The Classic Dragon Reviews - Take 2

[Uder]

Oops. My bad. GOOD GOD! SIX HUNDRED DEATHS! HOW!?!?!

From Men & Magic:
"Number of Players: At least one referee and form four to fifty players can be handled in any single campaign..."

With 5 PC deaths and 10 hireling deaths a week, you could make it in under ten months. If the author had a big campaign with multiple refs, or if henchmen were cannon fodder, it might have been half that.

I've got my Dragon Archive stowed away. Does the author give a time frame for his statistics?

 

[Hussar]

Ah, well, I suppose that makes more sense.

 

[Glyfair]

I've got my Dragon Archive stowed away. Does the author give a time frame for his statistics?

The campaign started 4 years ago, but they've only been keep statistics for 2-3 years. He estimates that in the 4 years there have been about 1000 PC/hireling deaths (actually, he says player deaths, but I doubt that many players actually died, we'd have read about that in the paper). It's mentioned that it's primarily a wilderness campaign, with the occasional huge dungeon does exist.

So, if we generously allow 3 years, we have about 1 death every other day of the year. There is no hint how often they played. At once per week, we're talking almost 4/session.

 

[Uder]

The campaign started 4 years ago, but they've only been keep statistics for 2-3 years. He estimates that in the 4 years there have been about 1000 PC/hireling deaths (actually, he says player deaths, but I doubt that many players actually died, we'd have read about that in the paper). It's mentioned that it's primarily a wilderness campaign, with the occasional huge dungeon does exist.

So, if we generously allow 3 years, we have about 1 death every other day of the year. There is no hint how often they played. At once per week, we're talking almost 4/session.

Sounds about right. Remember, this was a much different game before the worldbuilders, simulationists, dramatists and storytellers stretched the game into a hobby; originally it took less than two minutes to make a new character... three minutes if you played a wizard and had to pick a spell (no spells for clerics until 2nd level!).

Also if this was played in a dorm setting, you'd have people wandering in and out of the game at all times. Lots of neophytes equals lots of deaths, especially if they weren't well-liked by the referee!

I'm enjoying these reviews. It's been a couple years since I sat down and read through a big stack of old Dragons (or the Archive, in the case of missing issues). This is much easier on the eyes.

 

[Glyfair]

Sounds about right. Remember, this was a much different game before the worldbuilders, simulationists, dramatists and storytellers stretched the game into a hobby; originally it took less than two minutes to make a new character... three minutes if you played a wizard and had to pick a spell (no spells for clerics until 2nd level!).

I was there

Of course, I didn't actually play in those groups. Character deaths were the exception, not the rule in our games (my first character never did die, although she took 2-3 years to hit 7th level). The crowd I ran with after that crowd was very heavy into storytelling (not quite "amateur theatre" level, but approaching it).

Still, I was aware it existed.

 

[Glyfair]

The Dragon #22 February 1979

For some reason we've lost January. So, this is the first issue of 1979. I'll note this issue has the "Statement of Ownership." We learn the latest issue had 3000 copies printed= with 262 subscribers. 950 copies are listed as not distributed.

The issues first bit is a "warning" about Origins. Apparently it's still up in the air at this point. Last they heard it was supposed to be in King of Prussia, but seems to have been moved to Widener University in Chester, PA. Both locations are very close to me, but I honestly had no iidea at the time. It'll be another couple of years before I get connected to the "gamer grapevine."

"Dragon Rumbles" covers the missing January, although indirectly. Tim went into the hospital and took longer recovering than expected. So, this issue is a combination of The Dragon & Little Wars. They have a questionairre included to get feedback on this issue.

"The First Assassins" was an article to appear in Little Wars. It's quite appropriate to The Dragon, detailing the history of the Order of Assassins started by Hasan Sabbah.

Another Little Wars article included is "Irresistable Force -- A Brief Account of the Rise of the Swiss Confederation with Commentary on Their Military Tactics" by Gary Gygax. Again, this could have some RPG connections, but much less than the previous article.

