(un)reason
Legend
I did notice that, but decided it would be too cheap a shot, even for me. Thankfully, I didn't have too. 
Let's read the entire run
- Thread starter (un)reason
- Start date
I did notice that, but decided it would be too cheap a shot, even for me. Thankfully, I didn't have too. 
amysrevenge
First Post
I'm still enjoying these (and the readable pace at which they are being done).
Keep up the good work (and the pace)!
Keep up the good work (and the pace)!
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
I guess it depends on whether you pronounce it with two syllables or three. Three is passable I suppose, but two is silly (but works within the context of the D&D of the period!).
Mathew_Freeman
Adventurer
Well, I live to serve.
This is a great thread, by the way. My older brother had copies of White Dwarf going back to the early 40's, I think, so it's great to get an idea of some of these articles and thoughts from TSR's magazine.
(un)reason
Legend
The Dragon Issue 31: November 1979
part 2/2
The Adventurer, A new profession for tekumel: Essentially introducing jacks of all trades, for those of you who don't want to be bound strictly to the primary archetypes. Can't be sure of the balance compared to the other classes, but I suspect it may be slightly overpowered, particularly if you use the other alternate rules in this article.
From the sorcerers scroll: Gary reminds us that the requirements of what makes a good game, and what makes a good novel, are very different, and you shouldn't try and make your games emulate novels, as you'll be disappointed. Well you certainly will if you try and use D&D rules, and indie games where the rules are specifically designed to encourage play that resembles a genre are still a long way off. So much for lets pretend and tell a story like the books you read, it's troupe play or embarrassing death before you get to do anything really heroic. Which shows his calcification somewhat. You've got to change to suit the game, because I don't want you changing the game to suit yourself. AD&D should be played the way it was designed, and not be changed and added too willy-nilly. Together we sigh.
Leomunds tiny hut: Some official house rules on hit points, permanent injury and death by Len Lakofka. Includes one that would later become canon in 3rd ed, that of allowing characters to automatically have maximum hit points at 1st level, so as to be less likely to die from a single hit. Which is one way of handling it. The mutilation rules definitely fall into the category of lots of work for negative reward, and so are far less likely to be adopted. Demand from a few strident letter senders is not the same thing as genuine public demand.
Frederick Macknight continues his story on the formative years of Harry Fischer and Fritz Lieber. This time, he focusses mostly on the differences in setting and rules between the first two boardgames set in lankhmar. Which still reveals some cool things about the setting. Not quite as interesting as the last installment though.
The nazis get even nazier: Tactical thoughts for 3rd Reich. The second world war could have taken some very different directions. Here are some of them. Be afraid.
Out on a limb: A much smaller column this issue. We get a second case of a person trying to weasel around the paladins code and getting slapped down for it. When will these people learn? You don't tug on supermans cape, and you can't rules-lawyer your way around the paladins code. Plus a load of revisions for WRG, which the staff recieve pretty well. Are they going to have to beg for more letters again soon?
A request for women players to send in their stories for use in a future article. Well, it's been more than 3 years since the last one, and that was incredibly bad, so I suppose it makes sense to do this now.
Reviews: The creature that ate sheboygan, Indian ocean adventure, 4th dimension, Battle of Maiwand, plus lots of mini reviews derived from short impressions at gen con. All are pretty good. They seem to be maintaining their standards in this area as well.
Dragons bestiary; The Ukuyatangi. A giant hydra in the real world sense, this is a slightly meh monster who's ecological position would be taken up by the roper. Grapple with tentacles, pick up, swallow, repeat. You know the score.
Wormy continues. Fineous fingers is absent, because it's creator is busy with his day job in the air force.
The overall quality of production values continues its rapid rise at this point. However, I am less than enthralled with the majority of individual articles this issue. Hopefully this is just a minor blip, and they'll have better ones next time. And maybe you found them more entertaining than I did. So much of these things are subjective, after all. See you next installment.
part 2/2
The Adventurer, A new profession for tekumel: Essentially introducing jacks of all trades, for those of you who don't want to be bound strictly to the primary archetypes. Can't be sure of the balance compared to the other classes, but I suspect it may be slightly overpowered, particularly if you use the other alternate rules in this article.
