CONTENTS Issue #138 SPECIAL ATTRACTION Vol. XIII, No. 5 October 1988 15 Dreadful Tidings: Nothing is so bad at Halloween that it couldnt be much, much worse. Publisher Mike Cook 16 The Black Book and the Hunters Craig Schaefer Those who annoy the Old Ones should keep a careful watch behind them. Editor Roger E. Moore 22 The Ungrateful Dead Tom Moldvay Assistant editor Fiction editor Beautiful ghouls and titanic zombies: new undead for your AD&D® games. Robin Jenkins Patrick L. Price 38 Methods to Your Madness Ed Friedlander Editorial assistants A new insanity system that lets a little lunacy go a long way. Kim Walter Barbara G. Young 44 The End of the World Eileen Lucas Art director Got an ailing fantasy campaign? Cure it with the Black Death. Lori Svikel Production staff Betty Elmore Kim Janke Carolyn Vanderbilt OTHER FEATURES Subscriptions U.S. Advertising 8 Through the Looking Glass Jeanne McGuire Pat Schulz Shelia Meehan Bring the dead to life with just a touch of your paintbrush. U.K. correspondents 52 Putting Fire into Firepower Martin Landauer Graeme Morris Rik Rose Lasers in TOP SECRET® games; or, Whats this red button do? U.K. advertising 56 Between Thunder & Lightning fiction by Nancy Varian Berberick Dawn Carter Kris Starr Wars purpose is to take life; to renew it is another kind of struggle. 70 The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser If the space pirates arent tough enough, you can try the rainbow dragons. 78 Role-playing Reviews Ken Rolston Four role-playing games and supplements for those who take horror seriously. 90 The Game Wizards Scott Haring Sifting through the Empires Of the Sands. DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 51 Index to Advertisers 92 Convention Calendar 6 Forum 76 Gamers Guide 96 Dragonmirth 12 Sage Advice 84 TSR Previews 98 SnarfQuest COVER Our Halloween Greetings cover is the first DRAGON® Magazine cover from Jeff Easley, whose work should be familiar to any longtime gamers. It is also the first cover acquisition made by Lori Svikel, our new art director. Jeff admits that he collects antique Halloween items; he certainly has a feel for the topic. Souvenirs The GEN CON®/ORIGINS™ 1988 LETTERS Game Fair is safely over. Your maga- zine staff members acquired a num- ber of items from the convention for their services: What did you think of this issue? Do you have a for prolonged visits, with meals. All prices are, An ORIGINS Special Award for question about an article or have an idea for a of course, subject to change as the DM desires, Outstanding Achievement (1987) for new feature youd like to see? In the United and are offered only as guidelines. DRAGON® Magazine; States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON® The reference to issue #155 should have been A dozen new colorful buttons, Magazine, P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147, to issue #115, the November 1986 issue. U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON including “Veni, Vidi, VISA” (“I came, Magazine, TSR UK Limited, The Mill, Rathmore I saw, I went shopping”), “Oh, no, Road, Cambridge CB1 4AD, United Kingdom. Some last words not another learning experience!” and the rather appropriate “100,000 Dear Dragon: lemmings can't be wrong!”; Next index? After reading your article The Last Word in Copies of the now-infamous issue #129 and Cliff Fraziers sequel to that WOOF MEOW role-playing game of Dear Dragon: article in #134, I thought of other suggestions to Will you ever consider a separate index of include in the sequels sequel. These are: cats and dogs gone bad (with magic past reviews of books and games? When do you Its probably just another gas spore. system — I am not making this up) expect a follow-up index to your Ultimate Arti- Whos the chick with the spiders? and the lurid MACHO WOMEN cle Index? No, you go on without me. WITH GUNS role-playing game of . Matthew Pritchard Without Mjolnir, Ill bet youre a real wimp. well . ahem; Houston TX Whats that up ahead? The keys to the display booth, Cmon guys, lets show him whos boss. which I had to return on an emer- We used to index the items that were Why is it so dark in here? gency drive back to MECCA on reviewed in DRAGON Magazine, but discontin- Hes probably only first level. Wednesday night (sorry, Mike); ued that practice as time went on (and the Ill try to talk to it. Its just another illusion. Converted new SPACE: 1889™ game number of things to index grew longer). Time T-shirts from the