Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988

part 1/3


108 pages. Birthday no 12. Another year, another batch of dragon related articles for your delectation. What new and terrifying adversaries will we face, what tactics will they deploy? Will you come home a great hero, or will you be served up crispy fried in foil?

In this issue:


Letters: A letter with some more last word suggestions. Very droll.

A letter from one of their writers, pointing out a mistake he made in a recent article. D'oh!

Another letter pointing out errors, which Roger examines and pronounces they are not errors at all. These are entirely legitimate uses of the english language.

A non letter from the editors, thanking all of us, their loyal readers. 12 years and still going strong. They couldn't have done it without us. Aww.


Forum: Tim Lieberg has his own rather extensive contribution on how to make low level wizards viable characters. Most of these are changes in emphasis rather than actual rules alterations. It's mostly a matter of how you play them that determines their viability.

James A Yates rebutts the recent responses to his college of magic article. Yes, keeping a educational facility running is an expensive business, and you're unlikely to make a short term profit on it. This is very much a realistic reflection of real educational facilities, and the reason why they need government subsidies to stay viable. If the wizard you're playing really is as smart as his stats suggest, he'll find some other ways of wringing money out of the students and surrounding community.

Ed Kruse is in favour of houseruling if you don't like the official rules. This includes the rules for XP. Getting XP for treasure is out, XP for using your class abilities constructively is in. Is that a foreshadowing I see?

David Choi not only thinks that you shouldn't get xp for treasure, but if you fail to actively practice your class skills, you should actually lose xp. Pff. That never goes down well.

Greg Pierson disapproves of the alignment restriction on thieves. Adversity can make even good guys resort to larceny. Another bit of foreshadowing. I suspect roger has a pretty good idea by now what's going to be in the next edition, and they're trying to soften us up to the idea of the changes.  

Steve Kommrusch is in favour of the demographics of classes where each level is approximately half as rare as the one below. It's easy to calculate, and level 20+ characters become suitably rare as to retain their specialness.
 
David Poythress disapproves of ability creep such as that demonstrated in the recent article on alternate dice methods for demihumans. If this carries on, the whole game will cease to be a challenge. And then where will the fun be?

Paul Astle reminds us that there are many stories in which a lycanthrope reacts with horror to their transformations. You can have quite a bit of fun running adventures in which a character tries to rid themselves of this scourge, and the resultant fallout.

Lucas McNeill tells the people writing in as pontificating sages to remember that the medieval conception of the world was rather different to the modern one. Similarly, the D&D universe does not run on real world physics anyway. So they shouldn't talk like modern day scientists.

Len Carpenter rebutts his critics on the matter of jousting. It's been over a year, quite a few books have come out since then, and he's thought quite a bit about how to handle it better. He introduces a new, simpler and more integrated system here. He does not, however, address the matters of honour that some of the repliers have spun the debate off into. Hmm.
 
S.D. Anderson seems to be having a problem with proto-fishmalks. These degenerates refuse to take the game seriously, and constantly mess around with the other players, both IC, and OOC. Never let them get their hands on a Wand of Wonder. Rather amusing, really. That kind of player use whatever they can, no matter how you try and stop them.

Gregory D Scott tries to give fighters a bit more depth. They don't just fight, they've also got to know military tactics and how to work with a group well. They might not have these abilities spelled out, but you should still apply them if you don't want to be outshone by all the other classes.

Michael Anderson gives his opinions of the recent articles on illusions. One is very much better than the others.


The dragon's bestiary gets back to basics, giving us some actual dragons for the anniversary. Aquatic dragons are exactly what they sound like. They swim! They attack your ship! They really ought to develop proper underwater paper out of pressed seaweed or something for spellcasting! One of those entries that feels flawed due to later developments in design technology.
 
Ichthyodrakes are another underwater monstrosity. No shortage of those now, with dragon turtles, the various Lung dragons and the like. Well, if the fantasy world is more than 70% oceans like earth, there should be plenty of dragon variants for there that adventurers never see.

Astral Dragons are our first otherplanar dragon species. This conception of them is substantially different from the 2nd ed version, but they are pretty powerful, and rather quirky. I think the astral plane is big enough for more than one dragon type.

Weredragons are not contagious lycanthropes, thankfully, that would just be too scary. They aren't actually that badass in combat, but of course, not that badass for a dragon is still pretty deadly for normal humans. And their seduction and surprise capabilities are quite considerable. They certainly make for a nasty surprise.

Fang dragons don't have a breath weapon, instead having a bite which can drain all your hit points and add them to it's total. Fortunately, this only activates on a natural 20, so really, they're less deadly than many creatures with save or die poison on every hit. And they don't have spells either. Bit of a paper tiger really, compared to most dragons.

Sand dragons are snaky diggers with an instadeath breath weapon. Now this is a bit more like it. Blue dragons can take the desert sky, these guys'll rule the earth.

Stone dragons look like piles of rock when not active. Now there's a trope familiar from TV that can be used to horrifying effect. With three different breath weapons, and a whole bunch of earth based magic, they can be pretty tricksy. A good one to make uneasy allies/enemies of.


Give dragons a fighting chance: Hmm. This is stuff we've seen before, and will see again. Another bunch of ways you can power up your dragon, making them both scarier and more individualized. Unique powers, enhanced versions of exiting ones, clever applications of spellcasting, more detail in physical scaling, lots of reiteration here, some of which would be taken up and made official next edition. We also get another case of the endlessly quibblable sample battles. Not a very interesting one. Roll on the future, please.


AD&D, the pool of radiance computer game. Well well. That looks pretty nice, actually.


Serpents and sorcery: Hmm. Another bit of interesting foreshadowing here. The word sorcery in the title is particularly appropriate. This article sets out to explore draconic spellcasting, and how it differs from human magic-users capabilities. And in the process, makes them pretty similar to 3rd ed sorcerer's in the way they learn and retain spells entirely mentally, and can choose to use different ones for a situation. That certainly puts a new light and historical weight on the decision to give sorcerer's fluff that their powers are derived from draconic descent. How very pleasing to unearth. It also includes common spell suggestions and tactical tricks for the various chromatic and metallic dragon types. Course, these are tricks that could be used by any creature with the appropriate spells, including the PC's. In any case, this is a pretty strong article even if you don't take it's historical context into account, so I quite enjoyed it.


Lords and Legends: Yet another bit of historical coverage here, coming from the opposite direction. Dragotha was first mentioned in S2: White plume mountain. But that was merely a warning, from nearly a decade ago. Many have wondered since then, just who this Dragotha is, and what is his history. How did he come to the state of undeath? Wonder no more! Here he is, in all his glory! Which is actually considerably less scary than most older 2nd ed dragons, but that's power inflation for you. He's still capable of dropping an entire 20th level party in one breath if he gets the drop on them and they save badly, and with his horde of undead warriors, can exert substantial influence on the lands surrounding his lair. As with the underdark special three months ago, the use of original characters massively improves this series. In fact, since I've also put white plume mountain somewhere in my gameworld (muahaha!!) this is the first one of these I can actually see myself using. Considering how many issues of GitE and L&L we've had, that is a very definite turnup for the books, worthy of noting. This is turning out to be an intriguing birthday issue.


The ecology of the red dragon: We finally get an actual dragon race covered here. About time too. This series has been going 5 years now, and appearing most months and the closest we've come before is the chimera. Sensibly, it seems they've decided to only cover one draconic species, rather than the whole lot, which would take a truly epic special feature to do justice to the subject. Now they can milk it bit by bit for all it's worth.

Anyway, this is a rather longer ecology than most so far. This is one of those where the sage has to deal with a rather annoying questioner, in this case some dumb young adventurers who think they can go straight to the big leagues and kill a dragon without going through the goblins, lizard men, bugbears, ogres, and the rest of the monstrous food chain first. Still, at least he isn't subverted like the Harpy one, or personally attached to the creature like the Aurumvorax one, he does give accurate information (and some suppositions and extrapolations). Not that this is going to save the adventurers, since even in 1st ed, red dragons are powerful, smart and magically capable. They do include quite a few bits that some won't agree with, (draconic sexism, relatively severe aging rules, exploding poo. ) but this is still a pretty decent ecology, with plenty of detail and ideas. Not too brilliant, not too bad.

Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988

part 2/3


Sage advice is covering wider issues than simple rule questions this month.
What do you think of house rules. (Be carefull, be consistent, be upfront and explicit. But enough about my personal life. )

Can we convert AD&D characters to a D&D game (No. The two games must remain separate, by holy decree of Arneson! )

Can I play more than one character at once ( We at skip towers do not have a problem with that idea. Go wild.)

Can demihumans change class once they release max level(no. Not in D&D, not in AD&D. They can't even be classes in D&D, and you have to pick your multiclass options when you start in AD&D. Your path is fixed.)

What are attack ranks (an excuse for demihumans to get more badass once they've maxed out their level. Blame non-joined up designing )

How long does lycanthropy take to complete (2-24 days)

What happens when you turn undead. (They run away like little girls. This does not solve the long term problem. I have to wonder why clerics were given this power. Maybe it's a godly conspiracy. )

XP! Huh! What are they good for for once you're maximum level (not much)
 
When druids fight, does the loser drop a level (yes. They need to work the XP up again. Otherwise they could just rechallenge straight away. And no, restoration won't help you.)

How many druids are there above 30th level ( 25. And no epicly awesome heirophants after that. They're just about the only class that gets worse epic options in D&D than AD&D.)

When can fighters use special combat options (once they've learned how. They are a privelege, not a right.)

How many spells does a 1st level character have in their book (2)

Can I imitate perseus and have a medusa head shield ( :sucks teeth: Oooh, I really dunno. We really don't recommend it working for long, otherwise it'll fuck up the game. Plus there's the constant threat of the rest of the team being affected. )

How do medusas stone themselves (by looking in a mirror)

Why are normal bats stronger than giant bats (oops. We swapped the stats)

What special effect does a tiger beetle have (none. we mixed up the tiger and oil beetle. It's all the layout staff's fault. Yeah, that's the ticket. )

What does wolfsbane do (makes lycanthropes run away like little girls. Then they can cower in the corner with the undead from last encounter. And exchange haircare tips. Keeping it sleek and glossy is a lich when you're dead. )

How do you restore strength lost to shadows (patience)

Can a rod of cancelation disenchant constructs (nope)

Where is the description of the devil swine ( page 30 or 48, depending which book you have. Whatever happened to them? They were one of BD&D's more flavourfull monsters. )

Can rocs be used as mounts ( Yes, but it ain't easy. You'll have to assert your authority pretty strongly.)

What is a war horse (A horse trained for war. The name says it all. )

How lawful can an unintelligent creature be ( Repeaters aren't unintelligent. This is the problem with BD&D not giving proper attribute scores for creatures. Misconceptions like this. )

Why don't megaliths have XP values (because they have too many HD to measure properly. It's the old HD /= Challenge problem at very high levels.)

What's the encumbrance of a spellbook (pretty hefty. I could get precise values from  Gary a few years ago, but I can't be bothered )

What do I do if the PC's get a too powerful magic item ( Let me count the ways. Take it away, rack up the opposition, give the other players more, let it run out. Your choices are myriad)

What's a pocket of holding (like a bag, only atatched to your trousers. You'd better hope they're sized right. )

Does your level affect powers from items you're using (No. This may cause scaling problems at high level. )

How do +1 items benefit a character. (oh, it's another moron question is it. Do you even know what a number is? Skip does not have time for this. Skip is a badass Mutha
Shut yo mouth
Hey, I'm talking about Skip here
I can dig it)

How can a bag of holding fit a 10' long item (extradimensional. Bigger inside than out. That's it's whole schtick. Once again, read the book properly)

Do you lose experience when you drink a potion of longevity (only if it's cursed. )

How do you avoid being trapped in a scroll of shelter (get out before it's taken down. Simple)

Can you add new creatures to the egg of wonder (oh yes. Like any random item, expanded tables to keep the characters on their toes are always welcome. Who knows, maybe we'll publish one in here. )

Can you bypass enemies as well as allies with an arrow of blinking (no)
Do magic arrows lose their magic when fired (yes. Use them wisely)

Can any elf or magic user use a crystal ball (yes. It's part of basic training, along with making spellbooks, and the curse which prevents you from using most weapons. )

Does suit armor save you from fireball and lightning bolt (fireball, yes. Lightning bolt, no. Electricity likes metal very much, and then they make little singe babies. You don't wanna be inside when they're getting biz-ayh. )  

Can PC's make intelligent magic items (Yes indeedy. You need to be pretty high level though. )


Bazaar of the bizarre: More support for the Jester. One of the few classes solely from the magazine to get follow-up articles. There's a joke in there, or at the very least an irony. In any case, such repeated support makes them more attractive as a character option.  This is rather amusing in itself.

