Drmg086, Dragon

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D
RAGON
1
Contents
Vol. IX, No. 1
Publisher: Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief: Kim Mohan
Editorial staff: Roger Raupp
Patrick Lucien Price
Mary Kirchoff
Roger Moore
Layout designer: Kristine L. Bartyzel
Subscriptions: Mellody Knull
Contributing Editors: Ed Greenwood
Katherine Kerr
Ken Rolston
Advertising Sales Administrator:
Mary Parkinson
This issues contributing artists:
Denis Beauvais Harry Quinn
Roger Raupp
Dave Trampier
Dennis Kauth Kurt Erichsen
Jerry Eaton
Craig Smith
Jeff Butler Larry Elmore
DRAGON® Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is
published monthly for a subscription price of $24
per year by Dragon Publishing, a division of
TSR, Inc. The mailing address of Dragon
Publishing for all material except subscription
orders is P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147;
the business telephone number is (414)248-8044.
On this day. . .
June 1984
On this day in 1976, the first issue of
DRAGON® Magazine rolled off the press.
(Which day? Oh,
sometime in June. When
a magazine has a birthday, it lasts for a
month.) Way back then, it was The
Dragon
without the ®. It was produced
by two people, and it was read by a healthy
proportion of all the people who were de-
voted to the new hobby of fantasy role-
playing.
The name is different now, and the staff
is a little larger, but some things never
change. DRAGON Magazine is still read
by the same kind of people. The hobby isnt
new any more, and a lot more people are
involved in it, but the basic makeup of our
readership is the same now as it was when
issue #1 was a reality (try to find one these
days!) and issue #86 was something that
could only be envisioned with a wish spell.
Maybe thats an obvious point, but we
cant take it for granted. The main reason
that DRAGON Magazine has made it
through eight years of continuous publica-
tion is because youve been reading what
weve been printing. Whether youve been
with us for 86 issues or just a few, youre
invited to celebrate your own anniversary as
a reader. We wouldnt be able to pat our-
selves on the back for making it this far if
you had not come along on the journey.
You expect a lot from us high-quality,
thought-provoking articles; artwork of
similar quality; and special features that
make the magazine worth having even if
you dont like anything else thats in a
particular issue. We try to deliver, and in
return we expect a lot from you the cash
it takes to buy this magazine, the money
that could be (but isnt) spent on something
else instead.
This is a business, and of course we need
your cash to stay alive. But we realize that
in order to deserve your money, we first
have to earn your support and your appre-
ciation. On this day in 1984, what were
really celebrating is the fact that we have
earned those things, and by giving us what
weve earned youre making it possible for
us to keep giving you what you want. That
is the stuff of which good relationships are
made. And it looks like this is a relationship
thats going to last a while longer.
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
Great Stoney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
All the parts you need to make
a miniature cardboard castle
OTHER FEATURES
The ecology of the
slithering tracker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Dont look now, but . . .
Familiars with a special use . . . . . . . . .12
Matching pets with masters
The warrior alternative . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
DRAGONQUEST game variant
DRAGON Magazine is available at hobby
stores and bookstores throughout the United
States and Canada, and through a limited
number of overseas outlets. Subscription rates
are as follows: $24 for 12 issues sent to an address
in the U.S., $30 in Canada; $50 U.S. for 12
issues sent via surface mail or $95 for 12 issues
sent via air mail to any other country. All
subscription payments must be in advance, and
should be sent to Dragon Publishing, P.O. Box
72089, Chicago IL 60690.
Five new enchanted objects . . . . . . . . . . .26
Magic items to surprise characters
Presenting the Suel pantheon . . . . . . . . .30
More gods for Greyhawk campaigns
Dragons and their deities. . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Clerics with breath weapons!
Mzee..............................58
A story about coming of age
ORIGINS 84 preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
A limited quantity of certain back issues of
DRAGON Magazine can be purchased from the
Dungeon Hobby Shop. (See the list of available
issues printed elsewhere in each magazine.) Pay-
ment 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 reserved by telephone. Neither
an individual customer nor an institution can be
billed for a subscription order or a back-issue
purchase unless prior arrangements are made.
