This issue features the cockatrice, fantasy taxes, and a Forgotten Realms adventure!
The cover is by Dean Morrissey and depicts "Toad's Cloak Armorsmith Shop," where old metal is fashioned into armour. It's a peculiar but memorable blend of genres. Interior illustrations are by Roger Raupp, Bob Maurus, Larry Elmore, and others, including notable contributions from Dave Trampier and Joseph Pillsbury.
This month's special attraction is "Into the Forgotten Realms" by Ed Greenwood. This AD&D tournament adventure sends the party into an abandoned wizardry school to prevent its magical treasures from falling into the wrong hands. I believe it might be the first published Forgotten Realms adventure, appearing two years before the first edition boxed set. The backstory is steeped in the setting lore, but not in a distracting way, and there is a clever mystery at the heart of it all. The school itself is full of little puzzles, and the tournament scoring rewards exploration and problem-solving. It looks like great fun!
Gary Gygax contributes two articles this month. The first, "Demi-humans get a lift," revises level limits for single-classed demi-human characters. He provides extended level caps for characters with exceptional ability scores, along with brief notes on drow, duergar, and svirfneblin as playable races. His tone is defensive, with Gygax still justifying the original limits but making the change as a concession to player pressure.
The second article, "The influence of Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games," is a blend of personal memoir and rebuttal. Gygax insists that Tolkien's influence on D&D was minimal, citing pulp authors like Howard and Leiber as more formative. I've dived into the pulps myself pretty extensively in the last ten years, and I appreciate the point he is making. Still, historian Jon Peterson has demonstrated the crucial influence that Tolkien had on Chainmail via an amateur wargame by Leonard Patt.
In "How Taxes Take Their Toll," Arthur Collins offers an entertaining in-world interview with a fantasy Chancellor of the Exchequer, detailing a kingdom's tax system. He explains things such as seasonal and monthly taxes, tolls, tithes, and even a nobility tax. The mock interview format works well, and the tax ideas are likely useable in-game. Collins was a regular contributor to Dragon.
"The Ecology of the Cockatrice" by Ed Greenwood gives a detailed account of this monster's habitat, hunting patterns, and magical biology. It takes the form of a dialogue between the author and Elminster the Mage, a device increasingly common in Greenwood's articles. It includes an entertaining tale involving a ship race, the Red Wizards of Thay, and a strange whip. It's an immaculate entry in this series.
Katharine Kerr contributes "Credit Where Credit is Due," which notes that the AD&D experience point system does a poor job of rewarding players in non-combat adventures, such as political intrigue or a journey through hazardous terrain. Kerr's proposal personifies these non-combat obstacles as "monsters" with experience point (XP) values calculated using the standard table in the Dungeon Masters Guide. Her goal is to leverage this table to avoid a mere arbitrary assignment of XP to non-combat challenges. It's a solid idea, although the article feels overly wordy.
Glenn Rahman's "Prices for the Roaring 20s" provides an extensive price list of clothing, tools, accessories, and other items available in the mid-1920s. The target systems are Gangbusters, Call of Cthulhu, FGU's Gangsters, and Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes. I've often wondered why spy and gangster RPGs haven't remained popular. Rahman, an author and game designer, published numerous articles in Dragon, starting with issue #34. I believe this was his final one.
Stephen Inniss returns with "The Many Shapes of Apes," a short zoological guide to apes in AD&D. It includes individual stats for chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and an extinct genus called gigantopithecus. It's hard to get excited when the only difference is that the larger apes have a few more hit points and do slightly more damage. Each ape type should have had a special attack. Imagine if the chimps could do a swarming grapple while the gorilla could do an intimidating chest-pound - much more interesting! Inniss was a freelancer and a frequent contributor to Dragon.
Tim W. Brown's "Battles Above the Dungeon" offers advice for conducting outdoor combat. It includes basic guidance on mobility, ranged weapons, terrain, and other relevant factors. Much of the advice is either obvious or overly abstract, so I don't think this article is as helpful as it could have been. This article was Brown's only RPG publication. Note that he is a different person to Timothy B. Brown, who worked for TSR.
"Desperate Acts" by Gordon Linzner is a gritty tale of loyalty, pride, and betrayal in a place where the dead don't always stay dead. It's a tense, character-driven piece of military fantasy. Linzer founded Space & Time magazine of speculative fiction and is the author of numerous stories.
Finally, the ARES Section delivers 14 pages of science-fiction and superhero content:
The cover is by Dean Morrissey and depicts "Toad's Cloak Armorsmith Shop," where old metal is fashioned into armour. It's a peculiar but memorable blend of genres. Interior illustrations are by Roger Raupp, Bob Maurus, Larry Elmore, and others, including notable contributions from Dave Trampier and Joseph Pillsbury.
