Dragon 102 (october 1985).pdf

D RAGON

SPECIAL ATTRACTION

Valley of the Earth Mother Designed by Lise Breakey

An AD&D® game adventure for 4th-6th level player characters

Publisher

Mike Cook

Editor-in-Chief

Kim Mohan

OTHER FEATURES

Editorial staff

Patrick Lucien Price

Roger Moore

Art director and graphics

Roger Raupp

Subscriptions

Irene Swan

Advertising

Mary Parkinson

Contributing editors

Ed Greenwood

Katharine Kerr

This issues contributing artists

Dean Morrissey

Larry Elmore

Bob Maurus

Roger Raupp

Jim Holloway

Marvel Bullpen

David Trampier

Joseph Pillsbury

Richard Tomasic

Lance Foster

Edward Wagner

Realms of role playing Gary Gygax

In favor of a different style of gaming: less

acting and more action

All about the gully dwarf Roger E. Moore

The lowest rung on Krynns demi-human totem pole

A collection of canines Stephen Inniss

Changes and additions to the AD&D worlds roster of dogdom

Nine wands of wonder Ed Greenwood

Distinctive new magic items from the Realms

Now thats firepower! Desmond P. Varady

Machine guns and missile launchers for TOP SECRET® play

Creating a cast of NPCs Jim Dutton

How to populate your campaign world quickly

and coherently

Passing in the Night Rob Chilson

A story of combat in outer space with an unseen enemy

DEPARTMENTS

3 Letters

4 World Gamers

Guide

86 Convention calendar

88 Gamers Guide

92 Dragonmirth

94 Snarfquest

6 The forum

90 Wormy

COVER

The Pillage of Tantlin is another in a long line of paintings weve published that

illustrate the imagination and artistic skill of Dean Morrissey, whos being doing art-

work for us since these gnomes were knee-high to a kobold. What will the guy in the

foreground do when he runs out of rocks to step on? Well, hell cross that bridge when

he comes to it. . . .

2 O CTOBER 1985

Is the press

doing its best?

Training a-gain

(The figures we used to assemble our playtest set

would have cost more than $100 if they were

purchased individually) Wed have to produce

components for a board that would be both big

and strong. (The ¼-inch plexiglass we used for

each board level seemed like it would be sturdy

enough, but it developed a permanent sag in the

middle when all the pieces were arrayed on it.

And the raw materials we used for our board cost

about $25 not including the cutting that had to

be done and the holes that had to be drilled.)

Of course, it would be possible to mass-

produce playing pieces and board components for

substantially less than what it cost to make our

playtest set. But I think wed still be talking about

a product that would carry a pretty hefty price

tag. . . too hefty, I fear, for us to consider foisting

on you. KM

Youd think that after all these years,

newspaper journalists would have a better

grasp of the subject theyve been covering

you know, the thing thats loosely

referred to as the D&D phenomenon.

It bothers me more than a little bit to

read (as I did a couple of weeks ago) a

newspaper account of a GEN CON®

convention that was obviously written by

someone who didnt really know what he

was covering before he went and didnt

make a wholehearted effort to understand

what was going on once he got there. It

troubles me to see photo coverage limited

to a group shot of the people who entered

the conventions costume contest, which

implies that you have to dress up like a

druid, a wizard, or a half-orc to get in the

door.

Has anyone ever taken pictures of a

bunch of normally dressed people sitting

around a table having fun playing the

game? Has anyone with any experience in

playing the game and the ability to de-

scribe it accurately ever been assigned to

cover a convention, or does the duty al-

ways go to the guy who loses the coin flip?

Or is it possible that conventions are

sometimes covered by knowledgeable

reporters who write good stories, only to

have them watered down by an editor who

assumes people wont understand, or care

to know about, the details? (Ive been

both a reporter and an editor. Believe me,

it happens.)

For obvious reasons, those of us who

make our livings in the gaming industry

want the public to understand and appre-

ciate what we do and the products we

make. Sure, Ive got a vested interest in

wanting news coverage of conventions to

be more informative and less superficial.

