Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 28: August 1979

Part 1/2

56 pages, plus an extra 3 of boardgame. (ha, I knew it. When I saw the comic last issue, I though that this was leading into another cool little game included with the magazine. ) The editor talks about the geeky stigma of wargaming, and encourages people not to act ashamed of what they do, but explain it sensibly to their friends and family. And don't get confused between reality and fantasy. Oh, if only more people had listened.

In this issue:

The politics of hell: How Asmodeus got to be the 3rd supreme leader of hell, after satan and beelzebub got overthrown. Decidedly non-canonical, and also very based upon earthly history and judeo-christian mythology. Still a high quality and entertaining article, that would make a good alternative to the standard D&D backstory. Interesting to note that the 4th ed devil origin story bears more resembalance to this than the last one. Could this have been an influence on Mearls and co?

At last, the DMG is finished! So we get an interview with gary on it, plus commentary from the rest of the TSR staff. It is intended to be the definitive tome on everything the GM needs to run the game, a huge leap up from OD&D in comprehensiveness, so houseruling is no longer neccecary or desirable to run the game. This is the culimination of years of hard work and the game is now complete. And dwarven women have beards with a vote of 12 to 1. Yeah, this is an epic article full of great quotes, many of which are rather amusing in light of what's happened since. Yeah, the hubris has set in a bit. When you think your work needs no further improvement, thats when stagnation starts. And if you stagnate, you set yourself up for a fall, when things change around you and you fail to adapt. But I'll stop moralising now. Honestly, at this rate, I'll turn into as big a windbag as Gary.

A short course in D&D: An entire school gets taught how to play the game in short order. Very interesting, as it shows both the lack of social stigma the game had at the time, and the logistical problems that large groups with lots of new people and turnover present. Has plenty of tips that are still relevant today.

The cavalry plain at austerlitz: A system free historical article. One of those ones that tries to condense a topic that could cover an entire book into a couple of pages, and fails to be interesting in doing so.

Simulating the cavalry plain: The crunchy partner to the previous article.

Evil - Law vs Chaos: Which basically, in Gary's mind boils down to Domination of everything vs smashing for kicks. Hey, another thing that 4th ed has boiled things back down to again. Now that is interesting to note. One of those articles that will be polarising, because it oversimplifies the myriad of facets that can contribute to a persons position in the alignment field.

Six guns & Sorcery: Official crossover rules for boot hill and AD&D. Niiiiice. Given the recent talk of how D&D politics is modelled on the old west ideals, this seems curiously appropriate. Ahh, the joy of gonzo crossovers. And as we know, there would be several more of these. And what's wrong with that? A well chosen crosover can really inject excitement. Its only when you try and throw everything into the pot at once that it just gets confusing and tedious.

Fantasysmiths notebook: Choosing miniatures to represent characters and monsters in your game. Solid advice like focus on getting ones for players and common monsters, otherwise you'll skew the campaign by wanting to show off your dragon miniature too often. Ends with a list of recommended companies. A pretty solid article, as long as you're not the kind of person who rejects the idea of using miniatures in your RPGing. And if you are, clear off and play with the LARPers. We don't want your kind around here

Armies of the rennaisance part 4 - the english. Longbows kick your ass, bitch! And then firearms kick your ass again a few centuries later. Phear our naval supremacy. Another rather too condensed article for the amount of ground it tries to cover.

Elvish tactics in fantasy miniatures: Following on from the dwarven tactics last issue (but will we see halfling battle tactics anytime soon? ) Longbows (kick your ass again) light horses, light armour, harrying tactics, generally being complete bastards. Nothing you wouldn't expect. Ahh, stereotypes.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 28: August 1979

Part 2/2

Conventions - The manufacturers view: Gary talks about the logistical problems involved in attending conventions, and how it really doesn't generate them as much profit as you'd think. Really. they're mostly doing it because they love what they do, and attending is good for the industry as much as it is for them personally. If they were in it for the money, they'd be doing something else. Which all seems pretty reasonable.

