Dragon Issue 53: September 1981

part 1/2

84 pages. The class series continues, with monks getting their turn in the spotlight this month. We also get a particularly iconic bit of cover art, that I remember being reprinted in future books several times, most of the usual suspects, and a new column. Just another busy day at dragon publishing. Onward we go.

In this issue:

Dragon Rumbles: Oookay. We have a rather interesting editorial from Jake here where he goes to some length to distance tabletop roleplaying from LARPing, and especially Steve Jackson's new game KILLER, in the classic "we have no connection to those wierdos, and do not want to be associated with anything they do" stylee. So much for geek solidarity. And this magazine and LARPing got off to such a nice start. Yes, I know people dressing up and running around in public can be a bit embaressing, but they're no more likely to engage in genuine psychotic stuff than tabletoppers. And they get considerably more girls. So stop kvetching.

Out on a limb: Another letter asking for reprints, which forces kim to make another frustrated lengthy reply as to exactly why this would not be economical or ethical.
A letter complaining about the plethora of new classes being presented as NPC's, not PC classes. They reply that they do this so that the default answer for if they're allowed is no. This is because if PC's are nonstandard classes, they can't be transferred from one campaign to another as easily. Remember, AD&D is a tournament system, so variants must be removable if you're to properly synch with other GM's who don't have access to the same stuff as you. To do otherwise would be high-handed and elitist. Er, ok then. (man what)
A letter from someone who claims not to like the company, yet most of his specific statements about their content are complementary. This confuses the editors as well as me. Normally it's the other way round, with people who mostly like stuff picking at the little flaws.

He's got a lot to kick about: An extensive article about the flaws of the monk, exactly how and why he is underpowered compared to other character classes, and then setting out to fix this. Hey, power creep! Next thing you know, everyone'll want some. Another example of give them a new power at every level based design, that I'm pretty sure overcompensates, making them too powerful. I am rather dubious about this one.

Defining and realigning the monk: More monk related pontification, this time focusing more on their position in the game world. Particular attention is given to the problem of how they should behave, and the logistics of their upper heirachy, how the upper level monks are supposed to deal with both training new monks, and getting more experience so they can challenge their superiors and move upwards. The author use some decidedly dubious statistics to try and justify how this could work. Which really just proves how full of holes the D&D implied setting was. Its no wonder they got rid of monks in 2nd edition if they were this problematic to deal with.

Sage advice is also answering monk related questions this month.
If my party faces another group of monks, would my monk character have to side with them against my own party. (No. )
How do I make sure a lawful evil monk doesn't cheat when I challenge him for his position?  (You don't have too. Even evil monks have to abide by the monks code of honour or lose their abilities. If the GM forgets that, cite this article at him. )
If a monk stops being lawful, does he become a thief (no, he loses all his monk levels, and has to start a new class from scratch. And you thought paladins had it hard. However, that can be any class you qualify for, not just thief)
Can a human fighter become a monk (yes, if they have the ability scores. But remember, humans become dual-classed, demihumans become multiclassed. There is a distinct difference, which we will explain to you once again, because it's obvious from your letters that way too many of you still don't get it.)
If I lose the ability scores neccecary for my class, do I have to abandon it and lose all my abilities from it. (No. And from the sounds of things, your GM is being rather unpleasant and cheaty in the way they implemented this, and may have a vendetta against you or the class in general. Characters should never suffer ability damage from simple standard damaging attacks, as this goes against the abstract hit point system.)  
Once I get to 8th level+ do I have to play out all the challenges for higher levels? Will I also have to put up with lower level characters challenging me? (yes, and that's up to the DM, but we strongly reccommend it, as it would be unrealistic if you were the only one moving up the heirachy at that point. This is not a computer game, there should be other people doing stuff in the world at the same time. )
Can monks unarmed attacks hurt creatures that need magical weapons to hit them (no. You'll just have to sit those fights out. Doesn't that suck.)
 
Another new class, The Oracle, gets a writeup. (well, its a bit too soon for a fourth witch or alchemist class) Another one that seems rather unsuited to adventuring, given the nature of their powers, and involves a load of implied setting stuff that falls apart all too easily if looked at hard. Frankly, given how much more specific and reliable the divination powers PC spellcasters have are, this is rather pointless. Vague predictions of the future don't work well in RPG's anyway, given how big a part randomness plays in the outcome. I really don't approve.

Understanding Armory: Iiiits Mr Pulsipher again! He is getting a lot of articles published lately. This time, he's talking about heraldry. It's development, conventions, and the legalities around it. Which could be a dull topic, but lew manages to keep it interesting. It's just another part of making a rich detailed world that feels real.

Some universal rules: Speaking of creating your own world, Roger Moore goes into some more general discussion on doing just that. Interestingly, it seems like playing the same characters under different DM's, who would then take the game in very different directions, was more common back then. He's not that keen on that, and would prefer characters who are properly integrated into a single world, playing a consistent storyline. Of course, to achieve that, you need to make up a world. The rest of the article is devoted to details on one of his own recent campaign worlds, (Well, Ed's doing it, so why shouldn't Roger?) and ways of getting characters from one universe to another. Another perfectly decent article from another of our reliable regulars.

Up on a soapbox: Oooh. Disabilities and roleplaying. A pretty important topic I'm surprised it's taken them this long to get around to covering. (and they still haven't got around to race and gaming. What's up with that?) A person with cerebral palsy gives her account of becoming a gamer, and the difficulties she faces in things other people take for granted, such as rolling dice and writing stuff on the character sheet. Man, escapism is harder than you think, when your body doesn't work properly. (And even that's not as big a problem as trying to play with the mentally disabled, as I know from personal experience) A pretty strong article which gives us a good picture of the problems some people have to face, and how lucky the rest of us are.

