Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 98: June 1985

part 1/3

100 pages. So they've reached the ripe old age of 9. Not that significant a birthday. They're gonna save up the fireworks for the big one oh oh. Unfortunately, they've had to deal with rather a lot of complaints who didn't get the joke in their april issue, so they intend to scale back on that a bit. Boo. We are getting a special feature for gamma world, and lots of new tricks for dragons, so this is probably still salvageable. Is this going to be a decent warm-up party, or a damp squib? Only one way to find out.

In this issue:

Warhammer fantasy battle 2nd edition! Bright red advert! That makes everything look more amazing! Just count yourself lucky we're not using ALL CAPS as well!

Letters: Two letters quibbling over What good PC's are made of. Once you start multiclassing, there's too many combinations for one article to cover. You'll have to skip the random rolls and think stuff up yourself.
A letter asking how goristroi can use magic if they're so stupid. That's the advantage of being innately magical. You can just do it with a brief exercise of will, without spending years poring over scrolls learning ancient languages and precise sequences of actions. Don't you just envy them? Oh, wait, that's a sin. Just another way they have to lure you into damnation. Go on, introduce warlocks into your game. You know you want too.
A letter asking why halflings can't learn forgery. Because they can't become assassins, you dumbass.
A letter asking if solars have an AC of 9 or -9. The MM2 got it wrong. Gary will have to rant at his editor again.
A letter curious about who the person is reflected in the dragon's scales last issue. An excellent question, that they cannot answer.
Some quibbling about the new rules. All based around a basic misunderstanding. Again. :sigh:

Tailor made treasure: It's dragon special time! So, why exactly do dragons covet treasure, and how the hell do they get it transported and properly piled up to form a proper hoard? A very good question. Not all of them can be as lucky as Smaug and get a whole prepotted hoard in one foul swoop. This is definitely something that can be brutally picked apart with a little logic. Fortunately, there are quite a few solutions, from extorting the local countryside, to sniffing out veins of gold and ripping them from the ground with your own gigantic talons. This article basically boils down to another one of those encouragements to develop backstory, do some worldbuilding, and personalize stuff for your game, rather than just relying on the random tables. Fun stuff, but not exactly groundbreaking. You'll have to put in quite a bit of effort to find a spin that makes this trope fresh and coherent.

The magic of dragon teeth: Ahh, this old bit of wacky greek mythology makes it's way into D&D. Wanna take the teeth from a fallen dragon and use it to make your own army of devoted warriors? I'm afraid you'll need a wizard capable of casting 7th level spells to facilitate it. Like the dragonscale armor a few years ago, the results aren't objectively terrible, but they're certainly not worth the time and expense when you consider the other paths you have to obscenely powered stuff at that level. Personally, I'd ignore a big chunk of those requirements, to make the cool bits more accessable. So another article that has definite potential, but doesn't quite hit the button for me. Some people like fixer-uppers. Can't say I'm in the mood right now.

Dragon damage revised: And here we have another power-up for dragons. You know, they really ought to get more badass as they get older. A reasonable premise. However, it then makes a quite surprising assumption, that different sizes of dragons of the same colour are actually different species, rather than the same species at different stages of growth. So you have 3x3 matrixes with a certain degree of overlap. I'm more bemused by this than anything, as it's a case of having not even considered that someone could interpret the monster descriptions that way. Huh. Well, my mind is certainly expanded. Goes to show how you can be constrained by automatic assumptions without even realizing it. Interesting, if not in the way I expected.

The dragons of krynn: Ahh, now this is no surprise at all. I mean, their new setting has Dragon in the title. Of course they're going to do some stuff on it. So they talk about how krynnish dragons behave. Thanks to the influence of their gods, they associate a lot more closely with mortals than the usual dragon, with Takhisis in particular trying to make them an integral part of her world-conquering armies. We start to see the curious combination of epic storyline, at surprisingly low level that defines dragonlance, with becoming a dragonrider and having flying lance battles with your enemies an entirely achievable goal for a PC. A good reminder that many of the ideas that made up the setting were awesome, it was just the implementation (and the other, not so awesome ideas) that were the problem. There's definitely some salvagable material here, and it's also a good bit of promotion, making the setting seem full of possibilities. I'm quite positive about this one, and it's a solid finish to our themed section.

