Issue #144 Vol. XIII, No. 11 Special Attraction April 1989 Everything Youve Ever Wanted To Know About Role-Playing Publisher 11 (Everything that wasnt in the rules, that is.) Mike Cook A Field Guide to Game-Convention Ornithology Skip Williams Editor 12 See any Bull-headed Slashers in your gaming group last evening? Roger E. Moore Cheating Made Easy Jefferson P. Swycaffer Associate editor Fiction editor 20Creative ways to roll dice, measure movements, and enrage your friends Robin Jenkins Barbara G. Young Cheating Made Even Easier Spike Y. Jones Editorial assistant 24If the last article didnt stop you, then youre ready for the big time! Kimberly J. Walter Claydonia Conquers the World! Paul C. Easton Art director 28Clay-O-Rama campaigns; or, My Claydonian is stuck to the ceiling! Lori Svikel Still More Outrages from the Mages John M. Maxstadt Production staff 32Loads of great new spells that only a killer DM could possibly love. Paul Hanchette Betty Elmore Kim Janke Angelika Lokotz Subscriptions U.S. Advertising Other Features Janet L. Winters Sheila Gailloreto Role-playing Reviews Jim Bambra U.K. correspondent 38In the land of cartoon characters, death is a four-letter word. Lyn Hutchin When Gods Walk the Earth Paul Jaquays U.K. advertising 46In Chaosiums RUNEQUEST® game, Divine Intervention is not divine at Dawn Carter Kris Starr all. The Game Wizards James M. Ward 58Bad puns, good games, and free-lance work at TSR, Inc. The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser 60Try a fantasy golf course to end all golf courses. Through the Looking Glass Robert Bigelow 70How much damage can a BattleMechs lasers do? Find out in this column. Red Guns William Wilson Goodson, Jr. 84Which is deadlier: your Marvel Universe® hero or a Soviet Hind helicopter? Departments 3 Letters 56 TSR Previews 96 Dragonmirth 6 Sage Advice 80 Gamers Guide 100 Bludgeons & Flagons 8 Forum 88 Convention Calendar 102 SnarfQuest COVER If Sports Illustrated can have a swimsuit issue, so can we. Daniel Horne provides the cover artwork for this month: a ravishing Valkyrie on her magnificent Pegasus. Or thats what Lori told me it was. I havent seen the artwork yet, really, but Lori said it was great. Christie Brinkley, eat your heart out. 2 APRIL 1989 Legend The mountain pass was called the Demon Tongue, which implied there might be a demon and treasure there, so the party headed for it right away. The characters were hungry for combat and cash lots of each. I was the DM. We were What did you think of this issue? Do you have Our sage refused to answer this question and gaming on the pool table in the a question about an article or have an idea for a handed the letter back to the editors. We think medical company rec room in West new feature youd like to see? In the United you will get two midgets instead of two normal Germany, a decade ago last fall. States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON® characters, since each half of a worm grows Magazine, PO. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147, back to form a shorter worm. You’ll have to Not many of the details of that U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON decide which half of the worm got the brains. adventure are left with me now, but Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry Better still, perhaps you should take up chess. I remember what happened when Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LD, United Kingdom. the adventurers got to the Demon Tongue. The paladin was the point Dear Dragon: man, mounted up and armored like Odds & ends II I would like to submit this article on dwarf a tank (he had volunteered for no, mud wrestling. I am a 40-year-old homemaker demanded the position). Some dis- and mother of two. The following letters were actually received tance behind, the wizard was check- by the editors of DRAGON Magazine and, except for minor editing, appear as they were written. We almost accepted this article, which sug- ing the landscape with his amulet of gests that your editors should take up chess, ESP, hunting for enemy thoughts. too. Everyone else was gathered near Dear Dragon: the wizard, weapons ready. They Im a new subscriber, and I love your maga- were on a narrow road in the pass zine. This is my first letter, so I have high hopes jDear Edcitor. itself, with a slope up to the left and youll answer me. This isnt your everyday I rote to yo avoubt 3 moith s ago and yout a sheer drop