Dragon Publishing released Dragon #78 in October 1983. It is 100 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. This issue features psionics, mind flayers, and a new AD&D adventure!
This month's special attraction is "Citadel by the Sea" by Sid Fisher. The adventure won Dragon's recent Module Design Contest in category A-1 (dungeon for AD&D characters of levels 1-3). Characters explore a ruined coastal stronghold abandoned after a series of mysterious events. This detailed adventure includes many traps, tricks, and tactically interesting combats. My main complaint, as always, is that the adventure background is overly long, but otherwise, it is a polished offering; it is a shame that Fisher has published nothing else.
The main feature is a series of articles exploring the psionics system in AD&D. First introduced in the 1976 Eldritch Wizardry supplement, psionics were and remain a controversial part of the game. Arthur Collins, a frequent Dragon contributor, acknowledges this in his "Psionics is Different" article. He notes that psionics are different from spells in several ways: they draw their power from the mind rather than the multiverse, they are a latent talent rather than a skill, and they are highly random in terms of incidence and power. He then lists numerous problems with the psionics rules in AD&D and offers guidance to overcome them.
Collins continues with an AD&D adaptation of the Deryni, a psychic race of humans from Katherine Kurtz's series of historical fantasy novels. In "The Deryni" and "Heroes & Villains of the Deryni," he describes their abilities, culture, and notable characters. The human subspecies trope is well-trodden (see books like "The Tomorrow People" and "The Chrysalids") and provides one way of incorporating psionics into an RPG campaign.
Finally, Collins proposes the "psionicist," a new AD&D class dedicated solely to using psionics. It addresses the problems of psionic balance by wrapping the abilities in a standard class progression framework. It also adds several new psionic abilities to those defined in the AD&D Player's Handbook.
"Overhauling the System" by Robert Schroeck discusses issues with the existing psionics rules, mostly related to balance and rule ambiguity. He proposes a new psionic progression and atrophy system to address these problems, and it makes a great deal of sense. In practice, it would probably result in characters deliberately hunting out psionic monsters to keep their powers sharp. Schroeck contributed to several RPG products in the 90s, primarily related to GURPS.
"Spells Can Be Psionic, Too" by Kim Mohan examines the similarities between magic and psionics. He is particularly interested in a Dungeon Masters Guide table suggesting that certain spells will likely attract psionic monsters to the party. Mohan gives in-game rationales for why this might happen, though the net effect is to show how much overlap exists between psionics and arcane magic.
A special three-page edition of "Sage Advice" is dedicated to answering the numerous queries TSR had collected about the psionic rules. Following is one of the more eclectic questions: "If a fighter gains the discipline of domination and then switches to the thief class (as a bard would do), would this character lose the domination power?" The answer is yes, by the way!
In "The Ecology of the Mind Flayer," Roger Moore delves into the lore of this iconic psionic monster, offering insights into its behaviour, society, and tactics. The article is framed as an interview with a githyanki and adds some helpful new ideas to the information found in the original Monster Manual and Fiend Folio.
This issue also includes several non-psionic features. "Be Thy Die Ill-Wrought?" by David Weeks explains how to test the randomness of dice using the chi-square test. It will be of interest to statisticians, both amateur and professional. Ed R. Teixeira's "Pop the Clutch and Roll!" introduces car chase rules for the Top Secret game. They are fiddly, and players would have been better off using the vastly more elegant classic Car Wars rules. These are the only RPG publications by Weeks and Teixeira.
In "The Thrill of the Hunt," Paul Montgomery Crabaugh introduces hunting rules for the DragonQuest game. These mechanics enable characters to find food in the wilderness and include modifiers based on terrain, equipment, and skill level. At the time, TSR owned DragonQuest and published a supporting article every few months. Crabaugh was a frequent contributor to the magazine.
The cover art is by Denis Beauvais. Interior artists include Denis Beauvais, Phil Foglio, Roger Raupp, Dave Trampier, Timothy Truman, and Larry Elmore.
And that's a wrap! Most of the regular offerings were absent from this issue, and I missed them. My favourite feature was "Citadel by the Sea." In the next issue, we have magic resistance, adventuring tips, and a new Top Secret module!
