Sample file The Oracle and Dungeons and Dragons 4 Dr. Richard Forest
Gazing Back into The Oracle 10 Christopher K. Bigelow
The Oracle, Issue One 21 The Oracle, Issue Two 53 The Oracle, Issue Three 85 July 1982 The Oracle, Issue Four 117 September 1982 The Oracle, Issue Five 143 October 1982 Appendix A: Summer 1983 Augury, Issue One 169 Autumn 1983 Appendix B: Advertising Material 191
Appendix C: Justice Be Done Notes 196
Sample fileAppendix D: All phone numbers, mailing addresses and other contact information in this book are out of date except that found on this page. Eldritch Adventures 202 The Electric Wizard 227 Book layout ©2016 by Tim Hutchings Original magazines, articles, art, and content in this book remains the copyright of Christopher Appendix E: Bigelow or the original creator, as appropriate. All material in Issue Six remains the copyright of the original creators. Ronald Pehr’s The Healer Manuscript 270 Portions of this book may be reproduced for review purposes only. Appendix F: This book is a project of The Hutchingsonian Presents and The Play Generated Map and Document The William R. Crisman Notebook 271 Archive. It is the third in a series of books exploring the art and history of games. The publisher may be contacted at plagmada.org. Appendix G: Additional Adventure Notes 274 The Play Generated Map and Document Archive The Hutchingsonian Presents Portland, Oregon Appendix H: 2015 The Oracle Issue Six 277 This is the first printing of this book.
Printed in the U.S.A. This is right:
These rules are as complete as possible within the limita- tions imposed by the space of three booklets. That is, they The Oracle and Dungeons & Dragons cover the major aspects of fantasy campaigns but still remain Dr. Richard Forest flexible. As with any other set of miniatures rules they are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign. They provide the framework around which you will “I don’t remember how I chose the name The Oracle— build a game of simplicity or tremendous complexity — your probably simply because it sounded mystical and magical time and imagination are about the only limiting factors, and and ancient.” the fact that you have purchased these rules tends to indicate that there is no lack of imagination — the fascination of the Christopher Bigelow, 2015, a few pages from now. game will tend to make participants find more and more time.
Gygax & Arneson, 1974, Dungeons & Dragons, Men & Magic, p. 4 The Oracle was the right name. This is right: An oracle is a place where the gods speak, where their messengers dwell, where authoritative pronouncements ring out. Did this one young My answer is, and has always been, if you don’t like the way man and his publication speak with authority on Dungeons & Dragons in I do it, change the bloody rules to suit yourself and your play- July of 1982? ers.
Yes. Gygax, 1975, Alarums and Excursions, #2 We all do. That’s the nature of the thing. Sample fileThis is right: The Nature of the Thing What follows herein is strictly for the eyes of you, the cam- paign referee. As the creator and ultimate authority in your We know what makes Dungeons & Dragons genius. That, at least, is a respective game, this work is written as one Dungeon Master solved problem. The genius of Dungeons & Dragons is that it is a ma- equal to another… chine that makes more Dungeons & Dragons, and it does this right at your table. D&D is not in the books. It is at the game table. It is in our Naturally, everything possible cannot be included in the whole scribbled notes. It is in our maps, in our jokes, in our daydreams during of this work. As a participant in the game, I would not care to dull classes or meetings, in our forum posts from work, in our blogs and have anyone telling me exactly what must go into a campaign tweets and zines. and how it must be handled; if so, why not play some game like chess? As the author I also realize that there are limits Dungeons & Dragons is the rules for jousting on dragon back that you to my creativity and imagination. Others will think of things I wrote while you were sitting in church on a Sunday morning. It is the didn’t, and devise things beyond my capability. homebrewed minotaur race you made for your brother. It is those wound point rules you added to make combat more realistic. Gygax, 1979, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Mas- ter’s Guide, p. 7 Dungeons & Dragons is the game we build together. This is wrong: the beginning, though they have sometimes claimed otherwise under the influence of avarice, pride, or market and company pressures. The AD&D game system does not allow the injection of ex- traneous material. That is clearly stated in the rule books. It The game itself is built to support its own extension. is thus a simple matter: Either one plays the AD&D game, or one plays something else... Serious players will only accept Ability scores. Races. Character classes. Equipment. Spells. Monsters. official material, for they play the game rather than playing Magic items. Random encounters. at it... No power on earth can dictate that gamers not add spurious rules and material to either the D&D or AD&D game Dungeons. systems, but likewise no claim to playing either game can then be made. Such games are not D&D or AD&D games — Categories of things that fit together, loosely. Not too well. Not com- they are something else, classifiable only under the generic pletely. Not entirely. Open-ended categories that can be filled with “FRPG” catch-all. new things. Dungeons & Dragons is never finished. Want more Ability Scores? Add new ones. New character classes? The blueprint is there. Gygax, 1982, Dragon Magazine #67, p. 64 New spells? New monsters? New magic items? Yes.
This is right: New dungeons.
To the contrary, the materials we have chosen to use in our You can’t play the game without creating something new. own game has enriched and enhanced all aspects of the game we play and has fleshed out your own admittedly Dungeons & Dragons is a machine for generating more Dungeons & sketchy guidelines for certain areas of the AD&D game... Dragons, and once you pick it up and start playing it, it’s yours.
Purnell, 1983, “Open Letter to Gary Gygax,” The Oracle #4, p. Which is the basis of the entire hobby. 6 Sample fileThirty years ago, Dungeons & Dragons was the only game in town. It This is right: created modern roleplaying from the stuff of contemporary wargaming. Other roleplaying games split off rapidly, expanding on D&D, modify- TSR markets several versions of its popular Dungeons & ing it, remaking it. Copying, adapting, reacting against it. Ken St. Andre Dragons (D&D). One version, AD&D, has been labeled by its didn’t understand Dungeons & Dragons because the rules were not creator as a closed system, open only to official material. complete or coherent. But then again he understood it very well. Tun- While appreciating the desire to retain a playable, balanced nels & Trolls was the result. system, I take issue with the presumption that any version of D&D is immaculate and not subject to modification. One such Steve Jackson didn’t understand Dungeons & Dragons, but then again modification is presented herein, being a new type of player- he understood it very well. Its “combat rules were confusing and un- character. satisfying. No tactics, no real movement - you just rolled the dice and died” (Steve Jackson, 1980). The Fantasy Trip, with its strategic combat Ronald Mark Pehr, 1983, “The Grimlock as a Player Charac- and magic, was the result. Some years later, GURPS would follow (under ter,” The Oracle #5, p. 6 the heady influence of Champions, which took boiling everything down into extensible components to its logical conclusion). The history of the The game works because it is ours. hobby is made of this. Mark Rein-Hagen didn’t understand Dungeons & Dragons, but then again he understood it very well. Vampire: The From the very beginning, we all knew this. Even the designers knew it at Masquerade, with its clans, its disciplines, and yes, its abilities, was the result. Categories of things suitable for recombination, deletion, expan- In fact, if you’re short on time, stop reading this, and go read that instead. sion. There are a lot of ways to be a vampire, and you can always roll your own. And it turns out there are a lot of people who want to do just They aren’t alone. The best contributions to thinking about D&D are that. coming from the same places they’ve always come from, if at times in new modes. From the zines, now blogs, now Google+ threads, until This continues today. Google does away with the service and we move somewhere new. From small press and independent publications emerging from fan communi- Vincent Baker didn’t understand Dungeons & Dragons, but then again ties. he understood it very well. He had limited experience with the Dun- geons & Dragons game, strictly speaking, when he built a game that em- And finally, with the 2014 publication of the 5th edition of Dungeons & braced it anyway: Apocalypse World, a game with playbooks, customiz- Dragons itself, even the flagship game’s publisher, Wizards of the Coast, able, expandable, and with a hacking guide built right into the rulebook. appears to understand Dungeons & Dragons again. D&D was always A machine built to make more Apocalypse World games. Which it did. ours. He could do this because the hobby is Dungeons & Dragons. Roleplaying games are Dungeons & Dragons. And he understands roleplaying games. Christopher Bigelow understood Dungeons & Dragons when he created The Oracle. In five issues, he shared new classes, spells, adventures, Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel didn’t understand Dungeons & Dragons, NPCs, magic items, setting elements, and PC races, along with opinion but then again they understood it all too well, and they gave us Dungeon pieces, a host of reviews, and some fiction. He started himself, writing World. Dungeon World: a game that isn’t, strictly speaking, Dungeons & nearly all of the content. He attracted comments from established fig- ures in the field like Ken St. Andre as well as newcomers with materials Dragons, that is all about being Dungeons & Dragons. A serpent eating to share. The magazine was built on the very same model as TSR’s house its own tail. organ, Dragon, and it served the same function that forums, blogs, and Google+ serve at the time of this writing: to share the content we create Dungeons & Dragons There are a lot of ways to play . for the game, to talk about the game, and to inspire more play of the game. The Old School Ruckus (OSR) understands it, embracing the spirit ofSample file making the game your own when it isn’t getting sidetracked with its Now, some thirty years later, The Oracle is back in print. Take a look. It occasional forays into textual exegesis of original game-ways. The best isn’t so different from the conversations we’re having now. It’s the same of the OSR--and there is a lot of it--goes beyond that kind of poring over game. Christopher gave us his ideas. of old texts for bits of forgotten lore, creating new things out of old and new stuff. Jeff Rients of Jeff’s Gameblog (http://jrients.blogspot.com) Now they’re ours. understands it. Indeed, if understanding Dungeons & Dragons were the primary qualification for being asked to write this essay, he would be writing it instead of me. Zak Smith, of Playing D&D with Porn Stars (http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com), understands it. His writings about the game stand easily alongside the best writing we have in aca- demic studies of roleplaying games, and almost always does us better. Read “Like Playing Monopoly With Squatters” (http://dndwithpornstars. blogspot.com/2010/03/playing-monopoly-with-squatters.html), if you haven’t already. It is the best two-thousand words ever written about Dungeons & Dragons. out the game in real life, dressing up in costumes and roaming through underground tunnels, some even committing suicide when their charac- ter was killed. During my hardcore gaming years of 1980 and 1981, the only time we almost lost our D&D was when a visiting Mormon speaker warned our congregation about the spiritual dangers of rock music and Dungeons & Dragons. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mormons were generally more worried about evil spirits than they are today; they were fearful of the occult’s dark allure and its gateway drug, the Ouija board. Perhaps some of this angst was fueled by Jay’s Journal, which came out in 1978. This nationally published book purported to tell the true story of a kid in Pleasant Grove, Utah, who got involved in Satanism, believed he was Gazing Back into The Oracle possessed by a demon named Raul, and committed suicide. In some Christopher K. Bigelow people’s minds, Dungeons & Dragons was a step in this direction. I remember sitting with my parents in the chapel on a Sunday evening listening to this speaker. He claimed that he’d formerly been a music- industry insider and witnessed firsthand how drugs and demons shaped rock music and other aspects of youth culture, including Dungeons & Growing up in ultra-Mormon Bountiful, Utah, in the late 1970s and early Dragons. To our amazement, he actually played parts of Led Zeppelin’s 1980s, I practiced Dungeons & Dragons like some kind of alternative -re “Stairway to Heaven” and AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” out loud right there in ligion. D&D occupied the places in my heart and mind that Mormonism the chapel, so we could all analyze together how the music cast a spell over kids and fed us Satanic messages through the lyrics. He played was supposed to occupy, according to my parents and church leaders. some songs backwards, so we could hear demonic voices praising “my For my first year or two in the D&D world, playing the game was what sweet Satan” and telling us to smoke marijuana or kill ourselves. obsessed me. Then my obsession morphed into publishing my own fantasy gaming magazine called The Oracle, which at one point reached When this speaker turned to Dungeons & Dragons, he focused on how nearly a thousand copies in international circulation. the game taught kids to cast spells, like Pharaoh’s sorcerers did in the Sample fileOld Testament. Sitting there in the chapel, my friends and I exchanged Sometimes I wonder if the magazine represented my vocational peak in incredulous glances. Yeah, we could declare that our wizard characters life at age fifteen, the time when I felt the most entrepreneurial gump- were casting spells, but the preacher implied we were speaking actual tion, the time when I was the most deeply engaged—lost, even—in a words and using actual magical components. Maybe some players did creative endeavor, the