SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS Issue #171 AD&D Trading Cards Richard Brown Vol. XVI, No. 2 Insert July 1991 A preview of brand-new product, coming to a store near you! Publisher REGULAR FEATURES James M. Ward Guest Editorial Michael A. Stackpole Editor 6 Role-playing and reality: The dividing line is thicker than some people Roger E. Moore think. Whos Who Among Dragons Bruce A. Heard Fiction editor 9 Dragons, too, rule kingdoms in the D&D® Known World. Barbara G. Young Hunting Tanks is Fun and Easy! Thomas M. Kane 13 Dragons, Hellfires, and the LAW: Antitank weapons in the TOP Assistant editor Dale A. Donovan SECRET/S.I. game. The Making of a Monster Matthew Iden Art director 16 If ya wanna play an orc, ya gotta think like an orc. Larry W. Smith Care For a Drink? David W. Montgomery and Jim Milner 20 It can break a siege, end a drought, slay your enemies, and water Production staff your garden. What is it? Gaye OKeefe Angelika Lokotz Tracey Zamagne The MARVEL®-Phile Steven E. Schend 31 Chris Powell needed an edge against crime. He got itand how! Subscriptions The Role of Books John C. Bunnell Janet L. Winters 34 The woman who outsmarted Sherlock Holmes takes on her own murder-mystery adventure. U.S. advertising Roseann Schnering The Voyage of the Princess Ark Bruce A. Heard 39 They dont call it the Savage Coast for nothing. U.K. correspondent The Nature of the Beast Zoe Bell Hurst and U.K. advertising 48 A dozen people have a dozen ways to paint a griffon. Bronwen Livermore The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser 57 Lemmings: How long can you keep them alive? Child of Ocean fiction by Eluki bes Shahar 66 Mykene was the luckiest ships pilot alive. But luck never lasts forever. Its clobberin time! Dale A. Donovan 73 If you want to pound super villains, you need super tactics. Role-playing Reviews Ken Rolston 80 When was the last time you saw a great 1st-level dungeon? Conquer the Solar System By Mail! Bruce Nesmith 87 Create a game and lose your friends! The making of the CONQUEST OF THE 25TH CENTURY PBM. 101 Surprises in a Bag of Beans Matthew Schutt 95 When you plant your bean, remember to stand back-way back! Through the Looking Glass Robert Bigelow 111 Huge fairies, tiny undead, and an endless castle-building kit. DEPARTMENTS 5 Letters 90 Sage Advice 104 Twilight Empire 24 TSR Preview 98 Convention Calendar 108 Gamers Guide 26 Forum 102 Dragonmirth COVER Pandora was not the only person to have trouble with a box, as Donald Clavettes cover painting for this issue shows. This issue, like the box, is full of surprises-but our surprises have fewer teeth. Enjoy. 4 JULY 1991 DRAGON® Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is published monthly by TSR, Inc., PO. Box 756 (201 Sheridan Springs Road), Lake Geneva WI 53147, United States of America. The postal address for all materials from the United States of America and Canada except subscrip tion orders is: DRAGON® Magazine, PO. Box 111, (201 Sheridan Springs Road), Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.; telephone (414) 248-3625; fax (414) 248-0389. The postal address for all materials from Europe is: DRAGON Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LB, United Kingdom; telephone: (0223) 212517 (U.K.), 44-223-212517 (International); telex: 818761; fax (0223) 248066 (U.K.), 44-223-248066 (international). Distribution: DRAGON Magazine is available from game and hobby shops throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and through a limited number of other overseas outlets. Distribution to the book trade in the United States is by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distribution What did you think of this issue? Do you have to the book trade in the United Kingdom is by TSR Ltd. a question about an article or have an idea for a Readers critters Send orders to: Random House, Inc., Order Entry Department, Westminster MD 21157, U.S.A.; telephone: new feature you’d like to see? In the United (800) 733-3000. Newsstand distribution throughout the ® States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON Dear Dragon, United Kingdom is by Seymour Press Ltd., 334 Brixton Magazine, P.O. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147, In issue #166, you wondered what critters Road, London SW9 7AG, United Kingdom; telephone: other readers have sympathies for. No doubt 01-733-4444. U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON Subscriptions: Subscription rates via second-class Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry you wanted someone to write in, huh? mail are as follows: $30 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LB, United Kingdom. I have an interest in the wolf. For centuries, to an address in the U.S. or Canada: £16 for 12 issues the name has been synonymous with cruelty sent to an address within the United Kingdom; £24 for 12 and evil, whether it be from fairy tales or the issues sent to an address in Europe; $50 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent by surface mail to any other address, writings of some 20th century nature lovers. It or $90 in U.S. funds for 12 issues sent air mail to any Money matters was (and still is) wrongly believed that the wolf other address. Payment in full must accompany all should be poisoned, trapped, or shot. To a large subscription orders. In the U.S. and Canada, methods of payment include checks or money orders made payable Dear Dragon, extent, this is what has happened. to TSR, Inc., or charges to valid MasterCard or VISA I am writing to you about the article Just give Wolves are now extinct in the United States, credit cards; send subscription orders with payments to: me money! in issue #167. At the bottom of page with the exception of a few select areas such as TSR, Inc., PO. Box 5695, Boston MA 02206, U.S.A. In northern Minnesota. The wolf was dead in the United Kingdom, methods of payment include 63, it says, There are 20 pennyweights to the cheques or money orders made payable to TSR Ltd., or ounce, and 16 ounces to the pound. The stand- England in the early 16th century, and in Ire- charges to a valid ACCESS or VISA credit card; send ard coin (piece) weighs four pennyweights. land in the late 17th century. Yet it is very rare subscription orders with payments to TSR Ltd., as per that a human has ever been attacked by a wolf that address above. Prices are subject to change without This gives 80 coins to the pound. prior notice. The issue of expiration of each subscription This information is incorrect. There are 20 in North America (I have no data for other is printed on the mailing label of each subscriber’s copy pennyweights to each troy ounce, and 12 troy continents). In fact, the majority of negative of the magazine. Changes of address for the delivery of ounces to the pound. This would result in only aspects pinned on the wolf are misconceptions subscription copies must be received at least six weeks or exaggerations of the truth. prior to the effective date of the change in order to assure 60 coins per pound. This greatly alters the uninterrupted delivery. number of coins that can be carried. If nothing else is learned about the wolf, I Back issues: A limited quantity of back issues is With this new system of money, would char- would suggest getting a recording from the available from either the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop library of a wolf pack howling. This unique (PO. Box 756, Lake Geneva WI 53147, U.S.A.) or from acters receive 1 XP for each silver piece found TSR Ltd. For a free copy of the current catalog that lists instead of for each gold piece? sound will put chills up your spine in the wild, available back issues, write to either of the above P.S. Shouldnt you multiply old platinum by but it wont be from fear. addresses. five to find the price of an item expressed in Steve Heitzenrater Submissions: All material published in DRAGON Erie PA Magazine becomes the exclusive property of the pub- new silver pieces? lisher, unless special arrangements to the contrary are Justin Tracy made prior to publication. DRAGON Magazine welcomes Liverpool NY Dear Dragon, unsolicited submissions of written material and artwork; In issue #166, there was an interesting letter however, no responsibility for such submissions can be about vampires and sympathies for them. After assumed by the publisher in any event. Any submission You are correct on your pennyweight point. I accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope of seem to have missed that in checking over the this letter, there was a request for letters from sufficient size will be returned if it cannot be published. We strongly recommend that prospective authors write article; I apologize for the error. If you still want others who have sympathies for monsters. I really feel sorry for werewolves; they are for our writers’ guidelines before sending an article to us. to revamp the AD&D 1st Edition game’s coinage In the United States and Canada, send a self-addressed, system, you can either have 80 coins per pound, shunned by society, and once a month, they get stamped envelope (9½” long preferred) to: Writers’ typically to get back at those who shunned them.