From the sorcerers scroll: Gary reminds us that the requirements of what makes a good game, and what makes a good novel, are very different, and you shouldn't try and make your games emulate novels, as you'll be disappointed. Well you certainly will if you try and use D&D rules, and indie games where the rules are specifically designed to encourage play that resembles a genre are still a long way off. So much for lets pretend and tell a story like the books you read, it's troupe play or embarrassing death before you get to do anything really heroic. Which shows his calcification somewhat. You've got to change to suit the game, because I don't want you changing the game to suit yourself. AD&D should be played the way it was designed, and not be changed and added too willy-nilly. Together we sigh.
Leomunds tiny hut: Some official house rules on hit points, permanent injury and death by Len Lakofka. Includes one that would later become canon in 3rd ed, that of allowing characters to automatically have maximum hit points at 1st level, so as to be less likely to die from a single hit. Which is one way of handling it. The mutilation rules definitely fall into the category of lots of work for negative reward, and so are far less likely to be adopted. Demand from a few strident letter senders is not the same thing as genuine public demand.
Frederick Macknight continues his story on the formative years of Harry Fischer and Fritz Lieber. This time, he focusses mostly on the differences in setting and rules between the first two boardgames set in lankhmar. Which still reveals some cool things about the setting. Not quite as interesting as the last installment though.
The nazis get even nazier: Tactical thoughts for 3rd Reich. The second world war could have taken some very different directions. Here are some of them. Be afraid.
Out on a limb: A much smaller column this issue. We get a second case of a person trying to weasel around the paladins code and getting slapped down for it. When will these people learn? You don't tug on supermans cape, and you can't rules-lawyer your way around the paladins code. Plus a load of revisions for WRG, which the staff recieve pretty well. Are they going to have to beg for more letters again soon?
A request for women players to send in their stories for use in a future article. Well, it's been more than 3 years since the last one, and that was incredibly bad, so I suppose it makes sense to do this now.
Reviews: The creature that ate sheboygan, Indian ocean adventure, 4th dimension, Battle of Maiwand, plus lots of mini reviews derived from short impressions at gen con. All are pretty good. They seem to be maintaining their standards in this area as well.
Dragons bestiary; The Ukuyatangi. A giant hydra in the real world sense, this is a slightly meh monster who's ecological position would be taken up by the roper. Grapple with tentacles, pick up, swallow, repeat. You know the score.
Wormy continues. Fineous fingers is absent, because it's creator is busy with his day job in the air force.
The overall quality of production values continues its rapid rise at this point. However, I am less than enthralled with the majority of individual articles this issue. Hopefully this is just a minor blip, and they'll have better ones next time. And maybe you found them more entertaining than I did. So much of these things are subjective, after all. See you next installment.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Funny, I still agree. . . I think that when D&D tries to emulate novels or movies it fails to do, either because of the unsatisfying conceits required to make it actually do that, or because the randomness of die rolls allows for some spectacular failures that are not likely to be found in the ostensible source material.
Novels entertain me one way (or multiple ways actually, but still in ways that only novels can), and movies another (again same disclaimer), but D&D entertains me it own (set of) way(s) - that has little to do with either of the others.
(un)reason
Legend
The Dragon Issue 32: December 1979
Part 1/2
64 pages. As it's christmas, they've got a special present for us. However, the price goes up to $2.50, to pay for the extra size this time round. They say If they shrink again they intend to reduce the price again. What an incentive for them to keep their page count up. Will they let it drop again? (Not a hope, from this point on, every single issue is 64 pages or longer. More work for me.) But anyway, let's unwrap our presents, see what we have.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: This moves to the front of the magazine, just after the main contents and editorials. We get one letter dispairing of the overpowered twinks who play characters that they couldn't possibly have acquired legally and played up from 1st level. Two about peoples struggles to find a good gaming group, and problems with age gaps, Three snarking back at Marc Jacob's letter in TD28. And some more general comments and requests, including one for a collection of covers. We're finally starting to see the letters page used as a forum, with people replying to one-another through it. Which is most bodacious, and another step towards the Dragon I was familiar with.