The blowgun of wild emotions is a great bit of random screwage. Use with caution, for inducing envy, greed, rage, hatred or paranoia will likely backfire on you painfully if they know who hit them.

The Exalted book of ethnic Humor lets you tailor your offensiveness to humiliate and insult anyone, of any race. Eeech. I can see that one getting uncomfortable around the gaming table if there are any actual minorities around.

The Extendable hand of enjoyment lets you engage in, erm, manual manipulation of objects up to 30' away. I can definitely see a lot of uses in that, some of them not even jokes.

The Larynx of deafening is another item that could be used seriously, as it's basically just a portable amplifier for your voice. Now you can get through to even the largest and deafest of audiences.

Magical paddleboards let you thwok things with balls on rubber bands. Of all the humiliating ways to go, this really takes the cake.  

Paddleboards of wondrous transformation take the previous idea and run with it, transforming creatures hit into some other random creature. Since these are often scary monsters, this is one that will just make a fight more insane, rather than putting the opponent out altogether. Muahahahaha!!!!

Random target daggers do exactly what they say on the tin. Throw them and they could go anywhere. Who knows what they'll hit?

Skates of the roller hoopers let you skate over any surface, including walls and ceilings. Your battles will become tremendously cinematic, verging on the cartoonish.

The Hula-hoop of the roller hoopers whirrs around your body and deflects missile attacks. Combined with the skates and a ranged weapon (or the paddleboards or extendible hand, you become able to whizz around griefing your enemies while they can do sod all in return. Now there's a confidence booster for you.

The Tome of the fool is like most other tomes, it gives a jester extra XP, and screws over nonjesters reading it. Avoid like the plague, for forced class conversion sucks.

The Tome of the humorous perspective allows a jester to calmly accept death as just the punchline to the greatest joke of all, becoming scarily fearless and able to bring levity to the grimmest of situations. Just like Kender then. Do not capture them, for they'll ruin even the best prepared evil monologue.

The Yo-yo of fate lets jesters do a bit of god-modding. Yet another tool they have to survive and laugh in the face of adversity.


For your orcs only: Bruce Heard plays sage as people give their feedback and questions about the Orcwars! game. You'd better learn da rulez of Waaagh!!!!! boyz.

Can hordes fight or occupy without a chief (Sure. Da boyz like to fight. Just don't expect dem ta show much initiitiitiative. )

Can hordes without a chief stay in a coalition. (Ya. Untill a noo strong leader takez over. Den all bets are off if he don wanna follow da big boss. )

How does the code of ethnics work if one side doesn't have a chief. (Da boyz join da first big boss of the same race dey meet.)  

How can uncommanded hordes retreat. (Dey don't. Without a warboss ta give them tactics, da boyz fight to da death! )

Can uncommanded hordes mine. (Sure. Mining don' take much brainpower, and da boyz gotta get dere exercise if dere's no-one ta fight. )

Can chiefs exchange hordes (Yeaaaah! Watch out if da new chief is a different race to da hordes though. Da boyz might kill him.)  

When can a chief pick up uncommanded hordes. (Da boyz will leap into action for him any time. )

Do you have to roll an authority check if forced to retreat out of your home (Nahh. Da boyz don't mind a little adversity. It's coming inta money dat makes dem unreliable. )  

Can you collect gold from a territory you've just retreated into ( I bleedin wish. )

What happens to the gold if you lose your horde by the chief survives ( All gone. All Gooone! There's a dog loose in the woods. )

Can a big army lose war machines if a little army was successful against them (if dey used dem in da battle)

Can you retreat into territory controlled by your own coalition. (sure. Den you get more buds and go kick dere asses. Revenge!!!!! )

Can you fight, move and fight some more in a single turn (no. Such a shame.)

Can you use a spy to figure out which card you want to take (no. That would require two uses. )

Do you keep control of a territory after moving all your troops out (till some other chief comes in)

Does a chief automatically capture a territory he moves into (only if he ends his move there. )

Can a chief just take over an unnoccupied enemy territory and levy troops. (sure. Da boyz'll be bored and fight whoever ya tell'em to fight. Especially if you tell'em to get Soulja boy )

Are we going to get an orcwars boxed set. (Maybe. Buy lots of GAZ10 if ya want that ta happen. )

Are Gold country east and west different territories. (Yar. There's gold in them thar territories, and they don't wanna share. )

Can you use multiple chief operations defensively (Yes! The boyz can co-operate sometimes.)

So let's get raiding! Raaaaaaar. Last one dead has to eat everyone else!

Dragon Magazine Issue 134: June 1988

part 3/3


Fiction: Eyes of redemption by James Brunet. Hmm. This is an interesting mythological set-up. And one I can't really talk about without spoiling the whole plot of the story. I'll just say that it works both as a story, as a bit of worldbuilding, and as part of this month's focus on dragons, taking the hero on a physical and internal journey that makes sense, given what he experiences, and ends in a way that is highly satisfying, if not completely happy. Quite a good one, really.


TSR Previews: AD&D gets FR4: The Magister. Lots of new magical items, and I suspect some reprints from the magazine, all with Elminsters inimitable writing style framing it. Can something that was pretty fun to read as articles be sustained for a whole book?

The Forgotten Realms is also getting next year's calendar. Once again, you get to see artwork from the books reprinted considerably larger, on nice glossy paper for your viewing enjoyment.

Dragonlance isn't being neglected either. The second book is now converted to graphic novel format. The third should be along pretty soon then.

Marvel Superheroes are still in an epic mood, with ME2: Ragnarok and Roll. Thor & co kick the asses of the Elders of the universe. They probably deserve it.

Top Secret/S.I. also pushes it's boundaries with TSAC4: F.R.E.E.Lancers. A new futuristic setting full of superpowered secret agents, this looks like being a polarising little book. They really are moving this ever further from it's original design.

The dread Bullwinkle & Rocky roleplaying party game hits the shelves this month. Includes hand puppets. Eeech. :rumble of thunder, stab of organ music: Erm, I mean It sounds marvelous, and will revolutionise roleplaying as we know it while also being a huge commercial success :teeth ting:

And finally, we have a trio of boardgames. Kage, Crosse and Steppe are all appearing under a new imprint, the Master Moves Strategy Boardgames. Interesting. Anyone remember having these, or are they going to disappear unlamented like too many of their experiments?


Arcane lore: Another interesting design experiment here. Healing magic is one thing that massively affects the tone of the game. Just how much of it you have available, and how quickly you can apply it makes a huge difference. Here's a clever little trick. Instead of waiting until they get hurt to heal them, you could apply pre-emptive spells that kick in when you get hurt. leaving the cleric free to do other things mid combat. And so another ingenious little bit of spell technology came into being, with 4 new spells that do exactly that. Regenerate light, serious, critical wounds, & Regenerative Heal. Each heals slightly less than it's after the event counterpart, and imparts the healing over a longer timescale rather than all at once,  so they don't overshadow the standard spells in terms of power. But in terms of tactical play, combining the two types of healing can give a team substantial advantages. Very clever indeed, and a good example of how to become more effective through proper tactics and variety of options rather than objective power creep. I like this one quite a lot, and am definitely putting it in as a secret technique to be unearthed in my game.


The official ballot for Origins 1987! Vote now and send it in! Another interesting bit of context here.

Another rather lengthy bit of Gen con info, as they give a 4 page bit of promotion on the games auction, and how to participate in it. Pay attention to the small print.


Sighting in: Top Secret's article this month is focused on assassination. Just as people are finally getting over their rage about the assassin being removed from the next edition of AD&D. In particular, sniping. One of the least favourite ways to kill a PC, and generally problematic, in the same way that nukes and spaceship combat are. But that's because it's rather effective at killing things. Anyway, this is two pages of gun pr0n, and half a page on getting the proper training to use it. After all, not every agent can become a sniper. You still need to gather plenty of info about what's going on and where to lurk before you can set things up to shoot someone. Not a hugely interesting article, and once again the stats are all for the second edition rather than the new one. They really are still giving it a lot of support. Is this driven by the magazine staff or the fans?


The game wizards: Speaking of snipers, Steve Winter decides to talk about their new Sniper™ games. There are still quite a few people at TSR who like wargames, and would like to see them return to a wider audience, and he's leading the charge.  So this month, this column is devoted to promoting the series, describing how the rules work, and trying to make buying them seem like an appealing prospect. Designed to cover a wide range of close range engagements, and both mundane and supernatural scenarios, they're certainly trying hard. But as Yoda said. Do, or do not do. There is no try. Another depressing reminder of all the companies failed experiments.


Role-playing reviews decides that it's their turn to have an oriental special. Better late than never to jump on the bandwagon, as it's popularity shows no sign of abating around here. As usual, Jim talks about what should make playing in this milieu different from any other game, and the standards he is using to judge the products by. You have to balance the cool powers with the social ties and responsibilities, the realistic elements with the fantastic, and capture the strangeness of the cultures without making them inaccessable. Oh, and there's gotta be ninjas. How will he judge the current options?

Bushido is one of the more Old Skool games out there. With dense, poorly organized rules, it'll take several full readings to figure out how everything fits together. If you can do this, it's a crunchy games that does capture the Oriental feel fairly well. And you don't have to worry about keeping up with tons of supplements, although he doesn't see that as a positive either. Could be better, could be worse.

Land of ninja is a supplement for 3rd ed Runequest. It integrates pretty well with the existing rules, introducing plenty of new skills and powers. It is however lacking in martial arts, and the maps referenced in the adventures seem to be missing. So while generally of decent quality, the whole thing feels a bit unfinished, and if you don't like how the Runequest system works in general, this won't change that.

Oriental adventures is of course AD&D's attempt at covering these topics. And a pretty successful one it is too, integrating all the basic themes into the game in a mechanically codified way, without altering AD&D so much that you can't use them alongside western characters and monsters. If you haven't got it already, do so. Jim also gives brief reviews of the first two OA modules, Swords of the Daimyo and Blood of the Yakuza. Each provides both adventures and setting detail, helping fill in the lands of Kara-Tur some more. Seems reasonable enough. My only real complaint with this review is that we see another instance of their creeping desire to downplay Gary's contributions. Zeb Cook gets all the credit, while Gary and the other people who contributed to the book, but are no longer with the company do not get mentioned. This is rather telling. There is corporate culture crap going on here that they would rather we not see.


Catching some rays: Gamma World's article this month is a little expansion on the effects of lower intensity long term radiation exposure. This is definitely on the more realistic end of things, with radiation primarily giving you health problems and detrimental mutations. One of those articles that definitely won't be good for many games, with it's greater lethality and playing up a problem you can't fight directly. Serviceable but dull.


The role of computers: Dream Zone is an adventure game where you go from reality to a dream world, and then have to escape the dream. It uses the same framing trick as the wizard of oz movie, making reality black and white, while the dream world is in colour. The puzzles are typically obtuse, with a strong sense of humour involved as you navigate your way through the corrupt and obtuse department of information. Definitely seems like an inventive little creation.

Strike-Fleet, The Naval Task Force Simulator is one of those big strategy games where you have to learn to control a whole bunch of things at once, and then play out various military scenarios. Ship and submarine scenarios are quite different experiences, and you have to learn to both wait patiently for the enemy to make a mistake, and react fast in response. This will take quite a few tries.

The Pawn, another adventure game, gets a rather short review. While positive, this is actually mostly concerned with the capabilities of IBM computers as compared to more common gaming platforms. The graphics card you have can make a quite substantial difference to your gaming experience. Another one of those bits of historical context that reminds us just how far computers have to develop.


