The strategic review 5: December 1975

Up to 16 pages, and we have a proper cover this time, plus a coming next at the end. Its starting to look more and more like the format that they would have for Dragon. More organisational bitching and corresponding price raises. Lankhmar is hinted at, (god, was it really that soon after D&D's release?) as is Gods, Demigods and Heroes. The art hasn't improved in quality that much, but there is considerably more of it. They're definitely still improving every issue at the moment.

This issue contains:

Biographies of the TSR staff. Interesting that Gary is noticeably older than the rest of them. Self depreciating humour abounds.

Crossover time: Nazis vs Necromancers. Not that surprising, really, given the topics they've been covering. If anything, I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner. This is primarily an actual play, but also tells you how to do it yourself with the existing games. The longest article yet, at 4 pages long.

Robe of scintillating color. Prayer beads. More soon to be classic magical items. As ever, they are considerably less balanced than they would later become.

Commiserations on another magazine folding. I get the impression that they may be being sarcastic. Miniatures gaming was a cutthroat business

The battle of the nile refought. Another increasingly detailed article. At this rate there might be more pages, but less interesting articles in this one.

More stats for tractics. If other people were getting as bored of this as I am, its no wonder they split the roleplaying stuff from the wargaming bits.

Another gunslinger profile for Boot Hill.

Rakshasas, Slithering trackers, Trappers. Less iconic monsters maybe, but still ones that I remember, and have survived in various incarnations to today. Rakshasas in particular have the same tremendously annoying traits that they retained all the way to 3rd edition.

The amount of padding and advertising is definitely increasing. Maybe it's just because I did these first five issues in a single day, and I'm flagging, but this one feels less interesting than the previous ones. If slithering trackers had been introcudced in the 1st issue, would they have become iconic in the way mind flayers did? Who can say. At this point I'm becoming interested in seeing things I don't remember, that got overlooked and might need reappraisal, because remember virtually everything I've seen so far making it into future books in various forms.

The Strategic Review 6: February 1976

For the first time, this issue remains almost the same in format to the previous one. However, but the matters within feel more significant somehow. Its the first issue that feels like business as usual, in a way. The organisational hassles of previous issues have become more manageable, which means they can actually get more stuff done. Much of this can probably be credited to their new member of staff Tim Kask, who takes over editing, leaving Gary to concentrate on the creative stuff. Good for them.

Contained within:

Alignment starts its change from the single law/chaos (with law strongly associcated with good and chaos with evil) axis, to the nuanced field of morals and ethics that we know and love (or in many cases hate ) from every subsequent edition until the latest. (grumble mutter mutter) There's still some serious kinks in it. There's only 5 proper alignments, with true neutrality presented as rare, and primarily only inhabited by druids, animals, and other amoral creatures. Meanwhile, the other alignments get a more complex grading that never caught on, with 16 different ratings of good/evil and 22 of law/chaos that all have proper  nouns rather than numbers, and allow you to move up and down gradually. Elysium is the plane of ultimate chaotic good, while Humanity in Gygax's mind is a largely lawful race, not the unaligned occupiers of every alignment equally or mostly neutral with a significant minority of other alignments (depending on who you listen to) they would later be presented as. As someone who takes great interest in questions of both game and real world ethical constructs, this is very interesting stuff indeed, worthy of a thread in itself. One of the reasons I started this was to find forgotten gems that show the alternate ways the game could have gone, and this system makes me want to run a campaign featuring it's quirks and the logical extensions of those quirks as strong features.

A review of fanzines. We get a shout-out to Games Workshop, still distributing RPG's themselves at this point, and another annoying rating system using titles rather than numbers, yet is still effectively a numerical rating system.

Our first piece of actual fiction. The quest for the vermillion volume by Rob Kuntz. We get a case of wizard that is aware of modern day earth pop culture via their plane scrying/hopping antics (something I seem to remember Ed Greenwood becoming very fond of in his Elminster tales later on. ) In less than 2 pages it manages to be a fairly entertaining little story, in which an elf is very much not a mysterious uberbeing but instead gets outclassed and humiliated at every turn.

