Old Dragon Mag articles on Hell.

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Anyone remember what issues those were?

 

[Holy Bovine]

I remember the second part was in issue 91. I don't own issues 90 or 89 so I'm not sure where the first part is.

I assume you were talking about the 1E AD&D versions?

If not please ignore what i just said (since it wasn't all that helpful anyways )

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I thought there were two issues in the 60's or 70's that had big writeups by Ed Greenwood

 

[Holy Bovine]

You may be right (my Dragons are buried at the moment and I don't want to move the Very Heavy Objects blocking them in). I was sure there was a write up of some kind in issue 91 though. But I am not sure it was done by Greenwood. Again just my old & faulty memory to go on (I really want that Dragon magazine CD-ROM )

 

[EricNoah]

Issues 75 and 76, written by none other than Ed Greenwood. Classic articles, they were.

There was a follow-up article around issue 91 or so.

 

[BOZ]

if interested, scott's got some of those devil lords written up in the creature catalog.

 

[rounser]

I think "The Politics of Hell" made it into Best of Dragon I, but I could be mistaken.

Christian mythology is a bit of a double-edged sword though. It has strong themes which can get drawn upon in certain places without concern, but in others it gives the game a bad reputation.

I don't think the article is useful for anything more than a curiosity or source of inspiration, though, and such gaming themes get even casual observers nervous, let alone fundies. Again, a lot more trouble than it is worth.

You wouldn't put Jehovah/Yahweh in your game, so why Satan/Lucifer, for that matter? Then again, D&D happily rips off many other mythologies, c.f. Deities & Demigods. FR even features deities ripped from real world mythologies without even altering the name - but for the most part people don't worship them any more, so no-one gets offended much.

The material could map to the 1E Monster Manual II pantheon of archdevils, but it would require more work than it would be worth, IMO. Baalzebul = Beelzebub is the most obvious analogue, for instance.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

"The Politics of Hell" by Alexander von Thorn did indeed appear in Best of Dragon, but it was in Vol. 2 (Green Cover)... the one with the anti-paladin & samurai classes, lichdom formula, vampires of the world and lycanthropy---a great issue!).

 

[Castaigne]

"The Politics of Hell" by Alexander von Thorn originally appeared in issue number 28 (August 1979) of the Dragon, and includes a disclaimer.

Ed Greenwood's two-part article "The Nine Hells" was in issue 75 and 76 (July and August 1983). And "Nine Hells revisited" does appear in issue number 91 (November 1984).

The organization of Aitch-ee-double toothpicks (aka "The Hot Place") in DnD is primarily based on Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno. Check the writings of Elaine Pagels for just how little of the mythology of Satan is actually Biblical (with a capital B).

All these articles are available on CD (in Adobe Acrobat form) in the Dragon Magazine Archive, published by WotC and supposedly available from their on-line store.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Thanks! I used to have both but now they are gone...