Drmg019, Dragon
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
— The Magazine of Fantasy, Swords & Sorcery, and Science Fiction Game Playing —
Guest Editorial
MDG SHOWS ORIGINS
(AND GENCON) HOW TO RUN
A CONVENTION
GenCon XI, by fifth GenCon, is now memory. It
was an unusual GenCon, for a number of reasons.
For the first time, GenCon was held on the
beautiful campus of The Univ. of Wisconsin-
parkside, between Racine and Kenosha, WI, about 35
miles from the traditional Lake Geneva. The site was
by far the best ever enjoyed by any GenCon. UW-
Parkside was completely air conditioned, and all of
by Gary Gygax
A few months ago in an exchange of letters
between Don Greenwood and me regarding the
relative merits of
Origins
and
GenCon
(carried in
CAMPAIGN magazine), I said to the effect that the
fellows in the Detroit area — and the gals too, of
course — were very well organized, and it was quite
likely that they would put on a bigger
Origins,
and
Origins
bigger than past ones and larger than
GenConXI
also.
I
am both happy and sad to tell you
that I proved to be an oracle.
TSR was at
Origins
in force, and that was all to
the good, for we had some 3,500 or so paid attendees
for company. That amazing turnout was handled
superbly by the MGD staff, despite last minute
changes by the university, an unexpectedly huge
crowd, and the usual run of minor difficulties which
always plague a convention staff but are seldom
known by the conventioneers. There were plenty of
games and other events for the attendees, an ACW
recreation by uniformed “troops” firing blank
charges from muskets and a cannon, on the lovely
campus in Ann Arbor, and gamers still going strong
at all hours of the night (and early morning). As the
Kindly Editor of
Dragon
pointed out, there were
some lows, but they were of no import when the
overall impact of
Origins
78
is considered! The MDG
deserve the thanks of the game hobby industry and
game hobbyists alike for their superb management of
what was undoubtedly the largest convention our
hobby has seen! I recommend without reservation
any convention sponsored by the MDG, for they
certainly know their stuff.
(Wintercon
is always held
on the first weekend in December, and if you can
make it, you will certainly not be sorry. For details of
dates, times and place see the regular
DRAGON
convention calendar schedule.)
GenCon
weekend rolled around, and we were all
filled with happy excitement and ready for four days of
hard work. The gods did not smile. . . Torrential rains
hit the area both Thursday and Friday. The Parkside
Campus site was not affected, as the superb facilities
there are all under one roof, but attendance was
certainly hurt. Add that to the proximity of
Origins in
time and space, the facts that maps to the new
location were not abundant, and some nasty people in
Lake Geneva actually misdirected people or told
them that
GenCon
was canceled this year! You have
a fair picture of what was shaping up. There were
certainly plenty of things to do, for attendance was
Cont. pg. 11
the GenCon facilities were under a single roof, long
though it was. This was a far cry from the old days in
Horticultural Hall in LG, and far superior to even last
year’s con at the Playboy Convention Center at the
Playboy Resort. The huge facilities swallowed up the
crowds, for a pleasant change it wasn’t the other way
around GenCon XII will be there again.
Some of the other “firsts” caused some problems.
For the first time, TSR people did not do all the work.
We were ably assisted by the Parkside Association of
Wargamers, a very large group of avid gamers who
devoted thousands of man-hours to the con. There
were some coordination problems, but no more than
can be expected by a first-time sponsoring group, and
none of them serious. All of the problems encountered
were solved, and have already provided object lessons
for future cons. While by no means perfect (are any of
us?), PAW did a commendable job,
especially
commendable in light of their inexperience.
Another problem “first” was this year’s
attendance: for the first time in many years, the
attendance was down from the previous year. There
are a number of factors to be considered in this
matter. First, and foremost, was the wretched
weather on Thurs. and Friday. The skies opened up
and dumped an incredible amount of rain in two days.
On Friday night, it rained so hard that there were
flashfloods all over the county, and I talked to
numerous attendees who were caught in the storm
and had horror stories of having their cars drown out,
losing brakes, roads closed, etc. I even talked to one
unfortunate fellow that was forced to spend Friday
night in his car, pulled off of the road. Nowhere is it
more evident what the weather did to GenCon than in
the computer lists of attendees. All conventions
depend heavily on a certain large proportion of their
attendees from the surrounding area. (I can’t help but
sympathize with anyone that awoke on Friday
morning to the downpour in progress and simply
rolled back over and made other plans.) The
computer lists show a distressing dearth of these
local-radius attendees.
Features
The Battle for Snurre’s Hall —
O 78 D&D tourney
........................
3
How Many Ettins is a FireGiant Worth? —
scoring D&D Tourneys
....................
