Dragon Publishing released Dragon issue 45 in January 1981. It is 96 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. In this issue, we have three new NPC subclasses, everything you never wanted to know about dungeon gas, and the return of Bazaar of the Bizarre!
Editor Jake Jacquet welcomes the new year with some new faces. Debbie Chiusano joins Corey Koebernick in Sales & Circulation, while Marilyn Mays joins Bryce Knorr on the editorial staff. In addition, Ed Greenwood and Roger Moore join the magazine as "Contributing Editors." These were not full-time, paid positions. Rather, "Contributing Editor" was a title they gave to some of their best freelancers, those who turned in a lot of content and could write to spec. It's significant to see the magazine recognizing two people who would make such tremendous contributions to Dungeons & Dragons over the coming years.
The capsule bios that Jake gives for the two designers are interesting, so I'll reproduce them in full:
Jake notes that Dragon Publishing will be printing 45,000-50,000 copies of this issue, compared to just 11,000 copies a year ago (and a sharp increase on the official circulation of 21,000 reported in October the previous year). Sales are snowballing.
This month's special feature is "The Dungeon Design Kit," which comprises a cardboard grid and cut-out walls, furniture, accessories, and so on. TSR included this sort of cardboard terrain in quite a few products: The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina, The Revenge of Rusak, and The Veiled Society are just a few examples.
There are plenty of other feature articles in this issue, with a strong focus on D&D. "Gas 'em up and smoke 'em out" by Robert Plamondon discusses the behavior of smoke, gas, and other air pollution in dungeons. Following it is a companion piece called "Dungeon Ventilation Clears the Air," which explains how dungeon ventilation systems could and should work.
Plamondon had published several articles for Dragon by this point, and his third contribution to this issue was "The right/write way to get published," full of advice for would-be article writers. Assistant editor Kim Mohan annotated this essay with a running commentary, essentially showing you how the editors treat magazine submissions. Some of Mohan's notes are very sharply worded, and I can only hope Robert took them with good humor. Plamondon published several more articles with Dragon but is best known for his book, Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamers' Handbook, which is still in print.
Roger and Georgia Moore present us with two new "NPCs for hire." The astrologer creates horoscopes, while the alchemist brews up helpful potions. I wish they'd included more advice about creating horoscopes, as predictions in D&D can be tricky. Roger also gives us "How to have a good time being evil," containing practical advice for running evil campaigns.
"Magic Items for Everyman" by Philip Meyers (best known for I4: Oasis of the White Palm) is a useful though pedestrian article about equipping high-level parties with magic items. "Castles, castles everywhere" by Michael Kluever is a well-written potted history of the castle. Kluever wrote several instructive articles to Dragon about armor, weapons, and tactics. "You can jump HOW far?" by Kevin Thompson provides very detailed rules for jumping, considering the exact number of feet run-up, how much weight is being carried, and so on. I imagine it appealed to the simulationists in the audience.
The final feature article is "Hop, hop, hooray!" by Daniel Maxfield, which presents an assortment of variant rules for Bunnies & Burrows. I believe this is the only article for this game ever published by Dragon.
We've got a full slate of regular columns. "Up On A Soapbox" kicks things off with two contributions. "Be a creative game-player" by Kristan Wheaton urges D&D players to look for lateral methods of combating monsters. In "Ways to handle high-level headaches," Lewis Pulsipher suggests several strategies for challenging high-level parties.
"Bazaar of the Bizarre" is back with six new magic items, this time by authors Roger Moore, Robert Plamondon, Ernest Rowland, and John Beck. Some are trite, such as ruby slippers that teleport your character back home. However, I did like the pet rock, which throws itself at your enemy on command.
"The Rasmussen Files" gives us more Top Secret bric-a-brac from Merle Rasmussen. The results of a player survey were fascinating, with the following snippet demonstrating some of the challenges faced by the marketing team:
In "Leomund's Tiny Hut," Len Lakofka gives us some advanced missile-fire rules and two new NPC subclasses, the archer and the archer-ranger. They are nicely crafted! Glenn Rahman is back with more "Minarian Legends" from the Divine Right game, this time telling us the history of the dwarves. In "Simulation Corner," John Prados asks what makes a bad rule bad? Bryan Beecher has another "Squad Leader scenario," this time with a skirmish in Austria. And "The Electric Eye" by Mark Herro gives us a program listing for a dice-roller.
"Dragon's Bestiary" has three new monsters: the insectoid skyzorr'n by Jon Mattson; the dual-tailed sand lizard by Marcella Peyre-Ferry; and the elemental dust devil by Bruce Sears. The skyzorr'n by veteran contributor Mattson is the best of the bunch.
Finally, "Dragon's Augury" reviews three games. Bloodtree Rebellion by Games Designer's Workshop is "flavorful" and joins a "strong line" of science fiction games from GDW. Space Marines by Fantasy Games Unlimited is "a good treatment of futuristic ground combat using miniatures." Grail Quest by Metagaming, a supplement for the Melee/Wizard RPG, "suffers from the problems that programmed adventures fall prey to."
This month's cover is by Dean Morrisey. Other artists include Jeff Lanners, Roger Raupp, Kenneth Rahman, Tracy Lesch, Bill Willingham, Chris Conly, Greg Lloyd, and Susan Collins.
And that's a wrap! It is a good issue that is stuffed with content. My favorite parts were probably two of the new NPCs, the archer and the alchemist. Next month, we have the Temple of Poseidon, a short story by J. Eric Holmes, and the World of Greyhawk!