Creative magic items: Blah blah, don't just rely on the items in the book, make your own, plenty of spells and monster powers to convert if you're short of ideas, blah blah, common sense, game balance, watch out for unexpected ramifications, make magic items hard to destroy, blah blah. Seen it all before, probably will do so again.

Detailing a fantasy world: Our PbP creator continues to chatter about his worldbuilding, giving us lots of familiar advice about the techniques you use to build a large setting, but being annoyingly vague about the world of Talara (spoilers, blah blah blah) that he actually created. This is a definite case where it's not that the article is bad, but it keeps on talking about the stuff that I already know, and evading the stuff I really want to hear about, like a political speech or something. Which is really rather frustrating. I guess you'd have to play the game to find that stuff out. Which obviously I can't do anymore. A whole world developed in great detail that never got published products, that has no net presence at all. (as I found when I tried to google it. ) Jim, and WotC people, if you're reading this, there are some people who would be interested in seeing the campaign notes for this released, if you still have them.

Wabbit Wampage! The game of bunnies with chainsaws, and whatever else they can get their paws on. Very amusing.

 

[Orius]

A letter asking if solars have an AC of 9 or -9. The MM2 got it wrong. Gary will have to rant at his editor again.

OTOH, AC 9 does kind of balance out the arrows of instakill at will powers the solar has.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 98: June 1985

part 2/3

Reviews: Dragons of autumn twilight and winters night get a review specifically designed to assuage people's skepticism about buying them. It's great both as an epic fantasy plot, and as a representation of the AD&D universe and how parties actually interact. It goes from the personal to the epic, and has great poetry. Er, ok then. Sorry, you completely fail to remove my skepticism. If it was a product by another company, I'd be more receptive, but this feels too much like a disguised sales piece. I turn my nose up at you, pfaw.

Knowing what's in store: This is a strangely written but useful article. Mixing fiction with objective details, it tries to fill in what shopping would be like in a pseudomedieval setting for an adventurer. What is in different shops, (after all, no megamarts here. ) how are they likely to deal with people, and what you can expect to face if you try and steal from the places. The shifting of viewpoints keeps things more interesting than either would be on their own, and it's one of those ones you can refer too quickly to make sure you're not missing out some silly little detail. A good example of how to keep things fresh when imparting fairly mundane details, and how to make shopping fun. Why should all the action be in the dungeon? You can meet all sorts of interesting people and put plenty of plot hooks in while out looking for gear. And if you get into a fight, it's less likely to involve death. Very interesting indeed.

Auctions aren't forbidding: From one shopping themed article to another very different one, this is advice about how to do the auction house thing. One of those things that progress has changed dramatically, with the rise of ebay and online shopping in general. If you know the basic rules about how and when to bid to get the most for your money, this will all be familiar. Apart from finding out that old modules can already go for ridiculously inflated prices, I haven't found out much I didn't know before. This definitely has the feel of a quick filler article used to complete the page count.

The forum gets moved from the front to the middle. Another one of those little format changes that happens from time to time. Is it temporary or permanent? Guess we'll find out soon enough.
Paul F Culotta points out that Gary is only a mortal, the system isn't perfect, and even tournament games don't use ALL the official rules perfectly. The system ought to be revised to better fit the way most people actually play it.
Richard W Emerich shows up again, this time saying that no DM could enforce the game rules perfectly, all the time, and they probably shouldn't try. Most of the time, an approximation will do just fine.
Dennis E Jones Jr, on the other hand thinks that the closer you hew to the official rules, the fewer arguments there will be when multiple GM's interact, and players go from one campaign to another. Um yeah. That assumes that they like the rules in the first place. I regard your statement with bemusement.
Thomas W Gossard thinks that trying to hew too close to medieval settings in AD&D is silly (yes, you, Mrs Kerr) and you really ought to develop things based on the ramifications of the rules, rather than the real world. Ahh, one of the other great viewpoints that still crops up in debates today.
Todd Breneisner weighs in with his personal experience of multiple games, some of which adhered strictly to the official rules, but most didn't. Since AD&D was made in 1979, using refinements developed since then really isn't a bad idea.
Chip Myers also says that he's never seen a game where all the official rules are used. Frankly, the game wouldn't be as much fun if you did. Looks like the house-rulers are definitely in the majority.
Daniel J Birkholz thinks that alignment is stupid, and expecting people to stick strictly to one without any deviation makes for seriously inhuman acting characters. Make proper characters with their own likes, dislikes, personalities and flaws, not cardboard cutouts.

