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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4513288" data-attributes="member: 27780">The Dragon Issue 37: May 1980part 1/272 pages. Yet another price increase this issue, to $3.00. Dear oh dear. It's been under half a year. Still, I suppose in percentages it's nothing compared to the increases they underwent in the first year. In this issue: Dragon rumbles is presented by jake this issue, as tim has quit to get a new job. No, there's nothing acrimonious about the split, he's just tired and just wants to try new things. (is that true, or were there backstage shenanigans we're not hearing about?) There are two new additions to the staff, so its not as if they're tightening their belts. They also deny being funded by TSR, and encourage people to send in stuff on systems other than D&D, so they can cover them. Yeah, if they weren't profitable, they would be dropped. Why do people find that hard to believe? They aren't headed by someone willing to pump money into their own vanity projects and run the company into the ground <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=";)" /> .Out on a limb: A particularly long letters section this issue. Two rather lengthy ones on realism in gaming, which recieves an equally lengthy reply. A letter saying age is not a reliable indicator of maturity and ability to play well with others, and recommending against making listing age mandatory in classified ads. An article of generalized praise, but particularly pointing out the modules as cool and asking for more. A letter complaining about how the magazine is too male oriented. To which they reply, when 98% of the submissions are by men, its pretty hard not for it to wind up being male oriented. We have a female rules lawyer on the team, and we've published stuff by women before (more on this later on) and will do so in the future if its good. But if you want more stuff, get off your ass and send it in. We can only work with the material we have. Amusingly enough, only recently we had someone else pleased that there were more women into roleplaying than there were into wargaming. I suppose everything's relative. Even when white wolf brought in a big load of new blood, the gender demographics never really reached parity. But I digress. We also have another letter of generalised praise and commentary, and two letters commenting on the article on angels a couple of months ago. As is their wont, they provide a contrasting pair, one criticising them for being frivolous with the word of god, and one praising them for doing a good job on the topic. I suppose it's those kind of conflicting demands from both sides that would lead them to file the serial numbers off D&D angels and call them Devas and Archons. The theory and use of gates: General talk of planeshifting (including the first mention of the city of brass.) and how to incorporate it into your games. Another Ed greenwood article, this mentions tons of popular authors, plus most of the RPG's around at the time, showing how well steeped in the culture he is. He encourages keeping things unpredictable, as the laws of physics change from universe to universe, and you should never be sure which bits of your powers and equipment are going to work the way you expect, or at all for that matter. Which is realistic, and keeps even disgustingly overpowered characters from getting complacent, but would never be allowed under current popular design philosophy for being biased and deprotagonising. Meh. Who gives a damn about fashion. This is good stuff.  The Gem dragons! Finally, neutrality gets it's own set of iconic dragons. They have the same iconic traits that they maintain all through the editions, Relatively low physical power, but high intelligence and charisma, and kickass psionic abilities. Includes their own singular high end badass to complement Bahamut and Tiamat, Sardior the ruby dragon. Who I don't remember seeing before, so he must not have caught on. But the dragon deities in 2nd ed were more interesting anyway. A random event table for urban encounters. How often you'll encounter significant stuff in an urban setting, and what type and level they'll be. Does exactly what it says on the tin, even if it only works in D&D's standard implied pseudomedieval setting. Cities can help make characters more real: Talk of how to run adventures set in cities, and which classes are most suited to them (rogues get to shine, oh yeah baybey) You can't just go around killing everything that moves. You need to set yourself goals and negotiate with people. Nothing new now, but for people who'd just spent 5 years down a pit in the ground, I guess this is valuable advice. From the sorcerers scroll: Greyhawk moves into the AD&D realm, with the release of World of Greyhawk coming very soon. Which means lots more setting detail, including our first mention of Iuz. Plus there's lots of modules in the pipline, including lots set on other planes (we also see our first mention of the quasiplane of shadow here.) Deities and Demigods, and the Fiend Folio. Plus basic stats for Bigby and Robilar and their armies. Lots of stuff seen for the first time here that would show up again and again. Nice to see Gary's still busy buzzing away shaping the setting. Sage advice: One letter that is simply mind breaking in the number of dodgy rules and stupid questions it presents, sending Jean and Skip (looks like he's part of the team as well now) running in terror and urging the writer to retire the character. How do I deal with characters who gain 10+ levels in a day in someone else's game and then want to play in mine? (make them play separate characters for each game. ) Must someone know a person's language to command them when they are charmed? (yes, charming does not give you any special ability to understand each other) Can I reuse the jeweled sticks that are the components for augury.(no. You need to shell out each time you cast any spell with material components. Yes, that can get expensive. Suck it up. You should get enough treasure in your adventuring for expenses like that.) How long does ghoul paralysis last? (you know, it doesn't say officially. We'd better do something about that. I've always used 24 hours in my games.)How do I deal with characters who have illegal ability scores. (either raise them to the minimums, or make the player roll up a new character) Minarian Legends: The history of the elven lands in Divine Right. Not all happy shiny dancing, with meteor strikes, racial supremacy movements, and lots of wars detailed. Oh, and terrible terrible poetry. Yeah, this is pretty entertaining.</blockquote>

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