Dragon Issue 53: September 1981

part 2/2

Giants in the earth is replaced by Larger than life, which seems to do much the same thing, only in a more compact format, and focussing on even more overpowered characters, as they are explicitly intended to be on a deity level of power. They start by giving us the Bogatyrs of the Russian Byliny stories, and many of their enemies, including one would go on to enjoy solo success in future products. Baba Yaga. This is intriguing, because it's a set of myths I was entirely unaware of before now. Not sure if I support the overall idea of this, but at least they've got off to a strong start.

The Garden of Nefaron is this month's centerpiece module. We're back to a full 16 pager here. And very distinctively, it's an around name level module aimed at evil and neutral parties, rather than the usual do-gooders, featuring heavy use of psionics. Which is interesting. Nice to see them catering to a different kind of party, for a change. Modules should have plenty of variety.

The rasmussen files: Merle gives us a load of Gming advice, in response to letters recieved. How to deal with players who treat missions like a dungeon crawl, rather than an espionage mission, and start killing everything in sight; and how to keep players from just having whatever equipment they can afford, regardless of its appropriateness to the current mission. Yeah, he really isn't into the cinematic approach, is he.

Dragon's Bestiary: This months monsters are the Argas, super lawful good lizard creatures who eat precious metal and drain magic items. Good thing they're on our side, because you'd hate to have them as enemies. Narra are also exceedingly moral, close relations of shedu and lammasu, only with bulls bodies instead, they can be both effective guards and healers, and are quite happy to do so if asked nicely by people of the right alignment. Nice to see a few more additions to the forces of good, they're so outnumbered in D&D. Our final monster this month is the oculon, a weird rubbery construct, with an eye on a long stalk. Don't ask me why a wizard would want to make something like that? I suspect by the time you get to 18th level you've long exhausted mundane forms of entertainment, and need to go for ever more esoteric things just to get any pleasure out of life. :eyelid twitches:

Leomund's tiny hut: Len looks at another part of D&D design that he considers flawed, that of opening doors. It makes no sense for all doors to be just as easy to open. The solution he comes up with is fairly elegant. Give doors a strength rating, and compare it to the strength of the person trying to open it to determine the odds. He also looks at the magical means of penetrating (and reinforcing) a stronghold. To top it off, he also gives us the method for building a teleport pod network, for those wizards who want to get around their home faster, and drop unwanted guests who try to use it in the shark pit. Which is all pretty neat, and the kind of stuff that can be applied to actual play quite easily.

How to give disease a fighting chance: Clerics curing any diseases you're confronted with too easily? Make the diseases so badass that only a cleric of high enough level can fix them. Another generic nerfbat article. Yawn.

The ways of the Triffids: John Wyndhams classic plant monsters get the D&D treatment. Like the kzinti one a few months ago, this is a pretty detailed account from an obvious fanboy. Instant death and blinding if they hit you requiring separate saves to avoid? That's rather a lot of overkill, and would result in quite a lot of unhappy players. But not as many as a properly played beholder Don't mess with them.

Merchants deserve more too: Oh noes. All the other traveller career paths have got expansions in supplements by now, but merchant's haven't. We must rectify this forthwith! And lo, it was done. On to the next article.

Simulation corner: part 2 of the game design series talks about building a model of whatever it is you want to emulate, and how to go about this. How much compromise between accuracy and speed of play are you willing to make? Is game design primarily an art or a science? Are you sure you want to go for realism anyway? Careful you don't delve into too much theory wank and get nothing done.

Junta needs more instability: The game of corrupt african dictators looting their country and bringing it to ruin (my, how topical. Another thing that's changed depressingly little in 30 years) gets a load of houserules from Glenn Rahman, in an attempt to make things more dynamic. As this is another game I've never heard of before, I can't comment on their effectiveness, but since this is Glen we're talking about, they're probably pretty well thought out. The writing is certainly as high quality as ever from him.

The electric eye: My god. Computer controlled models being used in movies for quicker, more realistic effects. New home computers with 16k of memory! Three inch thick tv screens! You could almost carry these things around. Maybe you could sit them on your lap. Hmmm. This has definite potential. Oh, and here's some errata. At only half a page, this months column feels a bit underdone. Well it is just a load of random bit's he couldn't fit in other articles. Still more entertaining than many long pontifications on single subjects, though.

Coppercon, urcon, rheincon, babel conference. That's a lot of amusingly named conventions in the near future.

The dragon's augury: Stalin's Tanks is yet another WWII game, based around the eastern front, and as you might guess, primarily focussing on individual level combat between armoured vehicles. Not particularly realistic, and plagued by typos, it still manages to be a fairly fun game.
Warlock, a card game of dueling wizards, gets avery short and not particularly impressed review. It's probably too expensive for the amount of entertainment provided to be worth it.
A house divided is based around the american civil war, and it yet another reasonably fast moving game to spend an evening on.

Dragonmirth is here. Fineous fingers and what's new are present. Sex and D&D is once again cancelled, this time due to dragon infestation. How are they going to get out of this one? Wormy is absent, obviously superfluous to requirements with this many other dragons around.

The D&D adventure continues. Meet auric, the fighter, Tirra, the elf, and Khellek, the wizard. No cleric or thief? This group is doomed. Well, they are fighting hoards (sic) of creatures, so I guess their enemies they aren't as mobile as they should be.

One of those issues with more than its fair share of forgettable articles. But there's still plenty of interesting stuff in it, particularly in the smaller articles that don't get so bogged down in dull details. And its also nice to see them starting to seriously consider that AD&D might be flawed and need redesigning in some respects. Now all they need to do is convince the rest of the company.

Quote from: (un)reason;307423And this magazine and LARPing got off to such a nice start. Yes, I know people dressing up and running around in public can be a bit embaressing, but they're no more likely to engage in genuine psychotic stuff than tabletoppers. And they get considerably more girls. So stop kvetching.

