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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.
I imagine it made you happy that your creations were still a core part of the game 30 years later. Phantasmal Killer is one of my favorites.
Which I swiped from E.E. "Doc" Smith (see Kinnison's first meeting with Helen of Lyrane in Second Stage Lensman). (And yes to be honest, it is pleasing to open a D&D book and see my work in it.)
__________________ If that's pure logic I'll take vanilla.
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.
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.
52 pages. So its their third birthday, and they are now firmly established as the premier magazine in their field. A pretty good place to be in. So they're looking back a bit. And the thing they're most proud of, oddly enough is the snits games. Life is full of amusing oddities. But that doesn't mean they've taken their eye off the ball. They intend to advance with the times, instituting a computer game column, and more increases in size. Which is nice, I guess. More work for me. We also get a new logo, losing the ooziness of the old one for a more easily legible angular script. All things must change, I suppose.
In this issue:
Agincourt - the destruction of french chivalry: A review of the wargame by Tim the editor. This brings up an interesting topic. It seems like wargames designed to represent one particular battle in history and nothing else were quite common back then. Which seems quite strange, from my perspective, as you'd have to learn new rules for each game, and the replay value would be somewhat limited. (unless you're the kind of person who enjoys playing something like chess as a hobby in itself, rather than boardgames as a whole) I guess that was their analog of indie games like my life with master. Digression aside, it's a very well written review, that comprehensively covers both its good and bad points, and examines the historical accuracy of the game. Guess it was up to the editor to show up all those freelancers submitting shoddy reviews.
Agincourt designers notes: I guess this is this issues big topic then. The designer talks about his design choices, and fills in more details about the historical context of Agincourt. Not quite as interesting as the review, this is still a solid article, which combined with the previous should give you more than enough information on if you want to buy the game.
The effects of agincourt on the hundred years war: A third article, this time focusing on the political situation surrounding the battle, what happened before and afterwards. A tale of madness, famine, bankruptcy, treachery and technology. If anyone says history is boring, they've had the wrong teacher.
Elementals and the philosophers stone: An interesting article, drawing upon greek theories of matter to create an alternate cosmology based upon a cubic structure, with the 4 elements and good and evil arranged in a cube, with 12 other physical and emotional states being formed by the combinations between them. An idea that would of course later be paralleled in the demi and quasielemental planes, with the overt morality stripped out. I quite like this, and like the alternate alignment systems presented in earlier issues, would very much like to try it out in game sometime. After all, anything, even a cosmology as cool as the great wheel, gets dull eventually with overuse.
What judges guild has done for D&D: By publishing officially licenced products for D&D, both it, we, and you have benefited. In addition, we have encouraged the practice of GM's treating players fairly, not as antagonists to be tricked and slaughtered at every opportunity, and playing by the rules, as this messes up the game balance. We also encourage realistic world building. Ooookay. Permit me to have a degree of skepicism. Not sure how to feel about this article.
Cangames '79: Gary reviews the convention, giving it good marks, and saying he hopes to visit again next year. Not much more to say on this one.
Out on a limb: A veeeeeeeeery long letter rebutting the scathing attack on bakshi's LotR. A quite short letter attacking the mountain of supplements for D&D, and the expense of keeping up with the game. (excuse me while I s for a moment) Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along.
Tesseracts - A traveller artifact: The idea presented for D&D a few issues back gets adapted to traveler, with similarly fun results. Hyperdimensional stuff is always so much fun.
A new comic, The voyages of exploration ship znutar: Another silly little B&W number that looks like it's leading into something.
Star system generation for Traveller: You know the drill by now, random tables, usefull stuff for when the GM is short of ideas. I ought to make a random table of comments to make for when an article is too dull to form a strong opinion on it. It'd certainly get a lot of use over the course of this.
