Dragon Magazine 024.pdf

The Magazine of Fantasy, Swords & Sorcery, and Science Fiction Game Playing

Vol. III, No. 10. April 1979, #24

One of the hardest parts of being an editor is working so far in the future.

Whenever an editor talks about “next month’s issue,” he REALLY means the

next one on the presses, which is sometimes two or three calendar months in the

future. Right now, as I’m writing this, it is a cold, nasty March day. However, I am

trying to maintain a “Spring” frame of mind, as this is a spring edition. You begin

to see the problems? It is really difficult to maintain a “spring-like” optimism

when its so darned cold.

Our plans for this new format and approach to gaming do a lot to help

alleviate the “Is winter ever going to end?” blues. We are really fired up, abubble

with optimism and plans.

The initial response to the format change has been overwhelmingly en-

thusiastic. It will be some time before we have all the data digested and corre-

lated. It will be even longer before we have it all analyzed and start to act on it.

There were, however, a number of questions that we screened for trends as the

responses came in, in order to make the format decisions. There do seem to have

been a few misconceptions, and misgivings, which we hope to allay.

First, just what makes a magazine good? Aside from the obvious criteria of

acceptability and sales, what else? A magazine is not good simply because it is

physically well-made: Numerous examples of nicely printed pieces of garbage

exist today. It isn’t artwork alone that makes a magazine good, nor is it physical

layout or graphic design: numerous examples of nicely illustrated, well laid out

magazines that have failed come to mind. The staff of the magazine, alone, does

not make it good.

The contents are what make a magazine good. More specifically, the

QUALITY of the contents are the determining factor. As TD has grown, so has

the quality of the contents improved. The same is/was true of LITTLE WARS.

The tiny minority that has expressed dismay and disapproval seem to be

predicating their objections on the basis that the content quality will suffer. Let

me dispel that notion right now—quality will continue to improve. There is no

need to fear on that account. In fact, I’m at a loss to understand that line of

reasoning. It is highly illogical to think that the quality will decrease.

As you may have noticed, this issue is 48 pages long. We were forced with

some tough economical decisions when we made this move, and 48 pages was a

compromise. We are faced with increasing paper costs: the enamelled stock mills

are still on strike, and West Coast publishers have been forced to bid for sufficient

stock to continue printing. This has driven paper prices far too high. We were

forced to choose between raising the cover price, raising the ad rates, or reducing

the size. As an interim measure, we chose to cut back to 48 pages, for a variety of

reasons. First and foremost, 48 pages consume less material than 56. At present,

we did not feel that we had enough good material on hand to commit to 56

pages, for fear of running short sometime this summer. We knew how an in-

crease in cover price would go over—like a lead balloon. Advertising rates will

be raised this summer, as increased circulation dictates. All of this means that you

can expect the size to increase sometime this summer.

Now we come to the meat of the matter: what will this new format cover,

and how will it be done?

First, we want to become THE magazine of gaming, whatever the form. This

does not mean that we intend to slight that segment of the gaming hobby that has

supported us to date; we still plan to be the final word in fantasy and role-playing

games magazines. We don’t have any intentions of decreasing coverage of this

aspect of gaming, particularly in view of the fact that fantasy, science fiction and

role-playing are the up and coming aspects of our hobby. To lessen our dealing

with those topics would be a step backwards, in our minds.

