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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4487010" data-attributes="member: 27780">The Dragon Issue 26: June 1979Part 2/2Hirelings 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 <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> 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.</blockquote>

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