Dragon Publishing released Dragon #96 in April 1985. It is 100 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. This issue features character backstories, Star Trek deck plans, and the ecology of the otyugh!
The cover is by Jack Crane and is titled "Andragon." It's a typically quirky Crane piece that depicts a robot dragon in a suburban garage. This painting was the last of the six covers he did for Dragon. Interior artists include Roger Raupp, Bob Maurus, Phil Foglio, Valerie Valusek, Jayne Hoffmann, Marvel Bullpen, Dave Trampier, Richard Tomasic, Joseph Pillsbury, and Larry Elmore.
This month's special attraction is "Deck Plans for Ginny's Delight," a multi-page starship schematic for Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game. The ship is a small tramp trader with quarters, recreation areas, a cargo bay, and other amenities. It also includes ship statistics and a brief history. It is only the second Star Trek article published in Dragon.
It is April, and so Dragon continues its wearying tradition of a satirical section. "Nogard" is a high-level solitaire adventure where your invincible character sits around being bored. In "The meanest of monsters," we get statistics for the Killer Dungeon Master and the Sleep-Inducing Dungeon Master. "It takes all kinds..." is a set of races for the popular RPG called Enraged Glaciers & Ghouls. "There can never be too many dragons, right?" describes statistics for the "What's New?" Dragon and the Quazar Dragon. Finally, "Rules to lose by" presents the Hopeless Character class, including level titles such as "Klutz" and "Blunderer." And, thankfully, that is the April Fools section over for another year.
Gary Gygax is a little more serious with "New Jobs for Demi-Humans," which expands the allowable character classes for elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes. It introduces level progression tables for demi-human clerics, druids, and rangers, assuming high enough ability scores. Gygax continues to insist the original demi-human level limits in AD&D were appropriate, but these articles are slowly chipping them away.
Katharine Kerr returns with "What Good PCs Are Made Of," a lengthy article on character background and personality. Kerr walks players through a medieval childhood, suggesting how factors such as social class, family tragedies, and apprenticeship might shape a PC's outlook. There are percentile tables for family life, parental survival, and early training, with examples of how to integrate this material into play. In some ways, it prefigures Central Casting by Task Force Games and the various fantasy lifepath systems that followed in its wake. It's a quality article, although I would have liked to see more tables.
Ed Greenwood brings us "The Ecology of the Gulguthra," better known as the otyugh. Written as a story by Elminster, supplemented by a report from "Phiraz of the Naturalists," the article explains the creature's biology, feeding habits, and mating. It's an amusing piece about a popular monster.
"The Handy Art of Forgery" by Keith Routley introduces rules for duplicating scrolls, maps, and other documents in AD&D. It's written with a focus on assassins, though I think the thief class would have been a better target. There are rules for time, cost, materials, and skill checks based on the complexity of the document and the recipient's level of intelligence. This article was Routley's only RPG publication.
Arn Ashleigh Parker's "Books to Games? Perhaps!" suggests a method for adapting fantasy novels into a campaign. The essence of his approach appears to be modifying whatever is necessary to fit the setting into the AD&D ruleset. He gives some examples of his approach, including one for Tolkien's Middle-Earth, but the results don't seem to resemble the original books very much. Parker published half a dozen articles in Dragon.
Michael Gray returns after a long absence with a new update on the Play By Mail gaming scene. He mentions several games, such as Battle of the Gods, World of Velgor, and Illuminati. This article was Gray's last publication with Dragon, though he later contributed to DL16: World of Krynn for TSR.
There's also a short DragonQuest article titled "Getting in Over Your Head" by Craig Barrett, which offers underwater combat rules. It handles vision, swimming, drowning, and spellcasting while submerged. It was Barrett's last article with Dragon for several years.
"Inglaf's Dream" by Ama Darr Rogan is a quiet tale in which a warrior in an adventuring party has a recurring dream where they are all statues on a giant tiled floor. The characters are well-drawn, but this particular metafiction twist has been visited a little too often in the pages of Dragon. This story was Rogan's only publication.
"Off the Shelf" is back, with John Bunnell reviewing all the latest speculative fiction:
The cover is by Jack Crane and is titled "Andragon." It's a typically quirky Crane piece that depicts a robot dragon in a suburban garage. This painting was the last of the six covers he did for Dragon. Interior artists include Roger Raupp, Bob Maurus, Phil Foglio, Valerie Valusek, Jayne Hoffmann, Marvel Bullpen, Dave Trampier, Richard Tomasic, Joseph Pillsbury, and Larry Elmore.