FEATURES

Lost Civilizations . . . fantasy variant for SOURCE OF THE NILE . . 5

A Viking Campaign in the Caspian Sea . . . new battlegrounds for

miniatures ............................................. ..13

OUT ON A LIMB ... letters column ......................... .21

FEATURED CREATURE CONTEST #2 WINNERS ..... ...... .40

Society for Creative Anachronism . . . weekend skull-bashing .... .44

DESIGN/DESIGNERS FORUM

Keeping the Magic-User In His Place . . . game balance in role-

playing .................................................. 7

Roman Military Organization . . . CLASSIC WARFARE updated . .12

Sorceror’s Scroll . . .The Melee in D&D...................... .17

The Ramifications of Alignment . . . a new look at an old problem . . .34

In Defense of Extraordinary Characters ...................... .43

VARIANTS

Chinese Dragons . . . scaled monstrosities from the inscrutable East 8

Another Look at LYCANTHROPY . . . more about the beast in all of

us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..10

DUNGEON! ... new variations on the theme ................. .22

Psionics Revisited . . . another look at a tough problem for DMs .. .29

Disease . . . removing some ambiguities ...................... .29

Naming Things in EPT ... a new solution to tongue-knots ....... .39

NEWS

GenCon Update ......................................... .24

ConNews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

HUMOR

Narcisstics ... a humorous PC type we all know ............... .27

The Infamous Miscellaneous Monster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Monty Haul

...

The Best of Freddie

......................... .42

BACKGROUND

Armies of the Renaissance . . . pt. II- the Swiss ................26

Bergenhone '77 . . . NATO gunnery competition for armor ...... .32

The Return of Conan Maol . . . the roots of myth .............. .33

Publisher E. Gary Gygax

Art Dept.

Dave Sutherland

is expanding, not retrenching. There is much more to the gaming field

than the aforementioned alone. There have been numerous pieces that I have

continued on page 30

Managing Ed. T.J. Kask

Tom Wham

TD Editor T.J. Kask

LW Editor

Joe Orlowski

Circulation Mgt.

Joe Orlowski

Publisher’s Statement

THE DRAGON is published monthly by TSR Periodicals. a division of TSR Hobbies, Inc., P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva, WI 53147.

lt is available at better hobby shops and bookstores, or by subscription. Subscription rate is $24 per 13 issues. Single copy and back issue price is $2.00, but availability of back issues is no guaranteed. Subscriptions outside the U.S. and

Canada are $28 per 6 issues, and are air-mailed overseas. (Payment must be made in U.S. currency or by international money order.) All material published herein becomes the exclusive property of the publisher unless special

arrangements to the contrary are made. Subscription expiration is coded onto the mailing list. The number to the right of the name, prefixed by “LW” or “TD” is the last issue of the subscription. Notices will not be sent.

Change of address must be filed 30 days prior to mailing date.

Unsolicited material cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped return envelope, and no responsibility for such materia l can be assumed by the publisher in any event. All rights on the entire contents of this publication are

2 or 3 indicates that a city has been discovered. If the hex is desert, the

city is uninhabited and the explorer may elect to explore it or not, see

adventurers, into the great unknown of blank hexes on the map of Af- below. If the hex is any other than desert, the city is inhabited by sur-

rica to earn points for discovery. The flavor of the game can be con- vivors of lost Atlantis. The people have bronze weapons and are all

veyed by recounting the adventures. of my zoologist-explorer, Lord

Underdog, up the Zambezi river.

are usually hostile and native tribes avoid their territory. Roll two dice, a

explorers, who may be missionaries, doctors, zoologists, geologists, or

Underdog had obtained a free ticket to Quilimane and managed to cates the ruler of the city is a warrior-king who is always a tyrant. Deter-

raise $700 for his expedition. He manned two canoes with bearers and mine the number of warriors in his army by multiplying the roll of three

askaris, hired a guide and set off with high hopes. Little did he know

what he was getting into!

wearing ornaments of gold decorated with rubies and diamonds.

2. Organization of the lost civilization: Roll one die. A 1, 2, or 3 indi-

dice and adding ten. If the initial die roll is 4, 5, or 6, the city is ruled by an

evil high priest and a beautiful white goddess. The number of warriors is

first turn found him in a known hex. He and his askaris were

equal to the product of three dice plus five.

successful in shooting game to feed the expedition, but one askari acci-

dentally shot another. The next hex was blank . . . unexplored. The

river branched and the expedition), encountered a cataract. Unfortu-

nately, it was not as high as some already known falls, so Underdog

earned no points for finding it. (He named it after himself anyway.)