Minor grammar point: it should be "they get considerably bigger girls"

Dragon Issue 54: October 1981

part 1/2

84 pages. So its another october. However, this time they've mostly skipped the horror theme for business as usual. Several other significant things take place in this issue, however. Read on and discover, my friends.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter supporting their decision to do artist profiles and asking people to not expect every article to please them, as they are covering a pretty wide range of stuff.
A letter criticizing issue 52, saying it had hardly anything of use to him. Contrasting opinions as ever.
A letter asking for more articles on medieval weaponry. Don't get them started. Do we really need to hear about the dozens of different kinds of polearms again in exquisite detail?
A long and detailed rant on the lack of realism in the modules they've been publishing, criticizing the fact that they seem to be designed entirely to create a challenge to adventurers and could never exist as a functioning location with a proper ecology. Oh man, you're opening a can of worms here. A battle that will wage throughout the decades, and consume many in its throes. One of the most fiercely fought fronts of the war of gamism vs simulationism. One that still wages to his day. Which side will you join?
A letter criticizing them for not publishing their so called regular articles regularly enough, as they frequently skip months. They respond by saying if things were too regular, they'd get bored. And they don't want that.

Down-to-earth divinity: Well hello again, Mr Greenwood. What have we here? The very first mention of Elminster the sage in these hallowed pages? The second mention of the forgotten realms by name, and the details of the Torilian pantheon. (who are mostly as they have remained, deaths, usurpations, and metaplot silliness aside, but also includes several extra guys from preexisting sources, such as Aslan (yeah, there's no way that's going to make it into the official books) at this point.) This is a very significant article indeed in historical terms, revealing tons of stuff about the current state of the D&D multiverse as a whole, and Ed's own world (drow are legendary and virtually unknown on the surface world in the Realms? Ahahahahaha. Robert Salvadore has a lot to answer for. )  It's also pretty good on its own merits, offering you solid advice on how to create a pantheon for your own game. Portfolios, racial demographics, relationships with other deities. You've got to consider this stuff. Ed obviously has, and that's why his world managed the depth it has.

Ruins: The midpoint between dungeoneering and wilderness adventuring, ruined cities provide a rich seam of places to explore (and loot) in their own right. But you do need to design them quite differently from dungeons. This article contains an extensive list of the things and monsters you're most likely to find there. With a few random tables, of course. While technically system free, it is heavily tied into D&D's implied setting, with sages, assassins, and wizards towers. Still, seems like it should be usefull.

These are the Breaks: Weapon breakage rules. Another thing that'll mostly irritate your players if you introduce it. Will you hurt yourself? Will it fly off and hit another PC. Oddly enough, it's got no chance of hurting a member of the other side, which seems a little weird. Combined with the probabilities. (4% chance of something going horribly wrong every single attack) I really don't think this is very well designed, and would make combat altogether too farcical. Do you really want the benny hill theme music to be the most appropriate scene setter to your dramatic battles?

Larger than Life: This month's near pantheon is the righteous robbers of Liang shan po. Led by sung chiang, the 36 stars of heaven, and the 72 stars of earth, 5 of which are fully statted up;  they seem occupy a similar place to robin hood and his men, only with more wuxia special powers. A little less overpowered than last issue, they still all have several stats at 18 each. Facing them would be a serious challenge for even the most powerful party.

Sage advice is the only column giving a token nod to the usual october horror theme.
If a golem is decapitated, is it still functional (oh yes. It can even breathe on you. Be very afraid)
How exactly do you become a lich ( there are plenty of variants on the process. You don't have to use Len's version. Larva are not neccecarily essential. )
What undead are harmed by sunlight (vampires are the only ones destroyed by it. Others are just weakened by it, and avoid it where possible. )
Can detect evil detect a polymorphed demon. (evil things still show up as evil, no matter what shape they use. ) You need other spells to hide or disguise your spiritual nature.
Are asmodus' rod or geryons horn artifacts? How many charges do they have? (no, they aren't. The usual number, but they can recharge them, so if you don't take them down in one encounter, you're in the shit.
Can magic resistance be reduced to a negative number if your level is high enough. If so what effects would that have? (No. Zero is as low as you can go.)
How do you kill a vampire with wooden stakes? Can you kill them without them? (through the heart, you dolt. Have you learned nothing from pop culture. That or sunlight. Conventional weapons will not stop them for good. And no, you can't create holy water inside another creatures body. )
Do undead breathe? (no)
Can paladins and high level monks get lycanthropy (yes. Magical diseases can overpower magical resistances. )
Do iron/silver weapons damage demons/devils even when they need pluses to hit them (yes. It's a special vulnerability. Take advantage of it, because you'll need it with all the powers they have. )
(when someone with a strength bonus attacks a skeleton with a piercing weapon, do they add their strength(yes, but before the halving takes place)
Are fiends immune to sleep and charm (most of them aren't technically, but your odds of actually getting through their resistances are pretty slim)
What happens when a succubus drains an energy level (same thing that happens when undead drain an energy level. Kiss goodbye to all that experience, those spells, those hit points. )  

Giants in the earth: What?! Oookay, looks like they haven't replaced giants in the earth, but supplemented it. Which means double the dose of overpowered mythological and fictional characters this month. Man, this is irritating. Anyway, this months characters are E.R. Eddison's four lords of demonland, and Ursula LeGuin's Gaveral Rocannon.

Dragon Issue 54: October 1981

part 2/2
 
Dragons's bestiary: Boggarts (are missing their name at the top, so you have to read the description to figure it out. Probably another prank on their part) are the usual malicious faerie types. Not particularly dangerous in combat, but a pain in the ass to catch up too and hit.
Stroan are weird insect thingies with several interesting special powers. Another thing with an extensive amount of ecology, and even religion, they seem a prime subject for developing further. Shame that never happened.
Incubi are another monster that should be completely obvious, and are just an excuse to give us succubi with slightly higher combat stats. Demons are not an equal rights society. :rolleyes:

Beware the Jabberwock: Ha. D&D stats for this particular fictional monster. Which obviously requires a bit of extrapolation by the developer. And as ever, once you've given something stats, it seems a good deal less scary (apart from hecatoncheires) and wondrous. The designer seems unsure if he should be explaining the surreality of the original source, or exploiting it. And as a result, it fails to enthrall.

