Drmg129, Dragon
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CONTENTS
Issue #129
Vol. XII, No. 8
January 1988
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
Demi-humans:
Pointed ears arent the only things that make them different.
8 Arcane Lore
Len Carpenter
Magic that serves the people: new dwarven clerical spells.
2 0 Children of the Spider Goddess
Eric Oppen
The long-awaited point of view of the darkest elves.
24 Give Demi-humans an Even Break!
John R. Prager
If elves are so smart, why cant they roll more dice for intelligence? Now they can.
2 6 Dont Sell Them Short!
Peter Dosik
The guardians are looking for a few good halflings.
3 0 Entering the Driders Web
C.E. Misso
Drow who fail Lolths big test get no chance to make up the exam.
OTHER FEATURES
32
The Role of Computers
Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser
Ship-to-ship combat and the Tower of Myraglen await you.
4 6 A Sorcerer's Supplement
Michael DeWolfe
A bridge to the Moon? A cow thats a werewolf? All-new RUNEQUEST® game spells.
54 The Dragons Bestiary
Dean Shomshak
Colder than ice and less forgiving: Ice para-elementals.
57 The Game Wizards
James M. Ward
The world in a book the WORLD OF GREYHAWK setting, that is.
58
The Old Ways Are Best
fiction by Larry Walker
Two heads are better than one, but not by much!
66
Whos in charge here?"
Bryan Caplan
How many high-level gnomes will a gnome city have? As many as it can get.
7 0 Armored and Dangerous
David Dennis
Trash the Sathar! Powered armor comes to the STAR FRONTIERS® game.
74 The Role of Books
John C. Bunnell
Would you let a wargamer be your lawyer?
7 8 The Marvel®-Phile
Jeff Grubb
Justice is served and Scourge is your waiter.
82
Role-playing Reviews
Ken Rolston
The FORGOTTEN REALMS setting and the D&D® games Known World.
1 0 4 The Last Word
Gregg Sharp
You dont suppose that evil high priest is mad at us, do you?
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor
Roger E. Moore
Assistant editor
Fiction editor
Robin Jenkins
Patrick L. Price
Editorial assistants
Eileen Lucas
Barbara G. Young
Debbie Poutsch
Georgia Moore
Art director
Roger
Raupp
Marilyn Favaro
Production staff
Subscriptions
Advertising
Pat Schulz
Mary Parkinson
Creative editors
Ed Greenwood
Jeff Grubb
DEPARTMENTS
3 Letters
48 Sage Advice
90 Convention Calendar
4 World Gamers Guide 88 Gamers Guide
94 Dragonmirth
6 Forum
89 Index to Advertisers
99 SnarfQuest
COVER
While their cleric of Thor stands guard, a group of dwarves hauls out (or hides
away) their massive chest of treasure. These guys, said cover artist Keith
Parkinson, indicating the dwarves holding the chest, are basically greed
dwarves. Entitled The Big Stash, this painting will soon be available as a print.
Keith recently won the coveted 1987 Dark Fantasy award at the World Fantasy
Convention in Nashville, for his painting What Do You Mean, Were Lost? See the
advertisement on page 77.
2 J
ANUARY
1988
7
Lori Svikel
LETTERS
Close to home
I had the game board set up and
most of the pieces out when my
uncle came into the kitchen to check
out the refrigerator. He wandered
over as I was sorting out the Ameri-
can and German counters.
That one of your war games? he
asked, taking a seat. I nodded and
started a new pile for the grenade
counters. My first year of college
was over, I was with my family at
my grandparents, and I looked
forward to some goof-off time.
My uncle looked over the board
and the designs on the counters.
Whats your game about?
Its on city fighting in World War
II, I explained, still sorting the
pieces. The counters represent one
man each, German and American
infantry. One player controls each
side. Its pretty good.
My uncle nodded again. He
watched me work for some time.
I was at Remagen, he said.
I forgot about the counters and
looked up. When they took the
bridge," I said.
Yeah, he said slowly. We had to
go from house to house. It was
pretty terrible. He looked at the
board and the piles of counters I
had made, then sighed and stood up.
Have fun, he said as he left.
I sat alone and poked a pile of
counters with my finger, trying to
imagine what it had been like for
my uncle at Remagen. It was not a
pleasant thought. This was the first
time I realized that modern-era
board or role-playing
games
had a
special catch to them they some-
times cut close to home. In some
cases, this works to the games ad-
vantage; many gamers enjoy the
realistic feel of games depicting the
world of the espionage agent,
Vietnam-era Ranger, or D-Day gen-
eral. The more realism, the better.
