a clever bunch suited to situations you'd expect a wizard to encounter at various points in their lives. Even the blasty spells have unique quirks that mean they're all distinct and may be better or worse depending on the situation, and all the books have Ed's usual loving descriptions of their appearances and histories. As I often do, I find myself wondering how the hell he does it. I find myself regularly exhausted writing at this rate, while he takes it in his stride, and produces truly exceptional material much of the time. I am filled with awe and envy.

Dragon Issue 92: December 1984

part 2/2

Off the shelf also loses it's name and become simply Book Reviews. Seems like they're genericising quite a few things. What's behind that decision?
The name of the rose by Umberto Eco has been both critically and commercially acclaimed, and now it gets recommended in Dragon as well for it's depth of historical research, making it a great resource for anyone playing in a pseudomedieval setting, and a good example of how to weave philosophy, mystery, and all sorts of mundane details into your plots. If you like that high crunch style, get it.
The riddle of the wren by Charles de Lint may not be quite as famous, but it gets just as much praise. Particularly important from a gaming perspective is the way he keeps the perspective firmly shaped by the characters knowledge, not giving away OOC details which might spoil the plot. Striking that balance between providing plenty of descriptive detail, without obviously showing your intent is another important part of good GMing. Narrative choice and player freedom requires the kind of detail that gives people information to make decisions with.
Castles, by Alan Lee & David Day, would have fit right in with Lew's book review in issue 89. A combination of artwork, and talk about the myths and stories of various historical eras, it shows just how many variations these places can have. You want places for your characters to go, whether to talk or to kill & loot, this'll help out with that.

The sword of justice is this month's module, an 8 pager. Designed for starting level characters, it seems a good one for starting up with a more story focussed tone. It does have a few silly elements, but the overall plot is a solid way of getting players used to the idea that sometimes killing is not the solution to your problems, and the personalities can be more important than the environment. Thankfully it manages to do this without falling into the trap of railroading the plot. This is quite pleasing, as it shows that they are expanding their criterea for acceptable adventures some more as time goes on. Definitely a good one to use as a warm-up for a new campaign.

A big list of the retailers participating in the TSR 10th anniversary sale.

New heights(?) in silliness: A review of TOON! A rather distinctive one at that. Drawing on a demonstration play given by the game's developer at a con, this shows the ways it brilliantly emulates the source material, and the areas in which it doesn't go quite far enough, still being a little too tied to the conventional RPG model. Compromises, compromises. Use the officially sanctioned house rules here to shake that off and make the game even more gonzo and fun. This is definitely another signpost towards the diversification of the hobby. One one front they're producing high crunch games like rolemaster. On another they're putting greater emphasis on plot, characterization and storytelling. And here they're getting increasingly radical in their attempts to simulate a particular kind of reality and story style. All the sides of the big triangle are here, and hopefully you can find a game that'll please you. Anyway, this is a fun review. I could definitely enjoy a few more context heavy ones like this.

Getting up and getting wet: Dragonquest's popularity is rewarded with another article. For some reason, the game provides no provisions for climbing for non thieves and swimming in general. This must be rectified! etc etc. So we get one of those efficient page long articles that does exactly what it says it  does, no more, no less, no mess, no fuss, hopefully not breaking to the game for allowing it, and leaving me with nothing more to say about it. That's a positive, by the way.

Fiction: The multidimensional caper by Mark Acres. Or, the NPC's escape the game and start running the show. Starts off as a mystery story that takes an abrupt left turn into meta comedy. Could really have been spun out a little longer, as the format means there isn't really enough time to build up the tension, but still an entertaining read nonetheless. Leave me wanting more. Then I'll pay attention to whatever you do next.

The six million dollar mutant: Bionics for Gamma world. We haven't seen that since way back in 1978, with it's sister gameline Metamorphosis alpha. Surprised they haven't incorporated it sooner. It should be noted that fitting and maintaining these things takes skill and equipment, both of which are at a premium in a postapocalyptic wasteland. In fact, more word count is spent on the problems than the cool powers you can get as a result. Curious. The powers granted are probably a bit on the muted side as well, trying to stick fairly closely to what you could realisticly achieve with this stuff. Someone's playing this game in a less out-there manner than Jim and co. Still, I suppose it's easier to dial these things up than to tone them down again. You don't need to shout and rant. Just play it cool like president Ahmadinejad. With bionics you can be a real bad :rest of post deleted for random insanity:

The marvel-phile: This month's featured supercreatures are the heralds of Galactus. The silver surfer, obviously; plus Nova and Terrax. Everything apart from their intelligence is at seriously superhuman levels, as you would expect. Powered by galactus, they are put in a very morally ambigious situation, getting to influence which worlds live and which ones die. Now there's a gamable situation. Who will you choose to satiate your dread master's hungers? You'd better make the decision fast because if you don't, he'll eat whoever's nearby. Jeff continues to write with a pleasantly amused tone, having recieved enough requests to keep him in work for years. He's got enough cool source material to make his job an easy one. So that leaves him with plenty of time to think up his own material as well. Fun fun fun.