A piece pimping Fight in the skies, another wargame.

A list of DMs, to help people find a game. The kind of thing that would be handled by the internet now much faster and more conveniently. Makes me vaguely curious how many of these people are still alive, at the same address, and gaming. Not that I'm gonna get on a plane and try and find out, as that would just be creepy.

Bards! Oh yes, We're cooking with class bloat now. While they don't have the weird prerequisites to get into the class that they will in 1st ed AD&D, and the ability score requirements are less stringent and absolute, they are otherwise pretty similar in most respects, with about half strength thieving and magic-user (not druid, for some reason, despite their social connection being explicitly spelled out) abilities, decent fighting skills, plus their own lore and charm abilities, and the odd college system where they get a new title every 3 levels. Unlike the classes introduced in previous issues, they go all the way to 25th level, and get extensive detail on their followers. Like rangers, they probably are a bit overpowered, especially as they lack the strong behavioural restrictions rangers have to put up with. The various magical instruments that correspond with the colleges get introduced here as well, which is convenient.

Optional nerves rule for boot hill. Seems like another case of extra modifiers that would add realism at the expense of fun and speed of play.

Sage Advice gets its name, and becomes a formal column. Only small so far, and not in the answers to letters format that would become more familiar, but still fulfilling the same basic function.

Another familiar refrain, that that modern games are too big and complex for the casual gamer, and that their new game (Ancient conquest) cuts through all that and combines simplicity with emergent complexity. To which I am torn between smirking and sighing, knowing how much D&D will bloat over coming decades.

This is a lot more interesting than the last issue, and presents a lot of stuff that would have controversial reprecussions in the future. While still tiny, they're now making those tentative steps towards becoming a proper professional organization producing prolific amounts of product. (use a pop shield if saying that into a microphone ) Which is enjoyable to see.

Quote from: (un)reason;293876A list of DMs, to help people find a game. The kind of thing that would be handled by the internet now much faster and more conveniently. Makes me vaguely curious how many of these people are still alive, at the same address, and gaming.

I was listed in one of the early lists and was at that address listed (and gaming) until I moved in 2004. I actually got couple of inquiries based on that listing right after TSR released the Dragon CD-ROM collection. I was amazed that people would try a 20+ year old address. LOL.

Quote from: RandallS;293886I was listed in one of the early lists and was at that address listed (and gaming) until I moved in 2004. I actually got couple of inquiries based on that listing right after TSR released the Dragon CD-ROM collection. I was amazed that people would try a 20+ year old address. LOL.

Somebody needs to do a mail-out to all the addresses. Enclose a SSAE and just ask a few questions about their gaming. Even one response could make for an interesting story.

The strategic review 7: April 1976

The last issue. We get our first taste of colour on the cover, and the size and price increases again, to 24 pages and $1. A 4fold increase in only a year. I find it amusing that if you put all 7 strategic review issues together, they are still smaller than a single issue of dragon at its heyday (for those of you who are wondering, the largest issue ever is 170 pages long. Which one it is, I shan't reveal yet though.)
They start off by announcing the demise of TSR ( ) and its successors, Dragon, and Little Wars (whatever happened to that? Oh well, I guess I'll probably find out in a while) to be published on alternating months, and their new staff. (Dave Sutherland, oh yes, we're talking iconic here) This is exciting stuff, and I have to wonder how people reacted at the time. Hopefully the letters page will be apprearing soon so I can find out. Anyone who was there at the time, I want to hear your comments as well.  

This issue also contains.

Gary explaining the vancian magic system, why he designed it that way, and taking potshots at powergamers and people who don't use the rules as written. He admits that despite attempts to balance them, magic users are probably still the most powerful class in the game, especially once they get magic items. I get the impression I'm going to be seeing a lot more of this. Oh well, I knew what I was getting myself into.

Snark between the various companies at gencon and origins. Ahh, dirty laundry, how we love to see thee aired.

A full page advert. Supplement III eldritch wizardry coming soon, featuring druds, (ha ha, they misspelled the advert) psionics, new monsters and lots of other stuff. Doing this is really giving me a picture of the order the D&D classes appeared.

