The Dragon Issue 20: November 1978

36 pages. The aftermath of con season continues to cast a shadow over this issue, with talk of awards, corrections, and other stuff filling up the issue. They also apologise for having to raise prices again. Other than that, they have the usual selection of stuff on D&D and other games.

In this issue:

Imperium: A profile of the winning game of the strategists club outstanding game award by marc miller. Lots of cool stuff on his design process, including a few things that he would do differently in hindsight.

Errata for the last issue of dragon They had left out pieces of both the editorials, and as they were covering the same topic, people got confused. Nice to see them admitting to and fixing their errors quickly, unlike certain other companies.

A job advert, hiring a new editor to work for TSR. Seems amusingly appropriate given the preceding article.
 
Another random table, reorganising the frequency of magical eyes and amulets in tekumel to a level more to the liking of this particular GM. Yawn.

Star trek miniatures! Another important IP makes its first expedition into the gaming world. Not exactly where no-one has gone before, but ..... Wait a minute, what exactly was the first licenced RPG of a previously famous property? (cthulhu doesn't count, as it was largely derived from open works anyway) Another question I'll hopefully be able to answer sometime soon.

Polynesian mythos stats for G:DG&H: Scrape out the barrel, Scrape out the barrel. We will not stop, until its cleaned of every single drop. And when its clean, we'll make our own to fill it up again. So endlessly we can pour and scrape the barrel once more. Not impressed? Yeah, same here.

Witches as PC's: Somewhat more acessable than the previous article on this subject, this new character class is admittedly slightly overpowered, but with its very high xp advancement probably isn't too broken. One of the first examples of the "give them something cool at every level" philosophy that only now is becoming the standard in class design, and so is prophetic in some small way.

Demonology made easy: The first mention in Dragon of Orcus, Asmodeus, demogorgon, jubilex, and lots of the other fiendish personalities that would be a staple of adventures throughout the rest of D&D's life. Lots of fun rules stuff that unfortunately, most players will never get to use. Because doing so is eeeeeevil, despite the fact that most adventurers are mass murderers for fun and profit anyway .:rolleyes:
 
A centerfold spread of photos from Gen con. No, not that sort you perv. Lots and lots of seventies hair on display. No, not chest hair. Honestly, can't I take you people anywhere?

A review (and rewrite) of Source of the Nile by Gary. Surprisingly I think that with these alterations the game would wind up less lethal than by the RAW. I suspect the way this game worked would be in inspiration to the way the Isle of Dread adventure worked later. Like the one of gamma world last issue, this is all the more entertaining for not technically being primarily a review, and is still pretty informative as it deconstructs the game.

The asimov cluster: Stats for the worlds in the Foundation series for Traveller. They admit that they had to make big chunks of this stuff up, because the books don't have enough detail. Pretty dry stuff, really.

A preview of the LotR animated film, along with lots of talk of the hassle they went through filming it, and the techniques they used. How well will it be recieved. I look forward to seeing how they react to it in an issue or two's time.

Death statistics: In 4 years of play, one particular gaming group has racked up a body count of over a thousand deaths (counting hirelings, of course). Thats something like an average of 5 deaths a week. (is this the most lethal campaign EVAR!) For the past 2-3 years, they have been compiling statistics of how, and they present them here. Unsurprisingly, other humans come in top, with more than 20% when all types of them are added up, with goblinoids coming in a distant second, and dragons third. Absolutely classic, and an excellent example of how you can take antagonistic GM'ing to the X-treme, and still have a long running and enjoyable campaign. Take note, all those of you who's games have fewer deaths in a year than these guys had in a week, and feel that even a slight risk of unexpected mortality spoils your fun.

A variant rule for War of the Ring, making the pieces truly hidden, battleship stylee. Not a bad idea, even if it does add some complexity.

Fineous fingers and wormy continue.

Demonic posession in the dungeon: A second demonic article in the same issue. this time slanted towards the GM making life a nightmare for the players. Ahh, the excorcist. You have much to answer for.

The space gamer: An advert for a sci-fi gaming magazine. I don't remember this one. Anyone have any info on it?

A less exceptional issue than the last couple. While they hint at upcoming changes, this issue is pretty much business as usual. Another step on down the road that leads to the present.

The Dragon Issue 21: December 1978

30 pages. Dragon is rushed to the printers this month, and consequently, is cut down in size slightly. The amount of articles is still about the same, just of shorter average length than the last few issues. With paper prices up, they hint that they may have to raise prices again soon. All in all, it puts a bit of a damper on what should have been a christmas special.

|n this issue:

Garys review of Search for the Nile gets a prompt reply from the creator. This is pretty dull, and has the danger of turning into an academic love-fest. Another example of things that would never make it in now, as it would be handled via the intarweb.

The Tomb of horrors! Another classic module gets its release now. Prepare to die horribly, again, and again, and again.

You don't kill too many characters, do you: A textbook example of a GM being a complete arbitrary bastard, changing things on a whim to amused themself and keep the players from ever winning. Another case of things that were laughed off then, but would cause massive amounts of complaining these days. Have we all gone soft, or it this a sign of improvement? Who can really say?

What do you call a 25th level wizard? Eventually, the level tables run out of titles for class levels. Which means you're badass enough to make your own title. The longer and more floridly descriptive, the better. Another tremendously amusing article that seems very dated now.

Review: The Dragonlords. Another review that is mostly description.

Cure for the same old monster blues: A reminder that real animals, particularly insects and deep sea creatures have more than enough incredibly weird stuff to match the stuff from fiction. Just do a little research and stat it up if you're short of ideas.

Inflation in D&D: Another thing that has always been a problem, particularly as these are before the days of treasure guidelines for level. If players come to expect a certain amount, it becomes increasingly difficult to take it away. So be carefull. Nothing unusual, really.

Prophet Proofing: Another problem that has always been the case, and probably always will be. That of divination spells spoiling the surprise. This article is once again written from a very antagonistic viewpoint, where it is assumed that the players and GM will be using every resource to beat each other.

Sensible sorcery. Another article on the same theme as the last 2, encouraging the GM to be carefull what they allow with spell research. Spells should always be equal or weaker than published spells of the same level, otherwise balance goes out the window. They really are pushing the player disempowerment this issue.