"Armies of the Renaissance" is yet another LW style article. This is a brief 1 pager, but is just the introduction to a series.

Our reviews cover Up-Scope! (an SPI submarine game), The Face in the Frost (a fantasy novel), Panzerkrieg (a game published by SPI "expatriates"), plus a couple of fanzines.

The fanzines review is of historical interest as it's written by Gary, the title giving a clue "From Bad to Worse." He reviews The Apprentice 2 and Phoenix. For those not familiar with the concept, essentially these magazines took an article and money and published your article for you. Thus, quality control varied quite a bit. Alarums and Excursions was probably the top of the heap (and its still in print today).

It's clear from the article that many of the writers in these magazines are bashers of TSR, and Gary is taking offense to that. In fact, a review of The Dragon in one of them the writer states "“All in all, The Dragon is far from the best fantasy gaming magazine available but, regretfully, if you want to be up on the gaming community trends you'll need it." Another quote about TSR states " . . . you can be sure that the base philosophy of TSR Hobbies Inc. (sic) will be held high, i.e. TSR Hobbies Inc. (sic) has the exclusive rights to all role-playing ideas and no person shall violate this godgiven right by la ing eyes on material other than the gospel handed down from Lake Geneva.” To which Gary replies that he'll have to have TSR contact Games Workshop, FGU, Chaosium and other companies producing RPGs to get them in line. Reading between the lines, it seems The Apprentice was a fanzine started by someone who was offended that TSR was protecting their copyrights and Phoenix was just wretched.

We also have pages and pages of "Mapping the Dungeons" being a list of Dungeon Masters across the U.S. My own beloved Delaware has 5 entries, but I only knew one of them (another student at my high school). 8 pages of DMs, which hasn't Eric brought this back? (Of not, one DM from Ontario is an Ed Greenwood).

"Dungeons & Dragons -- What it is and Where it is Going" has Gary giving us a "state of the game" type article. He estimates that perhaps 150,000 people are now playing D&D. 4,000 sets were sold to December 1975, but Gary has no idea how many pirated copies were produced. Right now the basic set was selling 4,000 copies per month.

We learn that the first basic set had geomorphs and lists of monsters and treasures. He considers it an improvement that the next printing will do away with that and include a full adventure. One attempt at prognostication states "As all of the ADVANCED D&D system is not written yet, it is a bit early for prognostication, but I envision only minor expansions
and some rules amending on a gradual, edition to edition, basis." and "I do not believe that hobbyists and casual players should be continually barraged with new rules, new systems, and new drains on their purses." However..."Modules and similar material will continue
to be released so as to make the DM’s task easier and his or her campaign better." He also predicts that the computer will be a great tool for DMs, suggesting a D&D cassette can be plugged into the computer elminating the need for a DM or other players.

The D&D Masters tournament was announced, with a limited list of invitees, most of whom long time followers of the hobby would know (from Gary Gygax, to Paul Jaquays, Steve Jackson, Greg Costigyan, etc). For the record Gary placed 10 out of 18 (#1 was Bob Blake, Len Lakofka was #2). Interesting of note that Skip Williams is listed as playing and titled "ex-TSR employee." How many times has he come & gone?

Allan Hammack covers TSRs new board game "4th Dimension." Although I owned this, I remember next to nothing about it, I admit. It's a very chess oriented games with different pieces working is specific ways.

Now we have what must have been the draw to the issue during the time, a 9 page sneak preview from the DMG. It starts with magic items (Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments anyone?), and also includes the combat charts, saving throw charts and psionic attack charts. I'm always baffled by those saying how simple AD&D was with separate charts sorted by class to determine whether you could hit a monster.

Gary continues his eye on people commenting about D&D in "SPI on AD&D." He comments that it's clear the writer of a review in Strategy & Tactics didn't play D&D. It is said the PHB wasn't game design, but rewriting what appeared in D&D "he felt sure that dedicated D&D players would find the work useful and valuable anyway." Gary thinks the important point was that AD&D was called rewarmed D&D by an officer of a company that was "the past masters of the rehash, artisans of the warmed-over WWII battle game, purveyors of the umpteenth version of the same, tired scenario.."