Coming attractions has some damn big guns this month. AD&D is getting Unearthed Arcana, the great book of compiled twinkery that will change the face of the game. Meanwhile D&D is getting the master set. It may not be the end, as you thought earlier, but it's still another quantum leap in your overall power, plus a bunch of odds and ends for the lower levels as well. It's also getting B9: Castle Caldwell and beyond. Guess some people are still back there starting up new characters and needing introductory stuff. And if that's not enough for you, there's the best of the dragon IV, which is good for both. Yet more recycling in an attempt to make more money fast and save the companies ass.
Tons more stuff as well. The SPI imprint gives us wargames for Julius Ceasar's conquests, and WWII. Large scale games for players who think big.
Marvel superheroes gets MHAC6: New york, New york. So good they made two little books on it.
Conan gets his piratical skills focussed on, in Conan the buccaneer. Will we get to go all the way through to his life as a king in future ones?
Star frontiers gets SFAD5: Bugs in the system. Venture into the upper atmosphere of a gas giant to fix a refining station. What could possibly be the cause. I'm guessing giant insects of some kind.
One-on-one adventures gives us it's second book, Battle for the ancient robot.
Endless Quest is right up to number 28, Mystery of the ancients. People do so love digging up the past, even when that's a bad idea.
And finally, the crimson crystal series has Renegades of Luntar, it's 3rd book. Set on mars, which seems appropriate.
Whew. That's certainly a lot of obscure game lines. It's no wonder they were having problems with that many things hardly anyone was buying. I wonder how long they'll keep making new ones in them.

Mutant manual: 12 pages of gamma world monsters make up this months centerpiece. Guess despite it not being popular enough for more modules to be published, there's still quite the holdout of people with lots of affection for it. We get 17 monsters: Aeroscpids (sic), Blade whales, Master Blossoms, Crusteans, Dracs, Encroaches, Flipps, Garrels, Harmony trees, Hogarts, Howlers, Jestes, Juggernauts, Marloks, Mountain men, Sifoners and Spitters. An array of bad puns, stuff stolen from books (including obvious conversions from D&D), exaggerated versions of normal animals, and really weird adapted plants, this is pretty quintessential gamma world material. You can fight them in the seas, you can fight them on the land, you can fight them in the sky, you can even fight them on the moon. (nice follow-up material there) Or you could play them as PC's, things like Dracs, Howlers and Sasquatches certainly seem suited to this. Despite the number of writers, this is a pretty consistent piece of work, that should be useful however you're playing the game.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 98: June 1985

part 3/3

Authentic agencies, part II: Guess this was too big to fit into a single article. Merle fills us in on the allied international agencies this time. Be they single country based or comprised of many like NATO, they're here, they're there, they're everywhere, and they're monitoring you! Or something. Once again, we have a long dry list which doesn't leave me with much to say about it. Will they cover the enemy agencies next month, or is this the end for this topic? We shall see.

Fiction: The forging of fear by Ardath Mayhar. Looks like the magazines most slated writer is back. This time she's delivering some medieval fantasy. And once again, I'm not sure which bits of it are funny intentionally, and which bits are funny simply due to the pretentious phrasing. She steals from a real english myth, and then follows up on it, before delivering a rather morally dubious ending. This is a definite case of something being entertaining because of the things that are technically wrong with it. Her works should be fine subjects for a little MST3King.

The volturnus connection: So modules in this era are generally rather sketchy on the matter of setting, context and character motivation. Star frontiers is no exception. So this is an attempt to build in some extra setting detail to the recent module series. Lots of historical and political exposition follows. Once again they do something they haven't done before, that I find a bit surprising. I guess this is the first precursor of the articles expanding on Paizo's adventure paths in the last years of Dragon. An intriguing development, that leaves me wondering if we'll see it again any time soon.

