February 1981 1 Tell them you saw it in Dragon magazine Dragon Vol. V, No. 8 Vol. V, No. 8 February 1981 Publisher . E. Gary Gygax Editor . Jake Jaquet Assistant editor . Kim Mohan February. The only good thing about listing. Now, the RPGA will be providing Editorial staff . Bryce Knorr February (if you’re not a fan of cold that service and much more. Marilyn Mays weather, as I am not) is that it only has 28 There’s an ad elsewhere in this magazine Sales & Circulation . Debbie Chiusano days. Brrrr.... that gives you all the details, but basical- Corey Koebernick Office staff . Dawn Pekul This February marks the two-year anni- ly it’s going to be an international asso- ciation of role-playing gamers on a scope Cherie Knull versary of Dragon Publishing (or TSR Roger Raupp Periodicals, as we used to be known) never before attempted. Imagine a game club with 100,000 or more members and Contributing editors . Roger Moore existing as a separate division of TSR you’ll get the idea. With the sanctioned Ed Greenwood Hobbies, Inc. If you’ve been with us that tournaments that are planned, at last long, Happy Anniversary; if not, glad to there will be a real way for Player A in have you with us now. This month’s contributing artists: New York to be compared against Player This issue of Dragon™ magazine starts B in Los Angeles. Steve Swenston Ed Greenwood Jim Roslof Susan Collins part of the facelift of the magazine I re- *** ferred to last month. You’ll notice we’re James Holloway Roger Raupp changing to a three column format and a More good news: Two new projects by Kenneth Rahman Mike Carroll new text typeface. We hope these Dragon Publishing are now available (or changes give Dragon both a better phys- will be as soon as we get them shipped DRAGON magazine is published monthly by ical appearance and better readability. out to the dealers and distributors). The Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR Hobbies, Inc. first long-awaited “Finieous The mailing address of Dragon Publishing is P.O. *** Box 110, Lake Geneva, WI 53147; telephone 414- Treasury” (see the ad elsewhere in this 248-8044. Some of you (especially the entrants) magazine). Finieous fans can now have may be wondering about the results of all the episodes of the adventures of Fi- DRAGON is available at hundreds of hobby stores and bookstores throughout the United our Second International Dungeon De- nieous Fingers, Fred, and Charly as they States and Canada, and through a limited number sign Competition (IDDC II). Response appeared in the first four years of The of overseas outlets. The magazine can be pur- chased directly from Dragon Publishing by in- was almost overwhelming, with literally Dragon, plus a new, never-before-pub- dividual subscription. The subscription rate within hundreds of entries. It does take a lot of lished Finieous adventure, back- the United States and Canada is $24 U.S. for 12 is- sues. Outside the U.S. and Canada, rates are as time to wade through so much material, ground information on the characters in follows: $50 U.S. for 12 issues sent surface mail, but the judging process is continuing, the strip, and an autobiographical profile or $95 U.S. for 12 issues sent air mail. and we should have our winners before of the author/artist of Finieous, J.D. A limited selection of DRAGON back issues is too much longer. And with the quality of Webster himself. available by mail from Dragon Publishing for cover the entries we’ve seen so far, the winner price of a particular issue plus $1.00 per issue *** ordered for postage and handling. No issues prior will be something else.... to #22 are available. The cover price for issues #22- Also soon to be off the press is The Best 31 is $2.00, for #32-36, $2.50, and for #37 to *** present, $3.00. Payment must accompany all of the Dragon, Volume II. Best of II will orders. If one or more issues in an order is sold Good news to those of you who buy contain some material from the first two out, a credit slip will be substituted which may be Dragon magazine over the counter publishing volumes of The Dragon that exchanged for cash or merchandise from Dragon rather than by subscription—starting with didn’t make it into Best of I, plus more Publishing. last month’s issue, Dragon should be from later issues. Keep an eye in the The issue of expiration for each subscription is printed on each subscriber’s mailing label. available in most of the bookstores where magazine for notice of direct mail sales if Changes of address for subscriptions must be re- other TSR Hobbies