Drmg107, Dragon
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DRAGON 1
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief
Kim Mohan
Editorial Staff
Patrick Lucien Price
Roger Moore
Art, graphics, production
Roger Raupp
Kim Lindau
Subscriptions
Pat Schultz
Advertising
Mary Parkinson
Contributing editors
Ed Greenwood
Katherine Kerr
This issue's contributing artists
Dean Morrissey
Bob Maurus
Roger Raupp
Stephan Peregrine
Janet Aulisio
Ernie Guanlao
Marvel Bullpen
Jeff Butler
David Trampier
Ted Goff
Stephen Hearon
Richard Tomasic
Joseph Pillsbury
Larry Elmore
SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS
46
More Dragons of Glory Doug Niles and Tracy Hickman
Advanced rules and new scenarios for DL 11
51
Give us your 22 cents worth!
Our latest reader survey tell us what you think
OTHER, FEATURES
8
A new loyalty base Stephen Inniss
Revised tables for how others react to your character
16
The six main skills Jefferson P. Swycaffer
A real-world examination of strength, intelligence, etc.
22
Room for improvement? Kim Mohan
Thoughts on allowing PCs to improve their ability scores
26
Pendragon: Arthur would approve Review by Ken Rolston
28
Harn was just the start Review by Eric W. Pass
30
The role of books Reviews by John C. Bunnell
34
The ecology of the sea lion Ed Greenwood
One cat thats not afraid of water or anything else
38
For sail: One new NPC Scott Bennie
The multi-talented mariner comes aboard
44
Economics made easy Ralph Marshall
Basic principles that can apply to any campaign
60
When the rations run out Paul Hancock
How hunger and thirst affect characters fates
65
Spys advice Merle M. Rasmussen
Questions and answers for the TOP SECRET® game
68
Doomsgame J. B. Allen
Just where is the line between fantasy and reality, anyway?
THE ARES SECTION
74
Mutant Fever John M. Maxstadt
Introducing disease and health in the GAMMA WORLD* game
77
One in a Million Roger E. Moore
A few statistics for super-powered hero campaigns
80
Tote that barge! Matt Bandy
Interplanetary economics in the STAR FRONTIERS® game
83
The MARVEL®-Phile Jeff Grubb
Canadian heroes and villains, part II
87
The Crusading Life Bruce Humphrey
What do heroes do when they arent saving the world?
DEPARTMENTS
3 Letters
64 TSR Previews
96 Wormy
4 World Gamers Guide
92 Convention calendar
100 Dragonmirth
6 The forum
94 Gamers Guide
102 Snarfquest
62 TSR Profiles
COVER
Veteran cover artist Dean Morrissey is back, this time with a painting he calls
Gargoth Disguised. The title pretty well sums up what the scene is about, but heres
some extra information in Deans own words: Gargoth is disguised as an old itinerant
peddler -- sort of a magnetic, benevolent, and magical traveler whose temporary per-
sona belies the sinister character beneath.
2 M
ARCH
1986
Coming soon:
a magazine
full of modules
Beware of guns
important thing is to restrict the use of firearms
for the sake of maintaining game balance. If you
let characters use guns the way they could use
them in the real world, your campaign will be
shot full of holes sooner than you can say Bang,
youre dead. KM
Weve thought about it and talked
about it among ourselves for quite a while,
and now it can be told. Beginning in the
late summer or early fall, were going to
start producing a new magazine filled
entirely with modules. Lots of decisions
still remain to be made, but heres what
we already know for sure:
The magazine (which doesnt have a
name yet) will come out once every two
months. Our plan is to make it available
by subscription only; you wont be able to
buy it at a store. When we decide on
prices, well announce a rate for charter
subscriptions and give you information on
how to order. In the 64 pages of each
issue, well present from 4-8 adventures,
each one designed for use with a certain
TSR game.
Roger Moore will be the editor of the
new magazine. He has been busy making
plans, or at least formulating proposals,
for what hed like the new magazine to
contain and how he wants to operate.
Within the next few issues of DRAGON
Magazine, youll be hearing directly from
him on how the plans are
coming together.
Some of the modules will be created by
TSR staff members, but the greater share
of them will come from outside contribu-
tors. In another month or two, well be
publishing writers guidelines for the new
magazine in the pages of DRAGON
Magazine, so that any of you who have
designs on getting a module published will
know what we expect in a submission.
Some of you may have already guessed
how all of this will affect DRAGON Mag-
azine. Starting sometime in the near
future, we will no longer use game adven-
tures as special attractions inside
DRAGON Magazine. We know that
modules have been a popular feature of
this magazine (and thats one of the rea-
sons why we figure an all-module maga-
zine will go over well), but Im sure we
can use the space for other features that
youll enioy just as much.
