DRAGON Magazine Is Published Monthly by Dragon Publishing, a Division of TSR Hobbies, Venture-Gaming Field
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November 1981 Dragon Dragon Vol. VI, No. 5 Vol. VI, No. 5 November 1981 Publisher.. Jake Jaquet Editor-in-Chief.. Kim Mohan Publishing a magazine requires the ber of our editorial staff. Also, lest it go Editorial staff . Bryce Knorr performance of a myriad of tasks be- unnoticed and unrecorded, staff member Marilyn Mays sides editing and typesetting, not the Marilyn Mays recently became a bride Gali Sanchez Sales.. Debbie Chiusano least of which is complying with a go- and is now “officially” Marilyn Favaro. Circulation . Corey Koebernick vernment regulation requiring the pub- (In order to keep from confusing her do- Office staff . .Cherie Knull lishing of a form called “Statement of zens of fans, Marilyn has elected to re- Roger Raupp Ownership, Management and Circula- tain her old name for professional pur- Contributing editors. Roger Moore tion.” In order to keep our second-class poses.) Congratulations to both, and we Ed Greenwood mailing permit, once a year about this hope Gali’s career and Marilyn’s mar- time we are required to show who owns riage are both long and happy. This issue’s contributing artists: this magazine, who’s in charge, and what Erol Otus D. R. Elliott our circulation is — not that any of these * * * James Holloway Don Penny Thom Gillis Brian Born things are great secrets, and indeed we Harry Quinn Bruce Whitefield are quite proud of the information re- Even though Mr. Deadline is beating Roger Raupp David Trampier produced at the bottom of this column. on my office door and this piece of writ- Larry Elmore Phil Foglio DRAGON™ magazine is now far and ing must be done in a matter of minutes, I away the largest publication in the ad- find myself staring out the window at the DRAGON magazine is published monthly by Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR Hobbies, venture-gaming field. Credit for this must trees of southern Wisconsin as they go Inc. The mailing address of Dragon Publishing go to Editor Kim Mohan, who performs through their annual changing of the is P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147; tele- the Herculean task of insuring that there hues. Soon, the snow will return to Lake phone (414) 248-8044. is a DRAGON magazine each month, Geneva. Thanksgiving is on the way. DRAGON magazine is available at hundreds and to you, the readers, who are buying Then Christmas... of hobby stores and bookstores throughout the United States and Canada, and through a limit- more copies of each issue than ever Christmas? Back to reality, Jake. Soon ed number of overseas outlets. The magazine before. we’ll all be inundated with radio, TV, and can be purchased directly from Dragon Publish- print-media ads urging us to buy this doll ing by subscription. Rates are as follows, with all * * * payments to be made in advance: $24 for 12 or that train set, or whatever. Well, we all issues sent to a U.S. or Canadian address; $50 expect that. But something different is U.S. for 12 issues sent via surface mail or $95 for 12 issues sent via air mail to any other country. In the “better late than later” depart- happening this year. ment, this is the time to “officially” wel- Look in the Sears catalog, and you’ll A limited quantity of certain back issues of DRAGON magazine can be purchased directly come Gali Sanchez as the newest mem- see DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game from the publisher by sending the cover price sets for sale. Watch the TV, and you’ll see plus $1.50 postage and handling for each issue ordered. Payment in advance by check or mo- Mattel’s new D&D electronic computer ney order must accompany all orders. Payments labyrinth game advertised. Can you be- cannot be made through a credit card, and lieve it? Sears, Mattel, television, and ad- orders cannot be taken nor merchandise “re- served” by telephone. Neither an individual cus- venture role-playing in the same breath! tomer nor an institution can be billed for a sub- This is big time, folks. Those guys scription order or back-issue purchase unless don’t waste time and money on anything prior arrangements are made. less than a mass market that they think The issue of expiration for each subscription is printed on the mailing label for each sub- they can make a buck on. Which means scriber’s copy of the magazine. Changes of ad- that finally, finally, adventure role-play- dress for the delivery of subscriptions must be ing is becoming accepted by the general received at least 30 days prior to the effective date of the change in order to insure uninter- public. rupted delivery. No more “What kind of a weird game is All material published in DRAGON