Gary Gygax presents Fantasymaster! We will compete with our former creation and blow them away! Yeah, right. Any opinions on this one?

Warhammer 40,000 gives us a big statblock as an advert. Buh. Does that work? Have you ever been sold on a game by looking at it's statblocks?


The ultimate Addenda's addenda: Another bunch of extra powers is this month's Marvel contribution. As they often do with monsters and magical items, these are the result of lots of people's ideas being submitted over time and then compiled. So here's 8 new variant powers, demonstrating the ingenuity of various super-heroes, plus 8 new "meta-powers", which improve your capabilities that work by messing with the quirks of the game rules. Change the Karma criteria, pool and combine your stats and powers with those of others, and choose everyone's place in the initiative order, these can be pretty effective. Once again we see how adapting ideas from other games can have quite different looking results when applied to other systems, and this can be very interesting. A pretty nice bit of new toys for a game which gets less than it's fair share of them around here.


Dragonmirth leaves things half-done twice. Does that make a complete joke? Snarf makes new friends. Possibly. Things could easily go horribly wrong again.

Yamara! Looks like they've found a replacement for Wormy. Already there is PvP. I remember the later issues of this, and I eagerly look forward to seeing the whole arc in the proper order. Not that they'll get that much done, as they're only tiny monthly strips. Still, it's how funny the journey is, not the destination, that really counts. And they're already off to a decent start in that respect.


We get a map showing where all 10 of the gazetteers of the Known world are covering. 640 pages between them. That's a lot of setting detail. Better than Oerth ever got. Goes to show how much the supplement mill has accelerated in the past couple of years.


Time definitely marches on in this one, with an unusual number of references to both the past and the future in this issue. You can definitely tell we're in the middle of gearing up for an edition change. This time, it's the D&D stuff that works best, while the coverage of other games feels a bit sub-par. Still, they seem to be maintaining fairly consistent ratios in what they're tackling. What will happen next, when the edition change really goes into full effect? What format changes, what flame wars will next year bring? Certainly looks promising.

Dragon Magazine Issue 135: July 1988

part 1/3


108 pages. Bwuh. Rather amusing cover this month. Did that creature just stumble on the fairy, or is it a person who just got transformed into a walrus headed fluke tailed furry thing in a typical attack of mischievousness? Not important. More important is Roger reiterating D&D's international popularity, with stats on the number of people who read Dragon, and send in letters and articles from Canada, UK, Australia, and other english speaking countries. A broadly spread fanbase is the basis for a stable, long-lasting career. And strong distribution and promotion is a crucial part of that. So if you have the money, go on international promotional trips. If you do it right, it'll more than pay for itself in the long run. I will not be insular. Insularity is the slow death that leads to moribund echo chambers. I will step outside my comfort zone, acclimatize myself to new experiences, and incorporate the good ones into my daily life. Or something. Back to the grind.


In this issue:


Letters: A whole ton of quickfire responses for the cover of issue 133. Very amusing.

A letter asking how much the OD&D rules are worth. Depends which printing, and who you're selling them too. Name your price and see if anyone'll pay it. If not, you may want to drop it a little.


Forum: Dain A. Miller thinks wizards should be able to wear basic padded armour. Even that would increase their survivability at 1st level quite a bit. This is why so many of them wind up being dex & con monkeys, despite it having little to do with being better at their class abilities.

David Carl Argall still thinks that if anything, magic-users are too powerful, and need to be reduced in power at higher levels. Flatten that curve!

Kenneth Arromdee has some more comments on the magic-user debate. His own solution to increase survivability without changing any rules is dual classed 1st level fighter/magic-users. Better be using a good rolling method to get the scores for that reliably

Brian Habing, Randy Smith,Wayne Strailton and Eric Krein all have quite a bit to say on the dimensions of magic-user spellbooks. These of all things shouldn't be standardised. Have you ever seen real researchers notes. Homogeneity is not their strong point.

Theresa Mac Donnelly has some very inventive uses for the simulacrum spell. Like shapechanging, the possibilities are endless given a little time to prepare, and knowledge of the right creatures to copy. I very much approve of these ideas.

Amit Izhar also has another clever application for the larcenous wizard. Spider climb makes a great pilfering device. Palm objects without using any fingers at all, due to the stickiness.

Steve Allen thinks that RPG's shouldn't just be about fun. What about developing your analytical thinking, your acting skills, your ability to work with others well? You'll have more fun if what you're playing has a little sophistication. Contentious statement. I am interested in debating that theory.

Brett Barnsdale thinks that saving for disbelief on illusions is a subjective pain in the butt. Just let them know it's an illusion when they touch it and go through it, and leave them guessing until then.

S.D. Anderson is also talking about illusion saves. Damn these vague rules, provoking so much controversy!

Rick J Federle has a house rule to determine how much XP a thief should get for thieving. A pretty simple one. No objections here.

Thomas Cook debates our recent DC Heroes article. Interesting. Wasn't expecting that. Will he get any responses? Since he works for the actual company, I am skeptical.


Space 1889! Steampunk kicks off! Nice.

The queen galadriel collectors doll?! Looks like a modded barbie to me Do you really want to shell $56 on that? Bleh.


The ecology of the cave fisher: Back to the fairly realistic creatures. After all, there are real world spiders that hunt by snaring things with dangled strands instead of webs. Give arthropods functioning lungs and the other bits and pieces needed to scale up, and you'd see things like this in a few million years, no trouble. Not that you'd really want too, for being strung up for hours or days before actually getting eaten is not a nice way to go. One of the more lethal ecologies, we not only see two waves of adventurers die, but also an amusing postscript in which the innkeeper takes advantage of their foolishness. It may be a game for us, but it isn't for them. Definitely another entertaining little ecology here. Don't get smug just because your opponents don't have inhuman intelligence and a load of magical abilities.


The dragon's bestiary: Tibbits are nekocreatures, mischievous little feline shapeshifters with a quirky set of magical powers. With planar connections, the ability to form bonds with spellcasters, and pretty good thief abilities, they're quite capable of being highly tricky to deal with, especially in groups. One to be intensely annoying with, muahahaha!


Through the looking glass: A new miniatures column. It's been a while since they tried one of these. And once again, they're trying out a new name, rather than resurrecting one of the three they've tried before. I wonder if this one'll stick for any length of time. No actual content in this one, merely an outline of what they'd like to see in future issues. Obviously, it's future success is up to the freelancers. Yet again the magazine fills in one of the last few steps to become the one I knew when I started reading. Quite pleasing, really.


Give them enough rope!: Another little article engaging in some realistic analysis. With lots of Runequest references. Curious. As usual, the various RPG's differ substantially from reality and each other in their treatment of rope. Something that could be dull very easily, but Robert Plamodon's inventive set of uses for it, laced with dry humour, manage to redeem it. Another one to look at when stuck in an awkward situation with basic equipment and short of ideas on how to get out. MacGuyver would be proud.  


Bazaar of the Bizarre: More arrows this month. 33 different types of magical arrow, many of which have lots of subcategories as well. Be generous with them and in letting players find out what they do, for as usual, these are one-shot devices. Even the cheap (non cursed) ones cost 120 gp each. Still, definitely enough here for months of amusing treasure deliveries as they more than double the basic stuff from the core books. My favourites in this selection are the arrow of clairvoyance (perfect ninja weapon) The arrow of multiplicity (great visuals there) The arrow of roping, and the arrow of pursuit. Plenty of interesting stuff for players here. Definitely more than enough here for a good themed badguy as well. Another neat article in this series.


When game masters go bad: Another serious article with a humorous edge here. So many ways that the GM can mess things up. So little time to list them all. Adversarial GM'ing, messing up the rules, lack of enthusiasm, insufficient preparation, favouritism, formulaic design, railroading and overeliance on things turning out a particular way. Actually, that's not such a huge list. This is another case where most of the stuff mentioned is pretty familiar, so it's mostly a matter of how well the writer phrases it this time that determines if I like it or not. And this time it's pretty good, with some very amusing illustrations. Whoever came up with using the old image of the man eating his own face was a twisted genius. Credit to both the Roger's, much as they hate being lumped together.


The game Wizards: Jim Ward is buzzing away at several things at once as usual. Most important is the new Greyhawk corebook. Lots of suggestions have been sent in, and he's sorted through them and is incorporating the best ideas. Along with the usual endless demand for new monsters and spells, a lot of people also want a system for properly developing 0 level characters without them going into a class. So we'll give it to them. I suspect some of them would actually like to get rid of classes altogether, and make D&D skill based, but they ain't getting that. He also plots a pun-filled dungeon, and forgotten realms miniatures. Looks like someone's trying to keep the spirit of mischief that was more prevalent in the early years of the hobby alive. Now, can they keep moving forward while doing so?


The Mix-&-Match Module: Zany crossovers! Now there's something that's declined quite a bit over the years. Definitely a case of appropriate juxtaposition putting it next to Jim's piece. But actually, this isn't that zany or gonzo, being advice on how to convert modules from one genre or system to another. This is particularly useful when playing non D&D games, since D&D probably has more modules to convert than all the other RPG's out there put together. You can also steal ideas from books, movies, TV, etc, and as long as you alter it enough, no-one need be any the wiser. Learn enough techniques like this, and you never need worry about writer's block again! Now all you need to do is figure out how to live with the guilt of knowing you're nothing but a hack. I suggest large quantities of alcohol. 9 out of 10 fleet street journalists recommend it! And they write even more than I do on a daily basis, so they should know. I seem to have become sidetracked again, because this is actually a pretty dull article. Hopefully I won't have to use it.


Palladium starts trumpeting the universality of their system. Now you can go from genre to genre with the same characters, and have equally screwy and unbalanced adventures in all of them. Next thing you know they'll make a setting explicitly designed for gonzo crossovers

Dragon Magazine Issue 135: July 1988

part 2/3


Heroes are made - Like this!: Following on neatly again, talking of converting from one system to another, here's the usual proper characterisation and backstory advice, converted to the superhero genre. To build a character, you need to figure out their connections with the world, both as a person, and as a superhero. Are they part of a team, what are their likes and dislikes, how have they taken gaining powers, etc etc. Once again, this is pretty familiar material, that fails to shake off the boredom. Let's keep going, shall we.


Philip jose farmer's The Dungeon! I love this series, even if it does suffer some tonal problems with the shifting of authors from book to book. A great inspiration for planar gaming in general. Go buy it now.


Sage advice takes a break from D&D for a little Star Frontiers menage au frottage. They may only get one chance to do this, so this is another mammoth session. Not that this is a problem for Skip! Aaahh! He'll answer every one of us! (guitar riff)

What happens when you fire on a stationary vehicle (lots of the table's results become inapplicable. Oh noes!)

Is vehicle damage cumulative (Hmm. What would the real world do? Yes! )

What happens when a pedestrian gets hit (say hello to mah friend PAIN!)

Do grenades bounce at point blank range (yes. You will be hurt as well, remember. )

Do sathar ignore environmental crap (mostly.)

Where is starmist (off the map. We'll have to make a bigger one.)

Why don't lasers work well underwater ( The level of scattering is waay worse than in air. It's range of usefulness as a weapon would be rather short. )

What are the odds of jumping from one moving vehicle to another ( Agility check. DM should probably assign penalties. )  

What are the modifiers for exchanging fire between two parallel vehicles (cover and attacker movement)

How elastic are dralasites (oooh. Not enough to fly, but they are pretty damn flexible. Skip knows what you're thinking next, laydees, and would love to watch.)

Do vehicle's weapons get a bonus to hit (not really)

Can hover vehicles fly high (nope. They're like ghosts. They go whir, hum hum, AAAAARRGH MY FOOT! Or something.)

What's a track-mobile ( Sarah Palin is so not topical anymore. Let's skip this one)

 How much protection does armour give a vehicle ( Quite a bit. Otherwise why bother)

How does a telescopic scope affect shooting (reduced range penalties, whichever way you want to slice things. )

How do you break a hold (use your melee score. It's a melee attack, innit)

Do you need to check for every jetcopter you fly (nah. Too much effort)

Can you try again after failing a skill check (ahh, this old chessnut again.