6
GAMMA WORLD
—
New Treasures
.........
8
The Fastest Guns That Never Lived —
TV heroes for BH ........................
21
Footsteps in the Sky —
future fiction
.........
28
aborigines in D&D ....
14
New Magical Logic
........................
18
Spell Determination for Hostile MU’s
.........
24
Reviews
Fantasy Forge
phigure photos
..........
16-17
GAMMA WORLD
........................
23
Design/Designer’s Forum
Sorcerer’s Scroll
designing Gamma World
....
9
Creative Treasures
.........................
13
Treasure Locations
........................
25
Dragon Mirth
Diverse D&D Types —
a pigeonhole for everyone
.................
7
Wormy
..............................
10&30
Finieous
....
..............................
22
While there were some 2000 present at GenCon
XI, it was much smaller than anticipated. We figure
that we lost some 500 attendees to the weather alone.
We didn’t supply enough maps of the site in a
Publisher
E. Gary Gygax
Art Dept.
Dave Sutherland
Managing Ed.
T.J. Kask
David A. Trampier
good deal of our pre-con publicity, which must also
TD Editor
T.J. Kask
Tom Wham
have had its effect on attendance.
LW Editor
Joe Orlowski
Circulation Mgr.
Joe Orlowski
If your mailing label says TD 19
— this is your last issue
Publisher's
Statement
THE DRAGON is published
monthly
by TSR Periodicals, a division of TSR Hobbies, Inc., P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva, WI 53147.
It is available at better hobby and bookstores, or by subscription. Subscription rate is $24 per 13 issues. Single copy and back issue price is $2.00, but availability of back issues is not guaranteed. Subscriptions outside the U.S. and
Canada are $28 per
Variants
The Lowdown on Wishes
...................
12
Mythos of Australia
issues, and are air-mailed overseas. (Payment must be made in U.S. currency or by international money order.) All material published herein becomes the exclusive property of the publisher unless special
arrangements to the contrary are made. Subscription expiration is coded onto the mailing list. The number to the right of the name, prefixed by “LW” or “TD” is the last issue of the subscription. Notices will not be sent.
Change of address muat be filed 30 days
prior to mailing date.
Unsolicited material cannot
be returned unless
accompanied
by a stamped return envelope, and no responsibility for such material can be assumed by the publisher in any event. All rights on the entire contents of this publication are
reserved, and nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher. Copyright 1978 by TSR HOBBIES, INC.
Second-Class Postage paid at Lake Geneva, WI 53147
6
THEBATTLE FOR SNURRE’S HALL
The
ORIGINS ‘78 D&D®
Tournament
The D&D tournament at ORIGINS '78 involved over 275 players and
judges in two days of grueling, torturous fun honed sharp by the nature of
the competition. Teams of nine each adventured through up to three
rounds slaying giants and other fearsome monsters and searching for clues
as to the power behind an unusual collaboration of giants preying upon
man and his allied races. All of the groups who made it into the second and
third rounds displayed a commendable mixture of foresight,
thoughtfulness, and just plain “guts it” daring in their play of the game. It is
this winning combination of brains and brawn which ultimately provides
the most enjoyable gaming for both players and DM's. Here now is a
synopsis of the first two rounds and a blow-by-blow of the final round
provided by the first place team, with notes appended by the third round
judge and Your Kindly Editor (who also happened to be their second
round judge). Though there were a couple of substitutions due to people
not showing up for later rounds, the group was essentialy the same all
through the tournament, and the following people played the final two
rounds:
Bryan & Kathy Bullinger, Morgantown, WV
Bill Holcomb, Morgantown, WV
Paul Blythe, Morgantown, WV
Dale Patton, Morgantown, WV
Burce & Carol Ruttan, Inkster, MI
James Griffin, E. Lansing, MI
Ed Pistole, Trenton, MI
Bryan and Kathy Bullinger did most of the writing.
This is their story.
(DM’S notes are added in italics.)
surrounded this room from two sides and sent the charmed giant into the
Hall with the order to point out the chief by kissing him on the cheek. This
was also to be the signal for our two groups to attack. Two
fireballs,
a
javelin of lightning,
a
confusion
spell, and a good deal of slashing and
hacking later, the giants were wiped out to a man and the Steading was
aflame. The group, still intact, cut off the hill giant chiefs head and
quickly left by the front gate. The cleric blocked pursuit by casting a
blade
barrier
across the entrance. We then cast a
speak with dead
on the head,
and subsequent questioning revealed the next step to be taken on our
quest.
Kiss on the cheek, indeed! Still, the extent of the group’s on-the-spot
planning ability is already apparent. The setting for round one is
available from TSR. Called DUNGEON MODULE G1 (STEADING
OF THE HILL GIANT CHIEF) it costs $4.49. There is, of course, much
more to be uncovered in the module than was possible in one four-hour
adventure.