magazine that?” questions. No more “Dungeons becomes the exclusive property of the publisher and what?" responses from store prop- upon publication, unless special arrangements to the contrary are made prior to publication. rietors. I remember a similar phenomen- DRAGON magazine welcomes unsolicited sub- on about 20 years ago (Boy, does that missions of written material and artwork; how- make me feel old), when a group of long- ever, no responsibility for such submissions can be assumed by the publisher in any event. Any haired musicians from England were “a submission which is accompanied by a self- fad” and “weird.” And how, after about addressed, stamped envelope of sufficient size will be returned to the contributor if it cannot be their third gold album, the general public published. started saying, “Maybe there is some- DRAGON’” is a trademark for Dragon Publish- thing to those Beatle characters....” ing’s monthly adventure playing aid. All rights It’s been a long time coming. on the contents of this publication are reserved, and nothing may be reproduced from it in whole or in part without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright 1981 by TSR Hobbies, Inc. USPS 318-790. ISSN 0279-6848. Second class postage paid at Lake Geneva, Wis., and at additional mailing offices. 2 November 1981 Dragon he highlights of DRAGON #55, to a veteran reader, scientific discoveries about the big lizards. (Or were they liz- may well be the re-appearance of two authors ards?) That feature is accompanied by a couple of striking whose work hasn’t been in these pages for many color plates from “The Dinosaurs,” a new release from Bantam months. Those of you who have joined the ranks of Books, and a review of that same book prepared by professional our readership in the last 11 months will be seeing literary critic Chris Henderson. one of DRAGON’s specialties — a Niall of the Far Travels story Katharine Kerr, a frequent contributor to our “Giants in the by Gardner Fox — for the first time. Gar hasn’t had a story Earth” column, is responsible for this month’s “celebrity charac- published since ’way back in #44 (our fault, not his), and the tale ters” — none other than Robin Hood and all the other men of that resumes the Niall series is, fittingly enough, the story of Sherwood Forest, plus the nasty Sheriff of Nottingham. Niall’s first adventure away from his homeland and how he came The center eight pages of DRAGON #55 contain The Creature to possess his great sword. “The Coming of the Sword” begins of Rhyl, Kevin Knuth’s adventure for the D&D® Basic Set rules with Thom Gillis’ full-page illustration on page 24. which won second place in the Basic division of our Internation- Gary Gygax has been “gone” even longer than Gar Fox. It’s al Dungeon Design Contest. You need ingenuity, but not neces- been more than a year since the creator of the AD&D™ game and sarily a lot of playing experience, to overcome the obstacles this former publisher of DRAGON has penned an edition of his adventure presents, which makes it ideally suited for beginning column, “From the Sorceror’s Scroll.” But there’s one inside players and player characters as well. (page 17), and we have the promise of many more words to Also to be found inside are Pat Reinken’s courageous look at come in the immediate future from the master of Dungeon the ways and means to conduct a successful escape, when Masters. running away becomes the best course of action, and Jon Matt- So much for the triumphant returns. Now let’s take it from the son’s multifaceted examination of the “skill” system in Traveller. top: The cover painting you just got done looking at is an Erol Glenn Rahman, designer of the DIVINE RIGHT® game, des- Otus original — and original is certainly the word for that bizarre cribes famous monuments of the land in the latest installment of monster. Erol also provided the idea and the color art for the “Minarian Legends,” and John Prados’ series on game design in devil spider, which leads off this edition of Dragon’s Bestiary. “Simulation Corner” continues with an examination of the con- All in all, this is perhaps the most colorful issue of DRAGON cept of “state of the art.” magazine ever. You’ll find a small-size rendition of the cover of Our review section covers a lot of bases — taking in the whole the FIEND FOLIO™ Tome on page 6, leading off a short section Universe, not to mention the entire Third Reich, and a diverse about the latest official AD&D volume. Contributing editor Ed collection of other new products in the gaming marketplace. Greenwood and reader Alan Zumwalt offer their views on what’s Returning after a two-month absence (our fault, not Bill’s) is Bill good and bad about the book, and FF editor Don Turnbull takes Fawcett’s “Figuratively Speaking” feature.