DRAGON 1 Publisher: Mike Cook Editor-in-Chief: Kim Mohan Mental souvenirs Editorial staff: Roger Raupp Patrick L. Price The sixteenth GEN CON® Game Con- Mary Kirchoff vention was pretty much the same as the Roger Moore Vol. VIII, No. 4 October 1983 other four Ive been to: same location, Business manager: Mary Parkinson same wall-to-wall humanity, same events SPECIAL ATTRACTION Subscriptions: Mary Cossman (essentially), same job (for me), and many Layout designer: Kristine L. Bartyzel of the same faces every year. But thats Contributing editor: Ed Greenwood Citadel by the Sea . 41 kind of like saying that every baseball Contest-winning AD&D module National advertising representative: game you watch is identical: same loca- Robert Dewey tion, same faces, . yet every game is still 1836 Wagner Road distinctive, and so is every convention. OTHER FEATURES Glenview IL 60025 The 1988 convention has been over for Phone (312)998-6237 about three weeks as I write this, and two MIND GAMES . .6 This issues contributing artists: thoughts linger in my editors memory. A set of articles on Denis Beauvais Phil Foglio The first is that were bound to disap- psionics in the AD&D world Roger Raupp Dave Trampier point a lot of people, no matter what we Timothy Truman Larry Elmore do, because of something we didnt do. Psionics is different . 7 We didnt print a whole lot of extra An overview and examination copies of older issues, and our supply of DRAGON Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is pub- those issues has sunk to zero a lot faster Sage Advice . .16 lished monthly for a subscription price of $24 per year by Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR, than the demand will. Like it says in the Mind-boggling questions & answers Inc. The mailing address of Dragon Publishing for all material except subscription orders is P.O. letters column on the next page, were Overhauling the system. .22 Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147. looking into how we can satisfy the demand for older material as a direct The problem and a solution DRAGON Magazine is available at hobby stores and bookstores throughout the United result of letters like Index errors, plus And now, the psionicist . 26 States and Canada, and through a limited the feedback we got at the convention. number of overseas outlets. Subscription rates are Psionics as a class specialty as follows: $24 for 12 issues sent to an address in The second memory is an offshoot of the U.S. or Canada; $50 U.S. for 12 issues sent via the first, but the one I like to dwell on the The Deryni . 34 surface mail or $95 for 12 issues sent via air mail longest. The many people I talked to to any other country. All subscription payments A magical race of NPCs . must be in advance, and should be sent to Dragon showed me that our readers you Publishing, P.O. Box 72089, Chicago IL 60690. appreciate what DRAGON® Magazine is, Heroes & villains of the Deryni . .38 A limited quantity of certain back issues of and what it has been. You expect it to . and the ones who made it famous DRAGON Magazine can be purchased from the keep being as good as it is, if not better. Dungeon Hobby Shop. {See the list of available Now, this is not exactly new information; The ecology of the mind flayer . .66 issues printed elsewhere in each magazine.) Pay- ment in advance by check or money order must many of you express these same opinions An illithid does no one any good accompany all orders. Payments cannot be made through a credit card, and orders cannot be taken to us through letters all the time But its Spells can be psionic, too . .70 nor merchandise reserved by telephone. Neither good for us to hear these things once in a an individual customer nor an institution can be while it helps keep us fired up so that Similarities of magic and mind power billed for a subscription order or a back-issue purchase unless prior arrangements are made. youll stay fired up about us. Be thy die ill-wrought? . .62 Like it says in this columns title, were The issue of expiration for each subscription is How to tell if its really random printed on the mailing label for each subscribers going to keep both of those memories as copy of the magazine. Changes of address for the mental souvenirs for as long as we can, Pop the clutch and roll! . 