Dragon Reflections #98

Dragon Publishing released Dragon #98 in June 1985. It is 100 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. This issue features dragons, magical relics, and apocalyptic monsters!

The cover is by Denis Beauvais and is his sixth painting for Dragon Magazine. Called "Allegory," it depicts a dragon's lair littered with office paraphernalia. Interior artists include Keith Parkinson, Jeff Easley, Roger Raupp, Bob Maurus, Valerie Valusek, Jim Holloway, Dave LaForce, Tim Truman, Richard Hentz, Dave Trampier, Tony Moseley, Joseph Pillsbury, and Larry Elmore.

This issue's special attraction is the "Mutant Manual," a collection of mostly reader-contributed creatures for Gamma World. There's plenty of variety, with everything from blade whales to harmony trees to bot bashers, though some entries are more creative than others. Your enjoyment will depend upon your tolerance for Gamma World silliness, but this article seems long overdue.

To celebrate the magazine's ninth anniversary, they've included a commemorative anniversary section called Dragonlore, containing four feature articles on their favourite subject.

Roger E. Moore leads with "Tailor-Made Treasure," a richly developed essay on how and why dragons collect treasure. Drawing inspiration from Tolkien, Beowulf, and folklore, Moore portrays dragons as status-conscious predators whose hoards reflect their personalities, histories, and intelligence. It is the sort of superb article that Moore excels at, combining careful research with an eye for the gaming table.

Gregg Chamberlain follows with "The Magic of Dragon Teeth," a flavorful entry that plants a new magic item into the AD&D game - one that summons mighty dragon warriors. Drawing on Greek mythology, the article outlines the rules for the use and creation of these remarkable items. It's a solid piece that would have benefited from whole stat blocks for the dragon warriors. Chamberlain published many articles for Dragon.

Leonard Carpenter's "Dragon Damage Revised" is a rules expansion for DMs who want dragons to hit harder. It's a common-sense solution to a real problem in the design of AD&D dragons, and it is just one page long. Carpenter wrote several articles for Dragon and later published eleven Conan novels for Tor.

Finally, Roger E. Moore returns with "The Dragons of Krynn," fleshing out the titular creatures of Dragonlance. We learn about such matters as dragonsleep, the mystery of the Oath, and the motives of Dragon Highlords. It's solid (if brief) setting lore. Moore later published several Dragonlance books and stories.

We have a gaggle of other features. Ken Hughes contributes "Creative Magic Items," which demonstrates how to create new magic items for AD&D. It's a much needed article but doesn't provide the sort of insight I'd like. Hughes contributed just one other piece to Dragon, back in issue #41.

Jim Dutton continues his series on campaign design with "Detailing a Fantasy World," aimed at DMs building large-scale settings. He discusses the creation of political structures, heroes and villains, and cultural uniqueness. As mentioned last month, Dutton was president of a PBM company called Entertainment Concepts Inc. It has been challenging to find information about this organisation, as it appears to have been short-lived.

John C. Bunnell reviews Dragons of Autumn Twilight and Dragons of Winter Night (both by Weis and Hickman) in "It's a Neat Idea, But…" He praises the strong character work, pacing, and the effective transition from module to novel form. He concludes that the books are "a great deal better than many readers are likely to expect, and they are good enough to stand alongside much of the material available from the field’s more established publishers."

Dave Rosene's "Knowing What's in Store" describes four shop types commonly found in fantasy cities: the blacksmith, leatherworker, silversmith, and tanner. It combines historical details with a brief piece of fiction, illustrating what each shop would be like in a fantasy setting. It appears well researched, though the fiction was hardly compelling. This article was Rosene's only published RPG credit.

In "Auctions Aren't Forbidding," Tim Stabosz provides a helpful guide to gaming auctions, particularly those held at conventions. He explains how bidding works, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how different types of bidders behave. It is just one page long and provides a nice glimpse into the hobby culture of the time. Stabosz published no other RPG content.

Merle and Jackie Rasmussen present more real-world outfits for Top Secret play in "Authentic Agencies, Part II." As with the preceding part, it's an excellent resource for espionage games.

Ardath Mayhar's "The Forging of Fear" is a grim short story about a blacksmith's unique revenge for a terrible crime. It is excellent, with nuanced characters and a hauntingly original concept. Mayhar published over 60 books across multiple genres.