While trying to portage the canoes around the cataract the explorer

encountered a native tribe, the Balobo (Gygax variant), with seventy-

five warriors! Underdog decided the safest thing to do was offer the chief

most of his gifts. This worked, the tribe was friendly, and Underdog

hired a guide. He spent the next turn trying to find new species of ani-

mals in the hex, without success. This was the beginning of a streak of

bad luck for Lord Underdog, who never did discover a new species of

anything. He began to suspect he had gone to the wrong graduate

school and should have been a missionay. Entering the next hex he

discovered a lake, but no native tribe. Finding no new species on the

next turn, Lord Underdog went back down the river and into another

unexplored hex. He had no luck finding animals but one of his canoes

overturned and he lost four bearers and half his gear. He ventured on

one more hex without making any interesting discoveries and finally

turned hack. Fortunately, he could drift downstream, for he lost another

askari to a crocodile and ran out of rations. His men began to get sick

and two died.

3. With this information at hand, the explorer must declare his attitude

toward the lost civilization. He may:

1. Immediately retreat into the hex from which he came. He will

lose all credit for exploring the hex. He may move to another hex if he

has movement left.

2. Approach the city with a show of force and attempt to

negotiate.

3. Approach the city in a friendly manner, communicate with

signs, hoping to negotiate. He will discover, to his amazement, that

some of the ruling class can speak ancient Greek. Having had a classical

education himself, the explorer can speak some classical Greek.

4. Lost civilization’s reaction to the expedition: If the explorer has cho-

sen attitude 2 or 3, add nine to this number. White goddesses are always

interested in strangers. If there is a white goddess present, add one. If

the expedition includes a guide from a neighboring hex, subtract one,

for lost civilizations are usually at war with neighboring tribes.

Now compare this number with the sum of three dice. If the

number is equal or greater than the die roll, the expedition is accepted

as Guests of the City. Go to that section on the next turn.

If the number is less than the die roll, the warriors of the lost civiliza-

tion will attack. Roll one die, if the result is equal to or less than, the

explorers attitude number, the expedition is surprised and will not have

a chance to shoot their muskets.

If the expedition is not surprised, the askaris will shoot, killing one

warrior and the explorer will kill two warriors (unless he is a missionary,

in which case he only kills one; Modified Gygax rule).

Roll one die, multiply by the number of warriors killed. If this

number exceeds the number of warriors left alive, the explorer has won

the battle and enters the city in triumph. Go to Guest of the City. If the

warriors are not defeated by the musket fire they will close with the

askaris and the battle will be too fierce for the muskets to be reloaded.

The battle proceeds as if the expedition had been surprised.

If surprised, the askaris and explorer do not have time to shoot; the

warriors close with the expedition in hand to hand combat. Half the

bearers will drop their loads and run. Divide the number of attacking

On the next turn his last askaris became sick as did four more bear-

ers, but nobody died. He was able to reach the coast with enough bear-

ers to row back to civilization. He had earned a grand total of five points!

The game gives a vivid feel for the danger and excitement of explo-

ration in the nineteenth century. What it was missing, I thought, were

the kind of encounters that Allan Quartermain or Lord Greystoke would

have had under similar circumstances. So, for the fantasy fans, like my-

self, who enjoy the game but would like to have the kind of adventures

one would find in the works of H. Rider Haggard or Edgar Rice Bur-

roughs, and with all respect for maker and Wesely’s fine game, I offer

the Fantasy Supplement: Lost civilization in Source of the Nile. It all

begins when an explorer enters an unexplored hex and finds no na-

tives . . .

1. The Unexplored — Hex contains no native tribe: Lost civilizations

Ross Maker and David Wesley's exciting Source of the Nile game

has been the subject of several articles in The Dragon. Players send

The

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