Issue #137 Vol. XIII, No. 4 SPECIAL ATTRACTION September 1988 7 Wilderness Adventures: Publisher In case you really want to know whats around the next bend. Mike Cook 8 Whats For Lunch? David Howery Editor If you want musk-ox stew, you hunt for a musk-ox lots of luck! Roger E. Moore 16 Treasures of the wilds David Howery Assistant editor Fiction editor Sable furs and mammoth ivory? But wheres the valuable stuff? Robin Jenkins Patrick L. Price 26 The Ecology of Carnivorous Plants Gregg Chamberlain Editorial assistants Never tease a giant Venus flytrap, and other useful survival hints. Kim Walter Barbara G. Young 34 Weathering the Storms Lisa Cabala Art director From heat waves to hurricanes: weather that your players will never forget. Roger Raupp 42 Into the Age of Mammals David Howery Production staff Life in the Cenozoic era; or, how dangerous is a charging Arsinoitherium? Betty Elmore Kim Janke Lori Svikel OTHER FEATURES Subscriptions U.S. Advertising Pat Schulz Sheila Meehan 54 The Fairest of the Fairs Bill Volkart U.K. correspondents Summertime brawls at the Kings Festival, and other fair diversions. Graeme Morris Rik Rose 59 The Game Wizards Doug Niles U.K. advertising The making-of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER game and more! Dawn Carter Kris Starr 60 Up and Running in the Land of Mutants Kim Eastland For high-powered GAMMA WORLD® game campaigns, you need heavy-duty mutants. 70 The Marvel®-Phile Skip Williams Can gaseous life forms be attacked mentally? Just ask the sage. 72 Role-playing Reviews Jim Bambra You only live twice: the JAMES BOND 007 game and the TOP SECRET/S.I. game. 84 The Role of Books John C. Bunnell Camelot and Araby as shared worlds (or are they anthologies in disguise?). 88 The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser On saving Britannia, rescuing Oids, and crashing at 293 kilometers per hour. DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 87 TSR Previews 98 Gamers Guide 4 Forum 94 Convention Calendar 100 SnarfQuest 68 Sage Advice 97 Index to Advertisers COVER Alone on the frontier of civilization, a ranger pauses in his search for threats to the people he guards. They probably dont even know he exists, says artist Keith Parkinson of his cover painting, North Watch. The ranger is well outfitted with arctic survival gear; his riding dragon, however, seems to be at home in the chill. 2 SEPTEMBER 1988 Roadblocks I once had a college course that was unremarkable except for the presence of one student, who was unremarkable except that she could not leave her wheelchair. The class What did you think of this issue? Do you have a Dear Dragon: was on the second floor of a build- question about an article or have an idea for a I would like for you to know that I agree that ing with no ramps or elevators. new feature youd like to see? In the United the second edition of the AD&D game is a Several of the stronger students States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON® wonderful idea. Its going to repair mistakes would wait for her at the bottom of Magazine, P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147, such as a sling stone cutting off a persons head, the narrow staircase to carry her U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON which happened to me once. and her wheelchair to class but as Magazine, TSR UK Limited, The Mill, Rathmore time went on, the volunteers Road, Cambridge CB1 4AD, United Kingdom. How perfectly dreadful. thinned out. The girl dropped the course, unable to attend. I thought of that lost student Odds & ends Dear Dragon: I would like to know what would be the when I was reading another gaming The following letters were actually received characteristics of the offspring of a unicorn and magazine and noticed a letter from a by the editors of DRAGON Magazine and, except a horse that was then bred back with a unicorn. learning-disabled gamer who was for minor editing, appear as they were written. appalled at the lack of attention paid The characteristics of the offspring of a uni- to the issue of handicapped gamers. corn and a horse would not change, no matter She praised the MARVEL SUPER Dear Dragon: what it was bred with. HEROES® game for including details Recently my AD&D® game character, Waldorf, on handicapped characters, of a 358th-level magic-user, created the nuclear which there are many in the Marvel bomb. Due to this action, all of Greyhawk has Dear Dragon: been utterly obliterated, except for a 3 × 4 mile Stop making your game. I killed all the Universe. She also noted that the island with a castle called Castle Waldorf. monsters. character-creation