Dragon Reflections #92

Dragon Publishing released Dragon #92 in December 1984. It is 100 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. This issue features clerics, ettins, and spellbooks!

The cover is called "Bridge of Sorrows," painted by Denis Beauvais, and captures a wizard, barbarian, and centaur facing off against a wyvern. The colours are gorgeous! Interior artists include Jeff Butler, Roger Raupp, Bob Maurus, John Gilmore, Jeff Easley, Dave Trampier, Joseph Pillsbury, Denton Elliott, Richard Tomasic, and Larry Elmore.

This issue's special attraction is "The Sword of Justice" by Jon Mattson, an adventure for Basic D&D. A village judge enlists the heroes to retrieve an ancient magical sword that glows in the presence of lies, which will help bring a killer to justice. The adventure is a straightforward dungeon crawl, with the party hunting for the sword in an abandoned mansion. There are some conventional monster encounters, several traps, and a few basic tricks. It's a solid but unexceptional introductory adventure. Mattson had been contributing to Dragon since issue #24, but this was his final appearance.

Clerics take the spotlight in a trio of articles. "Clerics live by other rules" by E. Gary Gygax offers guidance on making clerics and druids distinct in your campaign. Long-time readers of Gygax will note he was inconsistent on the desirability and permissibility of modifying the rules of AD&D! In this article, he suggests that Dungeon Masters tailor the spells and powers granted by each deity, even withholding certain spells that conflict with a god's portfolio (for example, a sun god might dislike darkness spells). Perhaps the most interesting part of this piece is the glimpse into how he runs clerics in his own Greyhawk campaign.

Next, "First, spread the faith" by Paul Vernon suggests people should roleplay clerics as true champions of their deities. He is doubtless correct when he says they are treated as "walking medical kits" rather than devoted priests. Vernon states that a cleric's motivations should revolve around serving and expanding their religion—preaching to companions, converting unbelievers, and upholding their deity's tenets. I'd respond that not every deity and priest will focus on proselytizing, but I agree that at least some should. Vernon was a British game designer and frequent contributor to White Dwarf and Imagine.

In the same vein, "The more, the merrier" by Bruce Barber introduces rules for clerics to convert NPCs and earn experience points as a reward. Your cleric attempts conversions using a mix of roleplay and die rolls, earning bonus XP based on the difficulty and significance of the subject. It comes with a fun reaction table, with entries ranging from enthusiastic conversion to violent rejection. This article was Barber's only RPG publication.

Lenard Lakofka brings "Gods of the Suel Pantheon" to a close with the final three deities in the series: Lydia, Bralm, and Jascar. Lydia (goddess of music, knowledge, and light) is a benign deity whose priests value learning and song; Bralm (goddess of insects and industry) enables her faithful to cast druid spells and take the form of an ankheg. Jascar (god of hills and mountains) grants his high-level clerics the ability to shape-change into a pegasus and immunity to petrification. I would have liked a little more information about what the worship of these gods actually entails; nevertheless, it is a well-crafted conclusion to a significant lore series.

"Let the Horse Buyer Beware" by Robert Harrison proposes an expanded approach to horse purchases, with size, quality, and training affecting price, hit points, and speed. It's not something I'd use at my table, but I imagine there are those wanting to distinguish between a prime stallion and a hopeless nag. This one-page article was Harrison's only RPG publication.

Ed Greenwood makes a double appearance this month. First is "The Ecology of the Ettin," an exploration of the two-headed giant. Greenwood once more frames the piece as an in-character account (this time by "Raujur the Ranger") and complements it with footnotes providing the game stats and clarifications. We learn about the ettin's habits, diet, and the dynamics between its dual heads (Greenwood surprisingly asserts that they never argue). It is a competent but more prosaic piece than some previous entries.

Greenwood also contributes "Pages from the Mages III," continuing his series on the famous spellbooks of the Forgotten Realms. Through the persona of Elminster, he divulges the secrets of four more arcane tomes. One example is Aubayreer's Workbook, the long-lost book of an ancient mage, which contains standard spells as well as unique high-level magic like Phase Trap and Thunderlance. Greenwood provides a rich backstory for each book, along with the new spells or magical effects they hold. It's inspiring stuff for anyone who wants to enrich their next magical haul, and it's no surprise this series enjoys such a stellar reputation.

For fans of DragonQuest, Paul M. Crabaugh offers "Going Up and Getting Wet," an advanced set of rules for climbing and swimming. The base chance is determined by skill rank and then modifiers are applied for surface types, ropes, armour weight, etc., giving the game a crunchy and realistic approach. Crabaugh was almost single-handedly supporting DragonQuest with new material at this stage.