Design notes for Divine Right:
A quick look at dwarves: Thoughts on the organisations of dwarven armies. My god, it actually has some D&D stuff in. There's been surprisingly little of that this issue. An ok article, with lots of ideas that make sense, but nothing truly ground-breaking.
The emerald tablet design notes: I think you know what to expect here. They talk about the mechanical problems they faced in designing a game that covered a wide variety of fantasy mileus, and the solutions they came up with, plus the inspirations behind the game, such as Kaballa (before sephiroth was appropriated by angsty fangirls) and goetic magic. A rather long-winded article, that nonetheless carries some interesting information. (not least that the preferred spellings of the translations of these terms have changed in recent years) Another amusing historical footnote.
An advert for Best of The Dragon. Only 4 years in and they're already releasing their first retrospective. Not a very good showing. Even most boybands take 5 (but then, I'm of the opinion that band shouldn't release a greatest hits until they've been around at least a decade, and had enough hits that some of them can be considered greatest and the rest left out. ) I thoroughly disapprove of this development.
Giants in the earth: Durathror, Fafhrd and the grey mouser, and john carter of mars. Like last issue, all are ridiculously twinked to a degree that few players will be able to match, and none by purely random generation. Where are our everyman heroes who win by luck and courage, not disgusting amounts of power?
Review: The english civil war. Price complaints due to the weakness of the dollar to the pound. My, have times changed A pretty well balanced review, covering both the good and bad sides of the game.
Expanding Imperium: Several interesting optional rules drawing on various sci-fi shows. Another one that I can't comment on, but the article seems pretty well written, so they'd probably be fun to try.
Review: MiG Killers. Another air fighting game. Now there's a genre that's pretty much disappeared these days, due to computer games doing it better, more easily, providing a visceral experience. Oh well. Another pretty positive review.
The mythos of africa for G: DG&H: And I thought this barrel was empty already. Guess I forgot about these guys. (and it's normally Australia that winds up being the last one picked for the team) Rather a mash-up, given the size and diversity of Africa. No great surprises here to anyone with any mythological studies experience.
Dragons bestiary: The Horast. I don't remember this one. Which is a shame, as it's not a bad monster.
Fineous fingers continues.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: The bag of wind. An item that I remember. A good set of synergistic themed abilities, plus a bit of classic mythological reference. Quite a nice article, overall.
Possibly the most D&D light issue I've yet read. Which does present a few problems, when so much of the content is wargames that I don't know. I guess I should appreciate it now, because I've got many years ahead where it'll be nothing but D&D all the way through. Too much, too little, both can be annoying. What are you gonna do?
56 pages, plus an extra 3 of boardgame. (ha, I knew it. When I saw the comic last issue, I though that this was leading into another cool little game included with the magazine. ) The editor talks about the geeky stigma of wargaming, and encourages people not to act ashamed of what they do, but explain it sensibly to their friends and family. And don't get confused between reality and fantasy. Oh, if only more people had listened.
In this issue:
The politics of hell: How Asmodeus got to be the 3rd supreme leader of hell, after satan and beelzebub got overthrown. Decidedly non-canonical, and also very based upon earthly history and judeo-christian mythology. Still a high quality and entertaining article, that would make a good alternative to the standard D&D backstory. Interesting to note that the 4th ed devil origin story bears more resembalance to this than the last one. Could this have been an influence on Mearls and co?
At last, the DMG is finished! So we get an interview with gary on it, plus commentary from the rest of the TSR staff. It is intended to be the definitive tome on everything the GM needs to run the game, a huge leap up from OD&D in comprehensiveness, so houseruling is no longer neccecary or desirable to run the game. This is the culimination of years of hard work and the game is now complete. And dwarven women have beards with a vote of 12 to 1. Yeah, this is an epic article full of great quotes, many of which are rather amusing in light of what's happened since. Yeah, the hubris has set in a bit. When you think your work needs no further improvement, thats when stagnation starts. And if you stagnate, you set yourself up for a fall, when things change around you and you fail to adapt. But I'll stop moralising now. Honestly, at this rate, I'll turn into as big a windbag as Gary.