to the right, when the didn;t asndteer. Mye charcther agot won of its letter. It deals with sexuality among the differ- wizard got a reading. ent races in the AD&D game. I hope you can folowers fptregndnt. what can I doo abvout answer the questions I was brave enough to ask. thiso . My dungon gasyer saisd too cal dr Ruth I rolled the dice and checked the [Remainder of letter deleted by editor.] about ist on Her nexst showe. I dont thind I books. The party had found the shoukd beleive him. He sayis he ist seroiws. demon, but the amulet of ESP had Um . next! Whot do yoo thindk. I alsot whant to knowed malfunctioned. I scribbled a note syhty there is nakerd babies on Led Zep; and passed it to the wizards player. asblums.(is Houses of the Holydl ). ;l + -0 Whyu He read it and gave me an incredu- Dear Dragon: do ythinmsk. lous look. Being a high priest in good standing of Zeus, I Hey, guys, said the wizard, reign- am slightly perturbed at having been called You’re still not getting an answer. ing in his horse. That demon is upon or, as the case often is, yelled at to heal wounded fools who havent sense enough to run here, but that demon is the Demo- from such dangers as red dragons or Asmodeus Dear Dragon: gorgon. We are doomed.” himself, or to chase away skeletons, zombies, Is there such a thing as an elf sapper? Everyone stared at the wizards and other such undead merely because the player, then at me. Everyone had remaining members of the party have no wish Yes, but you cannot get much sap from them. read the Monster Manual. The to fight the beasts themselves. entire party came to a halt. Then the If you please, explain to your readers that we characters began to guide their clerics have studied to accomplish better things Dear Dragon: horses back the way they had come, than to turn the undead and to heal idiots. I particularly liked [issue # 129]. It was the best looking around with nervous grins. of your recent issues. One thing I missed was an All but the paladin, that is. He Certainly. We can’t have that going on. illustration by Gustave Dore. His pictures have a real feeling for medieval times. Who is he? Is he stopped where he was, stood up in a contemporary artist? Is he releasing any his stirrups, raised his sword, and Dear Dragon: posters or the like? shouted, COME OUT AND FIGHT, A couple of years ago, I was in some mall in YOU MISERABLE @#$ + §&%*!!! at Penn. I saw a strange-looking man with dark Gustave Dore, the famed French painter and the top of his lungs. Seconds later, a sunglasses and a cane. It may have been my illustrator, died in 1883. He is not currently giant ball of darkness appeared on imagination but he met this lady. They started releasing any posters. His pictures had a real the road ahead. to talk about overthrowing TSR. feeling for medieval times because he lived a lot Before anyone could react, one of closer to them than we do. the characters was telekinesized off It was your imagination his horse and hurled into the can- Dear Dragon: yon beside the road. He took 20 dice Dear Dragon: Hello, I would like to know what the cow of damage and became a memory. My character was recently polymorphed into skulls are for. Every one of his companions bolted a worm. Another character cut my worm/ except for the paladin, who character in half. If both halves were each Keeping cow’s brains warm. roared, SHOW YOURSELF, allowed to grow into two whole worms, then DEMON!!! (The rest of the players were polymorphed back to my characters screamed that they were riding regular form, would I have two identical charac- ters? And since both parts are equal, I will not Continued on page 94 have to worry about them trying to kill each Continued on page 95 other, such as it would be with a clone, right? DRAGON 3 racial characteristics of half- dwarves be? We suppose that a human and a dwarf would produce a half-dwarf, if they could produce a child at all. Such a child, how- ever, might be either a tall, hairless dwarf or a short, hairy human, as there are no half-dwarves in the AD&D game. While it is possible to create more crossbreeds than are already present in the AD&D by Skip Williams comp is required, and implies that a game, we recommend that you stick with master-comp is also required. the ones in the rules. The basic suit has no scanners, but it does have a bodycomp with a type D proc- If you have any questions on the Can humanoids such as gnolls or essor and a kingpack power supply.