Thieves guild designers notes: The creators of the system and magazine talk about their intents for the system and plans for future products. Loose leaf books that you reassemble yourself? Another experiment that will pass into history unlamented. Another bit of interesting historical perspective here.

The dragon's augury: Thieves guild also gets reviewed here. Focussed around, well, the class that you would expect, and scenarios for them, it is both more and less complex than D&D in various ways. I suppose it might not be as focussed as some modern indie games, but it's certainly a step down that path.
Barbarian prince is a solo adventure game in which you reclaim your kingdom. It offers rather more freedom of choice than most pick your path games, and offers a rather more badass protagonist. The reviewer seems to rather like it.

Cavern quest is this months module, a 14 page solo tournament adventure. And it is a horrible railroad, in which you can't help taking damage, it's just a matter of how much. I suppose when there's no GM, you can't manage the same freedom of choice.  

Fiction: Abomination, by D. Aaron Achen. A great story of the healing of a corrupted swamp, from the point of view of the sentient patch of land. Some great imagery here, and a real sense of atmosphere and dynamic tension, as you're never sure who you should be supporting. I really like this one.

Minarian Legends: This month, Glenn talks about the pirates of Rombune. More interesting setting detail in what is becoming one of the most filled-in settings of the era.

Cash and carry for cowboys: Glenn Rahman gets a second article published straight away, expanding on the equipment list for boot hill. Because players always want things that the rulebooks don't think of. This'll take you all the way from derringers to tombstones.  (because you wouldn't just leave dead PC's to rot, would you, and burials are expensive. ) Another one of those articles that may be useful, but still makes for dry reading.

Simulation corner: Part 3 of their series on game design. They further tackle the subject of realism, and how to apply it. Obviously true realism is impossible. And a lot of the time people synonymize realism with quality when reviewing games, even though that is not the case. Historical accuracy and realistic physics are also not neccecarily linked. I am not overly enthralled.

Bazaar of the Bizarre: 13 more Quaals feather tokens. Quite the useful little pieces of kit, aren't they. People ought to appreciate them more. Plus two magical maces, and an undead trapping bottle. Careful with the last one. Letting things out without the power to control them is always problematic.

The electric eye: Another quiz this month, this time about the history of computers and how they work. As ever, much of this stuff is seriously outdated. Which is only interesting if you care about the minutinae of old computers.

Whats new's infestation of dragons has spilled over into the entire damn issue, amusingly. How many are there lurking throughout the magazine? Try and figure it out. Growf growf.

Orcwardness: Another parody article about the more irritating idiosyncracies of certain gamers. Nothing you haven't seen already, probably.

Dragonmirth has more dragon related jokes.

Wormy introduces the book-eating pterodactyl, another character who would somehow become a regular in this crazy soap opera. How did Dave Trampier come up with this stuff?

Fineous fingers' plot is brought to a rather abrupt close as JD leaves for Adventure Gaming magazine, to work with Tim again. Everyone sighs, some with disappointment, some with relief that they no longer have to deal with such a flaky columnist. At least he gets the chance for a proper goodbye, unlike the other comics that were unceremoniously cut. (yeah, I'm still not amused about that) His story isn't over yet.

A purple worm busts into A D&D Adventure this month.

Another issue with articles ranging from the sublime to the utterly tedious. One thing's for sure, with JD gone, and Elminster on board, its not going to be the same from now on. We've just taken a big step away from old skool to, if not the current generation, a different one anyway. How soon these things happen. Soon we'll be nostalgic for the old ways, even with all their flaws and unreliability.

Dragon Issue 55: November 1981

part 1/2

84 pages. We get another look at their second class mailing figures this month. And this time the scan is legible. Their current circulation is up to 60,000 as of last month, with average printings per magazine over the last year of 45,000. Which means they've approximately doubled their readership again. Pretty good. They also welcome a new addition to the staff, congratulate another one on getting married, and look forward to the D&D sales blitz this christmas. It should be a good one for TSR. How many of you guys got your roleplaying start as part of a christmas present?

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A letter criticizing the monk articles in issue 53, and asking for more separation between roleplaying fluff and design crunch.
A letter complaining about all the errors and inconsistencies in the D&D books, but also wishing that people wouldn't argue so much about which game was best or worst.
A letter of generalized praise. Always room for one of them to get published.
A letter encouraging playing with players expectations, not letting them know exactly what is going on statistically with their characters and the things that they face.
Another letter decrying ridiculously overpowered characters. Rather a stock selection this month, isn't it.

Fiend folio Findings: Ed Greenwood expresses his disappointment with the latest tome of monsters, calling it inconsistent in tone, lacking in setting integration, full of silly names, unclear in description on many monsters, and a whole bunch of other unappealing things. Alan Zumwalt is a somewhat more satisfied customer, enjoying the illustrations, but wishing there were more extra planar monsters, stuff from magazines made official, and fewer rehashed hybrids. Finally, Don Turnbull, the guy primarily responsible for the book, gives his rebuttal. He didn't put monsters from recent Dragon or White Dwarf issues in because the book has been completed and in legal limbo for 2 years before they could get it published. Some of the things that you found unclear are in there, you just needed to look closer. And monsters with unpronouncable names are perfectly justifiable, particularly if it's what they call themselves. But yeah, there are some things he wishes he'd done better. Pleasing to see Dragon isn't afraid to call out the flaws in TSR's products. It's good evidence that they still aren't just a house organ.

New theories for old monsters: Dinosaurs! One of those things that blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy when included. This article gives stats for lots of them, including all the usual suspects, revised in light of new scientific discoveries. What, you want realisticaly accurate dinosaurs in your magical fantasy? I think that should be the least of your worries.