Ed joins Penny for this month's StarQuestions, as some of their questions refer to his recent creation, the Zethra.
What do you mean by the costs for shipping cargo. (Complicated economic stuff. You need to use the tables to determine how much profit you make on each trip. )
How do my players start an interplanetary business (Same way you do in real life. Make a plan, try to carry it out, and face all sorts of obstacles on the way. It's up to the GM to keep it interesting and challenging. )
Will we ever see a timeline for the star frontiers game. (Soon. Very soon. Oh yes. :rubs hands together:)
What are the stats for the zebulon and K'tsa-Kar systems (Wait and see. We only have 16 pages a month, so we'll have to do this stuff in installments)
Where are the primary races original homeworlds ( Have patience and keep buying our stuff. All will be revealed.............IN TIME!!!)
What are the stats for flamethrowers. ( 6d10 points of burnination. Perfect for frying aliens with.)
Some of the duplicates in the battle of ebony eyes overlap (yes. That just makes it all the more confusing.)
Can PC's be pirates, robots or cybots ( Why not be robot pirates? Then they can fight dinosaur ninja. Oh yeah, that whole pesky free will thing. Star frontiers doesn't have sentient robots. Boo)
What's the stats for shuriken and nunchuks (I wasn't serious when I said about ninjas. Let's just say that these are not optimal weapons compared to disintegrators. )
Are there mutants in Star frontiers (not often, and certainly not with the kind of unrealistic superpowered mutations you see in gamma world. Sorry to be a party pooper. )
I though starships landed nose up. An illustration shows them on their side. ( Artwork has never been known for it's accuracy. Where shall I start? )
Are there stargates in star frontiers (No. Once again, this is not a kitchen sink setting. Do not mess with the game themes and balance.)
How many races are there (17, officially. More may show up in the future )
Can ships get above size 20. (Only at great expense.)
How can zethra match colors if they can't see it? (Same way you can sing in tune even if you can't say exactly what note is being played. They can percieve them, just not in the same way we do.)
Why is metal so good at disrupting zethra electrics. Metal is a good conductor. (Technobabble. If in doubt, technobabble. Convince the universe it's good technobabble, and it'll believe you and let you solve the plot with it.)
How do zethra convert matter to energy. How often do they need to eat. ( Good question. Ed has as usual written more on this than we could ever publish, so here's a mini-ecology for you. Hope you enjoy it. )

The dreaded old ones ooze their way into the palladium fantasy RPG.

Wormy is also dealing with the problems two-headed creatures face. Dragonmirth is very festive indeed this year. Snarfquest introduces one of the most amusing beasts of burden you'll ever ride.

Another huge issue. With it's proliferation of small articles, it took a lot of work to complete. Still, most of them were pretty enjoyable. If I had time to read them at a leisurely pace I would probably have enjoyed them even more. But no. I can't take a full month to do each issue like you could at the time, but have to get several done each week. Done, done and onto the next one. Done, done and onto the next one. Anyway, this is another excellent quality issue, full of interesting and usable stuff. Not quite sure why they made the november one extra large and cool, and then kept this one normal size. But it's not that much of a let-down really. If the next year is as good as this one, I won't complain (much) We're half way through the 80's now. Lets do our damndest to clear the rest.

Dragon Issue 93: January 1985

part 1/2

100 pages. A non hawt weretiger? What is this heresy! Someone get that girl a makeover stat! We also see our first price increase in ages. (way back in issue 37) So far, they've only increased their subscription prices. But an all round increase probably won't be far off, given the cruelty of the economy. Was there ever a concept so annoying as inflation. Forcing you to keep running just to stay in the same place. Just another method by which ordinary people are kept under control. In a lot of ways, D&D adventurers have it easy. They're generally physically powerful enough to tell the taxman to go fuck themself (but not scribes ) and doing the same to death is entirely within their reach. In such a situation, bucking the system and performing acts of extraordinary heroism is easy. Lets hope the magazine still has enough good stuff to make it worth it.

in this issue:

Letters: Someone confused about how a potion of explosions works. It's like real world nitroglycerine, sir.
Someone asking about realistic stats for all the various elven subraces. You can not expect every article to cater to every non core PC race. That would eat up so much extra space as to render them nonviable. Our format has limitations.
A letter asking why so many other letters sent here go unanswered. To stimulate debate and encourage you to send in articles answering them, my dear. We can't make this magazine without you guys.
A letter asking what the hell crystalbrittle does. It was printed twice in this magazine. You must be a newbie. Guess we'll just have to print it again until it gets a permanent home in Unearthed Arcana.
Finally, a letter asking why Ed didn't use the history from the politics of hell in his 9 hells articles. Frankly, my dear, it's because he didn't like it, and it was pretty explicitly noncanonical right from it's release. We don't think everything in this magazine has to tie together. Why the hell do you?