Editor Jake Jacquet welcomes the new year with some new faces. Debbie Chiusano joins Corey Koebernick in Sales & Circulation, while Marilyn Mays joins Bryce Knorr on the editorial staff. In addition, Ed Greenwood and Roger Moore join the magazine as "Contributing Editors." These were not full-time, paid positions. Rather, "Contributing Editor" was a title they gave to some of their best freelancers, those who turned in a lot of content and could write to spec. It's significant to see the magazine recognizing two people who would make such tremendous contributions to Dungeons & Dragons over the coming years.
The capsule bios that Jake gives for the two designers are interesting, so I'll reproduce them in full:
Jake notes that Dragon Publishing will be printing 45,000-50,000 copies of this issue, compared to just 11,000 copies a year ago (and a sharp increase on the official circulation of 21,000 reported in October the previous year). Sales are snowballing.
This month's special feature is "The Dungeon Design Kit," which comprises a cardboard grid and cut-out walls, furniture, accessories, and so on. TSR included this sort of cardboard terrain in quite a few products: The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina, The Revenge of Rusak, and The Veiled Society are just a few examples.
There are plenty of other feature articles in this issue, with a strong focus on D&D. "Gas 'em up and smoke 'em out" by Robert Plamondon discusses the behavior of smoke, gas, and other air pollution in dungeons. Following it is a companion piece called "Dungeon Ventilation Clears the Air," which explains how dungeon ventilation systems could and should work.
Plamondon had published several articles for Dragon by this point, and his third contribution to this issue was "The right/write way to get published," full of advice for would-be article writers. Assistant editor Kim Mohan annotated this essay with a running commentary, essentially showing you how the editors treat magazine submissions. Some of Mohan's notes are very sharply worded, and I can only hope Robert took them with good humor. Plamondon published several more articles with Dragon but is best known for his book, Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamers' Handbook, which is still in print.
Roger and Georgia Moore present us with two new "NPCs for hire." The astrologer creates horoscopes, while the alchemist brews up helpful potions. I wish they'd included more advice about creating horoscopes, as predictions in D&D can be tricky. Roger also gives us "How to have a good time being evil," containing practical advice for running evil campaigns.
"Magic Items for Everyman" by Philip Meyers (best known for I4: Oasis of the White Palm) is a useful though pedestrian article about equipping high-level parties with magic items. "Castles, castles everywhere" by Michael Kluever is a well-written potted history of the castle. Kluever wrote several instructive articles to Dragon about armor, weapons, and tactics. "You can jump HOW far?" by Kevin Thompson provides very detailed rules for jumping, considering the exact number of feet run-up, how much weight is being carried, and so on. I imagine it appealed to the simulationists in the audience.
The final feature article is "Hop, hop, hooray!" by Daniel Maxfield, which presents an assortment of variant rules for Bunnies & Burrows. I believe this is the only article for this game ever published by Dragon.
We've got a full slate of regular columns. "Up On A Soapbox" kicks things off with two contributions. "Be a creative game-player" by Kristan Wheaton urges D&D players to look for lateral methods of combating monsters. In "Ways to handle high-level headaches," Lewis Pulsipher suggests several strategies for challenging high-level parties.
"Bazaar of the Bizarre" is back with six new magic items, this time by authors Roger Moore, Robert Plamondon, Ernest Rowland, and John Beck. Some are trite, such as ruby slippers that teleport your character back home. However, I did like the pet rock, which throws itself at your enemy on command.
"The Rasmussen Files" gives us more Top Secret bric-a-brac from Merle Rasmussen. The results of a player survey were fascinating, with the following snippet demonstrating some of the challenges faced by the marketing team:
In "Leomund's Tiny Hut," Len Lakofka gives us some advanced missile-fire rules and two new NPC subclasses, the archer and the archer-ranger. They are nicely crafted! Glenn Rahman is back with more "Minarian Legends" from the Divine Right game, this time telling us the history of the dwarves. In "Simulation Corner," John Prados asks what makes a bad rule bad? Bryan Beecher has another "Squad Leader scenario," this time with a skirmish in Austria. And "The Electric Eye" by Mark Herro gives us a program listing for a dice-roller.
"Dragon's Bestiary" has three new monsters: the insectoid skyzorr'n by Jon Mattson; the dual-tailed sand lizard by Marcella Peyre-Ferry; and the elemental dust devil by Bruce Sears. The skyzorr'n by veteran contributor Mattson is the best of the bunch.
Finally, "Dragon's Augury" reviews three games. Bloodtree Rebellion by Games Designer's Workshop is "flavorful" and joins a "strong line" of science fiction games from GDW. Space Marines by Fantasy Games Unlimited is "a good treatment of futuristic ground combat using miniatures." Grail Quest by Metagaming, a supplement for the Melee/Wizard RPG, "suffers from the problems that programmed adventures fall prey to."
This month's cover is by Dean Morrisey. Other artists include Jeff Lanners, Roger Raupp, Kenneth Rahman, Tracy Lesch, Bill Willingham, Chris Conly, Greg Lloyd, and Susan Collins.
And that's a wrap! It is a good issue that is stuffed with content. My favorite parts were probably two of the new NPCs, the archer and the alchemist. Next month, we have the Temple of Poseidon, a short story by J. Eric Holmes, and the World of Greyhawk!
