Drmg093, Dragon
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43
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designed by Richard Fichera
Wanderers and their wagons for use in AD&D® adventure settings
8
OTHER FEATURES
Life beyond 15th level
E. Gary Gygax
New activities to keep high-level druids busy.
Thinking for yourself
E. Gary Gygax
A guest editorial by the creator of the AD&D game
10
12
The making of a milieu
Arthur Collins
One DMs way of tackling the chore of campaign-building
The ecology of the eye of the deep
Ed Greenwood
Dont get in over your head against this monster
Short hops and big drops
Stephen Inniss
Rules for jumping and leaping in the AD&D game
Ay pronunseeAY shun gyd
Frank Mentzer
All the right things to say
Agencies and alignments
Merle Rasmussen
Dossiers on the spy groups of the TOP SECRET® game world
Eira
Josepha Sherman
A chilly story thatll warm your heart
18
21
24
34
54
3
6
32
DEPARTMENTS
Letters
69 The ARES section
89
Wormy
Dragonmirth
Snarfquest
The forum
86 Gamers Guide
93
Coming Attractions
88 Convention calendar
94
COVER
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief
Kim Mohan
Editorial staff
Patrick Lucien Price
Roger Moore
Graphics and production
Roger Raupp
Subscriptions
Melody Knull
Advertising
Lee Hein
Contributing
editors
Ed Greenwood
Ken Rolston
Katharine Kerr
This
issues contributing artists
Jeff Busch
Jim Holloway
Bob Maurus
Atanielle Annyn Noel
Jane Hoffman
Marvel Bullpen
Dave Trampier
Denton Elliott
Richard Tomasic
Larry Elmore
Jeff Buschs second contribution to our cover in the last four issues is this colorful
scene of a weretiger in the process of changing shapes while a real tiger stands
guard in the foreground.
Charging more instead of settling for less
Inside this magazine, in a couple of different places, youll find out that the price of a
subscription to DRAGON® Magazine has been increased. While I realize that no amount of
explaining will soften the blow for someone who was just about to sign up for a year, Id still
like to say a few words about why the price increase is necessary and why, from one stand-
point, raising the price is preferable to not raising it.
We havent changed the price of DRAGON Magazine since the single-copy cost was
raised to $3.00 on issue #37, in May 1980 and notice that the single-copy price is still
$3.00. Since about two-thirds of the magazines circulation is through retail outlets, a sub-
scription price increase has no effect on most of our readers. (And no, there are no plans that
I know of to increase the cover price.)
Weve tried to fight the good fight against the spiraling costs of all the materials and serv-
ices we have to purchase to produce the magazine, but thats a battle that must eventually be
lost. The price of the paper the magazine is printed on has gone up as often as two or three
times a year. Printing services and postal rates, through no fault of the printer or the post
office, are substantially higher than they were in May of 1980. Those of us who work in the
magazine operation are all earning more money now than we were making a year ago, or
four years ago.
All these costs, and more, add up over the course of time. And now, although we havent
given up the fight, we have been forced to give some ground. The extra revenue
that we
bring in from this price increase will, we hope, enable us to maintain the level of editorial
(Turn to page 32)
2 J
ANUARY
1985
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
The Gypsy Train
with each other on a wide range of topics, while
our answering service (in the letters column) is
limited to fielding questions about the contents of
the magazine. KM
Crystalbrittle
Potion problem
discretion of the DM? 2) There was no mention
of exceptional strength on tables B2 and E2. I feel
it should have been listed because it has a bearing
on the height and weight of a character, just as a
3-18 score does. 3) Constitution is said to be the
characters physique, health, resistance, and
fitness (p. 15 DMG), so should it play a part in
determining the build of the character?
Tom Thrush Jr.
Buffalo, N. Y.
Dear Dragon,
I thoroughly enjoyed the Creature Catalog in
issue #89. Its nice to be able to pit my players
against monsters they dont know about. There
was only one thing that bothered me. In the
description of the glasspane horror it lists the
ability of crystalbrittle by touch. In the article
there was no account of this power. I would
appreciate it if you would publish the specifics of
this talent.
Dear Dragon,
I enjoyed the Treasure Trove (#91) very much.
However, the explanation concerning the potion
of explosions is confusing.
The article states that the potion . . . only
requires contact with open air and a physical
disturbance of some sort to set it off. Does the
potion only explode when both of these conditions
are met? If this isnt so, how could a person taste
the liquid (or drink it) without it blowing up in
his face when he opens the bottle?
The description states that If the container
hits its target but does not break, the liquid inside
will not be set off. This implies that air must be
present with disturbance. If this is so, how can a
potion explode from merely being jostled, like in
a characters pack, as the article mentions? Please
clarify this.
Lane Oase
Mendota Hts., Minn.
The elf-types Tom mentions were not included
because the article only dealt with those races and
sub-races allowable for player characters; the
Players Handbook prohibits an elven player
character from being anything but a high elf In
contrast, the sub-races of mountain dwarf and
stout and tallfellow halflings are permitted for
PCs, and thus are included in the tables.
Toms second and third questions have basi-
cally the same answer. Its apparent to me that
Steve Innisss design had a dual motivation of
realism and simplicity and whenever you go
for two diverse objectives at once, you usually
have to settle for a compromise between them.