A short course in D&D: An entire school gets taught how to play the game in short order. Very interesting, as it shows both the lack of social stigma the game had at the time, and the logistical problems that large groups with lots of new people and turnover present. Has plenty of tips that are still relevant today.
The cavalry plain at austerlitz: A system free historical article. One of those ones that tries to condense a topic that could cover an entire book into a couple of pages, and fails to be interesting in doing so.
Simulating the cavalry plain: The crunchy partner to the previous article.
Evil - Law vs Chaos: Which basically, in Gary's mind boils down to Domination of everything vs smashing for kicks. Hey, another thing that 4th ed has boiled things back down to again. Now that is interesting to note. One of those articles that will be polarising, because it oversimplifies the myriad of facets that can contribute to a persons position in the alignment field.
Six guns & Sorcery: Official crossover rules for boot hill and AD&D. Niiiiice. Given the recent talk of how D&D politics is modelled on the old west ideals, this seems curiously appropriate. Ahh, the joy of gonzo crossovers. And as we know, there would be several more of these. And what's wrong with that? A well chosen crosover can really inject excitement. Its only when you try and throw everything into the pot at once that it just gets confusing and tedious.
Fantasysmiths notebook: Choosing miniatures to represent characters and monsters in your game. Solid advice like focus on getting ones for players and common monsters, otherwise you'll skew the campaign by wanting to show off your dragon miniature too often. Ends with a list of recommended companies. A pretty solid article, as long as you're not the kind of person who rejects the idea of using miniatures in your RPGing. And if you are, clear off and play with the LARPers. We don't want your kind around here
Armies of the rennaisance part 4 - the english. Longbows kick your ass, bitch! And then firearms kick your ass again a few centuries later. Phear our naval supremacy. Another rather too condensed article for the amount of ground it tries to cover.
Elvish tactics in fantasy miniatures: Following on from the dwarven tactics last issue (but will we see halfling battle tactics anytime soon? ) Longbows (kick your ass again) light horses, light armour, harrying tactics, generally being complete bastards. Nothing you wouldn't expect. Ahh, stereotypes.
Conventions - The manufacturers view: Gary talks about the logistical problems involved in attending conventions, and how it really doesn't generate them as much profit as you'd think. Really. they're mostly doing it because they love what they do, and attending is good for the industry as much as it is for them personally. If they were in it for the money, they'd be doing something else. Which all seems pretty reasonable.
Out on a limb: A letter bitching at them for not offering reprints. (frankly my dear, it's just not profitable) A letter giving big chunks of errata for Cross of Iron. Talk of mutant animals in MA. And an epic rant from marc jacobs covering a whole bunch of percieved flaws in the system. That hit points inflate but healing is linear, and how annoying and unrealistic this is. Stupid results created by random generation, forgetting spells, ripping off ideas from other systems. Oh, and the use of goblinoids as a racial metaphor. Yeah, sounds like you shouldn't be playing D&D at all, if you have this many problems with the system and premise. But then they had far fewer systems to choose from back then. The rebuttal to this goes all over the shop, forward to page 46, then back to 11. It's all a bit silly really.
The voyages of the ship znutar continue
And yeah, here's the rules for the acompanying game. More amusing Tom Wham art abounds. This game is somewhat bigger than the snits one, as obviously they've had more practice in the last couple of years, and their design skills have grown accordingly. Looks like it should be fun.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: Lots of stuff I remember, including that lovely joke item the apparatus of spiky owns. Most notable, though for introducing Leomund to us. One of the iconic old wizards who would put their names to a whole bunch of spells and magic items does so here.