Poisons from AA to XX: Ahh, the weirdness of D&D's implied setting, where characters are heavily restricted on what they can make, buy and use by class restrictions, and there are powerful trade monopolies of level 20+ Alchemists and Assassins ready to stamp on any PC who tries to break them. Yeah, this is one of those articles entirely devoted to nerfing and adding additional risks to an otherwise too powerful option, that any rational PC who isn't concerned with paltry matters like honour would use the hell out of, given it's effectiveness under the current rules.
Weapons of the far east: Ahh, orientophillia, one of the things that's changed very little over the years in adventuring circles. A system free article that doesn't really tell me anything new. I must say meh.
Sinister seaweed: Adventures in the air filled cavities of giant underwater plants. A truly inventive idea, with tons of different adventure seeds within. This puts a whole new slant on the dungeon concept that looks like great fun to play through. I like this article very much, and hope to use it at some point.
Playing on other planes of existence: Unfortunately, we don't get any concrete information yet, but Gary assures us that he is working hard to flesh out this important part of the D&D metasetting, and he hopes to provide modules set in other planes soon, so you can get info on them. Hopefully we'll be seeing more articles on this in the near future, since it's still a good half a decade before the full-on Manual of the Planes gets released, and I'm sure lots of people don't want to wait that long. He also talks a little about putting alternate dimension crosssovers with other games, but decides to hold back from putting official links in supplements, as it would be bad for the tone of the game if characters regularly went to gamma world or modern day earth. As ever, developments on this thread of history will be reported with great enthusiasm.
Sage advice: Jean Wells' lone voice campaigning for the depilliation of dwarven women has not gone unnoticed by the general public. And as is often the case, it's the little things that spark fiercest debate, with plenty of people on both sides of the fence. (for the record, I'm in the let them grow beards camp, as it makes good dramatic symmetry with elven men not being able to grow facial hair, as well as making them seem more like a different race, not just short long-lived humans. Plus if you don't want your female dwarf to have a beard, all they need to do is shave.) Anyway, this issue, the questions settled are: What the monster on the cover of the DMG is (an efreeti) If paladins can catch lycanthropy (they can) If a ring of telekinesis can make an object spin at the speed of light (It can't) What happened to Asmodeus after I beat him (It's up to the DM, but watch out, because it might be a trick, and the rest of hell will be after you.) How do I stop the fighters from hiding behind me and my magical shielding (stand up for yourself man!) Will a wand of fireballs release all its charges at once if you break it (no) Can a god allow an elf to become a druid (only by turning them into another race which can be one) How do I handle pregnancy in the game (dear god, this is too complicated a topic for this article, and I'm going to address that properly in a later issue) How do I divorce my husband so I can have a romance with a god. (Headesk headesk headesk, any GM that allows a character to get into a scenario like this ought to remove the character from play, as having the personal favour of a god is totally unbalancing to the game and unfair to the other players) Yeah, there were quite a few ridiculous twinks around back then that needed keeping in check. This is the good part of the character optimisation boards. They channel that urge to legitimate ends.
Part 1/2
64 pages. As it's christmas, they've got a special present for us. However, the price goes up to $2.50, to pay for the extra size this time round. They say If they shrink again they intend to reduce the price again. What an incentive for them to keep their page count up. Will they let it drop again? (Not a hope, from this point on, every single issue is 64 pages or longer. More work for me.) But anyway, let's unwrap our presents, see what we have.
In this issue:
Out on a limb: This moves to the front of the magazine, just after the main contents and editorials. We get one letter dispairing of the overpowered twinks who play characters that they couldn't possibly have acquired legally and played up from 1st level. Two about peoples struggles to find a good gaming group, and problems with age gaps, Three snarking back at Marc Jacob's letter in TD28. And some more general comments and requests, including one for a collection of covers. We're finally starting to see the letters page used as a forum, with people replying to one-another through it. Which is most bodacious, and another step towards the Dragon I was familiar with.