Yeah, if you have the time, and failing doesn't mess things up. )

Do GSY's have sub-units ( I think we'll skip overcomplicating this stuff.)

Can you climb ANY length of rope with only 2 rolls? ( As ever, common sense needs to be applied. )

Ammo has no encumbrance. My players want to carry infinite amounts of it ( And this ruins your game how? Embrace the cinematicness dude! )

How much does anasthetic cost (50 cr for 10 doses. )

How far can you move and attack (aaalll the way. This aint 3rd edition D&D)

Can you buy a skill up more than one level at once (no. You can only learn so fast. )

How do you use MA subskills (Instinctively! Keep training! It won't be instinctive if you don't work at it. )

Can you use a heavy weapon if you can carry it (no, they need to be mounted for the proper support. Otherwise you'll look rather silly )

How much does a tripod cost and weigh. ( Cost, 50 cr. Weight, 15kg. Making all the laydees gasp at the size of your L4zor. Priceless)

Can I photocopy the character sheet (only for personal use. Otherwise sueage may ensue)

Are the off-handed and two weapon penalties cumulative (yes. Double attacks need a hefty balancing factor. )

Why are groundcars faster over water ( because they have to be lighter to float)

How do you determine a robot's strength ( Watch him pumping iron with his iron pumps )

Do you need special equipment to deactivate a robot (of course. Otherwise the technicians'd be out of a job)

Can you get over 6th level in a skill (Only if you buy Zebulon's guide, the new supplement. Available in all good hobby shops now :teeth ting: )

When will another volume of zebulon's guide come out (Never. You ungratefull swine didn't buy enough copies to make it worth our while. )

Can I use gamma world equipment in star frontiers (If you like. Conversions aren't hard. )

What do you roll to hit if you don't have any combat skills (the 0 table. Fnar)

Why do the humma have two entries on the movement chart (because they're like kangaroos, so they normally bounce along. But if the ceiling's low, they have to move more normally or hit their head. This obviously slows them down a bit )

Do you have any chance of suceeding at something you have no skill in (there's always a chance. Not a good one, but there you go. )

Are dex modifiers applied before or after rolling (Before. In many games this wouldn't matter, but it seems here it does. Intriguing)

How do you teach a robot to drive. ( At great expense. )

Where is the throwing skill (What, are you still playing the basic game? You'll have to go Advanced to do complicated things like that. N00B)

How far do explosives bounce (depends how long they're set for. )  

Do mentalist disciplines require an unobstructed line of sight (no. Fear the psychics, for your head may explode at any time )

Do solar optics save you from floodlights (not quickly enough. Needs some more R&D)

Can a single maxiprog do everything ( Nah. We're still working off 80's computer limitations. We don't realise that in 20 years they'll be better than the stuff in our current sci-fi. )

What's a random locator indicator ( The thing that lets computers work without running through their entire memory every time you want to find something. Verrrah verrah handy)

How many programs can a computer use simultaneously (never enough. Never enough)

Do type E scanners really weigh 1000 kilograms (oh yes. Some things just aint portable. )

Can a spy eye be controlled manually (Yes. It helps with the protagonisation if you play a reactive part in your espionage )

Can you keep doing damage with pyrokinesis (Yes. It's like cooking a pizza. They go from underdone to charred really quick if you don't pay attention. Once someone's properly heated up, even more damage comes readlily. Muahahahahaha!)

How much can you change your density (As much as you have the time for. It'll take aaaages to become a black hole and destroy the world though, and someone may foil you in the meantime. )

What's the range of a grenade launcher (D. It stands for Don't give away trade secrets)

What are parabatteries (They have little wings, and they bounce along the floor. Jump on them to turn them into regular batteries.)

What skill is used to fire micromissiles (oops. We'd better invent one pronto. )

How much is a minigrenade launcher ( If it saves your life, what does it really matter. )


Virgin games centre advertises in Dragon. Another depressing reminder of how much more mainstream the hobby was in that era. You bought your gaming products in the regular toy stores along with the computer games and mainstream albums, not some shitty little niche of a shitty little comic book store with a tiny selection. (no offense, forbidden planet, traveling man, and all the rest.) If we didn't have the internet, we'd never find most of the books we want. Also, WFT kind of name is Zavvi? It's no wonder you're suffering these days.

Dragon Magazine Issue 135: July 1988

part 3/3


TSR Previews: D&D is still mainly gazetteering lately, with The Northern Reaches. A viking raider culture is a perfect place for adventurers to come from. Including a 3D village? Interesting.

AD&D gets DL15: The mists of Krynn. Lots of miniadventures, set all over Ansalon, including plenty of familiar faces. This world aint dying any time soon.

Marvel superheroes goes from E to M in another 256 page handbook. The frequency which each letter shows up in the alphabet is exceedingly uneven.

Top Secret gets TS3: Orion Rising. Lots more details on the good guy bureaus. Just what you need to figure out what missions to give your players.

On the books front, we have Sniper! Adventure gamebook 6: Libyan Strike, Greyhawk adventure 6: The name of the game, and Starsong, a novel by Dan Parkinson. Busy busy busy.

And finally in boardgames, we get the I think you think I think game. Doublethink your way to victory. I'm sure I've seen something similar as a facebook app, which says a lot about how boardgames have been superceded even more than RPG's by computers.


Fiction: Karl and the ogre by Paul J McAuley. Fittingly for an issue which has already had several bits on crossing over genres and converting from one to another, here's a reminder that the boundary between fantasy and sci-fi is easily crossed, and there are many fantasy series set in a time after the fall of modern civilisation, when the magic has come back, for whatever reason. This is one of those, and a somewhat disconcerting one too. The big danger of transhumanism is if you create massively superior people, what they will do to normal people in return. Will they oppress them, look after them for their own good, or simply kill them all so everyone can be superior. And if their minds are that far ahead of ours, will we be able to tell the difference between benevolence and tyranny? A nicely thought-provoking little piece.


Up close and personal: Top secret actually gets an S.I specific article at last. A little piece on unarmed combat in the game, what exactly the various moves do. Now you have a little more support for your cinematic moves, instead of letting the fight degenerate into a slugfest because no-one wants to go through the hassle of figuring out how to do more complex stuff. This is a good example of how the universal resolution tables make these kind of things easy to understand, and make it easy to include fun special effects for drastic failures and successes. This certainly makes it look both fun and fast moving. So I think thats a success then.


Role-playing reviews: This month's theme is stuff with visual aids. Pictures, miniatures, cutouts, sometimes even full-on constructible castles, these can definitely spice up your game. Ken is a fan of having toys like this, and talks about their upside, problems, and his judging criteria. He also mentions those great bugbears of gridded minis combat, scale and diagonal movement. The square root of 2 is not a rational number, and trying to reconcile this with simple rules causes quite a bit of hassle, while going hex has it's own problems when you want to move in a straight line. Just use a ruler. Another unexpected digression here. This is definitely a promising start.

The halls of the dwarven kings is a pretty boxed set devoted to an underground scenario. Build up the abandoned dwarven halls, and have your players explore them. (they're actually too big for you to build the entire thing with the pieces provided, but since they shouldn't know what's coming that just means you'll have to build up and remove stuff on the fly) The whole thing is tremendously detailed, and includes stats "compatible with" D&D and Runequest, and easily convertable to other systems. This is several steps above most generic adventures both visually and mechanically.
Blood on the streets is a warhammer supplement which allows you to build your own villages. The different houses are all nicely english and individualised, and fit together nicely. They also tie together into a small collection of villages, with a whole load of NPC's and adventure hooks. Again, it wouldn't be hard to use the pieces in some other game.

Citi-Block is a sci-fi variant on the same theme. This is officially for warhammer 40k and Judge Dredd (goes to show how closely related they are in terms of urban construction and philosophy) and obviously wouldn't be of much use in a shiny happy future like star trek. It's probably the most flawed of these three products, but you can still get plenty of use out of it if you put the effort in.

Lots more mini-reviews here. Most notable is the his review of Castle Greyhawk, which gets quite a good review. They've taken the old skool dungeon design style, and sent it up in amusing fashion while also lampshading some of it's tropes. And since he cut his teeth on that playstyle, he rather likes this. Hmm.


The role of books: The light fantastic by Terry Pratchett is another thing that reminds us how far we've come. At this point in time, the discworld was still a relatively sketchy creation, and the humour far broader and less nuanced than it has since become.  It still manages to have some moments with genuine cleverness and pathos. Ya gotta have the talent before you can develop the finesse.

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer is a fun story, told through the old victorian narrative method of exchanging letters between the characters. (which is how the story was built up IRL as well) This works very well, conveying the sense of a larger world out there, while maintaining subjectivity.

The demon hand by Rose Estes is her third greyhawk novel. It gets a rather negative review. The characters are unsympathetic, the tone is too distant, and the villain is dumb, while outshining established characters by author fiat. Not a pleasing way to treat the first AD&D world.

The crystal shard by R.A Salvadore is the first story in the drizzt series, although at the moment it's actually Wulfgar the barbarian who is the primary protagonist. As this is long before the effects of flanderisation and crank-em-out syndrome have come into force, this is probably actually a bit better than later books in the series. It's definitely a lot better than the greyhawk novel preceding it.

The legacy of Lehr by Katherine Kurtz is an entertaining Sci-fi mystery. A series of murders are taking place on a luxury spaceliner, and obviously this racks up the tension between the various people and aliens on board. It manages to be a success in both of it's genres, and in creating interesting, well fleshed out characters that drive the plot along.  

Of chiefs and champions by Robert Adams gets a considerably more negative review than most of his books have here. Neither the plotting or characterization make much sense to the reviewer, and the marketing seems out of sync with the contents. Has he lost his spark?

We also get another interesting rebuttal to reader's letters, as he explains why he gives some books full reviews while others go in the short and sweet section, and gives the usual YMMV disclaimer. Definitely a well above average one here in terms of both books covered, and the finesse with which they are reviewed.


The role of computers: Alternate reality: The city is an RPG where you generate a character, and the wander around a sandbox developing them. Get a job, join a guild, kill monsters. You get an unusually high amount of freedom here to determine your alignment by the actions you take, and not fight everyone. Weather & time of day are tracked and make real differences, and the whole thing has plenty of depth. The question then becomes what you actually do with this character.

Alternate reality: The dungeon solves some of the problems of the last installment, but presents some of it's own. By far the most egregious is a badly designed interface that requires very frequent disk swapping. The characters are also rather weak for the challenges they face. This ruins the fun of a series with lots of potential.

Airborne ranger is a game where you play a military commando behind enemy lines. You need to balance action with resource management, as you make supply drops before starting the mission, and finding and utilizing them is important to your success. Stealth is also crucial, so you definitely need to use your brain to finish this one.

Power! is an arcade game in which you control a hovercraft, and have to negotiate your way through a load of obstacles to defeat the enemy. Seems fairly standard shoot em up fare.

Decisive battles of the american civil war, volume 1, is not only a massive tactical wargame, it also includes programs that enable you to design your own scenarios. Not too hard to learn, considering it's complexity, it's also well researched and seems to emulate the battles represented decently.

Tetris gets instantly hailed as a hopelessly addictive game. Woo. I'm sure you all know this one, and it's theme tune too, so I shall say no more, apart from reporting that it only gets 4 and a half stars, rather than the full 5. Oh well. They can't predict that it'd still be around long after other things from this era have faded into obscurity. I wonder how they'll react to the rise of handheld games as well.

TNK III is an arcade game where you control a tank. The usual blasting and collecting of power-ups ensues. Not brilliant, but worth the price.


The daily planet gaming supplement celebrates it's first anniversary, after putting adverts in here every month. How consistent of them.


Just how big is this bomb?: DC Heroes gets explosive. How does a grenade translate to their exponential scale? How about a nuke? Supernova? What could superman survive? As with the Top Secret article, this is a simply explained little piece that makes the prospect of playing with cosmic sized powers that can devastate worlds seem fun and not mechanically onerous at all. Which means you have more time to get playing and worry about the story implications. Another pretty decent article.


Dragonmirth turns expectations around in more ways than one. Snarfquest has made new friends after all. Now, if they could only get rid of them.

