D RAGON 1 Publisher: Mike Cook Contents Editor-in-Chief: Kim Mohan Just a d10 away Vol. IX, No. 5 October 1984 Editorial staff: Roger Raupp Patrick Lucien Price The tens column in the top right corner Mary Kirchoff of the cover is as high as it can go, which SPECIAL ATTRACTION Roger Moore Subscriptions: Mellody Knull has got us to thinking about what happens AESIRHAMAR . .43 Contributing Editors: Ed Greenwood when we roll it back to zero. An AD&D game adventure, Katherine Kerr Issue #100 will be published in August for better or for Norse Ken Rolston 1985. In the grand tradition of numerologi- cal celebrations, wed like to make it a very This issues contributing artists: Jeff Busch Dave Trampier special issue. We will have started planning Bob Walters Denton Elliot for it by the time you read this, and now OTHER FEATURES Dave LaForce David Hutton Im asking you to join the process. Jeff Butler Joseph Pillsbury A lot of you write letters asking us to The enchanting incantatrix . 8 Roger Raupp Larry Elmore publish an article or feature on this or that. A spell-stealing NPC class Jim Holloway Feedback like that helps us decide what DRAGON® Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is direction the magazine should take over the Hold that person! . .16 published monthly for a subscription price of $24 long haul. Now what we need are ideas for The return of EGGs column per year by Dragon Publishing, a division of a particular issue. The next time you write TSR, Inc. The mailing address of Dragon Publishing for all material except subscription us a letter, tell us what you think we could GEN CON* show was a winner. .18 orders is P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147; do to make issue #100 special for you. the business telephone number is (414) 248-8044. They say theres no such thing as a bad The World Gamers Guide . .18 DRAGON Magazine is available at hobby idea, and I tend to believe them. (Otherwise stores and bookstores throughout the United I would have had quite a few by now.) In Bats that do more than bite . .20 States and Canada, and through a limited other words, no reasonable request will be number of overseas outlets. Subscription rates Six new species take flight are as follows: $24 for 12 issues sent to an address disregarded. We wont publish a 500-page in the U.S., $30 in Canada; $50 U.S. for 12 book, we wont produce The Complete issues sent via surface mail or $95 for 12 issues Playing the political game . .30 sent via air mail to any other country. All Unpublished Works of E. Gary Gygax, and Change of pace from hack n slash subscription payments must be in advance, and we wont put a color painting on every should be sent to Dragon Publishing, P.O. Box page. If something like that is what would 72089, Chicago IL 60690. Plane facts on Gladsheim. .36 make the issue special for you, youre not The world according to Asgard A limited quantity of certain back issues of going to like #100 very much. But if theres DRAGON Magazine can be purchased from the something youve always wanted to see us Dungeon Hobby Shop. (See the list of available issues printed elsewhere in each magazine.) Pay- do and you think we can do it, dont be ment in advance by check or money order must afraid to ask. REGULAR OFFERINGS accompany all orders. Payments cannot be made Were not asking you to do all our think- through a credit card, and orders cannot be taken nor merchandise reserved by telephone. Neither ing for us obviously, were going to have Out on a Limb . 3 an individual customer nor an institution can be some brilliant ideas of our own (one of these Letters from readers billed for a subscription order or a back-issue days). We wont be able to satisfy all the purchase unless prior arrangements are made. possible requests, let alone the impossible The forum . 6 The issue of expiration for each subscription is ones, in a single issue. But issue #100 will Opinions and observations printed on the mailing label for each subscribers be special indeed to a few people whose copy of the magazine. Changes of address for the delivery of subscription copies must be received ideas help to shape it and one of those Gods of the Suel pantheon. .24 at least six weeks prior to the effective date of the people could be you. Part 5: Phyton, Xerbo, and Osprem change in order to insure uninterrupted delivery. All material published in DRAGON In issue #88, in the space next to this one, Game review: Magazine becomes the exclusive property of the I talked about Arn Ashleigh Parkers article Horribly simple to learn . .62 publisher upon publication, unless special ar- on falling damage, referring to Ms. Evaluating the CHILL game rangements to the contrary are made prior to publication. DRAGON Magazine welcomes Parker and her knowledge of the subject unsolicited submissions of written material and matter. Well, Mr. Parker called the office The ARES Section. .69 artwork; however, no responsibility for such sub- right after the issue came out to say that he 16 pages of SF gaming articles missions can be assumed by the publisher in any event. Any submission which is accompanied by was surprised. Im sorry, Arn; I hope this a self-addressed, stamped envelope of sufficient will set the record straight and while Convention calendar . 