"Stalemate at Kassala" is an article describing a wargame, presumbably intended for Little Wars.

In another Gary classic we have a treatise on medieval weapons in "The Nomenclature of Pole Arms." If it wasn't for Gary I'm sure I wouldn't have a clue what a ranseur or bec de corbin was.

Fineous Fingers again apppears, as well as some single strips. Wormy is again missing in action.

In notable ads In our Judges Guild ad we have the appearance of Tegel Manor. I will say, it's the best map of a haunted house - ever, for only $4.50 (about $12 today).

We also have the first ad for In Search of the Unknown, the module that will be included in the next printing of the basic set listed at $5.49 (about $15 today).

GDW has a Traveller ad pushing the next expansion Mercenary. It's $5.98, with 1001 characters and Animal Encounters each priced at 3.98 (Merc's would be about $16 today, the others about $11).

With the huge DMG preview we can see where TSRs focus is. TSR is clearly becoming the big cheese in the publishing industry, with the cheap shots being focused on it from some quarters. It seems Gary has taken this a bit personally, and might gave been seeing attacks where they weren't. Pointing out the detractors and firing back may not have been the best policy, and may have caused some ill-will where it wasn't needed (the GAMA/TSR fight between Origins/GenCon being the worst of this nastyness).

 

[Glyfair]

The Dragon #23 March 1979

​

"Dragon Rumbles" is mostly about the state of conventions. At this time, typically there were a wide spread of gaming conventions across the summer months. Origins, however, is in a mess this year. SPI and Avalon Hill have "taken over" Origins this year, and had the people that did PennCOn setting it up. However, they decided that the facilities were inadequate, and insisted it be held on a college campus (remember the days when gaming conventions were usually held on college campuses?). So, because the Eagles trained at Widener College from July on (haveing exclusive use of the facilities), they had to run in June. Essentially, Tim comes down on SPI & Avalon Hill for turning the convention from a convention for gamers first into a convention for their interests first. Using a local group to organize it, and setting them up to fall.

Unfortunately, while the information may be accurate, the whole thing is tainted by the history of the conflict. It's no secret that TSR (with GenCon) and AH/SPI, and later GAMA (with Origins) built up a major feud between the competing conventions. This is likely the beginning of this.

"En Garde in Solitaire" is a set a rules for playing a solo game of the RPG.

Gary has a brief bit in "Good News for Gaming." He points out that 10 years ago the only company showing games at a trade show. This year, for the 42nd Annual Hobby Industry Convention and Trade Show, there were 500 exhibits. He also lists the companies from "our own portion of the hobby industry." It's an interesting list of companies.

• (THE) ARMORY
• DIMENSION SIX
• EON PRODUCTS
• EPIC GALLERY IN MILITARIA, LTD
• EURO IMPORTS
• GAME DESIGNERS WORKSHOP
• GAMESCIENCE
• GHQ
• GRENADIER
• HERITAGE MODELS
• HIGHLANDER TOY & MINIATURE MILITARY HOBBIES, INC
• METAGAMING CONCEPTS
• RAL PARTHA
• SPI
• THE AVALON HILL COMPANY
• TSR HOBBIES

Gardner F. Fox gives us another Niall of the Far Travels story; "The Thing from the Tomb" (how pulp Sword & Sorcery is that title?)

We have a psi-flavored D&D Variant article "Mind Wrestling." This gives an alternate system for using psionic combat, focusing on moving along a track, until one is "pushed too far."

An MA Variant, "Water Adventures on the Starship Warden" lists a stats for a number of water oriented creatures that could be found in water areas of the starship.

"It Weighs What?!!!" shows that nitpicking over "historically accurate" armor weights isn't just an artifact of 3rd edition. The author states that D&D adds 15-20 extra pounds to plate armor, and Chivalry and Sorcery's rule of armor weighing 2/3 the wearer's weight is complete nonsense.

