Dragon Magazine #180
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SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS AD&D Trading Cards TSR staff Issue # 180 Insert Your preview of the 1992 series is here in this issue! Vol. XVI, No. 11 April 1992 OTHER FEATURES Publisher Not Quite the Frontispiece Ken Widing James M. Ward 9 Our April Fools section wandered off. Just enjoy. Suspend Your Disbelief! Tanith Tyrr Editor 10 Maybe its fantasy, but your campaign must still make sense! Roger E. Moore Not Another Magical Sword!?! Charles Rodgers Fiction editor 14 Why own just any old magical sword when you can own a legend? Barbara G. Young Role-playing Reviews Rick Swan 18 A good day for the thought police: three supplements on psionics. Associate editor Dale A. Donovan Your Basic Barbarian Lee A. Spain 24 So your fighter has a 6 intelligence. Make the most of it. Editorial assistant Wolfgang H. Baur Hot Night in the Old Town Joseph R. Ravitts 28 If your cleric thinks his home life is dull, wait till the DM sees this! Art director Colorful Connection Raymond C. Young Larry W. Smith 34 Whats the puzzle within this puzzle? A fantasy crossword for gamers. Production staff The Voyage of the Princess Ark Bruce A. Heard Gaye OKeefe Angelika Lokotz 41 What happens when a D&D® game character dies? Tracey Zamagne Mary Chudada Your Own Treasure Hunt Robin Rist 52 When funds run low in your gaming club, its time for a fund-raising Subscriptions adventure. Janet L. Winters The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser U.S. advertising 57 A visit with Dr. Brain, Elvira, and the Simpsons. Roseann Schnering Novel Ideas Will Larson and Pat McGilligan 66 Two new trilogies are launched from the two popular settings. U.K. correspondent and U.K. advertising The Power of the Pen The editors Bronwen Livermore 68 Tell us what you think, and win big! A readers surveywith prizes. The Dragons Bestiary Spike Y. Jones 70 A goat that knocks down walls, and a lizard that knocks down everything. Murder Most Fowl fiction by Deborah Millitello 82 The goose that laid the golden eggs is deadand almost everyone has a motive to kill it. Wear Your Best Suit! Justin Mohareb 95 The best defense is a battlesuit in the MARVEL SUPER HEROES game. The Wanderers Jerold M. Stratton 98 Wouldnt it be nice to have logical random-roll encounter tables? Through the Looking Glass Robert Bigelow 112 Is it real, or is it one of Saddams decoys? Notes on Desert Storm gaming. D EPARTMENTS 5 Letters 63 Convention Calendar 102 Dragonmirth 6 Editorial 77 Sage Advice 104 Twilight Empire 37 Forum 92 TSR Previews 108 Gamers Guide COVER Theres nothing like getting the gang together with a dragon and some stolen treasure to make a dwarfs day perfect. Our cover artist, Dan Frazier, reveals a cheerful romp in a dungeon corridor over the ownership of some loot. 4 APRIL 1992 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 subscription 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) 248-0389. The postal address for all materials from Europe is DRAGON Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton, Cam- bridge CB1 3LB, 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 What did you think of this issue? Do you have scores of STR 25, DEX 23, CON 18, INT 23, WIS and hobby shops throughout the United States, Canada, the a question about an article or have an idea for a 18, CHAR 16 are weak. It drives me crazy. Since United Kingdom, and through a limited number of other new feature you’d like to see? In the United overseas outlets. Distribution to the book trade in the United there’s no other campaigns in my area, what States is by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON® should I do? House of Canada, Ltd. Distribution to the book trade in the Magazine, P.O. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147, United Kingdom is by TSR Ltd. Send orders to: Random U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON House, Inc., Order Entry Department, Westminster MD 21157, . Please make twenty copies of this letter U.S.A.; telephone: (800) 733-3000. Newsstand distribution Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry and see what happens in four days. The chain throughout the United Kingdom is by Comag Magazine Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LB, United Kingdom. comes from South Venezuela and was written Marketing, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. United Kingdom, telephone: 0895-444055. by a missionary from South America. Since the Subscriptions: Subscription rates via second-class mail are copy must make a tour of the world, you must as follows: $30 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent to an address in make twenty copies and send them to your the U.S. or Canada: £21 for 12 issues sent to an address within Unanswerables friends and associates. After a few days, you the United Kingdom; £30 for 12 issues sent to an address in Europe, $50 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent by surface mail to will get a surprise. any other address, or $90 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent air The following are short excerpts from letters mail to any other address. Payment in full must accompany all orders; include checks or money orders made payable to that were actually received by the editors of My character’s name is “Brogg.” He is a 475th- TSR, Inc., or charges to valid MasterCard or VISA credit cards; DRAGON Magazine. Except for minor editing, level fighter with 2,078 hp. Brogg is immune to send subscription orders with payments to: TSR, Inc., P.O. Box they appear as they were written. everything except a +3 club. And I would like 5695, Boston MA 02206, U.S.A. In the United Kingdom, methods of payment include cheques or money orders made you to send me some new monsters that you payable to TSR Ltd., or charges to a valid ACCESS or VISA Dear Dragon, think could defeat him! He has killed almost all credit card; send subscription orders with payments to TSR Why isn’t there a table or something for of the arch-devils, dragons, etc. He has killed Ltd., as per that address above. Prices are subject to change without prior notice. The issue of expiration of each subscrip- falling in love? I mean, if you look through the everything in the Monster Manual I and II, and tion is printed on the mailing label of each subscriber’s copy of Monster Manuals, you find some rather cute the FIEND FOLIO® tome. the magazine. Changes of address for the delivery of subscrip- beasties such as the dryad, sprite, alu demon, tion copies must be received at least six weeks prior to the effective date of the change in order to assure uninterrupted Glasya, and nereids. But, of course, there’s those My question is, what characteristics do I get delivery. girls in the group who have 18 comeliness. But with dwarf/human offspring? (Dwarven females Back issues: A limited quantity of back issues is available my DM just doesn’t look like the kind of guy are in short supply.) What are the differences from either the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop (P.O. Box 756, Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.) or from TSR Ltd. For a free who would put something like that in our between half-brother PCs with the same half-elf copy of the current catalog that lists available back issues, group. You see, there’s this girl elf in our group father but with a human mother and an elf write to either of the above addresses. who really makes me weak in the knees. Oh, mother? What do I do if my crazy chaotic Submissions: All material published in DRAGON Magazine becomes the exclusive property of the publisher, unless special well, just send me a table if there is one, though dwarven baron succeeds in his siege of the arrangements to the contrary are made prior to publication. I seriously doubt it. elven dowager viscountess’s castle? My worst- DRAGON Magazine welcomes unsolicited submissions of P.S. If there is a table, could you rig it so that case scenario is a character whose grandparents written material and artwork; however, no responsibility for such submissions can be assumed by the publisher in any female elves fall in love with 9th-level assassins? include a half-elf, a stout halfling, a half-orc, and event. Any submission accompanied by a self-addressed, a dwarf. Any help on these genetic problems stamped envelope of sufficient size will be returned if it cannot This paper was sent to you for good luck. The would be appreciated. be published. We strongly recommend that prospective authors write for our writers’ guidelines before sending an article to us. original is in New England. The luck has been In the United States and Canada, send a self-addressed, sent to you. 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