SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS Issue # 162 9 Halloween: Vol. XV, No. 5 A time to summon friends. October 1990 Bazaar of the Bizarre Christian Bök 10 A magical tome with deadly spells: The Book of Horrors Publisher James M. Ward The Mind of the Vampire Nigel D. Findley 15 The lords of the undead never wait around to kill heroes. They stay Editor active! Roger E. Moore Hammer and Stake Kevin A. Ross Fiction editor 21 Hunting Cthulhu isnt enough? Try a foe with fangs and brains! Barbara G. Young Out of the Shadows. Tom Moldvay 27 Three shadowy monsters, and what they want to do to your player Assistant editor character. Dale A. Donovan Editorial assistant OTHER FEATURES Joseph M. Nowak The Voyage of the Princess Ark Bruce A. Heard Art director 41 If your flying ship crashed, would you let gnomes fix it? Larry Smith The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser Youre back in Britannia to face your ultimate challenge in Ultima VI. Production staff 47 Gaye OKeefe Angelika Lokotz The Dragons Bestiary Spike Y. Jones Tracey Zamagne 52 Undead with a twist: the spiritus anime and the ankou. Subscriptions A Prayer for the Dead fiction by Deborah Millitello Janet L. Winters 58 The dead have their own good reasons for hanging around. U.S. advertising Novel Ideas Theresa Hickey Roseann Schnering 65 Reach the outermost limits of science fiction and fantasy in three new novels from TSR. U. K. correspondent and U.K. advertising The MARVEL® - Phile Dale A. Donovan Sue Lilley 71 Only one person could be as dangerous as Dracula: his daughter. The Game Wizards Bruce Nesmith 79 Try this RAVENLOFT game advice and really scare your players! Role-playing Reviews Allen Varney 89 A super game for super characters: Hero Games/ICEs CHAMPIONS® system. Through the Looking Glass Robert Bigelow, Jay Clenndenny, 103 and Ralph Cooper The war continues! More campaign rules for FASAs BATTLETECH® game. DEPARTMENTS 5 Letters 36 Forum 86 TSR Previews 6 Editorial 68 Gamers Guide 94 Dragonmirth 32 Sage Advice 83 Convention Calendar 96 Twilight Empire COVER Michael Weaver feels that undead are overdone as the subjects of fantasy and horror paintings, most of them being killers and objects of fear. Preferring to evoke other emotions with his work, he offers his cover painting, Lost Soul, which depicts a knight destroyed by a guest that was too great for him. For information on prints, write to: Michael Weaver, P.O. Box 2428, Athens GA 30605. 4 OCTOBER 1990 DRAGON® Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is published monthly by TSR, Inc., P.O. Box 756 (201 Sheridan Springs Road), Lake Geneva WI 53147, United States of America. The postal address for all materials from the United States and Canada except subscription orders is: DRAGON Magazine, P.O. Box 111 (201 Sheridan Springs Road), Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.; telephone: (414) 248-3625. The postal address for all materials from Europe is: DRAGON Magazine, TSR Ltd, 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LD, United Kingdom; telephone: (0223) 212517 (U.K.), 44-223- 212517 (international); telex: 818761; fax: (0223) 248066 (U.K.), 44-223-248066 (international). What did you think of this issue? Do you have issues this mistake will be corrected. Distribution: DRAGON Magazine is available from a question about an article or have an idea for a game and hobby shops throughout the United States, Apart from these gripes, I would like to con- Canada, the United Kingdom, and through a limited new feature youd like to see? In the United gratulate you on producing such a fine issue. number of other overseas outlets. Distribution to the book States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON® Christian McCarthy trade in the United States is by Random House, Inc., and Magazine, PO. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, England in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Send orders to: Random House, Inc., Order Entry Department, U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON Westminster MD 21157, U.S.A.; telephone: (800) 638- Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry We are mortally embarrassed that we did not 6460 toll-free except Alaska (call (800) 492-0782 toll-free Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LD, United Kingdom. catch the reference to the 50th anniversary of in Maryland). Newsstand distribution throughout the United Kingdom is by Seymour Press Ltd., 334 Brixton Americas entry into World War II. We were Road, London SW9 7AG, United Kingdom; telephone: being a little too self-centered there, and we 01-733-4444. PLASTIC!?!? offer you (and everyone else who rolled his eyes Subscriptions: Subscription rates via second-class mail are as follows: $30 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent