Drmg084, Dragon
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DRAGON
1
Contents
Publisher: Mike Cook
No foolin
Editor-in-Chief: Kim Mohan
Editorial staff: Roger Raupp
Patrick Lucien Price
Mary Kirchoff
It wasnt until the last hour before dead-
I settled on the subject for this
column. Actually, Roger decided it for me
while he was putting down the type to finish
page 93.
Not much of an April Fools issue, is
Vol. VIII, No. 10
April 1984
Roger Moore
Andria Hayday
line that
SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS
Subscriptions: Mary Cossman
Layout designer: Kristine L. Bartyzel
Contributing editors: Ed Greenwood
Katharine Kerr
The Twofold Talisman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
it? he said.
An AD&D tournament module
in two installments
Ken Rolston
Advertising Sales Administrator:
Mary Parkinson
No, it sure isn't. We didnt have room to
include any foolish material in this issue,
like we have in April issues past, and thats
The ARES Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
National advertising representative:
bad news enough all by itself. (Well, we
16-page spotlight on SF gaming
Robert Dewey
1836 Wagner Road
enjoyed it, anyway . . .)
OTHER FEATURES
Glenview IL 60025
Phone (312) 998 -6237
Speaking of bad news, you aint heard
nothin yet. After three years, Phil Foglio
This issue's contributing artists:
has decided to give himself some time away
A cast of strange familiars . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Roger Raupp
Jim Holloway
Phil Foglio
from the rigors of chronicling Phil & Dixie.
The last installment of Whats New is in
David Hutton
Widening an M-Us circle of friends
Steve Swenston
Kurt Ericksen
this issue, and thats reason number two
Larry Elmore
Davis Trampier
why were not in an April fooling mood this
The ecology of the trapper. . . . . . . . . . . . 20
DRAGON Magazine (ISSN 0279-6848) is
published monthly for a subscription price of $24
year. But maybe its fitting that we didnt
Smartest floor you'll ever see
upstage Phil & Dixie in their last appear-
ance by using a lot of other funny stuff in
per year by Dragon Publishing, a division of
Never the same thing twice . . . . . . . . . . 30
TSR, Inc. The mailing address of Dragon
Publishing for all material except subscription
orders is P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva WI 53147.
the magazine. Most of the jokes in this issue
De-myth-tifying the rakshasa
are brought to you by Phil Foglio, and he
uses his three pages very well.
And then there were three . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
DRAGON Magazine is available at hobby
With p ride in one eye and a bit of a tear
stores and bookstores throughout the United
States and Canada, and through a limited
Previewing the D&D® Companion Set
welling up in the other, we present in this
issue of DRAGON® Magazine the first
edition of
number of overseas outlets. Subscription rates
Master of the Winds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
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
the ARES Science Fiction Gam-
Fiction for the breezy season
ing Section. Were proud of what were
sent via air mail to any other country. All
going to be doing from now on to serve the
subscription payments must be in advance, and
should be sent to Dragon Publishing, P.O. Box
SF gaming public, but at the same time
were going to miss ARES Magazine just as
REGULAR OFFERINGS
72089, Chicago IL 60690.
much as its readers will.
A limited
quantity
of certain back issues of
Maybe in a month or two, when the
Out on a Limb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
DRAGON Magazine can be purchased from the
Dungeon Hobby Shop. (See the list available
issues printed elsewhere in each magazine.) Pay-
ment in advance by check or money order must
memories dim and the space opens up a bit,
well bring in our freelance leprechauns to
slap together some foolish pages. (Some
of the stuff weve collected is too good to
Letters and answers
The forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
accompany all orders. Payments cannot be made
through a credit card, and orders cannot be taken
Opinions and observations
nor merchandise reserved
by telephone. Neither
hold onto until next April.) But right now,
an individual customer nor an institution
can be
billed for a subscription order or a back-issue
purchase unless prior arrangements
are made.
we just dont feel like foolin.
