Issue # 134 Vol. XIII, No. 1 June 1988 SPECIAL ATTRACTION Publisher 7 Dragons: Mike Cook The heart and soul of the world of fantasy. 8 The Dragons Bestiary The Readers Editor Seven dragons, from the deepest seas to astral space. Roger E. Moore 16 Give Dragons a Fighting Chance Ed Friedlander Assistant editor Fiction editor Creative ways to put fear back into the cry, Dragon! Robin Jenkins Patrick L. Price 24 Serpents & Sorcery Vince Garcia The intelligent dragons guide to spell-casting. Editorial assistants Eileen Lucas Barbara G. Young 28 Lords & Legends William Simpson Dragotha: A dragon that became far more dangerous after it died. Art director 32 The Ecology of the Red Dragon Gregg Sharp Roger Raupp Red dragons have no ecologies: They ravage them. Production staff 61 The Origins Awards Ballot: Marilyn Favaro Lori Svikel Heres your official ballot vote for the best! Subscriptions Advertising Pat Schulz Sheila Meehan OTHER FEATURES 42 Bazaar of the Bizarre E. Paul Tobin Magical paddleboards and other perverse items for jester NPCs. 46 For Your Orcs Only Bruce A. Heard A quick round of hack-n-slash with the ORCWARS! game rules. 48 Eyes of Redemption fiction by James Brunet How do you atone for the slaying of a dragon? 58 Arcane Lore D.J. Fjellhaugen Clerical spells that heal even when the cleric is gone. 66 Sighting In Dennis McLaughlin The tools of the ultimate hunter: sniper rifles for agent-assassins. 70 The Game Wizards Steve Winter SNIPER! game variants, or Is a hand grenade any good against a dinosaur, Fred? 72 Role-playing Reviews Jim Bambra Three games explore the Oriental world of the samurai. 78 Catching Some Rays Daniel Salas Mutants are bad enough, but gamma radiation is forever. 80 The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser You are now entering the Dream Zone. World War III is next. 88 The Ultimate Addendas Addenda David Edward Martin Take a deep (super) breath: Here are more MARVEL SUPER HEROES® game powers! DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 56 TSR Previews 94 Convention Calendar 4 Forum 69 Index to Advertisers 98 Dragonmirth 36 Sage Advice 92 Gamers Guide 100 SnarfQuest COVER Sword of Dawn is the first DRAGON® Magazine cover by noted illustrator Charles Vess, who said it was the first painting he ever did using a model. The painting was originally made for a magazine that ceased publication before the painting saw print. Apparently, we were luckier. 2 JUNE 1988 Equal time The MPs found her wandering the streets in the 82nd Airborne Divi- sion area on post, and she was brought to Womack Army Hospital at Ft. Bragg, N.C., before dawn. I was the emergency tech in the psy- work. .? I wasnt sure if that was intentional chiatry and neurology clinic for the More last words or not, so I thought Id mention it. Keith Martens day, so I went to the waiting room Dear Dragon: Charlotte MI where she had been sent after her I read your article The Last Word in issue processing. She was in a wheelchair #129, and I have some suggestions for the As to the first point, it is proper to refer to the because no one wanted her wander- articles sequel. They are: team of Greg and Tim Hildebrandt as either ing around the hospital. The MPs We dont need to post guards at night. Were The Brothers Hildebrandt or The Hildebrandt said she was saying lots of strange too powerful. Brothers. Both references may be found in the things. Whats that? Aw, it was nothin. many works on which they have collaborated. She seemed to be a normal, I aint afraid of no giants. As to the second point, proofread (with the healthy woman, soft-spoken though read pronounced red) is the past tense of Are those drums I hear? extremely childlike. She clutched a Hey, fellas! Shut up, Ernie! But guys proofread (with the read pronounced Cliff Frazier reed), and was the appropriate choice, since giant pink teddy bear that the MP West Valley UT the incident referred to in the editorial had report said she refused to give up. already occurred. But keep looking! Once in my office, I told her who I was and asked her name. Super errer found Mary, she said. I would have saved myself lots of time by asking Dear Dragon: Letter from the her last name then, but I was being I was on vacation, two days after the arrival conversational. We chatted for a of my authors copy of DRAGON® issue #132. I editors while before she mentioned that she finished reading the editorial, Errers, then turned to page 70 to once again admire my Dear Readers: and her husband Joseph were flee- article, A Little Less