Out on a limb: A letter bitching at them for not offering reprints. (frankly my dear, it's just not profitable) A letter giving big chunks of errata for Cross of Iron. Talk of mutant animals in MA. And an epic rant from marc jacobs covering a whole bunch of percieved flaws in the system. That hit points inflate but healing is linear, and how annoying and unrealistic this is. Stupid results created by random generation, forgetting spells, ripping off ideas from other systems. Oh, and the use of goblinoids as a racial metaphor. Yeah, sounds like you shouldn't be playing D&D at all, if you have this many problems with the system and premise. But then they had far fewer systems to choose from back then. The rebuttal to this goes all over the shop, forward to page 46, then back to 11. It's all a bit silly really.

The voyages of the ship znutar continue

And yeah, here's the rules for the acompanying game. More amusing Tom Wham art abounds. This game is somewhat bigger than the snits one, as obviously they've had more practice in the last couple of years, and their design skills have grown accordingly. Looks like it should be fun.

Bazaar of the Bizarre: Lots of stuff I remember, including that lovely joke item the apparatus of spiky owns. Most notable, though for introducing Leomund to us. One of the iconic old wizards who would put their names to a whole bunch of spells and magic items does so here.

Level progression for players and DM's: Oh dear. This is one of those articles that would come back to bite them in the ass later. Each game you play in and things you do in them give you a certain amount of XP. You can then use this to determine your real world level as a player and DM. It's all presented pretty seriously, enough so that even I'm not sure if the original writer intended it as a joke. Which is a bit worrying. If this had made it into the DMG, how many people would have wound up ranking themselves officially. Ahh, hindsight. How very tiresome you are.

Giants in the earth: More overpowered statting outs of literary characters, in this case Eric John Stark, and the ghost of Welleran. I'm really not liking this section at all, and hope it doesn't stay as a regular article for long.

Monty strikes back: More epicness featuring the original obscenely overpowered D&D group getting challenges commensurate with their power (which of course includes plenty of the artifacts that would later become D&D legends. ) And when they beat even that, Monty throws a snit and kills them all by plant rape. Uh huh huh huh huh.

Reviews: Divine right, America BC, Sorcerer (they oughta sue Ron Edwards) All are primarily desriptive reviews, with little personal judgement in them. Which makes them a little dull. You have enough adverts. You need to make your reviews more opinionated, otherwise what's the point.

An advert for a game set in the Dune universe. Iiinteresting

Dragon's Bestiary - the Slinger. Little lizards that use the manticore trick of throwing their poisonous spines at people. Another monster that never made it to the official bestiaries, despite being one of the more realistic and ecologically integrated monsters they've come up with. Oh well, Can't win 'em all.

Fineous fingers continues.

Another high quality issue, with lots of cool articles, but curiously enough also many indicators of the things that would later contribute to D&D's stigmatism and decline. Again, hindsight reveals plenty of ways that things could have been changed if they'd been done differently, but fails to be particularly helpfull in dealing with our present problems. Still at least 4e is adapting, not stagnating. If the changes they're making work in the long run or not remains to be seen, but at least they're not pretending that their new edition is the perfect version of D&D, never to be changed or bettered again.

 

[Hussar]

And an epic rant from marc jacobs covering a whole bunch of percieved flaws in the system. That hit points inflate but healing is linear, and how annoying and unrealistic this is. Stupid results created by random generation, forgetting spells, ripping off ideas from other systems.

The more things change no?

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 29: September 1979

part 1/2

56 pages. This issue marks the arrival of Kim Mohan, who's role is listed simply as staff. Keep an eye on the boy, because he's going to go a long way soon. There's also plenty of other less significant new staff. Their influence will be felt soon. Interesting times indeed.

In this issue:

Of the Gods: Thoughts on creating your own pantheon for your games. As is common in this era it includes random tables for generating your own deities when inspiration runs dry, plus a sample pantheon. A well thought out and written article that nevertheless feels a bit tacky and mechanical. If you can't come up with a decent set of gods without recourse to tables, what hope for the rest of your setting?

Source of the nile flow charts: A play aid that pretty much tells me how to play the game. Which obviously means it's a good one that does its job well. I quite approve of this.