products are avail- you don’t find it at your local dealer’s. ceived by Dragon Publishing at least 30 days prior able. Reason? Well, Random House, Inc., to the effective date of the change in order to *** guarantee uninterrupted delivery. (one of the largest publishing houses in All material published in DRAGON becomes the the country) is now the sole distributor Coming back to Dragon next month af- exclusive property of the publisher upon publica- of Dragon Publishing products to the ter a rather lengthy hiatus will be a minia- tion, unless special arrangements to the contrary book market trade, just as they are for ture figure review column. “Figuratively are made prior to publication. TSR games. Hopefully, in the not too Speaking” will be written for the most DRAGON welcomes unsolicited submissions distant future, their vast distribution part by longtime Dragon contributor and of written material and artwork; however, no responsibility for such submissions can be as- network will make Dragon veteran gamer &miniaturist Bill Fawcett. sumed by the publisher in any event. No submis- magazine available wherever D&D® and sion will be returned unless it was accompanied *** by a self-addressed, stamped envelope of suf- AD&D™ are found. ficient size. It’s got to get warmer next month...it’s *** DRAGON™ is a trademark for Dragon Publishing’s got to... monthly adventure role-playing aid. All rights on the Not directly related to Dragon magazine, contents of this publication are resewed, and nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without securing but something I feel role-playing gamers prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright should be aware of, is the formation of 1981 by TSR Hobbies, Inc. the TSR Role-Playing Game Association. Second class postage paid at Cary, Illinois 60013. Dragon used to try to list DMs across the country in our “Mapping the Dungeons” 2 February 1981 which begins on page 66, is “only” in black & white, but wait ‘til you see it... The Temple of Poseidon is the creaton of Paul Reiche III —a creation which helped him get a job with TSR Hobbies, Inc. To learn more about Paul and Poseidon, read page 31 —but don’t peek at the rest of the adventure if you intend to put a character of yours into this perilous place. Next on the bill of fare, and leading off our feature section this month, is The Sorceror's Jewel, a short story from the e’re proud of the way issue #46 of Dragon pen of J. Eric Holmes. While maintaining a career as a neuro- magazine looks, and we hope you like the surgeon and an “alter ego” as a published author of fantasy changes we’ve made in the appearance of novels, Eric also found time to serve as editor for the original the pages. Even if you don’t like the “new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons@ Basic Set. “Jewel” is look,” or find it a little hard to get used to, we the second Holmes story to appear in Dragon magazine, and think you’ll find that the high quality of the it features the same two principal characters as “Trollshead” articles and artwork hasn’t changed a bit. (issue #31). The headline acts of this month’s show are The Temple of A few issues back, we printed an article which pointed out Poseidon, another in our continuing series of ready-to-use some of the shortcomings that the author found in The playing aids for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", and the Tribes of Crane, a popular play-by-mail game. Now, ex- first large installment of Pinsom, a new fantasy adventure presssing the pro-Crane point of view, we present Richard comic strip drawn by Steve Swenston, who also provided us Lloyd’s view, “Crane is what you make of it.” Richard is the with a full-color rendition of Pinsom and the strip’s other designer of StarMaster, another PBM game, and an avid and characters for this month’s cover. The adventure itself, active player in Tribes of Crane. It’s been a year since we published any rule changes or variations for Divine Right" In that time, DR designer Glenn Rahman has sent us variants, at the rate of one every two months or so. We’re giving them to you all at once in a Divine Right special section which begins on page 14 and ends with SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS the latest installment of Glenn’s Minarian Legends, this time The Temple of Poseidon — Another AD&D adventure ..... 31 telling the story of The Black Hand. Pinsom — A new comic strip ............................ 66 It’s also been quite a spell since we devoted any space to Boot Hill".