When history goes awry: Ooh. Timemaster is getting an article. Always interesting to see a new game get some attention. This one concentrates on alternate parallel timelines. Fortunately, you have tons of novels to draw inspiration from, sherlock holmes, three musketeers, robin hood, and various other fictional characters to make real, and so forth. This is some pretty solid advice on how to handle developing alternate worlds and histories, working from the points of divergence, and going from there. Ripple effects, internal consistency, mythic resonance, this is cool stuff that's easily stealable for other systems. We haven't done much time travel stuff yet, and it has yet to be properly explored. Despite the challenges involved in time-travel games, there's lots of fun to be had in this kind of game. So another neat article.

Alone against the asteroid: One of those articles that does exactly what it does on the tin, showing you how to turn Against the Asteroid from a 2 player adversarial game to a solo one. This is accomplished pretty efficiently, with just a page of rules needed to control the challenges you face fairly randomly. Some of them can even be ported back to the regular game. Even not knowing the rules, this is pretty entertaining reading, letting me know about the quirks of the game's characters. Once again, they're tackling a new system, and coming up with things that are fresh and amusing to me. Definitely good promotion for the game.

Return to the vipers pit: Another module expansion in the same issue? Curious. This is rather less interesting than the last one, being another single pager full of corrections and things that got cut for space. Even the best editor can't fit everything in to everyone's satisfaction. Meh.

StarQuestions heads back to one of it's regular stops, Star frontiers.
Is there supernatural stuff in star frontiers (We recommend that there is only science that hasn't been explained yet. Truly magical magic would be out of theme)
What do you do after maxing out your skill. (get more ones. Being a hyperspecialist has it's drawbacks, so now you fill them in. )
You got a sample damage calculation wrong (Why don't you write in when we get it right. Seems like that'd be a more notable occurance.)
The amount of money you get varies between the basic and advanced games. Which is right. (Both are. Do you not understand the concept of different strokes for different folks. )
Can both your skills be from the same PSA (Yes, but they don't have to be)
Where are the stats for whips (page 43)
Can you put heavy lasers on a fighter ( I believe heavy is the limiting word here. No )
Can you trade ship designs (Sure, but negotiations may take a while)
Does starmist have moons or not (no. The artist was in their own little world)
How long do the repairs in SF3 really take (1 day)
What do extra crew members beyond the essentials do (Make things comfortable. Having to be perfectly efficient and austere all the time to keep things working is incredibly dull and exhausting. )

The marvel-phile: No new super-heroes this time. Instead, it's index time. With half a dozen modules, a year of marvel-philes, and a bunch of other products, it might not be impossible to keep track of who's already been statted, but it certainly can't hurt. It would be a bit annoying if two different writers did different stats for the same character, and ranty fan letters would be sent. So from Absorbing man to Zsaji, all 263 previously mentioned superheroes (and mooks, villains and other stuff) get alphabetized and their locations revealed. That's quite an impressive list. And just think, it's just a fraction of the amount of silly second rate characters that populate the Marvel universe. It'll be interesting to see how this grows if given a few more years of articles and products. Not sure if it's Jeffs writing or the strength of the source material that keeps even the index interesting, but somehow it manages it.

Wormy continues the tale of the bear and the minotaur in the big city. Snarfquest has still more romantic misadventures, and faces up to racism. Honestly, just fit a vibrator attachment on the robot and let it marry the princess. Everyone'll be a lot happier, at least until they start worrying about the lack of heirs.

I think the watchword for this issue is surprise. It manages to be fresher than anything reaching it's 9th year has any right to be, particular in the later articles, which are full of surprises. Once again they renew their commitment to covering all sorts of systems, particularly in the Ares section, which is really jam packed with stuff and punching well above it's weight. Goes to show. Just when you think there's nothing new in the world, something comes out of what seems like no-where to surprise you again. I very much approve. You can still surprise me, and I look forward to the next time you do.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 99: July 1985

part 1/3

100 pages. Well, it looks like whatever the general public may think, according to the designers, Unearthed Arcana does indeed represent official AD&D v 1.5 or the 4th corebook. All future submissions must take into account the stuff in there, or they will NOT BE CONSIDERED. That's right. KNOWLEDGE OF ITS CONTENTS ARE MANDATORY CITIZEN! BE HAPPY THAT YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND MONEY ON EXPANDING YOUR UNIVERSE! THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. Thanks for telling us that. I'm sure your public will be delighted to hear this. Or maybe not. Well, I guess if there are complaints, we'll probably see them in a few issues time. And then they'll get amusingly rebutted by the absolutely not biased at all editorial staff. But we won't get to see that if we don't get through this issue. So lets not look ahead too far.