More random encounters for boot hill.

Encounters with personality: Finally, a wandering monsters table with individual characters with distinct personalities. Many of them are joke characters, so this may not be suitable for some campaigns. Still, its another sign of the penetration of roleplaying into RPG's.

Review: Olympica. Another wargame, involving the elimination of a martian hivemind. Mostly a description, it does give me a pretty good idea what the game is like.

The hall of mystery: A mini adventure (well, dungeon is still 8 years away, so I won't be surprised if we see more stuff like this for a while.) full of puzzles. Another thing that can be dropped into an existing game easily. Plus bad poetry.

An extensive article for Rail Baron by Gary. Very heavy on the statistics, which makes it pretty impenetrable for those of us who don't know the rules of the game.

Review: King arthurs knights! ( quite a while after its release, but hey, this was probably before comp copies became common, plus they had a several month lead-in time.) The direct boardgame ancestor of Greg Staffords pendragon. (another bit of history I am looking forward to eagerly) Another review that is mostly just a description, but still gives you an idea of the tactical setup of the game.

Our first reprint (sigh, already.) The new character classes for Dungeon! get a recap, due to being used in the gen con tournament. I suppose they have increase circulation quite a lot in the past 2 years, so at the time most people wouldn't have them. Still feels odd for me to be seeing reprints only 3 weeks in. Does include some new material as well.

Review: The Muthafuckin SILMARILLION! bitch!! Let me rephrase that. In the beginning, Tolkien, the one, made middle earth of his thought, and so inspired an army of imitators. I'd forgotten that this was only published after Tolkiens death. Funny to think he died just around the time D&D was first published. If he had been around a decade or two more to see this and correspond with its creators, how different would the game, and middle earth be now? Not too surprisingly they complain its a bit dense, which you really should expect from a bible analogue. Really, there's no way I can give this one an objective review, so I'm not even going to try.

Monty strikes back: The GM overpowers the ridiculously twinked characters, and sends them on a metamorphosis alpha crossover. Yeah. No matter how powerful your characters, if the GM really wants to they can just kill or ruin them without a roll. (unless you play something like burning wheel, or god help you, synibarr, that explicitly forbids GM fiat and has rules backing that up.) Bitter? Moi? Nah, I won't tell that story, because I know members of that group are registered here, and I have no desire to cause a flamewar by airing that bit of dirty laundry.

Fineous fingers continues, but no wormy. I guess something else had to be cut to make pagecount, and that was it. Or Trampier was otherwise occupied that month.

Not an exceptionally good issue, but a distinctive one, nonetheless. With big names, tons of reviews, a proper dungeon area and loads of stuff going on, they are certainly trying, but it isn't quite working for me. Maybe next year.

Quote from: (un)reason;298451
The space gamer: An advert for a sci-fi gaming magazine. I don't remember this one. Anyone have any info on it?

It was Metagaming's house organ at first, then was taken over by Steve Jackson. Lasted right into the late 80s. It had a lot of fantasy material as well as SF and is something I remember almost as fondly as Dragon.

The Dragon Issue 22/Little wars 13: February 1979

56 Pages. Due to Tim the editor requiring surgery, and being incapacitated for quite a while after, the schedule is thrown into disarray, and we miss january's issue. (this is the last time that they would miss a month up till the collapse of TSR and takeover of WotC, as soon after this their staff expanded and they became less dependent on any single person.) As a result, they've thrown together Dragon and Little wars this issue. Which results in a considerably larger page count than any previous issue. If they get a positive response they intend to merge the two for good, and cover both RPG's and wargames in a single magazine again. I know that doesn't stick, but it should make the next few months pretty interesting. Lets see what the response is.

In this issue:

The first assassins: Go go arabian adventures. A load of real world history stuff, well presented and condensed. Shame we have yet to see any adventures covering that style. And curious that assassins don't get the same kind of flak as monks for not being drawn from medieval european archetypes. Oh well, the first problem will be rectified in time. The second, who can say.

Gary goes back to his roots, and writes an article on the rise and fall of the swiss confederation. Another historical essay, this time more slanted towards wargaming. Cavalry has its problems when faced with rugged terrain and people with pikes. But pikes don't really work against heavy artillery. And if you don't adapt, you lose. Another pretty interesting and well thought out article, which incidentally reveals that gygax actually means seesaw in macedonian. Just in case you were wondering.

Armies of the renaissance: A third historical article in a row. This one is neither as good or long as the previous two, being very vague, and trying to cover too much in a page. It does have a good sized bibliography though, so if you want more info, you have better places to go.

Reviews: Up scope! a submarine boardgame, The face in the frost, a book. Panzerkrieg, another wargame. And two magazines, Apprentice and pheonix, get very scathing reviews from Gary. He does so love blasting the competition. I suppose when you are the creator of the best selling game and magazine in your field, you can justify saying that you are better than them. But it would show more grace to not be so crass about it.

Mapping the dungeons gets by far its most comprehensive listing yet, 9 full pages long. Of course, it's still a small percentage of the people that have actually bought the game, which the editor complains about. Maybe some people just don't want a bunch of strangers inviting themselves to their D&D game.

What is D&D, and where is it going? Gary goes into an explanation of where D&D is coming from, and where he sees it going. Most interesting is that he doesn't see D&D changing that much after the DMG is published, apart from minor errata and revisions, because it is good enough as it is. Like chess or monopoly, it doesn't need more stuff to retain a decent market position. Constant barrages of supplements would only deter casual gamers. Man, he really got the direction wrong. But as D&D sold more copies under that policy than its current several splatbooks a month schedule, I'm not so sure he was philosophically wrong. But that's something we could debate forever.  (and indeed, have recently done here. )

4th dimension: A new boardgame from TSR, intended to rival chess or something like that. So much for that plan. I wonder how long it lasted?

An extensive preview of the AD&D DMG, including lots of tables that really are needed to play the game properly. This is the problem with staggering your releases of corebooks. It stops people from playing the game properly for a while. We see that the Great Wheel has now been organised into the order that it would retain for the forseable future, but there is still no outlands. Lots of other classic magical items also make appearances.

SPI on D&D: Gary attacks a reviewer from another magazine who dared to be unimpressed with AD&D. Comes very close to descending into personal attacks. I know people get attached to their creations, but really, this is a bit much.
 
