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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4505209" data-attributes="member: 27780">The Dragon Issue 34: February 1980Part 1/273 pages. This issue is a Divine Right special, with a whole slew of articles based upon the boardgame. In addition, they also feature their second full module. Not your average issue, in other words. Which is pretty cool. In this issue: Dragon rumbles: Once again, tim talks about the oddness of writing for several months in the future. A feeling I am also starting to really understand. He also talks about the next big growth spurt for the magazine and industry, as it looks like D&D is about to be picked up much more by mainstream toy stores. Which will of course coincide with the creation of the moldvay basic set, leading to the biggest period of sales to new players in D&D's history. Next years calendar is also going to have a print run 10 times this years one did. They might be expanding still, but he does definitely seem a little tired of his job. I suppose it's better for him to move on to other things while still excited about gaming in general, than to run it into the ground. Out on a limb: We get another letter encouraging the idea of loose leaf books that you can take apart and rearrange. A letter praising Mohan's introductory article in issue 30. A letter picking apart the math in How tall is my giant. A letter complaining about the lack of traveller related supplementary material. And a letter complaining about all the articles nerfing magic-users, to which they remind that all the articles in Dragon are optional, and not designed to be used all at once. Divine right changes from the designer, and The official changes to 2nd ed divine right: two articles that partly complement and partly complete with each other, showing how the creative process can work in a company environment. The history of Muetar: The original writer of Divine Right expands upon its setting. Like Greg Stafford's boardgames set in Glorantha, it seems likely that the place had been a rich playground for its creators imaginations long before any games were published. And of course we're only seeing a small fraction of it. Oh well. Such is life. Ambassador cards for Divine Right: Giving your ambassadors personalities like your monarchs. Includes 12 sample cards with various amusing personality and ability quirks. Sieges in Divine Right: Commentary, plus an optional rule on exactly that topic. Tom Wham talks about the design process of Divine Right, and gives his own set of variants that hit the cutting room floor. Looks like this game really did go through the committee design process, with everyone at TSR lending their own viewpoints at one point or another. Nine ways to change the game: Ed Greenwood gives a whole load of ways to tinker with the rules of Divine Right. These really play up just how complex the setting is, and how many different places and people are in the game. It looks like it would be pretty easy to adapt to an RPG setting. Did anyone try this? Pirates, Ogres and other variations: A bunch of optional rules for Divine Right introducing new power blocs to fight and negotiate with. Again, If you've played it several times and are getting bored of the basic setup, these'll keep things interesting for a while longer. Up on a soapbox: Don't just recreate historical battle scenarios in your wargaming, invent your own. There are plenty of places in history, where if things had gone a little differently, there would have been some quite interesting match-ups. It then goes on to give plenty of examples. Which span a pretty good range of alternate history from the probable to the fantastical. Sage advice: Taking a mule into the dungeon? Not a good idea. All sorts of comical but inconvenient stuff could happen. Anyway, on with the rulings. Can a thief wear studded leather (no, (a ruling they would later change)) What the hell are all those weird weapon names. (ahh, polearms, see TD22 for a full guide) Can a periapt of wound closure heal damage from a sword of wounding. (no, only natural rest can, so there healbot.) Are the rules for gods in G,DG&H correct for AD&D (no, we're creating a conversion now.) How do you do mass combat in AD&D? (you can't yet, again, we're working on it. Use Chainmail for now) Can Humans be multiclassed? (no, they can only be dual classed. Do I have to explain the difference to you again) Will this column answer questions for games other than D&D. (no, I do not feel qualified to do so.) Can evil clerics heal their allies? (Yes. Good people can kill their enemies, so of course they can. Alignment is about context as much as actual deeds.) Are there such things as anti rangers and paladins(not officially, and not in my game either.) Are the softcover supplements and the new hardbacks different games? (yes, AD&D and OD&D (and yes, she actually calls it that) are indeed different games) More stuff that shows just how dramatically the game has changed since then, largely towards permitting things. In defense of the poor magic-user: This article argues that magic-users are not overpowered, their low hit points and equipment restrictions make up for their power, plus they will often be in trouble from using up their spells or not having selected the right one for the challenge today. Yeah, this writer has never heard of the 15 minute adventuring day tactic. And thank god for that, because as soon as it gets into Dragon, everyone'll know about it and want to use it. For familiar but fearsome fiends: Dungeon building without needing a shitload of supplements. Ahh, the days when you had to regularly run from opponents or die, particularly in the first few levels. Of course you'll still need to determine stats for the multitude of human opponents of various class and level you'll encounter using this table.Feel like RISKing everything?: Incorporating nuclear war into RISK. This will obviously make your games somewhat shorter, unless you also use diplomacy between players. Seems like it should be fun, as it increases the strategic options without slowing the game down.</blockquote>

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