Dragon Publishing released The Dragon issue 43 in November 1980. It is 80 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. In this issue, we have a Witch class, help with illusion magic, and a Traveller adventure!
Editorial assistant Bryce Knorr wants to talk about fiction. The company has just published its first fiction collection, Dragontales, and they need more stories. Submissions must be short (not novels), in the fantasy or science fiction genre, and not pornographic. I'm not sure they ever published another volume of fiction--perhaps one of my readers can tell me?
There are two special features this month. "Canard" is an adventure for the Traveller RPG and involves investigating an alien terraforming facility. It was written by Robert Camino, who had several articles published in The Dragon and The Journal of the Travellers Aid Society around this time.
"Brewing up a brand-new NPC: The Witch" presents witches as an NPC class. Bill Muhlhausen, who seems to have published little else, wrote the original article, but Kim Mohan and Tom Moldvay heavily revised it. The result is an entertaining class with lots of good spells but also unique abilities such as potion brewing, control dolls, and candle magic. The introduction warns Dungeon Masters that this class is for NPCs only--advice I'm sure that everyone ignored!
There's a handful of other features. "D&D is not very common in Germany" is by Stefan Neubauer, a resident of West Berlin. The title summarises the article perfectly. I believe that D&D is still not very big in Germany, with the homegrown RPG Das Schwarze Auge being far more popular.
"How do YOU rate as a DM?" is a Dungeon Master Evaluation Form. I recall these were all the rage in the 80s, and I even distributed a few similar forms myself. It all seems clunky and overly formal to me now.
"Now you see it. . . but is it really there?" by Philip Meyers supplies some well-considered (and much-needed) guidance for D&D illusion magic. Meyers was a genuine talent who later wrote the well-reviewed Oasis of the White Palm and Balton's Beacon for TSR before disappearing off the radar.
In "Hate orcs? You'll love this campaign," Roger E. Moore suggests you try an all-dwarf game with the focus on fighting the goblinoid races (orcs were classified as goblinoids back then). It's a pretty uninspired article from a man of his talents.
Let's look at the regular features. "Sage Advice" has a small army of TSR staff answering the usual array of questions. I found this exchange interesting:
In "Leomund's Tiny Hut," Len Lakfoka proposes an entirely new melee system for AD&D. He's troubled by the 1-minute melee round rules for AD&D--after all, why can a fighter only strike once in all that time? This rule used to bug me too, but I can see what Gygax was trying to address now, and I'm much more comfortable seeing AD&D combat as highly abstract. Anyway, Lakofka's suggestions are over-complicated.
"Dragon's Bestiary" presents us with the "Amazon" by Roger E. Moore, the "Tolwar" by Todd Lockwood, and the "Lythlyx" by Ed Greenwood. I rather liked the Tolwar, an undersized, trunkless elephant with telekinetic power.
"Dragon's Augury" has three reviews. Azhanti High Lightning by GDW is an "outstanding" game with "first rate" artwork. DragonQuest, SPI's much-anticipated entry into the fantasy RPG market, is an "exciting game," and buyers will "get their money's worth." Hero by Yaquinto Games is "enjoyable" but becomes "repetitive" after a few playings.
We have a new Squad Leader scenario by Bryan Beecher, who this time takes us through "The Fall of Sevastopol." In "The Electric Eye," Mark Herro reviews Space Games-3 from Creative Computing Software and concludes it is "well worth it's modest price tag."
Finally, there's an amusing exchange in the letters page. Eric Robinson from Connecticut says Gygax's approach to AD&D rule variants ticks him off. He characterizes it as "l-am-Lord-of-All, Everything-I-say-is-God's-Holy-Word syndrome." Gygax responds, "Eric, you seem to have D&D confused with AD&D. The former promotes alteration and free-wheeling adaptation. The latter absolutely decries it, for the obvious reason that Advanced D&D is a structured and complete game system aimed at uniformity of play world-wide. Either you play AD&D, or you play something else!" Of course, the idea that AD&D cannot be extended without breaking the whole system doesn't hold water, but Gygax often held to that line.
And that's it! It was a lightweight issue elevated by the Witch class and the article on illusion magic. Next month, we have a mini-game called Food Fight, new fiction from Gardner F. Fox, and the Super Spies of Top Secret!
