Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 25: May 1979

part 1/2

48 pages. A gamma world special (the first explicitly topic focussed issue since TD4), they continue their drive to improve and reorganise the magazine. Even the editor is not immune to having his friends and family feel that working in gaming is a bit childish. He wants to prove them wrong, and he wants to do it well, because its a fun job to do, instead of some boring office work. Ahh, stereotypes. You don't change much, do you. Just get applied to different groups as they rise and fade.

In this issue:

A part of gamma world revisited: jim ward revisits the section of north america he seeded with factions in a previous article, expanding on their histories, philosophies, bases, significant NPC's, etc etc. A fairly good article that helps give GW games direction and setting, instead of just being one gonzo encounter after another.

Judging and you!: Jim ward gives his philosophy on proper gamemastering. You've got to be able to improvise, don't be afraid to change things. Don't let characters know how to do things just because their players do. Don't kill characters without a chance, but don't save them if they rush in like idiots. It all seems pretty sensible, noncontroversial stuff, amazingly.

The Armada Disasters: This is something most of us (or at least the brits, cant say for the rest of the world) learnt in high school. The spanish got their asses kicked and then sunk, and as a result there are huge wodges of sunken treasure to be found. Or in other words, a stonking great real world adventure hook. Not a brilliant article, but it does the job.

The place of social class in D&D: Gary thumbs his nose at the concept of tables for social class and occupation, and the implicit generic medieval setting they contain. He then goes on to encourage you to create your own systems of government for the various places in your world, including ones that do not exist in the real world such as magocracies, and defining their class structures and relationships to one-another. Another strong article that shows that larger considerations of setting were really starting to become an issue for the TSR guys.

The writing of the DMG is now mostly done. So it'll still be quite a few months before we get to see it in the shops

Out on a limb. We get a whole page letter viciously slating the Bakshi version of LotR, which then ends with the editor agreeing and saying that if anything he'd have been even harsher. Man, they really dropped the ball on that one. A half page letter defending Alpha Omega from its review here. And another letter complaining extensively about how badly run a tournament was, which recieves a personal apology from gary, which is nice of him.

Comic: The westminster wargaming society, by Tom Wham. Aww. lookita keetom. They like to play with miniatures and dice too.

Armies of the renaissance part 3: Another too short and general article on real world military stuff.

 

[Eridanis]

Hey, what can I say -- I was only 17 at the time!

I imagine it made you happy that your creations were still a core part of the game 30 years later. Phantasmal Killer is one of my favorites.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Hey, what can I say -- I was only 17 at the time!

Don't sweat it. I still love those spells!

 

[Father of Dragons]

I imagine it made you happy that your creations were still a core part of the game 30 years later. Phantasmal Killer is one of my favorites.

Which I swiped from E.E. "Doc" Smith (see Kinnison's first meeting with Helen of Lyrane in Second Stage Lensman). (And yes to be honest, it is pleasing to open a D&D book and see my work in it.)

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 25: May 1979

part 2/2

Would the real orc please step forward: An article on the proliferation of goblinoids and their different appearances. We see the start of the goblin/hobgoblin vs orc/ogre partitioning that would become more pronounced as the years went on, along with some bits that weren't picked up, such as gnolls and trolls being related (well they do rhyme. Whatever happened to Thouls? They were cool.) and kobolds being part of the same family as orcs. Has a huge chunk of miniatures reviews as well, with strong opinions on which ones most suit the writers vision of orc. I like this article a lot, it manages to be both informative and amusingly opininated, adding quite a bit to D&D's implied setting.

The Traveler navy wants to join YOU!: More character path stuff for traveler. Pretty dry stuff. But people always want more options. I just hope the ones here aren't broken, as I can't tell.

Gamma world artifact use chart: More advice on future characters using modern devices, and how to handle it. Don't let them do things just because their players can, and vice versa. Includes some random failure fun for if they get overconfident.