Stalemate at kassala: Another wargaming actual play, and a pretty fun one, making little attempt at historical accuracy, while still giving plenty of tactical variation.

Fineous fingers takes the piss out of gollum this issue.

Gary reiterates his love for polearms again, in even greater detail. Just when you thought that topic was finished, he trots it out again for all the new readers that have come along in the last couple of years.

In search of the unknown! Another classic adventure out now. Any month now, people are going to start complaining about the glut of modules.

A hell of a lot of controversial stuff this issue, mostly coming from Gary. Agree or disagree with him, his opinions are always entertaining to read, and you can see how he managed to get people to follow him. Having a strong identity makes you more interesting to be around than the average person. Which is something we can all aspire too. Now, how do you do it and not have a big proportion of people consider you annoying? Not by snarking about the hero and founder of the hobby you're playing, I'll wager

Quote from: (un)reason;298451The Dragon Issue 20: November 1978
The space gamer: An advert for a sci-fi gaming magazine. I don't remember this one. Anyone have any info on it?
.

I was a huge fan of Steve Jackson's Space Gamer (I beieve he took over from Metagaming around issue 25 or so)

. Had a huge impact on my approach to doing a gaming magazine when I started Shadis. Good mix issue to issue.

IT popped up gain under a different publisher around '93 (in name only).

Sad. Back in the day it was a great zine.

I still have two issue covers framed and hanging on my game room wall.

The Dragon Issue 23 : March 1979

The page count returns to 32 pages briefly, for the last time. From next month on, Dragon's expansion of size really starts in earnest. I guess they managed to solve their paper shortage. This issue starts with a blast at the running of origins, calling it  inherently faulty and self-serving, only concerned with the profits of the manufacturers. An accusation which would be leveled at T$R as well, but there you go. There's always going to be organizational and financial problems, and people are always going to complain about them.  

In this issue:

En garde in solitare: Does what it says on the tin, providing a system by which you can run opponents for yourself without scripting, which wouldn't work in solitare. A short but sweet article, which looks like it would work quite well.

Gary lists the gaming companies that were present at the Hobby industry Convention that year, and talks about how much of an improvement that is over 10 years ago. Another sign of the wave that they were riding, but also of how many of the big players of the 80's and 90's hadn't even been founded yet. We're still a long way from the present.

Fiction: The thing from the tomb, by Gardner F Fox. Niall returns for a fourth time. Increasingly, it seems like he's never in any real danger, thanks to his demonic patroness. Which does detract from the tension somewhat. Plus, for the same reasons, he grows decreasingly tactically intelligent and proactive. Yeah, I'm not enjoying this as much as I used too. If it continues like this, he'll be an unstoppable gary-stu in a few episodes time.

Mind wrestling: An alternate system for psionic combat, trying to make it model the visuals of psychic fights in movies better. Not sure how well this would work, as I never read the 1st ed psionic rules, but it does substantially change the tactical considerations of the game. It certainly looks like another fun little system I wouldn't mind trying out.

Water adventures for Metamorphosis alpha: Lots of new monsters, plus a little bit of game advice. Typically weird mutations make this a pretty entertaining read, as well as driving home how huge the starship warden is. If only red dwarf had though of doing a flooded level episode at some point during their run.

It weighs What?!!!: Armor and weapons were designed for effectively fighting in and with. Any game designer or GM (yes, you SPI) saying otherwise and trying to stop you from doing basic things like stand up from lying down or getting on and off a horse on grounds of "realism" is being silly. I suspect that they'll have to debunk this persistent myth again, since it showed up here recently as well. When will people learn.

Random generation of creatures from the lower planes: No, not a reprint. Gary liked the idea so much that he decided to do his own take on it (plus, that means he doesn't have to pay the original writer royalties). This would be incorporated into the DMG, and later on become the basis for the hordlings. Lovely stuff, although not quite as overpowered or gonzo as the original. Includes some sample illustrations, which really help you visualize how to take these fucked up combinations of random rolls, and turn them into creatures.

Fineous fingers is on vacation. Wormy is also still absent. Dear oh dear.

Damage Permanency: Ahh, attempts to introduce realism into D&D. How we laugh at ye. Involves lots of tables that are not always entirely sensical, such as losing levels in spellcasting ability because your arm was damaged.  I think we'll avoid using this one. Long experience has shown that people react to their character getting random crippling injuries even worse than they do to their being killed. When the rules governing it aren't that good, (FYI, the only crippling injury rules that I've seen that I actually like are the ones from Savage Worlds) its even less desirable.

Imprisoning Characters: Another badly thought out article based on the principles of antagonistic GMing and players with multiple characters being common. Doing stuff like this may be fun for the GM, but having your character put out of play, but not killed for extended periods of time can quite justifiably induce frustration. Or are we just too soft these days?

A very advert heavy issue this time, which combined with its page count, makes this issue feel a little light on content. The article quality is about average, but the overall product feels a little subpar, with the artwork below standard as well. Guess they were gearing up for the big changes coming shortly, and not putting quite as much effort into this issue.

The Dragon Issue 24: April 1979

48 pages. Well, they didn't exactly solve the paper shortage, merely shift their supplies around a bit, and put them where they sold most. So long Little Wars, we barely knew thee. However, having got rid of the division between RPG'ing and wargaming again, they feel more free to address other forms of gaming as well, as we will see later. There are other changes in format as well. which I'll cover as we get to them. Plus, what would an april be without joke articles. Yeah, there's all the stuff you would expect, plus quite a bit that you wouldn't.

Anyway, in this issue:

Lost civilizations in Source of the nile: A big add-on to the game, increasing its pulpy feel, and carrying with it a whole new set of risks and rewards for the players. Seems pretty well done, although I can't be sure how well balanced it is with other challenges in the game. It certainly seems to support outcomes where everyone but the main explorer dies. (bah, they're only natives. :waves hand: )

Keeping the magic-user in his place: A whole bunch of suggested nerfs for those of you that are finding that magic-users dominate the game. Includes several ideas that would become much more frequent in later editions, such as concentration disruption, and reducing the general duration of spells. I have never been a fan of nerfing, so I shall merely sigh and move on.