time when I felt the most confident and optimis- stuff like that, but no one I’d ever met did. A person could learn more tic—and yes, naïve—about my own skills and prospects. To a surprisingly about the mechanics of casting spells from watching a Disney cartoon large extent, I am who and what I am today due to Dungeons & Dragons like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty than he could from playing Dun- and The Oracle. geons & Dragons. Living on Planet D&D After this presentation, our parents questioned us about the game. “Can we watch you play?” one of them asked. My friends and I looked Having, from a young age, imagined and acted out scenarios with action at each other and shrugged. “Sure,” we said. “Why not?” As it turned figures—not so much G.I. Joe as off-brand figures like Action Jackson out, none of our parents tried to watch us play. They could sense that and Big Jim—I was a prime candidate for D&D. Of course, Mormonism we had nothing to hide, and they trusted us. Plus, they had other things tended to view D&D as questionable, and some Mormons even thought to worry about—I was the oldest of ten, and my neighbor across the it was a directly satanic influence. However, Mormons generally didn’t street had eleven kids in his family. The only thing I ever worried about get as worked up about D&D as certain fundamentalist or evangelical was one of our parents picking up the Monster Manual and stumbling Christians did, so plenty of us Mormon kids got away with playing the across the pages describing demons. But even if that happened—which game, as long as we stuck to the tabletop version. In Utah, we heard it didn’t, to my knowledge—I knew I could simply explain that those our share of scare stories about people who went insane while acting demons were our enemies. When we made the big jump from junior high to high school, my little I knew my dad valued entrepreneurial initiative. He’d loaned me the D&D group broke up as we went our separate social ways. We’d spent cash to buy a new bike for my paper route, and I wondered if he might so many intensive hours together—during ninth grade, we’d played D&D loan me the money for the Dragon ad. On the other hand, I felt a little literally every day except Sundays—that I think we’d become somewhat guilty asking him because I knew his real-estate-related business was tired of each other. Since then, I’ve tried to play the game several times, feast or famine, and lately it had been more famine Furthermore, while but I was never able to find that groove again. As an adult, I find gaming he didn’t prevent me from gaming, I knew he considered it a waste of to be too much like real work. time. I doubted he would view anything related to D&D as a worthwhile endeavor to support. From Player to Publisher In the end, I couldn’t resist asking. To my surprise, he agreed to loan During my gaming years, I was also a Boy Scout, not because I liked it me money for the ad. My dad ran his business in the unfinished half of but because it was a key part of the Mormon youth program. As I came our basement, and he also agreed to let me take over an empty desk in under pressure to do an Eagle project, I somehow hit upon the idea of the corner near the wood-burning stove, a desk that had formerly been preparing a book of games, puzzles, and other entertainment for use by occupied by a chubby, Southern-accented saleswoman. In addition, I hospitalized children. Called The Daily Doctor, this photocopied booklet could use his post-office box, CPT 8000 word processor, toll-free phone was well received by the nurses and patients. I had to admit that I en- line, office supplies, postage meter and permits, and even the occasional joyed doing it, even though I essentially plagiarized all the content. Thus services of his secretary. The name of my dad’s business—Horizon Inter- were planted the seeds of my interest in publishing. national—sounded generic enough that I could use it for my publishing company. As a Dungeons & Dragons aficionado, I subscribed to TSR’s monthly Dragon magazine, in which I began noticing reviews of smaller gaming To further add to my illusion of professionalism, I planned to include magazines, including photocopied amateur fanzines. At some point, I be- fake names on the magazine’s masthead, including business manager gan imagining myself publishing my own little D&D magazine. The more Darrell Wells and contributing editor Dave Parsons. I also included the I thought about it, the more obsessed I became with trying it. I loved the names of some friends and cousins who didn’t really do anything, such idea of writing my own gaming ideas and getting other people to let me as assistant editor David Barrett and consulting editor Craig Dunn. I publish theirs. I loved the idea of making an impact on readers’ imagina- wished I really did have such a staff to help me pull off what I increas- tions and affecting how they played their games. ingly recognized was no small undertaking. I don’t remember how I chose the name The Oracle, probably simply because it sounded mystical and magical and ancient. I knew I couldSample fileThen came the writing and laying out of the all-important Dragon ad. It’s write, but how would I illustrate the magazine? Even more importantly, amusing now to read my hyperbole: “Embark on an incredible journey how would I get any readers? I wasn’t plugged into any local or regional through the world of fantasy and science fiction gaming—aboard The gaming scenes—I wasn’t the kind of guy who hung out at game stores or Oracle!” For some reason, perhaps because of the small space, it didn’t attended gaming events, though we often fantasized about making a pil- occur to me to include any graphics in the ad—it was all text. This was grimage to the mythical land of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to attend Gen in the days before desktop publishing, so I paid to have the ad typeset. Con, which we imagined as a massive gaming orgy presided over by the After I submitted it, the lawyers at TSR questioned my offer of a “TSR wizardly Gary Gygax himself. In order to get some readers, I decided that dungeon module” as a subscription premium, and I had to confirm that I somehow needed to run an advertisement in Dragon magazine. Since I’d arranged a local wholesale source. Then for some reason TSR wanted I hadn’t published any issues yet, I needed some kind of special incen- me to change “a TSR module” to “a module produced by TSR Hobbies, tive to entice charter subscribers. I wondered if it would it be possible to Inc.” As I interacted by phone and mail with the professionals at TSR, it purchase TSR adventure modules at a discount to offer as a subscription felt strange to think that adults were making their livings from our gam- premium. ing scene. When I contacted Dragon magazine, I learned that the smallest-sized With my offer of a free TSR module, I was expecting thousands of people ad I could conceive of running—one third of a page—would cost about to subscribe, but only about three hundred did. I felt a little deflated, $300. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any money saved from my paper but the Dragon advertising lady sounded impressed when I told her route, because I always blew it on fantasy novels, D&D stuff, pets, maga- the results. Looking at my ad, I’m surprised to see that, in those days, zines, albums from the Columbia Record and Tape Club, fast food, and a TSR dungeon module had a cover price of only $5.50. Assuming I was movies. given the standard discount of forty percent, my cost was likely $3.30 per module. For each person who sent me $10.00 for a one-year sub- easily call or write to these stores and invite them to carry The Oracle. scription of eight issues, I was left with about $6.00 after I bought and I eventually got about forty stores to carry the magazine from coast to shipped his or her TSR module. It seems crazy to imagine I could publish coast, as well as a handful in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. eight issues per year on proceeds of only $6.00 per subscription, but at To my surprise, Glenwood Distributing in Collinsville, Illinois, ordered that time I thought I could. about 100 copies of the magazine, which I thought was terrific until a box of unsold copies came back. All told, I printed about eight hundred Putting Out the First Issue copies of the first issue, using the same offset-printing company that my dad employed for his business printing. With money from hundreds of subscribers now in my hands, I felt a new urgency to put out the first issue. I had been procrastinating my writing As I reread my opening editorial in issue one, it’s obvious I thought The in favor of making all the other preparations for publication, but I now Oracle would soon grow into a full-fledged, full-color, professional maga- saw the need to bear down and do some serious creative work. Howev- zine. At the same time, I was clearly feeling somewhat inadequate and er, as I sat at the CPT 8000 word processor whenever my dad’s secretary overwhelmed about everything that went into publishing a magazine. wasn’t using it, writing was harder than I thought it would be. Eight issues a year meant a new issue every six or seven weeks, which I was beginning to realize was perhaps overly optimistic, especially as Fortunately, I’d already made enough connections to start bringing in the summer wound down and I started my junior year at Bountiful High some content submissions. The first issue contains a new “healer” char- School in August 1982. acter class created by Ronald Mark Pehr, a military guy whose writing I’d seen in other small gaming zines, such as Dave Nalle’s Abyss. Pehr Bitten by the Big Apple became so helpful and consistent that I soon made him a contributing editor. Issue one also contains a game review written by Mike Dawson After the first issue of The Oracle came out, a striving New York fantasy and a couple of subscriber ideas for spells. Other than that, I wrote the writer by the name of C. J. Henderson contacted me to offer his mate- whole issue myself, including a dungeon adventure under the pseud- rial. I don’t know how Henderson first heard of the magazine—probably onym Daniel Struthers, movie reviews as Angie Carlson, game reviews as he encountered a copy in a Manhattan game shop called the Compleat Dave Parsons, and reviews of gaming magazines as Rick Priest. Strategist, which carried it. As a writer in his late twenties hustling for new venues, Henderson apparently took me at my word when I pled for I remember having grand designs for the main feature of issue one, help in my opening editorial. Considering The Oracle’s humble, plain first “Justice Be Done,” my first adventure of many that I planned for a cam- issue with black ink on blue paper and a winged dinosaur on the cover, paign based on the town of Elcaro (“Oracle” spelled backwards), whichSample fileit surprises me that professionals took the magazine seriously, but some was ruled by Lord Arocel at the foot of the Leraco Hills (both names did. anagrams of “Oracle”). I loved my concept for this first adventure, which was based on the movie Escape from New York. Once I started actually Henderson dazzled me. While I dealt with others chiefly via letter, he writing the adventure under pressure, however, I was surprised by how and I spent a lot of time on the phone. I often wondered if I sounded like difficult it was to achieve my creative vision for it. I was only fifteen. Not only did Henderson send me his own writing to use, but he also lined up some of his artist friends to send their work. Of I knew that cool art was absolutely vital to any fantasy-oriented product, course, all these New Yorkers wanted to be paid, and I was willing to pay. but I wasn’t an artist and didn’t know any real artists. For the cover of I figured that if I bumped up the magazine’s quality with top-notch stuff issue one, I turned to a friend in my neighborhood who could draw dino- from the Big Apple, more people would subscribe and I’d start getting saurs. Ryan Ridges wasn’t a fantasy buff, but he agreed to turn one of his some advertisers. dinosaurs into a dragon for my magazine. For the new healer character class, I asked Scott Passey, one of the Boy Scouts who’d helped illustrate “What kind of company is Horizon International, anyway?” Henderson The Daily Doctor, to do a sketch. For good measure, I put his name on asked me on the phone one time. the masthead as “art director.” That was pretty much all the art for the issue, and I felt lucky to get that much. “Uh, it’s my dad’s company,” I said. “Real estate services.” I could tell my answer didn’t fully satisfy him, but he didn’t pursue it. In addition to selling subscriptions, I was able to get some gaming stores to carry the magazine. In Dragon magazine, game advertisers ran full- In issue two, much of the material came from Henderson and his page ads that included lists of shops carrying their products, so I could friends. The cover illustration was done by a twenty-year-old artist named Barbara LaPlaca, who went on to work at magazines such as a sexy, scantily clad woman. I was told to clean up my act or stop doing Rolling Stone and Prevention. Henderson and LaPlaca had first met on the magazine. a broken-down train in the late 1970s. In the heat of a summer night, they’d chatted in the dark for an hour on the Manhattan Bridge. I loved While my parents didn’t like my trajectory as far as content, they were LaPlaca’s picture so much—she called it “Animal in the Synagogue,” impressed with what I was accomplishing. My dad called my counselor after a Franz Kafka story—that I used it for a full wrap-around cover, but at the high school to see if I could get any credit for my independent Henderson scolded me for cutting off the creature’s nose on the front. accomplishment. He meant academic credit, but the counselor thought LaPlaca would ship her artwork to me via a company called Federal he meant publicity. Soon, a new local newspaper called the Lakeside Re- Express, and I paid nearly as much for this overnight delivery as I did for view did a profile on me, and then a freelance reporter for the Deseret the artwork itself. On the phone once, she asked me what kind of name News interviewed me. Owned by the LDS Church, the Deseret News was “Bountiful” was for a town, and I was too embarrassed to tell her that it one of the big Salt Lake papers. When the article never appeared, I as- came from the Book of Mormon. sumed it was because D&D was considered too sketchy. Seeing the obvious need to dress up the magazine, Henderson had an- Stopping Publication, Then Restarting other friend create some column headers, such as “Omens” for my