Fiction: An alien in a strange land, by Jim Ward. We see one of the big backstory events of the gamma world setting through the eyes if its instigator, the lifeforce sucking mutant Blern. Doesn't really work, as It never really gives him a personality beyond the desire to kill and smash everything he comes across. (ahh, the 70's and 80's, when you could get away with characters who's only motivation is doing evil because they are evil. ) We are not impressed.

Fiction: An interview with an iron golem, by Michael McCrery: A follow-up to the one with the rust monster. And oh god, it the holy hand grenade of antioch. Yet again, the adventurers own idiocy is their undoing. Frankly, anyone acting that dumb deserves to die.

War of flowers: An article on the political and religious structure of the aztec city-states, and the way they waged war on one-another. Includes a complete little war game. A very high quality and entertaining article.

Fineous fingers finally finds his way back.

Varieties of Vampires: Ahh, the insanity of real world mythology. Still despite in many cases being incredibly stupid, your players will soon stop laughing once they face their special abilities. They want to suck your ....... eeech, lets not go there.

To select a mythos: More stuff on world design. All a bit dull and platitudinous really. My philosophy of world design is very much not rocked.

Arms and armor of the Conquistadores: More historical fluff for your wargames. Another article that fails to really distinguish itself.

Another fairly good issue, with several really good articles, some fun ones, and some dull ones, but no really bad ones. Once again, I'm feeling more than a little full up after reading this one. There's no way I'm going to remember everything reading at this rate. There's going to be enough stuff in the run that you could never really use it all, and that's really hitting me now. Still, the only way out is forward, so on with the adventure.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 26: June 1979

Part 1/2

52 pages. Finally, the editor gets an assistant, the lovely Mr Jaquet, who's first name changes unpredictably from article to article. Now their staff is big enough to withstand one person getting knocked out temporarily, so we won't be losing months because of that. We also see a spate of new running articles start here. Mighty Magic Miscellany, Dastardly deeds and devious devices, Bazaar of the Bizarre. Ahh, alliteration, how you help make things memorable. What would we do deprived of opportunities to twist the lexicon of language in disturbing directions. They also say that this is your last chance as readers to save the letters page, as they still aren't getting regular letters, and they're tired of asking. You do know what a can of worms you're opening here, don't you?

In this issue:

Miniatures, meet boards: Tim Kask talks about his first experiences in wargaming, and recalls the problems with miniatures gaming in general. This then segues into talking about a new game, System 7, and how using cardboard chits makes things so much more accessable than shelling out for and painting hundreds of miniatures. He goes on to say he hopes it revolutionizes wargaming the way D&D did. But miniatures make up most of the companies profit. Yeah, so much for that idea.

Napoleonics no longer mean a second mortgage: A proper review of system 7, with a pretty good assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. This is pretty good, not just a promo for the game.

Necessity is the mother of invention: The designer of system 7 weighs in on the design process for the game, and the compromises they had to make in doing so. Another solid article that adds to this issue's big topic.

The designer responds to first volley: Lotsa players questions, and the corresponding clarifications and errata. Again, this is a solid article, and rounds out this issues main feature. After this, you'll have a pretty good idea if you want to buy System 7 or not.

Giants in the earth: Another article that is intended as a recurring one, this is where they stat out characters from various books for D&D. Of course, as D&D cannot properly emulate them, they have to break the rules that PC's are limited too to represent them. They are also disgustingly overstatted, with not a single attribute below 13. I just have to sigh at this.

And what of the skinnies? An add-on to the Starship troopers wargame, giving the humanoids a power boost so they can match up to the humans and bugs, instead of being stuck in the middle getting slaughtered. Not sure how well this holds up mechanically, but it seems a decent enough article. Hopefully it was of use to someone.

The placement of castles: A tactical guide for Lords and Wizards. More rules stuff that I can't really comment on, but seems decent enough.

35th aniversary of d-day remembered: Lest we forget. Of course back then, there were considerably more people who saw it in person still alive. A good reminder that behind the games, there were serious historical events, with people getting killed, and the same cannot be said for fantasy games. But lets not stay on a downer for too long, shall we.