86 size will be returned if it cannot be published. youre at it, you can mark down one bad DRAGON is a registered trademark for idea for me. Gamers Guide . .87 Dragon Publishings monthly adventure playing aid. All rights on the contents of this publication Index to advertisers . .89 are reserved, and nothing may be reproduced from it in whole or in part without first obtaining permission in writing from the publisher. Wormy............................90 Copyright ©1984 TSR, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Lake Geneva, Dragon Mirth . .93 Wis., and additional mailing offices. Snarfquest . 94 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Dragon Publishing, P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147, USPS 318-790, ISSN 0279-6848. DRAGON, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, AD&D, TOP SECRET, BOOT HILL, and GAMMA WORLD are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. designates other trademarks owned by TSR, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. 2 OCTOBER 1984 erhaps the most popular his- torical pantheon among AD&D® game players is the Norse mythos. Certainly the most popular kind of special inclusion in DRAGON® Magazine is an adventure for the AD&D game. We took those two facts, mixed them together, stirred in a good dose of Roger Moores imagination, and came up with Aesirhamar, this issues main feature. If your campaign ples, Lendor’s figure for number of attacks and has characters who are able to cope with the NPCs & levels Syrul’s figure for movement rate take precedence out-of-this world environment of the plane over what those figures would be if they were Dear Editor, of Gladsheim, they just might be pressed “simply” a 13th-level fighter and an 11th-level I was wondering if there was any way for DMs into service one of these days; it seems that monk respectively. No contradiction of the rules to build up the levels of their NPCs like duelists occurs in cases like this: the gods have superhu- the gods of Asgard have a problem that only and bandits. Are they just supposed to be created man powers and abilities, and do not follow laws a group of worthy mortals can solve. already as high-level characters or is there a made for mortals. — RM Accompanying the Aesirhamar adventure special way to take them through their own is Plane facts on Gladsheim, in which adventures? I cant find any place in the DMG Roger lays down all the ground rules that which mentions anything about this. will apply when characters make their way Bob Denall Norebo & Wee Jas along the Rainbow Bridge into the land that Bend, Ore. Dear Dragon, Odin and Thor call home. The task await- as Issue #86 states that Norebo is the lover of ing your characters is a great one, but in the NPCs such the duelist (from DRAGON® Magazine #73) are generally meant to be created Wee Jas and is often in her company. Issue #88, interest of fairness which is a big thing at specified levels, high or low, to challenge though, states that Wee Jas is not on good terms with the Norse gods so are the rewards player characters at those levels. It isn’t necessary with any chaotic deity. Okay, so maybe gods for successfully completing it. to take NPCs through their own adventures in fantasize too, but I cant imagine a lawful greater We welcome another cover artist to the order to raise their levels; this may be done god such as Wee Jas allowing a chaotic lesser god fold this month. Jeff Busch prepared this arbitrarily by the DM so that certain NPCs in a such as Norebo to make such public statements rendition of a hungry harpy descending on campaign rise in levels at about the same rate as without some form of punishment. So whats the a shipwrecked sailor whos probably wishing the PCs. story? Sgt. Mark Lindner he had been washed overboard when his We include experience-point tables for NPCs in SHAPE, Belgium schooner smashed into the rocks.