This month's special attraction is "Into the Forgotten Realms" by Ed Greenwood. This AD&D tournament adventure sends the party into an abandoned wizardry school to prevent its magical treasures from falling into the wrong hands. I believe it might be the first published Forgotten Realms adventure, appearing two years before the first edition boxed set. The backstory is steeped in the setting lore, but not in a distracting way, and there is a clever mystery at the heart of it all. The school itself is full of little puzzles, and the tournament scoring rewards exploration and problem-solving. It looks like great fun!
Gary Gygax contributes two articles this month. The first, "Demi-humans get a lift," revises level limits for single-classed demi-human characters. He provides extended level caps for characters with exceptional ability scores, along with brief notes on drow, duergar, and svirfneblin as playable races. His tone is defensive, with Gygax still justifying the original limits but making the change as a concession to player pressure.
The second article, "The influence of Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games," is a blend of personal memoir and rebuttal. Gygax insists that Tolkien's influence on D&D was minimal, citing pulp authors like Howard and Leiber as more formative. I've dived into the pulps myself pretty extensively in the last ten years, and I appreciate the point he is making. Still, historian Jon Peterson has demonstrated the crucial influence that Tolkien had on Chainmail via an amateur wargame by Leonard Patt.
In "How Taxes Take Their Toll," Arthur Collins offers an entertaining in-world interview with a fantasy Chancellor of the Exchequer, detailing a kingdom's tax system. He explains things such as seasonal and monthly taxes, tolls, tithes, and even a nobility tax. The mock interview format works well, and the tax ideas are likely useable in-game. Collins was a regular contributor to Dragon.
"The Ecology of the Cockatrice" by Ed Greenwood gives a detailed account of this monster's habitat, hunting patterns, and magical biology. It takes the form of a dialogue between the author and Elminster the Mage, a device increasingly common in Greenwood's articles. It includes an entertaining tale involving a ship race, the Red Wizards of Thay, and a strange whip. It's an immaculate entry in this series.
Katharine Kerr contributes "Credit Where Credit is Due," which notes that the AD&D experience point system does a poor job of rewarding players in non-combat adventures, such as political intrigue or a journey through hazardous terrain. Kerr's proposal personifies these non-combat obstacles as "monsters" with experience point (XP) values calculated using the standard table in the Dungeon Masters Guide. Her goal is to leverage this table to avoid a mere arbitrary assignment of XP to non-combat challenges. It's a solid idea, although the article feels overly wordy.
Glenn Rahman's "Prices for the Roaring 20s" provides an extensive price list of clothing, tools, accessories, and other items available in the mid-1920s. The target systems are Gangbusters, Call of Cthulhu, FGU's Gangsters, and Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes. I've often wondered why spy and gangster RPGs haven't remained popular. Rahman, an author and game designer, published numerous articles in Dragon, starting with issue #34. I believe this was his final one.
Stephen Inniss returns with "The Many Shapes of Apes," a short zoological guide to apes in AD&D. It includes individual stats for chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and an extinct genus called gigantopithecus. It's hard to get excited when the only difference is that the larger apes have a few more hit points and do slightly more damage. Each ape type should have had a special attack. Imagine if the chimps could do a swarming grapple while the gorilla could do an intimidating chest-pound - much more interesting! Inniss was a freelancer and a frequent contributor to Dragon.
Tim W. Brown's "Battles Above the Dungeon" offers advice for conducting outdoor combat. It includes basic guidance on mobility, ranged weapons, terrain, and other relevant factors. Much of the advice is either obvious or overly abstract, so I don't think this article is as helpful as it could have been. This article was Brown's only RPG publication. Note that he is a different person to Timothy B. Brown, who worked for TSR.
"Desperate Acts" by Gordon Linzner is a gritty tale of loyalty, pride, and betrayal in a place where the dead don't always stay dead. It's a tense, character-driven piece of military fantasy. Linzer founded Space & Time magazine of speculative fiction and is the author of numerous stories.
Finally, the ARES Section delivers 14 pages of science-fiction and superhero content:
- "The Zuraqqor Strike Back!" by Brian Valentine presents alien starships for Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks.
- "Antimissiles and Roundshot" by Jefferson P. Swycaffer introduces new weapon systems for Traveller.
- "The Marvel-Phile" by Jeff Grubb presents part one of the Invincible Iron Man.
- "The Dolphins of Known Space" by Sherman Kahn adds an aquatic species to the Ringworld game.
