1 Tell them you saw it in Dragon magazine. Dragon Vol. V, No. 4 Vol. V, No. 4 October, 1980 Publisher E. Gary Gygax Someone should be selling “I Survived crease in the number of staffers manning the GenCon” T-shirts . I’d buy one. Each many information booths was a welcome Editor year at this time (the day after the conven- sight, there was an organized daily update Jake Jaquet tion ends) I find myself reflecting on the past information sheet available, and just a gen- Assistant Editor 96 hours of madness — for several years as eral “togetherness” that comes with a con- Kim Mohan just a gaming attendee, and now for the last vention held repeatedly in one location and Editorial Staff couple of years as an exhibitor and staff organized by many of the same people year Bryce Knorr member. after year. I’m not going to try to sum up GenCon However, “successful” is one thing, “out- Circulation & Sales XIII in the few hundred words of space I standing” is another. What would I consider Corey Koebernick have here at this time — but I would like to outstanding? Good question. I can sit back Office Staff touch on a few points while things are still and think what would be ideal to an ex- Cherie Knull Dawn Pekul fresh in my mind. hibitor, and what would be ideal to a gamer, First, the logistics of running a four-day and the two just don’t have many points in This month’s convention with 4000+ attendees are only common. The exhibitor wants professional contributing artists: slightly less difficult than memorizing the exhibit facilities: partitioned booth space, DMG. Congratulations from The Dragon good lighting, electrical outlets in his booth Steve Oliff Jeff Dee for a successful convention go out to Con- area, good traffic flow, convenient loading Todd Lockwood Jim Roslof vention Director Will Niebling; Convention and unloading facilities, assistance with Roger Raupp Bill Willingham Coordinator Joe Orlowski; Day Managers physical set-up, a dealer-only “retreat” area, Kenneth Rahman Gail Gierahn Paul Schwab, Len Lakofka, Bill Hoyer, and guaranteed exhibit-area security, profession- DRAGON magazine is published monthly by Bob Blake; PAW President Dave Arneson; al security service/banking facilities, etc. The Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR Hobbies, Inc. gamer wants well-organized game registra- The mailing address of Dragon Publishing is P.O. PAW Convention Coordinators Terry Ras- Box 110, Lake Geneva, WI 53147; telephone 414- mussen and Patty Craig; PAW Liaison Mark tion, knowledgeable information service 248-8044. Nickel; and especially to all the convention sites, adequate physical facilities for game DRAGON is available at hundreds of hobby staff, without whom all the directors, coordi- playing, convenient and reasonable eating stores and bookstores throughout the United nators, managers, presidents, and liaisons and drinking areas/services, nearby and States and Canada, and through a limited number of overseas outlets The magazine can be pur- would have looked very silly. reasonable lodging, and a convenient park- chased directly from Dragon Publishing by in- Also high on The Dragon “thanks a ing area and/or public transportation. dividual subscription. The subscription rate within The unique aspect of gaming conventions the United States and Canada is $24 U.S. for 12 is- bunch” list is the nameless PAW person sues. Outside the U.S. and Canada, rates are as working the loading dock during the rain is the participation by the attendees. Most follows: $50 U.S. for 12 issues sent surface mail, Thursday morning when Dragon Publishing gatherings labeled “conventions” are really or $95 U.S. for 12 issues sent air mail. arrived with metric tonnes of boxes, cases, trade shows. When XYZ Hardware has a A limited selection of DRAGON back issues is and displays and who later showed up to “convention,” they contract a professional available by mail from Dragon Publishing for cover price of a particular issue plus $1.00 per issue help load us up again Sunday afternoon. convention facility, bring in all the manu- ordered for postage and handling. No issues prior We owe you one (at least). And my person- facturers, and open the doors to the con- to #22 are available. The cover price for issues #22- vention-goers. Everybody goes in, picks up 31 is $2.00, for #32-36, $2.50, and for #37 to al thanks are extended to Steve Brown, present, $3.00. Payment must accompany all Mark Herro, and especially Pam O’Neill for samples or buys new products, then goes orders. If one or more issues in an order is sold their generous help at the Dragon Publishing