Stats for lots of TV gunslingers for boot hill. Another thing that would be harder to get away with today, thanks to copyright shit.

A comic, Dirt. Simple little 3 panneler. Meh.

Wouldya like to take a survey. There's a $1 store credit slip in it for you. Things weren't that cheap even then so you'd have to spend more money to take advantage of it. Nice work if you can get it.

Gencon 1976, special guest Fritz Lieber. Not surprising, since they're making a game of his books. Still, 2 full page ads in quick sucession, they're really upping the commercial content.

Fiction: What price gold and glory, by Jim Hayes. An unremarkable little encounter tale featuring a werebear and a pixie as the protagonists.

GM advice on town building. This is system free, and the kind of stuff that is still relevant today.

Magical items: The cup and talisman of akbar (no al yet, curiously) staff of the priest kings and the brazen bottle. All familiar to me, and are the sort that seriously change the power dynamics in the game. Give to your players with caution.

Centerfold spread of the Dungeon game store. There really ought to be a way to format pdf's as two page spreads, as it makes things like this a hassle to view properly.

More on the conflict between origins and gen con, and about attempts from the established wargaming crowd to marginalize the new pen & paper gaming style. Another case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. And once again there's the air of you can't stop the new ideas. We know we've got something good and are going to spawn lots of imitators oh baby

Finally, a monster I don't recognize. The denebian slime devil. I can see why this one never caught on, as it's basicaly an unkillable comic relief annoyance monster. The catoblepas, I do recognize however, with its weird combination of weak neck and instakill gaze.  Goes to show what players and GM's prefer. DEATH BEFORE HUMILIATION!!!

A third page full of adverts.

A boring essay on the use of missile weapons in historical warfare.

Optional rules giving thieves 18% dexterity scores(a la fighters exceptional strength) which give them bonuses to their thieving skills. Another one I've never seen before and obviously didn't catch on. Frankly 18% strength was arbitrary and dumb enough. We don't need it applied to other abilities as well.

Lots of tekumel stuff. Interesting that easily the best setting stuff in the early days is coming from here. Whatever happened to M.A.R Barker?

An essay by Gygax on what constitutes successful gamemastering. As expected it is quite oriented towards competitive play, chastising GM's who let their players advance level too quickly, and encouraging strict enforcement of timekeeping rules. We also get our first estimation of proper advancement time. According to Gary, it should take about a year of weekly gaming to get to name level, and then characters should gain around 2-3 levels a year after that, so overall, getting to 20th level should take around 4-5 years. So yeah, things have definitely got a lot more slanted in the players favour since then. I suppose since they make up more than 80% of the group at any one time, social pressure would make it happen sooner or later.

With the rapid expansion, there's finally room for things to slip between the cracks, and me to see stuff I haven't before. As a result, this issue definitely feels less consequential, despite (or perhaps because) its the last one. But It's a good deal less dull than issue 5, and as the intermediate between formats, it feels significant historically.

This makes me happy. I thought there'd be at least one or two people out there who'd fit the bill, simply due to statistics. It's just a matter of casting my net wide enough that they become aware of this project.

Quote from: RandallS;293886I was listed in one of the early lists and was at that address listed (and gaming) until I moved in 2004. I actually got couple of inquiries based on that listing right after TSR released the Dragon CD-ROM collection. I was amazed that people would try a 20+ year old address. LOL.

Now, the big question is, did you reply? And did you get to do any gaming as a result of it.

Quotegary explaining the vancian magic system, why he designed it that way, and taking potshots at powergamers and people who don't use the rules as written.

n.b. – 1976

Quote from: (un)reason;294066 Now, the big question is, did you reply? And did you get to do any gaming as a result of it.

I replied but never heard back.

The Dragon issue 1: June 1976

So here we are. The prelude is over, the warming up has finished, It's time to begin running this marathon in earnest. At 32 pages and $1.50, they expand yet again. Some terrible color choices here. Pale yellow-green text on bright pinky-orange background does not make for legible teaser text. While the art is better than the  last SR issue, there is still extensive amounts of white space on the cover, and the dragon looks somewhat cartoonish. But then again, I seem to remember seeing early 80's books with similar art, so I suspect that style will be with us for quite a while.