Dear Dragon,
In issue #100 in The City Beyond the Gate, I
think the weapons section wasnt fully explained.
First, if a character took a .357/.38 revolver
and stuck it in a persons ear and fired, would the
character he dead? After all, the bullet would
shatter the eardrum and enter the brain and do
brain damage. If the character lived, what would
be the damage? Would there be hearing loss and
a drop in intelligence?
The next index
When is the next index of DRAGON Maga-
zine scheduled, or is there one scheduled at all? I
hope you dont wait too long to do it. I think
making an index every year or two would be
good. That way, it wouldnt be a huge project like
the last index. Hope you consider the thought.
Yong Pak
Edmonds, Wash.
Second, would these weapons affect creatures
that can only be hit by magical weapons? If silver
bullets were purchased, would a shot from the
pistol above greatly affect creatures like Gargoth?
Peter Upitis
Stockton, Ill.
Questions like these demonstrate how difficult
it is to incorporate firearms into an AD&D® game
world. The game system isnt designed to handle
weapons with an instant-kill capability nor does
it generally take into account the specific location
of a wound (except for special items such as a
vorpal sword). Firearms and other forms of
modern technology dont really fit in the system,
although they can be accommodated in special
cases (such as the module in #100) provided
that the DM is willing to compromise on reality
Compromising on reality generally takes the
form of limiting what a gun-toting character can
do with his weapon. To get around the problem of
point-blank discharges, you can simply rule that a
gun cannot be used except at a distance an
arbitrary ruling, but a necessary one. If a player
insists on having his character stick the muzzle of
a .357 in someones ear, he might discover that
the gun misfires, or that it has suddenly run out
of ammunition. And even when a gun is used
against a target at a distance, a player character
should have an extremely tough time hitting what
he aims at. You could double, triple, or even
quadruple the normal non-proficiency penalty
not only is the PC obviously not proficient with
the weapon, but it is so alien to him that his
chance of using it successfully is much smaller
than normal. You can also boost the armor class
adjustments for a gun used at medium or long
range, and build in an adjustment for short range
as well. The effect of these modifications should
make it clear to any PC that swinging
a
sword or
shooting an arrow is going to produce the desired
result much more often than pulling a trigger
Personally, Id take the hard line on Peters
second question. Guns are not magic weapons, so
they cant hit creatures that are immune to non-
magical attacks. Theoretically, I suppose you
could hit Gargoth or some other devil with a
silver bullet but if I were Gargoth, Id get
around the problem by continually teleporting (a
couple of feet this way, a couple of feet that way,
and so on...), which would make it virtually
impossible to score a hit with any sort of projec-
tile weapon.
These suggestions are just that -judgment
calls, representing one way of handling a problem
that no doubt has many other solutions. The
Funny you should ask. As a matter of fact, we
just started making plans to produce another
index in the August 1986 issue (#112). The
question of how often to put out a new index is
something that all of you will help us decide by
the way you respond to question 8 in part B of
the reader survey in this issue. KM
Now thats smart!
Dear Dragon,
I recently received #70 as a back issue, and was
amazed when I started reading Deities of the
World of Greyhawk. Boccobs intelligence score
is listed as 26, but the table in Legends & Lore
only goes up to 25. I would like to know what
abilities are derived from having a 26 intelli-
gence. Can other attributes (for gods, of course)
reach 26 or even exceed it?
David Solomon
Brandon, Manitoba
Boccobs intelligence is also given as 26 in the
WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy Game
Setting, so if it is a mistake (which I doubt) then
at least weve been consistent. Heck, someone
whos called "the Lord of all Magics and Archi-
mage of the Deities (see issue #70) ought to have
a very high intelligence score.
What abilities are conferred by a 26 intelli-
gence? Extrapolating upward from the table on p.
7 of Legends & Lore, we get one small improve-
ment: Minimum Number of Spells/Level goes up
to 18. (The abilities in the other two categories
cant get any better than they already are.)
Starting-a-new publication is, to put it
mildly, a challenge. But its also very
exciting. I hope you also feel a sense of
excitement, and I hope youll stay tuned
to these pages in the months to come as
we work-out all the details and share them
with you.
Can other deities have ability scores of 26 or
higher? I guess we have to assume that its possi-
ble, but so far we dont know of any Ability
scores in Legends & Lore dont go any higher
than 25, and Boccob is the only example of
a
26
score among all the deities of the WORLD OF
GREYHAWK Fantasy Game Setting for which
statistics have been published. If you want to
assign a score of 26 or higher to a deity in your
campaign, wed suggest that you do it very
seldom and only for very good reason. KM
D
RAGON
3
Dear Editor:
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