Dragon Magazine #129
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CONTENTS Issue #129 Vol. XII, No. 8 January 1988 SPECIAL ATTRACTION 7 Demi-humans: Pointed ears arent the only things that make them different. 8 Arcane Lore Len Carpenter Magic that serves the people: new dwarven clerical spells. 2 0 Children of the Spider Goddess Eric Oppen Publisher The long-awaited point of view of the darkest elves. Mike Cook 24 Give Demi-humans an Even Break! John R. Prager If elves are so smart, why cant they roll more dice for intelligence? Now they can. Editor Roger E. Moore 2 6 Dont Sell Them Short! Peter Dosik The guardians are looking for a few good halflings. Assistant editor Fiction editor 3 0 Entering the Driders Web C.E. Misso Robin Jenkins Patrick L. Price Drow who fail Lolths big test get no chance to make up the exam. Editorial assistants OTHER FEATURES Eileen Lucas Barbara G. Young 32 The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser Debbie Poutsch Georgia Moore Ship-to-ship combat and the Tower of Myraglen await you. Art director 4 6 A Sorcerer's Supplement Michael DeWolfe Roger Raupp A bridge to the Moon? A cow thats a werewolf? All-new RUNEQUEST® game spells. Dean Shomshak Production staff 54 The Dragons Bestiary Colder than ice and less forgiving: Ice para-elementals. Marilyn Favaro Lori Svikel 57 The Game Wizards James M. Ward Subscriptions Advertising The world in a book the WORLD OF GREYHAWK setting, that is. Pat Schulz Mary Parkinson 58 The Old Ways Are Best fiction by Larry Walker Creative editors Two heads are better than one, but not by much! Ed Greenwood Jeff Grubb 66 Whos in charge here?" Bryan Caplan How many high-level gnomes will a gnome city have? As many as it can get. 7 0 Armored and Dangerous David Dennis Trash the Sathar! Powered armor comes to the STAR FRONTIERS® game. 74 The Role of Books John C. Bunnell Would you let a wargamer be your lawyer? 7 8 The Marvel®-Phile Jeff Grubb Justice is served and Scourge is your waiter. 82 Role-playing Reviews Ken Rolston The FORGOTTEN REALMS setting and the D&D® games Known World. 1 0 4 The Last Word Gregg Sharp You dont suppose that evil high priest is mad at us, do you? DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 48 Sage Advice 90 Convention Calendar 4 World Gamers Guide 88 Gamers Guide 94 Dragonmirth 6 Forum 89 Index to Advertisers 99 SnarfQuest COVER While their cleric of Thor stands guard, a group of dwarves hauls out (or hides away) their massive chest of treasure. These guys, said cover artist Keith Parkinson, indicating the dwarves holding the chest, are basically greed dwarves. Entitled The Big Stash, this painting will soon be available as a print. Keith recently won the coveted 1987 Dark Fantasy award at the World Fantasy Convention in Nashville, for his painting What Do You Mean, Were Lost? See the advertisement on page 77. 2 JANUARY 1988 LETTERS Close to home I had the game board set up and most of the pieces out when my uncle came into the kitchen to check out the refrigerator. He wandered over as I was sorting out the Ameri- can and German counters. Businesses & So who won? That one of your war games? he asked, taking a seat. I nodded and books Dear Dragon: started a new pile for the grenade I am interested in expanding the number of counters. My first year of college Dear Dragon: role-playing games that I own and was im- was over, I was with my family at I have a few questions. Have you ever pub- pressed by your list of ORIGINS 87 winners. I my grandparents, and I looked lished an article dealing with PCs owning a would like to know who won the awards in forward to some goof-off time. previous years but am unable to find any lists. small business? If not, I would like to see it My uncle looked over the board How can I find this information? covered; if so, what issue was it in? and the designs on the counters. Also, I enjoy the short stories you often pub- Also, what do the initials S.I. stand for in the Whats your game about? lish in your magazine. Are these from actual TOP SECRET/S.I. game? novels, or are they stories written for your Rob Lysy Its on city fighting in World War magazine? Are they available in book form to Windsor, Ontario II, I explained, still sorting the the public? pieces. The counters represent one Eric Edmonds Just as we were going to press, we received a man each, German and American Hendersonville TN call from Anne Jaffe, the chairman of the ORI- infantry. One player controls each GINS Awards Committee. She agreed to serve as side. Its pretty good. We published an article on PCs and businesses the point of contact for any gamers who are My uncle nodded again. He in issue #113: “A capital idea,” by Vince Garcia. interested in finding out the previous winners watched me work for some time. of the various ORIGINS game convention You may find this to be of use in your cam- I was at Remagen, he said. awards. Write to: Anne Jaffe, ORIGINS Awards paigns. We would welcome any other articles I forgot about the counters and that would add more useful information to the Committee Chairman, P.O. Box 2712, Fairfax VA looked up. When they took the topic. 