The forum: David F Godwin shows up again, to continue the debate on morality in D&D. By what standards are you judging good, evil, law and chaos. Modern ones? Medieval ones. An artificial set of standards that has little to do with reality? Morality is a complicated business, and can be picked apart endlessly. Just how far are you willing to take it?
William Huish weighs in with a scaling system for falling damage, making it almost as deadly no matter how high level you are. Complexity is increased somewhat. But not enough to make a whole new article, thank god.
Paul Montgomery Crabaugh also shows up again, to provide a little more fuel for the Adepts vs Non-Adepts battle in Dragonquest. You've failed to take the advantages you can get by completely ignoring a stat you don't use anyway. Things are more balanced than you think.

From the sorceror's scroll: Well well. This is interesting. Gary finally gives us the rules for druids above 15th level. Having ascended to become the ruler of every druid in the entire world, where do they go from there? To loftier concerns than mere temporal politics. Able to change shape and travel the planes, hierophants look after the wider balance of nature in the multiverse, and set in motion plans that may span worlds and take centuries to resolve. And spend years asleep. Hey, they've earned it. Plus it's genre appropriate, and explains why they don't constantly get in the way of their lessers. This explains a lot. It's no wonder druid's abilities seem so piecemeal when they were developed in sections years apart. Fascinating. This certainly opens them up for epic play in a way that few other classes can match. Once again we see AD&D reaching in it's haphazard manner for things that would be properly codified, standardized, and mechanically done better in later editions. I'm very pleased indeed to discover this stuff. Gary's definitely been thinking hard about all the cool stuff he wants to introduce to the game during his absence.

Thinking for yourself: Gary also provides a tiny little extra in the form of an exhortation to do things about the religious reactionaries attacking D&D. Show them that your hobby is harmless, fun and has definite educational benefits. Yawnaroo. You'd be getting better results if you were actively courting controversy, not trying to play it down. You of all people should know that.

The making of a milieu: Arthur Collins here again, folks, with more worldbuilding advice for all y'all. How d'ya like your worlds. Lightly done, stir fried, or a bit of everything. Will you start with people, maps or concepts. How blatantly will you steal real life cultures and ideas? Remember, the things you leave out are as important as the things you put in. Remember that this is a world for gaming in, so design it accordingly. Put conflicts in there, things that the players are expected to solve. And above all, have fun. Yes, it seems that we're getting another long talk on how to build your world. We've seen them before, and we'll probably see them again. Unfortunately, this one fails to push any boundaries that Katharine Kerr didn't push recently, so this is more a fortification article than a trail-blazer. Are you keeping up with the latest fashions in design? Or are you taking a different approach? Don't think you have to do it the way they say you should.

The ecology of the Eye of the Deep: Ed Greenwood gives us a look at one of the less commonly used beholder subraces. (mainly because they can't go up to shallow waters, so only groups with water breathing spells'll be able to get to them) This goes into plenty of detail on their mating habits (very weird) their powers(quirky as any beholder), and how they interact with other creatures of the deep.(not very well, really) The amount of extrapolation from the original entry seems to be increasing in this series, which is pleasing. Guess the recent statement that they care not about that has increased Ed's confidence in just making shit up. Once again he defends his title as the king of world-building. Not too sure about the picture though. Looks like it's cowering from the camera. Well yeah, not many people who are going to disagree if you say Don't look at me, I'm hideous! Can't win them all.

Short hops and big drops: Seems like returning writers really are taking over. Stephen Inniss is back, to fix the problem that there are no solid rules on how far a character can jump. Another case where I'm surprised no-one did something sooner. (well, Gary did thief-acrobats, but they're obviously intended to be exceptional.) Can you guess how he's going to handle it? If you took invent a completely new subsystem for 5 alex, then you win. The result is surprisingly predictable, with only a few feet of leeway provided by the dice. Thankfully, it's another single pager, so it shouldn't be any great problem to use. As long as you remember where it is, like all the other subsystems scattered throughout the many many issues. This is where loose leaf cutouts come in handy.

A Pronunceayshun gyd: Frank Mentzer provides us with some amusing fiction, featuring the interplanar consortium of nebulous sages, before filling four pages with an A-Z of various D&D creatures and personages, and how to pronounce their names properly. The V-Z letters get surprisingly little play, considering how often they produce problematic creatures. This is another thing that could have been dull very easily, but is held together by it's use of fiction to educate us without directly explaining, and humorous asides. He really ought to do more articles here, because he makes this stuff fun. Gary has taught him well. This is definitely something to bookmark for later, because this is the kind of question that comes up again and again. People will always forget how to pronounce xvart or shillelagh, and this way you can quote an authoritative source.