Level progression for players and DM's: Oh dear. This is one of those articles that would come back to bite them in the ass later. Each game you play in and things you do in them give you a certain amount of XP. You can then use this to determine your real world level as a player and DM. It's all presented pretty seriously, enough so that even I'm not sure if the original writer intended it as a joke. Which is a bit worrying. If this had made it into the DMG, how many people would have wound up ranking themselves officially. Ahh, hindsight. How very tiresome you are.
Giants in the earth: More overpowered statting outs of literary characters, in this case Eric John Stark, and the ghost of Welleran. I'm really not liking this section at all, and hope it doesn't stay as a regular article for long.
Monty strikes back: More epicness featuring the original obscenely overpowered D&D group getting challenges commensurate with their power (which of course includes plenty of the artifacts that would later become D&D legends. ) And when they beat even that, Monty throws a snit and kills them all by plant rape. Uh huh huh huh huh.
Reviews: Divine right, America BC, Sorcerer (they oughta sue Ron Edwards) All are primarily desriptive reviews, with little personal judgement in them. Which makes them a little dull. You have enough adverts. You need to make your reviews more opinionated, otherwise what's the point.
An advert for a game set in the Dune universe. Iiinteresting
Dragon's Bestiary - the Slinger. Little lizards that use the manticore trick of throwing their poisonous spines at people. Another monster that never made it to the official bestiaries, despite being one of the more realistic and ecologically integrated monsters they've come up with. Oh well, Can't win 'em all.
Fineous fingers continues.
Another high quality issue, with lots of cool articles, but curiously enough also many indicators of the things that would later contribute to D&D's stigmatism and decline. Again, hindsight reveals plenty of ways that things could have been changed if they'd been done differently, but fails to be particularly helpfull in dealing with our present problems. Still at least 4e is adapting, not stagnating. If the changes they're making work in the long run or not remains to be seen, but at least they're not pretending that their new edition is the perfect version of D&D, never to be changed or bettered again.
And an epic rant from marc jacobs covering a whole bunch of percieved flaws in the system. That hit points inflate but healing is linear, and how annoying and unrealistic this is. Stupid results created by random generation, forgetting spells, ripping off ideas from other systems.
The more things change no?
__________________ Currently running: Sufficiently Advanced over Maptool. Soon to change. If you'd like to join in a short 3-8 session campaign for various systems, drop by our forums.
I double-dog-dare you to make your game sound super cool without comparing it to other editions. - paraphrased from Umbran.
56 pages. This issue marks the arrival of Kim Mohan, who's role is listed simply as staff. Keep an eye on the boy, because he's going to go a long way soon. There's also plenty of other less significant new staff. Their influence will be felt soon. Interesting times indeed.
In this issue:
Of the Gods: Thoughts on creating your own pantheon for your games. As is common in this era it includes random tables for generating your own deities when inspiration runs dry, plus a sample pantheon. A well thought out and written article that nevertheless feels a bit tacky and mechanical. If you can't come up with a decent set of gods without recourse to tables, what hope for the rest of your setting?
Source of the nile flow charts: A play aid that pretty much tells me how to play the game. Which obviously means it's a good one that does its job well. I quite approve of this.
A ounce of preparation is worth a ton of paint: Lotsa tips on how to properly set up and paint miniatures so they'll make good gaming tools. Another article that is well enough explained to be useful to a complete beginner. Is this the start of a new degree of accessabilty in the magazine?
Half ogres as an official D&D race, by Gary himself. They have very restricted options, being pretty much forced into THOG SMASH! by their ability range. He also talks about the idea of allowing other various halfbreeds, and the problems that this would cause to game balance. Another bit of evidence why 3rd edition was not to his taste, the proliferation of racial templates is precisely the opposite of what he espouses here. You know, if you bow to pressure and allow this, then people are going to just keep on pushing. You've got to be firmer with all those twinks and monsterphiles. Human supremacy 4eva!