It opens with an editorial spelling out their new intentions - to cease being a house organ (which of course they did successfully for over 20 years before WotC swallowed them up again) but instead to cover the whole roleplaying scene. Rates for articles and artwork coming next issue. Another massive historical change is the need for stamped self addressed envelopes. In this era of ubiquitous computers and quick easy copying, we forget that only a few decades ago, you had to make every copy of an amateur work yourself, and often people would send off their only copy to places.

In this issue:  

Fafhrd and the grey mouser give their idiosyncratic opinion on roleplaying and the idea of other people playing in their world. A classic of the "pretend that characters are real in another dimension, and the author is merely writing down their stories" trope that would be used by many D&D authors in the future.

Dirt comic continues.

Converting the battle of the 5 armies from the hobbit to chainmail.

A decidedly arcane method of determining odds of success at a general task based on your attribute. Yeah, I can see why this one never caught on, compared to the simple roll d20 under attribute, possibly with modifiers, that most of us used.

Putting superscience into D&D: No real discussion of logistics or the cool issues that could arise from this here. Essentially just an excuse for jim ward to give us a load of  *cough*magic*cough technological devices with a vague backstory about atlanteans. Hey, its a trick that'll work three decades later in Mage. Don't knock it.

Some discussions on language in D&D. Does feel very dated, and suffers somewhat from the humans are the only race with different languages problem. Features a cleric who was granted the ability to speak Were-St-Bernard, but who has never actually met a Were-St-Bernard to speak it too, which says it all really.

Fiction: The search for the forbidden chamber by Jake Jaquet. The trope of wizards with metaawareness continues in this silly little tale, featuring a recyclosarus, and whole load of other references and in-jokes.

A 4 page spread of tournament rules for Gen-con 9 by Len Lakofka.

Bullettes! Another monster that barely changed at all throughout editions, Cause what's not to love about a shark that can burrow through the ground with its fin out and then leap out and rip you to shreds. Plus it doesn't have any mechanical kinks that need nerfing, just straightforward combat skills.

Hints on mapping wilderness areas. Another thing that seems to have reduced in focus in recent years, but is still good advice that is still valid now.

An expansion for illusionists by Peter Aronson, bringing them up to 14th level and 7th level spells. Introduces those lovely annoyances color spray, phantasmal killer and dispel exhaustion, among others. Now you know who to blame.

Expansions for Royal armies of the hyperborean age, and Dungeon!

Pimping for "Classic warfare", "Citadel", and "White bear and Red Moon".

Fiction: The Gnome Cache by Garrison Ernst. The first piece of fiction set in Oerth, and immediately I learn some stuff about it I never knew before. Ends on a too be continued, and I'm already interested in seeing what happens next, how Greyhawk developed while it was still young and vital.

An attempt to convert LOTR elves to D&D. Sylvan elves are common and magically nerfed, sindar are equal to standard D&D elves, while Noldor are twinked out. As you may gather, there is no attempt at balance at all.

The number of adverts continues to increase, but more welcomingly, the amount of fiction has as well. With the use of articles by freelancers, the tone definitely feels a lot more diverse. There is a quite substantial quotient of silliness, and it's obvious that many readers found the tropes of the day as lampoonable as we do. The days when things like the ecology of monsters and realistic ramifications of spells on society would become discussed are still some time away.

The Dragon issue 2: August 1976

Another step upwards in production values takes place here, a full color cover, and the first internal color art as well. Along with that, the confidence of the editorial staff seems to be growing. They've found a basic formula, and now they're refining it. Quite a few of the regular features are still missing, but they're putting more articles that span multiple issues in now, with the expectation that people are buying multiple successive issues to get the full story. Which means those bugbears Continuity and Metaplot begin their slow growth into the monsters that would entwine their tentacles around and inside the 90's, violating so many peoples play experiences, here.

In this issue.