In this issue:

Letters: Two letters on the ecology of the gorgon. One of them is another case of the silly editors messing up Ed's perfect work by changing things without thinking about the consequences, and the other is answered quite efficiently.
A letter full of questions on Blueprint for a big game. You need to read your dictionary more.
A letter from someone who got their modifiers the wrong way round. (They corrct him with mild amusement.
A letter from someone who's spotted a genuine mistake in one of Ed's articles. Math, you should check it.
A letter from someone who's noticed that the magazine has lost some height. It's only an eighth of an inch. Hardly something to worry about, unless you're in porn.

The Pendragon campaign, to go with the corebook. A year by year chronology of Arthur's reign. Obviously no-where near the depth of later versions, as it's only 80 pages long, but it's obvious Greg already knows pretty much what he wants this game to be. And if you got it right first time, why change it?

The forum: Bruce Carlson thinks that balancing races by making them differently unbalanced at different stages of the game is bloody stupid, and doesn't really make anyone happy. Instead, allowing unlimited advancement, but imposing XP penalties commensurate with your racial abilities is a much better idea. You may be onto something there.
Alex Bergmann, meanwhile, thinks that tracking how much worship power all the gods in your campaign are getting on a regular basis is too much bookkeeping. You'd have to spend all your time worldbuilding to do that. Two pretty non-contentious positions this time it seems. Not their highest moment.

The neutral point of view: Ahh, lawful and chaotic neutral. Some of the most interesting alignments, and yet undervalued and ignored in too many books. (yes, you, the entirety of fourth edition.) Trust Stephen Inniss to spot a hole like this and fill it. It would be entirely logical for the various detect/dispelprotection from good/evil spells to also have lawful and chaotic variants, and this would require no extra bookspace at all. Doing this would give the endless moral war more shades of grey, which has definite plot potential. You do need to clear up a few things to do with planar stuff, but that's not an insurmountable problem either. This is exactly the kind of article you should be covering in the magazine, doing things specifically related to the rules and setting. It could definitely stand to be longer, and have more info on more mundane playing of morally neutral characters, but what there is is solid material. Come on, give us some more epic articles really delving into things, instead of just skimming the surface.

Tables and tables of troops: A neat little expansion for those of you who choose to build a stronghold and attract followers at name level+. As this is the kind of thing that you only roll for once in your characters career, it could do with being expanded and customized, made more of a special event. Plus fighters don't get nearly enough love. So this allows you to change the specifics of your troops based upon terrain and how much you prepare for this. Which could definitely provide several sessions of fun gaming, as you maximize your potential rewards. They would later do variants on this for many of the kits in the Complete handbook series, and this is a development I'm pretty happy about seeing, as it expands on a previously neglected class feature. This is definitely one to note down and pull out when you reach the appropriate point in your games.

The ecology of the Will-o-Wisp: Hello again, Mr Findley. So you've submitted another ecology article. And as with the peryton he goes quite a way towards reminding us that these creatures are supposed to be creepy. He also does another clever thing by turning the boggart into the immature form of the Will-O-Wisp. This is a cool article which adds a good deal to the creature, including legends of a trancended race, and abandoned civilisation from before they cast off material form. (See what transcendance gets you. Hanging around in swamps killing people for kicks. Definite lesson there. Don't transcend, kids. It's like reaching nirvana. It's no help to anyone else, and sometimes will have results akin to summoning cthulhu upon any unenlightened nearby.) His flavour is certainly quite different from Ed's articles. And that's not a bad thing, as too many cutesy Elminster-delivered ones would grow tiresome. Their mating and lifecycle is ingeniously described, and there's plenty of drama in the fiction part. One of the best ecologies yet. Don't be a stranger.