Chinese Dragons: Its hard to get a build a consistent mythology of a place when the stories from it are inconsistent and contradictory. (real life, unlike fiction, is under no obligation to make sense) So here's another interpretation of chinese dragons for D&D. Another article that feels like filler material. Still at least we are seeing a bit more on the personality and ecology of monsters here.

Another look at lycanthropy: A more comprehensive article than the previous one, covering the full gamut of willing/unwilling/physical/mental changes found in literature. Which is even better than Ravenloft managed to do later. A well thought out article, that seems to be quite mechanically sound. I approve all around.

Roman military organisation in Classic Warfare: Gary talks about some minutinae of this topic for his old game. Like the stuff on polearms, you'll either love it or be baffled by it, and I'm afraid I fall into the latter camp.

Fineous fingers is still on vacation, the lazy bugger. Honestly, they're monthly strips. How hard is it to get a decent buffer up? Many comics of similar size manage daily or several times weekly schedules for years with no trouble. Ok, we have copypasta techniques now that they didn't then, but really, this isn't good enough. Still, its better than Wormy, who hasn't even made an excuse for his absence.

A viking campaign in the caspian sea: Now this is a fun war story. Vikings vs Arabs! What a culture clash. Based on real 10th century hisorical accounts, this shows that it wasn't just the european costal towns that got raped and pillaged. Includes Classic warfare stats for the scenario. A pretty good article.

The Melee in D&D: Gary defends the level of abstraction in the D&D combat system, that even though you may only be rolling to hit once per minute (ahh, AD&D, why, why why? BD&D got it closer to right with 10 second rounds, and yet you still stuck with it for 20 years in the face of many complaints.) this represents an entire exchange of lots of individual actions. (And yet you could still only move 40' in that time. ) Plus, in a game with magic and dragons, what's realism anyway. And my system is still more realistic than any other out there at the moment, so ner. You can change it if you want, but keep in mind that then you won't be playing proper D&D, and anyway, you'll probably find its not as fun, because you've thrown off my carefully considered game balance. I don't think I need to comment any more on this one.

Jean Wells and Lawrence Shick join the TSR staff. Go them. Cue typical comment about needing to bring a female perspective to the magazine. :rolleyes:

Out on a limb returns after a lengthy absence, due to lack of decent letters. Demanding that letters be typewritten isn't helping this (ahh, once again, how times change.) We get one calling them out on Gary being allowed to make personal attacks, while anyone else writing in isn't. (which pleases me because it shows that there were people who felt that he was turning into a bit of a dick at the time as well. Becoming a star does horrible things to even the nicest of people.) A person complaining about the merger of dragon and LW, and two people complaining about their religion being satireised in a recent article (the Crs'Tchen) So despite the absence, it's pretty much business as usual here.

Lotsa house rules for Dungeon!

Armies of the Renaissance - the Swiss: This is pretty similar to the article a couple of issues back, only a little more general and condensed. Entirely fluff, and not hugely interesting.

Narcicistics: Ahh, joke monsters. We never tire of reading of thee. (and then never use you in our games either, I hope, as the stats do not work under the rules) This time, the popular crowd gets to be the butt of the joke.

Psionics revisited: A set of modifications for the psionics rules in EW. These make little sense to me, but I gather that those rules weren't the most well constructed anyway, so its all good/bad.

Disease: A set of random tables for determining the symptoms and lethality of a random disease. As is often the case for this period, the mechanical ramification of certain symptoms goes unexplained. Still, it is pretty amusing, and hardly useless.

Bergenhone '77: Modern war training. The american army gets its ass kicked at tank gun target practice by the canadians. We'll be ready for this years competition, and beat them into the ground. Now that's real life wargaming.

The return of Conan Maol: A little more distant history, here, as we get a story of another ancient irish hero to use as we see fit. Another so-so article.

The ramifications of alignment: Another attempt to make the moral/ethical conflict in D&D make a little more sense. This one works by separating out what the author considers the 6 main manifestations of each alignment (examples:  seeker of knowledge or military discipline for law, the balance must be preserved or personal ambition over principles for neutrality, fertility or destruction of everything for Chaos, and allowing you to focus on one. Something like this would have made the irreconcilability of alignment debates caused by people being unable to agree on what actions actually are lawfull/chaotic/good/evil considerably less of a problem. A good article, (apart from the very bad deity names, which seem to have been spewed from a generic fantasy random syllable generator) and one I wish had been picked up and run with by the game.

Speaking of random syllable generators, we get one for naming things in tekumel.

The results of the second featured creature competition. It seems that there aren't that many decent artists among dragon's readership, as only the number 1 entry shows any real signs of professionalism. They do recognize that art is the area that they need to improve on the most, and we know they do improve on that front. But how soon? How much longer will scrappy black and white line art be a regular feature of the magazine?

Monty haul and the best of Freddie: More silliness, including what would later become serious artifacts the ring of Gax, and the Rod of 7 parts. These are the stories that would later be adapted into Greyhawks epic lejends and characters. Kinda takes the aura of wonder away, doesn't it.

The Society for creative anachromism: Now here we see another great advantage of the remerging of the magazines. They cover topics that would previously have been unsuitable for either. Tabletop roleplaying, meet LARPing. (god, 4 years, and this is the first time they've mentioned it here.) I hope you'll be the best of friends, and not look down on each other and go around taking the piss. We're all just gamers, trying to have some fun. Futile hope? Oh well. Hopefully we'll see more on this topic before the magazine turns inward and becomes a D&D house organ again.

All in all, its a very full issue, the biggest change in format since the move from SR to dragon. They've definitely put a lot of effort into this one, and I'm pleased to see that they want to expand their scope. If they increase their standards and production values I can see how they can soon reach the golden years that so many people have spoken of nostalgically. The rollercoaster is definitely going up at the moment.

Thanks for the reviews, keep em coming.

The Dragon Issue 25: May 1979

48 pages. A gamma world special (the first explicitly topic focussed issue since TD4), they continue their drive to improve and reorganise the magazine. Even the editor is not immune to having his friends and family feel that working in gaming is a bit childish. He wants to prove them wrong, and he wants to do it well, because its a fun job to do, instead of some boring office work. Ahh, stereotypes. You don't change much, do you. Just get applied to different groups as they rise and fade.