Curses: An article on the proper use of these lovely little implements of magical vengance, as well as their removal. Be ironic, tailor them to the curser and the crime, and let people pervert the letter of them to get around them or profit from them. Yeah, I like this kind of thinking. It brings an element of mythology into the game that may require some thought to handle, but makes the game deeper than just another hack and slash dungeon.
Out on a limb: Lots of varied commentary on the last few issues. Quite a bit of it concerns Gary's recent controversial statements. The column is finally picking up, thanks to the increased readership and threats of being shut down. Pretty soon they'll be able to pick and choose which letters to include and which to ignore.
Giants in the earth: This month the characters given disgustingly twinked stats are Roger Zelazny's Shadowjack, and Jack Vance's Iucounu. You know my opinion of this by now, so I shall refrain from further grumbling on this topic unless things change in some way.
Rewarding heroism in D&D: Our first attempt at proper narrative reinforcement, a set of optional rules giving the characters benefits for behaving in a properly heroic manner. Which is nice, and another article that is historically significant for introducing that kind of thinking to the game. Shame it would take so long to become common though.
Inns and Taverns: A little article on the setup of historical inns and taverns. Neither brilliant or particularly bad, this is just one of those articles that helps fill space in an expanding magazine like this.
Air war - North vietnam: A load of new scenarios for the game based upon that common thread. A short but sweet article that looks like it does what it says on the tin.
Smaller than man sized weapons: Another little article that does what it says it does. The setup they use here is somewhat more complex than the 3rd ed version, with individual alterations for every weapon for two different smaller sizes. Oh, for standardisation.
The sleep war: An SCA actual play, this shows that politics there can be easily as ludicrous as in real life. Much fun in cold and muddy fields was had.
Origins of the Norse pantheon: Not quite what the label indicates. There is much talk on Berserking, and a little on the origins and geographic ranges of the original Aesir and Vanir religions. One of those articles that feels woefully short for the depth of its topic.
The mythos of Oceania: Yet more G,DG&H stats. We get the usual mix of concept embodiers, wierd critters, great heroes and their relations. Are there any more pantheons I've forgotten about, because damned if I can think of any they haven't covered yet.
Strain and spellcasting: A spell point system that substantially depowers magic-users. Well, plenty of people were sending them in, so I suppose they had to publish one. So by choosing one that weakens them, the people at TSR make it unlikely anyone will actually use it. Thus keeping vancian magic supreme. How clever of them. :rolleyes:
Trained animals: What, they didn't include rules for something as important as this in the DMG anyway? Shocking. So much for it being complete.
Aging in D&D: Take my previous statement and make it double. Oh yeah, they did, just simpler ones. This version uses a random roll per 2 years to determine if you lose points in your physical stats. Which of course is dreadfully unpredictable. Which is probably more realistic, but less fair and fun for the game than the 3rd ed way of doing things.
Nonplayer characters have feelings too: Need random personality traits for your NPC's and hirelings. Roll here. I ought to make an index of all these random tables, so people can use them more efficiently later.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: Two classic items this time. The ring of the necromancer (using the term in the proper sense, rather than just as the title for an 8th level magic user.) And the binary stop design for determining the results of Hewards mystical organ. Very pleasing indeed. Can I have some more please sir.
Jim Ward reports on Origins 1979. Despite some organisational hassles, and a lack of air conditioning, it was in general a success. So they'll be going again next year then.
The reviews section gets a proper title this issue, The Dragons Augury. Wonder how long that'll stick? Anyway, this issue they review Reich, a wargame. Raiders and traders, another war/strategy game Panzer colors II, a book. I, Kubelwagon, a book. Desert tracks, a book. The tolkien quiz book, pretty self explanatory, plus a whole host of mini-reviews I can't be bothered to list individually. The profesionality has definitely taken a step up here. Which is nice.
Fineous fingers goes on vacation again. But wormy is Baaack, if only with a recap of the story so far.