A ounce of preparation is worth a ton of paint: Lotsa tips on how to properly set up and paint miniatures so they'll make good gaming tools. Another article that is well enough explained to be useful to a complete beginner. Is this the start of a new degree of accessabilty in the magazine?

Half ogres as an official D&D race, by Gary himself. They have very restricted options, being pretty much forced into THOG SMASH! by their ability range. He also talks about the idea of allowing other various halfbreeds, and the problems that this would cause to game balance. Another bit of evidence why 3rd edition was not to his taste, the proliferation of racial templates is precisely the opposite of what he espouses here. You know, if you bow to pressure and allow this, then people are going to just keep on pushing. You've got to be firmer with all those twinks and monsterphiles. Human supremacy 4eva!

Curses: An article on the proper use of these lovely little implements of magical vengance, as well as their removal. Be ironic, tailor them to the curser and the crime, and let people pervert the letter of them to get around them or profit from them. Yeah, I like this kind of thinking. It brings an element of mythology into the game that may require some thought to handle, but makes the game deeper than just another hack and slash dungeon.

Out on a limb: Lots of varied commentary on the last few issues. Quite a bit of it concerns Gary's recent controversial statements. The column is finally picking up, thanks to the increased readership and threats of being shut down. Pretty soon they'll be able to pick and choose which letters to include and which to ignore.

Giants in the earth: This month the characters given disgustingly twinked stats are Roger Zelazny's Shadowjack, and Jack Vance's Iucounu. You know my opinion of this by now, so I shall refrain from further grumbling on this topic unless things change in some way.

Rewarding heroism in D&D: Our first attempt at proper narrative reinforcement, a set of optional rules giving the characters benefits for behaving in a properly heroic manner. Which is nice, and another article that is historically significant for introducing that kind of thinking to the game. Shame it would take so long to become common though.

Inns and Taverns: A little article on the setup of historical inns and taverns. Neither brilliant or particularly bad, this is just one of those articles that helps fill space in an expanding magazine like this.

Air war - North vietnam: A load of new scenarios for the game based upon that common thread. A short but sweet article that looks like it does what it says on the tin.

Smaller than man sized weapons: Another little article that does what it says it does. The setup they use here is somewhat more complex than the 3rd ed version, with individual alterations for every weapon for two different smaller sizes. Oh, for standardisation.

The sleep war: An SCA actual play, this shows that politics there can be easily as ludicrous as in real life. Much fun in cold and muddy fields was had.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 29: September 1979

part 2/2

Origins of the Norse pantheon: Not quite what the label indicates. There is much talk on Berserking, and a little on the origins and geographic ranges of the original Aesir and Vanir religions. One of those articles that feels woefully short for the depth of its topic.

The mythos of Oceania: Yet more G,DG&H stats. We get the usual mix of concept embodiers, wierd critters, great heroes and their relations. Are there any more pantheons I've forgotten about, because damned if I can think of any they haven't covered yet.

Strain and spellcasting: A spell point system that substantially depowers magic-users. Well, plenty of people were sending them in, so I suppose they had to publish one. So by choosing one that weakens them, the people at TSR make it unlikely anyone will actually use it. Thus keeping vancian magic supreme. How clever of them.

Trained animals: What, they didn't include rules for something as important as this in the DMG anyway? Shocking. So much for it being complete.

Aging in D&D: Take my previous statement and make it double. Oh yeah, they did, just simpler ones. This version uses a random roll per 2 years to determine if you lose points in your physical stats. Which of course is dreadfully unpredictable. Which is probably more realistic, but less fair and fun for the game than the 3rd ed way of doing things.

Nonplayer characters have feelings too: Need random personality traits for your NPC's and hirelings. Roll here. I ought to make an index of all these random tables, so people can use them more efficiently later.

Bazaar of the Bizarre: Two classic items this time. The ring of the necromancer (using the term in the proper sense, rather than just as the title for an 8th level magic user.) And the binary stop design for determining the results of Hewards mystical organ. Very pleasing indeed. Can I have some more please sir.

Jim Ward reports on Origins 1979. Despite some organisational hassles, and a lack of air conditioning, it was in general a success. So they'll be going again next year then.