Dragon Issue 93: January 1985

part 2/2

Coming attractions: Marvel superheroes get the lions share this month, with modules MH 4 & 5, Pit of the viper and cats paw. Play canada's greatest heroes. Hee.
D&D gets module B8, Journey to the rock. What secrets lie within it?
AD&D gets C3, Castanamir. A tournament module, exploring a mad wizards place, where you face the gingwatzim, it sounds like there will be random screwage involved. Is my impression correct?

Agencies and alignments: Oh, this is amusing. Alignments for the top secret game. These have three axes, each with 5 different alignments on them, for a total of 125 combinations. Political gets democratic, republican, neutral, authoritarian and autocratic. Change gets radical, liberal, neutral, conservative and reactionary. And Economic goes capitalist, unionist, neutral, socialist, communist. That's considerably more nuance than D&D alignments get unless you use the alternate system from SR6, but you could still probably pick apart their definitions and who should be placed where on the axes endlessly. This is a definite case of a D&Dism applied where it doesn't quite fit, which could be exploited in ways not intended. And if you transplant it back into D&D, you can play the fantasy game of class and economic struggle, with secret alignment languages for each side. I am entertained, if probably not for the reason Merle intended.

Twilight 2000 gets three full page colour ads right by each other. They obviously want to push this one hard. Man it sounds brutal. Once again we have overtaken the future. Funny how that happens.

The gypsy train is this month's adventure, although it's hardly a standard one. 8 pages of character detail, plus a centrefold that lets you build your own mini gypsy wagons for use with a game. Less a challenge to be defeated than something to be interacted with, to add flavour to your game, as each of the NPC's is given several hooks. And as they're a traveling camp, you can drop them pretty much anywhere. I can definitely see the uses for this one. It may not be as impressive as Great stoney, but it's another good example of them pushing the envelope and trying new combinations of their old tricks. And lets face it, since there are so few truly original ideas in the world, that's probably the best shot you've got of surprising people.

Fiction: Eira by Josepha Sherman. Fairy stories. Here we go again. A definite attempt to replicate that mythic there and back again journey. Unfortunately it gets a little too precious with the froofy celtic elements, and fails to live up to it's ambition. Not that this magazine would publish unbowdlerised fairy stories, that'd be too dark compared to killing things and taking their stuff. Guess it's another month, another bit of so-so fiction.

The marvel-phile: This month's profiles are two more of the Avengers. Mockingbird, another product of trying to replicate the super soldier serum; and Shroud, who seems like a textbook example of a dark and edgy anti-hero, with his martial arts training, handicap which isn't really much of a handicap, and undercover criminal activities. Once again we see a distinct conflict between the growth of that writing style, and the fact that the Marvel superheroes game was designed to emulate the wholesome stories of the previous couple of decades. Not that it stopped the game from being successful, but it continues to be jarring in retrospect. Comics may be set in this static sorta history, but they've still changed quite a bit over the years. Jeff continues to deliver reliably on this front, just as Ed does with the ecologies.

New ships for old: Space opera gets some much desired increase (at least, by the writer ) in it's variety of starships. Weapons, power plants, and reaction drive strengths. Plus a house ruled damage variant that seems thrown in for no apparent reason, and some talk about the tech levels various things are allowed at. Rather a grab-bag article. As is often the case, the usefullness of this article really hinges on the balance of the crunch, which unfortunately I'm not qualified to judge in this case. So I'll have to leave an open verdict on this one.

New brotherhoods: Gamma world continues to get a fairly healthy showing here with a collection of new alliances.
The friends of justice are a group of mutants who imitate the heroic behaviour of mutants in ancient comic books. Hilarity ensues. The people in the game may not get the joke.
Mental Warriors are an organization of geniuses and psychics who want to ascend to become creatures of pure mental energy. They do engage in unpleasant behaviour to the "less gifted", so they're probably best used as villains.  
Searchers try and find the base which was responsible for causing the apocalypse. A little late for that, doncha think. They've evolved from a tactical team into a weird religious cult, which is amusing, but probably also realistic.
Spoilsports are teams of elite soldiers, trained by a slightly defective supercomputer. This results in a distinct uncertainty over what they should actually use their powers for.
Voyagers want to get off this crazy mudball and find a new planet to call home. Given what happened to starship warden, this may not be a safer alternative to staying. Still, it gives you a difficult but concrete goal to aim for, and it won't finish the game if you actually win.
Another article that has a good grip on the mix of humour and seriousness that a good Gamma World game can have, and steals it's ideas from the best sources. It may be ludicrous, but you've got to play it straight and remember that this is serious stuff for the people living there. Is it any wonder they wind up believing strange things, given their environment. I am entertained on multiple levels by this article, which is definitely a good thing.