Dragons Bestiary: the whiz-bang beetle. An amusing little low level monster that takes the prospensity of real insects to fly into flames and glass, and extrapolates it to a creature that has the power to punch through walls by flying into them repeatedly. Which should be fun for adventurers to face. Shame this one never made it into common use.
Another sign of their increasing professionalism, Dragon finally gets a proper classified ads section. Another thing that I wonder whether it will take off or not, given the trouble they had with the letters page.
Another significant issue with several innovations that would make it into future products (but plenty more that wouldn't) this marks the start of another leap in professionalism. Looks like 1979 was a real turning point in D&D's fortunes in many ways. And we've still got 3 months to go. What further surprises could they spring on us before the year is out? Lets keep going and see.
48 pages. Geeks, cults, and disappearances, oh my! So this is when the first D&D player takes things too far headline hit the news, and the tabloids start printing ridiculous misconceptions about the nature of the game. Well, its another thing I was curious about. Remember everyone, It's your job to present yourself to the world as well adjusted people, so these unfortunates do not tarnish the name of the hobby as a whole. Of course, any publicity is good publicity in a way, and we know that sales would still increase considerably after this point, so this is not the BADDness you're looking for.
In this issue:
Kim Mohan gives us his first article, which is also a report of the first ever convention he attended. Talk about jumping in at the deep end. He gets star struck meeting the other D&D writers, worn out dealing with the endless public demand, amazed how nice virtually everyone is, and takes lots of photos. His huge amount of enthusiasm for his new job shows through, and is pretty infectious. This is why you need new people every so often. All the skill in the world means nothing without the energy to back it up.
Where the Orcs are: An epic miniatures castle and its inhabitants gets a several page, full color spread of photos showing it off. Truly, an awe inspiring example of the ridiculous lengths people are willing to go for their hobbies. Mind you, given the amount of time and effort I'm putting into this thread, maybe its not such an unachievable standard after all.
Leromunds tiny hut: Another new regular column starts. This particular one goes into extensive detail on the powers and limitations of vampires, extrapolating on their MM entry, and delivering rules expansions and errata. There is a certain amount of nerfing going on here, as Len tends to rule in a conservative way, but even so, vampires are still disgustingly powerfull and able to screw your characters for ages with a single hit. And if they were played intelligently, they would be able to take over the world with worrying ease. Ahh, spawning monsters. How you mess with the idea of a workable ecology.
Another persons perspective on this years Origins. Lots of cool specifics and a well written article.
White plume mountain! Another classic module out now. Isn't this the one with the crashed spacecraft? Or was that expedition to the barrier peaks? Ahh, silly crossovers. You don't get anything like that in modern adventures.
New settings for the adventure. Gary talks on stuff in general. First, he talks about the difference between a publisher and an editor, and how much input he has on the contents of the magazine. Notable here is that he says he is trying to keep the amount of articles he submits each month to a reasonable amount, so as not to overdominate the magazine. When I consider how slow his C&C output was in the last few years of his life, this just makes me sad. When you consider the risks and costs in transhumanism, and then compare them to what age does to people, frankly I think I'm willing to face those drawbacks. But anyway. He also criticises the Giants in the earth column for overpowering the characters, and talks about the new modules out soon. All in all, a very informative column this issue.
The new improved Ninja!: As if they weren't twinked enough, this article gives ninjas a whole slew of new weapons and powers. Not very well integrated with the D&D ruleset, nor particularly imaginative, this is just not very good in general. This is why we needed feats. It stopped characters from being able to pick up every special power given to their class in various supplements.
The formative years of Fafhrd and the Mouser: The guy who introduced Harry and Fritz to one-another, and is thus indirectly responsible for lankhmar, talks about their high school and university years, how they influenced one-another, and their collective creation. Another extremely informative article about the roots of the hobby.
Boot hill, What scale?: Ahh, miniatures, and the hassle of using them when there isn't a standardised ratio. Lots of talk on the various companies producing miniatures at the time, and their respective merits. One of those articles I can't really form an opinion on.
