Dragon Reflections #100

TSR Inc. published Dragon #100 in August 1985. It is 116 pages long and has a cover price of $3.95. This milestone issue features more Pages from the Mages, a new high-level adventure, and Dragonchess!

But first, a minor correction. Ever since issue #39, Dragon Magazine has been published by Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR Inc. However, as of issue 93, Dragon Publishing has disappeared, and the magazine lists TSR Inc. as the publishing entity. This change undoubtedly reflects some internal reorganisation, but I'm not aware of any broader significance.

The cover is by Dennis Kauth, and it is most unusual. Instead of a painting, Kauth created and photographed a paper sculpture depicting a faerie dragon gliding over a stream. It's a bold and distinctive image, and I thought it was quite lovely at the time. I'm not sure the digital reproduction does it justice.

There are several special attractions in this issue. First is Gary Gygax's short story, "At Moonset Blackcat Comes," which introduces readers to Gord of Greyhawk, the protagonist in Gygax's upcoming debut novel, Saga of Old City. This little tale is very much written in a classic swords-and-sorcery style, with obvious nods to both Fritz Leiber and R.E. Howard. Gygax's fiction has undoubtedly improved since the material he published in the early issues of Dragon, though I found this story a little slow to get going.

"The City Beyond the Gate" by Robert Schroeck is an AD&D adventure set on Earth. The party seeks the legendary Mace of Saint Cuthbert and is sent via a portal to modern London. As they scour the city, they must deal with cultural clashes, technology, and the severe limitations placed on their magic. It's an excellent premise and could be a lot of fun, but there are problems with the design. The adventure presents a broad overview of a lot of information but doesn't give the DM much help in gamifying the elements. One of the random encounters, for example, is simply "Truant officer". The DM will need to figure out how to make that fun.

In the same vein, the adventure includes an accurate floor plan of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and details one hundred locations within, most of which are not very interesting or relevant. For example, "20. Corridor displays: A. Chinese and Japanese lacquerwork and furniture; B. Ivories and leatherwork; C. Chimney pieces; D. Musical instruments; E. Plaster casts (sculptures)." Still, with a bit of work, a DM could turn this into an enjoyable evening's entertainment. Schroeck went on to write several GURPS books for Steve Jackson Games.

The final special attraction is Dragonchess, also by Gary Gygax. This game is a 3D chess variant played across three boards, representing air, earth, and the subterranean realms. The rules are extensive but clearly explained, and the game is fully playable. Although it appears more like a thought experiment than anything, Dragonchess has had a long afterlife, with people building sets and playing the game to this day.

On to the other features! "Score one for Sabratact" by Forest Baker describes a new outdoor martial sport in which players, wearing armour and wielding pre-modern weapons, score points by breaking small target cups mounted on their opponents. It is team-based, with an emphasis on tactics and co-operation. It appears there has been a recent revival of interest in this sport, with a small documentary released a few years ago.

Frank Mentzer's "All About the Druid/Ranger" tackles the rules ambiguity around the druid/ranger multiclass combination, which Gygax officially approved in issue #96. Many readers pointed out that AD&D druids must be True Neutral in alignment, while rangers must be some variant of Good. Mentzer declares that druid/rangers must be Neutral Good and then spends half a page justifying why. It all seems much ado about nothing.

Ed Greenwood returns with "Pages from the Mages V," adding more magical tomes to the Forgotten Realms. This month, we have Sabirine's Specular, Glanvyl's Workbook, The Red Book of War, and The Alcaistar. To Greenwood's credit, he keeps coming up with new and compelling ideas for these books.

In "The Chance of a Lifetime," Doug Niles offers a brief retrospective on the creation of the Battlesystem miniatures game, highlighting the challenges posed by scale, formations, and spell effects. And in "From First Draft to Last Gasp," editor Michael Dobson shares his perspective on the same design process.

The ARES Section returns, presenting about a dozen pages of science-fiction and superhero gaming material. It includes five articles:

• "Creative Conjuring" by Eric Walker presents a variant Marvel Super Heroes magic system.
• "Champions Plus" by Steven Maurer adds new skills and powers to Champions.
• "Charisma Counts" by S. D. Anderson expands charisma rules for Villains & Vigilantes.
• "Defenders of the Future" by William Tracy introduces the Guardians of the Galaxy to Marvel Super Heroes.
• "The Marvel-Phile" by Jeff Grubb details the Defenders Ensemble, also for Marvel Super Heroes.