In this issue:

A part of gamma world revisited: jim ward revisits the section of north america he seeded with factions in a previous article, expanding on their histories, philosophies, bases, significant NPC's, etc etc. A fairly good article that helps give GW games direction and setting, instead of just being one gonzo encounter after another.

Judging and you!: Jim ward gives his philosophy on proper gamemastering. You've got to be able to improvise, don't be afraid to change things. Don't let characters know how to do things just because their players do. Don't kill characters without a chance, but don't save them if they rush in like idiots. It all seems pretty sensible, noncontroversial stuff, amazingly.

The Armada Disasters: This is something most of us (or at least the brits, cant say for the rest of the world) learnt in high school. The spanish got their asses kicked and then sunk, and as a result there are huge wodges of sunken treasure to be found. Or in other words, a stonking great real world adventure hook. Not a brilliant  article, but it does the job.

The place of social class in D&D: Gary thumbs his nose at the concept of tables for social class and occupation, and the implicit generic medieval setting they contain. He then goes on to encourage you to create your own systems of government for the various places in your world, including ones that do not exist in the real world such as magocracies, and defining their class structures and relationships to one-another. Another strong article that shows that larger considerations of setting were really starting to become an issue for the TSR guys.

The writing of the DMG is now mostly done. So it'll still be quite a few months before we get to see it in the shops

Out on a limb: We get a whole page letter viciously slating the Bakshi version of LotR, which then ends with the editor agreeing and saying that if anything he'd have been even harsher. Man, they really dropped the ball on that one. A half page letter defending Alpha Omega from its review here. And another letter complaining extensively about how badly run a tournament was, which recieves a personal apology from gary, which is nice of him.

Comic: The westminster wargaming society, by Tom Wham. Aww. lookita keetom. They like to play with miniatures and dice too.

Armies of the renaissance part 3: Another too short and general article on real world military stuff.

Would the real orc please step forward: An article on the proliferation of goblinoids and their different appearances. We see the start of the goblin/hobgoblin vs orc/ogre partitioning that would become more pronounced as the years went on, along with some bits that weren't picked up, such as gnolls and trolls being related (well they do rhyme. Whatever happened to Thouls? They were cool.) and kobolds being part of the same family as orcs. Has a huge chunk of miniatures reviews as well, with strong opinions on which ones most suit the writers vision of orc. I like this article a lot, it manages to be both informative and amusingly opininated, adding quite a bit to D&D's implied setting.

The Traveler navy wants to join YOU!: More character path stuff for traveler. Pretty dry stuff. But people always want more options. I just hope the ones here aren't broken, as I can't tell.

Gamma world artifact use chart: More advice on future characters using modern devices, and how to handle it. Don't let them do things just because their players can, and vice versa. Includes some random failure fun for if they get overconfident.

Fiction: An alien in a strange land, by Jim Ward. We see one of the big backstory events of the gamma world setting through the eyes if its instigator, the lifeforce sucking mutant Blern. Doesn't really work, as It never really gives him a personality beyond the desire to kill and smash everything he comes across. (ahh, the 70's and 80's, when you could get away with characters who's only motivation is doing evil because they are evil. ) We are not impressed.

Fiction: An interview with an iron golem, by Michael McCrery: A follow-up to the one with the rust monster. And oh god, it the holy hand grenade of antioch. Yet again, the adventurers own idiocy is their undoing. Frankly, anyone acting that dumb deserves to die.

War of flowers: An article on the political and religious structure of the aztec city-states, and the way they waged war on one-another. Includes a complete little war game. A very high quality and entertaining article.

Fineous fingers finally finds his way back.

Varieties of Vampires: Ahh, the insanity of real world mythology. Still despite in many cases being incredibly stupid, your players will soon stop laughing once they face their special abilities. They want to suck your ....... eeech, lets not go there.

To select a mythos: More stuff on world design. All a bit dull and platitudinous really. My philosophy of world design is very much not rocked.

Arms and armor of the Conquistadores: More historical fluff for your wargames. Another article that fails to really distinguish itself.

Another fairly good issue, with several really good articles, some fun ones, and some dull ones, but no really bad ones. Once again, I'm feeling more than a little full up after reading this one. There's no way I'm going to remember everything reading at this rate. There's going to be enough stuff in the run that you could never really use it all, and that's really hitting me now. Still, the only way out is forward, so on with the adventure.

Quote from: (un)reason;298739What is D&D, and where is it going? Gary goes into an explanation of where D&D is coming from, and where he sees it going. Most interesting is that he doesn't see D&D changing that much after the DMG is published, apart from minor errata and revisions, because it is good enough as it is. Like chess or monopoly, it doesn't need more stuff to retain a decent market position. Constant barrages of supplements would only deter casual gamers. Man, he really got the direction wrong. But as D&D sold more copies under that policy than its current several splatbooks a month schedule, I'm not so sure he was philosophically wrong. But that's something we could debate forever.  (and indeed, have recently done here. )

Far from wrong, he was dead right, including in his prediction about what would happen if you created a supplement mill.

RPGPundit

Quote from: (un)reason;299095The Dragon Issue 25: May 1979

This was the first issue of TD I owned. The Phil Foglio cover is still one of my favorites.

Quote from: (un)reasonThe Armada Disasters: This is something most of us (or at least the brits, cant say for the rest of the world) learnt in high school. The spanish got their asses kicked and then sunk, and as a result there are huge wodges of sunken treasure to be found. Or in other words, a stonking great real world adventure hook. Not a brilliant  article, but it does the job.

Quote from: (un)reasonArmies of the renaissance part 3: Another too short and general article on real world military stuff.

Quote from: (un)reasonWar of flowers: An article on the political and religious structure of the aztec city-states, and the way they waged war on one-another. Includes a complete little war game. A very high quality and entertaining article.

Quote from: (un)reasonArms and armor of the Conquistadores: More historical fluff for your wargames. Another article that fails to really distinguish itself.

I really appreciate all the historical articles - I still do, actually. Lots of good ideas for both real-world and fantasy or sci-fi gaming.