This month's special attraction is "Deck Plans for Ginny's Delight," a multi-page starship schematic for Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game. The ship is a small tramp trader with quarters, recreation areas, a cargo bay, and other amenities. It also includes ship statistics and a brief history. It is only the second Star Trek article published in Dragon.
It is April, and so Dragon continues its wearying tradition of a satirical section. "Nogard" is a high-level solitaire adventure where your invincible character sits around being bored. In "The meanest of monsters," we get statistics for the Killer Dungeon Master and the Sleep-Inducing Dungeon Master. "It takes all kinds..." is a set of races for the popular RPG called Enraged Glaciers & Ghouls. "There can never be too many dragons, right?" describes statistics for the "What's New?" Dragon and the Quazar Dragon. Finally, "Rules to lose by" presents the Hopeless Character class, including level titles such as "Klutz" and "Blunderer." And, thankfully, that is the April Fools section over for another year.
Gary Gygax is a little more serious with "New Jobs for Demi-Humans," which expands the allowable character classes for elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes. It introduces level progression tables for demi-human clerics, druids, and rangers, assuming high enough ability scores. Gygax continues to insist the original demi-human level limits in AD&D were appropriate, but these articles are slowly chipping them away.
Katharine Kerr returns with "What Good PCs Are Made Of," a lengthy article on character background and personality. Kerr walks players through a medieval childhood, suggesting how factors such as social class, family tragedies, and apprenticeship might shape a PC's outlook. There are percentile tables for family life, parental survival, and early training, with examples of how to integrate this material into play. In some ways, it prefigures Central Casting by Task Force Games and the various fantasy lifepath systems that followed in its wake. It's a quality article, although I would have liked to see more tables.
Ed Greenwood brings us "The Ecology of the Gulguthra," better known as the otyugh. Written as a story by Elminster, supplemented by a report from "Phiraz of the Naturalists," the article explains the creature's biology, feeding habits, and mating. It's an amusing piece about a popular monster.
"The Handy Art of Forgery" by Keith Routley introduces rules for duplicating scrolls, maps, and other documents in AD&D. It's written with a focus on assassins, though I think the thief class would have been a better target. There are rules for time, cost, materials, and skill checks based on the complexity of the document and the recipient's level of intelligence. This article was Routley's only RPG publication.
Arn Ashleigh Parker's "Books to Games? Perhaps!" suggests a method for adapting fantasy novels into a campaign. The essence of his approach appears to be modifying whatever is necessary to fit the setting into the AD&D ruleset. He gives some examples of his approach, including one for Tolkien's Middle-Earth, but the results don't seem to resemble the original books very much. Parker published half a dozen articles in Dragon.
Michael Gray returns after a long absence with a new update on the Play By Mail gaming scene. He mentions several games, such as Battle of the Gods, World of Velgor, and Illuminati. This article was Gray's last publication with Dragon, though he later contributed to DL16: World of Krynn for TSR.
There's also a short DragonQuest article titled "Getting in Over Your Head" by Craig Barrett, which offers underwater combat rules. It handles vision, swimming, drowning, and spellcasting while submerged. It was Barrett's last article with Dragon for several years.
"Inglaf's Dream" by Ama Darr Rogan is a quiet tale in which a warrior in an adventuring party has a recurring dream where they are all statues on a giant tiled floor. The characters are well-drawn, but this particular metafiction twist has been visited a little too often in the pages of Dragon. This story was Rogan's only publication.
"Off the Shelf" is back, with John Bunnell reviewing all the latest speculative fiction:
- The Bishop's Heir by Katherine Kurtz is a disappointing Deryni novel in which the heroes "act far too much like RPG characters intent only on getting from point A to point B."
- Moonheart by Charles de Lint is a richly imagined and genre-blending fantasy that is "well worth a brief lapse into superlatives."
- Brisingamen by Diana L. Paxson is a thoughtful and grounded contemporary fantasy that "blends all the traditional ingredients into a most unusual meal."
- The Fire Sword by Adrienne Martine-Barnes is a frustrating and eclectic fantasy quest that will "leave readers holding the book and shaking their heads."
- The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah is a Star Trek mystery that "aficionados are likely to find interesting reading."
- "Why Is This Mutant Smiling?" by John M. Maxstadt introduces inventive new body parts for Gamma World.
- "The Marvel-Phile" by Jeff Grubb presents stats for Iron Man and Howard the Duck.
- "The Coming of the S'sessu" by David Cook describes a new alien race for Star Frontiers.