Part 4 of the enemy within series, Behind the throne. This series continues to build nicely as well.


Another pretty good issue, with a new development, and lots of high quality articles.  They seem to be gradually improving their overall quality again through this year. Is  this going to be reflected in sales, or are they still going down. Just how much will the magazine change when the new edition finally hits. Guess I'll find out in a few months.

Dragon Magazine Issue 136: August 1988

part 1/3


108 pages. Back to the worldbuilding again, with another special on urban adventures. Whether the players are in charge, or just stopping by, certainly plenty of fun to be had there. The more the merrier, and all that. Speaking of the more the merrier, convention season is upon us again, and as we've found repeatedly this year, the runners of Gen Con and Origins really want to work together to make both big conventions the best they can be. What next, Sega and Nintendo working together? History chugs onwards, and it looks like there's going to be plenty more stuff to report on in the next few months.


In this issue:


Letters: A letter asking what rolling method you use for berserkers. Much the same as for barbarians.

Another pointed question on how you deal with arrows that stick in people. It is a bit awkward, they have to admit. That's the fun.

A complaint that they don't cover Spectrum or Amstrad computers. Another reminder that there were a good dozen or so different companies competing for dominance in the computer world then, and their popularity varied quite widely from country to country. Thank god that's over, and even PC and Mac grow increasingly cross-compatible these days.

A letter asking what happened to Wormy. It's gone, we're afraid. That's the end of that story.

A letter praising Perception, and asking if that's the 8th ability score, what is the 7th? Someone's either a D&D player only, or hasn't been keeping up with recent supplements. Not that there's anything wrong with ignoring Comeliness. I do it all the time.


Forum: Aaron Goldblatt has another suggestion for the scaling of illusion saving throws. Unfortunately, it runs into the DM fiat problem as soon as you try and emulate objects. Needs moar guidelines.

Tim Merritt is another writer who appears here to rebutt responses to his articles. He stands by most of his opinions. Yes some of the changes are a bit kludgy, but they're better for making a fun game than standardisation would be.

Steve Marsh thinks that the random origins table for DC heroes in issue 132 was a little too divergent in potential power levels, especially when there are cascading open-ended results on the table. Allowing characters that different is like allowing 1st and 25th level characters to play in the same D&D adventure. A little more fairness is needed.

David Carl Argall points out just how many equal opponents you need to beat to go up a level. It's a wonder anyone ever gets to 2nd level, really. Even experienced soldiers and serial killers don't normally manage that kind of death count. This is why having xp for treasure and other noncombat goals is important.

Ron L Newsome is full of praise for Fritz Lieber, and the new Lankhmar D&D supplement. They make an excellent setting for adventuring in, particularly when house-ruled a little.

John H Chang has a few pointers on the berserker class, as derived from the real world. Yeah, like that ever helps.

Eric Liss continues the debate about Scud and Allycia the cavalier. Don't forget the list of powers cavaliers get. Their badassery more than compensates for their code of honour.

Alexander Thomas Greene expresses his disdain for people trying to play a spellcaster as mobile artillery in Runequest. You shouldn't be bending the system to make this viable, you should be learning how to use magic cleverly from behind the scenes. Same as it ever was.


Building blocks, city style: Random Tables! Always good to see a few of those around. Not that we haven't had them already, but it's good to have ones focused on earth, rather than mars. And they're prepared enough to give us info on both western and eastern style settlements. This is primarily useful for when you have the basics of a city fleshed out and mapped, but haven't got the time or inclination to fill in the details of every building on every street. Apart from a few amusing statistical quirks (it's much easier to find a bordello in a port city, hello sailor and all that.) this is the kind of thing that looks like it would be more interesting in play than it is to read. Nothing wrong with a few labour saving devices when you have as much to get through as I do.


A nightmare on elm street, the game. I quite approve.

Blood Bowl gets a pretty double page spread, with lots of properly painted minis. The cheerleaders for the various races are particularly amusing.


The long arm of the law: Thieves guilds seem to be virtually ubiquitous in D&D settings. Almost to the point where you wonder about their illegality, and the attempts the authorities make to catch them. Are they really so entrenched in the setting as to be impossible to fight? Good question. And obviously, in a properly fleshed out world, one that should vary from place to place. This article is very focussed on applying the alignment model to communities. Which is a good place to start, but a bad way to finish, since that's only 2 axes with three divisions. There's still room for huge amounts of variation within each alignment, especially once you take technology and historical relations with neighbors into account. But that's for you to develop. Another article that only really takes you a part of the way there, with most of it's info being pretty commonsensical. And since the law frequently has some aspects that seem nonsensical unless you know the specific events of the country involved, that's not very realistic, is it.


Empire builder is back. And still using the same recommendation from Gary in issue 65. Couldn't they get a more up to date review?


Taking care of business: The merchant class, as detailed ages ago in Leomund's (what happened to Len, did he quit when Gary was forced out as well?) tiny hut, gets a revised version. Which is nice. It keeps the players from killing everyone and taking their stuff when they shouldn't. They still have the same idiosyncratic spell learning ability, but their powers are better defined and laid out in general. Since they now also have decent combat capabilities, can earn XP from regular adventuring, and get yet another idiosyncratic way of breaking the usual multi/dual classing rules, they actually approach viability as a PC type. If you've maxed out your first class, switching to them seems a pretty good choice. This definitely goes on the list of classes I'll allow in my campaign.


A room for the Knight: Given the number of adventures that start in taverns, and the amount of traveling you have to do in the course of them, a little more info on the places you eat and sleep while in town seems a good topic to cover here. When you add in rogues, rumourmongers, barroom brawls, and all that fun stuff, you can turn them into an adventure in their own right. But for a third time this issue, this is more about giving you the basics, so you can get those sorted out quickly and efficiently, and move on to customising stuff for your own campaign. So they show us roughly how 1 to 4 star inns vary in quality and price, and what you can get there. Once again, the most amusing part of this is in analyzing the quirks of the tables presented. Which in the cosmic scale of things, isn't really that amusing overall.


Fifty ways to foil your players: Muahaha. What a very adversarial title. This seems promising. The title is, as is often the case, a bit misleading, as they use it in it's definition as a noun rather than a verb. So here's 50 character types that serve to amuse and inconvenience the PC's in such a manner that you're not expected to kill them, and doing so would probably make things worse. A strong streak of sadistic humour runs through this article, but they recognize that this is the kind of meal best served in moderation, for if you tip them into outright enemies, D&D characters will not hesitate to go into slaughter mode and damn the repercussions. This is definitely one that'll help you come up with random NPC's quickly, and makes for entertaining reading as well. From these seeds can spring characters that'll give you years of fun gaming. Sow them well.

Dragon Magazine Issue 136: August 1988

part 2/3


Mertwig's maze by Tom Wham. I guess he's still working for them, although none of his games have appeared in here for a while. I was wondering. I suspect he's one of the people who aren't taking the new corporate culture in the company well.


Fiction: The curse of the magus by Bruce Boston and Robert Frazier. People never react well to the concept that something they take for granted is going to be stripped away. Look at the modern issue of fossil fuels. Despite it seeming pretty likely that they'll become scarce enough to be uneconomical to mine for everyday use within our lifetime, people and governments drag their feet on changing to more sustainable power sources until they absolutely have too, and this may seriously bite us in the ass. This has echoes of that theme, but frames it in a rather more personal context, that of the day to day trials and reminiscences of an archmage exiled and stripped of his powers for predicting and trying to prepare people for the depletion of magic. Being right is a bitter satisfaction in that position. Still, at least he manages to go out with a bang. As this manages to be both visually  evocative, and philosophically thought provoking, I think this definitely counts as another win for this department.


Arcane Lore: Rather a tedious lore session this month, as they give us Recharge. Now not just any high level spellcaster can make and reload wands and staves, you need to do some more special research, and pay some more money on material components. How very tiresome, and not worthy of further comment. Next!


Sage advice is feeling particularly classy this month.

Can barbarians build a stonghold (If they can afford it. It would be more thematically appropriate for them to take an existing one by slaughtering their inhabitants and then making a pile of their skulls though.)

Can barbarians hire man-at-arms ( No. He couldn't possibly leave he-man. They're like, a canon pairing. )

How do barbarians summon hordes (by going home and getting their family so drunk they agree to attack whoever it is. )  

Can barbarians get their special AC bonus when wearing magic chainmail (no. You should be ashamed of yourself. All you need is a good sword and a loincloth to take on the world. Maybe some boots as well if you want to be a high class barbarian. Leaving out the loin cloth and becoming a three weapon fighter (take that, wussy rangers ) is possble but not recommended. )

How often can barbarians apply first aid (once per wound. Lets hope no-one starts doing the cutting themselves to allow more hit points to be restored trick. )

What attacks do bards use (their fighter level. Yes, this does mean high level bards suck a bit at head-on combat. Suck it up. You've got plenty of other advantages. )

How many bonus Hp do bards get for high con ( Skip is generous to the laydees. Skip is not like that rape illusion monster creator Jean Wells. Skip lets bards keep the exceptional ability score bonuses from their fighter levels. Oh yeaaaah. )

What druidic powers do bards get. (All of them. Did I not say Skip is generous. If you want to make them really scary, that can include the heirophant powers as well. Being able to change previous rulings is a wonderful thing. Skip has the power, and he's not afraid to contradict people with it. )

Can a thief become a thief-acrobat before becoming a bard (No. Skip has already given you great benificence. Now you must feel the hard end of skip's stick. Yeah baby. )

Do cavaliers go berserk in combat (no, that's berserkers. And no, you can't dual-class cavalier/berserker. That's a dishonorable style, (yes, sir Turquine did it. but that's another game, in another universe ) and you'll lose your cavalierhood if you try. )

What die do Cavaliers and paladins get for HD (10 sided. They might be cooler than fighters, but they aren't tougher as well. )

Are cavaliers immune to dragon fear (yes, for all the good it'll do them. Foil-wrapped yummies, hee.)

What are the effects of percentage scores of abilities other than strength (None. They're just to slow you down from getting 19. Oh, and cavaliers can't increase their int or wis, contrary to what you seem to think. )

Can paladins drink alcohol. (Depends on their order. Probably, unless they actually do something immoral while drunk. You do not get to claim diminished responsibility when you chose to take the actions that got you into a mess. )

Do paladins become fighters or cavaliers when they lose their paladinhood (Cavaliers. Further falling is certainly not impossible though. )

Can paladins use cleric magic items (Nahh. You wouldn't let a nurse do doctor stuff, even if they have the same employer, and have been working there way longer. )

What should a paladin do when he captures an evil creature. (Keep him, and housetrain him, and dress him up properly and put a bow in his hair and call him Gerald. )

Can paladins detect ordinary evil aligned humans (Yes. You still can't go around killing everyone who pings positive though. )

Just how good is paladins protection from disease (strong enough to deal with anything a regular cure disease spell can handle. Lycanthropy, and some other magical diseases can indeed penetrate this. )

Why don't clerics have any missile weapons (Hang on, are you seriously telling me you missed the bit about the slings? Archetypical biblical giant killing weapon, innit, slings. You must have been playin' like puddings to miss that. )

Do neutral clerics turn or control undead (Pass. Your DM can decide that. )

Can druids turn undead (no. They already have way more cool powers than clerics. )

Can druids become giant or magical animals (Not until 3rd edition, dear. It's not as if the powers regular animals get aren't cool enough. )


The golem's craft: Our stalwart book reviewer steps out of his usual role to contribute this article on golem construction. This is rather more interesting than the other item creation piece, as it opens up options rather than constraining them, giving you several different ways of achieving the same ends. It's also interesting because it examines the fine details of the D&D rules, and picks them apart. Strangely, it seems that using manuals actually increases the time and cost needed to build a golem compared to doing it yourself. Similarly, Caryatid columns cost more than regular stone golems, but are considerably weaker. Those wacky ancients, eh, always shrouding their work with extraneous cosmetic gubbins. The overall format of this article is similar to the ecologies, with lots of IC references in the writing, followed by game mechanic footnotes. This all adds up to a pretty good article, that helps make building golems more accessable and internally coherent. If it had also provided some new ones to go with it it would have pushed from good to great, but oh well, it's still pretty usable.


