Drmg110, Dragon
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DRAGON
1
77
30
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
47
The House in the Frozen Lands James Adams
An AD&D® game adventure for investigative characters
47
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief
Kim Mohan
Editorial staff
Patrick Lucien Price
Roger Moore
OTHER FEATURES
8
The Cult of the Dragon Ed Greenwood
Dragons can be liches, too heres how
16
For better or Norse: I Joel McGraw
Expanding one of the most popular pantheons . . .
24
Editorial assistance
Eileen Lucas
Art, graphics, production
Roger Raupp
Kim Lindau
Subscriptions
Pat Schulz
Advertising
Mary Parkinson
Contributing editors
Ed Greenwood
Katharine Kerr
This issue's contributing artists
Kevin Davies
Larry Elmore
For better or Norse: II Carl Sargent
. . . and re-examining some of its most famous members
30
All about Elminster Ed Greenwood
Several pages from the life story of our favorite sage
38
The role of computers Hartley and Pattie Lesser
The debut of a column covering computers and game software
44
Dragon damage revisited Leonard Carpenter
Finishing the job we started a year ago
66
The Wizards Boy Nancy Varian Berberick
A young thief learns about life and magic, the hard way
THE ARES SECTION
78
Marvel Bullpen
Valerie Valusek
Knowledge is Power John M. Maxstadt
Skills and areas of knowledge for the GAMMA WORLD® game
Jim Holloway
Roger Raupp
Richard Tomasic
David LaForce
84
Denton Elliott
Bob Eggleton
The MARVEL®-Phile Jeff Grubb
Meet Ghost Rider . . . and three more of the same
David Trampier
Joseph Pillsbury
88
Going for a Swim? William Tracy
Deep sea adventuring guidelines for STAR FRONTIERS® characters
92
Piece of the Action Ken Tovar
Gangsters and gats in PARANOIAs Alpha Complex
DEPARTMENTS
3
4
6
Letters
64 TSR Previews
97 Dragonmirth
World Gamers Guide
94 Gamers Guide
98 Snarfquest
The forum
96 Convention calendar
101 Wormy
COVER
For the second issue in a row, we welcome a new artist to the cover of DRAGON
Magazine. The name of the painter is Kevin Davies, and the title of the painting is
The Vanquished Cavalier, a scene that somehow manages to be exhilarating and
unsettling at the same time. The painting won the Amateur Best of Show award at the
1984 World Fantasy Convention and now, the next time Kevin enters a contest,
hes going to have to do so as a professional.
2 J
UNE
1986
The first
decade is
behind us
Ranger skills
ing the swarm as a monster unto itself. In either
case, the end result is basically the same; either
one hit kills x pernicons of the swarm (reduc-
ing the swarms hit points accordingly), or x
hits considered one by one kill an equal number
of pernicons.
My attitude about anniversaries isnt
what it used to be. I used to like to dwell
on where weve been and how far weve
come whenever we reached some mile-
stone. Nowadays Im more inclined to
look forward instead of backward. Thats
why this Tenth Anniversary Column isnt
going to be filled with reminiscences like
the Issue #l00 Column was.
Oh, sure, the occasion does deserve to
be recognized. And Im not trying to
make light of the fact that DRAGON®
Magazine has been in existence longer
than some of its readers have been alive.
But at a time like this, contemplation
seems more appropriate than congratula-
tion. We know where weve been, and we
know where were at. The big question is,
Where do we go from here?
That big question encompasses several
smaller ones, such as: How many subjects
are left to be covered? How many subjects
that weve already covered deserve to be
re-examined? What new topics can we
pursue to keep the magazine at least as
interesting and attractive to you as it is
now? Or should we forget about new
topics altogether and just keep on doing
what were doing?
For starters, I can answer that last
question. One of the features in this issue
is a step in a new direction for us. And I
dont want to tantalize you (well, not
too
much), but there are more changes com-
ing. When we finish wading through all
the responses weve received to our reader
survey, were going to put all of that feed-
back to good use.
We could probably keep going for an-
other ten years, at least, by not doing
anything differently. If our circulation
figures are any indication, for the last two
or three years the number of people who
have become actively involved in role-
playing games is roughly equal to the
number of people who have lost interest in
the hobby. We could assume that this
trend will persist, and well keep on gain-
ing one reader for every reader we lose.
But nobody ever got anywhere by treading
water; the best that can be said about that
tactic is that it keeps you from drowning.
Thats certainly better than the alterna-
tive, but its not the best we could do. We
want to make progress, we want to move,
and we want you to keep coming along for
the ride.