The solitary berserker for william the conquerer - 1066: Another fun rules expansion. Play Harold Hardrada smashing his way through the english. Maybe you'll even win this time around. Another article that seems ok to me.

Chinese Undead: I think you know what to expect from this. Has a bit of crossover with the vampires around the world article from last issue, but not enough to be useless. And as ever real world mythology is easily as strange and considerably less optimised towards ass-kicking abilities than D&D monsters.

A load of general stuff for boot hill. This is stuff that'll mostly benefit players, at the cost of adding extra mechanical gewgaws to remember. All in all, this is pretty meh.

Another view on D&D alignments: This one doesn't really add much to the pot, merely being a list of what individuals of a particular alignment probably would or wouldn't do. Which is not the best way to go about it, as it lumps a bunch of unrelated traits together, and thus adds to the perspective of alignment as restriction, rather than monitoring device. Which is not the way to go about things, in my opinion. I do not approve.

Deck of fate: Tarot cards for D&D. Draw one of these, and stuff will happen, maybe good, maybe bad. Either way, it keeps things interesting, doesn't it. Not nearly as comprehensive or mechanically sound as the later bag of beans one, this is still an entertaining article, that I have no problem with.

D&D meets the electronic age: Using a computer with an amazing 4K of memory! ( Damn, A page or so of typing here eats up that much, they must have been far more efficient with it back then.) to assist in the mechanical side of running a game, building to hit matrixes, monster stats and dungeon layouts. Goes to show, computers were coming into the range of affordability to ordinary people, and you could already do quite a bit with them back then. But if they weren't, they wouldn't have developed as quickly as they have, as there wouldn't be the money to put into development. It's like evolution. Creationists ask what use half an eye is, but even a single photosensitive cell offers considerable advantages to an organism. And if something offers an advantage, it rapidly spreads and gets built on and refined.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 26: June 1979

Part 2/2

Hirelings have feelings too: A little reminder that hirelings need paying, and will desert if treated badly. If your adventures are getting dull, a little NPC friction can liven them up.

Notes from a very successful D&D moderator: More gaming advice heavily slanted towards the adversarial mold. It encourages finding new inventive ways of countering the players stratagems, so they never get overconfident. Which isn't very nice behaviour, is it now. Still, lots of people had fun playing like that, so who's to say its bad.

D&D, AD&D and gaming: Gary talks about the origins of D&D, and then goes on to talk about the difference between D&D and AD&D. This is where the division between the freewheeling, make it up yourself D&D style, and the standardised, comprehensive, tournament oriented, you've got to play it by the rules in the book or you aren't doing it right AD&D style is spelled out in detail to everyone, and is quite representative of Gygax's opinion on why the games needed to be separated. His focus is also clearly going to be with AD&D from this point on, as that's the one he wants to promote as more important as a game. Which is very informative, if slightly amusing in hindsight. He also defends his rather venomous reviews of a few issues ago, essentially saying that they deserved it for being crap, and if they aren't told so, they'll never improve. And lots of good gaming material is what he wants. So that's ok then

Mugger! A somewhat humourous D&D mod, in which the players play muggers trying to rob as much stuff as possible while avoiding the arm of the law. Fun as a one-shot, and as it's encounters are by random table, it looks like it would work well as a solitaire game. Which is neat. Bring on the violence.

Birth and social status tables for tekumel: Random tables, random tables, la la la la. Don't we already have a set of these? Forgive me if I lose interest.

Blueprint for a lich: Another familiar idea gets its first expression. Becoming a lich takes quite a bit of work, and this article lays out the steps. It has a few bits that later versions would omit (maybe they'd developed more refined transformation rituals) but is still the basic form that would hold throughout 1st and 2nd edition, and be adapted to create dracoliches. Which is nice, I guess.