Through the looking glass is kicking off by giving us some reviews. Given this year's real push to promote wargaming at the conventions, it's no surprise that lots of companies are bringing out stuff to coincide with this. From small indie companies like Stan Johansen miniatures, to the established giants of Games workshop and Grenadier, everyone's got stuff to sell. Plastic or lead, at various scales, all in one or needing some assembly, the choice is yours, etc etc. The reviews are fairly conservative, with the lowest score 2 stars, and the highest 3 and a half. More interesting is a lengthy rant on all the things that can go wrong in the design and distribution chain. Have a little sympathy for the poor shopkeeper, for they can't control it if a game is late, or only available in other countries. Like bullying, ranting begets more ranting, and so the cycle continues. As long as people keep having unrealistic targets and deadlines, it is no wonder that there will be painful disappointments on a regular basis.

Dragon Magazine Issue 136: August 1988

part 3/3


TSR Previews: Starsong apparently got delayed, for it is first out the gate this month  as well as last month. Or is it just a formatting error? Hmm. Not hugely important, anyway.

AD&D gets the new Greyhawk Adventures hardback. Now redesigned to be compatible with 2nd edition, and more differentiated from the Forgotten Realms. Now with 100% less Pluffet Smedger!

Talking of the Forgotten Realms, we get Ruins of Adventure, the back conversion of the recent AD&D computer game. How very amusing. That's like doing a novel of a movie. Will it be improved or messed up by the format change?

The Forgotten Realms also gets another novel. Doug Niles and R A Salvadore have already made their mark, now Ed Greenwood gets to show these new arrivals just what the creator of the world can do, with Spellfire. There may be twinkitude involved.

Dragonlance isn't neglected either, with a new boardgame based upon it. Find the Dragonlance and save the world! Is it Tuesday already?

Buck Rogers, of course, has to go one step further. Their boardgame isn't just about the fate of the world, it's about the entire solar system! Overthrow that tyrannical dictatorship! :roll of thunder, stab of organ music: Erm, or maybe not. Got to have something for the next generation of players to struggle against too.

Marvel Superheroes tops even that, with ME3: The left hand of eternity. Oh, the elders of the universe are in so much trouble now. WHAM! THWOK!! KERPOW!!! and all that.

Finally, we get to see Tom Wham's latest stroke of genius, Mertwig's maze. The usual madcap boardgaming fun ensues.


Damage control report: Star frontiers continues to get occasional support here, despite being a dead gameline now. A new damage system for space combat, with a little more variety in which systems get damaged in an attack, reducing short term lethality, but increasing long-term annoyances? Seems a reasonable enough change. After all, no-one likes having a TPK result from a single hit, as is a problem in space combat. And troubleshooting unexpected faults can become an adventure in itself. A short article that leaves me with little to say about it, this is very much in the old Ares section tradition.


New kicks in martial arts: Len Carpenter tries to rebalance the OA Martial art system, so you can create custom styles that are balanced with each other, and come closer to the official ones from the book. It's still not too great, not being nearly as flexible as it could be. This is really still an area that needs a complete rebuild rather than just patching. I don't think I'll be using you.


The game wizards: Top Secret/ S.I. has been out for a year now. Feedback time! Not only are we going to try and provide all the realism you wanted, we're also going to take the game further out there as well, providing multiple different settings for all your modern day espionage needs. When we overhauled the system, flexibility was one of our design goals. So supplements will be coming more frequently, and they will not all be compatible with one-another. Very interesting. Seems like they're trying to make it into more of a generic system. A risky gamble. Is this what kills it? They never had much luck with generic systems, as we see again with the Amazing Engine and Alternity. Hmm. This is definitely worth thinking about.


The role of computers: Dungeon Master is one of those adventure games where you create a party, equip them, and take them through adventures, fighting monsters and leveling up as you go. Seems like they review a lot of those. Well, this is an RPG magazine. It gets a highly detailed review, with lots of screenshots, and plenty of praise. There's plenty of hidden stuff to find, (familiar looking) foes to to beat, resources to manage, and all that jazz. Visually, they are definitely improving quite a bit lately.

Basketball Challenge is a strategy simulation game, where you train up a basketball team, and dictate their tactics in games from the sidelines. Not too bad an idea, but not really my cup of tea.

Fantasyzone is rather more quirky. Primarily an arcade shoot-em-up, you also have to collect coins from fallen enemies, and get to spend them in shops for all kinds of upgrades. Picking the right power-up can make a big difference, particularly when facing the bosses. With an interestingly designed soundtrack and visuals, it's challenging, but a good player'll get a little further each time. Which is how it should be.


Gamma life in the big city: Gamma world joins in with the theme this month, despite not actually being in the themed section. The stereotype in postapocalyptic settings is that most of the cities are largely abandoned, with only small communities of scavengers picking through the rubble. But things get more interesting if there are still at least a few sizable communities. Course, this requires that there be the resources to support this population, and enough safe living environment that they not die too frequently and go into terminal decline. This frequently leads to insular attitudes and heavy fortifications. After all, resources must be protected, and only shared with the worthy. if you let mutie scum in, who knows where it'll end? This dials down the strangeness a little, but doesn't neglect it, pointing out plenty of ways you can derive humour from the settlements imitating and misinterpreting modern institutions. This is actually considerably more detailed than the earlier articles, giving you a one-stop set of info on using them both as home bases, as adversaries, and as locations for adventures. With sample characters, plot ideas, and plenty of advice, this is almost as useful as the other ones put together, and eminently convertable as well. Rather pleasing.


Role-playing reviews is also in theme, with reviews of products covering city settings.

City-state of the invincible overlord gets a very negative review, both as an updating of an older product, and as one in itself. The old nicely medieval, if rather hard to locate stuff on map has been replaced by a a fantasy Milton Keynes, everything neatly laid out in grids with lots of space between stuff. The metaplot isn't properly integrated with the setting, the way monsters just show up on random tables, yet the city doesn't react to them makes no sense, the religion is just a flavourless mishmash, the new races are twinked, there's just no cohesion in general. The only redeeming feature is the index. And what's the use of that if there's nothing you want to find? Zing! Now that's an entertaining slating.

Lankhmar: City of Adventure gets a rather more positive review. While there are a few irritating omissions that really need a supplement to fill them in, it presents a nice compromise between feel and detail, giving you plenty of room and tools to design your own adventure locations within the city. Massively downgrading the power and speed of magic to emulate the original stories, it shows you how you can mod AD&D to be more fighter and thief centric. Still, these rules changes, combined with the very strong flavour, mean this may be tricky to use in an existing campaign.

Carse is another generic citybook, produced by chaosium. While not brilliant, and rather too focussed on the little details over giving you the knowhow to use them, it's still better than the city state of the invincible overlord. One you'll really need to figure out how to make the most of yourself.

Tulan of the isles is another book in the same series, set in the same world. It manages to be slightly better in most respects, more general atmosphere, more detail on individual buildings, and more setting info on the world surrounding the city. It seems much easier as a starting point to build good adventures from.  


The game fair update: Big ambitions, big hassles, as usual. They've been promoting the conventions strongly all year, but they've still had problems with organizing stuff. Stuff being late, stuff being overbooked, last minute changes, there's some people running around like headless chickens, trying to get everything done here. Will they pull it off? Will they put an optimistic spin on things no matter how badly it goes? Guess I'll have to wait for the aftermath. Let's put some Dr Dre on while we do so. Crank that bass, synchronised head nodding is go!


Dragonmirth is speciesist again. Yamara tries to fool joe the cleric, another of her companions. Win some, lose some. Snarfquest is still all about the races.

Our boardgames for Dragonlance and Buck Rogers are advertised in the back pages. How long before the magazine is forced to run articles on Buck Rogers products as well?


A fairly average issue overall. From good to bad, they run the gamut. Should we leave or stay put? Hang around too long and we'll be late in the terminal sense. And then this'll never be complete. Turn the page, shut the door, and open up the next one.

Dragon Magazine Issue 137: September 1988

part 1/3


108 pages. A very photorealistic, but not particularly autumnal cover here. Once again we step into the wilderness, treking through hostile environments, and hunting down creatures dangerous and tasty. Not a place for the physically unfit. In high contrast, the editorial tackles disabilities and roleplaying. We've already had one article on that, but it's been a long time, and Roger's encountered quite a few other people with various physical problems in his years gaming. So he's taking the time to reassert that the magazine is disability friendly, and they would welcome suggestions to make it, and roleplaying in general, more so. Now, when will they tackle questions of sexuality or race? Is that too controversial? Maybe. Oh, the persistent problems of running a family friendly magazine.


In this issue:


The bullwinkle and rocky roleplaying party game?! Now there's a license I wasn't expecting to have a game for it.

The waterdeep city system. Another player favourite gets it's first in depth look at. The realms is really being filled in now.


Letters: A decidedly deranged spattering of anonymous odds and ends make up this month's letters page. Waldorf has destroyed greyhawk and enslaved its gods. Please send in all your characters so I can figure out how much XP I've earned. In other news, Isildiurs ring has been found as part of a two-piece bathing suit. Smexy. Roger Moore is still not the same Roger Moore that does the bond films. This one would never wear a toupee, no matter how much he might need it All very amusing. After all, they get the material, why should they waste it sticking to the sensible stuff all the time?


Forum: M A Cottle is finding that the publication of Watchmen has been having massive knock-on effects on everyone's roleplaying of superhero characters. Detailed psychological characterisation is replacing hack and slash (BIFF and KERPOW?) gaming even here.

Ed Friedlander talks about the decline of lethality in recent gaming. With regularly available raising, the advent of saving games in CRPG's, the elimination of assassins, it seems to definitely be on the down. And he's actually in favour of this. They may be only characters, but people get very attached to them. He'd rather defeat be merely humiliating, as he sees enough real death in his day job. This may provoke serious debate.

Bahman Rabii expresses contempt for the idea of formalizing nonweapon skills. It takes all the player thought out of the equation when they know exactly what they can do and just roll to do it. This isn't the True AD&D Way!  

Peter Kirkup is another grognard who feels threatened by recent developments. In his case, it's the poncy actory types that were drawn in by the Dragonlance games. We want more stuff for the hack and slashers and problem solvers, and less purple prose and modules with a fixed story.

David Howery has suggestions to make the vanilla fighter class more interesting, so they can compete with the more exotic combat classes. Still a problem, I see.

R. J. Wenzel, on the other hand, thinks that the game still focusses too much on combat, and the current tendency towards power creep needs to be fought. The DM should be rewarding players for actually roleplaying and clever problem solving more.

Theodore Licktenstein points out that Silence spells are not a faultless stealth device. The complete absence of noise is rather disconcerting, and can be a giveaway. Like any tactic, if players are overusing it, it shouldn't work all the time.


What's for lunch: Hunting for food. A decidedly tedious business in reality, for finding easily edible plants is harder than it seems, and catching animals requires a lot of patience and luck. It's already been covered in one of the duller 1st ed books, the Wilderness survival guide. But no, someone's not satisfied, and wants to give it even more detail. Cue lots of tables of the natural animals common to various climates, and more than a few statblocks for creatures not covered in the MM's. Yeah, this is still dull stuff, and is problematic because of the usual difficulties in integrating the fantastic and mundane creatures in D&D settings. One to pull up when needed, and then pay no mind too the rest of the time.


Treasures of the wilds: Just how much is the stuff you find in the wild actually worth? This is a tricky one, because unlike gold and jewels, the value of harvested plants, furs, meat, etc is very time dependent. A day makes the difference between highly valuable and manky, especially in warmer climates. Perhaps ivory would be a better choice. Course, if it's maximum money to weight ratio you want, poison harvesting is the way to go. This is another one that doesn't make hugely interesting reading, being more than half tables, but would probably save a bit of time if you have the kind of adventurers that collect anything that could remotely be of value. Looks like we're gonna have to deal with quite a bit of grinding here if we want to level up again.