This is where I have to be careful not to
let this message degenerate into something
hokey and maudlin. Im not trying to pull
the wool over your eyes. Im not trying to
fit you with a pair of rose-colored glasses.
Im not hoping that youll keep buying
(Turn to page 45)
Dear Dragon,
In The Ranger Redefined (#106), the
terrain, climate, and skills section gives percent-
ages to determine if a ranger is specially profi-
cient in a given skill. Over in the miscellaneous
skills section, it says rangers have a base 75%
chance of success in physical skills. Id like to
know how special proficiency affects this base
chance; the article didnt say.
While were on the subject, another pernicon-
related question has come up. Some people
noticed the references to field plate and full plate
armor, and are wondering exactly what were
talking about. Space doesnt permit a detailed
description of each type, but we can say this:
Both were introduced to the AD&D® game
system in Unearthed Arcana. Field plate bestows
armor class 2 on the wearer and someone decked
out in full plate has a base armor class of 1.
Owen Kelm
Ft. Thomas, Ky.
A few people seem to be having trouble seeing
how the two % chance figures work together
Heres the way I interpret it, and the way I think
the author intended for the system to work:
According to Table 3 in Section I, a ranger
who is native to a certain kind of terrain has a
chance of possessing exceptional ability in one or
more physical skills. So far, so good. Now, over
in Section III, it says theres a 75% chance of a
ranger succeeding when he tries to do something
that involves the use of an exceptional physical
ability Special proficiency as Owen put it,
doesnt do anything to the base chance be-
cause the base chance doesnt apply unless the
ranger has special proficiency in the first place.
For example: A ranger with exceptional ability
in swimming has a base chance of 75% to per-
form some feat that is beyond the capability of
someone without exceptional ability The exact
nature of such an exceptional feat is up to the
DM to determine; for swimming, it might in-
volve endurance (negotiating the English Chan-
nel) or speed (a world-class time in the 100-yard
freestyle). Someone without exceptional swim-
ming ability would have no chance at all of
accomplishing such a feat, and someone with that
exceptional ability can accomplish such a feat
three-quarters of the time. KM
Field plate can absorb one point of damage per
die, up to a maximum of 12 points. Full plate can
absorb two points of damage per die, up to a
maximum of 26. When the maximum is reached,
the armor loses its absorption ability and also
becomes one step worse in armor class until it
is
repaired. For more details, pick up a copy of
Arcana or borrow it from a friend. KM
Computer query
Dear Dragon:
While recently looking through some of my
back issues, I wondered what ever became of
The Electric Eye. I think that this feature
would still be an interesting part of the magazine,
and I hope that you revive it some day.
Kevin Lyman
New Orleans, La.
Funny you should ask, Kevin. The role of
computers, which begins on page 38 in this
issue, represents our re-entry into coverage of
computers and computer games. Its been almost
four years since the last appearance of The
Electric Eye, our first venture in this area, and
as we all know, the scope and quality of computer
games have both increased dramatically in the
meantime.
Group effort
Responses from the reader survey we published
in #107 are still being tabulated, but weve been
able to draw some definite conclusions already
One of those conclusions
is
that most of you do
want the magazine to cover computer gaming,
and particularly role-playing game software.
Fortunately, we were recently approached by
Hartley and Pattie Lesser with a proposal to
provide us with just such a column, and the result
of their first effort is inside.
Dear Dragon,
In the article The pernicon: a new version
(#108), wouldnt the colonel and his henchman
get a number of attacks equal to their levels
because the pernicon is a monster of less than one
hit die? If not, why?
Bruce Roberts, Jr.
Yakima, Wash.
Multiple attacks are already accounted for in
the revised mass combat system given for
pernicon swarms, on page 25. Any attack against
a swarm kills as many pernicons as there were
points of damage done. This is because the
swarm is treated as
a
single creature, not a collec-
tion of smaller monsters. If you want to consider
each pernicon separately, then the colonel and his
henchman would indeed be entitled to multiple
attacks but that approach defeats the purpose
of the system described in the article, and it also
requires a whole lot more dice-rolling than treat-
Hartley and Pattie are a husband-and-wife
team from California who have been doing this
kind of writing for a few years. They make it
their business to keep up on whats happening in
the game software industry, and their columns for
DRAGON Magazine will concentrate on the
kinds of games that we think most of our readers
would prefer in other words, adventure and
role-playing games. If you have a particular
question or comment about a computer game,
send it to the magazine and well see that it is
forwarded to the experts. KM
D
RAGON
3
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