edi- torials and “Fantasy Cinema Review” for Henderson’s column on current By this point, I was spending too much money on writers and artists movies. Issue two contained The Oracle’s first short piece of fiction, “It’s and not doing enough new promotion to keep up my cash flow. When a Living,” which Henderson wrote under the pseudonym John Nubbins. figuring out my business plan, I’d planned for the basic costs of printing We also included a teaser for “Beyond,” a fantasy adventure comic to be and postage, but not for buying content. I should have kept running my written by Henderson and drawn and lettered by more of his buddies. Dragon advertisement, but I didn’t like the idea of spending that much money again. I could sense that, with issue two, the magazine was starting to skew too heavily toward reviews instead of gaming material. In addition to In December 1982, I made the difficult decision to stop publishing the Henderson’s movie reviews, issue two included reviews of new games, magazine after three issues, due to lack of funds. I felt quite disap- play-by-mail games, supplements, modules, and gaming periodicals, pointed, but I also felt relieved of pressure—deep down, I had to admit most of them written by me. Only five pages contained material that that running the magazine took more time and effort than I’d imagined. people could actually use in their gaming. I’d wanted to create another Now the question was, what would I do about the 270 subscribers to Elcaro dungeon adventure, but reviews were so much easier to write whom I still owed five or more issues? I’d spent nearly all the money, so I than original material. Instead, I announced a dungeon contest withSample filecouldn’t simply issue refunds. over $100 in cash prizes. For me, the hardest part of ceasing publication was phoning Henderson. Issue three showed further progress, at least visually. However, I still I really liked Henderson, admired his talent and mojo, and felt grateful cringe whenever I look at the cover because the price is crooked. I had for his help. I’d enjoyed the buzz of working with New York writers and scotch-taped it there for the printer to align correctly, but he overlooked artists, but it just wasn’t sustainable. “Ah, that’s too bad,” Henderson it. For issue three, I was thrilled when Henderson arranged for me to use said. “We were just starting to make some progress.” In later years, Hen- artwork by Clyde Caldwell on the contents page. Caldwell was a profes- derson wrote comics for Marvel and DC and published novels with Tor sional fantasy illustrator who did cool covers for Dragon magazine, but Books. He died in 2014 at age sixty-two. all it cost me was running an ad for a fantasy and hobby catalogue. Issue three’s original gaming content came in at only six pages, as Henderson While publishing The Oracle, I’d developed a fascination with play-by- added a book-review column and I recruited prominent game designer mail (PBM) gaming. I didn’t actually play them much myself, mainly Ken St. Andre as another reviewer. due to cost, but I’d reviewed several. In my earliest gaming days, I’d played D&D via postcard with my Seattle cousin who’d first introduced I was starting to feel some real momentum now, and I hoped I’d be able me to the game. To solve my subscriber problem, I decided to start my to run a full-color cover sometime soon. When my parents looked at own fantasy PBM game and offer game credit to compensate Oracle issue three, however, they were upset. Ronald Mark Pehr introduced subscribers for their unfulfilled issues. I don’t remember receiving any a new character class called the courtesan, with level titles such as complaints except for one subscriber who wrote that I should get a job “wench,” “tart,” “whore,” and “harlot.” My mother also objected to the pumping gas until I’d earned enough to refund all my subscribers. But outside back cover, where Henderson’s “Beyond” fantasy comic featured I disagreed with him. I may have mismanaged the subscription funds, but I’d meant well, and it wasn’t like I’d wasted the money or spent it on Reading my editorial in issue four, I see that I was somewhat delusional myself. about future plans and still making promises I couldn’t realistically keep. Although I’d already started falling behind on writing “personal, descrip- At first, I enjoyed running the PBM game with about forty-five active tive turn narrative” for my PBM customers, I mentioned plans to start a players. I started out typing original character backgrounds and turn second PBM game. I announced a new line of adventure modules that narrations for each player, but then I began to recycle content. To my I thought I’d somehow find time and creative energy to write. I’d accu- surprise, people started sending in additional funds to keep playing the mulated numerous fiction submissions in my files, so I decided to launch game. another quarterly magazine called Augury solely for fiction, and I even managed to publish one issue. As a magazine publisher, I’d received many fantasy games and novels from publishers who wanted reviews. At one point, I decided to sell Despite all these plans, the fifth issue of The Oracle (August 1983) these items via mail order by inserting flyers in my outgoing correspon- turned out to be my last. You wouldn’t have known it from my edito- dence. I felt a slight tug at my conscience for profiting from these free rial, however, in which I spoke of building up the magazine to a glossy samples, but I didn’t know of any laws against it, so I proceeded. Some- monthly with full-color covers and a paid staff. At that time, I was still times I took the fantasy novels down to Waldenbooks and exchanged sometimes daydreaming that my fantasy business could become my them for other novels I wanted to read. As a book publisher today, I’m lifelong career. I announced yet another product, an “Island Campaign” appalled by such behavior. gaming supplement based on the world I intended to create for my PBM game. And I launched the “Discount Game Catalog,” offering “hundreds With my finances recovering and enough usable submissions on hand to of gaming items from all major companies” via mail order. My plan was fill another issue, I began thinking of ways I could relaunch The Oracle to order items from a wholesale dealer after my customers ordered with a more realistic business model. For certain, I would reduce the fre- them from me. quency to quarterly. Instead of offset printing, I could just photocopy the issues, and I could slightly reduce the page count. I would not push the The cover of issue five featured a dragon illustration by Peter Laird, who magazine into stores again, because of all the hassles with sales, ship- went on to co-create the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I didn’t pay Laird ping, invoicing, collecting payments, and dealing with returned unsold cash but gave him some ad space in the issue. I’d learned my lesson copies. about spending too much money; with photocopying, all my new proj- ects could theoretically work on a small scale. However, as an irrational Charging only five dollars for four issues, I started from scratch withSample fileteen, I had not yet internalized how limited my time and energy were, selling subscriptions. This time, my main method was sending flyers to despite my experiences to the contrary. I felt a drive to carry out every members of TSR’s new Role Playing Game Association (RPGA), which good idea I had, and I felt confident that my creative vision and enthusi- provided a nationwide member directory. However, the directory didn’t asm would somehow carry me through the work. include zip codes, so I spent many hours looking up the codes, as well as stuffing, sealing, addressing, and stamping envelopes. These mailings Moving On, and Looking Back yielded some results, including new players for my PBM game. I don’t remember if any former Oracle subscribers paid for a new subscription. In June 1983, I’d started a part-time job in the grease pits of Kentucky Fried Chicken at $3.35 an hour. This worked out okay during the sum- Issue four of The Oracle came out in summer of 1983. I was lucky that mer, leaving me time to work on my business and occasionally hang someone submitted a cover illustration that would photocopy well, out with friends and go to movies. But once my senior year started in which was the issue’s only original art. Instead of getting the headlines autumn of 1983, I lost interest in continuing The Oracle and all related professionally typeset, I reused old headlines from past issues or simply activities. Not only did I stay at my time-consuming, energy-draining KFC typed them on my word processor. To break up the solid walls of text, job, but I also started getting into a new social scene that overtook my I reran several exchange ads that had appeared in earlier issues. I was imagination. It started out as a preppy thing, and then it morphed into proud to include a subscriber’s snarky “Open Letter to Gary Gygax” in new wave and punk. response to Gygax’s Dragon article urging players to use only materials “officially recognized by TSR Hobbies,” rather than independent material I don’t remember exactly how it ended. Did I make a conscious decision like what I published in The Oracle. one day to abandon my fantasy publishing once and for all? Or did I keep telling myself that I intended to get back to it? I don’t remember what I did about any dissatisfied customers—perhaps I sent out refund checks to the few who took the trouble to request one. As soon as I graduated from high school in May 1984, I moved out of the house—even though I was still only seventeen—and embarked on an experiment in sex, drugs, and rock and roll, quickly burning through the two hundred dollars left in my business account. At some point, I threw all my Oracle files into the basement wood-burning stove next to my desk, including the carbon copies of my voluminous correspondence. I saved only the actual issues and a few flyers. D&D didn’t introduce me to the devil, but LSD did. After two years of re- belling, I returned to Mormonism at age nineteen because a psychedelic experience led me to believe that the devil really existed as an unseen spiritual being bent on humankind’s destruction. Perhaps largely as a result of my Oracle experience, I went on to make a career in corporate writing and editing, including for the LDS Church. Over the decades, I’ve published books and magazines in various areas of interest. In my spare time today, I run a small press called Zarahemla Books that publishes Mormon fiction and memoirs. Now in my late forties, I still tend to feel creative ambitions but not follow through on many of them. Perhaps this is the condition, to one degree or another, of most creative people. My hard drive houses many notes and partial manuscripts for novels and memoirs, and I still tell myself that I’ll eventually finish them. I miss the pure enthusiasm and optimism of my Oracle days. I thank Timothy Hutchings for inviting me to dig up these old issues and relive the experience of when I turnedSample file fantasy role-playing into a real-life publishing adventure. STAFF
PUBLISHED BY: I:Dicor: Chris K. Bigelow Assistant Fdicor: !avid Barrett Art Direccor: Scott Passey Horizon International, Inc. Business Manager: rarrell Wells P.O. Box 27513 Office: Sandy !arlington Salt Lake City, ur 84127 (801) 292- 7044 Contributing Editors: Rick Priest Dave Parsons Consul ting Editor: Craig Dunn Cover Artist: Ryan Ridges
lhe Oracle is published eight times yearly (every IIO!lth except February, May, August, and November) by lbrizon International, Inc. Copies may be obtained at finer game stores, or by subscr iption (/) eni0--1 rooo~.(;f)~"'Tl I»OO --r CD~-! l»l»=t'=r =r 0 -· 3=r=r directly from the publisher. Subscription rates are 8 issues for CD ..... ~m!'J(i)O g_§o CD'< < "0_ _ -o · CD :::1 3 3 CD CD ~ ~'< ~-;, 0 ~CD $8. 00, or 16 i ssues for $14. 00. Overseas (Air Mail) rates are higher: (/) a. c CDO -::I'< ... =t'-o ~ :J -· 0 ..... 0'1 CD - · o o.: Ideas and opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the &litors ror of furizon International. Q.Jestions, ca:n ments, or complaints should be addressed to the specific author , or the &litor in general. J)Je to the large bulk of mail received, \Ye regret that 1.1e cannot anS\Yer all letters personally. Letters printed in the magazine itself are subject to editing for length and clarit y . Distributed in the USA by: Glen'-'000 Distributing 124 Vandalia Collinsville IL 62234 t (313) 839-9154 ·..:- Contents C> 1982 by lbrizon International, Inc. EDITORIAL: Happy Birthday! After nx>nths of planning, and a few w:!eks of delay, the first issue of The Oracle is finally off the presses. In the limited space t1';1t I have, let me . TABLE OF CONTENTS speak just a few w:>rds about our operation, and our plans for t.:he future. We are in the unfavorable position of being a brand new publication. For one thing, we are having difficulties resulting frau a lRck of writers. July 1982, Issue #1 This is a problem that w:! can do little about. We asked for material frau several writers in the gaming field, and got a few nibbles, but rothing major. Not that w:! are suffering terribly; I sincerely believe that the articles in Title page • • . • • • 2 this issue of 'Ihe Oracle are very w:>rthwhile. But w:! need some fresh ideas; some thinkers to give us some material fur good (even great) articles. I'm rot Notice to Subscribers . . . . 