22031. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope The short stories written for DRAGON® for a reply. bridge," I said. Magazine are complete within themselves, and I am reliably informed that the initials “S.I.” in Yeah, he said slowly. We had to generally not excerpts from longer works. The the TOP SECRET/S.I. game’s title stand for go from house to house. It was Art of DRAGON Magazine, available early this “Special Intelligence.” This reflects the elite pretty terrible. He looked at the year from TSR, Inc., has several short stories nature of the game’s PC agents. board and the piles of counters I that previously appeared in this magazine. had made, then sighed and stood up. Future anthologies are being discussed. Have fun, he said as he left. Name that cover I sat alone and poked a pile of counters with my finger, trying to Mini-spies The request for possible titles for the cover imagine what it had been like for painting of DRAGON issue #127 led to some my uncle at Remagen. It was not a Dear Dragon: amusing entries. Among them were: pleasant thought. This was the first Although I love the D&D® game and other “Mowing the Front Lawn,” from Tim Emrick time I realized that modern-era such fantasy games, my personal preference lies (Whitestown IN); board or role-playing games had a in games such as your TOP SECRET® game. In “So, Whaddya Think of the Party?" also from special catch to them they some- fact, this is my current favorite. A fine job, guys! Tim Emrick; times cut close to home. In some I am curious as to where a person can find “I Still Say It Tastes Great,” from Andy Rodich 25mm lead miniatures for the modern spy (Emporium PA); and, cases, this works to the games ad- motif. Is there anybody you know of who pro- “Does the Name ‘Custer’ Mean Anything to vantage; many gamers enjoy the duces contemporary miniatures? It is easy to You?” from Aaron Johnson (Houston TX). realistic feel of games depicting the find a horse, worg, or dragon miniature, but Thanks to all who entered. world of the espionage agent, just try and locate a Lamborghini Countach or A number of people continue to express Vietnam-era Ranger, or D-Day gen- Wellcraft 38 Scarab special edition deep-V! Is interest in acquiring copies of the cover art for eral. The more realism, the better. there anyone who fashions custom-made minia- DRAGON Magazine. You may write a letter to an Of course, if you like modern-era tures, based on photos and drawings, for a artist, c/o DRAGON Magazine, P.O. Box 110, games, you may eventually enter the reasonable cost? Please let it be so! Lake Geneva WI 53147. We’ll forward the close-to-home zone. Games on the J. Anthony Dixon letters as best we can to the artists. Be sure to Petawawa, Ontario enclose an SASE for the artist to use in writing Vietnam War only became popular back to you. in this country in the 1980s, and I It would be worthwhile to write for a copy of recall some of comments, pro and the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop catalog if you con, that gamers had about them. A are not able to find the miniatures you need in small board game on the Falkland your local hobby stores. You might also consider Islands war drew great criticism writing directly to the major miniature-figure some years ago because it came out manufacturers (using the addresses provided in The name of artist Jeff Menges was very quickly after the war, when the their ads in this magazine) and asking them for misspelled on page 26 of DRAGON® is- topic was quite touchy. Ive lately a copy of their current catalog, with emphasis seen three different role-playing and on the particular miniature castings you want. sue # 127. We apologize for the error. board games about combat against You could also discuss pricing for custom-made We wish to credit Stephanie Tabat for miniatures with those companies, though you her excellent DRAGON Magazine logo skyjackers and other terrorists.