Figure Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Off the shelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
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
Fantasy and SF book reviews
Convention calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
at least six weeks prior to the effective date of the
change in order to insure uninterrupted delivery.
Game reviews:
Labyrinth makes good . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
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
FRPs gilded chestnuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Gamers Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Snarfquest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
size will be returned if it cannot be published.
Whats New? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Dragon Mirth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
DRAGON® is a registered trademark for
Dragon Publishings monthly adventure playing
aid. All rights on the contents of this publication
Wormy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
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.
DRAGON, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, ADVANCED
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, ADVANCED D&D, TOP
SECRET, BOOT HILL, and GAMMA WORLD are regis-
tered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc.
designates other trademarks owned by TSR, Inc., unless
otherwise indicated.
Second-class postage paid at Lake Geneva,
Wis., and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
Dragon Publishing, P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva
WI 53147. USPS 318-790, ISSN 0279-6848.
2
A
PRIL
1984
pril, in the area where this
dragon's lair is locates, is a
month of change: It's not
winter any more, but it's sure
not summer yet, either
(Wisconsin does have something called
spring, but it always either feels like winter
or summer, and the name can safely be
ignored.) . . . All of which is to introduce a
lot of changes that are happening or about
to happen to DRAGON® Magazine.
This issue contains the first ARES
Science Fiction Gaming Section, about
which the editors have much more to say
starting on page 69.
This issue contains the last installment of
Phil Foglios Whats New? comic strip
at least for now for reasons that are
explained on page 93.
And, were presenting the
first
tournament-style AD&D module weve
ever done, The Twofold Talisman, begin-
ning on page 43. Its also the first two-part
adventure weve published, and were
looking forward to hearing what you think.
Detail-minded artist Dean Morrissey has
returned to our cover for the first time since
issue #70 with a painting thats not swords
& sorcery, but undeniably a piece of fantasy
art. He calls it Ian Dinwoods Martian
Moment, and describes it as a scene in an
earthly Victorian parlor momentarily trans-
posed (at least in Ians mind) to a tract of
scape on the surface of Mars. So thats why
the sky is pink.
The first essay to make it from Steven
Innisss typewriter to our pages is this
months lead article, A cast of strange
familiars, offering a few dozen ways to
liven up the magic-users find familiar spell.
In this issues ecology article, Ed Green-
wood explains how a trapper does what it
does; unfortunately, why is still something
only another trapper can tell. . . .
. . . And then theres the rakshasa, where
the why is fairly obvious, but the what (as
in What does it look like?) is the unan-
swered question. Scott Bennie has delved
into the myths and legends of India to shed
some light on rakshasas and their even more
powerful kin, the Knights and Lords and
Ravanna, the baddest of all.
Those of you who savor stories about the
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game should
be satisfied, for now, by And then there
were three,
Frank Mentzers preview of the
soon-to-be-released D&D® Companion Set,
plus FRPs gilded chestnuts by Ken
Rolston, in which he describes and com-
pares the newest revisions of the D&D®
game and the Chivalry & Sorcery game.
And, if you havent noticed already, take
a peek at the small type on the left and
welcome Ken Rolston and Katharine Kerr
to the ranks of Contributing Editors for
DRAGON Magazine. (Yep, another
change.) As for why we wanted them to
have the titles: If youve seen more than a
couple of issues of this magazine, youve
already read the reasons. KM
A rare peryton?
magic in essentially the same ways that the ver-
sion in the article does. Restrictions? Nothing to
worry about, as long as the new amulet is not so
over-powerful that it unbalances the game in
favor of a character who wears one.