This month's special attraction is "Citadel by the Sea" by Sid Fisher. The adventure won Dragon's recent Module Design Contest in category A-1 (dungeon for AD&D characters of levels 1-3). Characters explore a ruined coastal stronghold abandoned after a series of mysterious events. This detailed adventure includes many traps, tricks, and tactically interesting combats. My main complaint, as always, is that the adventure background is overly long, but otherwise, it is a polished offering; it is a shame that Fisher has published nothing else.
The main feature is a series of articles exploring the psionics system in AD&D. First introduced in the 1976 Eldritch Wizardry supplement, psionics were and remain a controversial part of the game. Arthur Collins, a frequent Dragon contributor, acknowledges this in his "Psionics is Different" article. He notes that psionics are different from spells in several ways: they draw their power from the mind rather than the multiverse, they are a latent talent rather than a skill, and they are highly random in terms of incidence and power. He then lists numerous problems with the psionics rules in AD&D and offers guidance to overcome them.
Collins continues with an AD&D adaptation of the Deryni, a psychic race of humans from Katherine Kurtz's series of historical fantasy novels. In "The Deryni" and "Heroes & Villains of the Deryni," he describes their abilities, culture, and notable characters. The human subspecies trope is well-trodden (see books like "The Tomorrow People" and "The Chrysalids") and provides one way of incorporating psionics into an RPG campaign.
Finally, Collins proposes the "psionicist," a new AD&D class dedicated solely to using psionics. It addresses the problems of psionic balance by wrapping the abilities in a standard class progression framework. It also adds several new psionic abilities to those defined in the AD&D Player's Handbook.
"Overhauling the System" by Robert Schroeck discusses issues with the existing psionics rules, mostly related to balance and rule ambiguity. He proposes a new psionic progression and atrophy system to address these problems, and it makes a great deal of sense. In practice, it would probably result in characters deliberately hunting out psionic monsters to keep their powers sharp. Schroeck contributed to several RPG products in the 90s, primarily related to GURPS.
"Spells Can Be Psionic, Too" by Kim Mohan examines the similarities between magic and psionics. He is particularly interested in a Dungeon Masters Guide table suggesting that certain spells will likely attract psionic monsters to the party. Mohan gives in-game rationales for why this might happen, though the net effect is to show how much overlap exists between psionics and arcane magic.
A special three-page edition of "Sage Advice" is dedicated to answering the numerous queries TSR had collected about the psionic rules. Following is one of the more eclectic questions: "If a fighter gains the discipline of domination and then switches to the thief class (as a bard would do), would this character lose the domination power?" The answer is yes, by the way!
In "The Ecology of the Mind Flayer," Roger Moore delves into the lore of this iconic psionic monster, offering insights into its behaviour, society, and tactics. The article is framed as an interview with a githyanki and adds some helpful new ideas to the information found in the original Monster Manual and Fiend Folio.
This issue also includes several non-psionic features. "Be Thy Die Ill-Wrought?" by David Weeks explains how to test the randomness of dice using the chi-square test. It will be of interest to statisticians, both amateur and professional. Ed R. Teixeira's "Pop the Clutch and Roll!" introduces car chase rules for the Top Secret game. They are fiddly, and players would have been better off using the vastly more elegant classic Car Wars rules. These are the only RPG publications by Weeks and Teixeira.
In "The Thrill of the Hunt," Paul Montgomery Crabaugh introduces hunting rules for the DragonQuest game. These mechanics enable characters to find food in the wilderness and include modifiers based on terrain, equipment, and skill level. At the time, TSR owned DragonQuest and published a supporting article every few months. Crabaugh was a frequent contributor to the magazine.
The cover art is by Denis Beauvais. Interior artists include Denis Beauvais, Phil Foglio, Roger Raupp, Dave Trampier, Timothy Truman, and Larry Elmore.
And that's a wrap! Most of the regular offerings were absent from this issue, and I missed them. My favourite feature was "Citadel by the Sea." In the next issue, we have magic resistance, adventuring tips, and a new Top Secret module!