Rare wines and ready cash: What's worth more than gold in space? Fresh food! After all, gold can be mined anywhere, but good food requires a ridiculous infrastructure to create, and goes off pretty quickly, so if you get it to somewhere where it's scarce at warp speed, you can make a pretty tidy profit. If that's the case, then why are the profit margins on furs better than things like fish and vegetables? Fantasy economics strikes again, with a dull little article for Star Frontiers. Definitely a case of put the boring stuff near the back where you'll see it last.

Wormy sends irving to hire a crew for his wargame. Snarfquest drives recklessly. Dragonmirth continues to be limerickal.

Another strong issue, and also one that was much easier to get through, with an unusually high quotient of stuff that has a humorous edge to it. If anything, it's better than most of the april fools issues in that respect. As it's also full of stuff that's quickly and easily usable in your games, even if you want to put it in a different game than the one it was originally designed for, this is another very definite high point for the magazine as a whole. Bringing the whole hobby together and educating and entertaining us all, they haven't really been doing that since 1981. Lets hope they keep it up a while longer before D&D pushes everything else out again.

Dragon Issue 94: February 1985

part 1/2

100 pages. Oh, now this is one of the most iconic cover pictures ever. Near photographic levels of detail, plus hawtness & cuteness without being excessively cheesy and impractical = epic win. This is one that gets reprinted several times, and deservedly so. We also get an editorial which hints that they may be increasing their coverage of non TSR games further in the near future, as Greg Stafford asks about the viability of putting runequest stuff in. And to top it all off we're getting our second Creature Catalog (not left out this time. ) This seems very promising indeed.   Can they keep this run of awesome issues up? I look forward to seeing.

In this issue:

Letters: Once again, their failure to properly centre a module leads to complaints. They try, honestly they do. But when you have deadlines to meet and stuff being changed around up to the last minute, it can't be helped.
Two letters asking for more ettin education. Multi-limbed creatures are better able to survive the loss of some of their parts than humans would under the same situation. Sealing off is useful.
A letter asking how the dwarves in Gladsheim can be magic-users. The answer is of course, because NPC's are not bound to the rules PC's are. Norse myth has tons of dwarvish enchanters. We need to break the rules to properly emulate that. No, you cannot do the same.

The forum: Kurt G Barringhaus thinks that D&D really ought to have a wound penalty system. Will that make the game more fun? Good question. But it'll certainly increase realism.
Tim Nye thinks that dwarves should be heavier than Stephern Innis does. They need to be bulky, because otherwise they have a combat disadvantage that does not combine well with their favoured class. However, halflings should suck at grappling. Ho hum.
Katharine Kerr continues to believe that playing evil characters is unhealthy behaviour indicative of some underlying problem with the players personality. Yes, you, Christopher Kopec and Scott Hicks. : points finger: Why do you enjoy pretending to do nasty things? What's the source of your mental damage, huh? Dear oh dear. We expect this stuff from Gary, but still, this is not the way to garner respect. I'm very disappointed in you.
Steve Pajak has his own variant system for determining success in ability rolls, and would like to share it with us. Thanks for that. Everyone loves a good variant rule.
Ralph Sizer also has thoughts about using ability rolls as a catchall. Remember that different tasks have different difficulties. By using % and a mutiplier to your score based on hardness, you have a situation where even incompetent characters have a chance, albeit a slim one.
Roy Cozier thinks that the magazine should be in no danger from the Tolkien estate for using the name Dwalin, because that name was taken from the Elder Edda in the first place. Ha. If a corporation wants to be an asshole and has way more money to throw at the problem than you, technicalities like that will not protect you.
Gary A Nelson reminds us that bats are not blind, they actually have pretty good eyesight. Silly folkloric sayings, spreading misinformation. A lot of the time the ancients didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

From the sorceror's scroll: Having seriously added to druids last issue, Gary now gives the ranger a nice little extra. An entire new system for tracking, taking into account level and lots of situational modifiers. Which may be an increase in complexity, but sorely needed in this case, and not a huge increase in time taken to use. An expansion to the creatures that qualify for giant class bonuses, since several new monster manuals have come out since the corebook. And just so it isn't all bonuses, a slight restriction on weapon proficencies.  Two of these changes would become standard in 2nd edition. Oh, the power he has. I guess these ones all make sense. But they're certainly not as spectacular as the druid ones. Once again the primary spellcasters wind up seriously overshadowing everyone else at high levels. At this point, that problem seems insoluble. Guess it comes with the territory. You play AD&D, that's the way it's gotta be.

An army travels on its stomach: Katharine Kerr contributes another extensive article on realism, logistics, and how to achieve big results in a relatively realistic way. Feeding armies is a nightmare. Travel goes substantially slower than a small group can manage. Roads in medieval places suck. Look after your animals. A rather grim article that exists largely to remind you to throw lots of obstacles in your players way, should they decide to do anything big. Someone definitely prefers their fantasy with quite a bit of grit in it. This could definitely have been done in a far more positive manner. You need to talk about how you overcome the obstacles, as well as what they are. Otherwise it's just a dampener on our adventuring spirit. Definitely not very pleasing contributions by her this month.