Gary becomes guilty of creating a charticle in this issue's "From the Sorcerer's Scroll: Random Generation of Creatures from the Lower Planes." In the vein of an earlier article from The Dragon, we have a number of charts for generating random statistics and features of creatures from the lower planes. Gary notes this chart will be official and appear in the upcoming DMG.

In "Damage Permanency or How Hrothgar One-Ear Got His Name" Jim Ward gives us a system for crippling player characters that doesn't involve the typical critical hit system. Instead whenever significant damage is taken by a character, they have to roll on a chart. 50% of the time it's temporary, and 30% of the time there is some serious permanent damage (that can only be healed by 5th level cleric spells - in the old 7 level system, or wish).

The Design Forum article "Dungeons and Prisons" is another sign of the times. Essentially the article has rules for imprisoning high level characters (even worthy of discussion today), to keep "super characters" from running around a campaign world (the sign of the times).

No comics appear this issue, although Fineous has a brief bit explaining they need a month off.

The main focus of this issue is the Niall of the Far Travels story. Nothing here really stands the test of time (unless you like random evil outsiders). We get a view of the dysfunctional convention atmosphere of the times. We also see that some of the lessons of that time have been forgotten with WotC clearly backing GenCon, like TSR used to clearly back GenCon.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Hey, great thread. I thought it was stupid at first, sorry :\

However, what a great way to remember the golden age of AD&D. Also, it really makes me want to pick up those old mags and read them again. I'm waiting until you get to issue 51, or is it 52? That is one of my all time favorites as it has information about 0th level characters. One of the best all time articles ever in my opinion.

Anyway, keep them coming, great stuff.

 

[Glyfair]

The Dragon #24 April 1979

"Dragon Rumbles" tackles complaints about The Dragon and the direction of the magazine. As a sort of statement of direction, Tim states "First, we want to become THE magazine of gaming, whatever the form." He also briefly recommends The Deer Hunter as a movie that shows the reality of war, since the readers typically just play at it. He also mentions that he's a Vietnam veteran.

"Lost Civilizations" is described as a fantasy supplement to Source of the Nile. This attempts to add an Allan Quartermain feel to the game.

A Design Forum article, "Keeping the Magic-User in His Place" seems to be an early attempt to bring balance to the game. It's a bit of that, but also a bit "keeping magic mysterious and rare." He recommends elminating half damage on save spells (so they do no damage on a save), as well as requiring players to save against all spells (thus saving against Cure Light Wounds means it doesn't take effect).

Two suggestions have variations that have slipped into 3rd edtion. First, he lists the "rule of concentration" that states if a magic-user takes a single point of damage in a round, he can't cast a spell that round. We don't have anything that limiting, but concentration is a factor. He also recommends that magic items shouldn't stack their bonuses together (his example are with stacking defensive items).

David Sweet writes a classic article introducing us to "Chinese Dragons." The ones we know and love are introduced here. He mentions that they are expanded from a brief mention in Gods, Demigods & Heroes.

"Another Look at Lycanthropy" is a D&D Variant article expanding the rules for lycanthropy. It starts with a table for determining what sort of lycanthrope you become. It ranges from the curse of being permanently turned into the animal under cured to becoming one who changes when enranged (ala the Incredible Hulk).

Another classic Judges Guild product is announced in their ad this issue, Dark Tower. One of several adapted under the d20 license, this retails for $5.50 (about $15 in today's dollars). They also announce some Traveller products, expanding their product lines.

Gary Gygax tackles "Roman Military Organization - a Classic Warfare Update" in the Designers forum. Apparently he was inspired to update a very early game of his, and does so here.

"A Viking Campaign in the Caspian Sea" is an account of several Viking battles. Also included are Classic Warfare scenarios to reenact several of them.

Our From the Sorcerer's Scroll column is from Gary this issue and tackles "The Melee in D&D." He tackles the balance between "realism" and game balance. He points out that it's only a minority of players interested in such things, but even 1%-5% of 100,000 D&D players is too many to completely ignore. He argues against critical hits saying that there is enough instant death with things like the saving throw tables to have another set of ways to die quickly. He also argues against giving bonus to hit for "extra skill" with specific weapons.