Putting together a party on the spur of the moment: Gary talks about generating parties quickly for con games. As you might expect, luck is involved quite heavily, which may result in you being twinked or screwed. Such is the fate of the unplanned game. Still, I'm sure that with gary as the GM, it'd still be fun.

Strength comparison table: Various monsters strength scores, using them as characters, strength without proper leverage. This article tries to do too much, and as a result, fails to do anything very well. Don't try and cram a load of scattershot ideas into a single article next time. Leave that to the professionals.

Reviews: Tribes of crane, Ice war, Mercenary, The Battle of monmouth, Grenadier figure packs, Battle sphere. All are solidly written, with mention of both merits and flaws to the works, with no raving fanboyism.

Dragons bestiary: Barghests! Another classic and rather dangerous monster appears in recognizable form. It grows in power as it eats people, then goes back to gehenna once fully grown. Has a rather sinister looking set of small print at the bottom, whereby all monsters published become the intellectual property of TSR. I guess they really are wising up when it comes to legal crap. Very interesting, for the changes in presenting style it represents with plenty of description and ecological stuff.

Fineous fingers continues.

The thief - A deadly annoyance: While thieves might be useful in dungeoneering, where they really shine is in the city. Another article that feels rather dated, as it actively encourages thief PC's to sneak off and take loot without telling other players, steal from their companions, and otherwise behave in a manner detrimental to party trust and unity. Ahh, competitive play, how we miss thee. I must run a game like this at some point.

Another busy issue full of interesting stuff, which offers many pointers as to the way the magazine and game would develop in the future. As they expand, they have to become increasingly professional. And as their readership expands, the base of competent people to hire and freelance from expands as well. They'll be changing some more in the near future, so don't think that they're content with this issue's innovations.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 27: July 1979

part 1/2

52 pages. So its their third birthday, and they are now firmly established as the premier magazine in their field. A pretty good place to be in. So they're looking back a bit. And the thing they're most proud of, oddly enough is the snits games. Life is full of amusing oddities. But that doesn't mean they've taken their eye off the ball. They intend to advance with the times, instituting a computer game column, and more increases in size. Which is nice, I guess. More work for me. We also get a new logo, losing the ooziness of the old one for a more easily legible angular script. All things must change, I suppose.

In this issue:

Agincourt - the destruction of french chivalry: A review of the wargame by Tim the editor. This brings up an interesting topic. It seems like wargames designed to represent one particular battle in history and nothing else were quite common back then. Which seems quite strange, from my perspective, as you'd have to learn new rules for each game, and the replay value would be somewhat limited. (unless you're the kind of person who enjoys playing something like chess as a hobby in itself, rather than boardgames as a whole) I guess that was their analog of indie games like my life with master. Digression aside, it's a very well written review, that comprehensively covers both its good and bad points, and examines the historical accuracy of the game. Guess it was up to the editor to show up all those freelancers submitting shoddy reviews.

Agincourt designers notes: I guess this is this issues big topic then. The designer talks about his design choices, and fills in more details about the historical context of Agincourt. Not quite as interesting as the review, this is still a solid article, which combined with the previous should give you more than enough information on if you want to buy the game.

The effects of agincourt on the hundred years war: A third article, this time focusing on the political situation surrounding the battle, what happened before and afterwards. A tale of madness, famine, bankruptcy, treachery and technology. If anyone says history is boring, they've had the wrong teacher.

Elementals and the philosophers stone: An interesting article, drawing upon greek theories of matter to create an alternate cosmology based upon a cubic structure, with the 4 elements and good and evil arranged in a cube, with 12 other physical and emotional states being formed by the combinations between them. An idea that would of course later be paralleled in the demi and quasielemental planes, with the overt morality stripped out. I quite like this, and like the alternate alignment systems presented in earlier issues, would very much like to try it out in game sometime. After all, anything, even a cosmology as cool as the great wheel, gets dull eventually with overuse.