The reviews section gets a proper title this issue, The Dragons Augury. Wonder how long that'll stick? Anyway, this issue they review Reich, a wargame. Raiders and traders, another war/strategy game Panzer colors II, a book. I, Kubelwagon, a book. Desert tracks, a book. The tolkien quiz book, pretty self explanatory, plus a whole host of mini-reviews I can't be bothered to list individually. The profesionality has definitely taken a step up here. Which is nice.

Fineous fingers goes on vacation again. But wormy is Baaack, if only with a recap of the story so far.

Dragons Bestiary: the whiz-bang beetle. An amusing little low level monster that takes the prospensity of real insects to fly into flames and glass, and extrapolates it to a creature that has the power to punch through walls by flying into them repeatedly. Which should be fun for adventurers to face. Shame this one never made it into common use.

Another sign of their increasing professionalism, Dragon finally gets a proper classified ads section. Another thing that I wonder whether it will take off or not, given the trouble they had with the letters page.

Another significant issue with several innovations that would make it into future products (but plenty more that wouldn't) this marks the start of another leap in professionalism. Looks like 1979 was a real turning point in D&D's fortunes in many ways. And we've still got 3 months to go. What further surprises could they spring on us before the year is out? Lets keep going and see.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 30: October 1979

Part 1/2

48 pages. Geeks, cults, and disappearances, oh my! So this is when the first D&D player takes things too far headline hit the news, and the tabloids start printing ridiculous misconceptions about the nature of the game. Well, its another thing I was curious about. Remember everyone, It's your job to present yourself to the world as well adjusted people, so these unfortunates do not tarnish the name of the hobby as a whole. Of course, any publicity is good publicity in a way, and we know that sales would still increase considerably after this point, so this is not the BADDness you're looking for.

In this issue:

Kim Mohan gives us his first article, which is also a report of the first ever convention he attended. Talk about jumping in at the deep end. He gets star struck meeting the other D&D writers, worn out dealing with the endless public demand, amazed how nice virtually everyone is, and takes lots of photos. His huge amount of enthusiasm for his new job shows through, and is pretty infectious. This is why you need new people every so often. All the skill in the world means nothing without the energy to back it up.

Where the Orcs are: An epic miniatures castle and its inhabitants gets a several page, full color spread of photos showing it off. Truly, an awe inspiring example of the ridiculous lengths people are willing to go for their hobbies. Mind you, given the amount of time and effort I'm putting into this thread, maybe its not such an unachievable standard after all.

Leromunds tiny hut: Another new regular column starts. This particular one goes into extensive detail on the powers and limitations of vampires, extrapolating on their MM entry, and delivering rules expansions and errata. There is a certain amount of nerfing going on here, as Len tends to rule in a conservative way, but even so, vampires are still disgustingly powerfull and able to screw your characters for ages with a single hit. And if they were played intelligently, they would be able to take over the world with worrying ease. Ahh, spawning monsters. How you mess with the idea of a workable ecology.

Another persons perspective on this years Origins. Lots of cool specifics and a well written article.

White plume mountain! Another classic module out now. Isn't this the one with the crashed spacecraft? Or was that expedition to the barrier peaks? Ahh, silly crossovers. You don't get anything like that in modern adventures.

New settings for the adventure. Gary talks on stuff in general. First, he talks about the difference between a publisher and an editor, and how much input he has on the contents of the magazine. Notable here is that he says he is trying to keep the amount of articles he submits each month to a reasonable amount, so as not to overdominate the magazine. When I consider how slow his C&C output was in the last few years of his life, this just makes me sad. When you consider the risks and costs in transhumanism, and then compare them to what age does to people, frankly I think I'm willing to face those drawbacks. But anyway. He also criticises the Giants in the earth column for overpowering the characters, and talks about the new modules out soon. All in all, a very informative column this issue.

The new improved Ninja!: As if they weren't twinked enough, this article gives ninjas a whole slew of new weapons and powers. Not very well integrated with the D&D ruleset, nor particularly imaginative, this is just not very good in general. This is why we needed feats. It stopped characters from being able to pick up every special power given to their class in various supplements.