3 saying that the regular crew of writers is a butch of d\mnies; they are far frau it. I'm just pointing out that w:! need rore help. The ideas of half a dozen Editorial 4 people aren't going to last terribly long. Any writers out there? There are also problems wi. th money, naturally. We can't yet afford to pro The Healer: a Character Class for AD&D'" 5 duce a glossy. colorful cover. We can' t yet afford to hire talented but expen sive artists, or professional writers. This will all come in time (hopefully) . Reader Ideas: Spells •••••••••• 7 Again, I'm rot trying to cut do~oK~ The Oracle; I think w:!' re ooe of the sharpest semi-professional magazines in the field as far as appearances. Justice Be ~e: an adventure for AD&D'" 9 And then there's myself as an editor. I have had little experience with writing. But, I believe I have some basic talent, arxl am striving to apply it Movies: a look at Summer's offerings • 18 effectively here. You ask, what am I doing starting a magazine? It's because I've wanted to ever since I started gaming tw:> stmners ago. I 've spoken with · PBM Gaming: 'lhe Way of the Warrior • 20 friends and relatives about starting a publication like this , but ro one my age will take the initiative. So I did it alone, with writing support frau good Stormbringer: a Review • • • 23 friends, arxl financial support from even better friends. I managed to raise the cash for some crucial advertisements in some of the major gaming publications. Gaming Publications: A&E, Pandemoni\lll •• 24 Ibn' t get me wrong; I w:>uldn' t be writing this row if I d idn 't think I could handle editorial w:>rk. It w:>uld be dishonest to take people's roney for a poor Contest Anno\.llCe1!lel'lt 27 magazine. I just want everyone to be aware that it might take me a me more than a couple of issues to get used to editing, arxl such things as figuring out ...tlat ~stionnaire •• 28 to put in the magazine, and ~Jlich articles are best, etc. Got it? A mcment ago, I began to discuss the reasons ~Jly I started this magazine. Feedback Form 29 Perhaps the most important reason is that I sensed a need. A need to bring the Sample hobbyfile a little bit closer together, something that neither huge pre.ss operations or tiny amateur publications can do effectively. We are semi- professional; we Subscribers : Take Note I have important things to say, and aren't blinded by money or a reputation to keep up, like the bigger magazines loho are supported by major gaming oompanies. We really listen to our readers and writers. We have a decent circulation; w:! Sane important items to keep in mind - first, )OUI" sU:>scription r&.lllber a'l reach quite a few garners, something that small magazines can't do . the mailing label. This runber 1!al8t appear en all items pertaining to your In nx>nths to come, The Oracle will go through many changes, such as a subscription, as it will speed processing. We throw all inquiries without a possible size expansion, the coming and going of new writers (see the bottom of n\.lllber into a basket to be sorted later, so don't let that happen to you. page 191 11), and differences in our lay-out, printing methods, type styles, etc. Secondly, the issue number your present subscription ends on is printed. on that Also, there will be a refinement and a definite trend for the better in our edi same little mailing label, right next to the subscription rumber (following the torial content. lbpefully, The Oracle will become an established magazine, rot hyphen) • ¥1\en your subscription is nearing its end, w:!' ll mail you a renewal only successful in circulation, but also in reader devotion. because ...tlat w:! form in advance so you can have minterrupted service (providing you respond print will be mat the readers want. Reader participation will be at a maximun. promptly). I will be swamped by letters of comments, suggestions, ideas, and subscriptions. In this colunn, I intend to let doloKl the bonds of professional or even Finally, as we send most subscript ion copies out Third Class lblk, some semi-professional writing, and speak to you eye to eye, as gamer to gamer. I copies might become lost or misplaced in the mails, or in our own processing. might overly criticise my own magazine. l might criticise the readership. I If you haven' t received your copy of an issue within a reasonable !1110\.nt of might criticise myself. But I hope the good can be taken out of it; I hope my time, please drop us a line, and w:! 'll send a replacEment copy out via First ultimate goal of bettering the hobby can be realized time and time again. I Class imDediately. Note : the subscription number p:>licy as outlined above need your cooments; I cannot possibly know v.hat you want to see in this magazine comes into play here; don' t furget itl without them. In that respect, this first issue IoiiiS e total shot in the dark, because w:! 1ve rot yet heard COlllllents from you. If ever our service is less than perfect, don't hesitate to call or write a If I'm rot ruried every morning with letters from readers, you '11 certainly letter to straighten us out. be hearing about i t . rnjoy this issue; talk with you next time. - 3 - Healer is always aware of the exact hit point level of both himself and his patient, and is able to control the exchange perfectly. There is no limit to the amount or type of creatures that may be treated, as long as the Healer's CMt THE HEALER hit points do not drop below zero. The entire process of healing takes cnly one turn, regardless of the anount A new character class for AD&D of healing necessary. The Healer places his hands upon· the injured portion of the body, or as close to it as possible, and falls into a trance. The Healer and his victim DllSt remain completely undisturbed fur the duration. In the by Fonald Mark Pehr event that a disturbance does occur (such as an attack), the Healer will suffer the loss of 1 -4 HP and his patient the same anount, due to the delicate mental operations involved. The procedure DllSt be started anew, altmugh hit points Healers are characters ..tlo can cure the afflictions of others by taking already exchanged will remain stationary. damage into themselves. At first and second level, the @ = the anount of hit points (or other specified item) the Healer loses fran Healer may not engage in combat. perfonning this ability Subsequent levels fight using the Sample file ·t-t>nks Open Hand table, starting at first level; a third level Healer Level EKperience Special Abilities fights as a first level monk, etc. Feints When an opponent reaches zero hit points, he will fall unconscious, 1 2750 no special ability rather than die. The victim rege 2 5500 Ulre paralysis @ 1 HP per hit die of paralyzing entity nerates at one hit point every 3 12000 Ulre blindness, deafness, insanity @ 2 HP per level of three turns, unless a magical patient healing device or spell is used. 4 24000 Ulre psychic damage @ 1 HP per psionic point; non- psychic Note that the Healer will only patient's points equal Intelligence rating fight in self-defense, or if his 5 45000 Ulre disease @ 8 HP plus 1d8 per cure party is losing a battle badly (if 6 95000 Ulre poison damage @ 1 HP for £Nery HP lost he's not too busy healing) • 7 175000 Restore etperience points @ 1 XP for e.~ery XP lost 8 350000 Regenerate missing limbs @2 HP for £Nery HP lost The Healer operates by 9 700000 Ulre lycanthropy @ 1 HP each HP of attacker "soaking up" damage fran a ~unded 10 1050000 Destroy undead @ 1 HP for e.~ery HP to destroy creature; the patient gains hit 11 1400000 Remove curse @ 20 HP per curse points as the healer loses them on 12 1750000 Dispel magic @6 HP per level of cas~ing magic-user a 1 : 1 r atio. The anount of healing 13 2100000 Restore youth @ 1 year for each year; Healer regains one is limited only by the Healer's year per month of living available hit points, and by his 14 2450000 Sto!le to flesh @ HP equal to patient's total desire to dispense them. The 15 2800000 Ressurrect, as Cleric of same level, @ double patient's total HP - 5 - - 6 - The il'1 will probably find chat roost players will disdain the healer as a class desired j S\oOrd for fighter 1 roly symbol for cleric 1 lock-picking tools for charactcr:·clasc. The reasons for this are obvious; the Healer exists tO serve a thief, etc. his fellow man, and not to further his Explanation/Description: By means of this spell, a magic-user can brieflySample ar.Jd fileThe caster III.ISt know something of the IDI!IOOry he is trying to extract from the qualities and fltlctions of any character class to his - 7 - - 8 - Elcaro Adventure #1 Please note that the details and finer descriptions of the city have been left out in this a:iventure, due to limited space. The ~may either crea~e the city from the guidelines given here, or use an establlshed city fran his ~ campaign. Perhaps, in the future, a oanplete description of the Elcaro and surrounding lands will be provided. QlO knows? JUSTICE BE DONE ADVENl'URE BACl An AD&D"' adventure for character levels 3-5 Several ~ ago a brutal !llli"der \oilS CITY BACKGROUND D.Jring the night, the blockade ~ destroyed by the creature. It . re- entered the mine, and lollS soon followed by other creatures of different species. El.caro is a small city located oo the southern coast of a fairly large The miners, upon returning in the morning, fumd that the entire mine ~plex island. With a JX>pulation of about 200, the main activities of the city include was possessed by lll)[lsters. Wizards ~re imnediately brought in to magically fishing and mining. Because of the lack of suitable land for farming, most pro seal off the entrance shaft, and the mine lollS abandoned. The invading creature~ duce m.J.St be traded or purchased from the merchant caravans that pass through posed too ~rful a threat for · the miners (\olbo ~re mtrained in the lollYS ot the city at regular intervals. El.caro is governed by a Lord ~o residesSample in a fighting), file and for the tiny City Qlard. Thus the mine has remained, fur many castle overlooking the city. Lord Arocel is kn~ throughout the land fur his years. unerring wisdom and justice, and is loved dearly by his people. The to'ooirlspeople themselves are honest, religious folk, ~ are genenil.ly tolerant of strangers. Lately, cities along the coast of the island, . including EI.car:o, have Adventurers will find accomodations to be higher priced than expected, and ~t adapted the practice of teleporting criminals and prLsoners of ~ mto the specialized adventuring equipnent available is also overpriced. Standard cao dreaded mine. It is a fitting torture, believed to be w:>rse than death. tb ooe modities are readily available, at reasonable prices. kno-ws ~t befalls the prisoners deep below the earth. tb ooe even kno-ws if the monsters still inhabit the canplex. But everyone is sure of one thing; no me has ever returned alive. The physical charac teristics of the surround Thus the plans and preparations ~re made to teleport the convicted tOOr ing land are pictured here, derer into the mines. The teleJX>rtation went 811l00thly, and the matter ~s soon in a self-explanatory man pushed to the rear of the villagers' minds. That is, mtil a new developnent in ner. The forest, hilly the case surfaced. area and swamp are all excellent places for JX>ten In short it seems that the 100rderer \oilS incorrectly convicted. The real tial adventure, and will murderer cl.l'll1tngly set him up, and escaped fran the city before cJ::t\oitl· ltlw, most likely be presented in because of oanplicated matters having to do with some sort of blacl The next DDrning, after spending a pleasant night in the lDrd's castle, the party is escorted to the teleport~ roau deep in the heart of the castle, lohere three wizards begin to invoke the spells. At. the last DXll\\ent, the leader is handed a small scroll, lohich is a Scroll of ttxlified Teleport for lohen the party is ready to leave. The members must all rold hands, and speak the "I.Ords of the scroll in lllison. There is ro need for a magic-user in the party to use this scroll; the wizards have developed it for use by any character class. There is no chance for error 1n any of the teleporting necessary to exit or enter the mines, regardless of Where the party is at the time. The party suddenly blinks out, and re-appears in Area 1. Read the appropriate description to them now. ·· · The mtne complex is generally littered with rubble and debris. 1n all corridors or passages, shorings have been placed to brace the ~lls, at inter vals of roughly 50'. All man-made passages (smx>th, even \olllls) are 10' high, but natural corridors tend to be irregular in height, ranging fran 8- 15'. The entire area is damp , with a plentitude of lii)SS and lichen growingSample en file most available surfaces. Dripping "'iter can almost always be heard, and snail puddles of w:~ter are COIIIDOTlplace. The party must watch fuoting to make sure that there are ro slipping accidents. The IM might wish to penalize spells that could possibly be affected by a clamp, tuuid atmosphere (fireball, etc.). WANDERIN:; ~: Check every turn; encolllters occur 1 in 12. d6 Roll Fllcounter Statistics 10 gibberlings AC 10, HV 9", I:ID 1, hp 4(x2), 5(x3), 6(x4), 7(x1), #AT 1 (+1 hit), 0 1-8 2 gorbel AC 3/10, MV 18", HDnil, #AT 1, D 1-4 or 1-6 (See Fiend Folio for mre info) 3 ogre AC 5, MV 9", HD 4+1, hp 27, #AT 1, D 1-1 0 4 4 fire beetles AC 4, MV 12", HD 1+2, hp 9,8,6,3, #AT 1, 0 2-8 5 3 volts AC 3, MV 6", HD 2+1, hp 16,13,11, #AT 1 and 1, 0 1-4 and 2-12 (See Fiend Folio) 6 1-6 men (prisoners) AC 5, MV 12" , HD 3, hp 23,24,20,16,15, 10, #AT 1, 0 1-8 - 11 - I strongly suggest that a good variety of character classes .make up the knowing exactly \obere the characters were. After the initial blinding attempt, par ty that ventures into these mines. I also suggest that a dwarf or €f1001e the creature will leap out of the ~ro and mter into normal melee (AC 1 or 3. accompany the party ("lotlether as an NPC, or a PC), as one w:>uld come in handy in 1 MV f/ , HD 4+2, hp 31, #AT 11 D 1- 8) . It will flee if it loses more than half recognizing and possibly avoiding certain "aspects" of the dlrlgeon. its hit p:>ints , or if a1y spells are used agai.nst it. In the engineering of this dlrlgeon, it became apparent that playability In the glittering pile, characters may find some mrefined .gold ore. For might be sacrificed in an attempt to keep the mines realistic . SUch things as each romd the party searches thr~ the pile I their earnings mcrease by 100 magic items and certain traps that liven up a dlrlgeon don't logically fit in GP to a maximuD of 500 GP. The ore may be sold to a local mining company in with the theme of the mines. tbwever, I have included some of these items, El~o . There is a 25% chance that characters not having any mining experience because playability - 13 - - 14 - Area 6: EMPl'Y R1:XM Area 12: MININ; AREA Area 7: MINING AREA A ordinary looking pick rests oo the floor in this area. It is actually a A rook rorror An aging man sits in the center of this three-way intersection, facing Area 15 : MAN-MAlE Sane of the prisoners of the mines have banded together to help their chan By Angie Carlson ces for survival. They have sealed off an area for themselves, using secret doors and blockades. If any intrusions are made, all Jrisoners will be aware of it and will be prepared to fight, or go to the aid of the others. The tw:> What a SUIJDer for movies! Especially if )OU're a sci fi or fantasy buff. blockades sealing off the area may be tom dolon in 5- 20 romds, by characters of The growing interest in this area has sparked a IUllber of related productions. high strength. The prisoners will obviously know Wuit is happening. Here are brief cooments on some of the blockbusters released to date. Area 18: MAN-MAlE RXM COOAN '1HE BARBARIAN - "The Incredible lbke." This 110vie looks as trough it ~re The prisoners have conver ted this storage chamber into a food roan. In a made by barbarians. Schwarzenegger of the incredible trulkish