That's life in the big city: Ahh, city building. Are people still having problems with that? Well I guess what counted as a city did vary a lot over the centuries. You've gotta put a bit of research in, then make a big load of stuff up. Here's a load of potted info for if you want to build a pseudomedieval style one for your D&D games. Lets not forget that they were pretty gross places in terms of hygiene, and there's all kinds of mundane hazards such as thieves, "Insurance" salesmen, dodgy food and goods, mockney urchins, fire outbreaks, etc etc. Demographics, mapping, ensuring you have the stuff needed for people to actually live there. The usual advice we have to sit through on a regular basis. No great surprises here, good or bad.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 99: July 1985

part 2/3

The role of books (they're flip-floping on the title of this series. What's up with that?): Crewel lye by Piers Anthony is as punfull as the rest of his xanth books. He seems to have learnt from the criticisms in recent reviews, toning back on the sexism and moral ambiguity. While other reviewers may slate him, this one doesn't seem to have much objection.
Stormwarden by Janny Wurts features weather magic as it's primary macguffin. The plot gets a little overcomplicated, presumably leaving lots of loose ends for future books, but the characterization is pretty good. One to enjoy for the journey, rather than the destination.
Witchdame by Kathleen Sky jumps on the current trend for english flavoured romantic fantasy. With deus ex machinas, completely undisguised real world analogues, and vague historical mooring, the reviewer manages to sell me off the book even as he praises it. Hey ho.
Enchanters end game by David Eddings is the final book of the Belgariad, Eddings big tolkien /rip-off/ homage. It hits lots of buttons, but doesn't really integrate the various types of writing very well. But it's still good popcorn reading for fantasy fans.
Talking to Dragons by Patricia C Wrede gets another review that starts with the negatives, but then winds up praising it. Only this time, the good bits outweigh the bad, in a genuinely funny fantasy romp full of near indestructible wizards doing horrible things to one-another. If you want to put humour that doesn't feel tacked on in your games (and that doesn't rely on dreadful puns like Piers Anthony. ) this is a good example.
The Magic cup by Andrew M Greely is an updated irish epic with lots of arthurian parallels. Remember, behind the legends, are people struggling to find their place and accomplish something important to them. Can you be both a person and an archetype? There's certainly plenty of interesting reading to have in tackling that question.

History of a game that failed: Ha. Ahh, the joys of taking the game all the way to it's limits, to the degrees where it starts to break down, where no monsters can touch you without rolling a natural 20. Most of us have done it at some point, rushing through the levels to obscene power and more items than you can keep track of. But it has to be said, the published modules really aren't much better in this respect. If you just use the treasure tables as written, the system'll break down without any special effort from you. So how are we to get the system to behave. Let me count the ways. Fudge. Change the modules. Be stingy with treasure and watch out for synergies. Don't give away info they have no way of knowing. Don't allow ability score increases. Mess up their wishes. Nerf shapeshifting to buggery. Never miss an opportunity to have things backfire. Keep the XP awards down. Deities are not for killing under any circumstances. Don't let one person play multiple characters, for they will abuse the knowledge they get and co-operate in a manner that breaks verisimiltude. Don't be adversarial. (Have you just listened to your previous bits of advice )Oh, and don't allow nukes under any circumstances. Oh man. Where to start. This is a great example of how they have to exhort people to play nice with the system, because it just doesn't stand up to rough treatment. Very annoying on multiple levels, both that they give advice like this, which is a definite fun-spoiler when put against many people's playstyles, and that they need to do so in the first place. A most depressing read, overall.

Reviews: Gems for Death is another system free module. Like so many of those at this point, they have to find other things to put where it would be. This includes incredibly detailed descriptions of the mechanics of traps, so you can disarm them by roleplaying, plus the usual characterization stuff and timeline. It has enough guidelines that it shouldn't be too hard to convert it to whatever system you want to use. Just don't put it into a hack and slash game, because the players might miss the point and ruin the adventure. Another case where just how much things have changed, not always for the better, is made obvious.

We get some more entries in the world gamers guide: Australia, New zealand, Germany, Japan, Venezuela. D&D has penetrated all around the world. Must take quite a lot of effort to co-ordinate all that subscription mailing.

