Drmg050, Dragon
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June 1981
Dragon
1
Dragon
Vol. V, No. 12
Vol. V, No. 12
June 1981
It’s not every magazine that gets the
chance to celebrate its fifth birthday and
its 50th issue of publication at the same
time, but that’s the way it worked out for
DRAGON magazine — typical of the way
things have “worked out well” through-
out the magazine’s lifetime. Today, each
DRAGON issue enjoys a readership far
greater than anyone could have realisti-
cally imagined when the first few thou-
sand copies of issue #1 rolled off the
press five years ago.
The first issue was dated June 1976.
The magazine was 32 pages long (in-
cluding the covers) and sold for $1.50. It
was started as a bimonthly magazine,
and on its first birthday (#7, June 1977)
DRAGON magazine went to 10-times-a-
year publication. Since issue #13 (April
1978), there has been one magazine a
month, except for a one-month lapse be-
tween #21 (December 1978) and #22
(February 1979).
That, in condensed form, is how issue
#50 and the fifth birthday of DRAGON
magazine came to fall in the same month.
We didn’t try to make it turn out that way,
but we’re certainly not complaining that
it did. Hmmm.... According to my quick
calculations, we’re going to have to take
10 months off over the next five years in
order to get issue #100 and our 10th
birthday to coincide. See you next April,
Jake...
you write to us. First and foremost, any
writer who requires or expects a reply to
his or her letter should include a self-
addressed, stamped envelope for the
reply to be sent in. Rising postage costs
and an ever-growing stack of unans-
wered mail prompt us to take this step,
and we hope it will help those who want a
reply to hear from us more promptly.
People who send in questions for the
Sage Advice column should not send re-
turn postage. It has long been our policy
to not reply to Sage Advice questions
personally, because of the great amount
of mail received for that column.
Be as specific in the addressing of the
letter as you can, and perhaps write a
word or two in a lower corner of the enve-
lope to describe the purpose of your let-
ter. Measures like this will insure that
what you have to say will be read prompt-
ly by the person best equipped to handle
your request. Never address something
to “Dragon Publishing” when you can
address it “Dragon Publishing, subscrip-
tion dept.” or “back issue order” or
“Sage Advice” or any other specific
phrase which tells us what you want.
Don’t send two types of communica-
tion in the same envelope when it is ob-
vious that both subjects require treat-
ment by different departments or differ-
ent people. For instance, sending a ma-
nuscript submission and a payment for a
back issue in the same parcel is sure to
cause at least one of them to be delayed
in handling when it arrives at our office,
regardless of how it’s addressed.
Publisher.. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jake Jaquet
Editor-in-Chief. . . . . . . . . . .
Kim Mohan
Editorial staff . . . . . . . . . . .
Bryce Knorr
Marilyn Mays
Sales.. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Debbie Chiusano
Circulation . . . . . . .
Corey Koebernick
Office staff . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cherie Knull
Jean Lonze
Roger Raupp
Contributing editors. . . .
Roger Moore
Ed Greenwood
This issue’s contributing artists:
Carl Lundgren D. R. Elliott
Corinna Taylor Bruce Whitefield
Susan Collins John A. Morgan
David de-Leuw Will McLean
Roger Raupp Chuck Vadun
Dexter Pratt John D. Olson
Mark Corrington Phil Foglio
Kenneth Rahman J. D. Webster
John Hart
David Trampier
DRAGON magazine is published monthly by
Dragon Publishing, a division of TSR Hobbies,
Inc. The mailing address of Dragon Publishing
is P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147; tele-
phone (414) 248-8044.
DRAGON magazine is available at hundreds
of hobby stores and bookstores throughout the
United States and Canada, and through a limit-
ed number of overseas outlets. The magazine
can be purchased directly from Dragon Publish-
ing by subscription. Rates are as follows, with all
payments to be made in advance: $24 for 12
issues sent to a U.S. or Canadian address; $50
U.S. for 12 issues sent via surface mail or $95 for
12 issues sent via air mail to any other country.
A limited quantity of certain back issues of
DRAGON magazine can be purchased directly
from the publisher by sending the cover price
plus $1 postage and handling for each issue
ordered. Note: Postage and handling fees will be
increased to $1.50 per single issue after July 1,
1981. Payment in advance by check or money
order must accompany all orders. Payments
cannot be made through a credit card, and
orders cannot be taken nor merchandise “re-
served” by telephone. Neither an individual cus-
tomer nor an institution can be billed for a sub-
scription order or back-issue purchase unless
prior arrangements are made.