system in FGUs All creatures from the Monster Manuals were VILLAINS & VIGILANTES game destroyed due to large amounts of nuclear All but Waldorf. was easy to use for players with fallout. All the deities work in a salt mine under math-related learning disabilities Waldorfs castle. I would greatly appreciate it if (your character is based on your everyone would mail their character sheets to Dear Dragon: ratings of your own real-life abili- me so that I may tally up Waldorfs experience. Could you send me all the information you ties; thus, you play a superpowered All of the game manuals and modules are now have? totally false and untrue. Any profit made from hero who is essentially yourself). TSRs merchandise from this day onward should All of if? Anyone who has spent time at a be mailed to Waldorfs castle (in gold pieces, of few gaming conventions is aware course). that there are lots of gamers with Dear Dragon: physical handicaps. Some are easily Of course. However; you forgot to enclose a I have found Isildurs ring (photo enclosed). corrected (myopia comes to mind, self-addressed stamped envelope. We regret that since I have that), but some are not. Waldorf must lose the experience points and We have examined your photo, and we regret For example, Judith Sampson gold for his victory. to report that the ring therein is a part of the (Adventuring with Shaky Hands, young womans bathing suit, holding together from DRAGON® issue #53) described the suits top and bottom halves. It is not Dear Dragon: Isildurs ring. the ways she managed to cope with My friends and I have been playing the AD&D cerebral palsy in order to join a local game for over six years now. Our major charac- role-playing group. ters have levels in the millions, maximum scores Your most revered Mr. Moore: During the years Ive been for almost every ability, and can obliterate five Ive loved all your movies, especially your involved in gaming, I recall a num- planes of the Abyss in a round. We have moved portrayal of Ian Flemings British secret agent, ber of people who had marked on to other games and have developed other James Bond, 007. Personally, I think youre handicaps or disabilities, though major characters in those games. We have much better than this new guy, Timothy Dalton. such rarely interfered in their enjoy- created creatures that are barely a challenge for ment of role-playing games. One our characters. After a while, role-playing got Thank you very much. boring. I havent played for about two months. I gamer had an artificial eye; another would like to know how I can have fun with had survived leukemia; a third was these high-level characters. Dear Dragon: epileptic (and had a seizure during I got one of your DRAGON Magazines, and I one of our games). Ive gamed with Perhaps you should meet Waldorf. found that the old issues were all sold out. All people with other disabilities, but you have to do is photocopy all the pages, and such disabilities were never consid- you could send them to me. I would be so happy ered to be relevant to gaming skill. Dear Dragon: I might subscribe to DRAGON Magazine and Gamers as a whole tend to be Who is responsible for Sturms death? Will send more nice letters. accepting and helpful people. Sturm be resurrected? But then again, you might not. What can be done to overcome Some blame Margaret Weis and Tracy Hick- handicaps and improve your enjoy- man, but if you read Dragons of Winter Night, ment of gaming? Wed like to hear youll see that Kitiara was responsible. No. from those with experience and ideas on this topic. Send your com- (continued on page 97) DRAGON 3 to bring his entire Roman legion into an unfa- miliar DMs dungeon to keep his PC from get- ting killed, while players from other campaigns want to bring Monty Haul items along not to dominate the game, but just to be safer in a world that is still a big unknown. Ive been guilty of equally juvenile behavior as a player. When I started DMing, my own players rebelled when character deaths started occurring with some frequency. Now I think Im wiser. People become deeply warned that players did mourn beloved PCs. attached to their characters and sometimes to In later issues of DRAGON® Magazine, we find special magical items. There are ways to main- The “Forum” welcomes your comments and tain a sense of danger and excitement without opinions on role-playing games. In the Unit- exhortations not to take beloved characters into killer dungeons and a lament for a favorite the constant terror of being lost forever. My ed States and Canada, write to: Forum, players know that clerical resurrection is gener- DRAGON® Magazine, P.O.