The formative years of Fafhrd and the Mouser: The guy who introduced Harry and Fritz to one-another, and is thus indirectly responsible for lankhmar, talks about their high school and university years, how they influenced one-another, and their collective creation. Another extremely informative article about the roots of the hobby.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

The crashed spaceship was, indeed, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 30: October 1979

Part 2/2

Boot hill, What scale?: Ahh, miniatures, and the hassle of using them when there isn't a standardised ratio. Lots of talk on the various companies producing miniatures at the time, and their respective merits. One of those articles I can't really form an opinion on.

Designers notes for Flattop: Another case of the compromises that have to be made in game design, and the neccesity for playtesting. Which is what every good designer should go through. Hopefully it produced a good game, but I can't tell just from this article.

Standardisation vs playability: Thoughts on variation in populations of various creatures, creating a realistic world that has powerful monsters, yet humans are still supreme as a race, language barriers, the amount of the world you actually flesh out and allow the PC's to explore. Lots of tricky thoughts for the GM to chew over, and even if the answers aren't brilliant, at least it gets you working on the right questions.

Armies of the rennaisance part 5 - Eastern europe: Nick Nascati continues his whizz speed synopses of battle strategies. Cossacks, ponies, muskets, treachery and a good bibliography at the end, oh my.

Tournament success in six steps: You wanna kick ass at conventions? Lots of good advice here. A short sweet article.

Out on a limb: This month, we get a letter asking the people at TSR to co-ordinate all the people playing high level druids, so they can be challenged, and there only be the right number in the campaign and real world Someone attacking Gygax's statement that he intends to focus on AD&D, taking that as an insult to D&D and everyone who still plays it. Another attack on bakshi's LotR. A basic question on the function of a magical item. Ohh, oh, this one's important! A suggestion that to reduce things getting lost, D&D create loose leaf supplements that can then be rearranged and put into a ring binder. Which of course they would take up in the moldvay basic set and lots of the monstrous compendia. Stuart Malone, nice idea, but not functional in practice. A straightforward letter praising them, and asking for more fiction. A letter attacking jim ward for inconsistency in his descriptions of a gamma world group, which he defends by saying not all members of a group are identical, which makes sense. A correction of a review. Another load of general questions. And someone asking why they changed the logo on the front cover. (the answer is to make it more legible at a distance.) Definitely the busiest issue yet on this front.

Giants in the earth: This issue, we have Piers Anthony's Sol of all weapons, Tanith Lee's Zorayas and Clark Ashton Smith's Maal Dweb. The twinkedness continues, despite the complaints.

Reviews: Spellmaker, A boardgame. Black hole, another boardgame. Down styphon, a wargame. The quality of reviews from last issue is maintained.

Bazaar of the Bizarre: The extraneous inventions of Orlow the indolent. I remember the stuff in here from the old 4 volume magic item compendium they released near the end of 2nd ed. Lots of highly amusing stuff in here. I wonder if we'll see Orlow again? I don't remember any of his spells making it into the main books, which is a shame.

Wormy returns in a rather tangental fashion, introducing an entirely new set of characters. What's all that about then? Fineous fingers also returns.

Dragons bestiary: Curst. Say hello to the very first contribution by Ed Greenwood. You'll have to get used to him, because he ain't going away any time soon. These are the ultimate angstbunnies, humans cursed so they can never die, and spend eternity in a halflife state, becoming more and more insane. Seems cliche now, but compared to the way they've been handling vampires, these guys are full of personality. I remember them from my forgotten realms boxed set, so obviously he gets a good response to them and keeps them.

Once again, this issue sets a new high watermark in terms of overall quality of production. With an above average number of good articles as well, and the comics back in full flow, this is definitely a classic issue. The may be hitting the fan in the media at the moment, but the internal situation in the company has never looked better. How long before that runs into trouble and we see the conflicts between Gygax and Arneson that resulted in AD&D and BD&D being branded as completely different games? As ever, on with the adventure. It's all uphill from here.