And that's a wrap! Several large articles dominated this month, only one of which really interested me (the adventure). Most of the other features felt like filler. Overall, it was a disappointing issue for such an important milestone, especially given the higher price. Next month, we have a different approach to alignment, magic item charging, and a new Creature Catalog!

 

[Rabulias]

PS: I was never a big comics fan, so the Marvel Supers article on the Guardians of the Galaxy may have been the very first time I ever heard of them, but it left little impression on me at the time. Funny to think that three decades later they would play such a big part in a major motion picture franchise.

Just so any Guardians of the Galaxy film fan doesn't shell out for this back issue and get disappointed: The Guardians of the Galaxy discussed here are not the ones that are featured in the films. A group of Ravagers inspired by this GotG does appear in GotG Vol 2 and GotG Vol 3, led by Sylvester Stallone. And Yondu in the films is based on the Yondu detailed in this issue.

 

[Flying Toaster]

City Beyond the Gate was also notably written by someone who'd never been to England and who based all of the slang and details of British life off of one (I think obscure YA) novel. Letters to the editors were howling for months after it was published.

I remember reading some of those letters, long after the fact. The module took a wide variety of British cultural and historical references and shoehorned them into the adventure, because why not. UK residents got a bit shirty pointing out bizarre anachronisms like Dickensian urchins populating a random encounter table for 1980s London, and I can’t say I blame them too much.

Imagine TSR UK publishing an adventure in contemporary NYC that featured a grab bag of minutemen, Wild West cowboys, and 1920’s gangsters armed with tommy guns, saying “Twenty-three skidoo!” It might be funny to read, but not so much to play - unless you decided to embrace the gonzo and just roll with it.

 

[Flying Toaster]

Off-topic side note on the role of infernal politics in Gygaxian D&D lore (I was remembering the Gord novels and bit off a bit more than I could chew, decided I might as well post it as an afterthought):

I never shared EGG’s interest in the demonic politics of the Abyss, which were a major plot thread in the Gord of Greyhawk novels. At the time I found it curious that there were lots of demon lords and archdevils who got big write-ups in the MM and MM2, but they did not necessarily feature prominently in other published material. Instead the Greyhawk box set and the modules in what some now call the “Greyhawk Adventure Path” (esp. Temple of EE, Tsojcanth, & Tharizdun) focused on beings like Iuz, Iggwilv, and Zuggtmoy, who were not even mentioned in the hardback monster books at all. Tasha (Iggwilv) has now become even more important to D&D lore, while Iuz and Zuggtmoy seem to have faded somewhat.

At the same time EGG’s iconic GDQ (Queen of the Spiders) series featured new monsters like dark elves, deep gnomes, and kuo-toa, with a plot engineered by the demon queen Lolth. However if you wanted Lolth and those new Underdark creatures in official hardback form, you had to buy the Fiend Folio book that was really intended to highlight creatures from White Dwarf’s Fiend Factory feature. You also needed to snag a copy of FF if you wanted Asian dragons in your Oriental Adventures campaign, because they were inexplicably not included in that book, published four years after FF! TSR had a very messy way of doing things...

The NE daemons and demodands always played second fiddle to the LE devils and CE demons, probably because the 1977 MM used a unique 5-way alignment system that only included the extremes (LG, CG, N, LE, CE). So the NE infernals were something of an afterthought, added to MM2 in order to round out the cosmology based on the more elaborate 9-way alignment system. Mangy, ram-headed Anthraxus the Oinodaemon could never compete with the oily charm of Graz’zt, or the classic MM infernals like Asmodeus, Demogorgon, and Orcus, although I guess his lore got developed somewhat in later editions.

 

[GuyBoy]

I remember reading some of those letters, long after the fact. The module took a wide variety of British cultural and historical references and shoehorned them into the adventure, because why not. UK residents got a bit shirty pointing out bizarre anachronisms like Dickensian urchins populating a random encounter table for 1980s London, and I can’t say I blame them too much.

Imagine TSR UK publishing an adventure in contemporary NYC that featured a grab bag of minutemen, Wild West cowboys, and 1920’s gangsters armed with tommy guns, saying “Twenty-three skidoo!” It might be funny to read, but not so much to play - unless you decided to embrace the gonzo and just roll with it.

Very true, but tbh I just "embraced the gonzo" and played the adventure as written, even though I was born and raised in London.