Coming attractions: Amazing Stories celebrates it's 60th year. Pretty damn impressive. Will D&D make it that far? Dragon may not have lasted as a printed entity, but at least it's still alive in some form. Can we beat that run? It'll be the story of our lives.
AD&D gets a Battlesystem module, H1: Bloodstone Pass. Take high level characters, and organize an entire village into a force to take on 3,000 enemies. Epic. It also gets Lankhmar, city of adventure. Once again, Fritz reinforces his close relationship with the game, having been away for a few years. If you want some help with urban adventures, this certainly can't hurt. And if that's not enough, Dragonlance is up to DL8: Dragons of war. Once again, the new mass combat system gets an airing, so you can get properly epic. This series is certainly building up to something.
D&D gets two rather less impressive products. Dragontiles II: The revenge of Rusak. Lots of fold out card thingies. And they say D&D isn't a mini's game. We also have CM5: Mystery of the snow pearls. A high level solo module. Don't see those very often. Once again, you have to do some serious puzzle solving. Well, you can fudge combat on your own, but puzzles. If you don't actually solve them, you can't go on to the next section.
The Indiana Jones RPG gets IJ5: Nepal Nightmare. Once again, Fold-up cut outs show up. Guess they were this years gimmick, like putting CD's in would be for Mystara a decade later. I roll my eyes.
Super endless quest gets book 3: Escape from castle Quarras. Take the role of Derek Shadowwalker (Hee. Those two names do not fit together) and save the kingdom.
And finally, we have a standalone. Proton fire, the roleplaying game of designing and fighting your own robots. Another thing that I've never heard of before, and assume disappeared into obscurity. Any stories to share on this one?

 

[The Green Adam]

Dragon Issue 99: July 1985

And finally, we have a standalone. Proton fire, the roleplaying game of designing and fighting your own robots. Another thing that I've never heard of before, and assume disappeared into obscurity. Any stories to share on this one?

Starting in July of 1985 and the reading of that article, I became completely obsessed with this 'game-that-never-was'. It sounded so much like everything I wanted to play and mess with. By the late eighties I was already a huge anime and manga fan (well before it was cool ) and was always interested in robots and science fiction.

Alas, like most SciFi from TSR and WotC, this game vaporized faster then a commie mutant in a Paranoia game. Over the years and thanks to the internet I have discovered that some of the material crept its way into other products, some of which I've found, some of which I haven't.
Jeff Rients' awesomely awesome blog covered this whole thing in more detail.

Ah, how I miss Dragon...

AD

 

[Orius]

The role of books (they're flip-floping on the title of this series. What's up with that?):

Dunno, but that continued until Dragon dropped book reviews entirely in 1998. The Role of Books though seems to be the title they used the most though.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 99: July 1985

part 3/3

Treasure trove II: We get two new articles based on magic items in this month's sorta centerpiece. Guess either one on their own wasn't considered special enough to carry the issue.
A sharp system for swords is of course all about the sentient magic weapons. New powers, updated ego calculations, and the usual advice to individualize and name your magic weapons, as this makes the world feel more solid and the players more likely to attach to them instead of seeing them as simply powerful tools. No great surprises here, but another solid set of toys for when you don't have time to invent this stuff wholecloth, or want to roll randomly just for the fun of seeing what comes out.
We then get 17 more items. Completely unsurprisingly, Ed Greenwood contributes significantly. All the big categories get at least one new item, plus some weird stuff like the oyster chest. (great idea, my dears. ) Most of them are pretty utilitarian and one-trick, rather than the massive lists of powers a single item can build up in the previous article. But they're mostly pretty cool. Particular kudos goes to the aforementioned chest, plus the armor of acid secretion (way to make a cursed item properly visceral. ) Potion of pain suppression, Rod of melting, and stone of mysterious sounds. Drama, comedy, and quirkiness are all fully represented. Another cool collection of old skool items, overall.

Kevin Siembieda not only writes the entirety of Monsters and Animals, he illustrates it all as well. My, he's a prolific bunny.

Authentic agencies, part III: Yep, I called it last issue. Here's the specs for the KGB, GRU, SSD, SAVAK, and other agencies you are likely to find yourself at odds with, as an american spy. Plus MELT, a fictional one that seems amusingly out of place these days. And that's about all I can think to say on this subject. Extended series do run into this problem after a while.

Fiction: Dennim and the golem by Robert S Babcock. Some people choose to retire from adventuring when they have the money. Others have it forced upon them. And many just die. The protagonist of this story may not make the big time, but he still comes out better than he has any right too. Some interesting thoughts about alignment and it's effect on the world are touched upon in this one, without it descending into heavy handed rules exposition. A quirkily S&S style bit of fantasy, that fits in the magazine very well.