The ecology of carnivorous plants: Hmm. This is an unusual one. An article coving a whole range of flora with only one connecting factor. They like to eat adventurers. This article goes into an indepth look at real carnivorous plants, and then extrapolates from there when talking about fantasy ones. Most of them come from harsh environments where soil and sunlight are not sufficient to grow healthy plants. After all, nature is lazy. It won't evolve energy intensive adaptions unless there's a real advantage to doing so. And movement via highly selective growth spurts definitely falls into that category. This is another nice reminder of things I learnt in school, and haven't thought about since then. Another bit of pure pontification, this is both longer and more rigorous than the carnivorous ape one, but has less humour in it. Overall, it's a fairly so-so ecology, focussed a little too much on the biology of the creatures, rather than how they can be used to challenge (and be exploited by) adventurers. Gotta keep your playability in mind, especially when dealing with stuff we can get entire books of real world info on elsewhere.


Time-life books are advertising in dragon magazine? Way to lower the tone of the whole neighbourhood. Superlame.

i stumbled upon this thread yesterday and find it riveting.  haven't played d&d in years, this brings it all back.  good stuff.

Dragon Magazine Issue 137: September 1988

part 2/3


Weathering the storms: Looks like table central is continuing this month, with a second article for high detail weather determination. (see issue 68 for the last one. )    And I'm afraid this is still dull, heavily realism focussed material that you could spend hours fiddling with, but would be unlikely to improve your game much. This is proving to be a very tiresome issue indeed. What are we to do with them?


Into the age of mammals: After the dinosaurs died out, there were several eras of time, filled with weird creatures that don't get nearly as much attention. Which means a rich seam of stuff for you to mine and surprise your players with. This article focusses on the cenozoic era, giving us info on 29 different creatures, 14 of which are new and get full stats. The rest are already statted creatures or variants on them, giving us more info on their place in that era. This is easily the best article so far this issue, with lots of fun little biology tidbits. Since we already have lots of stuff for dinosaurs (issue 112 and others) and more recent ice age stuff, (issue 68 again) putting in a substantial "lost world" region to my campaign increasingly seems both a desirable and achievable thing to do.


The fairest of the fairs: A quite different approach to a topic they've covered fairly recently. Issue 118 had a sample fair, including maps, and NPC's. This is more about the reasons to have something like this. Not that people really need an excuse for a party, but it helps if it happens regularly, so people know when to show up. And if you can placate some cranky gods at the same time, it's all for the good. So here's lots of sample reasons and appropriate times of year, to help you build your own. This is pretty nice, with both generic and campaign specific examples. In contrast to the weather stuff, this seems like the kind of thing you can whip up fairly quickly, and even if it doesn't make a huge amount of sense, it'll still add nicely to your world to throw in offhand references to them when characters are in a town.


The game wizards: The Hunt for Red October game gets a belated shill piece here this month. Must not be selling too well. Understandable though. After all, when you spent over $1000 just buying books for research, you really want your work to be a success. Doug Niles does his best to make the game seem appealing and drum up enthusiasm, and also do some errataing. Is my enthusiasm rising? Is my enthusiasm rising? :looks down: Um. No. Aww. So much for that plan then.


Up and running in the land of mutants: Gamma world's article this month is on speeding up character generation and advancement in the new edition. This involves lots more tables. Man, they are having a ridiculous number of those this issue. Once again, they look like they work, but still make decidedly tedious reading. It's becoming pretty obvious that I am not in the mood for what they currently want to serve.


Sage advice: What level do paladins cast spells at (We've already had this one. Do you forget so soon? Level-8)

Can you volantarily drop protection from evil ( Yes. Remember, attacking or forcing the protection up against them lets them come in. Violation of pax and all that. )

When do cavaliers and paladins get to use missile weapons (once they have free proficiency slots after learning all their required weapons. This may take a while )

Do paladins get extra spells for high wisdom ( no)

Can druids change into the same animal type more than once a day (no. Each of the orders is it's own power. Mammal, bird, reptile. Yes, that may put a crimp in your plans. Better study up on your zoology for maximum versatility. )

Do druids get bonus spells for high wisdom (yes)

Can druids identify plant's from unfamiliar terrains (Possibly. If not, they should be able to pick it up after a few weeks living out there. )  

Why are all dwarven clerics so old! (Game balance. We never wanted you to be one in the first place so even though you whined us into giving in, we ain't going to be generous. )

What's the starting age of a drow cleric. (same as any other elf)

What happens when a character with % strength gains a point (they get 10% Crawlspeeeeeed, man.)

How much do bows for exceptional strength cost ( Ask Odysseus)

Where does it say fighters can do lawnmower attacks against creatures with less than 1 HD (page 25 of the PHB. Be very grateful for this power. )

What happens if a fighter is attacking a combination of creatures. (Then they'll have to choose between the regular rate or lawnmowering the mooks. One or the other, not both. I'd take out the kobolds. You never know when they might be using type E poison and kill everyone. )


The marvel-phile is also in a rather sagacious mood this month. Skip dresses up as Uatu the Watcher to keep things running.

What is a FEAT Roll (Only like the universal resolution mechanic of the entire goddamn game)

What do you mean a blocking character can't perform any other action (What part of stay still and do nothing else does not make sense? If you want to avoid damage and move, you shoulda selected dodge instead)

How do you convert Resources into money (You don't. Your wealth stays abstracted at all points throughout the transaction. )

How did you design the leaping table (Looking at real world figures and then making shit up)

How do you detect invisible creatures. (Using your other senses. Lots of powers can deal with this problem, one way or another)

How big is an Area. (Like a room, you ought to be able to tell from context. )

Do new characters use the ability modifier table (no)

How do rank numbers correlate to named ranks. (Each rank is a range of numbers. Advancing from one to the next is Sloooooow)

What are the stats of a megalodon (Just a simple scaling up of a regular shark)

Please send me stats for 100 characters. (That's the kinda number that makes up a whole sourcebook. Ain't no way you're getting that for free.)

How do you measure the distance for falling damage (Differential math. Don't worry, any hero with half decent toughness will shrug off even the longest fall.)

Can you use Agility to do a full move and attack in the same round (no, Endurance. Speedsters also need some toughness to make the most of things)

Do you get any bonuses when fighting hated enemies (only if you take it as a specific power)

Is there a limit to rogue's absorption powers (only the plot)

Does Iron man do more damage using both repulsors (No, he's just a bit more likely to hit. )

Can you use psychic powers on insubstantial things (Hell yeah. It's a standard technique. )

How do I stop my players from looting fort knox (Giant robot guards)

How do you build a class 1000 object (Godlike power)

Can you attack insubstantial characters with high power body armor slams (no)

Is there an addenda for the ultimate powers book (2 in fact)

How does someone made of electricity knock someone over (ask reality)

How much damage does regeneration heal (look at the table to translate ranks into points per round)

Dragon Magazine Issue 137: September 1988

part 3/3


Role-playing reviews goes espionage this month:

James bond 007 game has been around for quite a while now. It has a decidedly quirky character generation system that encourages you to make extreme characters. While it uses a universal resolution table, said table is rather less clearly designed than it could be. The reviewer considers it cool, but not brilliant.

Top secret/S.I, on the other hand, gets a very positive review, to the point where I start to become skeptical of their impartiality. This is becoming an increasing problem, with the reviewers seeming to favour the TSR product in any direct comparison. Are the suits leaning on the reviewers? Any backstage info would be welcome here.


Robotech II, the sentinels now available on VHS (ha) A cancelled series, the three episodes have been edited into a single feature. The palladium sourcebook is also out now.


The role of books: Invitation to camelot, edited by Parke Godwin, and Arabesques, edited by Susan schwartz are both um, shared setting books. Yeah that's the ticket. One uses an arthurian background, and the other an arabian nights one. Both are pretty decent, although Arabesques probably wins in terms of depth and scope.

Resurection inc by Kevin J Anderson is a nice bit of hard sci-fi. Two thought provoking technological advances, and their moral implications are examined. It wouldn't be easy to adapt for a game though.

Tales of robin hood by Clayton Emery doesn't hang together very well, trying to mix gritty realism with a mishmash of mythology. If you try doing more than one thing at once, you've got to integrate them.

The year of the ransom by Poul Anderson is a highly complex Time Patrol tale. While not for inexperienced readers, the interesting plot, told from multiple viewpoints, is worth the effort to unravel. Read the earlier books in the series first to see if you like it.

Shrine of the desert mage by Stephen Goldin is another interesting bit of arabian nightsesque storytelling. This is doubly the case because the actual protagonist is also a storyteller, resulting in a cleverly multilayered story full of  magic, genies, and interesting tidbits you can steal for your own games.


TSR Previews: AD&D is getting lots of stuff this month. First up is Greyhawk Adventures, which has either been delayed or double-dipped again. They need to be more careful with that. Secondly, we have FR5: The savage frontier. Venture to the lands surrounding waterdeep, and do a little pacifying. How else is a city all on it's ownsome surrounded by wilderness to survive? Waterdeep itself isn't neglected either, with the City System. They are filling up the Realms fast.

Curiously, Ed Greenwood himself is actually more busy in the Known world, with GAZ8: The five shires. How will he flesh them out and differentiate them from tolkien hobbits?

Top Secret is also reaping the fruits of it's labours this month. TSAC5: Commando gives you back your realistic modern day action, while also upgrading the military hardware allowed. TSAC2, on the other hand is the Agent 13 Sourcebook, providing you with all your pulp gaming needs. Odd that it should be released out of order. Were there delays on the writing side, or due to licencing crap?

Speaking of Agent 13 and top secret, we have another Double Agent novel out this month as well. GLITCH!/The Hard Sell gives us a couple more rollicking spy capers.

Dragonlance is also getting another novel. Stormblade. The mines of Thorbardin fall into chaos as the dwarves fight over who should weild the lost blade. But first they have to find it. Finders keepers and all that.

And finally, we have a third, unconnected novel. St John the Pursuer: Vampire in Moscow. Another fairly self-explanatory synopsis follows. There's a vampire loose in moscow. Guess who winds up having to stop it.


The role of computers: Ultima V: Warriors of destiny is yet another game in this highly popular series. And the reviewers certainly think it lives up to those standards, while not being too dependent on being an established player. The graphics have improved considerably, and it retains the same depth of play and complex morality as the last few. Another one to bash your brain up against for months trying to solve all the puzzles.

Oids also gets 5 stars, being a highly addictive combination of several arcade game styles. Space and ground travel are both used as you try and foil the alien invaders. It even includes a level editor, so once you finish it, you can design fun new stuff for your friends.  

Out Run is rather less impressive, being yer basic racing game where you have to do each bit of the course before the time limit runs out, and it gets extended if you do. You do get to choose both your route, and the music, so it doesn't get too repetitive too soon. Probably more impressive in the arcade where you're using an actual steering wheel.

Ebonstar is another space game. You race round a black hole, and have to knock your rivals in while surviving yourself. Seems most fun when played multiplayer.

The universal military simulator is another heavily customisable game, allowing you to set up scenarios from past and future. While it has some crashing issues on certain platforms, it has tons of depth in both unit and landscape detail.

Intellitype is a typing tutor program. Wait, come back! It's not actually that tedious! They are being rather generous with their 5 star marks this month. Hmm.


Snarfquest gets a-racing. Dragonmirth is absent.


A slick but tiresome issue here. With the table fetish in the articles, and the tendency towards self-promotion in even the supposedly objective bits of the magazine, it all feels very corporate, very powerpoint, flow charts, mobile phones, and sales targets. An excellent example of the fact that good content is just as important as presentation, if not more so when the eventual goal is having fun. Lets hope horror is a bit more conductive to exciting articles than the wilderness.

Dragon Magazine Issue 138: October 1988

part 1/3


108 pages. Another bit of rather good artwork on this month's cover. This comes at a price though. Roger Raupp has finally decided he can't take the pressure of TSR's new corporate structure anymore and departed. So another of the old guard is bumped of, and his immediate subordinate Lori Svikel moves up to take his place. Hmm. Meanwhile, in the editorial, the hard work setting up this year's convention has finally paid off, and our remaining Roger talks about the madness that he enjoyed there. There's still plenty of fun going on at the ground level, whatever's going on in the company. And hopefully he's brought some of that back with him.

