SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS Issue # 176 Vol. XVI, No. 7 9 The elves: a worId of difference December 1991 Two in-depth features on the elves and their beliefs. Servants of the Seldarine Chris Perry Publisher 10 Try elven clerics with real power! Specialty priests of the faerie folk. James M. Ward If You need Help Ask the Drow! Ed Greenwood and Steven E. 16 Schend Editor Roger E. Moore Good-aligned drow? Visit Undermountains temple of Eilistraee. Fiction editor Barbara G. Young O THER FEATURES Bruce A. Heard Associate editor The Voyage of the Princess Ark Dale A. Donovan 31 You got till noon to clear out of Smokestone City, said the sheriff to the admiral. Editorial assistant Propping Up Your Campaign Spike Y. Jones Wolfgang H. Baur 45 Some game-mastering tools you might never have thought ofthe Nerf ball, for instance. Art director Larry W. Smith The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser 57 Lucky Jake Masters isnt very lucky these daysbut you will be with Production staff Heart of China. Gaye OKeefe Angelika Lokotz Time For an Experiment fiction by Michael G. Ryan Tracey Zamagne 64 He would rise from the depths to achieve everlasting fame. It was only a matter of time. Subscriptions Janet L. Winters Role-playing Reviews Doug Niles 74 The study of strategy: three board games with unusual tactics. U.S. advertising Roseann Schnering The MARVEL®-Phile Scott Davis and Steven E. Schend 77 Heroic castaways of the MARVEL UNIVERSE. U.K. correspondent Playing in the Paleozoic Gregory W. Detwiler and U.K. advertising 84 An electric agnath? A long-jawed Erythrosuchus? Where do these Bronwen Livermore guys come from, anyway? Novel Ideas Marlys Heeszel 97 The Cleric Quintet: a new series arrives from Bob Dark Elf Salvatore. The Game Wizards David Wise 101 If you want the Hand and Eye of Vecna, wait for the 1992 AD&D® trading cards! Through the Looking Glass Robert Bigelow 112 You want a castle? You want a wizards tower? Have we got a deal for you! D EPARTMENTS 5 Letters 41 Convention Calendar 102 Dragonmirth 6 Editorial 52 TSR Previews 104 Twilight Empire 27 Forum 93 Sage Advice 108 Gamers Guide COVER Gnolls, goblins, and leucrotta hurl themselves across the last barricade in an elven mansion, as the defenders wield spells and steel against them. The final moments of a doomed elven house are recorded in our cover painting by Lissanne Lake. 4 DECEMBER 1991 DRAGON® Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is published monthly by TSR, inc., P.O. Box 756 (201 Sheridan Springs Road), Lake Geneva WI 53147, United States of America. The postal address for all materials from the United States of America and Canada except subscrip- tion orders is: DRAGON® Magazine, P.O. Box 111, (201 Sheridan Springs Road), Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.; telephone (414) 248-3625; fax (414) 243-0389. The postal address for all materials from Europe is: DRAGON Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3L8, United Kingdom; telephone: (0223) 212517 (U.K.), 44-223-212517 (international); telex: 818761; fax (0223) 248066 (U.K.), 44-223-248066 (international). Distribution: DRAGON Magazine is available from game and hobby shops throughout the United States, What did you think of this issue? Do you have Yours is not the first letter on this problem Canada, the United Kingdom, and through a limited number of other overseas outlets. Distribution to the book a question about an article or have an idea for a that I’ve seen cross my desk. John K. Green trade in the United States is by Random House, Inc., and new feature you’d like to see? In the United (Newark, N.J.) wrote to us with a similar com- in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distribution States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON® plaint about the Legends & Lore illustration (on to the book trade in the United Kingdom is by TSR Ltd. Magazine, PO. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147, page 86) that you mentioned; I checked on the Send orders to: Random House, Inc., Order Entry Department, Westminster MD 21157, U.S.A.; telephone: U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON matter and found that the art happened to be (800) 733-3000. Newsstand distribution throughout the Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry available for second-rights use when something United Kingdom is by Seymour Press Ltd., 334 Brixton Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LB, United Kingdom. “Egyptian” was wanted, so it was used. (TSR, Road, London SW9 7AG, United Kingdom; telephone: 01-733-4444. Inc. cannot commission new art all the time, as Subscriptions: Subscription rates via second-class it is too expensive.) I believe no harm was in- mail are as follows: $30 