REGULAR OFFERINGS
The issue of expiration for each subscription is
printed on the mailing label for each subscribers
copy of the magazine. Changes of address for the
delivery of subscription copies must be received
at least six weeks prior to the effective date of the
change in order to insure uninterrupted delivery.
Out on a Limb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Letters and answers
The forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Opinions and observations
All material published in DRAGON
Magazine becomes the exclusive property of the
publisher upon publication, unless special ar-
rangements to the contrary are made prior to
publication. DRAGON Magazine welcomes
unsolicited submissions of written material and
artwork; however, no responsibility for such sub-
missions 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 if it cannot be published.
Index to advertisers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
Game reviews:
Battlesuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Phantasy Conclave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
The ARES Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
16 pages of SF gaming articles
DRAGON is a registered trademark for
Dragon Publishings 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 first obtaining
permission in writing from the publisher.
Copyright ©1984 TSR, Inc.
Convention calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
Gamers Guide .................... .90
Wormy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Dragon Mirth ..................... .93
Second-class postage paid at Lake Geneva,
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, D&D, ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, ADVANCED
D&D, AD&D, and GEN CON are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc.
designates other trademarks owned by TSR, Inc., unless otherwise indicated.
2 J
UNE
egular readers of this space
might have trouble swallowing
this, but it isnt easy to keep
coming up with superlatives to
describe the contents of every
issue of DRAGON® Magazine. Read be-
tween the lines, and youre liable to see me
talking to myself with sentences like Thats
going a little overboard and Who are you
trying to kid, kid?
Oh, but not this time. This time we really
mean it.
Weve never tried to do anything like
Great Stoney before, but the apprehen-
sion we feel at trying something new is
dwarfed by our enthusiasm for the most
unusual and one of the best special inclu-
sions weve ever offered.
Its a castle that comes in cardboard
pieces that you can (you should) cut out and
assemble, comparable in size and quality to
products of the same sort that sell for more
than the price of this magazine. And you
also get complete instructions, background
material, and floor plans so you can build
Great Stoney and then use it as a feature of
your fantasy role-playing campaign. Were
grateful to Arthur Collins for coming up
with the original plans, and to TSRs own
Dennis Kauth for turning those plans into a
cardboard sculpture. And if you like it,
theres more where this one came from; in a
few issues, well do it again.
In addition to the castle, which we know
you werent expecting, this issue includes
some features were pretty sure youll like.
Youve been wanting new monsters, and
you get a good helping of them in Famil-
iars with a special use by Stephen Inniss, a
sequel to his first article on familiars that we
printed in #84.
Youve been wanting new magic items,
and Five new enchanted objects should
fill the bill. Many of you have requested
information to expand the background of
the Greyhawk campaign, so this issue con-
tains the first installment of a series in
which Len Lakofka outlines the deities of
the Suel pantheon. And some of you have
pleaded for DRAGONQUEST game
coverage, so were trying to help by pre-
senting Craig Barretts proposal for The
warrior alternative.
In this months ecology article, Ed
Greenwood turns the spotlight on the slith-
ering tracker. A spotlight wont necessarily
make the critter any easier to see, but at
least when it attacks your character, youll
understand more about whats happening.
The ARES Science Fiction Gaming
Section covers a lot of ground in its 16
pages. James Ryan, whom we assume is not
writing from personal experience, offers a
guide to supervillain groups in Know Your
Enemy. Jim Ward, co-author of the
GAMMA WORLD® game, describes the
lunar environment in terms of that game as
A World Gone Mad. And knowing Jim,
we arent entirely sure that he isnt writing
from personal experience. KM
Raise familiar?
the active search column, then that chance should
be 90% instead of 40%.
One more thing Id like to add. Have you ever
considered publishing a listing of RPGers? I
think it would be a great way to get gamers in
touch with each other, and it would be invaluable
to those of us in the military who are always
moving. I recall that you published a similar
listing in #37, so why not now?
