DRAGON 1 SPECIAL ATTRACTION 45 TREASURE TROVE II 46 A sharp system for swords Pete Mohney More variety for enchanted blades in AD&D® play 49 Seventeen new treasures — various authors Original items to spice up your campaign Publisher Mike Cook Editor-in-Chief Kim Mohan OTHER FEATURES Editorial staff 8 The neutral point of view Stephen Inniss Patrick Lucien Price Exploring the territory between good and evil Roger Moore Tables and tables of troops James Yates Graphics and production 12 Many factors influence a fighters followers Roger Raupp Subscriptions 18 The ecology of the Will-o-Wisp Nigel D. Findley Georgia Moore A valuable lesson: Dont cross against the lights Advertising Patricia Campbell 22 Thats life in the big city Kevin Anderson and Kristine Thompson Information to aid in creating urban adventures Contributing editors Ed Greenwood Ken Rolston 26 The role of books Reviews by John C. Bunnell Katharine Kerr 30 History of a game that failed David F. Godwin This issues contributing artists Frequent first-time mistakes and how to avoid them Clyde Duensing III Roger Raupp Stephan Peregrine 40 Another Gem from The Companions Arlen P. Walker Marvel Bullpen A review of Gems for Death Timothy Truman Jeff Easley 56 Authentic agencies, part III Merle and Jackie Rasmussen Larry Elmore More real-world organizations for TOP SECRET® adventuring Jeff Marsh Joseph Pillsbury 62 Dennim and the Golem Robert S. Babcock Dave Trampier May all your friends be as steadfast as this one is DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 43 Coming Attraction 91 Wormy 6 The forum 69 The ARES Section 93 Dragonmirth 42 World Gamers Guide 85 Convention calendar 94 Snarfquest COVER Clyde Duensing III, whose work is gracing our cover for the first time, makes a point of not giving titles to his paintings, feeling that the image is more important than its identity. So you can call this painting whatever you want to as long as youre not too cryptic about it. 2 JULY 1985 In the next few months, you may see some AD&D® game articles in this mag- azine that aren’t quite right or aren’t quite complete. (All you smart alecks couldn‘t find the word in anything smaller.) And who just said “What else is new?” can A gorgon and its gas “ford” means just that; although typographical turn the page now.) The reason for this errors have been known to happen in these pages, confession-in-advance can be summed Dear Dragon: this wasn’t one of them. — KM up in two words: Unearthed Arcana. Mr. Greenwood’s article, “The ecology of the gorgon” (issue #97), is excellent. I have, how- As Jeff Grubb so aptly put it in his ever, noticed one minor error. It says, on page Turning the table introduction to the book, Unearthed 26, that “Gorgons often hunt together in small Arcana will change the way the AD&D bands of two mated pairs, . .” The word Dear Dragon, game is played. It will also change the “hunt” is footnoted with a 5 and “mated” with a In “The handy art of forgery” (issue #96), the way that DRAGON® Magazine is pro- 6. But there is no footnote numbered 6, and table of modifiers for reader’s intelligence can’t duced. And, just as it will take you some be correct, because intelligence 3-5 is listed as number 5 appears to refer to “mated.” What was time to fully incorporate all the new +10%. This can’t be correct because someone the footnote (if any) referring to “hunt”? rules, spells, and magical gizmos into Kirk Schmidt that stupid can’t even read, much less spot a Seven Lakes, N. C. forgery. your adventures, so will it be a while Rob Williams before the magazine makes a complete When we edited the manuscript, our intent was Alexandria, Va. transition from the pre-Arcana rules to to avoid the rather unsightly use of footnote the post-Arcana game. Tucked away in numbers twice in the same sentence. We accom- The table is indeed correct, as long as you our stack of to-be-published manuscripts plished that, in part, by consolidating the infor- interpret it as what it was meant to be. The are some good articles that (obviously) mation for notes 5 and 6 into one note, which modifiers are to the forger’s chance of successfully were written before Arcana was availa- fooling the reader, not to the reader’s chance of appears as number 5. (In other words, nothing is ble, and in the next couple of months discovering the forgery And incidentally, being missing.) But, obviously, we forgot to remove