Drmg100, Dragon
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D
RAGON
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SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS
In the center: SAGA OF OLD CITY Poster
Art by Clyde Caldwell, soon to be the cover of an exciting new novel
4 5 THE CITY BEYOND THE GATE Robert Schroeck
The longest, and perhaps strongest, AD&D® adventure weve ever done
34
2 2 At Moonset Blackcat Comes Gary Gygax
Gary gives us a glimpse of Gord, with lots more to come
Publisher
Mike Cook
Editor-in-Chief
Kim Mohan
Editorial staff
Patrick Lucien Price
Roger Moore
Graphics and production
Roger Raupp
Colleen OMalley
David C. Sutherland III
Subscriptions
Georgia Moore
Advertising
Patricia Campbell
Contributing editors
Ed Greenwood
Katharine Kerr
This issues contributing artists
Dennis Kauth
Roger Raupp
Jim Roslof
Marvel Bullpen
Dave Trampier
Jeff Marsh
Tony Moseley
Larry Elmore
3 4 DRAGONCHESS Gary Gygax
Rules for a fantastic new version of an old game
OTHER FEATURES
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Score one for Sabratact Forest Baker
Role-playing moves onto the battlefield
9
All about the druid/ranger Frank Mentzer
Heres how to get around the alignment problem
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Pages from the Mages V Ed Greenwood
Another excursion into Elminsters memory
86
The chance of a lifetime Doug Niles
Reminiscences from the BATTLESYSTEM Supplement designer . . .
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From first draft to last gasp Michael Dobson
. . .
followed by the recollections of an out-of-breath editor
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Compressor Michael Selinker
An appropriate crossword puzzle for our centennial issue
DEPARTMENTS
3 Letters
101 World Gamers Guide
109 Dragonmirth
10 The forum
69 The ARES Section
102 Convention calendar
110 Snarfquest
107 Wormy
COVER
Its fitting that an issue filled with things weve never done before should start off
with a cover thats unlike any of the ninety-nine that preceded it. The artwork is
actually a paper sculpture created by TSRs Dennis Kauth, who built up shapes
and surfaces from a flat background to produce this scene of a faerie dragon
serenely gliding along the edge of a stream, while the sword and the small pile of
coins suggest that some other creature had come this way before. The sculpture
was turned into a photograph after being illuminated to bring out the three-
dimensional aspects of the piece, and for an extra touch we tossed in some color
on the dragon and the Dragon and had the colored part of the cover embossed.
Why purple? Because a purple faerie dragon is the oldest and most powerful of its
kind. And the faerie dragon itself is symbolic of DRAGON Magazines contribu-
tions to the AD&D game; the description of the creature, originally written by
Brian Jaeger, appeared in issue #62 and was later picked up for inclusion in
Monster Manual II.
2 A
UGUST
1985
Memories are
made of this
Well, not really. This month, the Letters
column should more properly be called “An-
swers.” We decided to spend some space in issue
#100 to deal with some questions that get asked a
lot (or that we suspect get asked a lot), but which
don’t fit well into the format of our regular Let-
ters column.
Two qualifications before we start: First, you
should understand that a lot of statements in
these answers are expressed in absolute terms for
the sake of brevity, and we don’t necessarily
mean them to be taken entirely at face value. In
other words, assume the word “usually” in front
of every verb. Second, the statements and opin-
ions expressed here are the sole responsibility of
the Editor-in-Chief and do not necessarily repre-
sent the opinions of TSR, Inc., my boss, or
anybody else who isn’t me. And now, the first
envelope . . .
everyone who has received an answer understand
why it was so long in coming, and it will serve as
fair warning for anyone who might write in the
months to come.
Our schedule runs on a cycle that repeats itself
about every four weeks, and we keep track of
time in a backward fashion. The day after we
send an issue off to the printer is not deadline
plus 1, its deadline minus 29. For Roger
Moore and me, at least two weeks out of every
four are spent in production that is, doing
things that contribute directly to making the next
deadline. During that production time, we have
little if any opportunity to dig into manuscripts,
art submissions, and other correspondence. (In
addition to what he does for this magazine, Pat
Price also has to contend with getting an issue of
AMAZING® Science Fiction Stories out the door
every 60 days. I wont even try to explain what
his schedule is like.)
So, what that leaves us with is two weeks at
most out of every month to deal with four
weeks worth of articles, letters, and art samples.
Obviously, its a losing battle. I consider myself
caught up if I can get to the point where Im
answering letters that arrived three weeks previ-
ously, and I dont get caught up very often.
Manuscript evaluation lags even farther behind
than regular correspondence, because it often
takes almost as much time for us to evaluate an
article submission as it took the author to write it.
If you get an answer back on your submission
within six weeks from the time you sent it to us,
then you must have hit us at a good time. Or else
your submission was very good . . . or very bad.
Issue Number One Hundred has more
significance for me than you might ex-
pect. And if youll allow me a little ran-
dom reminiscing, Ill try to explain why
thats so.
