Magazine Issue #120 Vol. XI, No. 11 SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS April 1987 9 PLAYERS HANDBOOK II: Publisher The ENRAGED GLACIERS & GHOULS games first volume! Mike Cook Six bizarre articles by Alan Webster, Steven P. King, Rick Reid, Jonathan Edelstein, and Editor James MacDougall. Roger E. Moore 20 The 1987 ORIGINS AWARDS BALL0T: A special but quite serious chance to vote for the best! Just clip (or copy) and mail! Assistant editor Fiction editor Robin Jenkins Patrick L. Price OTHER FEATURES Editorial assistants 24 Scorpion Tales Arlan P. Walker Marilyn Favaro Barbara G. Young A few little facts that may scare characters to death. Eileen Lucas Georgia Moore 28 First Impressions are Deceiving David A. Bellis Art director The charlatan NPC a mountebank, a trickster, and a DMs best friend. Roger Raupp 33 Bazaar of the Bizarre Bill Birdsall Three rings of command for any brave enough to try them. Production Staff 36 The Ecology of the Gas Spore Ed Greenwood Kim Lindau Gloria Habriga It isnt a beholder, but it isnt cuddly, either. Subscriptions Advertising 38 Higher Aspirations Mark L. Palmer Pat Schulz Mary Parkinson More zero-level spells for aspiring druids. 42 Plane Speaking Jeff Grubb Creative editors Tuning in to the Outer Planes of existence. Ed Greenwood Jeff Grubb 46 Dragon Meat Robert Don Hughes Contributing artists What does one do with a dead dragon in the front yard? Linda Medley Timothy Truman 62 Operation: Zenith Merle M. Rasmussen David E. Martin Larry Elmore The undercover war on the High Frontier, for TOP SECRET® game fans. Jim Holloway Marvel Bullpen Brad Foster Bruce Simpson 64 Space-Age Espionage John Dunkelberg, Jr. Joseph Pillsbury David Trampier Spies battle across the interstellar reaches of the TRAVELLER® game. Janet Aulisio Richard Tomasic 68 The Game Wizards Douglas Niles Jeff Easley Dwain Meyer Espionage alert: the TOP SECRET® game revision! Tom Marnick Lori Walls Lawrence Raimonda 70 Here Comes the Cavalry! Matt Bandy The fighting armored cavalry of the STAR FRONTIERS® game. 74 Born in the Ruins Dan Salas Social class and the second-edition GAMMA WORLD® game. 76 Welcome to the Machine Douglas A. Lent The life and times (such as they are) of Marvels Machine Man 79 The Role of Computers Hartley and Patricia Lesser Of bards and other tales, with hints as well as reviews. DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 86 TSR Previews 97 Snarfquest 4 World Gamers Guide 88 TSR Profiles 100 Dragonmirth 6 Forum 92 Gamers Guide 102 Wormy 26 Sage Advice 94 Convention Calendar COVER Our April cover painting has no real title as such. Linda Medley, the California artist who created it, describes it as a generic bar scene which she had wanted to try. We looked at the painting when it arrived, and the only trouble we had with it was in deciding how quickly we wanted to use it. Theres something for everyone here, it seems more than first meets the eye. Happy April! 2 APRIL 1987 Official business Roger Moore wont be writing this months editorial; he wanted me to do it instead to give a more for- mal introduction of myself by way of expressing a few of my thoughts. Thieves guild Lizard bites man I hope its only a coincidence that he fixes Dear Dragon: chose to do this in the April issue. Regarding the article Adventure Trivia! (issue Many years ago, I learned to play We received the following letter from Vince #117, pages 26-27): In question 19, it is asked how the AD&D® game in the Student Garcia, the author of A Den of Thieves (issue many successful hits would be necessary for a gi- Union of the University of La Crosse #115, page 14). He had a few corrections and addi- ant lizard to kill a fighter who has 57 hp. The ar- only then it wasnt known as the tional information for that article, but we werent ticle states that the answer is four, but this AD&D® or D&D® game: it was sim- able to print it earlier: The relevant parts of his amount would only be sufficient to render the ply known as D and D. The game letter follow. RM poor tighter unconscious (57 - 16 x 4 = -7) was fairly crude at that point, com- According to the DMG, a character is only killed ing fresh from its genesis and di- Dear Dragon: after his hit-point total falls below -10. There- rectly from the spiral notebooks of As regards to the guild-within-a-guild, the fore, five hits would be necessary to kill the Additional Followers Table should be C rather fighter. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, than D, as in the article. The confrontation factor Brian Hindenburg among others. The game existed as a is F (see below). Sycamore, Ill. set of three, digest-sized, paper- bound rule books, all very drably Table F: Encounters within parent guild I see your point. This was an editorial mistake written, cheaply printed, and spar- (we changed that one particular question slightly) ingly illustrated. These were the Dice which made the question a tricky one, since any official rules in 1975. The game roll Result character at - 7 hp is probably as good as dead. itself was simplistic by comparison 01-50 No confrontations this month. Five hits it is, then. RM 51-80 Parent guildmaster suspicious over low to todays role-playing games, and its guild tithe, forcing PCs group to cut rules were riddled with vagaries, back on activities; quarter indicated inconsistencies, and numerous take this month. Too much flaws. But in that crude and rather 81-85 Randomly selected thief bungles pick- basic form, the game had something pocketing attempt; 90% chance he is in- coverage that a lot of its followers lack; it was carcerated and fined 10-40 gp; 10% the first of its kind, and there was a chance he is killed. Dear Dragon: lot of room left for development. 86-90 Assassination attempt made on parent In DRAGON® issue #116, several people made Now, in 1987, the AD&D game has guildmasters assistant: 10% chance quite a bit of noise about how DRAGON Maga- death results, 25% chance in that event zine should expand the number of games that it become the largest and most popu- PC is asked to take his place. covers. Perhaps this is so, but by now there lar role-playing game on the market. 91-95 Parent guildmaster suspects presence must be over 750 role-playing games on the Ten (at present) books and numer- of guild-within-a-guild, spending next l- market. If DRAGON Magazine were to report on ous modules make the system com- 3 months exploring the possibility; 15% all of them well, lets try not to think about it. plete; they also make it extremely chance he discovers the PCs guild un- Mr. Spivey said if you would report on the top complex. Letters arrive daily asking less all unauthorized operations 10 or 15 games, you would increase your read- the designers to resolve the flaws or stopped during the time period (quar- ership, but to me it would get quite boring. to make rulings on contradictions in ter all indicated receipts if activities My solution? Keep the magazine for D&D® the system. Others write to com- continue to be pursued). and AD&D® games, and the traditional medie- 96-99 Parent guildmasters assistant suspects val- and ancient-setting games, and have a sister plain about having to buy ten books same as above; 10% chance he discov- magazine with a science-fiction type name for to own the AD&D game. Still others ers PCs guild and who runs it regard- science-fiction, modern-military, and any other write to ask what rules in DRAGON less of whether or not all unauthorized RPG that doesnt fit into the first category. Magazine are official and which thieving activities are halted. If he dis- Just one other thought, although Im sure Mr. are not. To these gamers, the AD&D covers the guilds presence, he may be- Gravel's intentions must be good: Please do not game has become a mass of come involved in a beneficial way, have articles on MONOPOLY® and RISK® games. confusion. extort a percentage to keep quiet (DM Include these in a third periodical, entitled With the second edition of the must arbitrate). "Boardome." AD&D game presently in the works, 00 PC learns his parent guildmaster will be Bob Hughes relatively unguarded and open to possi- Schenectady, N.Y. more complaints and letter express- ble assassination attempt within 1-6 ing confusion arrive each day. Some days (30% chance this information is a The chances of seeing another magazine from gamers worry that their favorite trap by guildmaster to weed out trai- TSR, Inc., covering science-fiction games alone classes will no longer be part of the tors; DM arbitrates). are very poor: Were swamped with work on the official rules, hence they will no magazines we already have. Though I doubt longer be able to use them in play. The following adjustments are made to the dice well cover the MONOPOLY and RlSK games Still others complain that they are here, we will leave open the possibility of cover- displeased with having to buy the + 30 if activity factor 1 is pursued; and, ing certain very popular boardgames with second edition a purchase which +50 activity factor 2 is pursued. fantasy or science-fiction themes (the OGRE® if will outmode their first-edition One other error: On page 22, under Extreme and CAR WARS® games immediately come to and purposeful measures taken, the text should mind).