Round Two
The second leg of our quest, the frost giant’s lair, proved to be an icy
maze of caves surrounding a windy, snowbound glacial rift. We found a
war party preparing for a raid and once again used
fireballs
to good
effect — killing all of them. In this realm,
fireballs
proved to be the most
effective weapon available as they almost completely obscured all vision
and allowed our thief to strike from behind (which almost always
guaranteed a kill). After killing two snow leopards we then proceeded to
kill every giant we could find. A search after one such slaughter revealed a
chest with special armbands and treasure which we took with us. Once
again, the questioning of a dead giant guard provided the information we
needed to continue our quest to the next giant stronghold.
What is truly amazing about this second round is how much they
didn‘t kill and still managed to get into the third and final round. I’m sure
that they mentally kicked themselves for what they missed when they got
a chance to read over the material in DUNGEON MODULE G2
(GLACIAL RIFT OF THE FROST GIANT JARL), which is also
available from TSR for
$4.49. DM.
[I had them for this round, and indeed, they missed a lot. However,
clever questioning led to clues which compensated for the low kill ratio.
— K.E.!]
Five members of our team all came from West Virginia University in
Morgantown, West Virginia, and we had all played together for at least
two years, with three having played together for four. Two of these three
are husband and wife. Another two team members were also husband
and wife; they live in Michigan and have been playing only a few months.
The other two team members also came from Michigan, but they had
never met before
Origins.
The WV group’s philosophy has always been that of slash and hack
with a large dose of planning and cunning tossed in to insure our escape.
Discussions with the rest of the team members revealed that this was also
their approach to D&D. Throughout all three rounds we all felt our
primary purpose was to wreak total destruction while allowing a
reasonable chance for escape. We all felt that we displayed a great deal of
cunning and a good bit of (sometimes) intelligent planning in all three
rounds. We managed to kill more and do more than almost every other
team every round. We did this and still managed to keep everyone on our
team alive. We are happy, proud, and satisfied.
Luck helps, too. Seriously,, though, this team displayed a remarkable
ability, to work together. Playing together for a number of years certainly
helped, but even those that didn’t know the others worked well together.
They all knew how to follow their appointed leader when necessary, how
to disagree with him quickly and accurately, so that the flow of the game
was not slowed unnecessarily. As many teams lost by following a self-
appointed leader slavishly as lost due to constant bickering.
DM
Round Three
The third round led us to the entrance to the hall of the fire giants.
After using the
dust of invisibility
we quietly entered through the main
gate and snuck down the hall. A small amount of exploration led us to a
meeting room where several hundred parchments were kept in curtained-
off alcoves. These were taken and placed in our
bag of holding
to be read
and searched later for clues. In another alcove off this room, we found
three treasure chests which netted us several thousand silver and gold
pieces and six batons which were passes for those “on official business on
behalf of King Snurre the Fearsome.” Unfortunately, our thief was
feathered with poison arrows while picking a lock, but a quick neutralize
poison saved him from the embarrassment of death.
Our activities in this room brought us the unwanted attention of two
fire giant guards whom the ranger attacked with reckless abandon. When
the rest of the party noticed the crossbow bolt sticking in one of the giant’s
chests, we all jumped into the fray. Our invisible status and superior
numbers made the battle brief and one-sided. Once again, our thief well-
earned his nickname of “Giant Killer.”
Allowing the party to sneak past the door guard was a spur-of-the-
moment decision on my part. The poor fire giant had seen so much
coming and going and strange goings-on that I decided he would not
leave his post until something happened. The two guards who came into
the Council Chambers should have been stationed outside the door.
Unfortunately, due to what is sometimes known as a “FITS-lapse", they
must have been off wandering around somewhere. When they returned,
they naturally checked in on the room and an entertaining (to me,
anyway) sequence of events involving the lighting and extinguishing of the
torches by the guards and the party developed. The “Battle of the Council
Round One
The first round led us to the hill giant’s stronghold charged with the
dual purpose of punishing the giants and of finding out who or what was
behind their alliance. We gained entry through the east side entrace,
which turned out to be the kennel. After casting a
silence 15’ radius
spell,
the dire wolves inside were quickly dispatched. We then searched a major
portion of the upper level and killed four or five giants in the process,
including an old matron whose potions and treasure we took.
We made a brief and fruitless entrance into the lower level only to set
off a trap which left six members of our party locked in combat with four
insane manticores. The manticores were killed without serious injury to
the group, and a
passwall
spell brought about an escape from the room.
We returned to the upstairs and
charmed
a hill giant into pointing
out which giant at the feast going on in the Great Hall was the chief. We
DM.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]