Same dice, different odds: Statistics! Doncha just love them. :crickets chirping: Just me then? Straight distributions, bell curves, normal distributions with standard deviation, exploding results, exponential decay curves, and lots of combinations. With a bit of creative application of modifiers, you can solve problems that plague designers through the ages. The classic problem of over lethal housecats can be fixed by rolling two dice and dividing one by the other, allowing for a tiny average, with the possibility of a substantial hit still there. Similarly, things like rockslides are better modeled with this kind of roll on a larger scale. A clever idea, and one I don't remember many games doing. Is basic division really too hard for people? This is definitely an idea I intend to incorporate, as it seems so obvious, yet so little used. Allowing for longshots like this increases the swinginess of the game. And that makes for more drama, which is generally a good thing. Another abandoned gem I'm pleased to have unearthed.

Reptiliad attack wins big: Our final bit of photography from the cons last year is a full scale diorama with tons of stuff going on. Unfortunately, once again, their photographic techniques do not work very well at capturing fine detail on such as small scale. Ur technology, it needs improving naow. Sigh.

The ecology of the chimera: Elminster gets into the ecology business. Well, if he hangs around with Ed that much, it's not surprised he gets roped in. This talks about not only the chimera, but also it's abominable relations, such as the Gorgimera and the Thessalmera, which take the idea of hybridisation several steps further still, with results as ridiculous looking as they are terrifying. This is another case where Ed really doesn't write enough to satisfy. Each of these creatures could easily fill several pages, but instead, they're all crammed together in only two. You had the chance to really elaborate on the hybridisation process, how it happened, and possibly even formulas for splicing together other creatures, which would provide endless hours of fun. A definite wasted opportunity compared to the things my imagination conjured up when I saw the title. Even our top writer can't hit a home run every time, unfortunately.

Reviews: Mercenaries, Spies and Private eyes gets a second review, rather longer and more favorable than Ken's. Arlen P Walker goes into plenty of detail on it's system. A relation of Tunnels & Trolls, it has a well designed skill system, an emphasis on designing your background over random rolls, fast and furious combat, and plenty of design advice. It also has a dual-stat alliance with Hero games, weirdly. Two modules also get reviewed. The adventure of the jade jaguar was going to be published with the core book, but got made standalone at the last minute. As a result, it's probably a bit small to really stand on it's own two feet. Stormhaven is rather better, with tons of pulp references, and a scenario which can be played in lots of different ways. Another great example of how a second opinion can be very useful.

The role of books: Secret of the sixth magic by Lyndon Hardy takes his established world and laws of magic, and starts playing with the formula. Just when you think you know the rules, some bastard goes and changes them on you. And guess who's job it is to save the world in response to this? Muggins here who can't cast a a spell for toffee. Once again, the book gets my wholehearted recommendation, even if it doesn't quite get the reviewers.
The land beyond the gate by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach is another story where a protagonist from our world wanders into a fantasy world, finding themselves the centre of a epic destined story. This cliche is kept interesting by lots of enthusiasm and tight pacing and plotting that doesn't leave things on a cliffhanger just to sell more books.
Raphael by R A MacAvoy tells the story of the titular angel's tricking by satan, loss of power, and subsequent quest for redemption. It manages to be both philosophical and introspective, and have moments of extreme high power kick-assery. So if you want to know how to run really high power games where the protagonists are among the most powerful creatures in creation, and whatever they do will have serious consequences, this seems like good reading for inspiration.
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce is a vampire story. Like any vampire story, the precise powers and weaknesses of the creature may vary from what you expect. Plenty of other mythical thingies make appearances, but it still manages to retain a folkloric feel to it.
The song of the axe by Paul O Williams is set in a postapocalyptic world. Considerably less gonzo and with a better developed setting than gamma world, it manages to be both a self-contained story, and have plenty of references to other stories in the same world. Once again, the reviewer points out how this could be of use in your own games.
The harem of Aman Akbar by Elizabeth Scarborough is full of djinn, and contains lots of advice on how to deal with these powerful, but not particularly loyal creatures in a fun arabian romp with plenty of humor and fantastical happenings.
Exiles of the Rynth by Carole Nelson Douglas is a good demonstration of what happens when the DM has a plot, but the characters persist in trying to do something else. Tensions are caused, and the game is slowed to a crawl. The result is unsatisfactory, and often feels like filler material. You do not need to make every story a trilogy dear. Just get on with it.

