July 1981 Dragon 1 Dragon Vol. VI, No. 1 Vol. VI, No. 1 July 1981 Publisher . Jake Jaquet The scope of what a gaming magazine signers’ Workshop for publishing a load Editor-in-Chief . Kim Mohan can cover is vast — as vast in scope, if not of Traveller material. The boys in Bloom- Editorial staff . Bryce Knorr more so, than the games themselves. ington didn’t twist our arms — you did, Marilyn Mays Sales. Debbie Chiusano Consequently, neither DRAGON™ mag- by buying so many copies of the game Circulation . Corey Koebernick azine nor the other publications in the that it has become something we are ob- Office staff . Cherie Knull field have to be overly concerned about ligated to cover, in an effort to do the Jean Lonze “duplicating” what some other magazine greatest good for the greatest number of Roger Raupp has recently done. Then again, there’s a gamers. Contributing editors. Roger Moore thing called the law of averages, and Like I hinted at above, the law of aver- Ed Greenwood sometimes it catches up with all of us. ages can work both ways. Ironically What’s this all about? Well, those of enough, DRAGON #51 and (according This issue’s contributing artists: Susan Collins Kenneth Rahman you who have seen the June issue of The to their announced plans) TSG #41 both Gail Gierahn Phil Foglio Space Gamer may already know what contain extensive reviews of Triplane- Roger Raupp Mason Jones I’m getting at. tary. If our printing schedule, our ship- Todd Lockwood Tom Mason When we received our office copy of ping operation and the U.S. Postal Ser- Paul Jaquays Bruce Whitefield the latest product from Steve Jackson & vice all work the way they ought to, per- Tom Wham J. D. Webster Co., we were more than mildly surprised haps all of you who read both magazines Darlene Pekul David Trampier to find that the cornerstone of TSG #40 will see our treatment of Triplanetary be- David Sutherland was a special section on Traveller. At the fore you see TSG’s. If not, well, every- time, we were within a few days of clos- thing I said above still applies. DRAGON magazine is published monthly by ing the books on the magazine you are Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR Hobbies, holding —which also has a big spread of Tucked between a couple of pages in- Inc. The mailing address of Dragon Publishing is P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147; tele- articles on that game. (If we had noticed side is the official ballot for the 1981 phone (414) 248-8044. the “Next Issue” box in TSG #39 which Strategists Club Awards. Anyone who’s DRAGON magazine is available at hundreds foretold the Traveller section coming up, interested and has a few cents for a pos- of hobby stores and bookstores throughout the United States and Canada, and through a limit- we would have been less surprised. But tage stamp can vote by writing in his or ed number of overseas outlets. The magazine we were, and usually are, too busy wor- her favorites in each of the six catego- can be purchased directly from Dragon Publish- ing by subscription. Rates are as follows, with all rying about our own next issue to take ries. The awards will be presented at the payments to be made in advance: $24 for 12 heed of what the other guys have up their annual banquet during the GEN CON® issues sent to a U.S. or Canadian address; $50 U.S. for 12 issues sent via surface mail or $95 for sleeves.) convention next month. 12 issues sent via air mail to any other country. If it had been possible to completely An obvious change from previous bal- A limited quantity of certain back issues of shift gears and pull the Traveller section lots is the absence of nominees for you DRAGON magazine can be purchased directly from the publisher by sending the cover price from this issue, maybe we would have to choose from. We’ve decided that the plus $1.50 postage and handling for each issue looked for a way to do that. But it wasn’t great number of games and gaming pro- ordered. Payment in advance by check or mo- ney order must accompany all orders. Payments possible to plug in more than 14 pages of ducts put out every year makes it unfair cannot be made through a credit card, and new material at the last minute, and I’m for the balloting to be restricted to just a orders cannot be taken nor merchandise “re- served” by telephone. Neither an individual cus- not sure it would have been the “right” few potential winners. Your favorite has tomer nor an institution can be billed for a sub- thing to do anyway. After all, the articles just as good a chance of getting an scription order or back-issue purchase unless aren’t the same; the only similarity is that award as anyone else’s — but only if you prior arrangements are made. The issue of expiration for each subscription our section and their section both per- speak your mind and send in your ballot. is printed on the mailing label for each sub- tain to the same game. And that’s not A not-so-obvious change is in the de- scriber’s copy of the magazine. Changes of ad- dress for the delivery of subscriptions must be hurting anyone, least of all the thou- finition of the categories for which awards received at least 30 days prior to the effective sands of Traveller players who want and will be given. Rather than ask you to date of the change in order to insure uninter- rupted delivery. deserve a wealth of suggestions on how compare apples and oranges, we’ve re- All material published in DRAGON magazine to make their favorite game even more structured the contest so that board- becomes the exclusive property of the publisher games and role-playing games are con- upon publication, unless special arrangements enjoyable. to the contrary are made prior to publication. The point here, I guess, is to make sure sidered separately, and there’s an entire- DRAGON magazine welcomes unsolicited sub- you realize that we didn’t do a Traveller ly new “open” category, for any card missions of written material and artwork; how- ever, no responsibility for such submissions can section because TSG did one (Are all game, computer program, playing aid, be assumed by the publisher in any event. Any editors this paranoid?). We did it be- or whatnot that doesn’t really fit into submission which is accompanied by a self- addressed, stamped envelope of sufficient size cause we felt it was high time to devote a either of the other two divisions. Ready, will be returned to the contributor if it cannot be goodly amount of space to one of the set, vote! published. DRAGON™ is a trademark for Dragon Publish- most popular role-playing games, and ing’s monthly adventure playing aid. All rights we intend to make this section the start on the contents of this publication are reserved, of an effort to give Traveller more cover- and nothing may be reproduced from it in whole or in part without prior permission in writing age than ever before. from the publisher. Copyright 1981 by TSR And, in case any of you were wonder- Hobbies, Inc. USPS 318-790. ISSN 0279-6848. Second class postage paid at Lake Geneva, ing, neither us nor TSG (I feel safe in Wis., and at additional mailing offices. speaking for Steve here) is getting any- thing under the table from Game De- 2 July 1981 Dragon story special section on the popular Traveller game system. The Traveller section includes a long and strong system deve- loped by contributing editor Roger Moore for generating alien characters; more charts and tables from Jeff Swycaffer; outlin- ing a way for players to have some say in how their characters are created; four short stories by Paul Crabaugh full of ideas and opinions to enhance a Traveller campaign; and a piece written by Marc Miller, designer of the Traveller game system, written (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) especially for this edition. To satisfy the never-ending demand for more material to be EARCH FOR THE EMPEROR’S TREASURE is not used in an AD&D or D&D game, we offer a new character race, an easy game to describe in a few words. But, des- The Winged Folk, by William Lenox with artwork by Todd Lock- cribing things in a few words is what this column is wood; plus a pair of stories discussing the difficulties and the all about, so I’ll try. EMPEROR’S TREASURE is the rewards of playing a paladin character; and a long treatise by latest creation from the fertile and somewhat strange Len Lakofka in Leomund’s Tiny Hut on the unusual, but entirely imagination of Tom Wham, who has been represented in this logical, concept of making a player character work his way up to magazine three times previously with SNIT SMASHING (#10), first level. SNIT’S REVENGE (#11), and THE AWFUL GREEN THINGS For variety, there’s a new cult to introduce into a RuneQuest FROM OUTER SPACE (#28). The latter two of those games game; a new insect to bug the opposition in Chitin:I; and another were published as boxed games by TSR Hobbies, Inc., after page from The Rasmussen Files to spice up a TOP SECRET™ their debut in DRAGON™ magazine.