76 delivery of subscriptions must be received at least six weeks prior to the effective date of the change and we hope well be able to keep produc- Car chase rules for TOP SECRET® play in order to insure uninterrupted delivery. ing a magazine that bears out the confi- dence youve shown in us. The thrill of the hunt . .84 All material published in DRAGON Magazine becomes the exclusive property of the publisher DragonQuest game variant upon publication, unless special arrangements to Of all the sections in our Module the contrary are made prior to publication. Design Contest, category A-l attracted the King of the Tabletop revisited . .96 DRAGON Magazine welcomes unsolicited sub- missions of written material and artwork; how- most entries. For that reason, Citadel by Rules questions cleared up ever, no responsibility for such submissions can be assumed by the publisher in any event. Any the Sea takes on special significance: it submission which is accompanied by a self- had to beat out a lot of other designs to REGULAR OFFERINGS addressed, stamped envelope of sufficient size will win. Our congratulations, along with be returned if it cannot be published. other more tangible rewards, have been Out on a Limb ......................... .3 DRAGON® is a registered trademark for sent to the designer, Sid Fisher of West Letters from readers Dragon Publishings monthly adventure playing aid. All rights on the contents of this publication Des Moines, Iowa. Your reward the are reserved, and nothing may be reproduced module itself is inside this issue. Figure Feature. ....................... .58 from it in whole or in part without prior permis- sion in writing from the publisher. Copyright © The runnerup in a very tough category Convention calendar .................. .60 1983 by TSR, Inc. was James Adams of Austin, Texas, who wrote The Fallen Paladin, Third place, Second-class postage paid at Lake Geneva, Gamers Guide ....................... .88 Wis., and additional mailing offices. also no small feat, went to Gerald P. Upton of Willowdale, Ontario, Canada, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Whats New .......................... .90 Dragon Publishing, P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva for his Festung Schwartze. Congratula- WI 53147. USPS 318-790. ISSN 0279-6848. tions to the winners, and thanks to all of Wormy ............................... 92 you who entered category A-1 and forced the winners to be as good as they were. Snarfquest ............................ 93 DRAGON, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, ADVANCED D&D, TOP SECRET, BOOT HILL, and GAMMA WORLD are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. TM designates other trademarks owned by TSR, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. 2 OCTOBER 1983 electing articles for publi- cation has something in common with the use of psionics: in both cases, first impressions are usually accurate. A mind reader, Im not. But when I first laid eyes on the pages upon pages of manuscript that Arthur Collins sent us on psionics in the AD&D game, I had the impression it was all going to end up inside this magazine. We looked at a lot of submissions on Down with change game, and only one article on the GAMMA psionics after putting out the word a WORLD® game. All our policy change does is few months ago that we were planning Dear Dragon: make official a trend that had already devel- a special section on the topic. In the I am greatly disturbed with your new policy oped over the years: DRAGON Magazine is no end, we accepted Arthurs material, change as expressed in #76. In the past, when longer a steady, abundant source of SF gaming stirred in a few other manuscripts, and readers would write in asking for more articles material, and we figured it made sense to put put them together in a super-sized sec- on one topic or another, you would always say all of our SF between one set of covers. tion called Mind Games. that Dragon was and would be a magazine Why didnt we ask our readers before chang- ing things? Well, when we think something Arthur contributed the opening piece, which would cover the whole gamut of role- playing games. makes sense, we just go ahead and do it. That an overview of the subject with some Now what will become of games which applies to selecting articles, in particular, for suggestions for shoring up the rules aren’t either SF or fantasy? In the interest of an issue of a magazine, and it applies to decid- structure. He follows with an original keeping genres separate, you will have to start ing what sorts of articles, in general, each of creation, the Psionicist character class. a magazine for Top Secret, Boot Hill, and all TSRs magazines will cover. Were glad that Then, thanks to Arthurs efforts and the of the other role-playing games on the market. many of you were pleased to hear about the kindness of author Katherine Kurtz, we I really feel bad about writing this letter, change, and that you wrote in to tell us so. (Its offer an adaptation for the AD&D game because Dragon is one of the loves of my life, nice to know we didnt alienate everyone.