What judges guild has done for D&D: By publishing officially licenced products for D&D, both it, we, and you have benefited. In addition, we have encouraged the practice of GM's treating players fairly, not as antagonists to be tricked and slaughtered at every opportunity, and playing by the rules, as this messes up the game balance. We also encourage realistic world building. Ooookay. Permit me to have a degree of skepicism. Not sure how to feel about this article.

Cangames '79: Gary reviews the convention, giving it good marks, and saying he hopes to visit again next year. Not much more to say on this one.

Out on a limb: A veeeeeeeeery long letter rebutting the scathing attack on bakshi's LotR. A quite short letter attacking the mountain of supplements for D&D, and the expense of keeping up with the game. (excuse me while I s for a moment) Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along.

Tesseracts - A traveller artifact: The idea presented for D&D a few issues back gets adapted to traveler, with similarly fun results. Hyperdimensional stuff is always so much fun.

A new comic, The voyages of exploration ship znutar: Another silly little B&W number that looks like it's leading into something.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 27: July 1979

part 2/2

Star system generation for Traveller: You know the drill by now, random tables, usefull stuff for when the GM is short of ideas. I ought to make a random table of comments to make for when an article is too dull to form a strong opinion on it. It'd certainly get a lot of use over the course of this.

Design notes for Divine Right:

A quick look at dwarves: Thoughts on the organisations of dwarven armies. My god, it actually has some D&D stuff in. There's been surprisingly little of that this issue. An ok article, with lots of ideas that make sense, but nothing truly ground-breaking.

The emerald tablet design notes: I think you know what to expect here. They talk about the mechanical problems they faced in designing a game that covered a wide variety of fantasy mileus, and the solutions they came up with, plus the inspirations behind the game, such as Kaballa (before sephiroth was appropriated by angsty fangirls) and goetic magic. A rather long-winded article, that nonetheless carries some interesting information. (not least that the preferred spellings of the translations of these terms have changed in recent years) Another amusing historical footnote.

An advert for Best of The Dragon. Only 4 years in and they're already releasing their first retrospective. Not a very good showing. Even most boybands take 5 (but then, I'm of the opinion that band shouldn't release a greatest hits until they've been around at least a decade, and had enough hits that some of them can be considered greatest and the rest left out. ) I thoroughly disapprove of this development.

Giants in the earth: Durathror, Fafhrd and the grey mouser, and john carter of mars. Like last issue, all are ridiculously twinked to a degree that few players will be able to match, and none by purely random generation. Where are our everyman heroes who win by luck and courage, not disgusting amounts of power?

Review: The english civil war. Price complaints due to the weakness of the dollar to the pound. My, have times changed A pretty well balanced review, covering both the good and bad sides of the game.

Expanding Imperium: Several interesting optional rules drawing on various sci-fi shows. Another one that I can't comment on, but the article seems pretty well written, so they'd probably be fun to try.

Review: MiG Killers. Another air fighting game. Now there's a genre that's pretty much disappeared these days, due to computer games doing it better, more easily, providing a visceral experience. Oh well. Another pretty positive review.

The mythos of africa for G: DG&H: And I thought this barrel was empty already. Guess I forgot about these guys. (and it's normally Australia that winds up being the last one picked for the team) Rather a mash-up, given the size and diversity of Africa. No great surprises here to anyone with any mythological studies experience.

Dragons bestiary: The Horast. I don't remember this one. Which is a shame, as it's not a bad monster.

Fineous fingers continues.

Bazaar of the Bizarre: The bag of wind. An item that I remember. A good set of synergistic themed abilities, plus a bit of classic mythological reference. Quite a nice article, overall.

Possibly the most D&D light issue I've yet read. Which does present a few problems, when so much of the content is wargames that I don't know. I guess I should appreciate it now, because I've got many years ahead where it'll be nothing but D&D all the way through. Too much, too little, both can be annoying. What are you gonna do?

 

[Arnwyn]

Dragons bestiary: The Horast. I don't remember this one. Which is a shame, as it's not a bad monster.

FWICT, it was never updated nor appeared anywhere else.