M.T. Black is a freelance game designer. Go to his website for a free, five-star adventure!
Editorial assistant Bryce Knorr wants to talk about fiction. The company has just published its first fiction collection, Dragontales, and they need more stories. Submissions must be short (not novels), in the fantasy or science fiction genre, and not pornographic. I'm not sure they ever published another volume of fiction--perhaps one of my readers can tell me?
There are two special features this month. "Canard" is an adventure for the Traveller RPG and involves investigating an alien terraforming facility. It was written by Robert Camino, who had several articles published in The Dragon and The Journal of the Travellers Aid Society around this time.
"Brewing up a brand-new NPC: The Witch" presents witches as an NPC class. Bill Muhlhausen, who seems to have published little else, wrote the original article, but Kim Mohan and Tom Moldvay heavily revised it. The result is an entertaining class with lots of good spells but also unique abilities such as potion brewing, control dolls, and candle magic. The introduction warns Dungeon Masters that this class is for NPCs only--advice I'm sure that everyone ignored!
There's a handful of other features. "D&D is not very common in Germany" is by Stefan Neubauer, a resident of West Berlin. The title summarises the article perfectly. I believe that D&D is still not very big in Germany, with the homegrown RPG Das Schwarze Auge being far more popular.
"How do YOU rate as a DM?" is a Dungeon Master Evaluation Form. I recall these were all the rage in the 80s, and I even distributed a few similar forms myself. It all seems clunky and overly formal to me now.
"Now you see it. . . but is it really there?" by Philip Meyers supplies some well-considered (and much-needed) guidance for D&D illusion magic. Meyers was a genuine talent who later wrote the well-reviewed Oasis of the White Palm and Balton's Beacon for TSR before disappearing off the radar.
In "Hate orcs? You'll love this campaign," Roger E. Moore suggests you try an all-dwarf game with the focus on fighting the goblinoid races (orcs were classified as goblinoids back then). It's a pretty uninspired article from a man of his talents.
Let's look at the regular features. "Sage Advice" has a small army of TSR staff answering the usual array of questions. I found this exchange interesting:
Personally, I would have allowed that. What a great little story!
In "Leomund's Tiny Hut," Len Lakfoka proposes an entirely new melee system for AD&D. He's troubled by the 1-minute melee round rules for AD&D--after all, why can a fighter only strike once in all that time? This rule used to bug me too, but I can see what Gygax was trying to address now, and I'm much more comfortable seeing AD&D combat as highly abstract. Anyway, Lakofka's suggestions are over-complicated.
"Dragon's Bestiary" presents us with the "Amazon" by Roger E. Moore, the "Tolwar" by Todd Lockwood, and the "Lythlyx" by Ed Greenwood. I rather liked the Tolwar, an undersized, trunkless elephant with telekinetic power.
"Dragon's Augury" has three reviews. Azhanti High Lightning by GDW is an "outstanding" game with "first rate" artwork. DragonQuest, SPI's much-anticipated entry into the fantasy RPG market, is an "exciting game," and buyers will "get their money's worth." Hero by Yaquinto Games is "enjoyable" but becomes "repetitive" after a few playings.
We have a new Squad Leader scenario by Bryan Beecher, who this time takes us through "The Fall of Sevastopol." In "The Electric Eye," Mark Herro reviews Space Games-3 from Creative Computing Software and concludes it is "well worth it's modest price tag."
Finally, there's an amusing exchange in the letters page. Eric Robinson from Connecticut says Gygax's approach to AD&D rule variants ticks him off. He characterizes it as "l-am-Lord-of-All, Everything-I-say-is-God's-Holy-Word syndrome." Gygax responds, "Eric, you seem to have D&D confused with AD&D. The former promotes alteration and free-wheeling adaptation. The latter absolutely decries it, for the obvious reason that Advanced D&D is a structured and complete game system aimed at uniformity of play world-wide. Either you play AD&D, or you play something else!" Of course, the idea that AD&D cannot be extended without breaking the whole system doesn't hold water, but Gygax often held to that line.
And that's it! It was a lightweight issue elevated by the Witch class and the article on illusion magic. Next month, we have a mini-game called Food Fight, new fiction from Gardner F. Fox, and the Super Spies of Top Secret!
M.T. Black is a freelance game designer. Go to his website for a free, five-star adventure!