He also discusses the round and hit points, with the theory behind them. The round system iimplies that there are many things go on in the 1 minute rounds, and only possible "telling blows" are what are being rolled for. Hit points represent "a combination of actual physical consititution,skill at the avoidance of taking real physical damage, luck and/or magical or divine factors," to explain why a high level fighter can have more hit points than a rhino.

He has a number of interesting quotes giving the state of the game, then:

"The game is one of adventure, though, and combats of protected nature (several hours minimum of six or more player characters are considered involved against one or more opponents each) are undesirable, as the majority of participants are most definitely not miniature battle game enthusiasts."

"Furthermore, D&D is a role playing campaign game where much of the real
enjoyment comes for participants from the gradual development of the game personae, their gradual development, and their continuing exploits (whether successes or failures)."

We have the first appearance of "Out on a Limb." The first letter of this column is from someone saying they agree that letters shouldn't be about "character assassination" but then wonders why Gary is allowed to do so. He is referring to Gary's trashing of SPI while commenting on a less than flattering review in an SPI magazine. The response is that Gary is the publisher and can do whatever he wants (I do not exaggerate here, those are the words used). However, such comments will in the future appear in "From the Sorcerer's Scroll."

Another letter complains about the inclusion of wargaming material in the issue that combined Little Wars with The Dragon. A couple of letters are chosen complaining about a monster for EPT that appears to make fun of Christians (apparently of several).

We have a Variant article giving several variations on Dungeon!. This takes up a couple of pages and includes lots of various rules and options.

"Armies of the Renaissance" continues the series with a focus on the Swiss.

"Narcisstics" is listed as Variant Humor. These "monsters" are found in male versions (the jocks) and the female versions (groupies). Also included is an intentionally vague monster, the "infamous miscellaneous monster."

Ronald Pehr has a second article this issue, "Psionics Revisited" under the D&D Variant header. He wants to make psionics more common, but not too common. He also introduces cognitive and kinetic "schools."

We have a charticle "Diseases" with a chart for random diseases. Also we have a Little Wars style article "Bergenhone ‘77: the CAT’S Test of American Armor!" We have a historical piece "The Return of Conan Maol."

"Choir Practice at the First Church of Lawful Evil (Orthodox): The Ramifications of Alignment" falls under a combination of the Design Forum and Variant headers. This mostly focuses on the fact that Chaos doesn't necessarily mean evil and Lawful doesn't necessarily mean good and tying that into a pantheon.

"Naming People, Places and Things In Petal Throne" is an EPT Variant that has a chart for generating random names for the world.

We have the winners of the second "Featured Creature" contest. The pictures are all interesting, with first place taken by Robert Charrette. An interesting bit is one of the Honorable Mention pieces is from one Erol Otus, from California.

Jim Ward has another adventure of Monty and the boys, "Monty Haul and the best of Freddie." Freddie is a DM who clearly doesn't know the rules (for example, having an evil Bronze Dragon, who ever heard of such a thing?) Several bits with him are included.

The Design Forum covers "In Defense of Extraordinary Characters." A short piece that says it's only natural to want to play Conan, John Carter or Merlin.

Allen Hammick writes an article on the Society for Creative Anachronism. This has lot of pictures and touches on it's history (such as the group starting it included Poul Anderson).

We are starting to get into more meaty material at this time in The Dragon. Gary has been delving into they whys and wherefores of the rules (paralled today with WotC's focus on explaining some design decisions). Some names are beginning to appear (Erol Otus, for example). Wargaming is intruding into the magazine again, and while some articles fit well, others are quite distracting.

 

[Glyfair]

I just wanted to let those following this that I haven't abandoned it. I'm just having a hard time getting up the interest to do the next issue (a Gamma World focused issue), I'm not sure why.

Also, if anyone wants to jump in and cover any issues, I'm not adverse to help