Poisons from AA to XX: Ahh, the weirdness of D&D's implied setting, where characters are heavily restricted on what they can make, buy and use by class restrictions, and there are powerful trade monopolies of level 20+ Alchemists and Assassins ready to stamp on any PC who tries to break them. Yeah, this is one of those articles entirely devoted to nerfing and adding additional risks to an otherwise too powerful option, that any rational PC who isn't concerned with paltry matters like honour would use the hell out of, given it's effectiveness under the current rules.
Weapons of the far east: Ahh, orientophillia, one of the things that's changed very little over the years in adventuring circles. A system free article that doesn't really tell me anything new. I must say meh.
Sinister seaweed: Adventures in the air filled cavities of giant underwater plants. A truly inventive idea, with tons of different adventure seeds within. This puts a whole new slant on the dungeon concept that looks like great fun to play through. I like this article very much, and hope to use it at some point.
Playing on other planes of existence: Unfortunately, we don't get any concrete information yet, but Gary assures us that he is working hard to flesh out this important part of the D&D metasetting, and he hopes to provide modules set in other planes soon, so you can get info on them. Hopefully we'll be seeing more articles on this in the near future, since it's still a good half a decade before the full-on Manual of the Planes gets released, and I'm sure lots of people don't want to wait that long. He also talks a little about putting alternate dimension crosssovers with other games, but decides to hold back from putting official links in supplements, as it would be bad for the tone of the game if characters regularly went to gamma world or modern day earth. As ever, developments on this thread of history will be reported with great enthusiasm.
Sage advice: Jean Wells' lone voice campaigning for the depilliation of dwarven women has not gone unnoticed by the general public. And as is often the case, it's the little things that spark fiercest debate, with plenty of people on both sides of the fence. (for the record, I'm in the let them grow beards camp, as it makes good dramatic symmetry with elven men not being able to grow facial hair, as well as making them seem more like a different race, not just short long-lived humans. Plus if you don't want your female dwarf to have a beard, all they need to do is shave.) Anyway, this issue, the questions settled are: What the monster on the cover of the DMG is (an efreeti) If paladins can catch lycanthropy (they can) If a ring of telekinesis can make an object spin at the speed of light (It can't) What happened to Asmodeus after I beat him (It's up to the DM, but watch out, because it might be a trick, and the rest of hell will be after you.) How do I stop the fighters from hiding behind me and my magical shielding (stand up for yourself man!) Will a wand of fireballs release all its charges at once if you break it (no) Can a god allow an elf to become a druid (only by turning them into another race which can be one) How do I handle pregnancy in the game (dear god, this is too complicated a topic for this article, and I'm going to address that properly in a later issue) How do I divorce my husband so I can have a romance with a god. (Headesk headesk headesk, any GM that allows a character to get into a scenario like this ought to remove the character from play, as having the personal favour of a god is totally unbalancing to the game and unfair to the other players) Yeah, there were quite a few ridiculous twinks around back then that needed keeping in check. This is the good part of the character optimisation boards. They channel that urge to legitimate ends.
(un)reason
Legend
The Dragon Issue 32: December 1979
Part 2/2
Leomunds tiny hut: A selection of crossbreeds between goblinoids and insects, for those of you who tire of the same old mooks. Not updated, but given the template system of 3rd ed, it would be simplicity itself to do so. Ahh, mad wizards. Is there anything you won't make?
Some Spells for the very Smart Sorcerer: A load of extra spells for the game WIZARD. All are directly nicked from D&D, which is a bit cheeky really. Where is your imagination?
The druid in fact and fantasy: This again? Still, this time there's lots of interesting D&D specific material, so it's better than last time. But is it really worth eating Satans Feces to protect yourself from devils? Man, what a decision.
The traveller politician: An additional set of career paths for those of you who don't want to join the military. Obviously, you'll get rather more opportunities to hone your social skills, and less combat ability, so it's not a good option for purely hack and slash games. Still, I hope we're far enough into roleplaying teritory that there are people who want to try a less combat focussed game once in a while. And it's certainly no Ninja in terms of brokenness. So I give this article my approval.
The fantasysmiths notebook: The writer attempts to persuade those of us who play without miniatures of the advantages of doing so, plus a bit of info on how to get started for the complete amateur. Buy more stuff. Come on, you know you want too. As someone who has played games both with and without miniatures, I simply say meh. I have other things to spend my money on.
