(un)reason
Legend
The Dragon Issue 33: January 1980
part 2/2
No swords means No Swords!: Stop trying to get around your class restrictions folks. Its Not Allowed, and your god will be very pissed off at you. Ahh, the joy of the old arbitrary restrictions that paid no attention to what god you actually worship. 2nd edition can not come fast enough in this respect.
Mapping the dungeons gets this years entry, which is a quite frightening 13 pages long. Well, it's good for the page count, I suppose. Not every issue can have an adventure to make up its size.
Days of the Dragon, the D&D calendar full of spiffy old artwork out now.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: It uses the lotion or it gets the cane again. Yeah, this time, we get tons of magical lotions, many of which are stat buffs. Each of them only gets a line or two, allowing them to include a hundred different lotions in only 2 pages. Which is pretty useful, and should keep your players from finding the same treasure repeatedly too often.
Sage Advice: Business as usual here. How much is the DMG, and what the hell is a Dungeon masters screen (ahh, the innocence of the past) What do you do to get rid of a 34th level character with 86 magic items. (Give them a managerial job that stops them from adventuring, so the player has to make a new character, otherwise make him retire that character.) What level do rangers and paladins cast spells at (= to their level, and I agree that that shouldn't be the case) Are multiple faerie fire spells cumulative? (no) Can dispel magic negate multiple spells with one casting (yes) Do longevity potions affect both natural and magical aging (well duh, wouldn't be much point to them otherwise) Is invisibility cancelled by tripping over (No) Is a curse removed when you die (It depends) What happens if you try and resurrect a lich. (you get a very pissed off magic user to deal with) Can thieves use bows (no, oddly enough. ) Can humans be multiclassed (no, they can be dual classed, they are completly different things, you doofus.) Can elves and half orcs be raised with raise dead (no, because they don't have souls
) As ever, this is very handy in revealing the weirdness in these old rules, and design thoughts behind them.
The electric eye:Appropriately for the new decade, they've decided to turn their attention to the (not so) new technology of computers. This is basically an explanation of what a computer actually is, aimed at the complete newbie. Some of them enjoy sales in the hundreds of thousands, and can hold up to 64 kilobytes of memory these days. Man, this really takes me back to my first computer, to the incredible annoyance of the zx spectrum 48k. 8 color graphics, several minute loading times with frequent tape errors. I do not miss it one bit.
Reviews: This month we have Wizard, an RPG, and part of the fantasy trip, which would later evolve into GURPS. Wizards quest, a boardgame that has nothing to do with the previous review. The apprentice, Not the TV show, but a magazine. Gamelog, another magazine. Invasion of the air eaters, a boardgame. The average length of reviews is definitely increasing, but they're still mostly description.
Dragons bestiary: Frosts, aka snow pixies. The first contribution to the magazine by Roger Moore, another writer who would go on to play a big part in the development of the magazine. Like regular pixies, they have spell abilities far in excess of their hit dice, and are tricksy bastards. The illustration is particularly large, which is handy, because he skimps a bit on the ecological stuff. Unlike Ed, there's no obvious signs of the greatness he would eventually attain.
Wormy and fineous fingers are firing on all cylinders this issue.
Quality is maintained this issue, with the average length of articles being fairly high, and yet more new developments that would become regular features. They're still far from stable in their structure and all the more interesting for it.
part 2/2
No swords means No Swords!: Stop trying to get around your class restrictions folks. Its Not Allowed, and your god will be very pissed off at you. Ahh, the joy of the old arbitrary restrictions that paid no attention to what god you actually worship. 2nd edition can not come fast enough in this respect.
Mapping the dungeons gets this years entry, which is a quite frightening 13 pages long. Well, it's good for the page count, I suppose. Not every issue can have an adventure to make up its size.
Days of the Dragon, the D&D calendar full of spiffy old artwork out now.
Bazaar of the Bizarre: It uses the lotion or it gets the cane again. Yeah, this time, we get tons of magical lotions, many of which are stat buffs. Each of them only gets a line or two, allowing them to include a hundred different lotions in only 2 pages. Which is pretty useful, and should keep your players from finding the same treasure repeatedly too often.
Sage Advice: Business as usual here. How much is the DMG, and what the hell is a Dungeon masters screen (ahh, the innocence of the past) What do you do to get rid of a 34th level character with 86 magic items. (Give them a managerial job that stops them from adventuring, so the player has to make a new character, otherwise make him retire that character.) What level do rangers and paladins cast spells at (= to their level, and I agree that that shouldn't be the case) Are multiple faerie fire spells cumulative? (no) Can dispel magic negate multiple spells with one casting (yes) Do longevity potions affect both natural and magical aging (well duh, wouldn't be much point to them otherwise) Is invisibility cancelled by tripping over (No) Is a curse removed when you die (It depends) What happens if you try and resurrect a lich. (you get a very pissed off magic user to deal with) Can thieves use bows (no, oddly enough. ) Can humans be multiclassed (no, they can be dual classed, they are completly different things, you doofus.) Can elves and half orcs be raised with raise dead (no, because they don't have souls

The electric eye:Appropriately for the new decade, they've decided to turn their attention to the (not so) new technology of computers. This is basically an explanation of what a computer actually is, aimed at the complete newbie. Some of them enjoy sales in the hundreds of thousands, and can hold up to 64 kilobytes of memory these days. Man, this really takes me back to my first computer, to the incredible annoyance of the zx spectrum 48k. 8 color graphics, several minute loading times with frequent tape errors. I do not miss it one bit.
Reviews: This month we have Wizard, an RPG, and part of the fantasy trip, which would later evolve into GURPS. Wizards quest, a boardgame that has nothing to do with the previous review. The apprentice, Not the TV show, but a magazine. Gamelog, another magazine. Invasion of the air eaters, a boardgame. The average length of reviews is definitely increasing, but they're still mostly description.
Dragons bestiary: Frosts, aka snow pixies. The first contribution to the magazine by Roger Moore, another writer who would go on to play a big part in the development of the magazine. Like regular pixies, they have spell abilities far in excess of their hit dice, and are tricksy bastards. The illustration is particularly large, which is handy, because he skimps a bit on the ecological stuff. Unlike Ed, there's no obvious signs of the greatness he would eventually attain.
Wormy and fineous fingers are firing on all cylinders this issue.
Quality is maintained this issue, with the average length of articles being fairly high, and yet more new developments that would become regular features. They're still far from stable in their structure and all the more interesting for it.