Game Designer's will tell whether we index the titles of reviewed I think its dead. books and games. Lets split up. Workshop booth (thanks, Marc); We are considering several options for pub- Ill walk up to the dragon invisibly. A chance to see the 22,986,375 lishing another index for DRAGON Magazine. Why is that man performing sign language? playing pieces inside each of the We could either create a yearly index, to be Dont be so paranoid. humongous BUCK ROGERS™ and published each December, or a cumulative index Daniel Watson DRAGONLANCE™ boardgames that that would either appear every so often in the Plattsburgh NY sold so well at the booth; June anniversary issue (as has been done A friendly wave from Margaret before), as a separate booklet, or in a future “Darksword” Weis, who also told Best of DRAGON Magazine anthology. Designing And some more... such an index, however, would be a difficult and visitors that the editor of this maga- time-cosuming task, and we’re not sure how Dear Dragon: zine was the one who threw the soon we’ll be able to get to it. We will make an With respect to The Last Word, I have come paper airplanes in the Hyatt and effort to have an index created and published up with a few myself: thus brought down the wrath of the by the end of 1989 — but we cannot make any The dragons asleep! hotel staff on the otherwise harm- promises! How much damage do I take? less game-industry party on Friday They wont kill us if we surrender. night (a completely untrue assertion; Im opening the chest. really, it wasn't me); More errers Those stairs sure look slippery. What does green slime taste like? Several bags full of wonderful Dear Dragon: Hey, look archers! munchies from the Ambrosia choco- I am writing to point out two mistakes I found Spikes in the bottom of a chest how late works (just a couple of blocks while reading DRAGON issue #136. The first weird! from MECCA), where the air was so mistake I found was in the article A Room for Ill dive in with full plate on. thick with chocolate you could hard- the Knight, in Table 1, Inn Prices. According to How many are there? ly breathe; this table, a four-star inn costs 5 gp to stay there Ill snap the staff! Fond memories of the good for one night, yet it only costs 15 sp to stay Thats no mage! response we got from our seminars there one night and get a meal. The second Did you ever see so many teeth? (thanks to all panel members and to mistake I found was in the Long Arm of the It says healing on the label. Law. The very first sentence in the article Ill turn the 43 vampires! those in the audience); and starts, DRAGON issue #155 printed many thief- Neat! A cave entrance that looks like a The usual end-of-convention colds orientated articles . But this was printed in mouth! and exhaustion that debilitated the the new issue, #136. DRAGON issue #155 is not Im going to open the door, push the third staff (as well as the rest of TSR, Inc.) due out for another year and a half. Would you book to the left on the bottom shelf, enter the for a week afterward. please clear up these two mistakes? secret room, open the chest, take out the 3,142 It was worth it. Now, of course, Jeff Darby gold pieces, put on the ring of animal control in there's next year. Lawrence KS the false bottom, and control the snake I find under the box. Pretty good guess, huh? The first line under “Lodging” in Table 1 from Darrell Anderson “A Room for the Knight” should have read “1 Elma NY night without meal.” The second line should have read “1 night with meal.” The weekly and monthly lodging prices reflect discounts offered DRAGON 3 difficulty (as per the experience-point chart in the DMG, page 35) to the building to be looted. For every 10 a building has, assign 1 HD, FORUM rounded to the lowest number. Once the basic value is established, treat every guard or trap as one special ability. If you feel the guard or trap is especially tough, treat it as an exceptional ability. Proximity to strong sup- port (e.g., the sheriffs office) or special con- plied by two for fast combat resolution. struction (e.g., a greased tower wall) could also be treated as a special or exceptional ability. For “Forum” welcomes your comments and Table 3A every three secret receptacles for treasures opinions on role-playing games. In the Unit- Powered Armor Protection (e.g., a hidden safe), add one more special abili- ed States and Canada, write to: Forum, ty, rounded to the lowest number. Then add the DRAGON® Magazine, P.O.