From the sorceror's scroll returns after quite a substantial absence. Gary apologizes for this, and lays out his plans for the future. The temple of elemental evil is delayed again, because he's been busy making this year's tournament module (the lost caverns of tsojcanth. Another one many of you will remember fondly) Lost of other greyhawk stuff is in the works, including city and castle of greyhawk. Lets hope you don't suffer so many delays on those. We also get a reiteration of the Oerth racial groups from issue 52, with some more stuff on their favoured dress and other little details. Which is pretty interesting. Looks like he's finally realized there's a market for full-on world building, and is working to make up for lost time.

Robin hood and his merry men get statted up. Not under the Giants in the earth or the Larger than life banner, curiously enough. I wonder if that means we'll be getting three helpings of twinked-out NPC's this month? That would be rather excessive, and not pleasing at all.

The coming of the sword: Niall's 9th story in the magazine is a prequel, telling the tale of how he acquired his signature sword. Which means no dubious demon goddess to tell him what to do, and no army to help him out when things go south. Instead, he falls in with an also pretty dubious mage-queen, ands goes adventuring in search of her ancient abandoned kingdom. Is this commentary on his personality or a persistent psychological quirk of the author behind him? Either way, it's fairly amusing.

The creature of rhyl: This month's mini-module is our first that is explicitly for basic D&D rather than AD&D. Not that it makes that much difference really. This is a rather odd module, in that the dungeon complex is largely abandoned, yet there are tons of magical items hidden around the place. This means that as long as they can survive (or avoid) the rather tough final encounter, this is a good place for low level characters to power up. It'll definitely be a change of pace compared to the caves of chaos. But if more dungeons were like this the game would get dull very quickly.

The electric eye: Another really short article from mark this month, as he gives the answers to last months quiz. So short, in fact, that I have nothing else to say on the matter.

Martian metals' advert is upside down (ie, the right way up) this month. Blame Tim Kask for that, as they say in the advert itself.

Quote from: (un)reason;298818The Dragon Issue 23 : March 1979

It weighs What?!!!: Armor and weapons were designed for effectively fighting in and with. Any game designer or GM (yes, you SPI) saying otherwise and trying to stop you from doing basic things like stand up from lying down or getting on and off a horse on grounds of "realism" is being silly. I suspect that they'll have to debunk this persistent myth again, since it showed up here recently as well. When will people learn.

[singing]

C'est moi, c'est moi, I'm forced to admit,
'Tis I I humbly reply...

[/singing]

The answer to your question, by the bye, is "never".  I wrote this article before I learned the awful truth that, in all but a very tiny number of exceptional cases, people believe whatever the hell they want to believe.

Apparently 'platemail' isn't meant to be 'knight in armour' armour. The Rules Cyclopedia has 'suit armour', which it says is "the type of armour associated with the knights of high romance" and has great restrictions on movement (specifically standing up from lying down and getting on a horse, as it happens).

However I don't know if they made that clear before then, so possibly their own fault.

Dragon Issue 55: November 1981

part 2/2

The many ways of getting away: Yes, you can't win every fight. So sometimes, even the best adventurers have to retreat, if they want to live to advance another level. This article is mainly a list of the various magical items that increase your mobility, and their varying optimality in aiding your escape attempts. Will you run, fly, climb, swim, teleport, or even go extraplanar? Best to have as many options as possible, because you know some monsters'll be able to bypass each of those methods. And remember, a party is only as fast as its slowest member, unless you don't mind leaving them behind to be eaten. A fairly well thought out article, that properly considers the range of special abilities available to D&D characters. Not much use for other games though, considering how tied to D&D physics its calculations are.

Filling in skills: Someone has noticed how glacial the rate of advancement in play is in traveller, and how rigid the career system is. And discontented with the situation, they set out to fix it. So he steals and adapts the check rules from BRP to create a system which allows for a decent advancement rate, but gets harder the higher your current skill is. He also discusses going from one service to another, and which ones make logical sense to be combined. A pretty good article that I would probably allow in a game, as it seems to open up quite a lot of options to the game, and fixes a serious problem in the original design.

Minarian Legends: This months legends is indeed rather legendary, focusing on the various mysterious ruins scattered throughout minaria. Dare you go to the altars of greystaff and invoke  forbidden magics there? Or summon the ghost troops from the lost city of Khos. Or brave the curses of the tombs of olde to get the treasures within. A bit of a grab bag of short articles, this goes several more steps towards establishing just how full a setting minaria is. It certainly seems to cover all the fantasy bases.

Dragon's bestiary: Devil spiders are another monster that is not actually from another plane, but are still pretty damn annoying. Still, at least they don't have an instadeath bite. That would ruin the fun of trying to rescue your companions from their web traps.  
Surchur are tentacle headed monsters. Thankfully, all their tentacles are resolved as a single hit, rather than getting 8 separate attacks like certain monsters (yes, you, carrion crawlers) so they shouldn't be too much trouble for a well equipped party to deal with.  
Dyll are bloodsucking swarms of flying leeches. I'm sure they'd get on great with pirahna bats. Use your area effect attacks to take them down, because they sure do come in large swarms. Swatting them will not work well.
Poltergeists are the ghost of gnomes coming back from Limbo to cause chaos. Ok, that's one way to tie them into the D&D cosmology a bit more. It won't stick, though.

Simulation corner turns its eye on the concept of State of the Art again. Should this be used to define the current limits, or the present standard? This gets bogged down in niggling. As is often the case in these extended series, it seems to be sagging in the middle. You could have cut this out and we wouldn't have missed it. We don't need more pontification about the non linear method of advancement in technologies based upon subjective judgements.