Designers notes for Flattop: Another case of the compromises that have to be made in game design, and the neccesity for playtesting. Which is what every good designer should go through. Hopefully it produced a good game, but I can't tell just from this article.
Standardisation vs playability: Thoughts on variation in populations of various creatures, creating a realistic world that has powerful monsters, yet humans are still supreme as a race, language barriers, the amount of the world you actually flesh out and allow the PC's to explore. Lots of tricky thoughts for the GM to chew over, and even if the answers aren't brilliant, at least it gets you working on the right questions.
Armies of the rennaisance part 5 - Eastern europe: Nick Nascati continues his whizz speed synopses of battle strategies. Cossacks, ponies, muskets, treachery and a good bibliography at the end, oh my.
Tournament success in six steps: You wanna kick ass at conventions? Lots of good advice here. A short sweet article.
Out on a limb: This month, we get a letter asking the people at TSR to co-ordinate all the people playing high level druids, so they can be challenged, and there only be the right number in the campaign and real world Someone attacking Gygax's statement that he intends to focus on AD&D, taking that as an insult to D&D and everyone who still plays it. Another attack on bakshi's LotR. A basic question on the function of a magical item. Ohh, oh, this one's important! A suggestion that to reduce things getting lost, D&D create loose leaf supplements that can then be rearranged and put into a ring binder. Which of course they would take up in the moldvay basic set and lots of the monstrous compendia. Stuart Malone, nice idea, but not functional in practice. A straightforward letter praising them, and asking for more fiction. A letter attacking jim ward for inconsistency in his descriptions of a gamma world group, which he defends by saying not all members of a group are identical, which makes sense. A correction of a review. Another load of general questions. And someone asking why they changed the logo on the front cover. (the answer is to make it more legible at a distance.) Definitely the busiest issue yet on this front.
Giants in the earth: This issue, we have Piers Anthony's Sol of all weapons, Tanith Lee's Zorayas and Clark Ashton Smith's Maal Dweb. The twinkedness continues, despite the complaints.
Reviews: Spellmaker, A boardgame. Black hole, another boardgame. Down styphon, a wargame. The quality of reviews from last issue is maintained.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: The extraneous inventions of Orlow the indolent. I remember the stuff in here from the old 4 volume magic item compendium they released near the end of 2nd ed. Lots of highly amusing stuff in here. I wonder if we'll see Orlow again? I don't remember any of his spells making it into the main books, which is a shame.
Wormy returns in a rather tangental fashion, introducing an entirely new set of characters. What's all that about then? Fineous fingers also returns.
Dragons bestiary: Curst. Say hello to the very first contribution by Ed Greenwood. You'll have to get used to him, because he ain't going away any time soon. These are the ultimate angstbunnies, humans cursed so they can never die, and spend eternity in a halflife state, becoming more and more insane. Seems cliche now, but compared to the way they've been handling vampires, these guys are full of personality. I remember them from my forgotten realms boxed set, so obviously he gets a good response to them and keeps them.
Once again, this issue sets a new high watermark in terms of overall quality of production. With an above average number of good articles as well, and the comics back in full flow, this is definitely a classic issue. The may be hitting the fan in the media at the moment, but the internal situation in the company has never looked better. How long before that runs into trouble and we see the conflicts between Gygax and Arneson that resulted in AD&D and BD&D being branded as completely different games? As ever, on with the adventure. It's all uphill from here.
56 pages. Yet more format changes show up this issue. The style of credits becomes the layout that would be familiar to all of you who read it during the 80's and early 90's, positioned on the far right column of the contents spread, along with cover to cover. Which definitely draws more attention to the people responsible. Ahh, cult of personality. How easy it is to be drawn into you. Meanwhile the controversy of last month has already died down, with the guy who was missing found, and it turning out D&D had nothing to do with it. Still, the tabloid sharks have the scent of your blood now. They'll be back.