This simple conversion works not only for
objects described in DRAGON® magazine artic-
les, but also for procedures and concepts that just
happen to be written in the language of a
certain game. Dont be turned off by an article
that seems to be about a game you dont play
sure, the words in the article are about that
other game, but the ideas behind those words
may hit you right between the ears if you give
em a chance. KM
Dear Dragon,
In the February issue (#82), I quickly turned to
page 10 for the article on perytons. Somehow, the
picture just didnt look right, and on page 28 of
the Monster Manual it states that, its claws are
too weak to use. The picture on page 10 showed
hooves, not claws. That would be a rare specimen
indeed!
Peter Delaney
Kingston, N.Y.
Maybe not as rare as you think, Peter. When
we researched the peryton for that ecology
presentation, we had a hard time finding infor-
mation on what this semi-legendary beast looked
like. The illustration is based on a passage in
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis
Borges, where that author quotes an unnamed
Greek scholar who had this to say about the
perytons appearance: The Perytons had their
original dwelling in Atlantis and are half deer,
half bird. They have the deers head and legs. As
for its body, it is perfectly avian, with correspond-
ing wings and plumage. . . .
And thats where the hooves came from.
We decided to go with the unnamed Greek in-
stead of the Monster Manual for three reasons:
(1) the deers legs make for a creature thats
even more bizarre-looking than the one in the
Monster Manual; (2) the peryton doesnt make
any appreciable use of its claws anyway (no
attacks), so they might as well be hooves if thats
what the Greek says they are; and (3) we just
wanted to see if someone would notice.
So, if we assume that the peryton in the
AD&D game is derived from the Peryton of
Greek legend, maybe most perytons should have
hooves, and perhaps the one pictured in the
Monster Manual is the rare one. KM
Sleeping damage?
Dear Dragon,
I have a question about Taking the sting out
of poison (issue #82). The run-time for sleep gas
was printed 1hp/rd. Is this to imply that the
victim takes damage as well as falling asleep, or
was this merely a misprint? (All other sleep
poison had a run time of 1 round). Also, was
contact sleep poison excluded for a reason?
Brian Dvoretz
Smithtown, N.Y.
The run-time figure for sleep gas should be
simply 1 round, like all the other sleep poisons
in the article. The mistake crept into Chris Land-
seas original manuscript while he was meticu-
lously typing out the poison gas table, and never
crept back out. I can imagine a special kind of
sleep poison that also does damage, but that
wasnt within the scope of the article, and we
didnt mean to give anyone the impression that
sleeping damage is possible.
I havent checked with Chris to find out why
he didnt include contact sleep poison, but I
assume the omission was intentional. Maybe the
chemists and alchemists of the AD&D world
(Chris Landseas version, at least) just dont
know how to make such stuff and maybe the
world is better off because of that. KM
Thats the idea!
Dear Editor,
In issue #82 you had an article called Enhanc-
ing the Enchanter. In it, an amulet made from a
wyvern horn which could detect magic was
discussed. Although the amulet was for Dragon-
quest, I was wondering if the same amulet could
be applied in AD&D play; and, if so, what would
its restrictions be?
No limb to stand on
Dear Editor:
Ive been playing D&D and AD&D for six
years and have been reading DRAGON for
almost as long (since issue #38). Since then, Out
on a Limb has dried up. In the beginning there
was light the anti-Monty Haul campaign.
After a while, though, everyones eyes got sore.
One can only read so much on the pros and cons
of butchering gods. Finally a voice from the
bowels of DRAGON yelled Enough! and that
was it. The light, so to speak, got boring. . . .
However, all semblance of controversy has died
since then. Letters like I liked or I didnt
like or Where can I get issue #. . . are actually
Seth Walther
Marietta, Ohio
Seth, youve got the right idea. Theres no
reason why a wyvern-horn amulet cant exist in
an AD&D universe and no reason why you
cant make the fairly simple adaptation from
DRAGONQUEST game terminology into
terms used in the AD&D rules. Youll need a
wyvern horn (do wyverns in the AD&D rules
have horns? Oh, well . . .) and some kind of
powerful magic (enchant an item, wish), and
youll end up with an amulet that can detect
DRAGON
3
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