WRG rules modifications for modern combat: A pretty substantial rewrite of the game. Rather dry and dense stuff, and since I don't know the game, I can't comment on how broken it is. Such a pain in the derrierre.
Reviews: Samurai, a wargame. Middle sea, A boardgame, plus mini reviews of Ironclad and Sandalot Football. Rather a short section this month. I guess people are holding off on new stuff until christmas day or something. Still better to only have a few and maintain quality control than let any old drek be printed.
Dragons bestiary: Another familiar Ed Greenwood offering this month, the Crawling Claw. AKA thing from the Addams family with the serial numbers filed off.
Also features the first mention of Nulathoes Ninemen (really, what was all that about? What's his problem with the self explanatory spell names everyone else uses. ) which would also be instrumental in the creation of Bone Bats. So he's snuck quite a bit of implied setting into this monster description. What are we to do with this upstart freelancer?
A typical night in the life of nine ordinary people: A little piece of fiction on the strangeness of gamers to the uninitiated, with a distinct horror slant. Reminds me of something else I've read, but can't place at the moment. Pretty cool, anyway.
Wormy continues, and we get the start of another persistent piece of formatting, that of the dragonmirth section. Beware the carnivorous commode.
And your big christmas present, a complete 16 page module, The Fell Pass by Karl Merris. Well, it is still nearly 7 years until Dungeon starts up. I suspect we'll be seeing a few more adventures in here before then. This is a pretty old school plotless location based module with several horribly unfair death traps and challenges way above the average level of the encounters. Still, at least they're inventively evil death traps, so your players won't be bored as they die.
Once again they've continued to put out a quality product, and made noticeable steps towards becoming the magazine I remember. I guess the second half of 79 is where things really become a professional operation. Which puts them in a good position to expand further and capitalise on this. So lets step from the 70's, leave behind disco, punk, economic troubles and stupid hair for synths, shoulderpads, excess and er, more stupid hair. Lets hope you enjoy my trek through the next decade even more than you enjoyed this one.
Part 2/2
Leomunds tiny hut: A selection of crossbreeds between goblinoids and insects, for those of you who tire of the same old mooks. Not updated, but given the template system of 3rd ed, it would be simplicity itself to do so. Ahh, mad wizards. Is there anything you won't make?
Some Spells for the very Smart Sorcerer: A load of extra spells for the game WIZARD. All are directly nicked from D&D, which is a bit cheeky really. Where is your imagination?
The druid in fact and fantasy: This again? Still, this time there's lots of interesting D&D specific material, so it's better than last time. But is it really worth eating Satans Feces to protect yourself from devils? Man, what a decision.
The traveller politician: An additional set of career paths for those of you who don't want to join the military. Obviously, you'll get rather more opportunities to hone your social skills, and less combat ability, so it's not a good option for purely hack and slash games. Still, I hope we're far enough into roleplaying teritory that there are people who want to try a less combat focussed game once in a while. And it's certainly no Ninja in terms of brokenness. So I give this article my approval.
The fantasysmiths notebook: The writer attempts to persuade those of us who play without miniatures of the advantages of doing so, plus a bit of info on how to get started for the complete amateur. Buy more stuff. Come on, you know you want too. As someone who has played games both with and without miniatures, I simply say meh. I have other things to spend my money on.
WRG rules modifications for modern combat: A pretty substantial rewrite of the game. Rather dry and dense stuff, and since I don't know the game, I can't comment on how broken it is. Such a pain in the derrierre.
Reviews: Samurai, a wargame. Middle sea, A boardgame, plus mini reviews of Ironclad and Sandalot Football. Rather a short section this month. I guess people are holding off on new stuff until christmas day or something. Still better to only have a few and maintain quality control than let any old drek be printed.
Dragons bestiary: Another familiar Ed Greenwood offering this month, the Crawling Claw. AKA thing from the Addams family with the serial numbers filed off.