My honor is my life: Tracy Hickman introduces us to the Knights of Solamnia. The three organisations that take the proto-prestige class concept of switching classes at certain points like bards and thief acrobats, and stretch it even further. Not that this is mentioned here, as this teaser is entirely rules free, giving us a potted history of the orders and their founders. Despite being a tremendously heroic organization,  they've become exiles, trying to find their place in krynn's war torn post cataclysmic landscape. Oh, the angst. Well, good guys are at their best when they're the underdogs, as the kingpriest and co showed. Or something. Many think Krynns "Neutrality, be thou my good" moral lessons are a bit of a broken aesop, and I can't say I'm entirely in disagreement. This also shows signs of dragonlance's concious attempts to hit buttons for commercial appeal, making what seems appealing initially taste increasingly sour on closer examination. You can't sell me on your supposed heroes that easily, I'm afraid.

Dragon Issue 94: February 1985

part 2/2

Creature catalog II: 18 new monsters delivered fresh to your door. Just the thing to terrorize your players with. Be careful unwrapping them, though. Many of them are Ed Greenwood creations, with Roger and Len also getting quite a few contributions in.
Belabra are really rather weird looking tentacled creatures. Thankfully, they don't attack with them. They can be trained too, which could have interesting concequences.
Giant Betta are, as the name says, giant siamese fighting fish. Like the real thing, they're teritorial buggers, easily set off by bright colours and new smells. As they make bubble nests, they're very useful for underwater adventurers in need of a quick refill. Stealth and stuff is good, because you'll probably piss off druids if you kill them.
Bhaergala are one of Ed's great lost gems of weird design and plot hooks aplenty. Virtually every line has some strange bit of flavour, and their abilities are pretty unique as well. Stealing musical instruments, spell reflection, smelling of freshly baked biscuits, these easily mach up to real mythic creatures in sheer idiosyncracy. One I could definitely stand to see some more of, and am very disappointed by future editions treatment of them.
Phase Dragons are exactly what they sound like. Phase spiders have some serious competition. Thankfully they don't grow very big compared to most dragons, and aren't that aggressive either. A 100 foot reptile suddenly appearing in front of you would ruin anyones day.
Ekrat are nasty little paper eating fae. If your wizard suddenly finds himself missing a spellbook, they might well be responsible. Bad puns are employed in the writing of this entry, which is definitely one that's more annoying than deadly. Have them keep pet rust monsters, and the screwage can be shared around equally.
Fireball Flys go boom if you attack them. Ha ha. Like the gas spore, this is a definite play with the expectations of the party monster, only coming at it from the other direction. Laugh? I nearly split my britches. The perfect thing to have hanging around those salamanders and red dragons in their volcanic lairs.
Firestar are floating balls of light that absorb energy. There's good spell components in 'em, so cruel adventurers may want to hunt them down.
Flamewings are our third fire related monster in a row. They expel methane gas and then use it to set fire to their wings. Um, yeah. You couldn't make it up, could you. Thanks for that.
Hurgeon are humanoid hedgehogs. As Good burrowing humanoids, they're pretty unlikely to show up in a game, unless gnomes are involved. They have tricksy magical powers that mean you don't want to despoil nature when they're around. Much mehness.
Giant Lightning bugs, like fireball flys, are little pains in the ass, in this case because they're attracted to metal and shock whoever's in it. This also has the chance of removing an item's magic, which would really annoy lots of players.
Lillendi are winged snake-women from gladsheim. With a ton of powerful tricks up their sleeve, they can be both good allies and scary enemies. Probably the most famous of the monsters from this collection, they get good write-ups in future editions as well. Well, sex sells. They might not have quite the pervalicious qualities of mariliths, but they can still fuel people's fantasies.
Orgautha are gross-looking giant land leeches. They also have two special powers that make them a serious inconvenience for an unprepared group of adventurers. Poor spellcasters. So easy to ruin their days.
Rekeihs are incredibly weird looking mobile plants. With a distinctive style and plenty of ecological detail, they will give adventurers pause, but not be too scary once you get into an actual fight.
Rummele are extraplanar dogs from Gladsheim. They get a whole bunch of feyish powers such as blinking, shapechanging, and divination, plus the ability to deflect missiles. They're a great cohort for mid-high level adventurers, entirely capable of taking care of themselves against all kinds of screwage. What's that lassie? The last group of adventurers all got petrified? We must rescue them! Bring the reflective shields!
Urisk are miniature goat-headed satyrs. They may look cute, but you can bet they'll be humping your leg and chasing the nixies if you don't keep a close eye on them. They have animal companions as well, so expect the unexpected.
Viltch are hooligan monkeys from Pandemonium. They smash pretty stuff and generally make a nuisance of themselves. Like many of these extraplanar versions of standard animals, they have substantial magical and class abilities that'll make them a real hassle even to higher level parties if played cleverly.
Great Wyrms are a mysterious ancient relation of dragons. They may not be quite as badass as later dragons, but they're certainly no picnic. They have toxic breath, a smaug-esque weak spot and can be a source of great knowledge. Pretty flavourful, in other words.
Xaver are decidedly weird looking things that corrode and eat metal like rust monsters. Only they're intelligent and can actually hurt you with their attacks as well. The party is not going to be a happy one after meeting them. Muahahaha.
So it seems like we have a lot of fae, planar, and general screwage creatures this time, rather than stuff you have a straight-up fight with. Introducing these guys to your game will definitely result in interesting times for your players. A definite sign that they were trying to push the envelope on what monsters did and how they acted at that point. Ecology may have been a fairly established concept by then, so now they're pushing the boundaries of how you should act in a fight, and the tactics you have to adopt to successfully deal with these weird creatures. Course, if the way you find out is by trial and error, there's going to be quite a bit of frustration and a few deaths on the way. Eh, if adventuring wasn't a challenge, what would be the point?