The issue of expiration for each subscription
is printed on the mailing label for each sub-
scriber’s copy of the magazine. Changes of ad-
dress for the delivery of subscriptions must be
received at least 30 days prior to the effective
date of the change in order to insure uninter-
rupted delivery.
All material published in DRAGON magazine
becomes the exclusive property of the publisher
upon publication, unless special arrangements
to the contrary are made prior to publication.
DRAGON magazine welcomes unsolicited sub-
missions of written material and artwork; how-
ever, no responsibility for such submissions can
be assumed by the publisher in any event. Any
submission which is accompanied by a self-
addressed, stamped envelope of sufficient size
will be returned to the contributor if it cannot be
published.
DRAGON™ is a trademark for Dragon Publish-
ing’s monthly adventure playing aid. All rights
on the contents of this publication are reserved,
and nothing may be reproduced from it in whole
or in part without prior permission in writing
from the publisher. Copyright 1981 by TSR
Hobbies, Inc. USPS 318-790. ISSN 0279-6848.
Second class postage paid at Lake Geneva.
Wis., and at additional mailing offices.
Like it said at the start of last month’s
Rumbles, “Those of you who do not
normally read that tall skinny box to the
right of this column should do so at this
time.” In an effort to keep improving our
service of our customers and to keep
slightly ahead of the great inflation mon-
ster, we’ve made (or are about to make)
some changes and added some more
specifics in some of our procedures and
costs. Many of those changes and addi-
tions are outlined in the text of the pub-
lisher’s statement. Because we’d rather
devote the magazine pages to “real” arti-
cles, we’re not inclined to trumpet this
sort of information across a half-page of
space to be sure you see it. The informa-
tion in the statement to the right is impor-
tant and useful, even if it is printed in
little bitty type.
Enough people took us seriously about
the “Lirpa Loof” contest in #48½ that we
decided to take it seriously, too. We con-
ducted a random drawing from the large
stack of sdractsop we received (the con-
test was just a joke, guys...), and hereby
hesitantly proclaim Mason M. Aldrich of
Bradenton, Fla., as the random winner.
That’s not much of a prize, Mason, but
then again it wasn’t supposed to be
much of a contest...
One change not included in the pub-
lisher’s statement is a new procedure re-
garding how to address personal cor-
respondence and what to include when
2
June 1981
Dragon
ep, it’s our fifth birthday. But you don’t have to
worry about sending a present right away. Howev-
er, a small remembrance would be appreciated the
next time your subscription is about to expire
(What? You don’t have a subscription?), so we can
be sure that DRAGON will be around for birthday number six.
In the meantime, we have a present for you — Issue #50.
At the head of the parade is the striking piece of dragon-art
which adorns the cover. The painting was commissioned espe-
cially as a frontspiece for DRAGON magazine from Carl
Lundgren. A nationally famous fantasy artist, Carl has provided
cover pieces for many paperback books. Name a few? Okay,
you might find The Silver Sun by Nancy Springer, The Blessing
Papers by William Barnswell or a reprint edition of One Million
Centuries by Richard A. Lupoff on the shelves of your nearby
bookstore right now. We are pleased and proud to have this
painting as the cover for our milestone 50th issue.
Speaking of milestones, the day of judgement has come and
gone for the entries in the Basic D&D® Division of our Interna-
tional Dungeon Design Contest II. The winning entry, an inter-
esting escapade in The Chapel of Silence, was designed by
Mollie Plants of Morgantown, W. Va. It appears in the center
eight-page section of this magazine, followed by a list of all the
prizewinners and what they won.
In honor of our namesake, the feature section of #50 leads off
with page after page of nothing but dragon stuff. Dragons aren’t
always as good-natured and cooperative as the subject of Co-
rinna Taylor’s “birthday portrait” painting on page 6 — but
they’re not all supposed to be, are they? Following Corinna’s
painting you’ll find Gregory Rihn’s suggestions for making the
dragon a more formidable physical fighter; Lewis Pulsipher’s
vision of “True Dragons” which are generated right from the first
dice roll up; and Colleen Bishop’s recommendations on how to
tend to a baby dragon if you’re left holding the egg.