On the day this magazine starts roll-
ing off the press, it will have been ex-
actly six years since I sheepishly walked
in the door at TSR Periodicals.
When I first laid eyes on Tim Kask,
the editor of what was then known as
The Dragon, I had to fight back the
impulse to run the other way not
because Tim was ferocious, but because
I was scared stiff.
Even though I had worked as an
editor for more than nine years, I had no
reason to suppose that my credentials
would impress a guy who didnt know
me from a hole in the ground. I thought
I knew a little bit about this game called
D&D (which had not yet earned its
circle-R) but all too soon I found out
just how little I did know.
I took a deep breath and started my
speech. I ve got some experience as an
editor, and I was wondering if you guys
could use some help. Not exactly a hard
sell, but . . .
Tim listened, and talked, and talked
some more. He ended up deciding that,
sure, there were probably some things I
could help with, and I might be able to
pick up some money by working as what
he called casual labor.
As a test of what I could or couldnt
do, he dug out a few manuscripts and
gave them to me to take home over the
weekend. I worked on them in anything
but a casual fashion, peppering them
with red marks to show how I thought
they ought to read.
Less than a week later, it looked like I
had proved myself judging by the fact
that Tim was giving me more to do and
I was wearing out red pens almost as fast
as I could take off the caps.
Less than a month later, I attended
my first convention an experience
that is still so clear in my mind that it
could have happened yesterday. If that
was my final exam, then I must have
passed, because by the middle of Sep-
tember 1979 I stopped being casual labor
and started being an official employee of
TSR Hobbies, Inc.
The days flowed into weeks, the weeks
into issues. (In this business, the princi-
pal measurement of time is the issue;
when you start work in June on some-
thing that doesnt really exist until Au-
gust, the word month doesnt really
apply.) And the issue numbers began to
mount up.
Overtime was a way of life. Eating
was something I did with my left hand,
Why didnt you answer the letter I wrote?
Our reasons for not answering a letter are just
about as numerous as your reasons for writing
one. The major causes boil down to these:
You asked us about something we arent
qualified to talk about, such as a game or other
product put out by TSR, Inc. For instance, this
is not the place to direct questions or observations
about
The Book of Marvelous Magic,
or about a
TSR module for the AD&D® or D&D® game. We
cant help anyone with questions like Where can
I get a copy of issue #13? or How much is my
copy of issue #2 worth? or with other similar
questions pertaining to out-of-print back issues.
We dont hand out information on other depart-
ments and sections of TSR, Inc.; if you want to
submit your novel, write to the book department,
and if you want to solicit an assignment to illus-
trate a module, then contact the people in the art
department. This category covers a lot more
ground than these examples indicate please
understand that our sphere of knowledge is
relatively limited. We cant take the time to dig
up answers that we cant quickly provide, and we
wont speculate about things we dont know
about.
You asked a question that has also been
asked by several other people, and for which we
intend to publish an answer in the magazine. The
best recent example of this is the avalanche of
letters we got pertaining to the druid/ranger
alignment problem; Frank Mentzer has answered
all of those letters in one fell swoop in the article
that begins on page 9 of this issue.
You didnt enclose a self-addressed, stamped
envelope with your letter. We do respond to some
letters that come in without SASEs, and we dont
always answer letters that do have SASEs. In
general, the content of your letter will be the
major factor in determining whether it gets
answered, but your chances of hearing back from
us are better if you send an SASE.
How do you handle a manuscript submis-
sion?
Article submissions go to Roger Moores desk
first. He weeds out the ones that are obviously
unacceptable or inappropriate, and then forwards
the potentially good ones to me. This group
includes manuscripts that he thinks are good
enough to print as is, plus some other pieces that
he thinks might pass muster if theyre revised to
some extent. Then I read them and pass my
recommendations back to Roger, and in most
cases he takes care of corresponding with the
authors to give them the good or bad news.
Its essentially a simple process, but on a one-
by-one basis, decisions about particular manu-
scripts are often very complex. If we dont accept
or reject something outright, well ask the author
to revise his submission and will usually give a
fair amount of specific advice on how we think it
could be expanded, shortened, or improved
but without making any promise that the revised
manuscript will automatically be accepted.
Fiction manuscripts start their journey at Pat
Prices desk. He reads them and shows the good
ones to me and, on occasion, Roger, too. The
process is pretty much the same as for article
manuscripts, except that we hardly ever ask for
revisions to a fiction submission: If it isnt right
for us exactly as written, we send it back, perhaps
with a suggestion to show it to other publishers.
Why did it take so long to get an answer?
Nobody has actually
asked
this question, but
Ill bet that most of the people whove written to
us
have
thought
it. The stock answer, of course, is
Were busy but who isnt? I figured that a
short description of our work schedule would help
How do you handle an art submission?
At least ninety percent of the art submissions
D
RAGON
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