The Dragon's Augury: Universe is a new sci-fi roleplaying game. While not bad, it is probably too complex, and not rich enough in setting to supplant traveller.
Third reich gets a third edition. Rather a bigger change this time around than the switch from 1st to 2nd. Covering both small scale tactics and large scale strategy and logistics, it covers the entire flow of WWII without forcing games to all go the way of the real history. With clearer writing and heavily reworked airial combat, the reviewer seems to think that most of the changes are good ones.
Kim also turns his eye to a bunch of general gaming accessories. Spellbinders are designed for storage of your character sheets and stuff. Magne=Melee is a magnetic grid marker system. (I don't really think they explain this properly. I'd have to see this to properly make sense of this. ) Dragonbone is an electronic random die roller, that seems to be pretty reliable. And finally, we have an official AD&D paint set, composed of 54 official AD&D colours, so you can paint your monsters in exactly the same hues that the designers intended. Er, right. Thanks for that, I guess. (Way to restrain our creativity.)

Figuratively speaking: Dragons, doors, a manticore. spaceships, aliens and gorillasaurs. This is what's on show this month, in the column on miniatoures. (ow, that's a terrible rhyme.)

Da letter: A comic strip by Larry Elmore, in the same style he would later use for Snarfquest. Is he going to get properly paid? Or will he get what he deserves? Don't expect to see, because this is just a one-shot. You'll have to wait a little longer for something to replace Fineous Fingers to show up.

Wormy, What's new and the rest of dragonmirth are present. Once again, Sex and D&D is postponed. Don't try and fight a mini's battle on a waterbed, because leaks will ruin your game.

My, what a wholesome looking family that is advertising the Dungeon! boardgame. I bet they sit down together and eat a proper roast dinner every sunday.
   
A very easy to get through issue, with a low ratio of duff articles. (normally, I wind up spending loads of time trying to finish the dullest few articles in an issue. Not this time, thankfully.) The D&D supplement mill has had another classic book added to its list, although they certainly don't seem to think so at the time. Hindsight is a funny thing. Can they top this for their christmas issue? Lets see.

Quote from: (un)reason;308403Minarian Legends: This months legends is indeed rather legendary, focusing on the various mysterious ruins scattered throughout minaria. Dare you go to the altars of greystaff and invoke  forbidden magics there? Or summon the ghost troops from the lost city of Khos. Or brave the curses of the tombs of olde to get the treasures within. A bit of a grab bag of short articles, this goes several more steps towards establishing just how full a setting minaria is. It certainly seems to cover all the fantasy bases.

According to Wikipedia, there's supposed to be a new edition of Divine Right coming out which will include all the Dragon articles. but I'm not sure how firm a plan it is.

Quote from: Age of Fable;308489According to Wikipedia, there's supposed to be a new edition of Divine Right coming out which will include all the Dragon articles. but I'm not sure how firm a plan it is.

It's been out for a while.  IRC BoardGameGeek has some info on the new edition.

Dragon Issue 56: December 1981

part 1/2

84 pages. Phil and Dixie make it onto the cover this issue, in another amusing christmas themed cover. Growf. Apart from that, it's curiously low on festivity this year, with no page expansion, and only a couple of remotely connected articles. Actually, they've been a bit sloppy about their event celebrations in general this year. I guess they think we'll get bored if they cover the same topics every year. Still, it's not as if they're actually short on stuff. Lets see what we have got instead of griping about what we haven't.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: A pretty short letters section this issue. We start with two contrasting letters as often, one approving the changes made to the monk in issue 53, and the other disapproving, saying the changes were unneccecary.  
A letter saying Dragon is over priced, and they ought to split it into a D&D magazine and a non D&D magazine. Yeah, that'd make them more money :rolleyes:
A letter engaging in minor quibbles about Lew Pulspher's article on heraldry in issue 53.

Singing a new tune: Looks like this month it's bards turn to get a good looking over. This article essentially presents a new bard class, without the weird class switching baggage. The author eschews thieving abilities in exchange for illusionist magic, and adds a whole bunch of other little tweaks that he hopes will make the class a better designed one. I'd be quite interested in testing if he succeeded. It certainly seems pretty well written and thought out. It may well be overpowered, though.

Sage advice is also concentrating on bard rules this month, as they seem to like joining in with the issues theme.
Can rangers, paladins or assassins become bards (No. When we say fighter then thief, we mean fighter, then thief. No other combinations. Not the other way round, no diversions.)
Are fighters who intend to become bards limited in their choice of armour (not yet)
Do bards suffer a penalty to thieving abilities when using armour and weapons thieves can't? (Nope. Isn't that cool.)
Can bards use weapons they were allowed to by previous classes, but not as bards (No. Druidic shit forbids it. You wanna keep your spells, stick to your new restrictions. Plan your weapon proficiency selection ahead so you don't waste any. )
How can a bard have 8th level fighting skills as it says in page 181 of the DMG. (if they read that magical manual that increases your fighter level after they switched classes, thus getting round the normal limits. That, and NPC's don't have to abide by the rules PC's do. If your DM wants to make a bard who is also a 27th level half dwarf half githyanki fighter, he is entirely within his rights to do so, so ner. )
Do fighters who dual class keep their exceptional strength.(No. They don't have time to work out enough to keep it anymore. Or something. :waves hand: I can't even be bothered to rationalize this one.)
What are the maximum fighter and thief levels for bards (this is clearly in the books, you morons)
What level do bards cast spells at (= to their level)
Do bards get shapeshifting (Why yes! And all the other druidic special powers at the appropriate level too. How many people remember that? Which is odd given how scary druid special powers are. )
Which is right, the bard class in the best of the dragon, or the one from the players handbook, as they're so different. ( The one from TBOTD was originaly from SR6, more than 3 years before AD&D was published. The new one is the right one, although you could use the old version in a BD&D game if you like. )  

Songs instead of spells: Another bardic article. This presents the idea that it would be more thematic for bards to create magical effects via playing and singing music, rather than the boring casting methods employed by other spellcasters. What a revolutionary idea This article also gives them a custom spell list with a few new spells to replace the straight druid one. They really could do with a few more sound related spells. I guess they have yet to be invented. A fairly decent article, if still rather hampered by the limitations in scope of the era. It is so hard to really think outside the box.