 

[(un)reason]

The Dragon Issue 31: November 1979

part 1/2

56 pages. Yet more format changes show up this issue. The style of credits becomes the layout that would be familiar to all of you who read it during the 80's and early 90's, positioned on the far right column of the contents spread, along with cover to cover. Which definitely draws more attention to the people responsible. Ahh, cult of personality. How easy it is to be drawn into you. Meanwhile the controversy of last month has already died down, with the guy who was missing found, and it turning out D&D had nothing to do with it. Still, the tabloid sharks have the scent of your blood now. They'll be back.

In this issue:

Trollshead: An excerpt from the second D&D novel, by John Holmes the Basic set designer. A lot less meta than quag keep was, and less funny as well, (aside from having a protagonist named Boinger, which doesn't quite work for me) I suppose that's what you get when the writer isn't a proper author. Still, D&D will inspire far worse later on in its history.

Jungle Fever: 2 articles on adventuring in tropical regions. The first covers the natives, and their societies, while the second covers the flora and fauna. As these are the main topic of the issue, both articles are pretty good,and should help you spice up your adventures. By now you should be getting tired of dungeons and ready to see the world beyond as well.

Pics of the gencon winners for various best games and miniatures categories.

D&D is alive and well in houston: A review of NANCON, and the D&D tournament therein. Another fairly functional article, albeit one that devotes quite a bit of time towards praising the sponsors of the con. Still, these things cost money, so I suppose someone has to help with it. Not that we have to like the capitalist setup.

T1, the village of hommlet out now. Another classic module series starts here.

Will jason destroy the flagship?: A set of variant rules for Alpha Omega, based upon the recent TV mini-series. Major spoilers contained herein Seems a little too reliant on each scenario ending the right way, so you progress onto the next one. Such is the danger of trying to represent a linear narrative on a game which can go lots of ways.

Spicing up stellar conquest: Generating alien life for the planets you visit in the game. One of those random table based ones that so speed things up by cutting down your choices drastically. If you've read traveller, this stuff should be pretty familiar to you.

How tall is a giant: Converting various creatures to the correct size and scale of miniature and movement rate, using 25mm scale as the human standard. A fairly math heavy article that nonetheless clarifies quite a bit on D&D's implied setting. Good to see someone bringing a bit of science to selecting our miniatures purchases.

Armor of the far east: Another historical article covering a wide range of time and geography. A good reminder that there is more than one path to building a good suit of protective materials, and it's not just a matter of armor class bonuses vs encumbrance decisions. Shame most of use are forced into the leather/chain/plate paradigm by designer familiarity and habit, even when it's not always culturaly appropriate.

Sage advice! Last seen over 3 years ago in the strategic review 6, this finally becomes a regular column in the format most of us remember, with readers questions answered by a designer.This first column is headed by Jean Wells. In this we have errata on monks fighting prowess. talk of longbows clearance, and using them as melee weapons, a reminder that torturing things is not allowed for paladins, no matter what weasel excuses the player tries to give. Someone boasting about their thousand+ level characters, which isn't really a question. A ruling that Orcs are mammals, and hence do not spawn. Stuff about spells known by magic users and rangers. A question as to how long before Q1 is released. A reminder that you can't program magic mouths to cast spells. And a reminder that the GM is the boss. A pretty solid start, even if a few of the questions don't really fit the format properly.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Sage advice! Last seen over 3 years ago in the strategic review 6, this finally becomes a regular column in the format most of us remember, with readers questions answered by a designer.This first column is headed by Jean Wells. In this we have errata on monks fighting prowess. talk of longbows clearance, and using them as melee weapons, a reminder that torturing things is not allowed for paladins, no matter what weasel excuses the player tries to give. Someone boasting about their thousand+ level characters, which isn't really a question. A ruling that Orcs are mammals, and hence do not spawn. Stuff about spells known by magic users and rangers. A question as to how long before Q1 is released. A reminder that you can't program magic mouths to cast spells. And a reminder that the GM is the boss. A pretty solid start, even if a few of the questions don't really fit the format properly.

I feel compelled to do this:

1) Orcs are mammals
2) Orcs fight all the time
3) The purpose of Orcs is to go "Waaaaaagh!" and kill people.