out and enjoys a night on the town, or goes out, a credit slip will be substituted which may be exchanged for cash or merchandise from Dragon booth. back to the hotel and calls the wife and kids. Publishing. OK, I’ve already called GenCon XIII “suc- Chances are, they don’t care if the room they’re in is costing $75 a night or if the The issue of expiration for each subscription is cessful.” What does that mean? It means printed on each subscriber’s mailing label. nothing horrible happened and quite a few snack bar at the convention site runs out of Changes of address for subscriptions must be re- Coke. They’re there to check out the show, ceived by Dragon Publishing at least 30 days prior good things did. Thus far I’ve heard no com- to the effective date of the change in order to plaints as to how any of the tournaments do some business, and have a good time. guarantee uninterrupted delivery. were run, no complaints as to security in the Gaming conventions, on the other hand, All material published in DRAGON becomes the dealer area, and no one lost/got ripped off must provide more for the attendees, both in exclusive property of the publisher upon publica- for any personal possessions or merchan- physical facilities and services. I’ll bet that tion, unless special arrangements to the contrary dise — the three common complaints of any one could put on the most fabulous gaming are made prior to publication. convention. Of course, I’m not officially in- convention ever at the Hilton convention DRAGON welcomes unsolicited submissions center in Las Vegas — but it would cost of written material and artwork: however, no volved with GenCon in any manner except responsibility for such submissions can be as- as an exhibitor, and there may have been everyone attending $200 a day (not count- sumed by the publisher in any event. No submis- problems I have no knowledge of, but I did ing the casinos!). And there lies the crux of sion will be returned unless it was accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope of suf- notice the lack of grumblings that have circu- the matter — having the facilities the exhibi- ficient size. All rights on the contents of this publi- lated the hallways of many of the conven- tors want and the gamers want at a price cation are reserved, and nothing may be re- that doesn’t prohibit gamers from attending. produced in whole or in part without securing tions I have attended in the past few years. prior permission in writing from the publisher. On the more tangible positive side, I did An exhibitor can have the most lavish facili- Copyright 1980 by TSR Hobbies, Inc. ties available this side of Taj Mahal and it hear many good comments as to the organi- Second class postage paid at Lake Geneva, zation of the convention as a whole, particu- doesn’t mean a thing if no one can afford to Wisconsin 53147. larly with regard to event registration. An in- attend. (Turn to page 53) 2 October, 1980 Dragon OO! another eight pages of potential for thrilling new encounters-five Did that scare you? No, I guess BOO! doesn’t Tom Moldvay have the same impact when the boss makes you start the new Giants in the Earth from and a quartet of new cages in Dragon’s Bestiary. column with a funny-looking “B” . Leomund’s Tiny Hut is back after a short respite with Len La- That scary start was supposed to be the second indica- kofkas long look at the inner planes of existence, and From the tion of the fact that this is a special Halloween issue. You can get Sorcerer’s Scroll makes a return appearance with Gary Gygaxs yourself in the right frame of mind for October 31 by reading and admonitions not to be a Dungeon Milquetoast. Sage Advice hasn’t using all the chills and thrills we’ve crammed between the covers. been handed out for a couple of issues, so Jim Ward and Will The first indication of our tribute to Halloween is this month’s Niebling provided some answers to your questions for us. Because cover painting. “The Doomed” represents artist Steve Oliffs first the questions are coming in such quantity, we’re hoping to find room appearance on the cover since issue #14. for more answers in every issue from now on. The Halloween art doesn’t end there, either. Check out, if you This month’s feature review by Tony Watson is a detailed dare, the big black & white drawing by Todd Lockwood on page 6, examination of John Carter, Warlord of Mars. Also in Dragon’s which leads off a special “Things to tease, tempt and terrify” sec- Augury are evaluations of two new games, Swashbuckler and Time tion—four of the scariest D&D and AD&D variants we could dig up.