In this issue:


Letters: A letter about indexing. It's been more than 2 years since the last one, and some people are compulsive about that kinda thing. Roger says they're certainly thinking about it. But it is a lot of work.

Some errata. You know the drill by now.

Two letters filled with more amusing last words. See, your characters dying can still make for a fun game.


Sky galleons of mars. Part of the space: 1889 series. Sounds pretty cool.


Forum: Brian Estes has a suggestion for speeding up mecha combat in Star Frontiers. It shouldn't be vastly more hassle than regular combat. Quite agree with you there.

Joseph Goldlust also wants thieves to get XP from actually, y'know, thieving. He suggests giving the challenges they overcome levels equivalent to monsters, and calculating from that. This is particularly easy to figure out when picking pockets.  

Mark Crane rebutts the people who distrust paintball, and stereotype ninjas. Interesting combination there. Hee.

S. D. Anderson has some comments on the new roman gods from issue 13, with a particular focus on Eris. Why should a spreader of discord have a problem with demons? Good question.

Jeffrey M Carey thinks that as RPG demographics are settling down, companies ought to concentrate more on getting as much money as possible out of established gamers, particularly older ones with disposable incomes, with lots of supplements designed to be as universally applicable as possible. I find this very amusing.

A Patrick Connery is another of the people that thinks magic-users being weak at first, then becoming more powerful is entirely acceptable. Gary knew what he was doing. It does not ruin the game.

Sean Jump thinks that evil PC's should get more equal screentime, with classes and adventures designed for them. There's plenty of fun to be had being bad, don't be such spoilsports.

Tim Emrick gives us some advice on making fold-up buildings, including a rudimentary house in the letter. Very interesting indeed.

Eric Burns has a bunch of suggestions to power up low level magic-users. You know, even with a d12, you can get 1 or 2 hp, and be painfully fragile throughout 1st level.


Through the looking glass: Great. Actual crafting tips. It's been way too long since this magazine carried any of those. This is a definite step upwards. This is all about skeletons. Which is fitting, I guess. And they do require techniques a little different to painting people. Put a black base coat on before adding lighter colours. Pay lots of attention to the ribs. Lots of thin layers is the way to go, making sure each is properly dried before moving on to the next one. Drybrushing is hard on brushes so use a different one to the other bits. Remember, these are undead. Make their stuff look well worn. Interesting and very specific bits of advice. I quite enjoyed this. Combined with the fact that the photographic quality has improved quite considerably since they last did this, with lots of full colour photos, and this looks pretty promising. How long will it take this to settle into a comfortable pattern and start boring me? All things must rise and fall. We shall see.


Sage advice gets in with the theme, as it so often does:

Are undead affected by web (If they only have a body)

Can you talk to undead (yes, but they still instinctively loathe everything living and want to kill you, eat you or turn you into one of them, probably not in that order. Squick prejudice cuts both ways. )

What creatures become undead. (Anything with a suitable body or soul. Lets keep it on the down low for now, but you'll be seeing lots of weird undead in later books. )

What happens to the connection to the negative plane when an undead is shifted to an outer plane. (Nothing. They're now off being an abomination against life somewhere else. Annoyed outsiders may come knocking on your door to bring back the trash if you make a habit of this. )

Can undead be affected by psionic attack (probably, as long as they have minds )

Can undead be psionic (sure, why not.)

Are undead affected by blasty spells (Mostly. Anything not forbidden is allowed.)

How do skeletons see without any eyes. (This is a mystery man was not meant to know. However they do it, they manage perfectly well. )

Can paladins keep ghouls at bay with their holier than thou aura. (yup)

What does powerless in sunlight really mean. (they can't attack, move things, or do anything other than cower or float away. Poor ghosty creatures. )

Can you turn a banshee (you can in BD&D, but not in AD&D, weirdly enough. )

What is a lesser vampire ( The enslaved minion that you'll become if you don't watch out. )

Can a staked vampire drain levels (No. Be thankful for this.)  

The GDQ modules and the monster manual contradict each other on the subject of holy sysmbols and vampires (No they don't. This is what happens when vampires break their own rules. There is a reason they normally recoil from holy symbols )

How do spells affect nilbogs (opposite world is upsideown. No saves, no limits. Be very afraid)

Where are the stats for amphisbaena ( Snake! Snake!)

Can you get lycanthropy from being clawed (No. )

Isn't 2+2 a bit much for small Scorpions (They're still 3-4 foot long and toughly armoured. How's that for nightmare fuel. )

How much bigger are higher HD green slimes (3 square foot per HD. Better bring the toilet duck along )

Are spell attacks delivered by touch normal weapons (Hell no! What is your DM smoking. Skip says don't do drugs, kids! Or you'll end up like this poor guy, unable to make the most elementary logic work.)

How good is succubi and alu-fiends shapechanging (pretty good. And by good, we of course mean Totally Hawt. Skip would say no, but that is because Skip is totally awesome and can have any woman he wants anyway. Hey kids, become a sage and you can be totally awesome too. Learn the Elminster patented dirty old man seduction method(tm). Guaranteed to work on all women from barmaids to greater goddesses or your money back.)

Can I bribe a time elemental to take me back to kill my enemies before they're old enough to be a threat ( With what? What could you possibly offer them that they couldn't travel back and take before you found it if they wanted it. Even if you do convince them, Skip does not reccommend letting it be that easy. Remember, the universe is a big place, and even a well intentioned time elemental may struggle to find the right place and time.)

Need more info on barghests. Description insufficient ( Question recieved. Processing information. Delivering information. Another satisfied customer. Backup answertron for when skip has bunked off early deactivating itself. )

Dragon Magazine Issue 138: October 1988

part 2/3


The black book and the hunters: Call of cthulhu gets another article full of forbidden mind imperiling lore. Shub-Niggurath has a lot of offspring, and summoning them is as viable as dealing with any other monstrosity from another realm. Like pages from the mages, this follows the formula of presenting an IC grimoire, which is also described IC by a character, and then giving us the stats for the new spells contained within. Which is still a pretty entertaining way of doing things, especially when the narrator hasn't completely mastered the powers on offer, and isn't sure if they really want too either. They can sell us a few more of these in my reckoning.


The ungrateful dead: Tom Moldvay gives us another installment of undead reexaminations. Stepping away from the vampires he covered last time, he goes back to basics, with a whole load of variants for skeletons, zombies and ghouls. They certainly aren't lacking in folklorish antecedents, and you can have considerable amounts of fun varying the powers of familiar looking creatures.

Bloody bones are the skeletons of evil people who lurk and engage in sneaky criminal behaviour. This means fighting them is going to be a very different experience to regular skeletons.

Skeleros are skeletons who used to be skilled fighters, and have retained a bit of their old skill. Not hugely interesting, as they have exactly the same niche, just to higher level characters.

Dry Bones are exactly the same as they appear in the mario games. You knock them down, and they keep on getting back up. They might seem weedy at first, but there is a definite creeping horror factor involved here. Like phoenix spiders, these make me go muahaha and itch to use them in my game.

Gem Eyes are the generic knockoff versions of eyes of fear and flame. They get different spell-like abilities to unleash on you depending on what specific stones are set in their eyes. One of those monsters you could run an interesting adventure using nothing but different variants of, plus a boss.  

Shock Bones are skeletons with a permanent electrical charge. Anyone attacking them with metal weapons automatically gets a nasty shock. How very castlevania. Just another way to screw over unsuspecting players.  

Walking dead are zombies that lose limbs as you damage them, becoming less and less effective. Just like in the movies. It amuses me that zombies could wind up suffering more from wound penalties than living creatures in D&D.

Hungry dead are of course zombies that eat braaaaiiiiiinssss. If you don't hit the right body part, they just keep coming. You've seen these in tons of movies as well, so I don't need to say any more.

Collossi are massive constructs made of tons of dead bodies mulched and pasted together. Just the thing for if you want to get kaijuey. The smell must be terrible.

Le Grand Zombie is another name for zombie lords. These have completely different stats to their 2nd ed version, and were probably developed independently. They are probably a bit too scary for most parties, with truly excessive spellcasting abilities, they're more like zombie emperors than lords. Ease up a bit there mate.

Ghula are ghouls as drawn from arabian myth. Many of them are capable of passing for human, and have some magical ability. Like zombie lords, although they would appear again in Al-Qadim, the stats are obviously not the same.

Baka are an excellent example of cult membership continuing beyond the grave. Eating flesh even before they died, now they're back, and badder than ever.

Gelloudes are greek creatures, related to lamias or harpies, who's preferred prey is babies. If they can't get babies, they'll de-age you in the process of draining your life force. Interesting, and ingeniously scary, that puts a different spin on fighting level draining monsters.

Spirit-Ghouls are people who've been possessed. Statistically, they're pretty
similar to regular ghouls, but of course with these guys there's the possibility of curing them, which adds extra complications and moral dilemmas to fighting them. Damn good idea.

Black Annis is of course the inspiration for one of the types of Hag. But D&D has never been shy about having multiple monsters for the same niche so she can be an undead creature that hunts the wilds as well. And since she's pretty scary, it'll take some serious work to put her down.

Wendigo, of course is even scarier, with it's near godike powers, and ability to drive you to cannibalism. If it weren't such a short-sighted creature, it could enslave entire civilizations and turn them into monstrous hives of depravity. Hmm. This is definitely worth further consideration.  

Callicantzari, on the other hand are almost as limited as vampires by their own stupidity and quirky weaknesses. This means even smart peasants have a chance against them, despite their strength. They seem perfectly designed to make scenarios like an 80's cartoon, with the scheming leader who rages at the comical incompetence of their underlings, and is defeated but not killed regularly as they retreat whenever their latest scheme is foiled even if they could probably defeat the heroes singlehandedly in a fight. A very entertaining way to finish off what has been an excellent article overall.


Methods to your madness: Call of Cthulhu has been fairly popular for a good few years now. It's made having your character gradually go insane be considered a fun playstyle. So lets transfer the idea over to D&D. There are plenty of mad things that happen in the game that it would make sense to have some lasting impact on your mental health. You can play this in a serious, tragic way, or a comical one, and this article touches on both styles. Similarly, it could be fun to play, or it could seriously mess up your game if a player uses it as an excuse to go fishmalky. Still, I think this article handles it decently, if a little shallowly. This could definitely have benefited from being a bit longer, particularly as it advocates making sure that mental illness in D&D isn't too similar to reality. Oh well. They're still maintaining the run of good articles this issue.


The end of the world: A slightly hyperbolic title. This isn't about inflicting a full-on apocalypse, but the kind of thing which "merely" wipes out around half of the population like the plague, and how it would impact on your campaign. There's plenty of room for adventures before, during and in the aftermath of this, and it's a good way to shake up a game that's getting dull. The players may not be able to save everyone, but they can certainly make a substantial difference on a local scale. Keep them guessing as to if they'll be infected, if they are, if they'll die, and play up all the dramas that sweep a community when people start dying and there's no apparent control over it. A very specific article, concentrating on the specifics of the historical plagues rather than extrapolating to a fantasy world, with all the ways magic affects society incorporated. Still, I'm having no trouble working outwards and thinking of variants on this idea, so hopefully you won't either. This is certainly a form of horror they haven't tackled before, so even though it's not perfect, it definitely has my interest. This has easily been the second best themed issue under Roger's run so far. Lets see if the nonthemed bits can also bring the awesome.


Putting fire into firepower: Top Secret gets another way out of date article, with info on lasers for the old edition. Despite being invented only a couple of decades ago, they're already ubiquitous in sci-fi settings. They don't actually make that brilliant weapons, due to atmospheric attenuation and lack of collateral damage making them fairly inefficient in terms of cost/damage ratio. And indeed, this article tries not to stray too far from reality, forging you to wear a ghostbusters sized power pack to operate one portably, and featuring lots of crunchy details about charging times, the difference based on the type of gas used in the canister, and rather high chances of malfunction. This manages to make something inherently awesome dull, and is definitely intended for those who prefer the older more gritty game style.  How very tiresome.


TMNT goes transdimensional. As with the australian sourcebook, this seems entirely appropriate to the source material.