A formal arena fighting system for monks. Essentially an entirely different system of combat based around selecting a sequence of fighting moves (6 in a row, which reminds me of burning wheels scripted combat.) and then consulting a table which makes certain moves effective or useless against other ones, rock paper scissors stylee, and seeing how each sequence turns out. This is basically its own self contained minigame, and looks like it could be quite fun, as it involves far less luck than regular D&D combat, but more ability to second guess your opponent, and is a lot more tactical. I'd definitely like to try it sometime.

The second installment of The Gnome Cache and the conclusion of the Search for the Forbidden Chamber. The contrast between these two stories is quite striking, when looked at in succession and shows that people were already playing the game with very different tones.

Hints for dungeon construction, with a particular emphasis on traps and tricks. Adventurers should never trust magic items in old-school games. You never know when one of them is going to explode or curse you with something embaressing.

Fiction: Shadow of a demon by Gardner F Fox. Some very old skool (and rather mysogynistic) swords and sorcery, with some wonderfully florid prose. A real guilty pleasure to read. Their habit of continuing articles several pages away in odd columns becomes really irritating when reading in .pdf, however.

Some stuff on Queztalcoatal and aztec culture. Completely systemless, and rather dry.

Remorhaz! With classic Erol Otus artwork!  Another iconic weird D&D monster gets its start here.

Finally, a new class that never caught on. The alchemist. That perennial problem of being too dependent on downtime and components makes them ill suited to adventuring (although someone really could do something that does for alchemists what indiana jones did for archeology, as seeking out rare formulae and components is a very adventurable process) and so that is quite understandable.

More Dirt.

A weapons specialisation and two weapon fighting system. Oh yes, another optional rule granting additional powers with no drawbacks. Not that it really balances fighters in comparison to all the amazing things spellcasters can do at high levels. But we've got to give the fighter players some choice to keep them from getting bored. Otherwise we'd lose our meat shields, and that would be no good now, would it .

An advert for Gods, Demigods and Heroes, billed as "The Last D&D Supplement!?!" (Ahahahahaha!!!!! ahem) Already feel like your're scraping the bottom of the barrel folks? Fear not. You will scrape many a barrel more before your time is up.

Lots of good fiction in this one, but the rules stuff isn't as well integrated as in previous issues. Still not a lot of actual setting, just whatever is nececary for the adventure.

The Dragon Issue 3: October 1976

At last! We have a table of contents! Hooray hooray caloo calay! Truly, advancement is made of things that seem utterly obvious and indispensable once you have them. We also have the first letters page actually containing letters from the public, not just more stuff from Gary. However, as a result of these letters they decided that the amount of fiction was too high in the last couple of issues, so they're going to cut down. Have we already seen the high watermark in terms of systemless fiction ratio in Dragon? That was surprisingly quick, since its only been 4 issues since the first story. Or will it creep up again? We shall see.

In this issue:

An article of the death of War of the Empires, a play by post (that's snail mail, not internet message board, just to be absolutely clear) that died abruptly when the creator lost interest and simply stopped answering messages. (an all too familiar tale.) and his attempts to revive it. A reminder that many things we take for granted required huge amounts of effort to make work back then.

Our first Women in D&D article. This one is disastrously snigger-worthy. Typical of the time, there are no roleplaying notes at all, merely a load of tables detailing how female characters differ statistically from male ones. Attractive female characters get "seduction magic" regardless of class among other things, (including the potential for ugly witches to scare their target to death when they try and use it) which I think says it all. Yeah, they'd never have got away with this one even 10 years later, let alone now. Include in your game at your peril.

The search for the gnome cache continues.

Birth tables for D&D. No, not that kind, don't snigger, although given the previous article I wouldn't have been surprised at that. This is just for random generation of social class, siblings, parents occupation and other mundane stuff for people who can't be bothered to make a background themselves, or want to leave it up to chance. Nothing wrong with it, but not particularly brilliant and detailed either.

Comic: The adventures of Finieous Fingers and Fred and Charly by JD. Considerably larger and more detailed than Dirt, but still a pretty simple self-contained premise. We've still got a way to go before we get demented metaplot and in-joke filled stuff like Yamara.