"The Multi-Dimensional Caper" by Mark Acres is a pulp detective tale with a metafiction twist. Nick White is a hard-boiled private investigator who encounters a mysterious swordswoman claiming to be from another world. White is pure cliche but likable all the same, and the story's pacing is good. However, the conflict feels underdeveloped, and the final resolution is not nearly as clever as needed, given the strange setup. Acres was a former TSR developer who was then working for Pacesetter.

The "Role of Books" is back, this time with three book reviews:

• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is an intricate medieval mystery about a scholarly monk investigating bizarre murders in a remote monastery, and "is both useful and fascinating, but it's also hard work."
• The Riddle of the Wren by Charles de Lint is an evocative fantasy quest in which a young heroine journeys across magical worlds and is "a remarkably skilled blending of sincerity and subtlety."
• Castles by Alan Lee and David Day is a beautifully illustrated book exploring mythological, historical, and literary castles, and is "highly recommended for those who have always enjoyed the magic and mystery inherent in castles."

This issue has one game review. In TOON: The Cartoon Roleplaying Game from Steve Jackson Games, you play Saturday morning cartoon characters engaging in ridiculous antics. The mechanics are extremely simple and encourage creativity over tactics. Your character never dies—if your hit points hit zero, you simply sit out for three minutes before popping back up again, in zany cartoon fashion. It's the ideal beer-and-pretzels game. Reviewer Michael Dobson concludes TOON is "a genuine good idea – an original (if unlikely) concept."

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

• "The Six Million Dollar Mutant" by Bruce Humphrey brings cyborgs to GAMMA WORLD.
• "The Marvel-Phile" by Jeff Grubb details game stats for the Heralds of Galactus – the Silver Surfer, Nova, and Terrax.

And that's a wrap! I thought "Pages from the Mages" stood out amidst some modest competition. Next month, we have rules for high-level druids, campaign building, and a daring new adventure!

 

[Voadam]

One thing D&D editions have gradually shifted to is less "punish for a choice" and more "not encourage your choice" -- subtle but effective, which means for example you really shouldn't make things worse for PCs for their class choices, but not give them as much of a bonus. I'm not sure how this applies to divine judgement on spellcasting. Like can we have it so you can't easily upcast spells on evil PCs/PCs your god doesn't approve of?

My take is that this is accomplished by giving more options in theme, so a structural carrot as opposed to a stick. For clerics spheres (2e), domains (3e), and subclasses that support a theme a lot as opposed to editing choices down day by day. A healing god cleric can choose blasting cleric spells but gain buffs when doing healing spells or their healing stuff can still allow them to heal which provides two different valid PC choices that keeps them healing to different degrees. For 5e paladins you have the themed subclasses that try to mechanically tie into the narrative themes instead of having mechanics for punishing not adhering to roleplaying guidelines.

I am very much a fan of 4e and 5e style mechanically invested paladins and clerics without the narrative narrowing dynamics of OD&D/AD&D/3e DM oversight of roleplaying with mechanical punishment threats/consequences.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One thing D&D editions have gradually shifted to is less "punish for a choice" and more "not encourage your choice" -- subtle but effective, which means for example you really shouldn't make things worse for PCs for their class choices, but not give them as much of a bonus. I'm not sure how this applies to divine judgement on spellcasting. Like can we have it so you can't easily upcast spells on evil PCs/PCs your god doesn't approve of?

Every system I've come up with 1) punishes PCs for their class choices which is demotivating and aggravating for divine PCs, and 2) is a lot of fiddly work. Same thing with planar effects; sounds good, pain in the BUTT to keep track of during the heat of combat ("oh right, you're on Negative Energy Plane so healing spells do -1 points of healing per die...").

About the only thing that comes to mind easily is giving cleric PCs inspiration for following the tenets of their religion.

The article that brought this home for me was "It's not easy being good" by Roger E. Moore in Dragon #51. Moore insisted that paladins would not associate with evil characters. It so happened that our lawful good paladin, Elric, was good pals with Zyx, the party's chaotic evil magic-user, and I told the players they had to choose. After much argument, Elric reverted to regular fighter status and was later dropped by his player.

I probably didn't handle that too well as a teenage DM. On the other hand, it may have been the moment we really started to take roleplaying seriously, rather than just treating D&D like an ongoing tactical skirmish game.

I think back then people were grasping for greater character depth, not being just tokens being moved about a dungeon. But things were still evolving, the language and understanding wasn't there. People had a lot to learn.

