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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Glyfair" data-source="post: 3776301" data-attributes="member: 53">The Dragon #27, July 1979 <img src="http://paizo.com/image/product/magazine_issue/dragon/27/cover_180.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />We hit the beginning of the fourth year of The Dragon with this issue.  This issue still shows the wargaming ties are strong.  The three reviews are all wargames (Agincourt, The English Civil War and, to a lesser extent, MiG Killers).  We also have articles going into detail on The Emerald Tablet & Agincourt, a couple of historical articles on the battle of Agincourt, plus design notes on TSR's own classic game Divine Right.  In addition, with have an article expanding the rules in Imperium.  We also get a crossover article on dwarves, that discusses their military organization in a very wargame-like fashion.The first D&D content in the magazine is "Elementals and the Philosopher&#146;s Stone," which expands upon the elemental planes.  We have what would eventually morph into the paraelemental planes (with "Good" & "Evil" planes instead of the positive and negative material planes).  It has stats for the elementals of each plane (such as "moist," "pleasure" and "ending"), as well as a "philosphers stone," a cutout that can be assembled into a 3D model of the planes.The "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" column is the first real guest column.  From Judges Guild founder Bob Bledsoe we get "What Judges Guild has done for Dungeons & Dragons."  He mentions that to date only one project was rejected by TSR, with notes one how to correct it.  He lists point-by-point the things he feel JG has done for D&D. There is no question that JG was an innovator.  They put out the first aids (the Ready Ref Sheets & Judges Shield) & put an emphasis on wilderness adventuring.  As an aside here, the issue has an ad for the Treasury of Archaic Names, one of the most enduring books JG has released.We also get one of the more memorable articles in the history of The Dragon: Tesseracts: A Traveller Artifact.  This began a series the included these 4D articles as traps in dungeons for D&D.  We also have more Traveller content, with a "charticle" on randomly generating a star system."Giants in the Earth" this issue gives us stats for Durathror (13th level fighter/dwarvish paladin) from The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.  We also get the classic combination of Fafhrd (20th level fighter/8th level thief) and the Gray Mouser (18th level fighter-thief).  Yet another classic fills the article with John Carter, Warlord of Mars (30th level fighter).  At this stage in the series we are getting the true classic of fantasy, from the maor inspirations for D&D.In an area rarely touched in D&D, we have a Mythos article, giving stats for the Mythos of Africa.  They seem to cover the spectrum of the continent, but I'm not an expert and they don't go into a lot of detail about the sources.In the "Dragon's Bestiary" we get the Horast by Mary Lynn Skirvin, a mammal with a whip-like tail.  This article has a footnote that touches on things we debate today.  "By gracious arrangement with the author of AD&D, Gary Gygax, monsters appearing in this column are to be considered OFFICIAL AD&D MONSTERS. As such, they are as official and authentic as any included in the AD&D MONSTER MANUAL, or any other book bearing the imprimatur AD&D.""Bazaar of the Bizarre" contains the magic item "Bag of Wind" by Gygax.  I wonder if it was inspired by someone's put down of him.From a comics standpoint we have another episode of Fineous Fingers titled "The Great Escape: Part III or Who Was that Ballerina with a Sword?"  We also get a Tom Wham Znutar strip, as well as a couple of one-panel strips.The main thrust of this issue is Agincourt.  They cover the game in detail, as well as the historical importance of it.  At this point, there is clearly a large overlap in roleplayers and wargamers (or at least TSR believed so).  Divine Right, on the other hand, begins here and the background for the setting was great for getting D&D ideas.</blockquote>

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