But I also care about the principle in-

volved here. The public does have a right

to know, and people are smarter and more

inquisitive than the press sometimes

thinks they are.

If you have kept a newspaper story

about a game convention, or anything else

involving role-playing games, that you

consider an example of accurate and thor-

ough coverage, please send me a copy of

it, Ill give credit where credit is due in a

future column, and Ill even eat my words

if that seems like an appropriate thing to

do. It sure wouldnt be the first time thats

happened. . . .

Dear Dragon:

There was a sort-of omission in Only train

when you gain (issue #97). I liked the article;

however, there was a question that arose in my

mind after reading it: How does a character gain

levels between those periodic training sessions?

Kirk Thierbach

Novi, Mich.

If you accept the premise of the article and

want to use the system it sets forth, then you have

to abandon the concept of between levels at the

times when training is not mandated. All thats

required for a character to gain a level in such a

case is to simply amass the requisite number of

experience points. However, experience points

earned during an adventure are generally not

actually awarded by the DM until the adventure

is over, when accumulated points are doled out to

each member of the party This prevents a char-

acter (and properly so) from going up a level in

the middle of an adventure, and does build in

some sort of between levels period even if

its only to get a good nights sleep and stock up

on supplies before heading out again.

Is this fair to a character who starts a long

adventure needing only a few points to make the

next level? Well, maybe not but who said the

next adventure had to be a long one? It might be

possible, and would certainly be in the best

interests of the party, to undertake a brief expedi-

tion intended to earn enough points to boost the

character to the next higher level.

No matter how you handle this, the rule in the

DMG should still apply: Once a character has

accumulated enough points to qualify for the next

higher level, he is not able to officially record any

more XP until that level is actually attained in

other words, until the acquisition of the new level

is officially logged between adventures. KM

The missing number

Dear Editor,

I began reading DRAGON way back in issue

#64. Recently I was sorting through my stack of

issues and discovered something strange. Issue

#65 bore the marking Vol. VII, No. 4 while

issue #64 was labeled as Vol. VII, No. 2.

Whatever became of Vol. VII, No. 3, and

does this revelation go down as the longest undis-

covered mistake in the history of the magazine?

Matt Bandy

Cortez, Colo.

By the way you worded your final question,

Matt, I think you already know what became of

Vol. VII, No. 3. We goofed up the numbering

sequence when we made the transition from Vol.

VI to Vol. VII, and since we couldnt go back in

time and fix the mistake, we did the next best

thing and corrected the numbering in #65 by

skipping a digit.

No, this isnt the longest undiscovered mis-

take, because its not undiscovered any more.

For the record, the oldest mistake weve ever

made that hasnt yet been noticed was back in

. . . naaah, that would be telling. KM

No set plans

Dear Editor,

My friends and I are very interested in DRA-

gonchess (issue #100), and we are wondering if a

set will soon be on sale in hobby shops or other

stores.

London paradox

Greg Della Rocca

Castleton, N. Y.

Dear Dragon,

I really enjoyed The City Beyond the Gate

(issue #100). I did notice, however, that one

minor detail was not included. Since it must be

admitted that the AD&D game exists in London

on June 1, 1985, and it is readily available, it is

not possible for PCs to find and read AD&D

products such as the Players Handbook? This

would definitely result in confusion, fear, or

identity crisis. A very touchy situation indeed!

Please comment.

Im sorry to report that, as of this writing, I

know of no plans to produce Dragonchess for sale

as a separate product. We talked about it when

the rules were being produced for publication in

#100, but decided pretty quickly that we wouldnt

be able to have the board and the pieces manufac-

tured for anything less than a small fortune

which means wed have to charge you a medium-

sized fortune to buy it.

To do it right (which is, I hope, the only way

we would consider doing it), wed have to include

84 specially designed metal miniatures and

you know what it costs to buy one or two figures.

Matthew Morse

St. Paul, Minn.

Okay. . . . If the PCs decide to make a side trip

to the nearest game store, roll percentile dice and

D RAGON 3

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