body, dopey grin pool taking up half the area are several blind cave fish, W\ich are raised for and no acting talent leads this gorefest, with director John Milius ooing his food . Around the roan grow various forms of edible mold. There are tw:> w:>rkers best to stifle the "real" Conan as created by fazoous fantasy autrors. Besides on duty (AC 8, MIJ 6" , HD 2, hp 14,13, #Kr 1, D 1-8) armed with mining aKes. being mfaithful in Dmly ~ys to the books upon W\ich it is based. WRA1li OF I - 19 - - 20 - Sacred Treasures scattered randomly throughout the land - the ~rd, Mirror, and in the game? These are all vital items to be thoroughly examined; a PBM is a Jewel s. A player ~ conquers a province containing a treasure automatically long-term investment in m:>st cases, and it needs to be "iell thought out. posseses it, but no one knows just exactly ~ere to find them. The game is ~ by this method if a player posesses all three treasures, through conquering the For the next several issues this col\JIIl will be dedicated to the reviewing hosting provinces. of some of the larger PBM game~ on the market today. After that, ~ kn A possible disadvantage of the game is the "element of suprise" ¥ilich The Way of the Warrior exists; players are not aware of the results of other players' actions unless it directly affects them or the entire game. Genj i Games backs this "no-tell" A play-by-mail game of ancient Japan offered by: policy by saying, "after all, in those times it might have taken quite a ~ile for a lord to be informed of an event." In defense, this statement is histori GENJI GAM&') cally true to an eKtent, and it must also be considered that the canpany could Box 3689 not practically be expected to supply all player detail to the other players in San Bernardino, CA 92413 literally hundreds of games without sacrificing efficiency. Bret Rudnick, Proprietor While The ~ of the Warrior is aooung the simplest games on the market, it If you've ever wmted to play a scenario in ancient Japan, then here ' s a is also one of m:>st enjoyable and the m:>st accurate historically. The rules game you should know about - The Way of the Warrior, by_ Genj i Games. In 'IW, aren't suitable for use outside the PR-{ game itself, but then they are not one of seven players must mite on e:upire set on the anc1.ent Japanese islan GAME MECHANICS Mr. Rudnick, in discussing just ~Y he started Genj i Games, tells us that Samplehe wasfile basically fed up with the Pm-1 industry as it was a few years back. \-bile Of the 55 provinces existing on K:>nshu, he did enjoy m:>st of the games he played, there "iere things that really bothered seven are ruled by the players, with the him, such as low-quality materials, long intermissions between turns, and other remainder staying neutral. The object of such things. Genj i Games is his solution to this unsatisfaction with the the game is, of course, ultimate danination industry. Mr. Rudnick's points are "iell made and he has certainly done an by one of the seven players, through the excellent job of organizing his game. I highly reccmnend it. conquering of all provinces. Players lead armies of Samurai and footmen into battle Ratings (1-10 scale) Playability: 8 with adjacent provinces, but must also take Simplicity: 8 precautions to ensure that no one conquers Company Efficiency: 9 the home province ~ile this is happening. Material. Q.lality: 7 Players are all~ to detail attack and Value: 6 defense tactics, scout neighboring provin OVERAlL: 8 ces, supplement a force with hired troops, employ the help of a mystical priestess or Genj i Games plans other game-releases for the future, incluawg solo can powerful magician, or ally with neutral puter versions. Cltrrently, there is a contest for "Best Player of 1982" in territories. Players may also find that progress. Complete details are available on request, including info on the "fate" has either bestowed blessings upon valuable first place prize. To enroll in 'llie Waa of the Warrior, send a check them, or cursed them - ~ether it is a gift · for $5 to Genji Games, Box 3689, San Bernardino, 92413. of additional troops, or a devastating earthquake. NEXT ISSUE: ~ of several games offered by Schubel & Son, Inc. will c_ kl alternate way to win a game from examined; Tri6es of Crane, and the new Star Venture. that explained above is to possess the three - 21 - - 22 - will be assassins. This percentage certainly seems a bit high, especially in STORMBRINGER light of all- the .extra talents that an assassin starts the game with. The Q1 is advised to use discretion in this matter. t The first chapter of the Jqllebook deals with the geography, political Stormbri~er magic is very colorful, and is the first magic system I have religions, and genetics of the nations in the Yol.Ilg Kingdans. Natural features, seen that easTy simulates sorcery. This system very definitely is sorcery as languages, and special points of interest are also mentioned, always with an eye opposed to simple spell casting. A sorcerer has no magical abilities of his OloKI toward possible sites for adventure. The author has done a good job of pre in this game; he is only able to bind other magical creatures to his will, senting the rich diversity of the Young Kingdans in a capsulized way. forcing them to do his bidding. The magic system forces a player to think men planning a magical operation, and a successful player can look forward to having The section on character creation follows the section on the Young a very powerful sorcerer as a character - but only after having taken some Kingdoms, since the character's nationality has a strong influence on his sta terrible risks. These rules are well thought out, fullow Moorcock' s mythos clo tistics and social class. The character creation deals with the different sely, and should be a great deal of fun to play. They are some of the most attributes and their definitions, nationalities and their effect on attributes, colorful and "magical feeling" rules on the market today. character classes and skills, and the determination of skill bonuses based oo the attribute scores. Following the instructions on how to roll a character up, Clarification of religion is always a difficult subject, especially ~en the author provides ''Merak Gren" as an example of the creation pr-ocedure. Merak the religions must be true to a literary myth that did not give a great deal of is taken from the basic rolls to a canpletely outfitted assassin. Merak' s information to oork on. The author has had to develop a v.hole new method of adventures also appear throughout the book, acting as explanation.s of various dealing with cults for this game, and he has succeeded admirably. The author rules and concepts, and serving as an invaluable aid to the novice Q1. has taken the sparse information available on the religion in the Young Kingdcms and has created a simple, oorkable system. In the following chapters that deal I do have one canplaint with the character class generation chart. with the creatures and 10011sters of the Yol.Ilg Kingdans, arxl the mique problems Following the statistics the author has provided, 20% of all trained fighters - 23 - - 24 - of rurming a game set in a doomed w:>rld, St. Andre has stayed remarkably close The experience of participating directly in an APA can be lx>th fun and to the original scenario found in Mx>rcock' s Elric stories. rer;oarding, especially if the reader is also a regular contributor. As has been said before, APAs are basicall y Uledited , thus nearly all reader submissions Though St. hldre has not been so faithful to Run~st, the game system will be printed. Usually, printing will be directly fran the typewritten that fostered Stonnbr~'s mechanics, the changes he made can be easily manuscript supplied by the writer. Contributors should expect a small fee to reversed if the 00 1s Uiar with the ~st system. If St. Andre r;oas a help cover the costs of printing and production, but, again, it is 'Nell w:>rth bit off the mark with his mechanics, theri t dead center in his attempt to it. Compl ete details are available fran the publisher. codify the societies, cultures, and magics of the Yomg Kingdans for Storm bringer. Virtually everything that absolutely had to be correct is correct, and It is imp:>rtant to note that the APA is definitely not for everyone. Sane any problems with the rules are relatively minor. will find it to be a valuable source of new ideas for running a canpaign, a:td others will find it to be a failure. Generally speaking, the IIDre serious the Stormbringer is a great buy for $20, especially WJ.en canpared with the pro gamer, the more to be gained fran the APA. "Sullner I:Ms" should stay 8JIIB.Y, but ducts of some other canpanies ~se game systems can't be played Ultil you have most other garners will find a lll>St w:>rthl.lhile addition to the game, once they shelled out $35-40 for several different canp:>nents. In brief, I w:>Uld rate catch up on the camJents about past issues and such. This author recOIIIDends Stonnbr~r the following en a 1- 10 scale: Artw:>rk 9 1/2, IW!es 7, Playability that several publications be considered, and that the reader try to becane 8, Adap ility (general) 7, .Adaptability (to Runequest md other Chaosiun involved with a1 APA, both en a reading and writing level. products) 8 1/2, Complexity 7, Idea Source 8. If you enjoy Run~st and the Elric books by Michael ~rcock, buy Stormbri~r . If you thirikt ~uest Now with a little background established, here is some information about has the right idea but is too canplex, bUY Sto ringer. I'm glad I di • tw:> of the top llnerican APAs. \>bile the information presented is not critical, it should be helpful in aiding the decision about ..ttich publications to try. * * * ALARLMS AND EXCURSIONS is a monthly collection of articles and COIIIDents by Fditor' s note: For th:>se interested in purchasing Stormb~er, " A&E is $1.50 per copy plus p:>stage. At current p:>stal rates, a copy of .A&E is $2. 13 domestic, or $2.33 foreign. Anyone may contribute to .A&E, the · cost is GAMING PUBLICATIONS $1.50 per typed page, or less for contributions en mimeogr11.ph stencils. The contributer receives a free copy of the issue contributed in. Please make all by Rick Priest checks to Lee Gold (the Fditor), 3965 Alla Rd., los Angeles, CA 90066. Author's Note:. Because of a boom in the small gaming magazine industry, it PANDEMJNIUM (formerly APA-DJD) is The New York &>le Playing lmateur Press is w:>rthwhile that 'NI'! run a regular review colunn en several of theSample offerings Assoc1at1on file . To receive copies, you should contribute writing periodically, or available, both in the United States and in foreign cotl'ltries. For this issue, send $2. 00 per issue. Please send 75 or more copies of your contribution, or ~ will briefly examine tw:> APA (llnateur Press Association) publications that arrange for a local printer at your cost. (Art used for Covers will be printed have been en the scene for a number of years. Because many readers aren't fami at the expense of the APA) • A sample copy may be obtained by sending $2 to liar with exactly ..tlat an APA is, an explanation has been provided. Robert Sacks, at the address below. An APA publication is the ultimate in free-form camn.nication. Usually run Send art material to: Iavid Kaplan, 40 Fifth /we., New York, NY, 10011. by a group of gamers based in a local geographical area, the APA is an Uledited Send written material to: Robert Sacks, 4861 Broadway 5-V, New York, NY 10034. mediun of small circulation ..ttere anyone may express his th:>ughts, opinions and ideas about gaming, and resp:>nd to the ccmnents of other writers. Because the You carmot predict ..tlat games will be discussed; r1i.D, AD&D, 1FT, Traveller, cost of obtaining copies is usually fairly reasonable, the APA is often superior Runequest, a game Ulder develojlllE!llt, or ..tlatever anyone chooses to write about. in value to the professional magazines, such as IXagon , Different \brlds, or The culture shock bet'Neen New Jersy and New York alone founded the APA over four White Dwarf, because of the relative anount of usable material presented in each years ago, and every month, 11 am , the First Saturday of the IIDnth, the APA issue, in an economical format that saves the subscriber Jll>ney. gathers at The Compleat Strategist, 11 E. 33rd St., New York, NY to collate, talk and perhaps even play a few games. Of course, APAs have their share of problems. (he of the more prevalent is the large amount of w:>rthless discussion that sometimes clutters the articles. Recent issues have included excellent artw:>rk by Cathryn Berend and Iavid While this is fine for th:>se WJ.o are familiar with the writer and associate with Kaplan, comic artw:>rk by Mark Blackman, Jon Favreau, John Fluker and Tim him outside the APA, it might cause a great deal of cmfusion for the newcaner. O'IXmnell, and writing by !Bvid Allen, Eric Jablow, Iavid Kaplan, Howard Mahler However, this difficulty fades 8JIIB.Y with a little time and patience, and Paul Rini, Ken &>lston, William Seligman, Patrick Sweeney , and Robert \Est: shouldn' t cause anyone to becane discouraged and abandon all rope of ever There is a calendar of events, news about gaming and science fiction activities enjoying the APA. Other problems also frequently occur, such as p:>Or printing and some recruiting for local conventions. ' and binding methods, clunsy art, or messy layout and typing, but are easily dealt with or just simply ignored. NEXI' ISSUE: '1\.lo semi-professional ffi!lgazines will be critically reviewed; Phantasy and Abyss. - 25 - - 26 - READERSHIP QUESTIONNAIRE CONTEST This Q.Jestionnaire is not intended to be a "filler." We sincerely need to have data on all the items listed, so ~ can decide such questions as: \>hat The First Annual Dungeon Module Competition games do ~ cover mst often? To lobat dlaracter levels do ~ gear such things as adventures, monsters and spells? \ohat gaming conventions srould ~ attend,. is now in process! to better accomodate our readers? \.bat type of articles srould be printed? And other obvious questions. (Sponsered by lbrizon International, in co-operation with the editors of The Oracle magazine.) Please - help us ootl This page and the one following it may be Rules photocopied if so desired, to avoid defacing this magazine. If you need I!Ore room, feel free to attach addtional sheets full of comments, criticism, --:For the sake of simplicity, all dungeon entries must be canpatible with the suggestions, items fOr our Reader Ideas colunn, • • • • etc. • etc. official AI1to· or D&[)® rules. The material in the dungeon may be geared for any character level(s), class(es), or race(s). Maps must be drawn on graph paper (any readable size) in pen, with appropriate notes as to scale and encounter 1 • \ollat role-playing games do you play mst often? ------keys. Contestants are allo'l Honorary Mentions (3): 8-issue subscription to The Oracle Consolation: All entries receive a discount coupon good for $2 off any 6. Vllat are your thoughts and opinions concerning a Product Swap Listing, for new subscription or renewal the The Oracle. readers to list and purchase used items fran?