Quote from: (un)reasonThe place of social class in D&D: Gary thumbs his nose at the concept of tables for social class and occupation, and the implicit generic medieval setting they contain. He then goes on to encourage you to create your own systems of government for the various places in your world, including ones that do not exist in the real world such as magocracies, and defining their class structures and relationships to one-another. Another strong article that shows that larger considerations of setting were really starting to become an issue for the TSR guys.

I always appreciated advice on world-building. Still do, come to think of it.

Quote from: (un)reasonWould the real orc please step forward: An article on the proliferation of goblinoids and their different appearances. We see the start of the goblin/hobgoblin vs orc/ogre partitioning that would become more pronounced as the years went on, along with some bits that weren't picked up, such as gnolls and trolls being related (well they do rhyme. Whatever happened to Thouls? They were cool.) and kobolds being part of the same family as orcs. Has a huge chunk of miniatures reviews as well, with strong opinions on which ones most suit the writers vision of orc. I like this article a lot, it manages to be both informative and amusingly opininated, adding quite a bit to D&D's implied setting.

The illustration that comes with this is great.

Quote from: (un)reasonThe Traveler navy wants to join YOU!: More character path stuff for traveler. Pretty dry stuff. But people always want more options. I just hope the ones here aren't broken, as I can't tell.

I may have generated characters using these tables, but I'm not sure. High Guard was out the next year, so that quickly replaced them if I did.

Quote from: (un)reasonGamma world artifact use chart: More advice on future characters using modern devices, and how to handle it. Don't let them do things just because their players can, and vice versa. Includes some random failure fun for if they get overconfident.

Iirc, this was very similar to the ones in Metamorphosis Alpha. They made a fun little mini-game to play.

Quote from: (un)reasonFiction: An alien in a strange land, by Jim Ward. We see one of the big backstory events of the gamma world setting through the eyes if its instigator, the lifeforce sucking mutant Blern. Doesn't really work, as It never really gives him a personality beyond the desire to kill and smash everything he comes across. (ahh, the 70's and 80's, when you could get away with characters who's only motivation is doing evil because they are evil. ) We are not impressed.

I don't think it's that bad. We're introduced to Blern after he's set up an organization that will keep a group alive until he returns to re-establish his rule, so he's clearly planning ahead. He uses his powers in interesting ways.

Quote from: (un)reasonVarieties of Vampires: Ahh, the insanity of real world mythology. Still despite in many cases being incredibly stupid, your players will soon stop laughing once they face their special abilities. They want to suck your ....... eeech, lets not go there.

I used ideas from this article to mess with . . . uh. CHALLENGE . . . my players.

The Dragon Issue 26: June 1979

52 pages. Finally, the editor gets an assistant, the lovely Mr Jaquet, who's first name changes unpredictably from article to article. Now their staff is big enough to withstand one person getting knocked out temporarily, so we won't be losing months because of that. We also see a spate of new running articles start here. Mighty Magic Miscellany, Dastardly deeds and devious devices, Bazaar of the Bizarre. Ahh, alliteration, how you help make things memorable. What would we do deprived of opportunities to twist the lexicon of language in disturbing directions. They also say that this is your last chance as readers to save the letters page, as they still aren't getting regular letters, and they're tired of asking. You do know what a can of worms you're opening here, don't you?

In this issue:

Miniatures, meet boards: Tim Kask talks about his first experiences in wargaming, and recalls the problems with miniatures gaming in general. This then segues into talking about a new game, System 7, and how using cardboard chits makes things so much more accessable than shelling out for and painting hundreds of miniatures. He goes on to say he hopes it revolutionizes wargaming the way D&D did. But miniatures make up most of the companies profit. Yeah, so much for that idea.

Napoleonics no longer mean a second mortgage: A proper review of system 7, with a pretty good assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. This is pretty good, not just a promo for the game.

Necessity is the mother of invention: The designer of system 7 weighs in on the design process for the game, and the compromises they had to make in doing so. Another solid article that adds to this issue's big topic.

The designer responds to first volley: Lotsa players questions, and the corresponding clarifications and errata. Again, this is a solid article, and rounds out this issues main feature. After this, you'll have a pretty good idea if you want to buy System 7 or not.

Giants in the earth: Another article that is intended as a recurring one, this is where they stat out characters from various books for D&D. Of course, as D&D cannot properly emulate them, they have to break the rules that PC's are limited too to represent them. They are also disgustingly overstatted, with not a single attribute below 13. I just have to sigh at this.

And what of the skinnies? An add-on to the Starship troopers wargame, giving the humanoids a power boost so they can match up to the humans and bugs, instead of being stuck in the middle getting slaughtered. Not sure how well this holds up mechanically, but it seems a decent enough article. Hopefully it was of use to someone.

The placement of castles: A tactical guide for Lords and Wizards. More rules stuff that I can't really comment on, but seems decent enough.

35th aniversary of d-day remembered: Lest we forget. Of course back then, there were considerably more people who saw it in person still alive. A good reminder that behind the games, there were serious historical events, with people getting killed, and the same cannot be said for fantasy games. But lets not stay on a downer for too long, shall we.

The solitary berserker for william the conquerer - 1066: Another fun rules expansion. Play Harold Hardrada smashing his way through the english. Maybe you'll even win this time around. Another article that seems ok to me.

Chinese Undead: I think you know what to expect from this. Has a bit of crossover with the vampires around the world article from last issue, but not enough to be useless. And as ever real world mythology is easily as strange and considerably less optimised towards ass-kicking abilities than D&D monsters.  

A load of general stuff for boot hill. This is stuff that'll mostly benefit players, at the cost of adding extra mechanical gewgaws to remember. All in all, this is pretty meh.

Another view on D&D alignments: This one doesn't really add much to the pot, merely being a list of what individuals of a particular alignment probably would or wouldn't do. Which is not the best way to go about it, as it lumps a bunch of unrelated traits together, and thus adds to the perspective of alignment as restriction, rather than monitoring device. Which is not the way to go about things, in my opinion. I do not approve.

Deck of fate: Tarot cards for D&D. Draw one of these, and stuff will happen, maybe good, maybe bad. Either way, it keeps things interesting, doesn't it. Not nearly as comprehensive or mechanically sound as the later bag of beans one, this is still an entertaining article, that I have no problem with.