The ARES section returns with 14 pages of science fiction and superhero goodness. It includes 5 articles:

• "The Volturnus Connection" by Stephen Bonario provides a campaign backdrop for Star Frontiers.
• "When History Goes Awry" by Mark Acres explores alternate historical parallels for Timemaster.
• "Alone Against the Asteroid" by Stephen James offers a solitaire version of the Asteroid wargame.
• "Return to the Viper's Pit" by Kim Eastland expands the Marvel Super Heroes adventure recently published by TSR.
• "The Marvel-Phile" by Jeff Grubb presents the first index of Marvel Super Heroes characters.

And that's a wrap! It was a packed magazine, though I was sorry there were no game reviews. The quality was high, with the best article undoubtedly being Moore's treatise on dragon treasure. Next month, we have Treasure Trove II, the will-o'-wisp, and cures for a failing game!

 

[Deadstop]

. (Top Secret could have also done with a major rethink and a second edition, but given how little it changed when it came back in the 21st century, that was probably never in the cards.)

Top Secret did get a major revised (really, completely different) edition in the late 80s in the form of Top Secret/S.I., in between the two Merle Rasmussen editions. S.I. was well supported for a few years, including pulp and superhero supplements. But maybe you consider that a distinct game rather than an edition of Top Secret.

 

[Flying Toaster]

There were also weird rules that let the PCs declare before the fight started that they were using non-lethal methods to subdue and capture the dragon, because apparently dragons are vain but cowardly. Such a fight would be significantly harder to win than usual, because you would do half melee damage with the flat of a blade and could not use spells or missile weapons. If successful you could theoretically sell it to some rich NPC as a guard beast, but eventually the subdual effect would wear off and all Acheron would break loose... hope your party made themselves scarce in the meantime, because now you have probably made two powerful enemies - the dragon and the NPC customer.

I had a few more late “staircase thoughts” about those weird dragon subdual rules from the 1E Monster Manual, and about efforts to buff iconic RPG monsters so they don’t go out like chumps.

The fact that the MM has rules for subduing dragons and selling them to powerful unscrupulous NPCs on some kind of open market for guard beasts may have implications for the kind of gonzo game worlds EGG may have expected DMs to build back in 1977. Or maybe not - they definitely feel like the kind of arcane rules for edge cases that he would get enthusiastic about writing, only to forget about them and never revisit them or use them in his home game. I do not recall any TSR products that referred to subduing dragons, so maybe this is just one of those weird dead-end relics from the early years of D&D.

I have actually thought about adapting something like those rules for use in handling other types of non-lethal (or at least less-lethal) combat against other types of foes. I have a foggy memory of some kind of semi-official AD&D 1E rules for general non-lethal combat, buried somewhere in the back of the DMG (where no one would ever find them... ). Such rules could be used for handling jousting, duels, judicial combat, or anything else that might allow interesting interactions between the social and combat pillars of D&D or similar games. Both PCs and NPCs might be able to challenge people to duels in order to settle disputes. This might work well with something like the honor point rules from OA. There would need to be some way to deter the kind of exploits that cropped up in real dueling cultures, which power gamers would definitely try to rediscover and use.

In world folklore there is a long tradition of both ordinary humans and heroes outwitting dangerous foes like dragons or fey by appealing to their vanity, or by resorting to ancient honor codes which even powerful beings fear to break. Think of how Bilbo outwits Gollum with the riddle game, which was based on Tolkien’s study of real Anglo-Saxon riddles from Old English literature. In mythology even heroes, gods, and monsters have their power limited by various taboos, wyrds, or fates which might prove to be their undoing, and this is one way to answer world-building questions like “Why don’t all these powerful monsters just destroy civilization once and for all?”.

If your game uses crunchy knowledge skills, then this is a good way for the scholarly monk or wizard PC to recall some obscure lore to help the party win or skip an encounter. In rules-light or OSR games which eschew many types of non-combat rules, the GM could establish some baseline lore that everyone in this setting would know, such as that perytons are weak to bronze weapons, or that orc chieftains cannot afford to refuse challenges to single combat without suffering a dangerous loss of face. This would be a good way to reward one form of “skilled play”, i.e., paying attention to what the GM tells you...