Also features the first mention of Nulathoes Ninemen (really, what was all that about? What's his problem with the self explanatory spell names everyone else uses. ) which would also be instrumental in the creation of Bone Bats. So he's snuck quite a bit of implied setting into this monster description. What are we to do with this upstart freelancer? A typical night in the life of nine ordinary people: A little piece of fiction on the strangeness of gamers to the uninitiated, with a distinct horror slant. Reminds me of something else I've read, but can't place at the moment. Pretty cool, anyway.
Wormy continues, and we get the start of another persistent piece of formatting, that of the dragonmirth section. Beware the carnivorous commode.
And your big christmas present, a complete 16 page module, The Fell Pass by Karl Merris. Well, it is still nearly 7 years until Dungeon starts up. I suspect we'll be seeing a few more adventures in here before then. This is a pretty old school plotless location based module with several horribly unfair death traps and challenges way above the average level of the encounters. Still, at least they're inventively evil death traps, so your players won't be bored as they die.
Once again they've continued to put out a quality product, and made noticeable steps towards becoming the magazine I remember. I guess the second half of 79 is where things really become a professional operation. Which puts them in a good position to expand further and capitalise on this. So lets step from the 70's, leave behind disco, punk, economic troubles and stupid hair for synths, shoulderpads, excess and er, more stupid hair. Lets hope you enjoy my trek through the next decade even more than you enjoyed this one.
(un)reason
Legend
The Dragon Issue 33: January 1980
part 1/2
64 pages. Hello again everybody. Welcome to the 80's, where everything is bigger and better. The glory days of D&D.The only decade in which dragon was published continously, with no interruptions. The smallest issue in this decade is equal to the largest issue of the last decade. More color, more developments, more writers, more setting stuff, more roleplaying, more changes. In other words, it's going to take a lot longer to get through this decade than it did the 70's. And the 90's may take longer still, as despite a few interruptions, the average page counts were considerably higher, so there was probably more actual material released then. But lets not get too far ahead of myself. Gotta keep my eye on the part of the race I'm running at the moment, or I'll stumble and fall.
In this issue:
Dragon Rumbles: Tim takes the time to acknowledge the things all the new staff have done for the running of the magazine. Particular Kudos is given to Jake, who has pretty much taken over as editor, and they intend to formally alter peoples job titles accordingly soon. They also let us know that they intend the size and price increases to be permanent, as it is more economical for them to run things this way. How long will it be before the next price increase? We shall see.
Out on a limb: A letter from the submitter of an article, complaining that the editing job that they did on it made it not entirely sensical. A letter from Ed Greenwood complaining about spelling errors, and also asking about white dwarf and lifelong subscriptions. And a request for a picture of gary, which they provide, but in rather cryptic fashion, with heavy shadowing. All rather interesting stuff that reveals more to me about their current modus operandi. Also on this page is their 2nd class mailing thingy, with the circulation numbers for last year, but unfortunately the scanning resolution makes that illegible. Anyone able to fill in the numbers for us?
Paradise for painterly people: Talk on how to paint large numbers of miniatures in a short amount of time, while retaining decent quality, instead of the painstaking methods employed by most people. Which is Veeery iiiiinteresting. There's usually a quicker and easier way of doing things, if you're willing to swallow your pride, and its nice to see trade secrets revealed.
Fiction: The eyes of Mavis Deval, by Gardner Fox. The fifth Niall story. Niall smartens up a little, but not enough to escape being dragged into the plot against his better judgement. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and him to get bitten for being a demon's pawn, but it has yet to happen. Still, who can say what the future holds. (well anyone, if it's also the past, but I don't want to spoil myself)
A cau for NPC's: Adding an additional stat, caution, to your NPC's to determine how likely they are to act impulsively. Also notable for including a libido table, for quick determination of your success in seduction. Yeah, this article is pretty funny, but perhaps not something you want to incorporate into a serious game.
From the sorcerers scroll: Gary talks about the development of the D&D magic system, and its further refinement in AD&D, and the sources he drew from in creating it. This includes much talk on the separation of components, and the logistical tricks that spells missing one or more allow. Still a far cry from the days of regular metamagic though.
The third installment of Frederick MacKnights tales of the creation of Lankhmar. This time, it's mostly full of conversion notes between the editions of the boardgame, which is a bit dull really.