Of course, if you like modern-era
games, you may eventually enter the
close-to-home zone. Games on the
Vietnam War only became popular
in this country in the 1980s, and I
recall some of comments, pro and
con, that gamers had about them. A
small board game on the Falkland
Islands war drew great criticism
some years ago because it came out
very quickly after the war, when the
topic was quite touchy. Ive lately
seen three different role-playing and
board games about combat against
skyjackers and other terrorists.
(continued on page 19)
Businesses &
books
So who won?
Dear Dragon:
I am interested in expanding the number of
role-playing games that
I
own and was im-
pressed by your list of ORIGINS 87 winners. I
would like to know who won the awards in
previous years but am unable to find any lists.
How can I find this information?
Also, what do the initials S.I. stand for in the
TOP SECRET/S.I. game?
Dear Dragon:
I have a few questions. Have you ever pub-
lished an article dealing with PCs owning a
small business? If not, I would like to see it
covered; if so, what issue was it in?
Also, I enjoy the short stories you often pub-
lish in your magazine. Are these from actual
novels, or are they stories written for your
magazine? Are they available in book form to
the public?
Rob Lysy
Windsor, Ontario
Eric Edmonds
Hendersonville TN
Just as we were going to press, we received a
call from Anne Jaffe, the chairman of the ORI-
GINS Awards Committee. She agreed to serve as
the point of contact for any gamers who are
interested in finding out the previous winners
of the various ORIGINS game convention
awards. Write to: Anne Jaffe, ORIGINS Awards
Committee Chairman, P.O. Box 2712, Fairfax VA
22031. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope
for a reply.
I am reliably informed that the initials “S.I.” in
the TOP SECRET/S.I. game’s title stand for
“Special Intelligence.” This reflects the elite
nature of the game’s PC agents.
We published an article on PCs and businesses
in issue #113: “A capital idea,” by Vince Garcia.
You may find this to be of use in your cam-
paigns. We would welcome any other articles
that would add more useful information to the
topic.
The short stories written for DRAGON®
Magazine are complete within themselves, and
generally not excerpts from longer works.
The
Art of DRAGON Magazine,
Name that cover
Mini-spies
The request for possible titles for the cover
painting of DRAGON issue #127 led to some
amusing entries. Among them were:
“Mowing the Front Lawn,” from Tim Emrick
(Whitestown IN);
“So, Whaddya Think of the Party?" also from
Tim Emrick;
“I Still Say It Tastes Great,” from Andy Rodich
(Emporium PA); and,
“Does the Name ‘Custer’ Mean Anything to
You?” from Aaron Johnson (Houston TX).
Thanks to all who entered.
A number of people continue to express
interest in acquiring copies of the cover art for
DRAGON Magazine. You may write a letter to an
artist, c/o DRAGON Magazine, P.O. Box 110,
Lake Geneva WI 53147. We’ll forward the
letters as best we can to the artists. Be sure to
enclose an SASE for the artist to use in writing
back to you.
Dear Dragon:
Although I love the D&D® game and other
such fantasy games, my personal preference lies
in games such as your TOP SECRET® game. In
fact, this is my current favorite. A fine job, guys!
I am curious as to where a person can find
25mm lead miniatures for the modern spy
motif. Is there anybody you know of who pro-
duces contemporary miniatures? It is easy to
find a horse, worg, or dragon miniature, but
just try and locate a Lamborghini Countach or
Wellcraft 38 Scarab special edition deep-V! Is
there anyone who fashions custom-made minia-
tures, based on photos and drawings, for a
reasonable cost? Please let it be so!
J. Anthony Dixon
Petawawa, Ontario
It would be worthwhile to write for a copy of
the TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop catalog if you
are not able to find the miniatures you need in
your local hobby stores. You might also consider
writing directly to the major miniature-figure
manufacturers (using the addresses provided in
their ads in this magazine) and asking them for
a copy of their current catalog, with emphasis
on the particular miniature castings you want.
You could also discuss pricing for custom-made
miniatures with those companies, though you
might be better off converting existing minia-
tures into the shapes you want using a hobby
knife, spare parts, and lots of glue (and luck).
The name of artist Jeff Menges was
misspelled on page 26 of DRAGON® is-
sue # 127. We apologize for the error.
We wish to credit Stephanie Tabat for
her excellent DRAGON Magazine logo
design, which premiered in issue #128.
Thank you, Stephanie!
D
RAGON
3
available early this
year from TSR, Inc., has several short stories
that previously appeared in this magazine.
Future anthologies are being discussed.
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