Logically exceptional strength and constitution
both belong in any comprehensive system for
determining vital statistics. But making a system
all-encompassing could also mean making it
unwieldy or even unplayable.
In order to work as much realism into the
system as possible, Steve already had to sacrifice
some convenience; he admits that the system
takes marginally longer to use than the tables
in the Players Handbook, and he apparently felt
that injecting any more complexity would be
counterproductive. If your sense of logic demands
that constitution or exceptional strength is too
important to ignore, make up an extension of an
existing table, or an entirely new one, and dress
up the system to your hearts content. KM
Crystalbrittle is the name of a 9th-level magic-
user spell created by Gary Gygax and printed
along with other new M-U spells in issue #68. If
you dont have a copy of that issue for reference,
heres a slightly abridged version of the spell
description:
The dweomer of this spell causes metal,
whether as soft as gold or as hard as adamantite,
to turn to a crystalline substance as brittle and
fragile as crystal. This change is unalterable short
of a wish spell.
The caster must physically touch the target
item equal to a hit in combat if the item is
being worn or wielded, Any single metal item can
be affected. Thus, a subjects suit of armor can be
changed to crystal, but the subjects shield would
not be affected, or vice versa. All items gain a
saving throw equal to their magical bonus value
or protection. A +1/+3 sword would get a 10%
(average of the two plusses) chance to save; an
iron golem would have a 15% chance to save (for
it is hit only by magic weapons of +3 or better).
Artifacts and relics of metal have a 95% chance
to be unaffected by the spell. Affected items not
immediately protected will be shattered and
permanently destroyed if struck by a normal blow
from a metal tool or any weighty weapon, includ-
ing a staff
The maximum volume of metal that can be
affected by the spell is 2 cubic feet per level of the
caster By this reckoning, a glasspane horror
(having 8 hit dice) should be able to affect as
much as 16 cubic feet at one time more than a
suit of armor, less than an iron golem. But even if
only an iron golems legs are affected, that should
be sufficient to make the mighty metallic monster
go all to pieces. KM
Michael Hill
Newport, Ky.
The potion of explosions is an unstable liquid
that will almost always explode under ideal
conditions and may or may not explode under
certain other conditions. The term physical
disturbance is, on second thought, perhaps not a
very accurate way to describe what sets off the
liquid. Let me give it another try:
Ideal conditions for an explosion include the
presence of air and an abrupt physical shock of
some sort delivered to the liquid such as when
a container is thrown against a hard surface.
Under these conditions, the potion will always
explode, as long as the container breaks.
The potion does not necessarily explode when
it is merely brought into contact with air; it must
also be severely jostled at the same time. The act
of opening a container and pouring out or tasting
the liquid does not set off the potion, except on
the 5% chance that the container gets severely
jostled when it is opened.
The potion will also explode without coming
into contact with the outside air, if the container
is shaken vigorously for an extended time one
segment or longer. (If one segment doesnt seem
like a long time, try shaking a container of liquid
for six seconds and see how shook up it gets.)
This part of the description was designed to rule
out explosions from an accidental bump or a
shake-up that only lasts for a second or two, and
this is also the reason why a thrown container of
liquid will not explode unless the container
breaks: the potion is able to withstand a shock of
short duration as long as its container remains
sealed and unbroken. KM
Forum answers
Dear editor:
I found Eric Hermans letter in issue #91 about
characters lifespan vs. level to end in an unan-
swered question. Eric asks, How would you
keep an elven thief from obtaining phenomenal
levels? His article clearly states a question mark
at the end. I have noticed this in other Forum
articles and found it to be frustrating at times.
Why do these letters go unanswered?
Charles Wiederman
Middlebury, Ind.
No room for more
Dear Dragon,
In issue #91 in Eight devilish questions by
Ed Greenwood, it states that he did not include
Satan because there is no room in the AD&D
game system for a devil more powerful than
Asmodeus. But there must be room for Satan as
he is listed in the Best of DRAGON Vol. II The
Politics of Hell, which states that Satan was the
supreme ruler of the hells until forced out by
Beelzebub, who became the new ruler, and other
devils. So is this a contradiction? Or didnt Mr.
Greenwood know about this article?
When we publish a question letter in the
forum section, were hoping you will come up
with an answer.
Letters that raise questions about the mechan-
ics of the AD&D® game are sometimes printed in
the forum, for the same purpose that any other
kind of letter is printed: to stimulate you into
thinking about what the writer has to say, and if
you feel firmly or strongly enough about an issue
to write a response or answer for our consider-
ation, so much the better. The forum is intended
as a means for readers to exchange viewpoints
Height & weight
Dear Dragon,
The article by Stephen Inniss (Realistic vital
statistics) in issue #91 was excellent. I would
appreciate some clarification concerning the
article: 1) Was it a matter of oversight that tables
A and D were missing some elves, Drow, Grey,
and Wood to be particular, or was it left up to the
Chris Moore
Burbank, Calif.
To begin with, here is an answer from Ed
Greenwood to a question that had to be trimmed
from the manuscript he turned in for Eight
DRAGON 3
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