Fiction: Fortunes of a fool by Nicholas Yermakov. Oh, this is mean. How to go from rags to riches and back again, courtesy of some supernatural meddling with a distinctly pessimistic russian slant to it. That makes a change from the usual happy, or at least bittersweet ending, and still feels nicely folklorish. As a change of pace from most of the stories in here, I very much approve.

Coming Attractions: Lots of stuff out this month. D&D gets Blade of vengance, a solo module, where an elf must avenge the destruction of his homeland. It also gets AC4, the book of marvelous magic. Lots of new spells and magic items for your delectation and twinking out.
AD&D gets C4:To find a king. Part 1 of the prophecy of brie series, this tournament module does indeed sound pretty cheesy. Not a classic.
Endless quest gets EQ 25: Conan the outlaw, and EQ 26: Tarzan and the well of slaves. Seems like they're definitely in a pulpy mood at the moment.
Star frontiers gets SFKH3: Face of the enemy. Not much info is given on this one.
And on the wargaming front, we get The breakout from Normandy, and The Quadrigame of waterloo. Two more highly specialized games designed to cover particular battles in great detail.

S.h.i.e.l.d.™: The Marvel superheroes game's popularity is rewarded by a 5 page article on these guys. Their history, their enemies, their staff (including lots of rather amusing mugshots) and all the cool stuff they have, (including a cutaway diagram of their helicarrier base. ) and finally stats for Nick Fury, their head honcho. A very dense article, this gets tons of info in in an efficient manner. I've seen articles twice the size that don't actually say as much of importance. Guess they're really getting the hang of this 16 pages limitation and editing stuff down for it. The artwork is also particularly good on this one. A fast and furious way to kick off this section, with plenty of stuff that's useful in actual play. You never know when you're going to need a world-spanning secret organization to clear up the messes your players are making.

The marvel-phile: My gods. Now this dates this issue. We have spiderman's symbiote, but no Venom. They also don't know who the hobgoblin is yet either. Fascinating. Goes to show how movies condense the stuff from years of comics decades ago into their writing. We also get the Kingpin, another villain who would plague spider-man throughout the ages. Once again, I am shown just how much comics have changed in recent years, and paradoxically, how much they haven't, with events happening back then still having reprecussions now. Jeff delivers another three statblocks and potted histories efficiently as ever. I find myself tempted to pick up a compilation of that era so I can read all this stuff I missed first hand. Must. Stay. Focussed. 271 issues to go. Long Journey. No time for unproductive diversions.

From anarchy to empire: David Cook acquires his nickname of Zeb, for the first time I've spotted in this magazine. Another interesting historical footnote for y'all. Anyway, star frontiers continues to get plenty of coverage around here, with details on how interstellar government is handled there. From loose trade agreements to centralized authoritarian rule, they can vary widely. On the plus side, this is system free, so it's easily applicable to other games. On the negative, this is another case where they really don't go into enough depth, due to the short pagecount, and as a result all the advice feels very familiar, just reskinned slightly. Not a useful article to a longtime reader.

A second bit of fiction this month, The gun that shot too straight by Ralph Roberts. So you've developed a gun that has unlimited range. Just how unlimited? Oh dear oh dear. This could get ugly. A textbook example of speculative sci-fi, where the protagonists take a back seat to the conceptualizing. Which is a decent way to finish of the magazine.  

Wormy is just plain awesome this month, as multiple plot threads get developed upon. Snarfquest shows us a map of his world. Dragonmirth shows us a variant on the trojan horse.

Well, this has certainly been an interesting issue. Never thought I'd see Katharine Kerr flipping out and being a downright spoilsport.  Even if the average quality of articles isn't quite as high as the last three, there's certainly lots of weird and wonderful stuff happening in here. The monsters are good, the reviews are well above normal quality, the fiction is cool. It's just the full sized articles that aren't always the best. Keep the surprises coming, guys. Controversy like this is fun to rediscover.