Map hazard, not haphazard: Want more realistic geography in your games? (no thanks) Steal it from the real world! Take proper topographic maps, do a bit of rotating and resizing, and move the buildings around. They'll be more realistic than you could manage without an advanced degree in geophysics. And more detailed than any ordinary map you could create. Yeah, I can see that working. And even great creatives such as tolkien er, borrowed from the real world extensively. The important thing is knowing how to mix and hide your sources. Personally, I'd still prefer to custom create everything myself, but I recognize the practical impossibility of that.

From  the sorceror's scroll: Iuz! Hello and welcome back to Dragon. What has that diabolical half-demon been up too? Same thing he's up to every year. Trying to take over Oerth. Ahh, metaplot. Gary fills us in on the geopoltics of years 575-9 of the oerdian calendar.  That's a lot of warring going on. I suppose that's one of the things that makes Greyhawk a more gritty setting than the Forgotten Realms. Once again, Gary introduces a lot of interesting things that will continue to have an impact for the rest of the setting's history.

Minarian Legends: Dragons and sea serpents and ogres, oh my! The giant monsters of minaria, and their place in the world. Which side are they on, and what part will they play in your game? With so many different factions, no one side, even ones as individually powerful as this, can win on their own. There certainly must be a LOT of different ways they could be combined.

Dragon Issue 56: December 1981

part 2/2

Mad Merc: Our Christmas module this year is a Top Secret one that goes to a full 20 pages. A sequel to Dr Yes, this is another semi-aquatic mission. With jetpacks, more bad pun names, and some terrible fashion choices, this is definitely on the more lighthearted end of the gritty/cinematic scale. Of course, that doesn't neccecarily mean it isn't a challenge. But I can't properly judge that. As ever, any stories of actual play from any of these modules would be welcomed.

Fiction: The doctor, by Robert Dunkle: Oookay. Now that's just nasty. Well done to you Robert, you've just told a genuinely creepy story in just a page and a half. Don't explain why, just show and tell, and present us with a concept that seems all too plausible from a twisted angle and goes right to the bottom of my mental uncanny valley. I seriously hope that this one doesn't give me nightmares.

Ral partha take out a full page colour advert just to wish us merry christmas, without even showing any products. That's ..... nice of them.

Figuratively speaking: This months miniatures are a troll, an ent, a storm giant, and an evil wizard. All get pretty average marks, nothing below 5 or above 8. How am I supposed to think of something interesting to say when the reviewer is being so conservative?

Dragon's bestiary: Shroom are annoying dog-bear things that like to kidnap people and ransom them for honey or whatever else they feel like at the time. Use them if you want a slightly more lighthearted break in your adventuring.
Colfel are weird looking creatures from the negative material plane. Which means they get energy draining attacks. So beware. Another interesting creature that would fill out the ecology of an underinhabited plane. At least, if they had shown up again.
Gem vars are another construct created by wizards. One of those creatures that eschews the standard hit point system in favour of exception based design that makes them a nuisance to kill. And careful how you do it, otherwise you'll damage the valuable materials they're made of, and won't be able to sell them for so much. They probably would be /nerfed/ standardised in later editions.

The dragon's augury: Survival/The barbarian is a packaged set of two short board games, that can be played solitare or in a small group. Both are fairly high on randomness, and probably won't hold up to lots of repeated play.
Dawn of the dead is a board game based off George Romero's movies. You know the drill. Find weapons, kill zombies, avoid having your brain eaten.
The argon gambit/Death station is another double adventure set for traveller. Both are fairly short, and offer a nice range of challenges within their scenarios. Either can be thrown in fairly easily to an established game when the GM is short of ideas for a session.  
Fighting ships provides lots of really big spaceships for traveller. Unfortunately most of them will be out of the price range of PC's. Still, it gives both players and GM's something to drool over. And trying to get the money for one (or steal one) is the stuff adventures are made of, isn't it.

Off the shelf returns, at last (obviously they needed to build up the supply of submissions for the new column)Other stories and the attack of the giant baby by Kit Reed is nowhere near as silly as its name implies, with lots of darkness mixed with the humour and only one of the stories fails to entertain the reviewer.
Sharras exile by Marion Zimmer Bradley is another novel in the Darkover series. The reviewer is decidedly unamused by her continual denigration and mistreatment of her male characters, but still recognizes the quality of her storytelling.
Too long a sacrifice by Mildred Downey Broxon is a story of two people stolen away by the faeries centuries ago returning to earth .... right in the middle of ireland during the Troubles. (my god, how long ago that seems) Tragedy ensues, as they try to make sense of this new world. No easy solutions through magical macguffins here, in a story that sounds like it would be a good inspiration for Changeling:the Lost.
When trouble beckons by Mike McQuay is a sci-fi detective novel in the raymond chandler mold, with convoluted plot and plenty of internal monologue. It also receives a pretty positive impression from the the reviewer.

A holiday gift guide to lots more books, giving us brief descriptions of 20 recent releases from popular authors. Many of which are still familiar to me now, so I guess they've stood the test of time fairly decently. Others are limited editions, and would have been hard to get hold of even back then. Who'd get those as a present for someone else, unless they were stupidly rich?

Simulation Corner finishes off its series on game design by talking about design philosophy. This is of course, one of the most annoyingly nebulous subjects in existence, along with "where does your inspiration come from?" Still, it is important to be able to apply some level of critical rigour to the design process, particularly where it involves mathematical probabilities and sequences of calculations. I suppose taking the time to think up a philosophy can't hurt. Still, if it doesn't produce playable fun games, all that thinking has gone to waste. Better learn from your mistakes and do better next time.

Thieves guild disguises another advert as a comic. Cheeky.

Wormy meets something that can scare even creatures from hell and god knows where.  Whats new gets to go colour. Dragonmith misses the opportunity to make christmas related jokes.

