Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Glyfair" data-source="post: 2888415" data-attributes="member: 53">The Dragon #17 August 1978<img src="http://paizo.com/image/product/magazine_issue/dragon/17/cover_120.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />We open this issue with Tim Kask lamenting the dearth of quality material for The Dragon at that moment.  At the same time, he comments this is the largest issue without an insert of some kind, and hopes to keep it at that size.  He also welcomes Will McLean as the new cartoonist on board.  You'll remember many of his comics from the AD&D DMG.  One strip this issue has the adventures commenting on all the giant creatures they have been facing wondering what is next, with a giant rabbit around the corner (OK, you have to see it for the full effect)."Vampires in the Dungeon or 'Dave, why is this fog moving with us?" reminds me somewhat of the current ecology articles.  It's a mix of several sorts of articles including tactics for the DM, tactics for the players facing them and issues with their existance (quickly taking over a dungeon as it creates more vampires).A D&D Variant article "Chainmail Revisited: Jousting in D&D" is an article of the sort that was very common in those early days of D&D.  It's a complete rule subsystem for an very specific situation.  We have an entire page of rules just for jousts.  You choose either the helm or one of 7 zones on the shield as an aiming point, consult a chart to see if you hit, consult a chart to see what the effects were if you hit.  If you caused an injury there is another chart, with a 1% chance your character is outright dead.  We have a game review of Dragonlord from Wee Warriors (one of a handful of third partyt companies to have published official D&D material in those days).  Later we get an article on Ogre analyzing the pieces one at a time.  We also have a review of microgames "Warp War."Finally, on the inside back cover we get an ad for a new TSR game Gamma World.  "Faceless Men & Clockwork Monsters" is a huge article where Gary recounts an adventure where D&D characters ended up aboard the Starship Warden (from Metamorphosis Alpha).  Essentially, his players were hit with a curse and Gary joked that they was a 1 in 10 chance they would end up  there.  Of course, he rolled a "1."  The next time Jim Ward was in the area, Gary had him run the players through the adventure with Gary as a player.  Clearly, this must have been an early influence on Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.Speaking of early influences;  the aforementioned Jim Ward writes a D&D Variant article "A Wizard with a Difference."  What might have been an early lead in to specialist wizards, this is actually much narrower and potentially more powerful.  Jim has certain "area wizards" such as the Wizard of Defense, the Wizard of All Things Rustic or the Wizard of Agression.  These wizards have a very selective spell list, but have a chance of casting any spell on their list.  Thus, even a 1st level magic-user has a chance to cast an 8th level spell (no 9th level spells here).We have yet another charticle in a D&D Variant "Sights & Sounds in Dungeons & Dragons."  Essentially, the author gives a 25% each half hour of a random sound being heard (a "wandering sound"?)  If so, you roll on the included chart to see what was heard.In the Variant Monster Dept. (I think this might be the only time this header was used), we have the first official use of the term "munchkin."  In this article they are monsters, or more accurately pests.  In fact, many players lament this sort of pest from DMs, they are "they are immune to most magic, and are regenerative."  We also have, in that column, the schlolar & the crs’tchn (for EPT) as variant monsters.In a very brief (2/3 column) article we have a Dungeon! expansion article giving rules for the monk and bard in that game.We have a classic article next "Tesseracts or Making Meticulous Mappers Mad."  In those days, almost everyone mapped their adventures.  The party mapper was a job even more important than the party leader.  Messing with the maps was a point of a lot of DMs tricks in those days.  This is the lead in for this article, but it's so much more. This introduced the idea of 4 dimensional cubes to D&D.  It's a very cool idea, so much so that this & the sequel were chosen to be reprinted in the Dragon Compendium from Paizo.In a Design Forum article by the prolific Jim Ward we have "Boredom and the Average D&D Dungeon."  In this brief bit, Jim recommends having theme levels in your dungeon.  He gives examples of an Ancient Egypt level, a Far East level and a far future/machine level.In possibly the most thorough tackling of the subject, we have "A Short History of Adamantite."  In this article it's described as an expensive alloy of mithril, carbon, iron and certain other "secret ingrediants."  It discusses the history and game effects of the metal.In a very controversial D&D Variant article we have "Messengers of God: Angels in Dungeons and Dragons."  Since Eldritch Wizardry gave large numbers of demons, the author decided to tackle the other side.  He takes the demon approach by giving them types, but also names.  We have Type I: The Angel of Wrath, Type II: The Angel of Healing, Type III: The Archangel of Mercy & Type IV:  The Seraphim.We also have a Game Variant "Natural Armor for Monsters, Monsters."  Although I vaguely remember it, I've forgotten the details of this game.  Essentially, this gives armor ratings for different sorts of monsters with natural armor.In the comics section, we have new installments of both Fineous Fingers & Wormy.  Also, through the issue Will McLean has a number of comics inserted.</blockquote>

Verification