------Return Fntries will be returned if accompanied by a SASE of proper size and weight, except winning entries, mich will be prin~ed in upc~ing issues of The Oracle. No entry will be returned tnles.s accompan1.ed by SASE. 7. Based on lobat you' ve seen so far, row does The Oracle canpare with the other Send entries or address questions to: small magazines in the field? ------FAIMC 1445 E. Seville Way Bountiful, ur 84010 - 27 - - 28 - 8. \ Embark on a n incredible journey through the world of fantasy 9. \ohat ~uld be mtivating subjects for Contests to be held in the furure? and science fiction gaming - aboard The Oracle! Vast regions lie unexplored ... new realms await discovery ... and The Oracle is the way to do it! Each digest-sized issue combines fiction, art and editorial comment with new game variants, dungeon adventures, new mon· FEEDBACK ON ISSUE II 1 sters and magic, campaign expansion ideas and reader commentary plus much more to create a wholly satisfying publication for all. And FEEDBACK is a regular feature to help us 1 Please rate the following items oo a scale of 1-1 0. SUBSCRIBE NOW, AND RECEIVE A VALUABLE FREE GIFT! Cover art: Stormbringer review: Just enclose an extra $2.00 with your subscription order for shipping and handling, and we'll send (for free and of your choice!) a Interior art: Gaming Publications: module produced by TSR Hobbies, Inc., A $5.50 value! Subscription Headlines, type: Contest: rates are $8.00 for 8 issues, or $14.00 for 16 issues. A sample copy is $2.00. Dealer inquiries are welcome. Subscribe today - this offer .AdvertisemEnts: M:>vie Reviews: ends soon! Editorial: The Healer: --- 8 HORIZON INTERNATIONAL, INC. Reader Ideas: Justice l:le fune: ....~ P.O. BOX 27513 ~ Pai Gaming: OVEIWL: Sample file SALTLAKECITY UT 84127 g... ~ ~stions W:>uld you prefer nunerous short articles·, or fe\ MAIL TO: Sample file THE ORACLE GENERAL INFORMATION Table of Contents September 1982, Issue 12 STAFF General Information ••• PUBLISHED BY: Editor: Play-by~il Gaming 15 The Oracle is published eight times yearly (every ronth except February, May, August, and November) by lbrizon International, Inc. Copies may be "It's a Living" 17 obtained at finer game stores, or by subscription directly from the publisher. Subscription rates are 8 issues for $8.00, or 16 issues for $14.00 (add $1 per Supplement Reviews • • 20 issue for Overseas Air Mail). Back issues are available; issue Ill is $2.00 (includes $.50 postage) . Cllange of address notices should be sent sixty days in Borderlands: "EXcellence at a Price" 22 advance. Gaming Publications ••• • •• • • 24 Advertising is accepted en a limited basis. Rates start at $55 for a full Feedback 11 : ~sults & Couments 30 size page; please \olt"ite for further information. Classified Advertising runs at $.50 per ~rd, with a mininn.m of 10 words. Sample Feedbackfile 12 ..... 30 We welcome unsolicited submissions of written material or ar~rk. Unacceptable submissions will be returned if _accompanied by correct postage. Subscribers: Take Note I Contributor guidelines and payment info are avallable en request. Some important ite:ns to keep in mind - first, )')ur subscr iption n.mber on Ideas and opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those. of the mailing label. This ruDber !lalSt appear on all questions or requests per the Editors nor of lbrizon International. Q.lestions, CCXJJDents, or opposll'l8 taining to your subscription, as it will speEd processing. We throw all views should be addressed to the specific author, or the Editor in general. inquiries without a I'1..IDber into a basket to be sorted later, so don't let that DJe to the large oolk of mail received, we regr~t ct:at we cannot ~swer all let happen to you. Secondly, the issue n.mber your present subscription ends on is ters personally. Letters printed in the magazme ltself are subJect to Editing printed on that same little mailing label, right next to the subscription number for length and clarity. (following the hyphen) . \-hen your subscription is nearing its end, we'll mail you a renewal form in advance so you can have minterrupted service (providing you respond promptly). Distributed by: Glenwood Distributing 124 Vandalia Finally, as we send rost subscription copies out Third Class IW.k, s:xne Collinsville IL 62234 USA copies might beccxne lost or damaged in the mails, or in our own processing. lf (313) 839-9154 you haven' t received your copy of an issue within a reasonable a:DO\.nt of time, please drop us a line, and we' 11 send a replacement copy out via First Class i.nmediately. lf you receive a damaged copy, please return it for a new ooe. AD&D, Advanced IA~nAeons & Dr~s, 11'itD, and Dungeons & Dragons Note: the subscription ruDber policy as outlined above canes into play here; are registered trademai of~ lbbbies, tnc. don' t forget it I If ever our service is less than perfect, don't hesitate to call or write a Contents by lbrizon International, Inc. 01982 letter to straighten us out. - 2 - Reader's Writings Reader's Writings is an open fonn for readers of The Oracle to express thoughts, opimons, suggestions, or criticism about anything related to this magazine or FRP in general. Responses to ccmnents made in this colu:un are encouraged. Send correspondence to: Reader's Writings, P.O. Box 27513, Salt Lake City, ur 84127. EDITORIAL COMMENTS Dear Editor: You might be w:lrldering 'V.hy this issue of The Oracle follows the last ooe so closely. Well, as I stated last issue, ~ ~re behind a couple of ~eks; this To quote a certain redheaded wtif: "Leapin' Lizards" II II A Utah-based issue ~·re just catching up with oor schedule. I 'm sure you're rot terribly publication? 1b my knowledge, this is both the first Utahn and the first upset .•• •. Intei'!IIOI.I'ltain gaming magazine. I'm excited. We've been hearing a lot of enthusiasm about The Oracle, and this is vecy Part of the excitement dampened, ro¥~eVer, upon laying my grubby little paws gratifying. Mr. Allred's letter oo the page following seems to SUD up the on your premiere issue of The Oracle. Being familiar with basically ooly r::t:agon general feeling about issue ill . There was some disappoinonent as to the and \ \-hat about lbrizon International as a gaming canpany? lb ~ have any pro Whether lizar ds really leap or not, I applaud your premiere issue. I wish ducts besides The Oracle? My ooly ccmnent oo that is ----- not YETI you success with your venture. Lee Allred Altamont, Utah - 3 - - 4 - Greetings, 0 Masters of The Oracle! Rarely do game designers take the time or effort to answer review.> of their DUNGEON MODULE products, for the reviewer is certainl y enti tled to his opinion. You wi ll undoubtedly think it strange that I am writing this considering the high praise and kind ~rds Mike Dawson had for my game STORMBRINGER in his review of it in CONTEST The Oracle #1, but I feel that some clarification is needed. Mr. IBwson is quite a fine writer, but he bet rays his anateur standing in The Firs t Annual !Aingeon ~bdule Competition some of the things he writes. He has made some errors in his assumptions, and is now in process I in doing so I feel he assigns me some blame m fairly. (Sponsered by lbrizon International, in co-operation with Let me claim the blane that is coming to me. Alt hough STORI'IBRINGER has the editors of The Oracle magazine.) been in print for nearly a year now, neither 1 nor Steve Perrin has v.orked up the energy and enthusiasm to do a full-fledged designer's article about the Rules creation of the game . People have asked me to do so , but 1 have never found the --For the sake of simplicity, all dungeon entries must be compatible with the time. Thus, the reason for certain design decisions remains hidden. I hope to official AllkD"' or Ilk~ rules. The material in the dungeon may be geared for any clarify that a littl e now. character level(s), cl ass(es) , or race(s) . Maps must be drawn on graph piper (any readable size) in pen, with appropriate notes as to scale and encounter Let me pass over all the nice things that Mike Dawson says about ~ys . O:.lntestants ~e . all~ to create new oxms t ers, magic i t ems or spells , STORMBRINGER. In part, the things he likes ¥~ere determined by the nature of Wlth complet e descnptlons m standard fom. Ehcounter descriptions involving l'borcock' s original stories, and in part by the nature of the edit ing that monsters must include all pertinent data. ChaosiUD gave my product before it lf.BS ever published. lbwever, the things he All entries must be typed, double-spaced, with a maxiroi.ID of ~ty five objects to, especially in the creation of ~rBrr iors and beggars, have the same pages of manuscipt (incl uding maps) . The judges and playtesters will be rating origin. ingenuity, originality, presentation and playabili ty in deciding the winners. Ill';IStra~ed ent~ies wil~ be given extra ~nsideration on the area of presen In STORMBRINGER, if a "~oarrior hopes to survive, it is vital that he have as tatLon, 1f the 1llustrat10ns are passabl e m quality. Contestant mus t enclose a many skills and abil ities as possible. Of all warriors, 20%we r e chosen to have signed let tez: stating that the entr~ is hi s original v.or k, and will not infringe Assassin skills, because that seemed a reasonable percentage to represent those on any copynght laws, or on the n ghts of any third par ty. There is oo limit veterans lotio could be trusted with l!X)re than simple canbat assignnents. You on row many _entries. may be sullllitted ~Y one person, but only one entry fran any must remember that the Young Kingdans are not perfectly analagous to Earth of person can Wln a pnze. i'illtiple entn es must be mailed in separate envelopes. the Middle Ages. I wanted it to be a v.orld in ....tlich assassins abound . Although 20% of warriors are assassins, only 4% of the general adventurer population is. Deadlines That doesn't seem like a very high percentage. All entries must be p:>stmarked no later than Nov . 31, 1982, P.M. Winners Sample willfile be announced upon completetion of the j udging process (specutively 1n issue Beggars are quite a different story. They ~re deliberately made loathe 115 Jan 1983) . lbrizon International reserves the right to cancel or delay this some, because that is how l'borcock describes the subjects of the King of the contest in the event that response is not sufficient to W'lrrant the awarding of Beggars ...no lives in Nadsokor. Without some kind of impediment, Urish v.ould not the prizes listed below. accept a new beggar into his kingdan. NPCs ....tlo seem to be beggars, but aren't, are only using beggardan as a disguise. It should also be ID:!ntioned that the Prizes First Place: $50.00 rules excuse players ....tlo randanly create beggars from having to use the charac Second Place : $35. 00 ters mless they want the extra challenge of playing a beggar and feel very Third Place: $20. 00 masochistic. In a ~rld like the Young Kingdans, nobody in their right mind ~uld be a beggar if they could avoid it. Honorary Mentions (3): 8-issue subscription to The Oracle The skills list originally started out to be exactly the same as the Consolation: All entries receive a discount coupon good for $2 off any Runequest skills list except in those cases ....tlere no analagous skills exist in new subscription or renewal to the The Oracle. RQ. 1-b~er, my editors Lynn Wi llis and Steve Perrin decided to change the ter minology on me in order to have SfORI'IBRINGER confom to the new simplified Return skills list they ~re planning for BASIC roLE PlAYING. It W'iS their decision, ----a,tries will be returned if accompanied by a SASE of proper size and supported by the rest of the management at Chaosium, that all skill names v.ould "'eight, except wiming entries, ....tlich will be print ed in upcaning issues of 1he take the fom of an active verb. Oracle. No entry will be returned mless accompanied by SASE. Again, players should mow that STORMBRI~ER combat W'iS originally planned to be an exact clone of RUNEQUEST combat except that I ~rBs insisting on using Address entries or questions to : FAIMC the full range of 0100 (not just oW.tiples of 5) for canbat skills. Hit loca- 1445 E. Seville W3.y Bomtiful, ur 84010 (continued on page 28) - 5 - - 6 - Ready-Made N PC s Reader Ideas By &mald Mark Pehr Editor's Note: As of yet, we haven't decided upon a decent name for this Those mo ron a D&~ game often find that a difficult task is to come up colum. Your suggestions are still welcanel We will probably with believable NPCs on the sp:>t. The J:M gets short shrift if players cxne to make a decision by next issue. realize that all NPCs wear chainmail, are named Joe, and are kindly but dumb; and all the NPC d11arves are named Sleepy, carry a 11arhanmer, and love gold. But, the \c,Qrk involved in setting up and running a lengthy campaign means that ORI.ON'S OCHEIARS Magic Item by B. E. Taylor quite often there's not enough time to pre- plan each and every NPC the players encoU'lter - which means Joe and Sleepy sure do p:>p up a lot I The ochelars appear as small glass balls of various colors, with swirling As an aid to the stuggling referee, several NPCs are presented herein. patterns inside. They are designed to be placed in the anpty eye oocket of a Rather than just supplying the basic rolls mich the DM can easily man&&e, a bit hunanoid, bestowing or cursing the wearer with a variety of fmctions. Some of of background and some guides for determining the character's . actlons are the more common ochelars are detailed herein. included. Each is first level, lllless otherwise noted, as there 1s a presump tion in most D&~ campaigns that only novice adventurers hire out to the play7r Ochelar of Curing - This ochelar is deep blue in color. t,.,hen placed in an anpty characters. Characteristics were rolled on 3d6 for all human characters, Wl.th socket, it Wlll graft itself into place within three roU'lds, and can be removed hit p:>ints determined as per the appropriate manual (usually the AD&D'" Players only by limited wish or upon the death of the wearer. The p:>wers that are Handbook). These NPCs should have oo trouble fitting into any of the various bestowed once the grafting has been canpleted are: cure light \c,QU'lds ( 1 daily), incarnations of D&~ - Basic, EXpert, Original, Advanced, your awn variant - if cure serious \c,Q\.Ilds (3 weekly), cure critical \c,Q\.Ilds (1 weekly), cure disease (1 you ron a high level game simply roll more hit dice, give them some reasonable monthly), cure blindness (1 monthly), cure insanity (1 monthly). A few speci magic items, and declare them to be higher level characters. mans also have the p:>wer to resurrect (1 yearly) as a cleric of 16th level. Note all other p:>wers of this ochelar are as per the appropriate clerical spells All NPCs have appropri ate dU'lgeon- delving or overland equipment mless in the AD&o• Players Handbook. otherwise stated. Numbers for the characters' abilities are given in the following order: Ochelar of Sigh7 - Appears anber in color and can be removed at will. This ochelar IS part1cularly beneficial to blind hunanoids, as it restores oormal sight cxnpletely. In addition, it bestows the following p:>wers: infravision, eyes of channing (1 weekly, as per magic-user spell), minute seeing, eagle-range seeing, illusion detection 50%, even if rot concentrating. The ooly danger involved in the use of this stone is the fact that the other eye must be covered or removed to avoid insanity. A person could conceivably remove ooe eye to replace it with the ochelar, but beware of losing it! Sample file Ochelar of Fire - Appears bright red in color and may be removed at will. The ochelar ~ 1 t bestow sight but will grant the following jX)wers : produce flane, pyrotechnics (1 weekly), 6 HD fire ball (1 weekly), affect oormal fires (3 weekly), and Will of flame (1 weekly), as per appropriate spells. Ochelar of Death (cursed) - A morbid black in color, this ochelar behaves in the socket as per the CUring Ochelar above. 