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent tended, though one of the authors of the vol- to an address in the U.S. or Canada: £16 for 12 issues No Africa? sent to an address within the United Kingdom; £24 for 12 ume agreed that the picture did not reflect the issues sent to an address in Europe; $50 in U.S. funds Dear Dragon, physical characteristics of most, if any, of the for 12 issues sent by surface mail to any other address, Does TSR have plans to develop an African pharaohs. Egypt was a “melting pot” for every or $90 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent air mail to any game world for the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & culture in the area, from black African (Nubia) other address. Payment in full must accompany all subscription orders. In the U.S. and Canada, methods of DRAGONS® or DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game? to white European (Greece) to Arabic. Sculp- payment include checks or money orders made payable The reason I ask this is because African-like tures from the dynastic periods show a wide to TSR, Inc., or charges to valid MasterCard or VISA scenarios seem to be the least discussed. Almost variety of racial features. credit cards; send subscription orders with payments to: TSR, Inc., PO. Box 5695, Boston MA 02206, U.S.A. In all references to an African-like area on any DRAGON Magazine has had very few articles the United Kingdom, methods of payment include game map in any game world are to a small, on African-derived fantasy gaming elements. cheques or money orders made payable to TSR Ltd., or poorly described jungle area. Every three or The demand is there, but we simply haven’t charges to a valid ACCESS or VISA credit card; send four years, an article in DRAGON Magazine or gotten them. Issue #27 had an article on the subscription orders with payments to TSR Ltd., as per that address above. Prices are subject to change without module in DUNGEON® Adventures is written, African mythos for an early version of the D&D prior notice. The issue of expiration of each subscription but nothing collective appears. game. Issue #122 had an excellent article by is printed on the mailing label of each subscriber’s copy I had hoped that the 2nd Edition Legends & Charles R. Saunders, the author of the Imaro of the magazine. Changes of address for the delivery of series, that described many new monsters subscription copies must be received at least six weeks Lore would include an African pantheon. Not prior to the effective date of the change in order to assure only were there no new mythologies introduced derived from African folklore (“Out of Africa”), uninterrupted delivery. from the 1st Edition, but Egypt was the only with a companion piece giving those creatures Back issues: A limited quantity of back issues is African culture included, and even that choice AD&D game statistics (“Gaming the Dark Conti- available from either the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop (P.O. Box 756, Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.) or from had artwork that would suggest that Egypt was nent”). Issue #159 had “Rhythm Warriors,” TSR Ltd. For a free copy of the current catalog that lists northern European instead of northern African. which derailed an AD&D 1st Edition martial-arts available back issues, write to either of the above I see Africa as a rich heritage of vast deserts, character class based on the ways of capoeira; addresses. Submissions: All material published in DRAGON broad savannahs grasslands, and rain forests this was a fighting style created by escaped Magazine becomes the exclusive property of the pub- (the jungle is a part of the whole, not the whole, black slaves in Brazil. In issue #170, “The Voyage lisher, unless special arrangements to the contrary are continent). It would make the perfect tropical/ of the Princess Ark” took a look at the made prior to publication. DRAGON Magazine welcomes subtropical adventure world. You could com- Divinarchy of Yavdlom, a black kingdom in the unsolicited submissions of written material and artwork; however, no responsibility for such submissions can be bine the ancient empires like Kush, Nok, Nubia, D&D® game’s Known World with a unique assumed by the publisher in any event. Any submission Ghana, and Ethiopia. You would have an ancient social system. As a side note, issue #86 features accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope of world that could complement an ancient Egypt. “Mzee,” a short story by Charles Saunders about sufficient size will be returned if it cannot be published. the early years of Imaro, a champion from a We strongly recommend that prospective authors write Later kingdoms present during the Middle for our writers’ guidelines before sending an article to us.