Leomunds tiny hut: Len gives his house rules and clarifications on lots of D&D spells. Most of them are common sense and/or nerfs, many of which would be adopted in later editions. Particularly notable, though is where he failed. Magic missile. Apparently Len and Gary have a quite substantial disagreement over the appropriateness of a spell with no save or to hit roll, even if it isn't that damaging. Which is interesting to know. More evidence in support that D&D really needed a from the ground up revision to make character classes remotely balanced.
Oooh. An advert for Adventures in Fantasy, Dave Arnesons own new roleplaying game. This is a very interesting development. Would someone care to fill us in on how this came about, and in what ways it differed from D&D?
part 1/2
64 pages. Hello again everybody. Welcome to the 80's, where everything is bigger and better. The glory days of D&D.The only decade in which dragon was published continously, with no interruptions. The smallest issue in this decade is equal to the largest issue of the last decade. More color, more developments, more writers, more setting stuff, more roleplaying, more changes. In other words, it's going to take a lot longer to get through this decade than it did the 70's. And the 90's may take longer still, as despite a few interruptions, the average page counts were considerably higher, so there was probably more actual material released then. But lets not get too far ahead of myself. Gotta keep my eye on the part of the race I'm running at the moment, or I'll stumble and fall.
In this issue:
Dragon Rumbles: Tim takes the time to acknowledge the things all the new staff have done for the running of the magazine. Particular Kudos is given to Jake, who has pretty much taken over as editor, and they intend to formally alter peoples job titles accordingly soon. They also let us know that they intend the size and price increases to be permanent, as it is more economical for them to run things this way. How long will it be before the next price increase? We shall see.
Out on a limb: A letter from the submitter of an article, complaining that the editing job that they did on it made it not entirely sensical. A letter from Ed Greenwood complaining about spelling errors, and also asking about white dwarf and lifelong subscriptions. And a request for a picture of gary, which they provide, but in rather cryptic fashion, with heavy shadowing. All rather interesting stuff that reveals more to me about their current modus operandi. Also on this page is their 2nd class mailing thingy, with the circulation numbers for last year, but unfortunately the scanning resolution makes that illegible. Anyone able to fill in the numbers for us?
Paradise for painterly people: Talk on how to paint large numbers of miniatures in a short amount of time, while retaining decent quality, instead of the painstaking methods employed by most people. Which is Veeery iiiiinteresting. There's usually a quicker and easier way of doing things, if you're willing to swallow your pride, and its nice to see trade secrets revealed.
Fiction: The eyes of Mavis Deval, by Gardner Fox. The fifth Niall story. Niall smartens up a little, but not enough to escape being dragged into the plot against his better judgement. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and him to get bitten for being a demon's pawn, but it has yet to happen. Still, who can say what the future holds. (well anyone, if it's also the past, but I don't want to spoil myself)
A cau for NPC's: Adding an additional stat, caution, to your NPC's to determine how likely they are to act impulsively. Also notable for including a libido table, for quick determination of your success in seduction. Yeah, this article is pretty funny, but perhaps not something you want to incorporate into a serious game.
From the sorcerers scroll: Gary talks about the development of the D&D magic system, and its further refinement in AD&D, and the sources he drew from in creating it. This includes much talk on the separation of components, and the logistical tricks that spells missing one or more allow. Still a far cry from the days of regular metamagic though.
The third installment of Frederick MacKnights tales of the creation of Lankhmar. This time, it's mostly full of conversion notes between the editions of the boardgame, which is a bit dull really.
Leomunds tiny hut: Len gives his house rules and clarifications on lots of D&D spells. Most of them are common sense and/or nerfs, many of which would be adopted in later editions. Particularly notable, though is where he failed. Magic missile. Apparently Len and Gary have a quite substantial disagreement over the appropriateness of a spell with no save or to hit roll, even if it isn't that damaging. Which is interesting to know. More evidence in support that D&D really needed a from the ground up revision to make character classes remotely balanced.
Oooh. An advert for Adventures in Fantasy, Dave Arnesons own new roleplaying game. This is a very interesting development. Would someone care to fill us in on how this came about, and in what ways it differed from D&D?
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