In this issue:
Trollshead: An excerpt from the second D&D novel, by John Holmes the Basic set designer. A lot less meta than quag keep was, and less funny as well, (aside from having a protagonist named Boinger, which doesn't quite work for me) I suppose that's what you get when the writer isn't a proper author. Still, D&D will inspire far worse later on in its history.
Jungle Fever: 2 articles on adventuring in tropical regions. The first covers the natives, and their societies, while the second covers the flora and fauna. As these are the main topic of the issue, both articles are pretty good,and should help you spice up your adventures. By now you should be getting tired of dungeons and ready to see the world beyond as well.
Pics of the gencon winners for various best games and miniatures categories.
D&D is alive and well in houston: A review of NANCON, and the D&D tournament therein. Another fairly functional article, albeit one that devotes quite a bit of time towards praising the sponsors of the con. Still, these things cost money, so I suppose someone has to help with it. Not that we have to like the capitalist setup.
T1, the village of hommlet out now. Another classic module series starts here.
Will jason destroy the flagship?: A set of variant rules for Alpha Omega, based upon the recent TV mini-series. Major spoilers contained herein Seems a little too reliant on each scenario ending the right way, so you progress onto the next one. Such is the danger of trying to represent a linear narrative on a game which can go lots of ways.
Spicing up stellar conquest: Generating alien life for the planets you visit in the game. One of those random table based ones that so speed things up by cutting down your choices drastically. If you've read traveller, this stuff should be pretty familiar to you.
How tall is a giant: Converting various creatures to the correct size and scale of miniature and movement rate, using 25mm scale as the human standard. A fairly math heavy article that nonetheless clarifies quite a bit on D&D's implied setting. Good to see someone bringing a bit of science to selecting our miniatures purchases.
Armor of the far east: Another historical article covering a wide range of time and geography. A good reminder that there is more than one path to building a good suit of protective materials, and it's not just a matter of armor class bonuses vs encumbrance decisions. Shame most of use are forced into the leather/chain/plate paradigm by designer familiarity and habit, even when it's not always culturaly appropriate.
Sage advice! Last seen over 3 years ago in the strategic review 6, this finally becomes a regular column in the format most of us remember, with readers questions answered by a designer.This first column is headed by Jean Wells. In this we have errata on monks fighting prowess. talk of longbows clearance, and using them as melee weapons, a reminder that torturing things is not allowed for paladins, no matter what weasel excuses the player tries to give. Someone boasting about their thousand+ level characters, which isn't really a question. A ruling that Orcs are mammals, and hence do not spawn. Stuff about spells known by magic users and rangers. A question as to how long before Q1 is released. A reminder that you can't program magic mouths to cast spells. And a reminder that the GM is the boss. A pretty solid start, even if a few of the questions don't really fit the format properly.
Sage advice! Last seen over 3 years ago in the strategic review 6, this finally becomes a regular column in the format most of us remember, with readers questions answered by a designer.This first column is headed by Jean Wells. In this we have errata on monks fighting prowess. talk of longbows clearance, and using them as melee weapons, a reminder that torturing things is not allowed for paladins, no matter what weasel excuses the player tries to give. Someone boasting about their thousand+ level characters, which isn't really a question. A ruling that Orcs are mammals, and hence do not spawn. Stuff about spells known by magic users and rangers. A question as to how long before Q1 is released. A reminder that you can't program magic mouths to cast spells. And a reminder that the GM is the boss. A pretty solid start, even if a few of the questions don't really fit the format properly.
I feel compelled to do this:
1) Orcs are mammals
2) Orcs fight all the time
3) The purpose of Orcs is to go "Waaaaaagh!" and kill people.
:rolleyes: 
) Longbows (kick your ass again) light horses, light armour, harrying tactics, generally being complete bastards. Nothing you wouldn't expect. Ahh, stereotypes.
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