1-bwever, the grafting will be very painful, and might 11arn alert players that something is wrong with the ochelar, and allow them to act fast to avoid permanent grafting. This stone removes all sight inmediately, and forces its lllfortU'late wearer oo save ooce a day vs. death or take 1-10 HP iiiJDediately. In addition, this same save applies to any one creature within sight (determine randomly). BackgroU'ld - The Ochelars were originally created by Ck"lon, a great wizard. t'A'len he boasted of being superior to even the gods in craftsmanship, they struck him blind and set him in eternal torture. Let Orlon be an example to any enterprising high-level wizards getting too big for their britches. General Notes - Orlon' s Ochelars are very rare, and are never follld within ten miles of each other. It is believed that Orlon created a score or more of these stones, and that many still lie in caverns deep below the earth ~iting to be discovered. The J:M might wish to p.lt use-limits oo these stones, or modify the An Epic Fantasy powers somellhat. Note that any character class may use the stones, except (continued page 29) Coming soon to The Oracle Magazine - 7 - Strength Intelligence Wisdan Constitution ~terity Charisma STANEL: 12 13 11 14 12 10, HP 5, ftC 7. Studded leather armor, poleaxe. Stanel is a peasant fanner seeking a better fort:l.lle as a mercenary fighter. His dif fident, shy manner is the result of not being used to associating with people; FIGHI'ERS & 1HlE.VES (the latter seldcm admit it) he spends most of his time fanning. rt>t very well ~ucated, but alert and intelligent, Stanel has great skill at metalsmithing, and might be able to REE[)flD.l~: 11 12 11 9 10 15, HP 7, ftC 7. Wears studded leather armor, armed assist the party with this skill in times of need. Stanel is brave, but puts with a longbow, arrows and a srort sw:>rd. Reedflower is the darling daughter of pursuit of wealth above blind loyalty to a cause. Aligrment - Neutral Good a wealthy land-o'WI'Ier, and is well-versed in all the social graces. fut W"tat she really ~ts to do is go e - 9 - - 10 - 0 ners and morals of all the members. Alignnent - lawful Neutral 0 0 0 0 NIFriK: 11 9 12 9 11 10, HP 6, N:. 8. leather armor, light crossbow, club. Niftik ~uld like to be a thief, but doesn't ~ssess the talent and could find no one willing to train him. So he's settled with being a simple mercenary fighter. Although he can be aniable if he '11611ts oomething . he tends to be a bit of a bully and drinks too much. He mjoys violence W'len he's winning but ~n't be particularly loyal to the party. Aligrroent - Chaotic Neutral Spell-Employing Classes SPARK: 5 13 10 10 10 12, HP 2, N:. 10. AT 5'1", Spark is sensitive about his After viewing all of the fantasy and science fiction films the SU!Jller has relatively small stature. He is trained as a j e~o~eler - his father • s profession to offer, it becanes apparant that there are ooly three im~rtant films in the - and will be especially interested in any magic having to do with je~o~els and bunch. E.T. may be makin~ nore uvney than any other film in history, and STAR gems . He always needs money to buy jems, both for trade and for pur~ses of TREK: 1HE WRATh CF l SHAin/: 12 15 9 8 17(-3 defense) 14, HP 5, AC 7. Son of a hard-working tailor, Such is rot the case with ~ WARRIOR, or Bl.ADEl{lJNNER. Both of these who dispairs that his teenage son insists on fooling around with magic instead . films are im~rtant for of learning an honest trade, Shadow is so nicknamed because he is extremely one reason; they are both thin. He is an illusionist, W'lo ccnmonly employs the spell Wall of Fog. serious science fiction Because of his youth he tends to be easily impressed by grandiose displays of films which are making wealth of ~wer and is impetuous. Alignnent - Chaotic Good respectable amounts of money. S~: 9 16 13 10 7 13, HP 1, AC 10. Illegitimate son of a ~litically-minded landO\oKler, Simon was educated and well-treated but kept in the background. BI.ADERUNNER is a Thus, he seeks recognition and fame through his study of sorcery. He is excep tough, impressionistic tionally talented at public speaking and ~uld always rather talk his Wily out of picture wch deals with a crisis than fight. His magic-user spell is Cllarm Person. Alignnent - Neutral a thoroughly science fic Good tional topic. If mankind invents an android slave AMION: 8 14 11 9 7 10, HP 4, AC 10. A ~r boy W'lo grew up near W'lere Simon population for itself did, Amion became friends with him at a yot.ng age and has cried to enulate him, which is stronger, smarter including learning magic. Am ion has an inferiorit y canplex, and tendsSample to be and file in most ways better overlooked in a group. His magic-user spell is Sleep. Alignnent - Neutral Good than it is, how can it expect this ~pulation PRINCiro: 12 15 13 8 9 12, HP 15, N:. 6. At sixty years of age, Princi~ has not to resent its sla reached sixth level as a magic-user. He is well-off fran a:! venturing in his very, or to stay in line? younger days. as well as occasional jobs he takes as an alchemist. He appre Is there even a right on ciates brave, )'Ol.llg a:lventurers and will offer them council or bargain-priced the part of hunanity to spells and alchemical oork. He might even go oo an a:lventure if it is suf expect a superior life ficiently intriguing and the player characters make allo'IIW1ces for the fa.ct that form to knuckle mder to he isn't as spry as he used to be. Princi~ has a Ring of Poison Detection, a it merely because it w:~.s wand of secret door & crap 'detection and bracers of defense AC 6. Spells that here first? Beyond that, will be memorized for an a:lventure are: a.u-ning Hands, Magic Missile, Shield, the film questions man's Spider Climb, Knock, lbpe Trick, fly, Fireball. Aligrment - Neutral Good capability to continue to exist in the sweltering, GURN: 9 13 15 8 11 6, HP 7, AC 5. Cllail'lJiail, mace. Thin, almost cadaverous, mechanistic society he is at 6'6" with a bald head , Glarn doesn't make friends easily and turned to magic creating around himself; as a substitute for socializing. He is introverted, shy, moody and very reli capital punishment, gious . He seeks solace in oorshipping a lawful deity and prefers to use his national boundries, cor clerical ~wers in behalf of that deity' s temple. Aligrment -lawful Good porate control in the oorld , and modern man' s ARACHNE: 11 11 11 9 16(- 2 defense) 15, HP 3, AC 10. A ~r w:xnan W'lo tries to inability to love his make a living weaving and spinning, Arachne learned to be an Illusionist in fellow man. l'bt light hopes of bettering her prospects in life. With flaming red hair, and green subject matter, or easily (continued on page 22) dismissed questions. 1HE ~ WARRIOR - 11 - - 12 - THE ROAD ~lOR on the other hand, is even more severe in its estimation 1HE ROAD ~lOR shows us savage bands of mindless costuned killers, living of the hunan conditio~ . This ingenious Australian film sees man losing con~rol only for good times, taking Wla.t they need from the toil of others. It is a of the ~rld aro\l'ld him and sinking into barbarism cnce the corporate natLOns film dealing with hunan nature----the desire of the dedicated to create and pre have destroyed the ~rld 's economy by ~pering with its ~il supplies and serve, the instinct of the animalistic to destroy and tear dcM!. For those lobo nationalistic balances. It is an allegoncal story of rur tunes, cne of the live in llnerican cities these days, this is not all that much of a remote, eso savage U'lderside of civilization, the des~rate have-nots, rising up to tear teric topic, but the content of the daily front page. do~ Star Venture is the newest PIM game fran roe of the top canpanies in the Playability: 7 Haterial Q..lality: 6 field SchUbel & Son. It is a game of stellar trade, exploration, conquest Cl'lCI Canplexity: 4 Value: 6 dipl~cy, totally moderated by canputer. It is a continuous second-generation Canputer Efficiency: 9 OVERALL: 6 1/2 game, \ - 15 - - 16 - "So then, Yhat was she? An angel, maybe? Simon, come on row. lbw do you explain ~en Yho just appear oot of ro~ere?" IT'S A LIVING He meekly achnitted, "I can't." "Forget all this. You were just upset." Fiction by John Nubbins Most of the other tenants had already gone inside. The professor and Joseph waited mtil Mrs. O'Hallrahan finished feeding the building's cat, and then went in with her. Professor Simon lbltzman looked for a seat as he cli!llbed aboard the lliT do....-ntoYK~ local. Squeezing between ~ ron-descript camnuters, he sighed as his Early the next DX>rning, Joseph took his folding chair and went out to the daily subway trip rome to Brooklyn began. He still held the letter in his hand. sidewalk. Less than an rour later, Simon came to the front door. Joseph "Forty-three years. For ty- three years I spend----and row it's over; just like laughed. "I knew it. I l "I tell you, Joseph, l saw her. " The professor insisted, "I did. " "Simon, you're talking crazy." The ~ men sat in metal patio chairs along with half a dozen other elderly tenants of the apartment building. Stretched oot in a straight line mder a street light, it was their custom to visit with each other nightly, as it was the custom of older people all over Brooklyn. They ~uld carry their nylon strung garden furniture doYKl to the sidewalk and line up beneath the closest street light in strict pecking order. As OX>st talked politics and store prices, the professor defended himself. "I am rot talking crazy. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation; I just want to l - 17 - - 18 - For the rest of the day, the professor traveled the subway system, constantly changing cars, trains and directions. He kept his eyes open and moving the entire time. Gaming SupRiements He found oothing. Rev1ewed by Angie Carlson Arriving rome after dark on Sunday night, Simon began to feel he had been mistaken. The idea of people just appearing on the subway was preposterous. Monster File I $6.00 Dragon Tree Press, 118 Sayles Illv d . , But the professor's largest problem was oot to answer row the-materialization Abilene TX 79605. Phone (915) 672-8261 had taken place, but ..tty 1o0uld an angel, a Pluton ian, or a leprechan, or ..tta tever, want to ride the New York &lbway in the first place? For that he had oo Monster File I is just one of a reasonable answer. number of supplemental products For the remainder of the SI.IJIDer, Simon taught his classes, faithfully published by Dragon Tree Press. spending his designated anount of rours in his office making himself available It is an illustrated collection to his students, and taking his train rome nightly to Brooklyn. Occasionally he of 48 new and original monsters. 1o0uld look about, not really believing he 1o0uld spot anything. Then he 1o0uld Along with a description and chuckle softly, shaking his head at his foolishness. info on standard statistics, Inevitably, the end of the SI.IJIDer semester arrived, and the professor found each monster is rated for dif term papers and final exams taking oost of his time. Each morning and night, ficulty. The product is laid his mind was filled with grades and finishing averages, rather than with his out so that the game referee can hunt. \o.bich is ..tty men the train lurched, and the lights went out, he almost show the players the illustrated did not notice the man appearing next to him. "Oh oo. tbt again," he thought. monsters without their seeing the "Tell me I'm not losing my mind . " confidential information on the reverse side. The File may be Simon studied the man. He seemed normal enough. His clothes were oot of cut into 48 different cards, or the latest style, but then, the professor thought, neither were his or..n . The used as a regular book. man was middle-aged, slightly greying, balding, and basically perfectly oormal. Simon mulled over his predicament as the train p.llled into the next station. The t1mster File I is ideal for The speaker in the car blared an 1.11intelligible sentence with the 1o0rds game referees for a number of 'Grand Central' somMere in the middle. The doors opened. As the professor reasons. First of all, its handy format . watched, the man stood and joined the other passengers fighting their way out If a little time is taken to cut the cards through those ...tlo were trying to cram themselves on board. Before the man out, the referee will find that they are reached the platform rowever, he had an 1.11suspected companion. The professor very convenient to use, and provide the had decided to follow him. players with illustrations to stimulate the They weaved in and out of the crow:l, winding their way through the baffling imagination. The game is not ruined by maze of Grand Central Station. As Simon began to 1o0nder if the man he was letting the players see the data, Which is following knew \\here he was going, he stopped before a door marked 'NO out of sight. Also, all of the monsters are AI:MITTANCE. ' The professor held back as the man opened the door, crossed the new. Referee v.ho are struggling to supple threshold, and closed it carefully behind himself. Sample mentfile a campaign with regular influxes of Standing alone in the hallway, Simon began to feel a bit foolish. He knew interesting new creatures will really find his choices were limited. Calling the authorities 1o0uld be useless. So 1o0uld this product to be exactly \\hat they are trying to forget \J'tat he had seen. ''V.hat choice is there? I guess it is time looking for. to see \J'tat is really on the other side of the looking glass. " Trying to appear as if he had every right to do so, the professor followed As far as the artloOrk, see for the man through the door. Q1 the other side, he found a concrete-walled corri yourself; on this page are several examples. dor. The puddle splotched floor was lit by the same musty grey lighting all of The actual monsters themselves are generally the city's transit stops share. Simon skiomed the wall signs around him. He good, but there is an occasional disap- had studied languages all his life. He could write and converse in eight living and three dead ones. He 1.11derstood oone of the signs around him, but he pointing creature that is either recognized the script. It was the same illegible scrawling he saw every day illogical or downright silly. painted on the inside of the subway cars. For the Il()ney, M:lnster File 1 is The professor came to a corner. As he peered around it, he was spotted by basically a good buy, but is a a young man mo called out, "Cane in, come in. You're either very late, or a bit overpriced. The product is little early, Mr. -----" designed for p.a:.o•, but may be Simon blurted out an answer. "lblzman. Ah, late, I guess. I got lost." used with virtually any rule "Quite all right, Mr . lblman. let me canpliment you on your fuglish, by system. l.Dok for it at gaming the way. It's very l!.ood." stores, or request a free catalog "Ah, thank you.ll' from Dragon Tree Press. The clerk grinned. As the professor 1o0rried over \J'tat was happening, the Quality: 5 young man reached behind his counter for a clipboard. Pen in hand, he asked, Playability: 6 "Now, \\here to?" Adaptability: 8 "Excuse me?" Value: 5 "Where to, sir? \o.bere are you headed?" OVERAU.: 7 " - 23 - - 24 - are $5. 