I absolutely didn't handle character conflict very well back then either. I remember the one fighter deciding that the other player's drow had to be evil, despite doing absolutely nothing evil, and going right after him. I should've told him that he has to find a way to work together and that PvP fighting was not going to happen in my game. But really, it was just a long line of that player trying to bully other players in the game, which shortly thereafter ended in his expulsion from the group.

My thought on seeing it is not a wyvern but just a fire breathing dragon. It has bat like wing arms similar to an AD&D wyvern instead of both forelimbs and wings like an AD&D dragon, but it breathes fire and has no scorpion poison tail with a stinger.

Agreed. This cover would've been only three years after Dragonslayer was released, and I think there's a touch of Vermithrax Pejorative in the dragon's design.

 

[Flying Toaster]

Denis Beauvais was one of my favorite Dragon cover artists, and my friends in my old D&D groups liked his work too. He seems somewhat underrated and does not always get mentioned among the luminaries of 1980’s fantasy artists.

I particularly loved those chess match covers. I wonder if a chess match with living pieces would make a good encounter - maybe a set piece planned by the big villain. The Red Queen scenes from Alice in Wonderland are an obvious precedent, as are the episodes of Star Trek TOS in which decadent super-aliens mess with the crew out of boredom. It seems like the kind of thing that dark fey or infernals might get up to.

Gary Gygax editorials were always a bit confusing as there was no way to square his admonitions against rule-breaking WrongBadFun™ with the DMG advice to make the game your own, which was the old wargaming way and by all accounts the way he actually ran his own table.

I don’t have clear memories of these particular Cleric articles, but as both player and DM I definitely tried to customize Clerics in a thematic way using either the Legends & Lore book or the real mythology that inspired it. I made a Cleric of Thor for AD&D 1E and convinced my initially skeptical DM to let me have one level of weapon specialization in the war hammer, balanced with some debuff I don’t remember. I later did the same thing with a spear-wielding Cleric of Odin. War hammer and spear were never exactly choice weapons in AD&D so if anything I was playing with a slight handicap. When the 2E PHB came out those optional rules for making highly customized specialty priests were a breath of fresh air and I used them every chance I got.

Some players today are doing creative stuff with the fantasy religion side of Clerics. I got a kick out of reading about somebody’s Lizardfolk Shaman who, during down time from adventures, was trying to convert the poor benighted mammals to his culture’s practice of cannibalizing dead loved ones. Why waste perfectly good protein? Why bury your dear departed when passing necromancers are always trying to raise corpses for their armies of the night?

The horse article intrigues me because you would think that an RPG that started as a fork of a medieval war game would have a much larger role for mounted warfare and detailed rules for the same, but you would be wrong! The one time I tried to play a 1E Cavalier the DM and I could not even find much in the way of mounted combat rules, and horses never seemed to be a factor in the published TSR modules we used and emulated in our homebrew adventures.

Somewhat surprising to see a postmodern literary novel like Eco’s The Name of the Rose discussed in the pages of Dragon, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Scheming clergy, secret libraries full of forbidden knowledge, rival doctrines - this is great stuff for plot hooks and campaign stories. I also think that late medieval and early modern alchemy, astrology, occultism, and Hermeticism practiced by figures like Paracelsus or John Dee could be grist for a fantasy campaign. Those guys were often advisors to rulers so a GM could use them for faction intrigue.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I wonder if a chess match with living pieces would make a good encounter - maybe a set piece planned by the big villain.

Personal experience says yes. Yes it does, Also shogi, although you need an audience where at least one person knows the rules for it to work.

Unsurprisingly, ERB's Chessmen of Mars is excellent source material, and jetan (the Barsoomian chess equivalent) is actually playable, albeit not a very good chess variant.

 

[vpuigdoller]

Love the art!!!

 

[griffon8]

I used the setting of the adventure, but not the setup. Turned the fugitive elf into the main villain of the campaign. Oh, the number of times hearing his name made my players curse! He was a manipulative bastard, and rarely confronted the players face-to-face.

 

[M.T. Black]

I used the setting of the adventure, but not the setup. Turned the fugitive elf into the main villain of the campaign. Oh, the number of times hearing his name made my players curse! He was a manipulative bastard, and rarely confronted the players face-to-face.

Yeah, one thing I did like about the adventure is that they made an elf the baddie. That did not often happen in those days.

 

[M.T. Black]

Or... if the elves were baddies... it was in a cold, imperious, "don't bother us with your problems, mortal" sort of way. Not just plain hot-blooded murderers.