Dear Dragon:
I was very satisfied with A cast of strange
familiars in #84. I have one question about
familiars: Can they be resurrected? If so, are the
hit points restored that were lost by the M-U
when the familiar was killed?
Chris Fredericks
East McKeesport, Pa.
Eric Field
New Bern, N.C.
Based on our interpretation of the spell descrip-
tions for resurrection and raise dead, it isnt
possible to bring a familiar back to life by these
means. Those spells, and other magic of a similar
nature, apparently only work on humanoids and
not just any sort of creature. The raise dead text
specifically lists the creature types that can benefit
from the spell, implying that other types of beings
cannot be raised. Depending on the DMs ruling,
a wish spell might be able to bring a dead familiar
back to life but unless the wish was phrased
very carefully and the DM was very generous, it
wouldnt be able to get back the M-Us lost hit
points. After all, the familiar did die, so the
penalty should probably be applied in any case. I
suppose theres the possibility of a wish that says,
put things back so the familiar never died in the
first place, but thats a situation for each DM to
deal with individually. KM
Apparently Eric, you read the article on poi-
sons one more time than we did. The error in the
listing for the poisonous toad was in the original
manuscript; what we published was a plain old
mistake, not a typographical error. To fix it, I
think your first assumption is better; a 20%
chance to detect it without searching seems to be
in accordance with the figures for other monster
venoms given in the chart, and thats what we
would have done to repair it if we had seen the
mistake before you did.
Its a pretty sure thing that youll never see a
listing of RPGers in the magazine again.
There are many, many more gamers and
many, many more readers of this magazine
nowadays than there were the last time we
printed such a list. Even then, it was a mammoth
chore to receive and catalog all the postcards from
people who wanted to be listed. In this day and
age, we couldnt afford the time to do all that
paperwork, and even if that was possible, we
couldnt spare the great number of pages it would
take to print the whole list. Maybe someday well
come up with a method and a reason for printing
a big directory of gamers, but if its ever pub-
lished it wont be between the covers of
DRAGON® Magazine. KM
Not the same thing
Dear Dragon:
If a character is doing battle with someone
wearing a ring of lycanthropy (Rings that do
weird things, #82) and takes over half damage,
can he become a lycanthrope?
Robbie Pennell
Jenkins, Ky.
Disturbing trends
Id say no, even if the wearer of the ring had
been permanently changed into a lycanthrope by
the ring. The rings powers come from a form of
shape change or polymorph spell, not from the
sort of disease/infection thats the actual cause of
someone becoming a lycanthrope. KM
Dear Editor:
Prior to issue #72, I have been an avid reader
possessing naught a gripe. Two of my three
players have not purchased a DRAGON in six
months. I wish to express my grievances in a
form of constructive criticism with the intention
of producing a better magazine for all of us.
To begin with, I see no need for both the
Forum and Out on a Limb. Looking at the
remaining regular offerings of issue #83, I find
predominantly cartoons. Is the AD&D game such
a joke that we need four cartoon scripts? My
players now rip open my magazine, turn to the
cartoons and ignore the remainder.
Looking back to issue #57, I spy Leomunds
Tiny Hut and From the Sorcerors Scroll. Is
Gary Gygax so busy that he cannot contribute an
article once per year? Issues #58-62 are particu-
larly noted for their in depth coverage of the
various races. With the introduction of new races,
I could foresee an infinite amount of interesting
literature.
Delving into issue #83, I enjoyed The test of
Poison problem
Dear Editor:
The article on poisons in issue #81 was the best
Ive ever seen. After reading it several times,
however, I came across one small mistake. In the
Monster Venom chart for the poisonous toad, the
chance for detecting the poison while actively
searching is 40%. However, the chance to detect
the poison when not actively searching is 45%
better than if one was trying to find it! Consider-
ing the price of the poison, I believe the chance
for detecting it when not actively searching
should be 20%. If, however, there was a typo in
D
RAGON
3
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