Wargaming world, a collection of miniatures reviews. As I remember seeing those when I was reading first time round, I presume this also becomes a regular feature.

We're starting to get international DM listings in Mapping the Dungeons. Which I guess is significant.

The letters are interesting. We have our first case of fan copying being stamped down upon, (and the resultant outrage) and a tremendously long and pedantic letter about the unbalancedness of an article in a previous issue. Already business as usual then .

6 new classes, including 2 joke ones: Healers, Scribes, Samurai, Berserkers, Idiots and Jesters. In addition, they expand on dwarves abilities and abilities to enter classes. A good reminder of just how low demihuman limits were at this point, even compared to 2nd ed AD&D. The classes are typically wonky, with the healer unable to do any healing until they get to 3rd level, but able to raise dead from 3rd level up as well,  Scribes having a monopoly on spellbook copying, which forces every wizard to pay them exorbitant amounts if they want new spells, and Berserkers having a requirement of an intelligence less than 9. These could definitely have done with some more playtesting and consideration of their ramifications on the world.

Dirt continues.

As you may have gathered, there is a lot of crap in this issue. Fortunately, it's still entertaining crap, that wouldn't make it into future books (as dragon continues to expand, I expect that this will become the norm, and its the stuff that does influence future canon that will become noteworthy.) and so only cause problems for the kind of groups that throw every optional rule in there for the hell of it. And the format continues to grow ever more familiar.

Quote from: droog;294147n.b. – 1976

He grew out of it. When will you?

RPGPundit

This shot is just too easy – so I'm not going to take it.

Instead, Poobutt, I'll leave it up to you to think about what manhood and maturity really mean.

The Dragon issue 4: December 1976.  

Empire of the petal throne special issue.

Our first themed issue, this expands to 36 pages. As you may have noticed tekumel's setting detail has shown to be easily the best available in a game (well, it was still a small field) at this time. The people back then noticed it as well, and the editor goes as far as to call it "superior to middle-earth in matters that concern gamers". Which may be hyperbole, but hey.

This issue contains:

Reports submitted to the petal throne. We see our first case of attempting to integrate peoples campaigns into a larger universe, and the inherent problems that generates with continuity, particularly when some GM's are "overly generous" with advancement. (M.A.R's opinion on this is pretty similar to Gary's, the players should have to work hard for every level they get, and the journey is more interesting than the destination, as high level characters acquire responsibilities with their power that make further adventuring difficult ) He concludes that the simplest solution is to consider all campaigns equally valid parallel universes.
From this point we get lots of adventure hooks and setting detail, presented as reports to the petal throne, and the emperor's reaction to these reports. Which is an interesting way of doing it, and makes it easy for GM's to turn them into adventures. Pretty good stuff overall.

Metamorphosis Alpha! TSR's first science fiction RPG starts here. Vat grown Androids have inflitrated the human tribes. They could be anyone, including the leaders. Only pink fuzzy balls can detect the interlopers and ensure the freedom of humanity! There's a bit more depth than that, but yes, this is a silly setting. Lets not go there. (cue camelot)  

A random encounter table for tekumel.

The battle of the temple of Chanis. More dense, information heavy stuff combining setting overview with in character narration to give you an excellent snapshot of an event and the culture that surrounds it.

Monsters for Tekumel. The inscrutable, hermaphroditic, shapechanging Mihalli, and the Viragga, which are essentially organic squid/tank hybrids with lots of tentacles. As with other stuff, a lot more attention is placed upon their behaviors and place in the world than contempory D&D monsters.

An update on the joke monsters described in SR3. Beware the ring of wedding and Bi-labial fricative. Really. Don't say you weren't warned.

Fiction: Roads from Jakalla by Jerry Westergaard. Nice to see some tekumel stuff that isn't by M.A.R, as his distinctive tone does get a bit dull in large quantities.

They said Dirt was cancelled for space reasons in the editorial, and yet here it is. Guess there was a bit more room at the last minute than they expected.

Wargaming world: Lots of staple low level D&D monsters this time around.