If you’ve ever read about one of the small-press “fanzines”
that cover fantasy role-playing but haven’t been able to find a
copy, check out the article beginning on page 23. Afterward,
you’ll be able to say you’ve read a little more, and you’ll have all
the information you need to pursue the matter. David Nalle
provided the information and opinions for “The ‘Zines” — in-
cluding what we think is a fair assessment of his own magazine.
Robert Plamondon’s adaptation of Kzinti, the cat-like race
which originated in author Larry Niven’s series of Ringworld
novels, is the longest Bestiary-type article we’ve ever published.
And there’s a regular Bestiary besides — Alan Fomorin’s des-
cription of Giant Vampire Frogs, which are AD&D adaptations of
the flying toad, a creature that exists in nature. The author’s
inspiration came from an article by SF writer Norman Spinrad in
an issue of OMNI magazine.
One of the “little” ways to make a campaign distinctive is
described and demonstrated by Larry DiTillio in “The Glyphs of
Cerilon.” Bazaar of the Bizarre, which is usually composed of
several short items, is devoted this time entirely to a new artifact
created by Mark Corrington called “Barlithian’s Mirror.” The
prolific Mr. Pulsipher makes another appearance with a short
but complete suggestion for how to determine whether or not a
character can successfully avoid looking at a monster or into its
eyes. The “Ups and Downs” of having and keeping a flying
mount are listed and examined by contributing editor Roger
Moore in the last of this issue’s articles presented especially for
use with D&D® and AD&D™ games.
The regular columns we could find room to publish this month
include an essay in Up on a Soapbox by Thomas Griffith on how
a DM can handle unwanted behavior by players; a pair of re-
views in The Dragon’s Augury of games dealing with historical
fact and future fiction, plus a page of Figuratively Speaking
evaluations; and the latest installment of Minarian Legends by
Glenn Rahman, designer of the DIVINE RIGHT™ game. John
Prados outlines the struggles a young game company must
endure and offers suggestions on how to keep small gaming
“empires” alive in Simulation Corner, while in this month’s edi-
tion of The Electric Eye, Mark Herro gives advice to potential
buyers on how to get the computer best suited for their needs
and their pocketbooks.
If the story line of Finieous Fingers seems to be moving along
more rapidly than usual lately, that’s not because the story has
gotten any more exciting — gosh, how could it get more excit-
ing? It’s because J. D. has finally found the time to get back on a
monthly schedule now that the long ordeal of Navy flight train-
ing is over. This issue makes three in a row, something we
haven’t been able to accomplish for a long time. Wormy is back,
too (for the fourth issue in a row, if anybody’s counting), as well
as the second offering of What’s New? from Phil Foglio and
another two-page spread of cartoons at the head of the Dragon
Mirth section.
Now you’re ready to start celebrating with us. Just turn the
page; the party doesn’t start till you arrive. — KM.
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
The Chapel of Silence —
The best Basic D&D® module
from International Dungeon Design Contest II . . . . . . 35
Bazaar of the Bizarre — Barlithian’s mystical Mirror
....... 20
Minarian Legends — Zorn and the Goblins
............... 44
Up on a Soapbox —
Preventing bad player behavior ...... 52
Figuratively Speaking — Miniature figure reviews
......... 54
Dragon’s Augury:
Fury of the Norsemen
............................. 58
The Morrow Project
............................... 58
Dragon’s Bestiary — Giant vampire frog.
................. 61
Convention schedule
................................... 62
Simulation Corner —
Game ‘empires’ going under? ........ 68
The Electric Eye —
What and when to buy................ 70
Dragon Mirth —
Two pages of cartoons .................. 72
What’s New?
........................................... 74
Finieous Fingers
........................................ 75
Wormy .......................... ....................... 76
OTHER FEATURES
“Our favorite subject” section:
Happy Birthday painting
...........................
6
Self defense for dragons — Make ‘em tougher
....... 7
True dragons — Or start from scratch .............. 10
Hatching is only the beginning
. . . — With a baby!..... 13
Kzinti — Ringworld residents as AD&D™ creatures
........ 16
The ‘Zines
— Small-press fantasy publications............ 23
Don’t Look! — How to avoid gaze weapons..
..............30
The Glyphs of Cerilon —
Signs of a good campaign.
...... 32
The ups and downs of riding high — Aerial mounts
.......
48
REGULAR OFFERINGS
Out on a Limb — Letters from readers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3
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