D&D meets the electronic age: Using a computer with an amazing 4K of memory! ( Damn, A page or so of typing here eats up that much, they must have been far more efficient with it back then.) to assist in the mechanical side of running a game, building to hit matrixes, monster stats and dungeon layouts. Goes to show, computers were coming into the range of affordability to ordinary people, and you could already do quite a bit with them back then. But if they weren't, they wouldn't have developed as quickly as they have, as there wouldn't be the money to put into development. It's like evolution. Creationists ask what use half an eye is, but even a single photosensitive cell offers considerable advantages to an organism. And if something offers an advantage, it rapidly spreads and gets built on and refined.

Hirelings have feelings too: A little reminder that hirelings need paying, and will desert if treated badly. If your adventures are getting dull, a little NPC friction can liven them up.

Notes from a very successful D&D moderator: More gaming advice heavily slanted towards the adversarial mold. It encourages finding new inventive ways of countering the players stratagems, so they never get overconfident. Which isn't very nice behaviour, is it now. Still, lots of people had fun playing like that, so who's to say its bad.

D&D, AD&D and gaming: Gary talks about the origins of D&D, and then goes on to talk about the difference between D&D and AD&D. This is where the division between the freewheeling, make it up yourself D&D style, and the standardised, comprehensive, tournament oriented, you've got to play it by the rules in the book or you aren't doing it right AD&D style is spelled out in detail to everyone, and is quite representative of Gygax's opinion on why the games needed to be separated.   His focus is also clearly going to be with AD&D from this point on, as that's the one he wants to promote as more important as a game. Which is very informative, if slightly amusing in hindsight. He also defends his rather venomous reviews of a few issues ago, essentially saying that they deserved it for being crap, and if they aren't told so, they'll never improve. And lots of good gaming material is what he wants. So that's ok then :rolleyes:

Mugger! A somewhat humourous D&D mod, in which the players play muggers trying to rob as much stuff as possible while avoiding the arm of the law.  Fun as a one-shot, and as it's encounters are by random table, it looks like it would work well as a solitaire game. Which is neat. Bring on the violence.

Birth and social status tables for tekumel: Random tables, random tables, la la la la. Don't we already have a set of these? Forgive me if I lose interest.

Blueprint for a lich: Another familiar idea gets its first expression. Becoming a lich takes quite a bit of work, and this article lays out the steps. It has a few bits that later versions would omit (maybe they'd developed more refined transformation rituals) but is still the basic form that would hold throughout 1st and 2nd edition, and be adapted to create dracoliches. Which is nice, I guess.

Putting together a party on the spur of the moment: Gary talks about generating parties quickly for con games. As you might expect, luck is involved quite heavily, which may result in you being twinked or screwed. Such is the fate of the unplanned game. Still, I'm sure that with gary as the GM, it'd still be fun.

Strength comparison table: Various monsters strength scores, using them as characters, strength without proper leverage. This article tries to do too much, and as a result, fails to do anything very well. Don't try and cram a load of scattershot ideas into a single article next time. Leave that to the professionals.

Reviews: Tribes of crane, Ice war, Mercenary, The Battle of monmouth, Grenadier figure packs, Battle sphere. All are solidly written, with mention of both merits and flaws to the works, with no raving fanboyism.

Dragons bestiary: Barghests! Another classic and rather dangerous monster appears in recognizable form. It grows in power as it eats people, then goes back to gehenna once fully grown. Has a rather sinister looking set of small print at the bottom, whereby all monsters published become the intellectual property of TSR. I guess they really are wising up when it comes to legal crap. Very interesting, for the  changes in presenting style it represents with plenty of description and ecological stuff.

Fineous fingers continues.

The thief - A deadly annoyance: While thieves might be useful in dungeoneering, where they really shine is in the city. Another article that feels rather dated, as it actively encourages thief PC's to sneak off and take loot without telling other players, steal from their companions, and otherwise behave in a manner detrimental to party trust and unity. Ahh, competitive play, how we miss thee. I must run a game like this at some point.

Another busy issue full of interesting stuff, which offers many pointers as to the way the magazine and game would develop in the future. As they expand, they have to become increasingly professional. And as their readership expands, the base of competent people to hire and freelance from expands as well. They'll be changing some more in the near future, so don't think that they're content with this issue's innovations.

Quote from: RPGPundit;299134Far from wrong, he was dead right, including in his prediction about what would happen if you created a supplement mill.

RPGPundit

And yet, a few years later he created UA. (albeit, as a response to financial mismanagement while he was off in hollywood) The temptation for short term profit over long term stability is a dangerous thing, that affects our entire economy. Not an easy problem to solve.

Quote from: (un)reason;298192The Dragon Issue 19: October 1978


The lowdown on wishes: You give PC's ultimate power,
they will abuse it, or at least use it in a way that the GM
considers detrimental to the overall fun of the game. So
having put wishes into the game, people immediately set
out to put limitations and risks on them. You really ought
to think these things over before you put them in the game,
so you don't have to nerf them later.

Or better yet, they could have had more openness to free-form
rules of various kinds, not just for magic, but for all sorts of
things.  Traveller, for example, has very open guidelines for
starship design -- within the limits of a few equations, players
can go nuts.

The article on wishes is why I often found myself hating Dragon.

The writer sounds like he drank a bottle of paint thinner to get his creative juices flowing.  He will conclude the article with two phrases that give me great comfort, namely:

QuoteRemember, you don’t have to obey this word for word.

...The feel of the rules is the most important thing.

But until I made it to those blessed sentences, I was feeling a great deal of antipathy for the writer.

Okay, I admit that his breezy style does contain some actual humor:

QuoteMost DM’s want to be fair about wishes but don’t want Player-
characters to take undue advantage. So they kill them. (It’s only natural)
Well, because of this, I’ve developed a background to help judge which
wishes should be granted totally, dropped entirely, or partially granted in
one form or another. (For the more sadistic of our fold, don’t worry!
This doesn’t mean you can’t kill them any more, just that you’ll have a logical
reason for doing it.)

Okay, I didn't laugh, but the punchy style reads well.  It would be funny if he said it in person.