ARES Log: Boo. We get an official announcement that we won't be seeing any more Gamma World modules or editions from TSR in the forseeable future. You aren't buying it, so we don't think it's economical anymore. Not that we've made any for years anyway, but with the heavy coverage it's been getting in the magazine, obviously some people have got their hopes up. Maybe in a few years time.

Tanks a lot: So star frontiers has stats for personal level roleplaying, and spaceship wargaming scenarios. But not stats for ground vehicle combat. A sad victim of cutting for space. Still, what is this magazine for then, if not to fix that kind of omission. So we get a full 5 pages of stats and tables, giving us lots of vehicle equipment, what it does, and how much it costs. Better hope you don't get your vehicle wrecked too often, because this stuff's pricey. Still, if you wanna get your mad max on, I'm sure you'll find a way, even if it means hijacking a vehicle and scavenging the remains of any enemies you run across. They certainly don't object to a little overkill in this one, and using it could make or break a game, depending on the GM. Which I'd definitely prefer risking to the article exhorting overconservatism earlier.

Psybots and battle mechs: We saw it in the Coming attractions section earlier this month. Now Proton Fire gets an article. The usual story of wanting to promote their cool new stuff. And yeah, this is pretty much a straight promo piece, giving us a synopsis of the setting, and not really contributing anything that probably can't be found in the book itself. I know you may be hurting a bit financially, but surely you could make the effort to put in some material that got cut or errata, something interesting like that. I'm most disappointed in you. This is not the way to get me to want to buy your stuff.

The marvel-phile is also on a soviet kick this month, with the Soviet Super-Troopers. (Lame name, but they're in fine company there. ) Vanguard, Darkstar, Ursa Major, and Gremlin. Two tanks, a battlefield controller and a techie. Not the most balanced party ever, but superheroes have always been more about the personality archetypes than the precise powers when it comes to roles. After all, it's not really about power, but dramatic imperatives. And there's certainly no shortage of plot hooks in their backstories. Repressive governments just give superheroes more to rebel against. More superheroic stuff that's great fun, but can seem somewhat ludicrous if you don't buy into the tropes here. How many of these nationality themed groups are there? Will colour coded spandex ever go out of style? Will Jeff cover another country next time? Tune in to find out.

Danger on a budget: Looks like despite the pessimistic editorial, Gamma world will continue to be a regular on these pages for quite some time. It still has a small but vocal contingent of hardcore fans who keep sending stuff in. This is another load of familiar advice adapted to a different system, reminding us that you don't need to throw bigger and badder combats at your players to keep things interesting. In a postapocalyptic wasteland, the sneaky are more likely to prosper than the big tough guys with machine guns who need to get lots of food and regular supplies of ammo from somewhere. So sneaky psychic enemies, environmental hazards, traps and roleplaying encounters are just as important as straight battles in creating a somewhat realistic campaign. Realistic? Gamma word? Well, if you really say so. Another article that contributes nothing I don't already know and probably will see again virtually every year of the magazine.

Wormy continues the bright lights in the big city. Snarfquest hangs over the perpetual pit and panics. Dragonmirth mocks Conan again.

For all the big changes D&D may be about to go through, there's a lot of overfamiliar material here. Sandwiched between two big issues, this definitely feels like a filler episode, with all the really good material held back for later. Apart from the really strong ecology, everything else is Ok to poor. Guess I'll just have to move on to the big one oh oh, see what stuff they've been stockpiling over the past 10 months for it.

 

[(un)reason]

Starting in July of 1985 and the reading of that article, I became completely obsessed with this 'game-that-never-was'. It sounded so much like everything I wanted to play and mess with. By the late eighties I was already a huge anime and manga fan (well before it was cool ) and was always interested in robots and science fiction.

Alas, like most SciFi from TSR and WotC, this game vaporized faster then a commie mutant in a Paranoia game. Over the years and thanks to the internet I have discovered that some of the material crept its way into other products, some of which I've found, some of which I haven't.
Jeff Rients' awesomely awesome blog covered this whole thing in more detail.

Ah, how I miss Dragon...

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Interesting link. Yes, that, along with the dicking around of the release dates of various SPI properties that we see next year, are some definite indicators that they don't particularly care for all their properties. This is one case where as I'm reading issue by issue, I'm surprised by the events in the same way the people reading first time would have been.