Super. Thats when my As the cover of this issue notes, this is ing Egypt, and her son Jesus was own errer jumped off the page. In the first DRAGON® Magazines twelfth anniversary in still in the ER waiting to be resur- paragraph, I said, the DC HEROES game mea- print. DRAGON® Magazine started as a little- rected. I nodded at this piece of sures power logarithmically I should have said known gaming periodical and has grown into news and asked her last name. geometrically [The games] AP power levels the largest, most popular, and most widely Magdalene, she said with that increase in a 2:l geometric progression (each AP distributed role-playing game magazine there is. soft, pleasant voice. We could not have done it without you, and you doubles the power level of the AP preceding it). Oh, I said, and set my notepad Mea culpa. have our sincere appreciation. Jon Slobins Sir Isaac Newton once noted in a letter that if aside. We chatted a bit more. Then I Damascus MD he saw farther into the realm of physics than had her wait in the office with others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of another tech while I found the civil- No need to feel bad about it. We missed it, too. Giants. The same may be said of our achieve- ian psychiatrist in the clinic. We ments in producing DRAGON® Magazine. We brought her in and talked about life extend our thanks and best wishes to everyone in ancient Rome while we tried to More errers? who contributed to this magazine in any part pin down who she really was. She over the years. Many of our writers and former finally mentioned a few names, we staff members are still active in the field of Dear Dragon: checked them out, and two days Since in the editorial of issue #132 you talked gaming and publishing. We particularly extend about errors, I thought Id point out a couple our appreciation to Kim Mohan, who was for so later she and her bear were that I found. long the cornerstone upon which this maga- returned to her familys custody. I First, on page 68 in TSR Previews, one of the zines very existence rested. filed the case, and that was that. contributing artist listings reads the Brothers Weve come a long way in twelve years and In the five years I served as a Hildebrandt. Shouldnt that be the Hildebrandt we plan to be around for a long time to come. mental health counselor for the U.S. Brothers? Your comments and support make it all worth- Army, I talked with a number of Also, right in the editorial on page 88, the while. people with quite bizarre religious third to the last sentence of the article reads: Thank you! delusions. An ER tech decided to The editors and staff of The writer proofread his own work. experiment with PCP crossed with Shouldnt it say: The writer proofreads his own DRAGON Magazine strychnine, which was what passed locally for heroin, and was shortly thereafter led down to P&N profess- Errata for Hotel Reservations ing his belief that he was Jesus 1988 GEN CON®/ORIGINS™ Game Fair Christ. A woman on outpatient treatment with a chronic schizo- Important information was left out of the 16- This information is extremely vital to insure phrenic disorder told me of her page 1988 GEN CON®/ORIGINS™ Game Fair proper hotel confirmation for you; without it, belief that she had to murder her insert in DRAGON® issue #132. The Official hotel reservations cannot be made for you and daughter, who was an angel, Housing Application form, used for making your party. We apologize for any inconvenience because her husband was the Devil. hotel reservations, is grossly in error. Before you that this has caused. She recalled getting the idea from send this particular form to the Housing Bureau, Sincerely, Mark Olson the Book of Revelation, which I have write down your arrival and departure dates in Promotions/Convention Manager read several times without getting the space above the table listing hotel rates. (continued on page 55) GEN CON IS a registered service mark of TSR, Inc. ©1988 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ORIGINS IS a trademark of the Game Manufacturers Association. DRAGON 3 elven or half-elven race descriptions to such abilities. But even if the mage has such skills, being a guide (or even using the elven ability to increase surprise of opponents) generally requires the guide to be near the front of the party, a place a 1st-level mage should avoid like the plague. Those with 1-4 hp cannot even take an average sword blow. And of course this suggestion does nothing for those mages who are human. Finally, Mr.