00 for six bi-monthly issues, or twelve issues for $10.00. A sample copy "Good, good ." The clerk scribbled as he talked. "Nice time of year for is available for $1. 25. Ragnarok Ehterprises also p.lblishes its QI.Kl game, the that. lbw long will you be staying?" Ysgarth Rule System, and a myraid of other supplements and products. A catalog "Until tonight." is free upon request. "And then W"lere?" Phantasy Publishing "Why, I guess I Ill just go rome. II 187 Q.larry Brook IX . The clerk stopped scribbling. He also stopped smiling. Regaining his South Windsor, cr 06074 composure, he asked, "Go rome? After enly ene day? I mean---you've come such a Phantasy long way. Of course, they're your credits, and 'the customer relegates the $La priorities' and all, but •• • . • " Evan Skolnick, Editor Suddenly, before any rore conversation could flow, another man entered the room. ..:J.though expensively dressed, his sleeves were rolled up, his hands were while not in the same league as greasy, and his canposure was nil. He shouted, "Jenkell Get do"loll'l to the Abyss or some of the other top semi-pro Tele- ponicl There's been a tech breakdo\oll'l in systems. I've just been tanking magazines, Phantasy is nevertheless a at the power center. We swung, but there's tape afloat e11erywhere." Jenkel sturdy p.lblicatlon that is showing great vacated his counter, surrendering his clipboard to his superior. As the clerk promise. It is full- sized (8.5 X hurried to Tele-ponic, the older man said , "I'm dreadfully sorry about this. I 11 . 5") , with about 20 pages per issue, know row this must look---all the chaos, but we're so incredibly shorthanded. printed in black and \\bite, and Everytime you turn around, somebody else has walked off the job. This agency appearing bi-monthly. Covers are on will be the the wilt of me yet." The man continued to wipe his hands en blank colored paper. There is an alarming forms as he looked over the clipboard Jenkel had abandoned. "Bound for amount of white space and advertising, Columbia, eh? Lovely time of year. Any stopovers planned? Chil e, Mexico City, and the magazine tends to be a bit perhaps?" sloppy in layout, art and production. "Goodness, no," said the professor with surprise. "1-bw could I do that?" It is also a bit overpriced, at $1.25 ''Why, it's simplicity itself. You are going to Columbia, aren't you?" per copy, which is too tmJCh for \\hat "But I onl y meant Cohnbia University." the magazine really is. And then, the man knew the anS\oler . "(h no. You ' re not a customer. You're While there are definite problems, an Earthling." Simon stood before the man in dumbstruck anazement. " I 10amed Phantasy does have potential. The edi them; I told them this \ - 25 - - 26 - "That is right. lbw did you know that?" R.EAI:ER'S WRITINGS (oontinued frao page 5) "It's my job to know. I've been traveling and studying ald teaching history for forty years now. Of course, I ~' t be teaching IIIJCh longer, tion, strike rank, encunbrance, etc. were initially planned for, but W\en I but • • • • • " expressed a desire to simplify all that so that combat toOuld IIX)Ve faster, <£eg A mysterious smile crossed the man's face as he queried, "You're retiring?" Stafford surprised me, by saying ~oily not go all the way. So perished hit loca "That's a nice way to put it," answered Simon. "I'm being retired." tion charts, encunbrance factors, etc. and strike rank was converted to a simple Suddenly, interest sparked in the Psency director's eyes. With a very OEX rating. In all ronesty, I have played several games l.l'lder both systems, and practiced manner, he asked, "Mr. lblzman, have you ever considered being a tour STORMBRINGER moves a lot faster. Nevertheless, experienced RQ players are urged guide?" to use full RQ combat if they so desire. Four weeks after their initial encotllter, Simon and Jenkel stood talking in Thus, I feel I should ro be faulted too much, if game mechanics are not the airport, waiting for the professor's first batch of tourists, "It's entirely combatible with RUNEQUEST. 'lhe designers and Q\oKlers of RQ virtually amazing. Imagine, the entire toOrld looks for aliens and U.F.O.s in the desert insisted ro the combat changes you see in SIDRMBRINGER. In future Erlitions of and the bacla.uods, and W\ere are they----right here in the heart of New York. I RQ, you may see that there will be changes to bring it !1X>re into line with must admit, it is brilliant. If there is anyplace W\ere someone or something S'r()HRINGER and CAlL OF Cl'HUUiU. str~e ~·t be noticed, a New York &lbway at rushhour is the place." 'That is the idea, sir," atswered Jenkel with obvious jX'ide. Incidentally, I too toOuld have liked to see more original interior art "And you say it's been going ro for bolenty years now without a slip?" inside the gane, and had lined up Victoria Poyser to do the job, but the manage "Yes, sir. " Jenkel smiled. "Stellar has the best record in the business. ment at Yawtl are fanatical thieves, having all such skills at 5th level. they are (1) Monsters, spells, magic items (5) Rule Variants very cU'liling and spend their entire adult lives pilfering valuable items and (2) OJngeon tmdules (6) Fiction storing them' in mdergromd caches. they are generally solitary romads; occa (3) Proouct reviews (7) Cbmmentary and opinions sionally small family groups will be encomtered. l'bst of the caches are (4) Comics and hunor (8) Scenario ecpansion forgotten about, but they are so well hidden that they are rarely e~er fomd by other creatures. Yawtl keep on hand enly those things lohich can be of particular use to them. Such things include some magic- items, weaponry, or thieving devices. ------cur-HENE-.ANO-REIURN------Yawtl are very magpie-ish in their love for "shiny" items, and in the roarding habit as ~ll. Indeed, some keep the birds as pets. Yawtl will oot disclose the location of any cache mless threatened with their life, and e~en a par- Feedback #2 ticularly stubborn individual will suffer death before telling. Sample. file While intelligence is very high in some areas, the yawtl is kept fran FEEDilACK is a regular feature to help us l Sample file MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & ROLE PLAYING l:brizon International, Inc. EDITORIAL A new character class for AD&DM Courtesans in ~o· will be tuDan, elf, or half-elf, as females of these races would be attractive to huDan males Who are the dallinant ecoocmic and social force in mat fantasy ~rlds (as they usually are in fantasy lit~rature, Ronald Mark Pehr and have been in 99.9% of historical cultures) . Courtesans may be conndered as a sub-class of thief for purposes of hit dice, melee, saving thrCNS, etc. Magic? To play a Courtesan properly takes imagination and a keen desire to • tM.$i Explanation of Talents and Characteristics STARSW:>RD of Karmandis by Bruce Taylor (1) A ''Mickey Finn" is a sleeping draught. Victims Save vs. R:>ison or fall This s-...ord was forged by the great we.aponsmith-astrologer Karmandis. He asleep - treat as sleep spell. The Courtesan JWSt have the proper created it using mysterious and arcane JX>wers l For the last three \>leeks, there had been something in the air around the Ettenbar house. It "85 a feeling, an orangish-grey feeling ~ich seened to leak from everything around roe as they came forward up the slate ~~Blkway. It covered the house, and the grOI.Ilds arOI.Ild like some sort of alien sap bubbling slowly out of the trees, or a new type of sm:>g ~ich settled eve~ere, filling the people it touched with a clanmy Uleasiness. Of course, if roe really tried to define it, or describe it, they w:>uld find they could not. After all, it "85 only a feeling. It was a feeling, lmiever, ~ich did find Wiys to manifest itself. For close to a IIDtlth, James Ettenbar had been having trouble with his house. The earliest quirks the structure developed had been the small, almost mimportant types of things ~ich are so easily ignored. Leaky faucets no loBShers seemed able to conquer; drains that w:>Ul.dn't stop clogging; dust eve~ere, always so much dust---and no matter how high the thenoostat loBS set, it always turned out so chilly•••• But still, they \>~ere normal things. Just like the accidents. They \>~ere all such small things, those trifling rousehold occurances a person can easily chalk up to their CMl clunsiness, or the age of their rome. Yes, he had cut himself an inordinate aoomt of times recently, and yes again, the l Ettenbar came rome later than his usual time. For ooce, he lOlls SDiling. The idea of libraries in the Middle Ages often conjures up images of !lOOks He had good reason; he had sold the house and all its contents. He lOllS barely painstakingly transcribing manuscripts in dark ald gloomy scriptorhiiiS. And, in upset ~!ben his key j aumed in the front door. He turned it ooe lOllY, and then the historical times, this lOllS probably a safe estimate; writing in this period \o8S other, shifting ald jerking the key, but it did no good; the door 1o0uld not limited pd.marily to the pursuits of nalks. 'Ihus, libraries were extremely open. Hearing a noise above him , he pressed himself flat against the door as rare. another torrent of spanish tiles slid off the roof. He held his breath as the curved sections of baked clay splattered into shards arOU'ld him. He kicked the the typical fantasy 1o0rld is \.lldoubtedly patterned after medieval history broken splinters a:way fran his feet, and then turned back to the door. It in many WBys . lht fort\llately there is a1 element that exists in r£DI ald other opened without giving him any further problaD. Ettenbar ~led his coat off, role playing games that certainly didn't exist in the 'J:Brk ~es'; magic, ald throwing it r:Ner a foyer chair. He did it naturally, without thinking. Before its associated elements. By realizing the possibilities of magic and its uses, he could leave the area however , he turned at the sowd of cloth meeting w:xxl . me can realistically justify the existence of libraries in a ca!lpaign. Somehow, his coat had slid onto the floor. Not toni t not ain. Not alread • Just one ni t of But llbatever for? '~bat good are libraries? A loaded question, to be sure. Characters may be able to research information oo ID'lything frao general infor mation oo a1y calJIIOI1 subject to the religious records of the church of 'nlor. Ettenbai bent rn tront of the staiNBy leading to the second floor to Also, opportulities aboUld for magic users to discover lost 1o1ritngs pertaining retrieve his coat. It -was odd that it could have slid the extra feet fran the to their craft. .Actuslly, ~!ben me thinks about it, the p?ss1b1lities are quite foyer to there. Yllile he stood w:>ndering at his coat' s curious behavior, the limitless. dresser fell. If Ettenbar had turned to see ~!bat the noise was , he loOuld have been To start out right, let's examine the basic 1o0rkings of the library in between heavy he crushed the w:xxlen bureau and the front door. lht did not general. First of all, in ~!bat form will the 1o1ritings be enco\.lltered? Well, in tum. His nerves already m ex!, he had thr~ himself into the dining roan at sticking with history a little bit, preSUDe that scrolls or loosely bomd the first sollld. lbise still ecooing through the oouse, Ettenbar returned to leaflets of parchDent are J1X)St predaoinant. Metal or w:xxlen bomd volUDes and the foyer to survey wt had happened . Shattered. broken panels lay in a tangle tomes are fairly rare, as such items are very expensive and tedious to !X'oduce of clothing and a normal assortment of top drawer bric-a-brac. by normal means . Massive tomes and the like are almost never seen, ~~ not ·~·s 1.:4> there?" he yelled. There lOllS no answer. Cautiously, he picked only are they difficult to make but also because they are kept in hid1ng or his W!lY r:Ner the debris, heading up the stairs to find his attacker. under guard because of their great 1o0rth. Not now. Not now. Not now. Just one more ni t---is that so lll.ICh to ask? Is it st, t rst Shelves are the lZliversal storing place for writings; scroll containers bari'l---not now. (usually bone, ivory, metal, or w:xxl) might have a special rack to ac In the typical castle of the wealthy ldng, lord or landowner, large ald spacious libraries exist. If the Olotler of the castle presides over farmers, CRYSTAL SINGER ••••• Anne tt:Caffrey there will probably be 80Gie manuals m agriculture and related subjects. Of Del Rey 345- 28598-0-295 $2.95 course, most royal libraries will contain a goodly a:DOll'lt of genealogy ald historical writings. !tJCh l