at the reference) our apologies. to an address in the U.S. or Canada; £16 for 12 issues Dear Dragon: Your second complaint caught us off guard, sent to an address within the United Kingdom; £24 for 12 I just received the latest copy of DRAGON and we spent many minutes flipping the Union issues sent to an address in Europe; $50 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent by surface mail to any other address; Magazine today, and I was shocked. It was Jack card from issue #159 over and over, trying or $90 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent airmail to any wrapped in PLASTIC! Im not sure where you to figure out which end was “up” (neither end other address. Payment in full must accompany all got this environment-destroying idea, but Im was, as they are identical). Then we found an subscription orders. In the U.S. and Canada, methods of totally against it. Please return to the brown illustration of the Union Jack in an almanac, and payment include checks or money orders made payable to TSR, Inc., or charges to valid MasterCard or VISA wrapping that Im used to seeing. If this is not we discovered that the flags on the subscription credit cards; send subscription orders with payments to: possible, then at least tell me that you are using card had been reversed left-to-right, so we were TSR, Inc., P.O. Box 5695, Boston MA 02206, U.S.A. In recycled plastic or make an effort to start using actually running mirror images of the three the United Kingdom, methods of payment include cheques and money orders made payable to TSR Ltd, or recycled plastic. I hope lots of other concerned U.K. flags. We are now twice as mortally embar- charges to a valid ACCESS or VISA credit card; send readers have asked you the same thing. rassed as we were formerly, especially since we subscription orders with payments to TSR Ltd, as per that Harry Moren have repeated this error on subsequent cards. address above. Prices are subject to change without prior notice. The issue of expiration of each subscription is Plano TX But one could say that it’s the little surprises like printed on the mailing label of each subscriber’s copy of this that make life interesting, eh? the magazine. Changes of address for the delivery of The brown paper wrapper that we formerly subscription copies must be received at least six weeks used to ship both DRAGON Magazine and prior to the effective date of the change in order to assure Vampire blues uninterrupted delivery. DUNGEON® Adventures has indeed been re- Back issues: A limited quantity of back issues is placed by plastic wrap, as our North American available from either the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop subscribers are aware. The plastic is better able Dear Dragon: (P.O. Box 756, Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.) or from While gaming, one of the characters in my TSR Ltd. For a free copy of the current catalog that lists to protect your magazine during shipment, and available back issues, write to either of the above it also allows us to place loose inserts in the campaign has become a vampire. His assailant addresses. magazine without fear of losing them. We have was killed, though, and the character is now Submissions: All material published in DRAGON also received numerous reports over the years free willed. The party is evil and accepts his Magazine becomes the exclusive property of the pub- lisher unless special arrangements to the contrary are of lost and damaged magazine issues resulting presence. His current state has quickly unbal- made prior to publication. DRAGON Magazine welcomes from the use of paper wrapping, and we feel anced my campaign. unsolicited submissions of written material and artwork; that the change will benefit all of our readers. Ive already consulted the Monster Manual however, no responsibility for such submissions can be and the AD&D® 1st Edition assumed by the publisher in any event. Any submission The plastic wrap itself is not recycled plastic, Dungeon Masters accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope of but you might he able to find a local recycling Guide, but still have no clue as to how to handle sufficient size will be returned if it cannot be published. center that will accept that type of plastic (if you free-willed undead in my campaign. If this topic We strongly recommend that prospective authors write has been covered, could you please tell me for our writers’ guidelines before sending an article to us. are already used to separating your trash for In the United States and Canada, send a self-addressed, recycling or pick-up). Check your Yellow Pages where? (If not, would you please cover it soon stamped envelope (9½” long preferred) to: Writers’ under “Recycling Centers.” in The Ecology of .