Another issue packed full of useful stuff. The reviews in particular are definitely improving again, now they've widened their scope, and there are more RPG things being released for them to compare and contrast. This gives me a better idea of the subculture outside RPG's and the related things they thought gamers would be reading and playing. The amount of wargaming stuff seems to be gradually going down though. Do they ever make an active decision to cut it out, or is this just a gradual loss of interest that reflects the market shift in general. I guess I'll find out soon enough. On to the next year.

Dragon Issue 57: January 1982

part 1/2

84 pages. Welcome to another year. Once again, they seem to be jiggling up the issue format to keep things fresh. We say goodbye to one long-running column, hello to a few more, and the running order seems to be different this year. Gary is really at the reins again, there's far more concrete setting details, and wargames are fading into the background. Still plenty of stuff on other RPG's, though. Lets enjoy that while we can.

In this issue:

Out on a limb: Ha. A player who independently played a winged character is somewhat peeved about the winged folk, as there are lots of other similarities between his character and them, and he doesn't want to be accused of being a copycat. They tell him not to be ashamed, as the stuff from Dragon is meant to be used anyway.
A letter criticizing the editing and design errors in Cavern Quest. One of which they admit, but the rest they poohpooh, saying he's the one in error.
And that's your lot. Only 2? You people are slipping. Come on, we need more rants.

Modern monsters: Ooh. Welcome to our first attempt at D&D modern, courtesy of Ed Greenwood. He gives us lots of conversions of modern stuff: weaponry, cars, people. Neither side has it too easy, as the adventurers won't know how to use modern equipment, which is considerably more dangerous than medieval weapons, while the modern people have no access to spells. If the adventurers behave as adventurers stereotypically do, there are likely to be a lot of casualties on both sides. As with most of Ed's work, this is very well researched and considered, with proper footnotes and everything. He does err a little on the side of realism over game workability, and concepts such as abstracting machine gun fire don't seem to be common design parlance. But these are minor quibbles in the face of the overall quality.

Leomund's tiny hut: Ha. Len just went to the SCA. Len just went to the SCA. [/taunt] Which means he's back, all bright eyed, bushy tailed and eager to give us new, more "realistic" house rules based upon his observations there. New rules for shields and weapon proficiency training. With lots of tables. Seems pretty similar to his usual modus operandi. Pass me the glasses with eyes painted on so I can snooze through this one.

From the Sorceror's scroll: Gary continues his trip round the greyhawk map, updating us on current events. Another 10 nations get synopses of the recent geopolitical happenings between them. Ice barbarians, snow barbarians, frost barbarians? I guess he can't be accused of creating a monoculture for an area. Even the monsters get to be, if not equal players in D&D geopolitics, important and not all divided up by species.

In search of a james bond: What Top Secret class would James Bond have been in? Multiclassed between three of them actually. Yes, that is distinctly suboptimal by the current rules. I guess he's just that badass. This writer wants to see more of that in his games, so he introduces rules that make that kind of build a bit easier. Which includes an early instance of dramatic editing rules. Very interesting, if of course somewhat overpowering compared to standard characters. But if you want cinematic in a game not equipped for it, I guess you've got to be prepared to make rules hacks if you want to change a game's play experience. I can't really begrudge them this one, when they're trying so hard. (what was the first canon appearance of a metagame luck/fate mechanic? ) Plus it makes running a game for smaller groups easier, and that's always handy.

The rasmussen files is imitating sage advice this month, with merle answering questions about the rules in general.
How do you raise your language fluencies? (as you advance in other Areas Of Knowledge. Or take a course)
When your life is reduced to 0 by a limb shot, do you die (you're unconcious and die from bleeding if not treated in 5 minutes.
How do you determine if a lie to other PC's succeeds? (by roleplaying. No-ones thought of social conflict mechanics yet, and I don't think I'd like that idea anyway. If I'd heard of it, which I haven't.)
How do you maintain continuity when handling multiple teams (with a good deal of personal effort, and possibly some notekeeping. There's no magic secret to it.)
How do you have PC's communicate without revealing their identities? (secret notepassing to and from the GM)
Why don't shots that miss hit bystanders (frankly, my dear, I couldn't be arsed. Here's a rough kludge of a rule if you're really keen to try it.)
Where and what is the Intercept chart (something we cut at the last minute and forgot to remove all the references to. We may put it in Dragon in a future issue.)
What happens if you shoot an unconcious person ( You scumbag. Anyway, if their non-subdual hit points are reduced to 0, they die if not treated, just like normal.)
Can a spy be affiliated with a foreign agency (yup. If they're caught, they're in the shit. But you knew that when you signed up anyway. It's just a matter of which side wants to kill you. )
What's the purpose of each bureau(to use a metaphor, they are all like the various parts of a human body. I'm sure you can work out which. )
What is point blank range (a meter or less)
Should you keep a low profile, or go in guns blazing(Up to you, but we reccomend using intelligence. It is a spy game, after all)
Will top secret get more stuff published (I certainly hope so. I have no shortage of ideas.)
What's thermite (nasty stuff that flares really bright for several seconds. Good for both distractions and melting through solid steel)
What are light intensifier goggles? ( amplifiers for any existing light in the area, so you can see clearly when it's almost dark. Watch out for sudden bursts of light though. )
What are the stats for Shuriken? (:rolleyes: Bloody ninja wannabes. Oh alright, here you go.)
How much damage do knives do? (look at the special knife-fighting rules. Yes, this is exception based design. )
How do you determine animal's offence ratings(you don't. They just have flat to hit and damage bonus'. See the table.)

Quote from: jrients;308581It's been out for a while.  IRC BoardGameGeek has some info on the new edition.

Interesting. Those Minarian Legends articles in Dragon always fascinated me, even though I have yet to actually lay eyes on an actual copy of the game. The setting would make for a good old-school RPG background.