A recommended reading by Gary Gygax. Poul Anderson, Tolkien, Lovecraft, Vance, Weinbaum; you ought to know the score by now. Go read them. It'll explain a lot.

Finieous fingers & fred & charly continues to entertain.

Magical Eyes for Tekumel.

The temple of Vimuhla for tekumel. A detailed set of photographs of its construction as a miniatures battleground. This suffers from the poor resolution of the .pdf scans, preventing me from looking as closely as I'd like. I suspect this problem will become more frequent in later issues as the amount of higher quality color artwork increases. Which is a shame.

After this issue, I definitely have a decent idea of what the setting of tekumel was like. Which is a lot more than can be said for greyhawk. Whatever happened to it? When and why did it descend into its current state of publishing limbo. Hopefully I'll find out as I read onwards.

The Dragon issue 5: March 1977

Another year, another change in publishing schedule. Due to it's considerably greater sales, Dragon is moving up to being published 8 times a year, while Little Wars is relegated to quarterly. How long before it reaches the full monthly schedule most of us remember? How long can Little Wars hang on? Do you already know? Will you find out yourself, or wait  and discover it with me. They also ask for more articles on other new RPG's out there, particularly the science fiction ones, as they try and expand. Which reminds me, its almost time for the cultural phenomenon that was Star Wars. The plot thickens.

Anyway. In this issue:

An article on witches. Mentioned in a previous issue, this was sent in without a name or return address, and attempts to establish who it was by failed. Despite this they must have liked it quite a lot, (or been short of decent submissions) as they decided to publish it anyway. It pushes the envelope of the current spell system, but in doing so also shows just how much only having one magic system to work from limits the imagination.  

More articles on Metamorphosis alpha. Setting and equipment stuff that was left out of the book due to editing snafus. We'll be seeing more of this in the future as well. Before you had the internet for eratta, you had to go to the magazines, and if you missed the issue, well, hard luck to you.

Ankhegs! Whosa classic little digestive acid spitting worm thing. Yes you are, yesu yesu R! :tickles chin: Ahem. Sorry about that Like the bullette, this is one creature that never fails to provide a fun fight. Strike from below and let them quail in terror.

The letters page is particularly entertaining today. We have a hopelessly ambitious GM seeking 55 sub GM's, each to control 20 players, to run his epic campaign world idea. Yeah, that one's never going to work out. The pedantry about converting tolkien elves to D&D continues, and I suspect, would do so forever if the editors let it.

Dirt is atrociously scanned to the point of being illegible this issue. This is no good at all.

Appearance table for metamorphosis alpha. If you want your characters to look weird in a random fashion, this will do the job, although it doesn't give any mechanical modifiers for these changes.

Beyond the Wizard Fog by Gardner F Fox. The adventures of Niall the barbarian and his mighty thews continue. And he slips further into the power of the demon goddess he interacted with in the last issue. I'm definitely interested in seeing how this develops further

Wizard research rules: These are the sort which make researching a single 9th level spell the kind of thing that would bankrupt a kingdom. I suspect we'll be seeing level advancement training rules which are similarly economically unfeasible sometime soon. Its the kind of thing they liked to invent (and then be ignored by most people) back then. Still it includes rules for making The One Ring, so its not a complete wash.

Gandalf was only a 5th level magic-user. Ah, yes, I know of this one by reputation. Still seems somewhat specious, and relies on the argument that the magical effects that don't have D&D equivilants would translate into low level spells just because they don't seem that powerful. It concludes that D&D is not actually that well suited to emulating Tolkien's world, so its not as if we're dealing with a mad one true wayer here.

The Gnome Cache continues. It is increasingly starting to feel like an actual D&D adventure turned into a story, given the way the plot progresses from one point to another.

They seem to be chugging along nicely here. How quickly will the schedule change to monthly, and the page count bloat to the hundred plus issues that were standard in the 90's? How long before I'm forced to slow down posting due to the bulk of stuff I've got to get through each issue? Will I be able to find decent copies of all the issues I'm missing in time? Lets press onwards, deeper into the adventure.