the I’m sure we’ll be receiving and accepting 5 and change the 6 into a 5 in the text. Sorry for unable to read is not the same as being unable to even more of that sort of material. the oversight. — KM detect a forgery. If someone tried to pay you with a dollar bill made from a pencil drawing and cut I hope the transition won’t take too out of green construction paper, your chance of long, and that within a very few issues Dear Dragon: being fooled by the forgery would have nothing to we’ll be entirely switched over to a sup- In “Ecology of the gorgon,” concerning the gas do with whether you could read. — KM ply of articles that were submitted after that a gorgon breathes out in an attack, do you the writers all got their own copies of the have to breathe in the gas or does it just have to new book. And yes, we are going to have touch you to take effect? With the young’s gas, do to eventually require that anyone sub- you receive a bonus to your saving throw or is it Chariot of confusion just as powerful as the adult’s? mitting a manuscript uses Unearthed Dan Daley Dear Dragon, Arcana as a source for that manuscript, St. Clairsville, Ohio “Pages from the Mages IV” in issue #97 was if any of the new rules apply to the topic indeed well written, but one part didn’t make of the article. (You probably don’t have The article is pretty clear on the first point: sense to me. In the second paragraph of the to own the new book in order to send us “Any creature enveloped by the cloud of vapors” description of the Death Chariot spell on page 34, something for an upcoming Creature (page 26) can be petrified. Holding your breath it states: “. at the end of 1 turn after casting Catalog, but if you’re compiling an does no good. And the second question is an- (or any time previous to that if the caster wishes), article on new weapons, then you’re swered indirectly; if a bonus to the saving throw the death chariot will suddenly explode in a going to have to know what weapons are was allowed, that would have been mentioned. A gigantic ball of fire and vanish.” This is fine, young gorgon’s breath-weapon cloud is half the except that at the end of that paragraph, the text already in the rules — and the new book size of an adult’s, but the chance of petrification contradicts itself: “The maximum duration of has a lot of new weapons.) for someone caught in it is the same. — KM existence of a death chariot (if not exploded Just for the sake of picking a date, let’s earlier) is 1 round per level of the caster; if kept make the 1985 GEN CON® Convention until the maximum duration, the chariot will fade the cutoff: Any manuscript submitted to Take our word for it away harmlessly, and not explode.” us during or after the convention (which Is the maximum duration 1 turn, or 1 round starts on Aug. 22) must take Unearthed Dear Editor, per level? Does the chariot explode at maximum Arcana into consideration. For our part, duration, or fade away harmlessly? These questions concern the article “Blueprint we’ll try to use up all of our “old” stuff for a big game” (issue #97). Two of the “Possible Todd Shafritz within the next three or four magazines, Terrain Features” on p. 90 confuse me. When Aurora, Colo. Jim Dutton wrote “Ford,” was he referring to a and when the transition is over we’ll ford as a place where a river, or other water, may Hmmmm. I guess we can‘t squirm our way devote all of our AD&D game coverage be crossed by wading? Or did he mean “fiord,” out of this one, so the only thing to do is back up space to exploring the new, enlarged such as the narrow inlets along the coast of Nor- and pretend we’re still editing the manuscript. If game universe. There should be enough way? Second, what exactly is a “Karst”? I’ve we had it to do over again, we’d change the text article ideas left in the system to keep us looked in five dictionaries with no success. to say that the caster can will the chariot to ex- — and you — going for years to come. Kevin Deavey plode at any time (presumably after all of his Bloomfield Hills, Mich. enemies have climbed on), but if the chariot is allowed to remain in existence up to the maxi- Second things first: A karst is “a limestone mum duration of 1 round per level, then it will region marked by sinks, abrupt ridges, irregular simply fade away without blasting the passengers protuberant rocks, caverns, and underground at the same time.