QuoteThe first thing to consider is how these wishes came to be. To start
from the beginning, it is common knowledge that wizardry is every bit as
much a science as physics and chemistry (to which it is closely related).
Through various gestures, utterances and chemicals, wizards are able to
tap the free, natural, invisible forces that give power and substance to
their spells. It’s no more mysterious to them than it is to us when we plug
in the toaster. We’re tapping another natural, invisible force. (It’s just not
free.) Those wizards of much learning and wisdom (hence, wizards) were
able to develop for themselves an all-purpose spell that could do many
diversified things. These are called WISHES. (Actually, what they
created was a WISH SPELL-WS - it’s the use of a WS that is called a
WISH. A DM’s gotta know things like that!)

At this point, the conversational style is making the article less readable; I begin to suspect he was paid by the word and the extra eight cents he earned for throwing in "hence, wizards" was making little $ signs pop up in his eyes as he typed.  "Diversified" for "diverse" is forgivable.

"It is common knowledge" is one of those rulings that irks me.  Perhaps he means "it's common knowledge in any campaign run according to the background I've developed."

I like to think that I can comprehend fairly abstruse English, but the following passage is horrible:

QuoteActually, what they
created was a WISH SPELL-WS - it’s the use of a WS that is called a
WISH.

Am I meant to read "WS" as "wish spell"?  Was the writer simply sitting too close to an open jar of rubber cement and getting high off the fumes?  The 1970s were horrifically primitive times -- people had to use things like rubber cement to just do a bit of simple text-pasting...

QuoteNext, the wizards created objects that could enable the person with
little or no experience in sorcery to accomplish the feats of high level
sorcerers. These were rings, staves, and even things less conventional
where a WS had been transferred to them from the wizard himself. What
a breakthrough! Keep in mind, though, that the WS couldn’t possibly be
any more powerful than the wizard who created it. Less so, in fact, as
some of the power is lost in the transference.  

An artifact can't be more powerful than the person who creates it, even when used for a specialized purpose?

Does that mean that if I can lift 250 pounds with unaided muscle, and I make a lever-and-fulcrum, that lever-and-fulcrum can only lift 250 pounds?



 

QuoteThere is usually a relation
between the ability of the WS to grant a more difficult wish (the WS
strength) and the object that is endowed with it. Why bother to put a weak
spell in an object that will last forever? Who would put a powerful spell in
something that is easily destroyed? Of course, there are always
exceptions, but usually a weak wish spell would be in something flimsy,
like a ring or a piece of apparel. The stronger an object is, like a sword or
armour or a stone orb, the stronger the WS in it probably is. This also
applies to objects that are more gawky or cumbersome, as a staff or a
drum or a sofa.

I don't believe I have ever played a game in which we discovered a sofa of wishes.

QuoteJust as there are matters to help determine the strength of a WS,
there are also problems in determining the effectiveness of the wish.
Foremost of these is the alignment of the WS compared to that of the
possessor of the object. A lawful Wizard would generally empower an
object with a lawful or neutral WS. A chaotic wizard would empower an
object with a neutral or chaotic WS. A neutral wizard would just
empower an object with a neutral WS. As you can see, the odds are
stacked in favor of a neutral Wish Spell. This is because there is more
versatility in neutral than in lawful or chaotic WS’s. A lawful WS only
fully grants those wishes within its power that encourage leadership,
justice, loyalty, heroism, generosity, and creativity. It strives to have you
struggle against the chaotic. A chaotic WS only fully grants those wishes
within its power that promote tyranny, deceit, greed, laziness,
mercilessness, and cleverness in struggles against ANYONE. It is for the
DM to decide, without consulting any of the players, what the motive
behind the wish is. Take into account what they say they’re going to do
with whatever they’ve wished for, but don’t be fooled by a hoax! If you
don’t believe that the players actual motives suit the listing above, crack
down on them!!! (Please excuse me for yelling; I get so excited!)

It's not the yelling-- it's not even the grammar-- it's the rule design that I find hard to forgive.

QuoteThe way
to get those bozos (bozettes; the bozettes are often sneakier than the
bozos) is to twist their wish right around, making things a little more. . .
er, difficult. If the players give you any flack, just say, “Lookit here,
buddy (or buddess), I play the gods in this game. You gonna argue with
the gods? We’ll stike you down! We don’t have to take none of this.” If
that doesn’t work, you can always blame it on the dice.

Somehow I get the impression that the writer advises similar tactics when he is instructing his employees at the used car sales lot.  This sounds like sales training.  

QuoteFor some of
you, this will make handling wishes easier. For others, it may be a little
confusing. Remember, you don’t have to obey this word for word. Get the
feel of these ideas and you won’t even have to refer to this article very
often. The feel of the rules is the most important thing. Wishes should be
great news, but yet a harrowing experience. Handle them well!

Quote from: (un)reason;297086The Dragon Issue 13: April 1978


Notes from a semi-sucessfull D&D player: A whole range of tricks for players, such as the now ubiquitous continual light on an object so you can carry it one, and the enormous usefulness of polymorph, plant growth and permanency spells. Tactical solutions are generally more effective than straight attacks, and this is particularly true back then before they nerfed most of the buff and utility spells. Lets face it, when the GM is against you, you need to use every trick you have to survive.

The tactics are somewhat interesting, especially the ones I hadn't heard before.

What I find *very* interesting about that article is that it shows how original D&D rules seem to have accumulated like English common law, with hundreds of small disputes and contradictory judgements eventually adding up to a precedent.  Jim Ward was offering things that his DMs had let him get away with.  This added up to a truly useful body of precedents.  Of course, any DM could say that those precedents are not binding precedents in his campaign, but the power of the centralized media meant that hundreds of DMs in those information-starved 1970s were forming opinions based on what Jim Ward had written.

By contrast, I came into the hobby around 1981, with the tournament-adventure culture well underway, and Gygax's AD&D rulebooks.  Those books repeated that there was only one way to play the game -- Gygax's way was the right way.  

It's probably impossible for any historian of wargaming to definitively say what the culture of wargaming was like before Wesley's Braunstein, but I suspect it was slightly more orderly than Arneson's "game master with a whip and a chair."  If my suspicion is right, then Gygax's attempt to impose some order (with AD&D) was a correction of the 1970s trend toward disorderly gaming.  Disorder can produce freedom and creativity, but it can also produce very dreary monotony; what is more monotonous than a DM who always rules against the players' creative ideas?